shaped by GRACE

Busy, busy, busy....

From my title, you might guess, that its been a busy couple of weeks, in my household:) We are moving...AGAIN! This will mark move number 5, since moving to Oz, including two mini moves (1 month each) when we were between homes. Can I tell you how sick I am of moving? The short answer VERY!!

But its a necessary thing, and we kinda of knew the move to our current home would not be permanent. We purposely asked for a six month lease to see if we would cope living out of town, and while it is VERY beautiful out here...its just too far out from the rest of civilisation.

The 20 min commute to drop off Luke in the morning with another 20 minutes to get home and then repeat in the afternoon, is starting to drive me a bit mad (pardon the pun:) ) Also my car is constantly caked in mud/dust/DIRT...and I have come to the realisation that no matter how much I love the country and wide open spaces... I think I am definately a city girl...

So on Thursday and Friday we have hired a truck and we are moving ourselves into the burbs. A great little house opposite a park/playground, with 3 bedrooms upstairs which is great, I have to admit I am not a fan of the Aussie design of having your main bedroom just off the front door. Now there is a forth bedroom downstairs, just off the front door but I am going to make that into my craft room instead (and I hope to be able to start teaching scrapbooking lessons soon:)) It also has ducted heating ahhhh what luxury! Our house in Perth had it as well, but I didn't appreciate it then, now having spent a Canberra winter in a house without it makes me really value it! The house we are in now has inslab heating, but I have been terrified to put it on...I have heard it really cranks up the electricity bill!

These last few weeks have also been filled with birthdays, births and death anniversaries. Our pastors at Life City Church  welcomed their first baby girl (and third child) Aysha Grace, into the world on the 26th July

Aren't they a great looking family?!

It was also the 4th anniversary of my mom's death on the 4th of August. Can't believe she has been gone 4 years already... I still miss her alot, love you mom...

Here is a picture of Luke from a couple of weeks ago...He is wearing the eyemasks we got on the plane from our trip back to SA. He is so funny sometimes. This morning he lost his first tooth (and now he has really lost it as well, should be somewhere in the house...) and in the car on the way to school he said to me "mom, now my tongue has a window" LOL he can be cute sometimes

have a greeat week everyone...and next time I write it should be from the new house YAY!!

xx Candice

Life in the school holidays....

So its the July school holidays already. WHERE has this year gone. I cannot believe that we are already halfway through 2009. The only thing that seems to slow time, is when I reach my internet download limit for the month and have to wait a week until it resets...believe me trying to surf the net at 64kbps is like hitting your head against a brickwall...alot of effort and all you end up with is a headache:) So now my internet is reset and I am EXTREMELY HAPPY to be able to surf to my hearts content...until it runs out again...

Thankfully I have discovered a new internet obsession that takes very little bandwidth to do...FACEBOOK SCRABBLE APPLICATION!!! Yes in just under 5 days I have become obsessed with playing it. Now I don't need another scrabble fanatic to play with me IRL I have thousands across the world haha!

It was Steve's birthday on the 4th July, and we spent a leisurely day drinking hot chocolate at KokoBlack with some friends.

(chilli hot chocolate yummy!)

(vanilla ice cream martini with caramel sauce)

(chocolate mousse martini)

If you haven't been to KokoBlack and you live in Canberra or Melbourne WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!!! You are seriously missing out :D

After Kokoblack, we walked around Canberra Centre window shopping and then onto Sammy's for a quick dinner. This time we had braised chicken and vegetables...really good, we are slowly

quickly making our way through the entire menu.

 and then we went to watch the Transformers movie. It was a great day!

So what happens when you leave your 5 year old to his own devices on a Monday morning while you do some crafting...?

THIS!!

What's that you may ask...? That is HIS FRINGE!!!!

I was (and still am) devastated by his self inflicted hair styling. I can't believe he cut his own hair, I seriously thought that he was over the age where he would cut his own hair. His excuse is that his fringe was too long. Anyway I had to take him to the barber to get his harir sorted oout, although I was tempted to leave him like that... So now he looks like this

Then yesterday (Monday) he got out of the shower and I saw that he had coloured his one buttock blue with a koki pen (texta for you australians or felt tip?) Why he did it I have no idea. Thank goodness this coming Monday he is back at school otherwise I suppose I could expect some piercing :P

We also did a little trip the the Australian Mint on Friday as part of the Live in Canberra group. If you are new to Canberra, either from overseas or interstate, this organisition makes it easier to adjust to life in Canberra. They regularly offer tickets to all sorts of fun things, like the Rugby, Balloon Shows, Music festivals etc. It's all free of charge and is a great way to meet other people.

Luke wasn't too interested in the displays but he loved the robot, that we could see from the viewing windows on the mint floor. It is used to pick up these drums of blank coins before they are pressed. here are the one dollar blanks

Here are some mis struck coins, I especially like the one with the bolt attached, perhaps the ideal gift for your handy man haha

On Sunday we were invited to a birthday party at Commonwealth Park. It really is lovely there, and there are a few playgrounds for the kids, and walking paths etc. Even though we have now been here for 5 months we haven't really been to many parks etc around Canberra, so i am hoping that once the weather warms up we will head to somme more areas around Canberra and do some more exploring.

Here is a pic driving along Commonwealth park looking at Capital Hill

This is a pic of a 'fountain' for lack of a better word, it can be seen from the Commonwealth Ave Bridge, although I took this pic in Commonwealth Park from my car, which I nearly accidently through myself out of when I opened the door instead of the electric window. Good thing Steve was only going at about 5km an hour!

Behind the spray you can see the  National Library of Australia.

Luke on one of the sculptures in the park

And lastly here is a pic of a cross at a church in the centre of town

This week we are off to see Ice Age 3. I am looking forward to it and so is Luke. I have also organised a couple of activities to see us through the week, until school starts next Monday...hopefully I will manage to stay sane till then:D

xx Candice

Perfection is my enemy....

As I was driving the twenty minutes it takes to get home after dropping Luke off at school (and buying Steve's birthday present...it's his birthday tomorrow) I was thinking of my life, God, why he still feels too far away...

Since moving to Canberra, well actually since moving to Australia, as I briefly mentioned in another post, He has felt so far away... I guess I am waiting for the perfect time, perfect place, when I am in the perfect frame of mind.... see a similiarity here? The word PERFECT. And me constantly striving to be perfect.

The thing is my world, my life, is so IMPERFECT, I am (I have weight issues, gossip occasionally, get angry...there is a long list) IMPERFECT, my son is (even though I love him so much) IMPERFECT, my marriage is (although we are working on it daily) IMPERFECT, my house (with dust, clutter and clothes on the bedroom floor (this is all I am going to admit too;) ) is IMPERFECT! 

So with all this imperfection, why do I seek perfection so much...? I think for me it's a control thing, I want to be in control...or more to the point SEEM like I am in control, to others, to myself, to GOD?!! (like God didn't create me and like he knows just imperfect I am)

Perhaps letting go of the perfection and holding on too Him, is where I need to focusing on. When I let Him in, His perfection and His Glory can really shine through me, through the cracks and gaps of my OH SO IMPERFECT LIFE...

Perfection is your enemy, it's a state we will never achieve here on this earth, but many will waste their life trying to achieve it... Let go of it (and the time and effort we spend on pursueing it) and let in the reality of life, the blurry pictures, the unmade bed and use that energy to GRASP the PERFECT ONE! The ONE who has something better for us, the ONE who promises LIFE to the FULLEST

John 10:10 'I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly

 and promises a LIFE filled with HOPE and a FUTURE 

Jer 29:11 'I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, pland to give you a hope and a future

I am going too!!

This song by Francesca Battistelli really speaks to me...(and others I see, by the number of blog posts that come up by googling 'perfection is my enemy'. It appears I am not the only one battling the word perfect!) and I thought I would share it with you...It's been quite a 'heavy' post, and to be honest I was VERY hesitant to share this part of me with so many anonymous (and some people that do know me) viewers on the world wide web. But I hope that I am not the only one that will find a bit of inspiration/hunger/motivation in seeking HIM out, in our IMPERFECT lives, trusting HIM and above all loving HIM. Because despite us being so IMPERFECT, He loves us, unconditionally!!

(remember to pause the music in the right sidebar)

 

At twenty  years of age I'm still looking for a dream
A war's already waged for my destiny
But You've already won the battle
And You've got great plans for me, though I can't always see

(chorus)
'Cause I've got a couple dents in my fender
Got a couple rips in my jeans
Trying to fit the pieces together
But perfection is my enemy
On my own I'm so clumsy
But on Your shoulders 
I can see- I'm free to be me

When I was just a girl I thought I had it figured out
My life would turn out right, and I'd make it here somehow
But things don't always come that easy
And sometimes i would doubt

(chorus)

Sometimes I believe that I can do anything
Yet other times I think I've got nothing good to bring
But You look at my heart and You tell me
That I've got all You seek
And it's easy to believe
Even though...

I've got a few dents in my fender
Got a few rips in my jeans 
Trying to fit the pieces together
But perfection is my enemy
On my own I'm so clumsy
But on Your shoulders
I can see- I'm free to be me

Have a great weekend!! We are off to Kokoblack for Steve's birthday tomorrow, and I promise to post photo's of the stunning food and hot chocolate!!

xx Candice

The Snowy Mountains...

After a busy last week, we were all set to go on our weekend away at the Snowy Mountains, NSW. What an absolutely beautiful place. I could definitely live there I think. So after I win the $90 million Oz Lotto Jackpot tonight (hee hee) I think I might just buy myself a place....hmmm well we can all dream right?

We left on Friday mid morning for the scenic 2.5 hours drive to Jindabyne.

We stopped off in Bredbo for a lunch of pancakes and hot chocolate. Yum!

(I am starting to realise that we go out for meals too much, judging by the amount of food posts on my blog:0)

And then we stopped in Cooma to hire some equipment. We had decided to hire tobaggens before our trip, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were only $8 for the weekend (I was expecting much higher numbers) So we got three to cover the small and BIG kids! We also toyed with the idea of ski's for Luke, but decided that we would perhaps come back later in the seaon and Luke could try skiing then.

From Cooma we went on to Jindabyne, where I was blown away by the place, its just stunning, with a huge lake and then the snow capped mountains, a winter paradise...

We stayed at Lake Crackenback which is simply stunning. We stayed in one of their two bedroomed chalets, as friends of ours also came up for the weekend. I was surprised just how big the chalets were. They were self catering, so it had a full kitchen, a laundry with dryer and wahing machine. A diningroom, TWO lounges with big flat screened TV's and two huge bedrooms, plus two bathrooms. The downstairs one had spa bath and the one upstairs had the best shower I think I have ever been in!

This was our bedroom, which had stunning views of the mountain

Did you see it? OK go back to the bedroom photo and look... Do you see it? No? OK look in the top right hand corner...do you see it next to the curtain? I didn't see it either when I took this photo. But then I went to look in the cupboard turned around and saw this

I screamed. Loudly! In fact I am sure they heard me 5 chalets down. you would think that nearly two years living in Australia, I would be used to them...NO! Although in the rational side of my brain, I know Huntsman (that is what this spider is called) are harmless and keep the fly poulation down, they still give me the creeps. So my hero husband armed with a dustpan and little broom shoos the spider into the dustpan and takes spidey outside to set him free and roam around to scare the folks at chalet number 11. Good plan? Well we thought so until

Yip those darn crows swooped down and scooped spidey up like he was a little mid afternoon treat. Sorry Spidey!! 

On Saterday, after a huge buffet breakfast at Lake Crackenback, we drove up to Perisher which is in the Mount Kozioscko National Park. We only went to the toboggan slopes, and didn't really have a good look around the village, although next time we go, we plan to stay for longer, maynbe a week and then I hope to explore every nook and cranny of Perisher and Thredbo.

On the way to Perisher I looked at Luke to find that he had accessorised and was looking oh so cool!!

Here is Luke  touching the snow for the first time.

Craig and Hannah, who joined us for the weekend along with mom, Belle and cute baby Amelia, whose photo I posted a couple of weeks ago 

Hannah, very excited to be in the snow!

Hannah pulling Craig on the Toboggan.

Hannah

Bell with Amelia

Being pulled up the hill by their dad's

Going down the hill, must be the best thing ever!!

A not very flattering photo of me coming down the hill with Luke. But it captures the moment haha.

Bel and Amelia coming down the hill. bel looks terrified but she secretly LOVED it!

Snow Angels and Family photo's although Luke looks a bit odd in the first one...

Note to self: $12 Big W faux ugg boots is NOT adequate snow gear!!

'Mom can I eat the snow?' 

"well i suppose so, as long as it's not yellow!'

Our conversation as this photo was taken

Views of the snow capped mountains

All in all it was a great weekend with great friends. Look forward to going again REALLY SOON!

xx Candice

Last week...

was a busy one, although I am not sure why, because come Friday, I don't have anything to show for it. I suppose it's just the busyness of life. I am TRYING to slow down and get to bed EARLIER, although it's already !2.03am as I write this, so I guess that's blown for another day. There always seems SO much to do and ...well not enough TIME. But I guess God's not going to make the days longer, so it's up to me to SLOW down and take some time out. It's really a priority with me this year, to take some time and really get to know the Father again... these last two years have been such a whirlwind, and I have drifted away. 

Now it's time to get to know Him again, and remember what He has done for me. Who would have guessed two years ago when I was sitting in Joburg praying for something other then living there, working there...being there, that He would lift us up over 14000km and bring us to Canberra, via Perth. Opening doors and creating opportunities, and leading the most wonderful people into our lives....HE IS AN AMAZING GOD...INDESCRIBABLE!! Thank you Father!

OK so life has been busy, but I have been snapping more photos then usual especially around the farm, the beauty here amazes me.

this is a view from the driveway, looking over the vally's to the mountains beyond.

Now that we are in the middle of winter.... and there has been a drought here for the last 8-9 years, the Kangaroo's have come really close the the houses on the farms to graze, unfortunately not close enough to get a really good shot. And the spook pretty easily too, so many of my pictures look like this...

Also been getting some of the farm animals, like this goose (from the safety of the car!haha)

On Sunday after church we came home to find that the owners of the farm were seperating the cattle for the 'market' (read the BBQ). It was pretty facinating to see how they do it, and also were tagging their ears. Luke loved watching it all.

some of them where not keen on the piercing, and made some noise, at which time the big daddy came the check what all the fuss was about and boy was he massive!! So glad there was a big sturdy fence between us, although it probally would have not made that much of a difference if he charged....

Some of the littlelies...

Of the fence this morning after the rain...

On Friday, Luke had his school concert. They were so cute!

On Saterday, we went into Civic, to look for some copic markers (read about it here) and we had lunch at my FAVOURITE restuarant Sammy's. Luke's favourite thing to eat there is the prawn chips. So this is his expression the moment he sees the waiter bringing his order. haha kids so easy to please ...SOMETIMES

Here you can see the aforementioned prawn chips! And a sprite, he is loving fizzy drinks that are served in the glass bottle...and I can't blame him they DO always seem to taste much nicer!

Here is what Steve and I had, crispy fried chicken with lemon sauce! YUM!!

On Sunday afternoon, after church, we decided to pop in to Adore tea again, for some of their wonderful tea and cake, I know twice in just over a week. But it's just sooo good!

So Luke had the poffertjies again but with granadilla/passionfruit sauce

and a Fanta

And I had Creme Brulee flavoured tea and shared Chocolate hazlenut pudding with Steve who had hot chocolate (his favourite)

And we played some Jenga...

Love this photo...caught in the act?!

xx Candice

Last week...

Just a quick post for a giveaway on Ali Edwards Blog. I took this photo at Adore Tea (yes we were there again! I love that place) Luke was sizing up his next move while we were playing Jenga. I think Steve and I have created a game monster! He loves to play all sorts of games, even the ones he is way too little to play (scrabble!), but Candyland is way up at the top of the favourites list now!

I will be posting the rest of my photo's from this week tomorrow, as well as a new post on my design blog!

xx Candice

On Sunday...

we had a pretty busy day, with church in the morning ( I was on setup and children's ministry). After church Luke fell down a flight of stairs. Thank goodness he stopped halfway as there was another flight to go! To make me him feel better, we decided to stop by Borders to browse the scrapbooking magazines  kids books. (we also got some yummy drinks from Gloria Jeans Coffees) 

After reading quite a number of That's not my... books ( and a quick purchase of Memory Makers) It was time to have lunch. We decided to have lunch at Nando's, now I have had Nando's only a few times since coming to Australia, and it has never tasted as good as it did back in South Africa. But we had our Entertainment Book with us and there were Nando's vouchers, plus our friend Shani, said she liked Nando's. So off we went and I am pleased to announce it was DELICIOUS!!! I can't believe I have been depriving myself of the peri peri goodness for 4 months since moving to Canberra. 

Doesn't it look good!!

This is my friend Shani, 

And then it was off home, through Canberra's CBD. I took some photo's around the Civic, which is the city centre. The first one is the view of some of the surrounding hills from the city centre, then a park in the middle of the city, Northbourve Ave (the main street down the centre of Canberra), and the last is a shot of the shops in Canberra centre.

xx Candice

Saturday afternoon...

First I want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dad! Hope you have a great day dad, and like your birthday present!!

Today we went for lunch at a Chinese restuarant, we had been told that we should try 'yum-cha' by a collegue of Steve's. For those who don't know what it is, it ( according to wikipedia) refers to the dining experience of eating small servings of different foods. So the server comes through with a cart, which contains lots of different bamboo baskets of food. You choose what you want and then its added to your bill which sits on your table. 

Unfortunately most of the foods we chose, we didn't like, I think it was the texture, most of the foods were steamed in the baskets. They had things like chicken feet and tripe (neither of which Steve or I ordered). We did have chicken and corn soup though, that was pretty good as were the spring rolls. For dessert we had a coconut ball and that was pretty good. The experience was pretty interesting, but I don't think we will be doing it again in a hurry.

The coconut balls are in the pic above.

So later in the afternoon, we all decided we were still a little hungry, and we went to one of my favourite places (I have a lot!!), adore tea

They have the most divine tea, all 200 plus flavours! Plus some gorgeous cakes. So we decided to have late tea, really early dinner. Normally they only have sweet dishes, like cakes and slices, but today they had a savory dish, pad thai! It was really really good! I also had the strawberry champagne tea. Steve had a scone and hot chocolate, and Luke had banana split flavoured tea with dutch poffertjies. Everything was great!! We also got to play a quick game of jenga. It was a great afternoon.

I also took my photo a day pic there, outside in a gazebo. How is that, for a cheeky grin!!

Then on the way home I managed to take a  some more photo's of the area, I live in. This is mainly for the people on a forum, I am a part of called  SA Australia. Its for people making the big move aka immigrating from South Africa to Australia. So I will be posting photo's of Canberra from time to time here, so that those moving here have some idea of what to expect.

Most of my pics, on this blog have been edited  with actions from CoffeeTeaPhotography Blog. For the ones above I used the orton action, and the one of Luke I used CoffeeShop Perfect Portraiture, and for the food shots I used CoffeeShop Lomo. Rita, who owns the blog and creates all these wonderful actions for those of us us not photoshop savvy (LIKE ME!!!) for FREE. How generous is that. Be sure to visit her blog and check out her fantastic actions, templates and tutorials!

After all the eating and photo taking we arrived home pretty late this afternoon. Then it was a hunt in the car to find the house keys, eventually I walked to the front door to find this:

Not only were the keys in the door, the door was unlocked, and those car keys...well those belong to the month old car we recently bought, that was sitting in the open garage! Ha the benefits of living in the country!

xx Candice

To paint a bit of a background here... I grew up in Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa. A coastal province whose winter temperatures, seldom went below 16 degrees celcius. We spent winters in lightweight jerseys and jeans, with no scarfs, beanies or gloves in sight. Fast forward to my 20's and I moved myself to Johannesburg, slightly colder inland province of Gauteng. Temperatures in Winter reach an average maximum temperture of 16 degrees. Sometimes, and I mean sometimes the temperatures at night dipped (by maybe a couple of degrees ) and us Gautengers would exclaim how cold it was. 

So the point of my mini Geography lesson is this.... I was very very unprepared for the weather in Canberra. I heard it was going to be cold, but being recently transplanted from Perth, where once again the weather was quite warm (well in comparison to Canberra!!), I thought that cold was a heck of a lot WARMER.

So on Thursday morning after being warned on the news the night before of frost (which I ignored, FROST whats that, a couple of icicles?!), not only was it FREEZING, and I mean FREEZING! The temperatures had reached -6 during the night. But there was also ... you guessed it FROST over everything, including my car. 

OK so it doesn't look that bad in the photo's but it WAS cold I promise!:) Also we saw snow on the mountains surrounding Canberra, from our driveway! How cool is THAT! Well Luke thought it was exciting, especially with the "snow"(aka frost) all over the car, lawn and pastures!

This was a quick(we were running so late, dropping Luke off at school, especially after trying to defrost my windscreen so I could see) pic taken of some plants in the garden.

And this photo was taken of one of the surrounding farms, that I drive by on my morning school run. 

xx Candice