The end of another year…goodbye 2014…

 

What a year it’s been! The first half of the year I had my number two daughter and Sweet pea living with us.

The second half of the year I’ve had daughter number one and Squishy living with us.

I love my children and I especially love my Grandchildren, but I miss my art! I am so consumed with babies, and all that they entail that I have not done any art, not much of note, I have so much to do, to finish my “Art Instructors” course and I have just learnt Zentangle so that needs doing, and my penpalling fell off for a little while but happily that is back on track.

In January– We went away camping with long time friends, daughter number one and two grand babies. That was over the “Australia Day” weekend, fun times.

In February, My Husband took me away for a romantic weekend to Brisbane in Queensland, we got a mystery flight so we only found out where we were going a few days before hand, we have been there but we didn’t care it was us flying (I LOVE flying) away to be together. Had a great weekend.

In March– Heralded the Start of “Footy Season” and again I donned my hat as “football tragic mum”

In April– We had an engagement party for one of my nephews and the following weekend we had a roadt trip to Queensland to do some repairs on a friends house. Camping trip loved it.

In May– Nothing special but lots of football matches.

In June– Daughter number two and Sweetpea flew the nest.

In July– I discovered the Lord, we went out for dinner for a friends birthday. Had a date day at the Art Gallery and then lunch

In August– Number one daughter moved home with Squishy, Football Grand-final, we lost by one point!!

In September– My Nephew’s engagement party, great night out.

In October– My Niece had her engagement party, my birthday, Moved Mother-in-law into a nursing home and we went camping.

In November– Still camping for the first whole week.  Zentangle art class, Sweetpea turned one and said farewell to a long time friend. She Who Rambles Salad Challenge

In December– Christmas party at the Nursing home, Squishy turned one, huge birthday party, Christmas and quality time at our holiday place.

November, I started “The Daniel Plan” and to date I have lost 6 kilograms and 12 inches, I am happy about that!

 

Reading all that it’s been a busy year! Speaking of reading…

This is the pile of books I finished,  along with the note books full of notes, and the second bible I brought so I could do bible art in it. This one has the two inch wide margins.

 

My first piece of Bible art Psalm 139;13 I need to add some colour to it, but I’m scared to ruin it. I since quit that group because it was making me nervous about ruining my beautiful new bible.

This is my “awaiting” to be read pile… sheesh it makes me tired just looking at it, The book about Luther belongs to Pastor Frank, he loans me his personal books, I find that very humbling that he trusts me with his books.

A 90 day devotional study that I want to do, I haven’t booked it in yet, I’m really busy in January. Maybe I’ll pencil it in for April, May and June.

 

Two more Studies that I just got in the mail, both have 12 lessons.

This is my Bible study folder, which I do my daily studies in with “The Good Morning Girls” group, I am in a Facebook group called “The Heart of Esther” and have just been made Assistant for the group, so already my “deeper” is working! I have different sections in this folder.. the books that concern Men go in one bit, the Books that concern women go in another and the general books which is most of them go into a separate section. This year Good Morning Girls is introducing a different hing we are going to start colour coordinating the scriptures. Monday 5th January “Good Morning Girls” starts back with the Book of Exodus.

 

                  

 

So I have a feeling my morning study session is going to get a bit longer.. if I do this I haven’t actually decided yet.

 

This neat little pile lives by my bed. Each morning and each night, I read the daily devotional in each book and write in my journal. Basically my journal I write in any time, but I always start off with good intentions each morning and do a wrap up of each day before I go to bed, then I know my mind is clear and I am all set for my prayer.

Tonight I am ending the year as I started it, with Sweetpea while her Mum goes out for the night. We did that last year too.. except last year I didn’t feel as tired as I do this year!

Happy New Year to all my friends out there who take time to read my blog, thank- you for reading and I hope you all come back next year for more and I wish you all a very happy 2015!!

 

 

 

 

NaBloPoMo- 2014- Day 7… Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home… Home is where you lay your hat.. well last night our hats were laid in a tent in Wentworth New South Wales about 535 kilometers away. It was really hard packing up this morning to come home. The Bloke’s hip is still not right and so he’s hobbling around, so “Star fisher boy” and I tried to help as much as possible even so our usual pack up was much slower.. doesn’t matter we got it done and “On the Road again” by 10;20 am. We had a pretty good run because we stopped for lunch, and then again later for fuel and to stretch our legs and were still home by 4;15pm.

By the time we unpacked most of the car Number One daughter came home with our “Squishy boy”, Will was so excited to see “Squishy” he grabbed him and the excitement on Squishy’s face to see “Uncle Will” was so sweet to see.. then I spoke and he spun around to see “Gramma” and he giggled, he was so excited to see “Grampy” too! I think he missed us and to think, I didn’t want to come home!!

When I finally got to have my cuddle he grabbed my face and pulled me close for a kiss, awww, he really does melt my heart!!

And then I got a phone call from daughter number 2 and in the back ground I could hear my “Sweetpea” fussing so I spoke to her on the phone, I wish we had gone over to see her too..

I can hardly believe these babies are nearly one year old, its gone so fast and yet they feel like they’ve been a part of our family forever.

Yep, Home Sweet Home… home is where my Babies are!

Round up on our Camping Trip..

Star Fisher Boy- fishing again!

Thing One and Thing Two

Snow White

Pelli… Local Pelican

Pelli being swooped by the resident Hawk

Star Fisher Boy with … another fish!

Movie Star good looks.

Final nights Sunset!

Resident Possum.. she lived in the “Killing Tree”

Handstands in the desert.. an HE didn’t want to go.

My footprint and the Bloke’s footprint.. virgin sand no one hand walked there that day!

Known by the locals as “The God Tree” reported to be 500 years old and buried that deep in the changing sands.

Star Fisher Boy and Mum selfies in the desert!

Yabbie! we had it for dinner..

Star Fisher Boy in shakles at the Wentworth Gaol.

More Shakles, couldn’t keep him there though!

Climbing the God Tree, but with great respect!

Selfies with the Gd Tree.. 500 years old.

Family Selfies with the God Tree.

So its Friday night 9;43 pm and we are at home. These photos were on the camera which needed to be uploaded to the lap top so I thought I’d do one more post on our trip as a final round up.

The weather was perfect, yes the first night was a bit blowy..OK, so Star Fisher Son couldn’t sleep he thought he’d be blown away and came into our  tent, these little things are the joys of camping.

OK, So we didn’t get to go to Menindee Lakes which was our “plan” but we are flexible and plans are made to be changed. Menindee is in full crisis mode and drought stricken and I am glad we did not have to witness that. We have so many good memories of Menindee Lakes last November. We will return one day.

OK, So we didn’t get to do “Free camping” for several reasons 1- The Bloke hurt his hip and could hardly move a lot of the trip, so I didn’t see the point of packing up camp and moving it all across the River and then setting it all up again (Blame me, basically I am lazy) 2- We had “location, location, location,” why move and disturb that? 3- I confess I like Hot showers and real toilets but having said that I WILL GO FREE CAMPING!! (one day!)

The Pluses…

• I did manage to eat salad at least once a day, most days twice.. yes fruit salad counts!
• Location, Location, Location… river front and less that a kilometer round trip walk into town.
• Wentworth is such a friendly little town, it’s clean it’s quiet and everyone was chatty and friendly.
• Weather- remember when we left home we were all sick and coughing up lungs and wishing for death, yeah that! it lasted a day and then moved on!
• The Desert- I loooove the desert, it was 4 kilometers from our camp! I went twice!
• I filled up a journal and started a new one!

We were able to just sit and unwind and relax it’s been a busy and sometimes stressful year and so some days I did little more than sit and stare at the Darling River, and feel the aches, pains and stresses ebb away, I had a list of “to do” things, answer my snail mail, do art, do bible journalling, I was hard pressed to do anything, but forced myself to at least do my mail.. and then the lure of the river kicked in and I sat and stared and suddenly hours had gone by.. I could so easily live there! I am thinking retirement on a houseboat and becoming a “River rat” is in my future!

So that is the end of another great camping trip, w are home again, with excited dogs and a clingy cat and an excited “Charlie boy” and a very cute Grand Son.

I wonder who’s feeding Snow white and the Things tonight?!!

NaBloPoMo 2014- Day 6- Last Day here..

 

Darling River, Wentworth, New South Wales.

So today is Day 7 of our camping adventure, and sadly our last night here.  I am not ready to go, I want to stay some more. I mean I only just finished writing my snail mail and posting it all. I havent even started doing any art.. Why? Why I hear you ask? The bloody river is why!! Its hypnotic!

Some new campers arrived a few hours ago, we watched them set up to see if other can do it as fast as us, and I realised the lady had gone missing, oh no, there she was sitting in her camp chair starting out at the river. I wanted to yell at her to warn her “Dont start staring this soon! You’ll never get anything done!” But we must each learn our own lessons, so I shrugged my shoulders and went back to watching the Moorhens duck diving for the fresh water shrimp they love!

Snow White and her companions “Thing one” and “Thing Two” came by, they’re awaiting their daily feed of carp, which we cannot throw back in alive, so we kill them and leave them by “The killing tree” until the ducks arrive, except, we have only caught one today and the Pelican hopped up onto the bank and quick as a wink, the fish was gone, gone, gone!! So now we are desperately trying to catch one more to feed Snow and the Things! I wonder if the other new campers that are here will look after Snow and her companions when I leave tomorrow, I wonder if I should go and tell the campers bout Snows gamy leg and how Thing one and Thing two are her companions and they all three need feeding together. There’s something about camping by a river that just makes you want to adopt the locals.

The fire is crackling away in the fire pit, it’s not cold but the Bloke wanted baked potatoes with our chicken kebab and salad, so you know the old saying… Boys and their toys, happy Bloke happy Sheila!

Today we did the last bit of sightseeing, we crossed the last few places off the list I got from the information center. I am almost out of postcards and just realised I didn’t send one to my Grand babies, bad Grandma, I’ve been seeing them on Facebook each day, is it bad that I don’t miss them as much as I thought I would?!

I finished a book today, one I brought here at the second-hand shop for 50 cents, I just love that somewhere in this world you can buy books for 50 cents still. Another reason to move here, I am making a list, the houses are cheap on big blocks of land, yesterday in the window of the real estate agents, we found a 3 bedroom on 3/4’s of an acre land for only $189,000 amazing! It wasn’t backing onto the river but then in this town the river is 10 minutes walk from anywhere! The supermarket is cheap, well stocked and clean, plus the workers are friendly, the Chemist is efficient and there are two Doctors surgeries, so it has everything we need, including the Police station and the Ambulance service and the Social Club, well, with meals that good, I’d be there at least weekly! Maybe I’ll retire here!!

 

Statue of “Possum” and his side kicks

Ancient machinery at Fotherby Park

The Mighty Murray River.

Will, standing at the Junction of the Darling anf Murray Rivers

Bloke, at the junction after our bush walk.

Scarred tree, see where the aboriginals took out the timber for their canoe?

NaBloMoPo 2014- Day 5- I like fat Journals and I can not lie!!

We are still on the banks of the Darling River in Wentworth New South Wales, and today I almost filled up the journal I have been using for the last two years.
“I love fat journals and I can not lie”
Why? Because they are full of stuff, feathers, leaves, stickers, receipts, maps, directions, shopping lists, stuff that we saw, stuff that we did, memories that we made, tonight as I flicked through some older posts in my journal, and read them out both the blokes said “Oh yeah! I remember that” or they’ll giggle about something that happened like Yesterday at the Sportsman Club, when a man was so drunk, he couldn’t work out how to open the door to go outside, so he tried three different sets of doors before giving up and sitting down.
My blokes think its the funniest thing they’ve seen, so today when we went to the PO and its across the road from the Sportsman Club they both started chuckling and said “Oh these are nice glass doors” because they think the man didn’t really want to go out the door he just wanted to inspect the nice glass that the doors are made of.. Whatever- its a funny memory that will be kept alive because I journalled it all for them.
And some day we will come back here and inspect the “nice glass doors” and chuckle about it again!
Yes! “I like fat journals and I can not lie” because fat journals have happy memories.

NoBloPoMo 2014- Day 4- Pub dinner.

 

Today is day 5 on the banks of the Darling River in Wentworth New South Wales.

By the time we got up at 8:00 am most of the chill was gone and by the time we headed into Mildura at 10am it was already 30C, love it!! Although it is still only spring.

Today was the last day to use the free tokens from the recent McDonalds Monopoly game thingy they had and we still had some “free” food to collect so we went into Mildura to Maccas and got cheese burgers and sundaes for lunch. On the way into Mildura, we explored the other side of our river, there’s an old hospital (still in use!) and a walking trail, but Rob’s hip is still wonky so we will save the walking trail for another day, but we WILL do it, I saw a tree which is called a “Scar tree” you can still see the scar where the Aboriginals of the area cut a canoe out of the middle of the tree, tomorrow or the next day I’ll take photos to share.

We spent most of the day at camp, fishing and just relaxing, about 2:45pm we wandered up to the local pub “The Royal” which is the eldest pub in the Sunraysia area, first registered in the 1800’s and still being run as a Pub, obviously popular with the locals it was packed.. So we back tracked and made our way to the Sportsman Club instead. We had cool drinks and watched The Melbourne Cup being run on the large screen TV’s, then walked back to camp.

Then at 6:00pm we went down again, to the Royal for dinner, because their menu looked interesting and cheap too, but wouldn’t you know it by 6:00pm it was full! So once again we back tracked and headed across the road to “The Crown” instead. A little bit fancier but a lot quieter and we took the corner table and settled in for dinner.. “Star Fisher boy” who caught 4 today taking his total to 14 for the trip, had the kid’s meal of Chicken Nuggets, The Bloke and I both had the Roast Beef (first day without a salad, although I did have fruit salad for breakfast!)

I only just managed to get my 10,000 steps in today, 10,758 in total but I’ll take that, I am after all on holidays!

I also managed to get another letter written to my friend Janet in Pennsylvania, I planned to have them all done by now, but when I sit and look at the river, suddenly hours have gone by and I’ve just sat and chatted to God and day dreamed the day away, I think that is part of holidays and relaxing and the water, any water does that to me.

Also we have daily visits from our friends whom we have named,  the lame White duck, we call “Snow White” her left leg is mangled and she comes with a pair of Teal Mallards,” Thing one” and “Thing two”, her body guards, they swim one ahead of her and one behind her, and they fight away other ducks or moorhens that come near her I am sure they are warning the other ducks away saying “get back! This is OUR duck!!” Whenever we put out bread for them, “Thing One” and “Thing Two” sit back and let her eat first and when we catch the Carp that we can’t put back in the river  we leave them on the bank and the trio help themselves to fish and when “Snow White” is done we throw the rest out to our resident Pelican we call her ” Pelli” there is also a black and white drake that comes by, he is a very handsome duck, he has a red mask over his face and “Star Fisher Boy” named him “Yusef” although today we kind of liked “Zorro” he comes right up nice and close and eats bread from our hands. This afternoon we were busy doing other stuff, he came up to Rob, he didn’t have bread, so he walked around to Star Son who was putting bait on his rod, he didn’t have bread, and so he walked around to me, I didn’t have bread, so he walked right into our kitchen and just stood there watching us. The man from the next camp came by and asked “Whats this then?” Yusef just stood there watching us all, walked around camp a bit more and then wandered off.. He has a curly tail feather and a quiff on top of his head, and the most attractive blue eyes!! Can you tell I love birds?!!

So my friends that’s all our adventure for today, its bedtime, so I’ll bid you all Adieu and Good night.

Welcome to Wentworth

NoBloPoMo 2014- Day 3- To Gaol, the Doctors and fishing we will go!!

Written at Darling River, Wentworth New South Wales..

Day 4 of our camping adventure.

Today Rob woke up with, actually he went to bed with a sore hip and woke up with a much worse one, so todays mission was find a Doctor!

So off we went into town to the Information center and asked for the nearest Doctor, we also brought a sticker for the trailer, every where we go camping we buy a sticker and put it on the trailer inside of the lid. I also buy a tea towel and postcards (did that later at the newsagent.)

The first doctors rooms had no vacancy but the lovely receptionist rang the other Doctor surgery and they were able to fit Rob in at 11:30am so that gave us about 40 minutes, we spent that time very wisely at the old Wentworth Gaol looking at the cells, and trying on shackles and taking photos and enjoying that part of history, the guy remembered we had been in yesterday. It cost $20 for all of us but it was a nice step back into history. You could even go into some cells and shut the door, that was a little creepy.

After the Doctor we had to go to the Chemist and get Rob some pain killers and anti inflammatories so that was good, we did a quick shop for the latest lot of foods, the trouble with this little fridge is we don’t fill it up too much, so shopping for meats daily is easier and this town is so friendly and reasonably priced we don’t mind shopping local.

Back at camp salad lunch, used the left over roast chicken and a splash of fresh lemon juice. We’ve been having two salads a day, so I’m up with that challenge, and. A photo a day challenge on Instagram with FatMumSlim.. #FMSphotoadayNov todays photo was to show “weather”

We spent the afternoon catching up on the camping journals, adding the photos of places we’ve been a little snippets from the local touristy guides and news papers. Then I managed to get one pen friend letter written to my good friend Terri in Pennsylvania, I had previously brought 10 postcards so I included one to Terri. I was busy writing away and then fish kept jumping onto our fishing rods and I kept having to put down what I was doing and go reel in my fish (I caught three today) or take photos of The Bloke and the Star Fisher Boy with their fish, we caught carp, Fisher boy got 6 today, takes his total up to 10! Rob caught two! And we also cooked and ate the yabbies we caught yesterday!

Dinner was another salad with chicken strips and a baked potato cooked in our fire pit, and as I type the Bloke is roasting marshmallows over the fire-pit. The sunset tonight was glorious, pinks and reds and splashes of purple, and just now, a little visitor has dropped by to visit a wide eyes possum awoken from her slumber.

As for us, the mozzies are starting to eat me alive and so I am ready to lock myself in the tent and read my book! OH!! At the local Second hand shop today they had books for 50 cents each!! Bargain!! I got two, to use up my loose change.

Sunset over the Darling River,

Little visitor

Beautiful Sunset tonight,

Sunset reflections.

Star Fisher Boy! And Fish #6

I finally caught a fish!!

Dressed to do his time!

NoBloPoMo 2014- Day 2- Desert!

Will and Capt Egge

Wentworth.

Desert!

Heidi in the desert

A very happy Mumma on a sand dune!

As far as my eyes could se, I loved it!

Will was keen to slide down he dune!

This bloke always makes his Sheila happy, he spoils and indulges me, I am a very lucky Wife,

My Bloke in the desert!

Selfie with desert hair!

Will, rolling down the dunes.

Willow Bend Caravan Park, Wentworth, New South Wales.

On the banks of the Darling River.

Last night we all slept like proverbial babies.. Why do they have that saying because very few babies actually sleep well?! Woke up this morning to blue skies and sunshine and NO WIND!! Yay! After breakfast and the usual camp clean up, beds made, windows in tents opened and kitchen cleaned we decided to go explore. This is a small town so it doesn’t take long. We did however find the Wentworth Gaol, and although we didn’t go into the Gaol we did look at the gift shop, we will go back though. I also picked up one of those touristy guides, I am a sucker for those things, I like to deconstruct them and stick them into my journal and use the pics of places we went to. So as I was flipping through the guide I found “Perry Sand Hills” sounds interesting right? And it was only 4 Kilometers out-of-town so why not? Off we went (Little back ground here, I LOVE the desert, so when we went on our half “Big Lap” the nearer we got to Uluru the more excited I got about the “desert” I was underwhelmed!! Not disappointed how could anyone ever be disappointed at that beautiful big red rock, but there were no sand dunes or red sand hills at all, it was red sand and scrubby bushes. Not at all like I imagined) then today we drive up this dirt road and I can see in the distance huge towering red sand dunes and already my heart is skipping a beat we found the DESERT!!  Master 12 was underwhelmed to say the least but he went along with it for my sake. UNTIL he saw the size of the dunes and decided to roll down them! Game changed then and it was all fun! I could easily have stayed there for hours, we walked in places no one has ever been, no other footsteps but ours!! Super awesome!!

We took heaps of photos and rolled down the dunes, and walked back up, Will found some “paddy melons” like little yellow greenish watermelons but very bitter not for eating, he used it as a shot put, a football, a soccer ball and however else he could throw it around, we had fun! We even managed to bring some of the red sand home … In Will’s shoes, his pocket, his hoodie, you name it there was red sand in it!!

Then we promised him we’d go and buy him a magazine to read, well, the newsagent here was closed, so we went to the next town of Marebin, it too was closed, so we ended up in Mildura Vic. Found him his “Mad” magazine and came back to camp. I got caught up on my Bible studies and reading my boom “The Daniel Plan” while the boys fished. When we needed a break we walked into town along the river and home via the closed shops, window shopping. I got my 10,000 steps so that makes me happy!!

Tonight we tested out the showers and gave them our stamp of approval, nice pressure and plenty of hot water. We all got a bit of colour today, luckily we brought some Sunscreen for tomorrow. Now its bedtime, and maybe a few pages of my book to be read..

Blogtoberfest 2014- Day 31 Finished and 30days digital journal challenge and complete!

Blogging!

http://shellsinthebush.blogspot.com.au/p/blog-page.html
Monday: Mosaic Monday – make a photomasiac to show and write about
Tuesday: Talkative Tuesday – tell us about yourself
Wednesday: Wordless Wednesday – post a photo and no words
Thursday: Thankful Thursday – write about what you are thankful/grateful for, Throwback Thursday
Friday: Friends on Friday – write about another creative you admire, Flashback Friday
Saturday: Some/Six/Seven Thoughts on Saturday
Sunday: Sunday Snippets (started by {tinniegirl}) – My week in photos… A collection of photos from your week. No need for words. Let the pictures tell your story

 

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Today marks the final day of this Blogtoberfest Challenge and also the 30 days digital challenge. I am so happy and proud of myself for sticking it out. There were a few days there when I was unwell or just plain tired and I wanted to just sleep or die, and instead I made myself do a post. I doubt anyone is reading them but I kept on going!!

Tonights post is brought to you from Willowbend Caravan Park, Darling Street Wentworth New South Wales. Two reasons this tickles my funny bones.

• We  live in Darling Court and are holidaying in Darling Street on the banks of the Darling River!
• Weeping Willows are my favourite tree, this park is called “Willow Bend” there is not a Willow in sight, well, as yet I am to see one.

As Caravan parks goes this is very basic, but its crowing glory is the beautiful Darling river which silently lays about 10 feet in front of me. I love riverside camping! We’ve spent the afternoon watching seas eagles glide overhead looking for their next meal, and we’ve had the locals come by for a chat, a white duck I’ve named Snow White she has a crook leg but she has a beautiful nature and her two friends/ bodyguards are teal mallards, they walk by her side they swim one in front of her and one behind her and they watch over her so the pea hens don’t get too cheeky, Snow, came up nice and close and sat at my feet, I fed her some bread and then when I made the salad I gave her lettuce and she quietly quacked her appreciation, she sat at my feet for close to an hour.

We have had a rotten few weeks illness and Mother-in-law worries and so when we got here today and set up we spent the first few hours just sitting, me I napped, I feel like I have lots of sleep to catch up on. Star Son was eager to fish, this time last year he learnt how to fish at Lake Menindee and he’s got the bug, last year he caught a gazillion carp and two undersized Yellow Belly. So today he puts his rod in and within an hour he’s landed his first Yellow belly, it was too small to keep, we took a photo and released it, but now he’s even more keen to start fishing tomorrow.

Rob and I are still coughing our lungs up, so today as we drove here we watched the temperatire gauge get higher, but the time we got here (6 hours drive time from home) it was 37.5 C it was hot!! I told him, within a few days we will be better. We went to the shopping center and brought some lovely juicy oranges, and then sat there and scoffed them, icy cold and very welcome. We will be buying more tomorrow.

Tomorrow we are heading into Mildura over the border back to Victoria and Mildura is famous for oranges and Grapes and wine and most fruits, so we are going to stock up on fresh fruits and spend the week eatkng clean!! Salad challenge starts tomorrow!!

But for now, its bedtime!! I will definately sleep well tonight!!

He’s very patiently awaiting his fish