Just to Clarify...

We are NOT having twins! When I wrote "before they are born" (see previous post) I meant "they" as singular, as opposed to writing "it" (which I don't like)! My mum has since suggested writing s/he, so that is how I will now refer to the baby!

Sorry for any confusion you may have reading my blog!

Vaughn's First Sermon

Vaughn and I had a wonderful weekend these past 2 days. We headed up to the beautiful wine region of the Clare Valley in preparation for Vaughn's first preaching assignment at the Clare and Blyth congregations. We spent the night at Syd and Barb's, some wonderful people from the Clare congregation. We were spoiled with a delicious country meal of lamb and chicken roast, before which, Vaughn and I had a wander around their breathtaking property. Here are a couple photos we took:

This is the view from their front verandah:


This is a bunch of grapes from their vines growing in front of their house... Vaughn loves the pictures he took of the grapes and is keen to use one of them for a sermon illustration!:


This morning we attended the Clare congregation for a 9am service and we were welcomed with open arms. Lovely, lovely people! There, Vaughn preached his first sermon in the Lutheran church, that he had written himself and led the liturgy. I was so proud of him! The parish celebrated Harvest Thanksgiving, so the altar was beautifully decorated with local produce. After the service, one of the ladies insisted on having a photo taken of Vaughn amongst the produce as she thought it was a lovely setting while he was preaching. I agree... and here is the picture:


We then proceeded to Blyth congregation, with a car full of produce to take back to the sem for residents to take. Once again, we were welcomed with open arms and it was lovely to meet the congregational members. Blyth also had their Thanksgiving Service, so our car was loaded up with more produce to take back! After the service, we were unexpectedly provided with a potluck lunch... you can never go wrong with that (!) and we enjoyed chatting with the members over the meal.

Vaughn and I are looking forward to going up there again, before Vicarage, to lead the service at some point. A really nice country parish and beautiful countryside. We'd love a call somewhere like that, but we'll leave that up to God and the other powers that be! In the mean time, we have wonderful memories of the very friendly parish!

Preparations Begin

I know it's still early days yet, but I've started decorating the nursery... how could I resist! Those of you that know me, I'm not a patient person and if there is something I can do, I'll be doing it. I'm not planning on doing it all in one go... even if I wanted to, I don't have the energy, not to mention the rest of the house that needs keeping clean! Anyway, I thought I'd show you my small, but exciting progress.

This is the nursery as a clean slate:


And this is after a little wall decoration:



Don't let the blue walls fool you... we don't know the sex of the baby, and are not intending to find out before they are born. As we live in an ALC provided house, the standard colour of the walls is blue. To make the room a bit more baby friendly, we purchased some fantastic removable/reusable stickers.

As you can see, we have gone with the theme of Winnie the Pooh. It's a neutral theme and easy to find things to match. I'm planning on taking the green from the paneling (if you can see it okay) and using that as part of the neutral look for any non 'Pooh' items that we purchase (except the furniture - I'm planning on having white for that!).

I hope to keep you posted on my nursery decoration progress... so keep watching!

All Part of the New Year...

Due to the exciting news that we are pregnant, we were able to move into a bigger unit, a couple doors up from where we were. And I'm very happy to say that we are fully in the new place! It took a lot of work over the weekend, but we are in and settled! I still have a few boxes to unpack, and have to clean the old place, but we are in... such a relief! A big thank you to the angels who assisted us with the big stuff as well as some of the smaller stuff.

Some of the boxes are calling out to me, so I should keep organising!

A New Year : A Fresh New Start!

Although perhaps fresh isn't the right word to use... I don't feel so fresh sitting here in the heat (and it's only 7am!). I don't like the heat at the best of times, let alone in the middle of a heatwave! On the flip side, my friends and family over in the States have lots of snow at the moment and I'm very envious of the photos they have been sending!

Anyway, getting back to the actual topic at hand; I'm not really one for new year's resolutions (I gave them up a few years ago!), but I can't help thinking that this year is/will be different. Not so much resolutions, but it's a big year for us.

The main reason is that I woke up on 1 January with the thought in my head - "oh my goodness, I'm going to be a mummy this year!" Yep, you read right - I'm pregnant! Very exciting news! I am now 12 weeks along and due mid August. I've been blessed with the fact that my first trimester didn't live up to its expectations and I didn't get the traditional morning sickness. I felt queasy at certain times and didn't feel like eating constantly but that was about it. I was also quite tired at times, but I really didn't get the typical symptoms that are associated with pregnancy, so that has been lovely for me!

Another reason for a big year is that Vaughn will start Vicarage later this year (just after the baby is born!). This really is a key time for those studying for ordination at the College. Vicarage marks the downhill run to graduation/ordination and they can sink their teeth into the reality of leading a church. Vicarage is a 9 month placement, which ends in May the following year (covering all the major events of the church calendar). They then have only 6 months of further study, before graduating, being ordained and send out into ministry. Scary but very exciting!

I'm sorry that it has been a long time between blogs, but I hope to start writing again more regularly. Without meaning to, I guess I did give myself a new years resolution, which is exactly that - to keep this blog more up to date! Let's hope I keep that resolution!