Archives For rest

Summer holiday

January 5, 2012

Today we are packing up the car ready to head off for our summer holiday.  Although we don’t travel particularly far, it always seems a long way in hot weather with three young kids and a dog or two in a small car.

We will be staying in a small cabin at a camping ground. Friends will also be camping there too so our kids are looking forward to having someone else to play with. We are looking forward to being able to read a book in the shade while supervising children playing angelically. (Dreams are free!)

Holiday from blogging also:

Much as I enjoy writing, I’m also looking forward to not being able to access the internet for a week. So no new posts will show up in that time. If you’re needing something to read have a poke around some of my older posts – try using the ‘category’ list in the sidebar as a way to find posts. Or take a stab and use the  search box.

Have a good week, God bless.

Gifts I have noticed recently (#763 – #779):

763) Abundance as my normal experience.
764) Clean, cold water on a hot day.
765) A New year’s day picnic a Purakanui inlet.
766) Being woken up by a toy truck driving over my head.
767) First born’s 10th birthday.
768) Christmas day with great friends.
769) Middle child’s birthday.
770) Father-in-law helping me cut down our prickly front hedge.
771) Two weeks off work.
772) Seeing a miracle baby walking and laughing.
773) Heather and I working together as a team.
774) Our old dog keeping Poppa company while we are away.
775) Looking forward to holiday soccer games.
776) And water fights!
777) Music from The Lion King stuck in my head.
778) Vacuuming our car out.
779) Fresh peas in pods.

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Photo of vintage car: pjjones (iStock)

In Blogging, Eucharisteo
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Simplicity

August 23, 2011

Eventually the only thing remaining that is good for my soul is what God has done.

Fortunately my wife realizes this before I and arranges for us all to get away for a weekend.

Forty-five minutes up the road to a simple little cottage, the legacy of a lady who lived a hundred years. Now we sit in the sun room of her little cottage by the sea, soaking up sunlight and beauty.

Why do we need to escape to a little cottage by the sea when that is where we already live?

We go to a cottage that is even littler than our own, even closer to the sea. It has less stuff in it, no computer, and does not come with our schedule or agendas attached. We need a break from the life we have made for ourselves.

So in our earthly tents we stay in a borrowed house. Just a little family together with the little we need for a few days and the book God wrote, enjoying the world He made.

Then we come back ‘home’, to our house (borrowed from the bank!), to live in the world and trying to remember we are not of the world. To this we are called, and then when He is ready He will call us each home.

Better is a little with the fear of the LORD
than great treasure and trouble with it.
(Proverbs 15:16 ESV)

Gifts I have noticed this week (#576 – #596):

576) Birdsong at dawn.
577) At home sick with youngest daughter watching Sleeping Beauty together.
578) Blue skies after two weeks of gray.
579) A weekend break away.
580) Rainbow in the sink!
581) Getting away from our usual routine.
582) Getting away from my usual time-wasting computer habits.
583) Excited, hyped-up children.
584) All being together as a family.
585) Holiday cottage reminding me of my grandparents.
586) Realizing how poor some of my ancestors were.
587) Waking up to birdsong and beauty.
588) Pottery coffee mug.
589) Sunshine.
590) Peaceful walk on Moeraki beach.
591) Enormous ocean calmness.
592) Making sand mountains with my son.
593) Him stomping the mountain down!
594) Persistent dog with a stick.
595) A warm wind for drying washing.
596) Reminders of the need for, and power of, praying.

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All images in this post taken by Mike
holy experience

In Eucharisteo
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Having a break

January 15, 2011

Just a quick note to let you know that there will be few (if any) posts for the next 7 days because our family is off to Omarama for a holiday. We will be staying in a caravan and the laptop is staying at home, so even if internet access is available I don’t expect to avail myself of it. I will be taking the camera though, so perhaps I will be inspired by the scenery and include some pictures in a post next week.

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In Blogging
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