Big hearts and having fun along the way!
So we now have a 3 year old baby!!! When did that happen? I'm not so sure. I guess time flies when God gifts you with a sweet-natured, 'fun-country' child. In the midst of a week of lovely weather, Saturday POURED! Such fun it was to cram all our friends and family into the confines of our lounge and undercover deck area. Not the plan but memories were made all the same. I stood with my phone in my had to cancel the bouncy castle we hired as I stared at the relentless rain only to have a brain wave! We could totally try the bouncy castle in the lounge! Not sure if it would fit, we gave it a try and although it was a tight squeeze, it worked! Needless to say, our plan B was fun all the same for Jed and his cousins and friends who burnt off all the sugar with an endless afternoon of activity.
Now that Jed's party is over and done with, it's a straight run through to Christmas! I L-O-V-E Christmas, it's just the best. The build-up to the actual day is filled with activities, traditions and most of all, family time together. Needless to say, I am scheming already, planning out some cool activities for the school holidays which seem to sneak up on us! Planning for the next fun event also keeps something fun in front of the kids as they count down and get all excited for whats to come. On the cards is also a family camping trip which will probably only be one night and on my cousins section where they will build soon. We were just reminiscing the other day about how we remember a big family camping trip in the paddock of a family friend. It wasn't even on a lake or a beach but just being together as cousins with all our family around, was the BEST. Being around 5 or 6 at the time we all had such vivid memories of all having turns sleeping in our gran and granddad's caravan/tent contraption and all the fun that we had there. We decided that this year we would keep it simple because Heaven knows to get our whole extended family to commit to a date and having to find a campground this late in the year was aiming a bit too high. So we will camp on a section, make a bonfire, take tents for a night, probably buy take-away's instead of cook, get my cousins hubby to organise the long drop(...) and create some memories for the kids without letting our adult brains overthink things! My motto this year is rather an imperfect SOMETHING than a perfect NOTHING! Rather to give things a shot and create some memories than wait for the perfect family camping trip that will never happen. So we're making it happen people, the most 'non-campy' family are going camping!! Watch this space :)
This Sunday we heard from our lovely Campus Pastor, Pastor Janine about living a generous life and I totally LOVE that thought. This has had me thinking all week. It was the launch of our Christmas Box drive to fill over 1000 Christmas boxes for families in need in the community to be able to deliver them in a few weeks time, as a church. This is my absolute favourite thing to do (OK, I have a lot of 'favourites' in this blog)! My kids were first in line to pick their 'person' off the tree, each being thrilled to find a child of their own gender and age to fill a box for. It is such a gift to be in a position to bless others.
I loved the thought that being generous isn't solely a monetary thing. We sometimes count out being generous because we're stretched in the budget that particular week but it's so much more than that, it's a heart attitude. Being a generous person means we are constantly in OVERFLOW mode, pouring out whatever resource we have at the time, whether it be time, encouraging words, actions of serving or in some cases, money.
I have loved the challenge of having to work out ways of being generous in different seasons. There have been the financially strained seasons where as much as I'd have loved to pay for the person behind me in the queue's groceries, I had barely enough for my own! There have been times where although I would have loved to watch someone's kids or make a meal, I was in certain roles in my work and church life that I was barely able to feed my own family as we rushed out the door to meetings and events. My point in this is, there is always SOMETHING we can offer, out a generous heart that can encourage, bless and set someone else up to experience love and feeling valued. I love that right now I am in a season where I can make the meals for the families in need, I can buy the groceries or pay for the petrol. I love that I have time to be able to watch the kids and stop to help people who may need it. In fact a friend of mine (shout out to you Louise!!) has set up a facebook page where weekly, there is an opportunity posted up that mums can take up, whether it be baking or doing a meal. What an awesome initiative and what a blessing to be a part of it!
I definotely think that just like the camping 'compromise' we are making this year, being generous is exactly the same! Sometimes we put 'being generous' in a box, where it has to look a certain way for us to feel like we have made a difference or done it 'right'. Sometimes we lock ourselves out of a blessing and being a blessing because opportunities present themselves and we don't feel adequate. What if we scrapped the perfect version of what was needed and just did what we could? I think we would find the pressure would come off and we would do it a whole lot more! I remember feeling so guilty because I felt I should take a meal to a friend or someone with a new baby but I was kicking myself because there was no WAY I could cook a meal that day for whatever reason. One day I thought, I could just buy a chicken and some rolls and salad and drop that! I had to get over the feeling of being a failure that I wasn't rocking up with my best effort of cooking and realise that I was providing dinner, regardless and that it would bless them. Once I got over my high standards of wanting my 'gift' to look a certain way, I found I started doing that more often! I felt the same way with having people over! I would want my home to be clean and tidy when people visited (with 3 kids at home, yeah right). So I just didn't have people over for ages. I came to realise that using that excuse means I'm missing out on being hospitable and blessing someone else. I learnt to be open, honest and vulnerable, letting people into my reality without feeling like everything had to be perfectly clean with home baking on the counter as my children sat and quietly entertained themselves in the corner!
Who don't we take the pressure off and do something that may be imperfect rather than doing nothing and waiting for that 'some day' moment when we can do it perfectly? I'm certainly going to try! I also have come to realise and experience that as you pour out, you are refreshed, inspired and filled with joy. In a world where the focus is so much on self and how we feel, lets be mums who focus on others! So often we will find that when we are feeling down and we don't use it as an excuse to help someone else, we will feel SO much better! How often is the answer to how we are feeling or the rut we are in, tied to helping someone else?
I love that even small gestures can make a huge impact! I have been on the receiving end of a hug from a stranger, I've had an awesome guy from church randomly come up and offer to buy my kids cake from the cafe after what he didn't realise, was a super hard day for me. I've had people give me encouraging words or messages in person, via txt or on Facebook. I've had people I know randomly offer to take my kids or cook me a meal. I am surrounded by people who do this for me and I know firsthand how a small act, even just paying for someones coffee (!!) can turn someone's day around.
I'm inspired to be that person and live a generous life, even if the offerings don't always look amazing or 'perfect', they can still be a powerful interruption in someone's day. Rather an imperfect SOMETHING than a perfect NOTHING!!
Enjoy the warmer weather and ramp up to Christmas!! I know I will be :)
Now that Jed's party is over and done with, it's a straight run through to Christmas! I L-O-V-E Christmas, it's just the best. The build-up to the actual day is filled with activities, traditions and most of all, family time together. Needless to say, I am scheming already, planning out some cool activities for the school holidays which seem to sneak up on us! Planning for the next fun event also keeps something fun in front of the kids as they count down and get all excited for whats to come. On the cards is also a family camping trip which will probably only be one night and on my cousins section where they will build soon. We were just reminiscing the other day about how we remember a big family camping trip in the paddock of a family friend. It wasn't even on a lake or a beach but just being together as cousins with all our family around, was the BEST. Being around 5 or 6 at the time we all had such vivid memories of all having turns sleeping in our gran and granddad's caravan/tent contraption and all the fun that we had there. We decided that this year we would keep it simple because Heaven knows to get our whole extended family to commit to a date and having to find a campground this late in the year was aiming a bit too high. So we will camp on a section, make a bonfire, take tents for a night, probably buy take-away's instead of cook, get my cousins hubby to organise the long drop(...) and create some memories for the kids without letting our adult brains overthink things! My motto this year is rather an imperfect SOMETHING than a perfect NOTHING! Rather to give things a shot and create some memories than wait for the perfect family camping trip that will never happen. So we're making it happen people, the most 'non-campy' family are going camping!! Watch this space :)
I loved the thought that being generous isn't solely a monetary thing. We sometimes count out being generous because we're stretched in the budget that particular week but it's so much more than that, it's a heart attitude. Being a generous person means we are constantly in OVERFLOW mode, pouring out whatever resource we have at the time, whether it be time, encouraging words, actions of serving or in some cases, money.
I have loved the challenge of having to work out ways of being generous in different seasons. There have been the financially strained seasons where as much as I'd have loved to pay for the person behind me in the queue's groceries, I had barely enough for my own! There have been times where although I would have loved to watch someone's kids or make a meal, I was in certain roles in my work and church life that I was barely able to feed my own family as we rushed out the door to meetings and events. My point in this is, there is always SOMETHING we can offer, out a generous heart that can encourage, bless and set someone else up to experience love and feeling valued. I love that right now I am in a season where I can make the meals for the families in need, I can buy the groceries or pay for the petrol. I love that I have time to be able to watch the kids and stop to help people who may need it. In fact a friend of mine (shout out to you Louise!!) has set up a facebook page where weekly, there is an opportunity posted up that mums can take up, whether it be baking or doing a meal. What an awesome initiative and what a blessing to be a part of it!
I definotely think that just like the camping 'compromise' we are making this year, being generous is exactly the same! Sometimes we put 'being generous' in a box, where it has to look a certain way for us to feel like we have made a difference or done it 'right'. Sometimes we lock ourselves out of a blessing and being a blessing because opportunities present themselves and we don't feel adequate. What if we scrapped the perfect version of what was needed and just did what we could? I think we would find the pressure would come off and we would do it a whole lot more! I remember feeling so guilty because I felt I should take a meal to a friend or someone with a new baby but I was kicking myself because there was no WAY I could cook a meal that day for whatever reason. One day I thought, I could just buy a chicken and some rolls and salad and drop that! I had to get over the feeling of being a failure that I wasn't rocking up with my best effort of cooking and realise that I was providing dinner, regardless and that it would bless them. Once I got over my high standards of wanting my 'gift' to look a certain way, I found I started doing that more often! I felt the same way with having people over! I would want my home to be clean and tidy when people visited (with 3 kids at home, yeah right). So I just didn't have people over for ages. I came to realise that using that excuse means I'm missing out on being hospitable and blessing someone else. I learnt to be open, honest and vulnerable, letting people into my reality without feeling like everything had to be perfectly clean with home baking on the counter as my children sat and quietly entertained themselves in the corner!
Who don't we take the pressure off and do something that may be imperfect rather than doing nothing and waiting for that 'some day' moment when we can do it perfectly? I'm certainly going to try! I also have come to realise and experience that as you pour out, you are refreshed, inspired and filled with joy. In a world where the focus is so much on self and how we feel, lets be mums who focus on others! So often we will find that when we are feeling down and we don't use it as an excuse to help someone else, we will feel SO much better! How often is the answer to how we are feeling or the rut we are in, tied to helping someone else?
I love that even small gestures can make a huge impact! I have been on the receiving end of a hug from a stranger, I've had an awesome guy from church randomly come up and offer to buy my kids cake from the cafe after what he didn't realise, was a super hard day for me. I've had people give me encouraging words or messages in person, via txt or on Facebook. I've had people I know randomly offer to take my kids or cook me a meal. I am surrounded by people who do this for me and I know firsthand how a small act, even just paying for someones coffee (!!) can turn someone's day around.
I'm inspired to be that person and live a generous life, even if the offerings don't always look amazing or 'perfect', they can still be a powerful interruption in someone's day. Rather an imperfect SOMETHING than a perfect NOTHING!!
Enjoy the warmer weather and ramp up to Christmas!! I know I will be :)
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