A Trip to Canberra...

This past Monday we drove to Canberra to meet up with some friends of ours, and we had a lovely time!



On the way there we stopped at Eagle Hill and we found some yummy blackberries growing along a fence...



...we also drove past the very bare and dry Lake George...





We met up with our friends in a park and we had a lovely picnic lunch beside a lake. There were more than forty swans on the lake, and it was so nice to be able to watch them and feed them little bits of food! :-)

After lunch we went to the art gallery, where there are currently original paintings from Paris. It was very exciting to see so many famous paintings, as I've only ever seen reprints of them!

We weren't able to take pictures inside the gallery, but I was able to find pictures on the internet of some of the paintings we saw...

"Woman with a Sunshade" by Claude Monet

"Waterlily Pond" by Claude Monet

"Grande Nature Morte" by Pablo Picasso

"Starry Night" by Vincent Van Gogh

A wonderful day out!

Holiday Fun...

Baking cupcakes!

Remember these?

What a difference Spring makes!

Thought for Today...

"The modern challenge to motherhood is the eternal challenge — that of being a godly woman. The very phrase sounds strange in our ears. We never hear it now. We hear about every other kind of women — beautiful women, smart women, sophisticated women, career woman, talented women, divorced women, but so seldom do we hear of a godly woman — or of a godly man either, for that matter.

I believe women come nearer fulfilling their God-given function in the home than anywhere else. It is a much nobler thing to be a good wife than to be Miss America. It is a greater achievement to establish a Christian home than it is to produce a second-rate novel filled with filth. It is a far, far better thing in the realm of morals to be old-fashioned than to be ultramodern. The world has enough women who know how to hold their cocktails, who have lost all their illusions and their faith. The world has enough women who know how to be smart.

It needs women who are willing to be simple. The world has enough women who know how to be brilliant. It needs some who will be brave. The world has enough women who are popular. It needs more who are pure. We need women, and men, too, who would rather be morally right that socially correct"

~Peter Marshall, 1950

"The older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things - that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed."

~Titus 2:4,5

Joel's New House

Recently Joel was able to purchase a new home ready for next year when he gets married. Here we are visiting the house on settlement day!

Joel opening the door for the first time...

the lounge/dining area...

and what was Joel's favourite part of the new place??

The climbing tree in the back garden! =)

"Hey...let me see what you're writing about me..."

A Family Day Out

On Saturday we had a family day out visiting the Mayfield Gardens in Oberon, and I just thought I would share some of the pictures with you!

The long driveway leading up to the gardens

A cute little door leading out from the walled garden

Looking out from the huge cascade...

They are only fairly new gardens, but we can imagine what these archways will look like when the roses are in full bloom!

The chicken houses... ( Dad was glad that our chickens couldn't see how fancy these houses were! =)



...the amphitheatre...











...and the front of the main house...


After we had been around the gardens we stopped at Hampton Forest for afternoon tea...

...and then in Lithgow at Hassan's Wall Lookout...

Overall it was quite an amazing day out!