New Job!

It feels like the last month or so has gone by in a blur. I've been dealing with the transition of moving from a that job I love to an exciting job that I hope to love just as much; particularly sleepless children and everything else! Meanwhile poor Stuart has been trying to finish his 20,000 word dissertation.

Saying goodbye to Credo has been sad, I had a fun lunch with staff and a goodbye 'moment' at the Credo Partners jazz night. It was awesome to see 'old' grads from when I was a student to recent grads from the last few years. Thanks everyone who came and said goodbye and thank you!

Working for Barneys has been hectic, after 3 weeks of only working one day a week there is a backlog of stuff that I feel like I haven't caught up on because there's always new stuff to do! Add to that the general challenge of learning new things and moving our services to a brand new building, it's no wonder I collapse in a heap after the boys are put to bed.

If only they would stay in bed...

Aston and Stuart rehearsing with the band in the new Barneys building

Zachariah exploring mummy's new office

 

The New Church

Over the last few months Aston has been fascinated by the story of Barneys. It started when he heard me mention to a neighbour that the church had burnt down. 

 

He watched the latest video update of the progress of the new building and was inspired to compose his own song about 'The New Church'

 

 

 

Barneys Seven Churches Walk

The Spires are walking to help rebuild Barneys! Our church has been without a permanent home for over 4 years!

Click here to find out more and sponsor us!

38 weeks & 3 days

Here I am at 38 weeks & 3 days - only 11 days to go according to the countdown on the right... Assuming Jellybaby is born exactly on his due date which is not very likely...

So, what's been happening? I've survived 2 weeks of maternity leave, it's been both nice to be at home and not have to worry too much about work stuff and also hard because uni is starting and lots of exciting things have been happening. 250 people signed up to join small group bible studies - awesome!

I've also spent the last 2 weeks obsessing about and learning to drive - I had 2 driving tests and managed to pass the second one - yay, so now I have my red P's and theoretically can drive a car all by myself... I haven't actually been out by myself yet, I'm still a bit scared, but I will soon, I promise!


Time off has also meant time for organising Jellybaby's room, I've washed all the clothes, sheets etc and put them away - he has so many clothes already! They're so tiny, it's hard to imagine anyone would actually fit into them... I can't wait to try them all on him.


I made the cot up today, we've decided he will sleep in his cot from the beginning as the room is very close to ours - you have to walk through it to get to us. I know I've made the cot up all wrong for a newborn but the blanket and sheets are so cute I couldn't resist putting them on.

I've also started reading through Barneys prepared readings for lent I've never done anything for lent before. It's always been one of those weird Anglican/Catholic things that seemed old fashioned and unnecessary. But I decided that as I have time (at the moment anyway) and I havne't done anything structured in the way of spending time with God lately, that it would be a good thing to start.

It's been fun so far, we're reading Matthew and it's been good to read some of the things Jesus said and see them as part of the bigger picture of His life and ministry. It's also fun to know that there are a bunch of other people reading the same thing, hopefully we'll get a chance to talk about it together.

Well, this is very long post to make up for my lack of posting over the past couple of months - hope you enjoyed it!

So much to do so little time...

It's actually not that true, generally I have enough time in which to do the things I need to do but often I feel like I don't.

Today I spent a lovely morning with some of the other married girls at Barneys 715 Congregation in my backyard, it was fun and I really enjoyed it. However I did spend a fair bit of yesterday and this morning stressing about all the things I had to do and wishing I didn't have to get up early and entertain people.

I was particularly stressed about not spending the morning studying for my exam on Tuesday, which must be why I have only done an hour of study in the last 4 hours. (Why must I procrastinate so...)

So now I am sitting here, after checking my email, facebook, ebay and all my friends blogs, blogging because every time I begin to study I am overwhelmed by all the things I don't know and feel I should know, or maybe it's all the things I do know but am not sure how to express in a way others will understand and will get me marks. I don't think I used to feel this way at uni.

I have a little voice inside me that tells me all I need is more time and to work harder and then it will all be good. But then the other little voice tells me there is really no point, more time and work won't help me understand - it's just all too hard.

More photos of Nandos

See more photos on Jodi's blog

Never a dull moment on Mountain St

This what I saw as I arrived at work this morning (photo from SMH), the pink building on the right is where my (Barneys) office is!

There was apparently an explosion last night, which has made a big mess and sucked 2 of the windows out of our office. A lot of glass from Nandos (where the explosion happened) has been thrown across the road with such forced it's knocked down the fence around the old fire guttered Barneys building. It hasn't even been 2 years since our fire...

I'm not sure whether it's significant but this morning I was wondering if I should have chips with my Nando's chicken pita meal at dinner tonight or be more healthy and have salad... I guess I don't have to answer that question anymore...

Back to Work

Today was my first day back at work after 3 weeks of holidays and I actually enjoyed it! To tell you the truth I was even looking forward to it, last week I kept thinking about all the things I needed to do, plans I wanted to make for this year, people I needed to call . I had to stop myself from working in the holidays! It's amazing what a few weeks rest will do, at the end of last year I was so over working, I seemed to be tired and grumpy all the time and had almost convinced myself I was a bad staffworker and should maybe do something else.

The sermon last night was on rest, Malcolm spoke about how Christians need to take time out and have good rest and to trust Jesus to look after all the things that keep us busy or worried - it's so true! You can listen to it here (when it's been downloaded in a few days).

I did have a bit of a late start to my working day though, my plan was to be at the gym by 830 and at work by 10 (gotta love flexible working hours). However, it took such a long time for me to pack my bag this morning - it hadn't been packed for a whole 3 weeks, I left late and was halfway to the bus stop when I realised I'd left behind a rather important item of clothing (the hazards of showering and dressing at the gym) and my water bottle. I came home again and ended up arriving at the gym just after 9. I got to work at about 10.30 and spent most of the day cleaning the "Credo Corner" and rearranging the cupboard. I still haven't finished but hopefully will be done by the end of tomorrow.

The Search for the yellow M & M

This is an m&m dispenser... Why is this important you ask?

Well, Marian used to have a yellow one in the Barneys office and I thought it would fun if I could find another one for her...

Hmmm it was a good idea at the time. However there appear to be no yellow ones for sale anywhere in the worldwide web.

If you know where I can get a yellow m&m baseball pitcher with a blue cap dispenser please let me know!

Happy Queen's Birthday

So, today is a public holiday because it's the Queen's birthday, but it's not really it's just the day we celebrate it. She already had her birthday in May I think and already had at least 2 parties and now she gets a whole 'nother day!

It's 1.40pm and I haven't done much yet, except for eat breakfast and send some emails that should have been sent a weeks ago...

Did you know according to the Anglican Church calander yesterday was Trinity Sunday... In true Anglican style Barneys had a sermon on the Trinity which was quite good (check out the Barneys link on the right to download it - in a few days when Stu puts it on). We also said the Athanasius Creed which is long and hard to read but kinda fun you can read it here http://www.orderofcenturions.org/documents/anthanasius.html

Anyway - have a happy Queen's birthday!

The Fire

Paul sent me some pictures of the Credo office after the fire today. It's pretty sobering to see them... It's hard to believe that the building is gone, I still get a shock when I walk down Broadway and see the burnt out shell of Barneys...

They removed the roof and inside walls etc that were still standing where my office was, it feels kinda wierd to know that it's not there anymore.

For more pics check out the Barneys (before and after fire) link to the right.