a Promise is a Promise

Tuesday 27th March, 2012

Miss E is now officially a girl guide.

Today she made her promise:

"I promise to do my best:
To do my duty to God,
To serve the Queen and my country,

To help other people, and

To keep the Guide Law.

Well done Miss E.

Come for a Drive

Saturday 24th March, 2012

This week at church we had a guest speaker, via the dvd player. So we decided that he wouldn't notice us driving off before he even got a chance to start talking. I was told he was good, and I'm sure he is, however dvd's can be watched anytime and God's creation was beckoning.

Our trip start by driving out past the Hume Weir. It's nice to be able to see water.

Our trip then turns and winds up and down, our destination Dartmouth Dam.

 The scenery is absolutly beautiful. I love the area. I can't wait to see what heaven will be like in perfect condition. I wish it was more practical to be able to live in these surrounds. Who would need to have a holiday with that at your back door.

Anyway the dam is at 81% at the moment thanks to all the lovely rain that has been falling.

  The kids had a bit of a play while I took some photos and then it was time to head back across the wall and find some BBQ's.

 View from on top of the wall looking away from Dam.

 Once back in Dartmouth itself, we found the BBQ's and had our lunch.
Its a place we will have to go back and visit during the week. I would love to take the kids out to the power station at the bottom of the dam and visit their visitor centre to learn more about the area. It will make a great school excursion.

 After lunch we went for a walk along a foot path that took us over a little creek.

 Smelling smoke we looked around and saw that someone had lit fires along the walking track. We had just walked along there not that long before hand, so I'm glad we went on our walk when we did. I also took some snaps, just incase he was some crazy guy that just liked starting fires.

 Then it was time to play and relax.

With some time for talking as well.

It was a great way to spend the Sabbath. Outside in creation, with family and friends.

Burraja - Aboriginal Heritiage and Environmental Discovery Centre

Monday 19th March, 2012

Today we packed our bags and headed into Wodonga to visit Burraja - Aboriginal Heritage and Environmental Discovery Centre.

There, with a number of other homeschoolers, we were shown some of the local history of the aboriginal people from the area.

How they made paints.

And their uses.

We were shown, some of their tools and how they were made.

 

Set up inside was an archeology dig, to show how before any major works is done around the area, the acheologist does his job and what he is looking for.

After a little break, we all head outside to have some spear throwing practice.

 

 I'm glad that our next meal was not reliant on the spear throwing. We ended our morning by going through the bush tucker garden. Donna, our guide was very knowledgable and answered all the questions we had. 

So if ever you around Wodonga and you feel like some Aboriginal heritage, Burraja is the place to head to. 

 

Community

Friday 9th March to Sunday 11th March, 2012


Family Camp time with our church from Dapto. This year's theme was community and I think we did a pretty good job at making our community stronger.


It is funny what some people imagine a church camp would be like. When I mentioned it to one person the comment was made, "So you just pray all day?"


Well...... no. 


There was plenty of praising our wonderful creator, God.

There was small group time, looking at what community is and how the early church was a community in the book of Acts.

Which then lead to each group sharing their thoughts.

which then led into games for the whole family to play.


Fruit Salad - everyone is given a fruit name, either apple, orange or banana. One person is it and stands in the middle of the circle and calls out one of the fruits. Then those people that are that fruit have to get up out of their chairs and find another chair. The person in the middle will try to get to an empty chair and the last person standing without a chair is it and calls for another fruit. To make it even more interesting they can call fruit salad in which everyone has to get up and find a new chair.

Banana Tunnel ball - There's no ball, but a banana and instead of standing you are sitting in a chair passing the banana down the line. The last person then runs to the beginning while everyone moves down one chair. Once everyone has been through the person at the start has to eat whats left of the banana. That team wins.

Working as a team you had to see how quickly you could get the ball touched by every team member. With a number of rounds you had to see if your team could do better each time.

Not to mention the free time just to hang around, kick the ball and do a bit of swimming.

I can't forget to mention the food, which was fantastic and everyone pulled together to help out with the setting up and clean up for each meal.

Late night visitors and talks by the fire.

Breakfast was a bit small on Sunday morning. Not everyone likes getting out of bed a couple of hours after hopping into it.

 More Visitors

No wonder I slept well on Sunday night. What more could you ask for, great weather, great food, all to share with a great community.