#WordsofWisdom

"When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Operation Christmas Child

A skirt I made to go in a box.
I almost wanted to keep it for one of my sisters!

Back in October (OCC's national collection month), my dad came with my friend Becks and me (and a few other home-schoolers) to volunteer at Operation Christmas Child for a few hours one Saturday.

Operation Christmas Child, a project of Samaritan's Purse, provides underprivelaged children aged 2-14yrs with a shoebox containing various gifts for Christmas. Some of the impact stories are very moving!

My boxes all packed up!

I figured since we were going to the warehouse anyway, we should take the boxes I was filling, rather than having to drop them somewhere else. So on the Friday we went from one shop to another, buying the rest of the fillers I needed; I ended up spending most of the day working on the boxes! 

Becks and me

We left home around 9am Saturday morning, so we could be at the (OCC) warehouse in Henderson by 10 o'clock. We spent the next few hours unpacking boxes, checking the contents for anything that wasn't supposed to be in them, making sure (as best we could) that there was something from each of the listed categories, removing unnecessary packaging, and filling (from stocks they have there) any that didn't have enough 'stuff' in them. 

2 o'clock came all too soon and we left since we didn't want to be home too late. We stopped in at The Coffee Club for afternoon tea before dropping Becks home. :)

Afternoon tea...

And I won't mention what the house looked like when we got back...suffice it to say my mum and siblings were in the midst of a massive cleanup/out, which involved taking everything out from under the beds in the girls room...!

Yesterday

To the Americans on here...
Happy thanksgiving for yesterday!

Some things I am thankful for:

• blog readers ;)
• family
• friends (love you :))
• computers/internet
• pets
• music

Ummm . . .

Mum

Happy Birthday Mum!

Highlights from the past year:

• Arrival of eighth child
• Two teenaged children
• 20th wedding anniversary

2 1/2 years old

Ambury Farm Park Visit

The actual reason for our (August) trip to Ambury Farm Park was so the little ones could see the cows being milked (some of us older ones have helped milk by machine, but that was three of four years or so ago). And get this . . . right now, I can't find any photos of that! And . . . Mum's camera hasn't been downloaded yet so I can't use any of her pics either :(

So anyways, you'll just have to enjoy the photos I have got at the moment:

We spent ages by the lambs;
they were really friendly so the little ones could pat them through the fence

This goat is allowed to roam free on the walking tracks throughout the park

Laura (5 months)

Group photo
Left to right: Monique (11), Bryce (4), Diana (7), Me, Amelia (6), Mum & Laura, Owen (2), Mrs. Smith, Maria (2), Danielle (9)
Front: Jarrod (13)

Jago children

Ah yeah, we took a heap of random pics in the frame!
This one is actually photoshopped; someone was crouching underneath so he's gone, and I've taken the green piece out from the bottom right corner of the frame.

My new portrait :P

This is how we found Diana and Bryce when we got back...oops!