Saturday Sport

Saturdays are a busy day for the Bates family. We are all involved in some way in our local netball and football competition. Each Saturday morning we all get up and get organised for a whole day out.

My day startes with a cup of tea and toast with honey. Hopefully this spring I will be eating toast with our very own Bates farm honey!

Then I pack a basket of snacks and lunch. One thermos of tea and one of soup, and one very special travel mug from Seattle!

Of course not all the family get up and get organised! Some of us prefer to stay in bed...

Then the car is packed with the lunch basket, my netball bag, Scott's football bag and Kym's umpiring bag (Steph didn't come with us this week, she went with her boyfriend Dale, whose team we were playing against).
This week we played our games at Port Neill, about 40km from home along this dirt road. As you can see we had a lovely sunny winters day. Hardly a cloud in the sky.

We usually arrive in time to see the youngest team of footballers just finishing their game. Scott heads over to the change rooms to get ready for his game, Kym and I settle in to watch with morning tea and a cuppa. Today morning tea was crackers, Havarti cheese and plum paste. I've got a real thing for cheese and plum paste at the moment....think I might try fig paste next!

Here is Scott with his team mates warming up before the game. Really they are all just mucking about with the footy, but officially it's known as the warm up!

Scott had an exceptional game today, kicking 6 goals. If you look closely in this photo you can see him about to get his face ridden into the ground! He had just kicked a goal so he got up pretty quickly, the pain is never as bad when you've just kicked a goal!

I didn't see all of Scott's game because it was time for me to head over to the netball courts for our game. That's me with the ball, about to pass it. Steph is on the left.
After my game it's time for me to put a white shirt over my uniform and become the umpire for the next game.

Then it's time to head back to the car for a late lunch and watch the last half of the senior football. That's Dale, Steph's boyfriend on the right, thinking about getting involved! This is the team that Kym umpires but he was too far away for me to get a picture of, and I was too tired to walk!



All in all it was a pretty successful day for us. The whole family was involved in a winning team, except Dale and that's fine since he plays for the opposition!



So, now it's time for a quiet evening in front of the fire. Need to get my power point presentation organised for worship leading tomorrow.

My Town

As many of you know I have lived most of my life near a small country town.

I mean really small.

Our population is 1000, give or take a few. I don't actually live in town, but about 19km out of town on a farm.

Every day I travel into town for work, and Scott and Steph both go to school at the same school that Kym and I went to.

This photo shows the administration building of our school. We have about 350 students now, there were almost 600 when I went to school there. Our school is an Area School which means it caters for the town as well as the whole district.
And here is where I work. We sell Case IH machinery amoung other things. I've worked here 8 years now, doing the administration for the sales department and basically wiping the noses of about 15 salesmen. We have 6 branches around the state and 15 salesmen who don't seem to know how to open a price book, or an email.

There are several murals around our town. I love the way the emu and the kangaroo are guarding the door in this one!

And this is what greets you as you approach the town. A giant stack of sheep made from corrugated iron! Note the sheep dog in the right hand corner standing guard.

This is a very close knit community. I know every person I pass in the street. Sometimes it takes me half an hour to collect the mail because I stop and chat!

It can be claustrophobic living in this community sometimes. Not much happens that goes undetected. If you are having family or marriage problems, people know. If your farm is up for sale, or the bank has said to no to finance, people know. If you hit a kangaroo on the way to work EVERYONE knows! If your daughter has been sent to the reflection room at school (again) everyone knows.

On the flip side, if you are having a bad day people care. If you are having trouble with your teenagers, people care and pray. If you have illness or injury in your family people care (and they bake!). If there is a tragedy in the community, everyone cares, everyone hurts, everyone is affected.

In our fourth year of drought there are people in this community who are hurting. Some have left already. Some are giving it one more year. But everyone still cares for everyone else.

Sometimes it's annoying that people find out things about my family before I do...but I wouldn't swap this community for any place else in the world.

No matter where we end up, or what the future holds. This little town will always be home.

Lord I pray for every single person who lives in or near our community. I pray that where there is hurt you provide healing and where there is suffering you provide hope. I pray for our little town which seems to be dying before my eyes. I pray for rain Lord. Steady soaking rain which brings hope to everyone in a place like this.

Bzzzzz

I am married to a man who needs to have a project on the go most of the time.

He loves to fish, but with our freezer overflowing he can't fish all the time, and the weather this time of year doesn't really lean toward fishing.

He has built a big beautiful aviary for our rainbow lorikeets and has learned how to keep the conditions perfect for them so they breed and are happy and healthy.

We have a wonderful vegetable garden with seasonal veggies each year. He pickles vegetables, makes tomato sauce and chutney and finds ways to use the vegetables he grows each season.

Now Kym has discovered a new passion.

Bees.

My husband (who is mildly allergic I might add) has decided he wants to keep bees.

And when he decides he is going to do something, he does it. No holds barred. Boots and all. Full commitment.

I happened to mention this to my Dad (who used to keep bees) and I didn't bargain for his reaction. He is so excited. He is a mine of information and can't wait to share. He wants to know if we will have our hives moved into boxes by the next time he visits so he can come "play" (and yes, that's exactly what he said!) with the bees. Excuse me? Play? Am I missing something here? Do bees sit down and play monopoly? Or tennis maybe? How does one "play" with bees?

You know what. I've made a huge discovery in all this. My husband the project man, is a lot like my father the project man. Good grief. I seem to have married my father.

One thing I do know. The excitement, researching and talking about bees has taken Kym's mind off the fact that we have been unable to finish sowing because it's become too dry. And that can't "bee" a bad thing.

So, stay tuned. Sometime in the spring we will beecome honey producers!

Flat

Good morning everyone.

I'm feeling a bit flat this morning. Not feeling up to going to church, even though the speaker is one of my favourites.

I've been getting the flu (and no, not the swine flu) bit by bit for the past couple of weeks. Last night after a hectic week and letting myself get run down it caught up with me big time.

So here I sit in my pyjamas at 9am in the morning feeling decidedly sorry for myself.

And a bit dissapointed in myself.

One of the down sides of being a netball coach is that when you lose a game you should have won you second guess every decision you made during the game.

And I made some bad ones in the final quarter yesterday, that I'm pretty sure cost us the game.

Sigh.

Shall keep reminding myself that it is only a game. There are no sheep stations riding on it. And try to learn from my mistakes.

You never know, I might actually believe myself eventually.

Anyhoo.

Time to get dressed. Or not. We'll see.

Giving it to God

As many of you know I am the mother of a highly strung, high maintenance, talented, flighty, moody, difficult and beautiful teenage daughter.

Parenting this beautiful young woman has been a roller coaster ride. One filled with worry, doubt, tears, joy, pride and did I mention worry?

I worry about whether or not she will be happy. Whether she will find someone to love her and cherish her. Whether she will be ok when she leaves home. Whether she will ever be able to stand on her own two feet.

And then I worry that I worry too much. And try to protect her too much. And get in the way of her spreading her wings.

I had a bit of an idea this morning, when browsing blog land.

I know this is not big news to some, but I'm a pretty slow learner.

I could hand it all over to God.

He has her back. She doesn't often recognise His existence, but He loves her anyway.

Well....that sure is a load off my mind!

Lord, thankyou for giving Stephanie life, and for the many gifts and talents you gave her. Thankyou for giving her to me, and for the lessons I have learned through being her Mum. Thankyou for our close relationship, I pray for that to continue.

I committ Stephanie to your care Lord. I pray that she will follow your direction and reach the potential that we both know she can, and that everything she does will be for your glory.

What went wrong?

I was sitting in church yesterday, listening to my father in law give the sermon and I was moved to tears.

Not particularly by his sermon, although his words did send me along the thought process that upset me.

My father in law is a wonderful man. He is kind. He is giving. He loves his children unconditionally (and trust me, I KNOW all his children...that is no small thing!). He is a Godly man.

In his sermon yesterday he spoke about guiding our young people, and reminisced about how he was guided as a young member of this very church.

That got me thinking.

How much must it hurt him that all but one of his children have turned away from the Lord? They were brought up in a Christian home. They all went to church as a family. They prayed together. They were directed in the path they should go. And yet all but one rejected it.

My parents in law love the Lord with all their heart. They are wonderful caring people, who lead by example. I felt a new empathy for them as we sat in church together. I complain about my husband not wanting to come to church with me. But it's their son. I used to feel that they were blaming me for his non attendance, but I've come to realise that they don't ask his whereabouts to make me feel bad. They genuinely want to know how he is, because they love him. Gee, that only took me 17 years to work out!

It's not fair! Pout. Whine. Complain.

Lord, I pray that Kym will one day come to accept you into his heart fully and completely. I get the feeling that he is skirting around the edges at times. I pray that he will committ his life to you with all his mind, body and spirit.

The South Australian Bag Ban

As of Monday May 4th it has become illegal for stores in South Australia to supply single use plastic bags (you know, those flimsy, thin, stupid bags that get holes in them and spill your groceries all over the road).

We were warned that this was coming months and months ago.

We have been bombarded with advertising. Telling us not to forget our green bags (although most of mine are pink).

Today I had spare time in my lunch hour so thought I'd do the grocery shoppingNo bags.

Luckily our grocer supplies cardboard boxes for the air heads like me who just can't seem to remember to put the bags back in the car! Simple enough concept wouldn't you think? Apparently not simple enough for me.

It's funny though. I purchased my green bags when they first came out. Thought it was a fabulous idea. But still resorted to plastic whenever I forgot my green bags. I think our Government has got it right for a change. By banning them, we are forced to use alternatives. We simply have no choice. Now even the forgetful people like me aren't using single use plastic bags.

Groceries aside...what do other people use for other shopping items? Like when you go to the chemist and get scripts filled, plus a new lipstick, deoderant etc. I end up juggling it all in my hands because I have enough trouble remembering my green bags for groceries. I have no hope of remembering to take one with me everytime I walk into a shop! Perhaps I need to take my Grandma's lead and tow around one of those little trolley's with wheels! Could you imagine? Stephanie wouldn't be seen with me! Which could probably save me a lot of money...hmmmm...the idea has merit!

The only down side to the banning of these plastic bags is that now I'm buying bags to line my kitchen rubbish bin. That's what I used to use my single use bags for, so they weren't single use after all.

The other child

Running a bit late for work this morning I jumped out of bed and straight into the shower without making the bed.

I came back into the bedroom to finish getting ready to find that someone had taken advantage of the warm spot I left in the bed!
Can you believe that he even has his head on the pillow and has tucked himself under the rug! Of course I had to disturb him. Because it's such fun. He always looks so cross!
I can't be completely sure, but I'm thinking this face is telling me to "go away". I chatted with him for a while, gave him a pat, which he completely ignored of course.

As you can see he was extremely impressed with my stimulating conversation skills!

I was so jealous of him this morning. I really wanted to swap days with him. No prizes for guessing where he is right this moment! I bet he hasn't even moved.

Mothers Day

Stephanie and I spent a lovely afternoon together this mothers day.

Stephanie recently went into business for herself as an independant Mary Kay cosmetics consultant. Until she gets her licence I am driving her around to all her makeup classes so we are really in business together at the moment.

It seems to be working really well. Stephanie is the (almost) qualified makeup artist and I am the qualified administrator!

This mothers day our friend Melissa (the one who made that beautiful debutante dress!) hosted a makeup class at her home. She invited Mums and daughters to come spend an afternoon together and be pampered.

It was a wonderful afternoon.

Here is Stephanie doing what she does best, applying makeup. Her teacher says she has a real flair for it and she loves every minute. She works by doing one eye for the ladies, while they watch in the mirror and then getting them to do the other eye.

And here I am hard at work (bottom left) taking orders. Stephanie had a really successful day and made a nice profit so everyone was happy.

I'm loving what this experience is doing for Stephanie. She grows in self confidence with every class she holds. We aren't making loads of money but I am getting free products (that's my commission), Steph is getting some pocket money and we both look FABULOUS! LOL!

Hope everyone else had a wonderful mothers day.

Teenage Music

At the risk of sounding really, really old I going to say that isn't the music our teens listen to awful?

Not all of it is awful, occasionally you will hear a song that has a real singer, and uses instruments. But there is a whole lot of absolute rubbish.

And with technology today that rubbish is getting more and more difficult to filter.

Both my children are very passionate about music, and are forever making new CD's to listen to in the car.

Kym has now made a rule about these CD's. He has told the kids that any music CD in his CD player in his car that contains any swearing will be broken and thrown out.

They went along with that for a while.

Then it was necessary to make a new rule. Kym told them that any CD containing music that is derrogatory to women (yes, I'm talking about you Eminem), or to any person at all (now we are including 50 Cent, Bliss n Esso, and numerous other revolting rappers) then that CD will also be snapped.

This new rule comes into play tomorrow.

Should be an interesting trip to the footy!

I'm really pleased that Kym has made this kind of stand. Sometimes I feel that Iam always the bad guy, or the "fun police" as my daughter so eloquently puts it.

I really appreciate the support he gives with trying to raise these two ferals into decent human beings. I'm so glad I don't have to do it alone. I salute anyone who does.

Dilemma

I'm hoping you wise ladies out in blog land can help me out with a problem I have....

10 Years ago I almost destroyed my marriage with an inappropriate relationship with another man. I feel that if the Lord hadn't stepped in and stopped me before I did something REALLY stupid then things today would have been very different. And I'm so grateful that He did kick my butt when it was necessary and open my eyes to the damage I was doing.

The man in question still lives in this community, although I've had little to do with him other than a polite hello if I see him in the street.

Last night this person reached out to me. While I didn't run away screaming, that was my first instinct. In the past two years his wife has left him for another man, and his father has commited suicide. So, my question is...do I be a friend to him? Or do I run away screaming?

I've asked myself what would Jesus do, and the answer is be a good friend. I'm just not sure I can do that. Don't get me wrong, I like this person, I have forgiven him and myself for the past but I'm just not sure I want to open up that can of worms. Ever. Again.

I'm thinking the first thing I need to do is talk to my husband.

Princess Stephanie

I've been calling Stephanie a princess for years. Now we have the photos to prove it. Her debutante ball was held on Friday night and it was a fabulous evening. The girls all made their families proud. They danced the night away with their partners, their parents, their siblings and their friends. It was a fantastic family night. The kind we will all remember for a long time to come.
We (that's two other Mum's and myself) spent two days decorating the hall. The chandelier in the middle was welded by a local farmer and we covered it in fairy lights. We were pretty pleased with the effect!

Here is Stephanie dancing with her Dad. She looks gorgeous, he looks a little puffed out if the red cheeks are anything to go by!
And this one was taken just as we were ready to leave for the ball. Princess still has her number one accessory with her at all times! Her mobile phone!
A traditional part of the evening is the presentation of the debutantes and the cutting of their cake. Here are all 11 beautiful girls lined up to cut the cake. Stephanie is on the end on the right.
And here she is with her partner Trent. Steph and Trent have grown up together. They are best friends, he calls her his sister. Trent's mum and I have been friends since high school so they were bound to be stuck with each other!

Here is Steph being helped down the stairs by her attentive and dapper partner Trent. Navigating stairs in a long dress and high heels is a little difficult for someone who spends most of their life in jeans, tshirt and sneakers, or bare feet!

This last photo isn't a great one of Steph or Trent but it gives you a good look at the dress she designed herself. The bodice was ruched at the waist with the top covered in silver lace. The same silver lace is used in the underskirt. It looked really pretty and sparkly. Of course the bottom of the dress is filthy now, and in need of a good dry clean.

The evening went really well, with no major hiccups. We all got home at around 2am, I don't know about Cinderella, but her mother was in definate danger of turning into a pumpkin by then!