benjamin laughs

I have been trying to get this video uploaded for a little while, so it is a little bit old. I will put a more recent one up soon.

video news

Hi everyone,

Thought I might try something a bit different, so here is some video news that I recorded on the computer.

preschool christmas party

Last week the kids went to a christmas party at Ethan's pre-school. There are some great picks. Benjamin now has 2 teeth that have popped through. It is the last week of school for the kids and then we are heading to Dubbo for Christmas. I have been away at the Cornerstone Directors meeting for the past week. It was good to be home today and spend some time together as a family.

There are a few changes for us for next year. We are still going to be in Broken Hill though. I will fill you in next time.

Hi everyone,

here are some new photos of Benjamin. He is growing up fast and is very cheeky. He is so full of energy, he is hardly ever still. He is not quite crawling yet, but does move around in other ways.

Cornerstone kids camp

During October we were involved in the Cornerstone kids camp. This year the camp was held at Silverton just outside of Broken Hill. It is a camp that is open to all the primary school aged kids in Cornerstone and friends. It is a lot of fun for the kids and it is really good for them to get to know other kids in Cornerstone.

Being in Broken Hill meant that Millie and I could attend some of it with the kids. I was able to camp out with the kids for some of it which I enjoyed. This year the theme was the story of Gladys Aylward. She was a missionary to China, who had an amazing story of commitment to God. The best thing about her life was that she was someone who came from a poor background, wasn't educated enough to be able to qualify for the missionary societies, but she believed that God was calling her to China anyway and so she went. A step of faith trusting that God would lead her. I might tell the story another time. The kids had lots of different activities that were based on her story, they listened to here story and had adventures based on her story. They really enjoyed it, even Isaac who didn't want to go at first.

kids at the show

Not too long ago the kids went to the show. It has been a while since I have updated the blog, so I thought that I better put up some photos of the kids. Life has been pretty busy lately. Kids have started a couple of new things. On Thursdays Ethan, Grace, Isaac and Lachlan have started little athletics. On Saturdays Grace, Isaac and Lachlan have started swimming lessons.

Benjamin is still not crawling, but he is enjoying some new foods that he can hold onto and put into his mouth himself. Not that all of it ends up in his mouth.

soccer finals

Isaac played in his soccer final today, which I also coached. It was a great game against a very good side. The opposition scored 2 early goals and it wasn't looking very promising. A handball in the box meant we had a penalty and brought it back to 2-1 which is how we went into half time. It was hard fought after that with opportunities to score but no goals. It looked like we were going to score, but a second half goal meant the game ended 2 all.

Extra time was taken, with golden goal to decide the outcome. It was a nerve racking time with chances at both ends, but in the end both terms were even and it had to go to penalty shoot out. Unfortunately the team couldn't pull it off and lost the penalties, but they played very well 

and I was very proud of them. Isaac had a great game.

august news

We have been back from holidays for almost a month already. Since that time we have really hit the ground running. Holidays were a great time. We travelled up to the great lakes area where we rented a couple of holiday houses. In the first week we stayed with Millie's mum, dad, sister Angela and brother Johnny. In the second week we stayed in another house with my mum and dad, Dani, Kylie and Steve, plus kids. It was good to catch up with family who we don't get to see all that often.

The kids loved the beach and being with family, especially cousins. We loved the beach too, eating seafood, playing golf and playing games. 

After that we headed over to stay with friends Dan and Chia for a few days in Musswellbrook. That was great too as they had heaps of space for us. Dan and I took the kids up for a couple of walks. Especially good was heading up to the top end of the Barrington Tops with the boys. They enjoyed it too, but found the going pretty hard at times, but were happy to get to the top.

After Muswellbrook we headed across to Dubbo for a couple of days and stayed with the Albion's and enjoyed more family time. Andrew had a projector that he had borrowed, so we enjoyed quite a few videos on the big screen while we there. I especially enjoyed "Into the Wild", the story of a young man who heads off on a journey to Alaska. An amazing story which highlights both the pain that someone can experience, but also the treasured experience of life, love and grace that can come in relationships with others. Life is truly not just about the physical. Our pain and our joy attests to something far greater.

The Latest

Time has flown along. I didn't realise that it has almost been 2 months since I have posted. I will have some more photos of Benjamin soon for all the family, but thought I better write some things down about what has been happening.

This weekend we will be having our mini-muster in Broken Hill, celebrating 20 years of being in Broken Hill. Many people will be coming to remember over the weekend. Unfortunately the petrol prices have scared some away. It will make our holidays expensive.

The kids have enjoyed soccer with Lachlan, Isaac and Grace all playing. Lach has scored a couple of goals lately, which he has been quite happy about. Isaac's team is doing very well beating their rival team 1-nil.

Last weekend I was in Katoomba for our Cornerstone Directors retreat. I really appreciated the time to get away and reflect on things. I have found the last month quite stressful and I needed to get some head space. I really enjoyed being up in the mountains again, looking at familiar places. I also had the opportunity to take Mum out to dinner which was a rare treat and should put me in the good books for a while :-)

A couple of weeks ago we headed out to a property to have our desert camp. This is something we do annually with the students. We camp at a dry creekbed, near a gorge and help the students develop leadership and group skills. I really enjoyed setting up some orienteering challenges and walking up some of the ridges in the area. I always enjoy going there, sitting around the campfire at night, cooking in a hungi and seeing if we can catch a goat. We actually caught one this year and later it turned into roast and curry. Goat curry is the best kind by the way. Isaac and Lachlan participated in the goat hunt, but were a little bit nervous by the horns.

The weather has been very good lately. Cold nights, but not freezing yet, with beautiful days. Full winter will be here soon. We could do with some rain though.

Benjamin Smiles

I thought it was about time that I put some more things up about Benjamin. He has really started to smile a lot more lately, so I captured this video which I thought that you might like.

Rain!

Last week we had a downpour. Water flooded through the streets as it often does in Broken Hill when it rains as there are very few underground drains. Some of the water ended up in my shed, which is a usual sign of a decent fall. The kids though had a ball, as can be seen in the photos.

Effectiveness

As life goes on you find that you have more and more responsibilities. It does seem that in some ways your capacity to do things grows over time, but there are also ways to effectively increase the amount of time that you have in the day. It is important to see that in some situations it is possible to achieve more than one goal at a time. At first this would seem a bit insincere, because you are not giving yourself wholly to one thing by focussing on too many things at once. That is not what I am talking about here. Many things do not need to be done in isolation. Take going to the shops for example. This could easily be done with someone else that you have been meaning to catch up with anyway and therefore you could do both things are once. You could also have used the time to talk through things with God if what you were doing didn't demand your whole attention.
Recently I started up a jogging program to gradually ease back into it. I realised though that although that was a good goal I had very little time in my week to be able to fit it in, even though I really needed to do it to prepare for the soccer season. I realised that I could easily begin the program with Lachlan and Isaac. Thus I was able to achieve a number of important goals through the one activity. I was able to increase my fitness, as well as help my boys to increase theirs, and I could spend quality time with my boys. These have become quite rich times, which both my boys and I really look forward to.
It is important to understand that I am not talking from a paradigm of efficiency here. Rather I am talking about effectiveness, which is vastly different when it comes to people. You cannot really be thinking of people's best and talking about efficiency as relationships are rarely that way. You do however need to choose between many good things. Not only do we need to think about choosing the best, but also the best way of doing them.

Ethan's birthday

Ethan is 4 today. He has been looking forward to turning 4 for a while now. When told this morning that it was his birthday he said "is it now?".
It has seemed that Ethan has grown up a lot this year. Having a new baby makes him seem so big and no longer the baby of the family. He has strated to go to pre-school a couple of days a week and has become more independant, although he will always be a bit shy.
We had a bit of a celebration at home with the family. Millie made a cake and we sang for him (which made him a bit self-conscious). His highlights out of his presents so far were the cheap sword and his transformer. He also got his first bike. Here are some photos.

2 weeks

Benjamin is now 2 weeks old. Mum has been visiting, helping out with looking after the kids, cooking and cleaning. It is easy to forget how much work it is to look after a newborn child, so it has been great for mum to be here. You really do forget how small they are and totally dependant on you in every way. He is very cute though and it is easy to love him.
As I write Benjamin is sitting up next to me on Millie's lap, checking out the room. Mum is already in bed worn out by the kids. The air cooler is still on as it is still more than 25 outside. Unfortunately the cricket has finished and Australia have lost the series to the Indians.
This month the boys and I have begun a running program in preparation for the soccer season. It is called the couch to 5k running plan and is a good way build up slowly. It has been good to spend that time with the boys, although I am not sure that they have always enjoyed it ;-) .

Benjamin's first video

Hi Everyone,

I captured this video yesterday and it shows Benjamin really well. I thought especially that all you family out there would really appreciate it.
Millie and Benjamin are now home from hospital and are going well.

It's a Boy!

Benjamin John Norman Skinner was born at 9.12am today, weighing in at 7lb1oz, length 51cm. He is progressing well, as is Millie, although obviously she has been in some pain. It is a pure delight to hold a new born child of your own in your arms and as I did for the first time I couldn't help wondering if the way I felt about Benjamin was the way that God felt about me.

overland track part 3

It snowed fairly steadily through the night, so we decided to press on to the next hut which was only 3 hours walk (we hoped). Terry had to be convinced to not head back on his own, but for better or worse to press on with us until the end. Terry had joined our party from the beginning and probably wouldn't have begun the walk if he hadn't teamed up with us. We now felt responsible for him and didn't want to send him back through terrible country on his own, without knowing if he ever made it, at least not for another 5 or 6 days. His main reason for heading back was that he was really not prepared in terms of gear. Terry was a sculptor who lived in Kings Croos and his clothing, boots (blundstones which let in moisture) and sleeping bag were really designed for a much tamer place. We promised to lend him as much extra gear that we could spare, so off we went.
Although there was snow, ice and water in abundance we made pretty good time to the hut in 2.5 hours. It was good to get out of the cold and discover a really nice hut (Windermere) which overlooked the lake (when we could see it). We debated about whether or not to press on to Pelion Hut which was another 6 hours away. We really didn't want to be caught out and set up the tents as the weather was foul. Anyway, the heater was working. In the end that clinched it as we couldn't be sure that the heater would be working at Pelion (which it wasn't!) and we didn't really want to continue to be wet and cold. It ended up being a good decision as the weather really came in as can be seen by the amount of snow outside the hut. Even so, it didn't prevent a healthy dose of hut fever from creeping in. There is only so much that you can do during an extended session in a hut when it is snowing outside.
I had expected the huts to have a lot more people in them, but the weather had prevented that. Later on we found out that no other group had come through our end for 3 days, most being told they were not allowed to come through, so we were not going to get any company soon. Luckily we had left when we did.
The next day began well with quite beautiful scenery with everything covered in a blanket of snow. What a privelege to experience such a place! Even though it was pretty it was tough going. Dan did a great job in ploughing new ground through the snow, but I found it hard to walk in his footrpints as he is too damn tall. As we decended towards frog flats through the forests the snow turned to rain. Guaranteed to keep you dry hey! Wet weather gear is only able to handle so much, especially went bucketloads of moisture are coming from your own body in the form of sweat. Breathable is a realtive term :-). Bring back the snow anyday. Four hours of pouring rain, mud, puddles and roots. Ah roots. They are not good things to trust your feet too. After a while you just trudge through the mud and water not even bothering with finding dryer ground. It is much easier and you are already wet anyway.
It was a welcome relief to finally reach Pelion Hut and I was quietly thankful that we hadn't tried to push through the day before. Pelion Hut is a very large new hut able to sleep about 60 people. Unfortunately, due it it's size it is very cold and we were very wet. When the heater is not working there is no way to dry clothes in a room that is struggling to stay above zero. At times like that it would be better not to have a thermometer in the room. At least our sleeping bags were warm and dry. All except Terry's.

Children

Delight in your children while they are young,
Spend time with them freely as much as you can
Talk to them one on one and listen to them intently
Play the games that they want to play when they ask.
Go on adventures as often as possible
Take them into your world and go into theirs.
Encourage them, embrace them and let them know they are special
Tell them stories, especially the stories with deep meaning
Instill in them a love for people and for God
and help them to discover him for themselves
There is much joy and meaning to be found by setting aside your agenda to immerse yourself in them.

broken hill weather

The shift from El Nino to La Nina has brought some big changes to the weather in Broken Hill. Where it is normally dry it has become humid, and we have even had our fair share of rain. With the floods in Queensland we should see a fair bit of water flow through the Darling. Let's hope that it flushes the whole system out as well as having enough for the farmers.
Here are some pictures of the weather out our way over the last couple of months.