day one... house hunting

today we walked the streets looking for a place to live.  it was only thirty two degrees today but it was very hot and sticky because we were walking.

where do you start looking when you are in a foreign non english speaking country?

well when we were here in january we got to chatting with an aussie expat and she showed us where she lived. she also pointed us in the direction of a couple of expat websites and forums which were a big help.

we managed to find a couple of real estate agents online and through a string of emails and crazy phone calls where cambodian and australian found it hard to understand each other we finally arranged to meet. they drove us out to camko, a secured housing estate which has townhouses. they showed us a lot of vacant houses so we have a choice which is great. we have more places to look at tomorrow before we make up our minds about what place is going to be best for us.

it was a long day and once again will was a little trooper. he was just excited to be back riding on the tuk tuks again!

i must admit that i love riding on them as well. it is a great way to see the sights, sounds and smells of the city. it is the only way to travel in phnom penh. the little guy even fell asleep on one of our trips this afternoon!

tomorrow we are going to be looking at more places for rent around the city and trying to do as much research as we can about prices, the best areas to live, what facilities there are and all that sort of jazz.

we have arrived...

we have arrived safe and sound in phnom penh. we are a little tiered and weary after having to get up at 3.40am but other then that our journey was as good as you can get which means no delays, no money stolen (that happened last time we flew to cambodia) we have all our baggage and our computer seems to be all in one piece (we are yet to open the box bit it looks good from the outside).

after stopping at our hotel to drop off our bags we walked down the busy city streets to the shops. our first stop was dinner. while sitting in the restaurant waiting for greg to come back with our dinner i stopped and reflected on how i was feeling. in that moment i was relived to finally be here, happy to be back with the sights and smells of the city but i was also a little panicked... what are we going to do now, where are we going to live what are we going to drive, there is still so much to do. then luckily greg arrived and all panicked thoughts left me. he always likes to remind me of this verse found in the book of matthew...

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Matthew 6:25-34 

we are going to take one day at a time and face one challenge at a time. at the moment greg is working on the first challenge which is organising our mobile phones. challenge number two is finding a place to live in. we are meeting up with a real estate agent and he is going to show us a couple of houses he has for rent in camko which is a secured village in the city which is where a lot of western families live. hopefully they are suitable and reasonably priced.

lake world tour... the beginging of the cambodia adventure

our journey kicks off tomorrow morning, first stop kuala lumpur and then onto phnom penh cambodia. i think we are all ready to go, if not it is too late now!
we have packed all our bags and we were weighing them today, we just come under our weight limit so hopefully our scales are right and we don't get to the airport tomorrow and find we have too much stuff. we finally booked our hotel for the first week, only $12 a night! we will arrive on sunday afternoon and on monday our apartment hunting will begin.

you can follow along with our adventure here on our blessed blog. on the side bar you can enter your email address and receive email notifications when a new post has been posted. also you can follow along with our instagram photos by clicking on the follow@meeklake link on the sidebar. please leave a comment or send us an email to let us know what is going on in your little part of the world.

see you in cambodia
love the lakes 

what's happening...

three more sleeps to go. we have finished saying our last goodbyes to our friends which was a very exhausting process but it was lovely to spend a little one on one time with everybody before we leave.

yesterday we said goodbye to my family. we had a lovely picnic in the park and all the children got one last play in together. we have one more family dinner to go where we will say our last farewell to the hubby's family and then we fly out early sunday morning.

today we have been packing, packing and packing. we packed everything so that we could weigh all our bags to make sure we came in under our baggage limit. i think we are going to be very close.

all was quiet in the house so i went to see what the boys were up to and this is what i found them doing...

cheeky little monkeys, sleeping on the job!

we have packed all the things we are keeping here in australia into a trailer we just purchased and there is even a little room to spare which is good. we have kept some winter clothes, some of wills toys, our camping gear and some of my vintage treasures and memorabilia.

we have a few last minute things to do over these next few days like haircuts, stocking up on medicines and favorite products that we cant buy over in cambodia, the most important items being chocolate, twinnings tea bags and tiny teddy biscuits.

time to stand still

here we are a week out from leaving for our adventure to cambodia.
my patients is growing thin as i am eager to get going, to fly out, to get on the ground and start running the race God has marked out for me.
but i can not change time, i can not fast forward this next week so instead i have chosen to stop thinking about next week and start living in the now.
to stop and enjoy this little time i have left, to spend it with family and friends and to spend it delving into the word and books that have come across my path in light of our up coming adventure.

the book sun stand still by steve futrick landed in our lap a few months back when we were in the process of making our decision to follow Gods leading to cambodia. i read the book in a few days and was changed instantly through the words contained in its pages. if you have not read it yet you must get a hold of it, it will change your life too.

instead of watching mindless tv in the little down time i have had these past few weeks i have gone back and re read the book, this time savoring each good word, stopping and writing those good words down and praying that they would permeate my soul.

sun stand still is about having audacious faith and audacious faith is a return to the core of christianity: trusting Jesus completely in every area of your life and setting out to devote your life wholly to revealing his glory in this world {steve futrick}

powerful words, sometimes hard to do especially when you like to be in complete control of everything. but life has taught me that i am not in complete control. i have learnt to lean not on my own understandings but on God.

hearing from God is terrifying. usually i would make sure all my ducks lined up so to speak before i jumped into anything. but not this time. if we waited until we had 100% certainty we would never be going anywhere. God has spoken to us but the devil is right there too, sowing seeds of doubt. but i read a prayer in the book sun stand still and it goes like this....

i am going to take God at his word

i am going to trust him with my whole heart and follow him step by step

even when my surrender requires sacrifice

even if it seems like he is taking me over the edge

i will trust that he will be there to catch me if i fall

i will trust that he is good

and that somehow, someday he will work all things in my life together for my good and his glory

you have to step over the edge and worth risking a fall but God will be there. i continually pray against fear in my life, if i have fear i will never be able to accomplish anything. i am replacing fear with the holy spirit.

one thing God has spoken

two things have i heard

that you o God are strong

and you o Lord are loving

psalm 62: 11-12

this is a solid foundation for real trust in God.

i am going through a real time of learning and i am learning as i am doing. i may make mistakes along the way but Gods mercy can take my mistakes and turn them into wisdom.

do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth
meditate on it day and night
joshua 1:8

hearing the word initiates faith
speaking the word activates faith
doing the word demonstrates faith
please don't let me fall God, this is where i rely on your strength and your love

things i am loving

my calendar is full to overflowing for the next two weeks as we catch up with people for the last time to say farewell.

even though i have been super busy and am feeling pretty weary from it all it is nice to know that i have lots of people in my life that i love and love me

i am loving breakfast in bed

who wouldn't right!

my hubby has been looking after me, letting me lie in most mornings

i am loving books in the mail

my hubby ordered these books after somebody recommended them to him

cant wait to get into them and start soaking up all the valuable information they contain

i am loving living in a house full of people who love to cook

because they have been doing all the cooking and i have been doing all the eating!

yesterday my sister in law came over and got to work in the kitchen with my hubby

they cooked all day long and prepared the most delicious six course meal i have ever had. my favorite course was the pork belly, it was mouth watering.

i am linking up here

easter holiday... part three

once the easter long weekend was over the campsite emptied out and just a few families remained so it was nice and quiet for the rest of the week.
we spent our time eating, reading, relaxing, playing games, fishing, wake boarding, watching movies, shopping {for us girls} visiting a winery or two and a couple of visits to the dunsborough bakery.

we visited the new eagle bay winery. it was pretty good, the food was delicious and they had a great kiddies playground there too. another place which was great for the little ones was simmos ice-creamery in dunsborough. they have a great playground for the kids, bbqs and picnic tables and of course yummy ice-cream.

 

we had such a wonderful and relaxing time away i really didn't want to pack up and go back home.
the campsite we stay at is my favorite place in the whole world to go camping, the grass is lush and green and we get to stay right on the waters edge. we have already booked again for next easter!
it was also lovely to spend lots of time with our family and friends before we head overseas.

will had his best buddy come and camp with us for a week {he brought his mum and dad too to keep us company} and the kids had such a ball together. everyday from sun up to sun down they were playing together. they went fishing, swam in the ocean, watched movies, played ball and enjoyed being in each others company. will is really going to miss his little friend when we move it makes me sad to even think about it.

 

so now we are home, well not really because we don't own a home anymore! we are back in our hometown and we have two weeks before we head off to cambodia. we will be spending our time visiting family and friends for the last time and organising and packing the last remainders of our belongings.

easter holiday... part two

good friday arrived and the campsite filled up quickly. it was the busiest i have even seen the place over the four years i have been camping there at easter time. more of our family and friends arrived and i think we knew at least half the campsite!
the rain disappeared and the sunshine showed her beautiful face. we dined on hot-cross buns and chocolate for breakfast and of course reflected on Jesus sacrifice for us and celebrated his resurrection.

on easter sunday we headed into town and attended a church service at the local church of christ. the pastor called for all the children to come on stage to help him with his message. our little william was up there like a shot standing in the front enjoying the glory of being on stage. the pastor started to talk and will got a little distracted and starting picking his nose! greg tried to get him to stop, but that just encouraged him more, and then he started showing us what he had found up there! we were in fits of giggles, highly inappropriate while the pastor was giving a very important message of jesus death on the cross! greg then was motioning him to put his hands in his pockets and then william began to wipe his boogies on his jeans! eventually he got the message and put his hands in his pockets and we were able to listen without laughing. a great twenty first birthday story.

 

we had the traditional easter egg hunt around the tents, the little kiddes were not very impressed with us when we told them that they had to put all the eggs in the middle and divide them all equally amongst the kiddies and adults! but there was plenty to go around and no body went without.

easter holiday... part one

we have arrived home safe and sound after spending nearly two weeks camping in our great south.
let me tell you about our adventures...
we stuffed everything into our car and trailer and even piled things into the boat that greg's dad was pulling behind his car and we headed in convoy down to bussleton.

we arrived at the anglican church campsite in bussleton late in the afternoon and we started to set up camp straight away. we were camping with greg's family so we had four tents to set up. we managed to get one tent up and then the wind really set in and halted our efforts. we were camping right on the beach and the wind was pretty fierce. we had our tent almost up but the wind was too strong for it and crushed it, broken poles and everything. so we decided to leave it for the night and go and camp out in the campsite kitchen where it was warm and dry.

the next day the wind had died away so we went about setting up camp. before the rain set in we managed to set up the remaining three tents and built a pretty impressive camp kitchen and sitting area. it looked like a mini taj mahul! we had a lot of people joining us over the two weeks we were there so we decided to set up a mini home complete with everything we needed, fridges, tables, chairs, lights and even heaters in the tents to keep us toasty warm at night.

the first few days the weather was a little miserable, rain throughout the day and it was freezing at night. we rugged up to keep warm, at one stage my brother-in-law had on a pair of tracksuit pants, jeans, t-shirt, jumper, jacket, ugg boots and a beanie needless to say he was warm with all those layers on! but after the first couple of days the rain clouds disappeared and the warm sunshine came out.

my sweet little niece halle, all rugged up against the cold

will and halle having fun in the puddles

stay tuned for more of our camping adventures...

we are on the road again...

today we are heading down south on a camping trip. we are taking off for two whole weeks of relaxing, reading, sleeping, eating, boating, fishing, talking, playing games, easter egg hunting and whatever else we can fit into those two weeks!

when we return we will have a few weeks and then we are off on our adventure to cambodia, eek!

you can follow along with our camping adventures on my instagram page. i just added the link on the right-hand sidebar (you can find me under the name meeklake)

hope you enjoy your easter break. remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for you on the cross and celebrate his resurrection and don't forget to eat plenty of hot cross buns and easter eggs!

practically perfect in every way

yesterday i had the pleasure of having an evening out with my beautiful sis-in-law and mumsy-in-law. we stepped out for dinner and a show, the show being mary poppins.

the company was wonderful, the dinner was so so and the show was absolutely fantastic. i just love the story mary poppins and they bought the characters to life in such a brilliant way. the set and costumes were fabulous. the house at 17 cherry tree lane opened up like a pop up book, it was very clever. mary poppins flew in and out just like in the movie but the character that stole the show was burt. burt was played by matt lee and he did such a wonderful performance. my favorite scene was the chimney sweeps dancing on the roof tops, and matt lee even did some dancing up the walls and on the ceiling, it was incredible.
i recommend that if you get the opportunity to go and see the show that you do, you wont regret it. it is getting excellent reviews and i really loved it too.

sunday snippets

i had another busy busy sunday this week. it started off with another fantastic church service {it was palm sunday} family lunch and a little footy watching, a trip to bunnings and ended with an evening out to see mary poppins the stage show...

 palm sunday he rode into town

met by a joyful throng

hosanna to the king they cried

and praised him with their song

i am linking up here
hope your sunday was as enjoyable as ours