We're recounting our miracle day (or 'how I got my blogging mojo back' - Part One written second)...

   Hello all and sundry - the web that is world wide, and so on and so forth... yes, it is true I have been lacking a little in blog posts; sometimes living life gets in the way of recording it! and I have been variously motivated or not (as the case may be) to journal the happenings of the travelling Woodleys. This convulated sentence is trying to explain why we are at this very instant in the beautiful Port Stephens area north of Sydney, while it appears from the record of this blog that we have only just disembarked from the Spirit of Tasmania ferry. Suffice to say, there is two months of adventure yet to be detailed (along with an inordinate number of photographs) but if you bear with us one day we will get there. In the meantime, to find out where we are, click on 'The order of things' tab at the top; and to find out where we've been, read the posts!


   At the beginning of March I was lacking the inspiration to get motivated and write more about our travels and stories, even though we had been blessed with power, range, houses to stay in, etc!


   After a month in Tassie that wore us out with various sicknesses, capped off with an overnighter on the ferry (exciting but very tiring) and then a whole day in a huge shopping mall while waiting till we could sign in at our Melbourne caravan park (with four completely worn out kids!) Nick and I were feeling pretty stuffed...


   The first three months of our travelling 'Sabbath' had actually been with (or being visited by) friends and family for nearly half of the time. And then the other half with skyping and phoning and emailing and (very minimal because it's evil!) facebooking and texting and (some) postcard writing it felt like we almost hadn't had a break at all(!). (big breath...)


   Our 'Sabbath' is in some ways a sabbatical - a time to recharge, get back to God, intensify our family time, seek out what is next. Yet so far it had many times felt like we were chasing our tails and on the same old treadmill of 'people-time'.


   So that's how I lost my blogging impetus...overwhelmed, frustrated, and worn out!...


   How did it come back?... God sent a day of miracles...


   We had spent a lovely relaxing time at Nick's cousin's Mr and Mrs Schroeder's farm for a week - unexpected and planned at the last minute but a nice break from the caravan parks and free camps of the last few weeks. Leaving, we had the intention of visiting Flowerdale Primary School because of a connection through Grumpsy (my Dad) and his school's previous visits. Rocking up at lunch time we recieved a warm welcome and were able to have lunch there (miracle number one) before the kids had a play outside. 


   Then as the thirty two kids were in class, the three and a half staff were all occupied (and it was getting on in the day, it was the start of the school holidays, we hadn't booked a place to go to, and weren't even sure where we were going!!) we decided to leave to hopefully get set up before dark.


   However, as we were walking to the car we saw Mrs Alkemade (who had chatted to us earlier, and who was new and so hadn't met Grumpsy yet) saying goodbye to her kids leaving on the bus; and she offered to show us around the new-ish classsroom. Almost didn't say yes, as time was getting on, but Vente said 'I've never seen the inside of a real school, except Daddy's' [poor, deprived homeschooler!] so how could I resist but be shown around with the three kids (miracle number two) as Nick took Aravis back to the car to get ready to go.


  As we were being shown around, Mrs Alkemade asked us about our trip so far, our set up, and where we best like camping. I informed her that we love the coast and the country and are definitely not so keen on cities. She then found out that we had no set plans for the next place - just maybe around Wilsons Promontory (which had had its one road cut off in the recent heavy rains) or perhaps on the Mornington Peninsula (although we knew that that was probably out due to no free camps and school holiday busyness). In response she says 'How about you stay at my holiday house on the Mornington?' (miracle number three) to which I of course reply 'But you don't know us at all (or even my Dad)' and she responds with 'But I know from what he's done that your Dad is a man of value, so I know that you will be too' (miracle number four). After reassuring myself that Mrs Alkemade is truly alright with having us stay at her holiday house we get ready to follow her back to her house to fetch the keys. 


   As we were putting the kids in their car seats she enquires of Nick if he was a surfer - of course answered in the affirmative - to which she responded 'Our holiday house is right at St Andrews Beach, a well known surf beach - oh, and please use any of our beach gear that you need' (miracle numbers five and six). She at first said that we were welcome to stay five days - to the following Wednesday, but when asking where we were headed next we informed her that we had exactly a week till we were meeting up with Grumpsy and Oma. So immediately she said, 'Well, you must stay till then, my husband and I can change our plans, no worries!' (miracle number seven).
   
   Slightly gob-smacked, we followed Mrs Alkemade for forty five minutes till she stoped in a sweet little village / outer suburb of Melbourne (ironically very close to the caravan park we first stayed in when we left Tasmania) and suggested that we let the kids have a play on a six-playground playground(!) (miracle number eight) and possibly a little look around the best op-shop in the area - where we managed to spend about fifteen dollars on about ten items that we've been more or less searching for for a while (miracle number nine). Meanwhile she drove the last very hilly fifteen minutes to her house to fetch the key and then arrived back with a large bag of lovely homegrown tomatoes for us (miracle number ten) and extremely complicated instructions for finding the place. Thanking her profusely {I've always wanted to say that, or I suppose more precisely in this case type it!} we headed off as it was already starting to get dark. 


   An hour and a half later we managed to follow the instructions and arrived (miracle number eleven) to find a lovely established and well-kept house, not the semi beach shack we were expecting at all! (miracle number twelve). It even had four bedrooms so the girls / boys have their own single gender rooms for a treat (miracle number thirteen) and when we ring Mrs Alkemade later to inform her that we arrived safely and to thank her again she tells us to use anything we want to and that she had spoken to her husband - at first I thought he had said we would need to leave on Wednesday after all but no - he had reminded her to tell us about the stack of surf magazines he thought Nick might be interested in and to not hesitate to use their surf gear if we needed to! (miracle numbers forteen and fifteen). 


   A week of rain followed which made us even more thankful of the beautiful roomy house we were staying in (miracle number sixteen) and when we left and travelled to Seaspray to meet Grumps and Oma, we discovered that the places we would otherwise have gone to were flooded in and inaccessible! (miracle number seventeen) Finally, a week later we received a call from Mrs Alkemade thanking us for looking after the place and the little gift and cards the kids had written for her, and letting us know that we were welcome to come and stay any time we wanted to!!! (miracle number eighteen)


   Well! when God wants to bless he doesn't hold back! - Nick and I spent the whole week looking at each other and just shaking our heads in disbelief...


   And so began the second quarter of our Sabbath year - a time when we have been able to set boundaries around our skype / phonecalls / facebook contacting; and been blessed with having around half the time in houses (more on that to come as I post about our adventures from Melbourne to Sydney)...


   Upon reflection, I have felt that this 'Sabbath' year is going to be somewhat like a typical 'Sabbath' day - First few hours [i.e. months] randomly messing about and trying to still get things done, next few hours [months] purposefully withdrawing and forcing oneself to rest, then a few hours [months] doing something rejuvenating, followed by the last few hours [months] getting fired up for the week [years] to come. We had just passed that first section and were headed into the second - of rest... and that's what God had thrown in our faces (in the best possible way) with our day of miracles...

Postscript: here's a taster of what's to come for you, world wide web! 

And what has already been for the travelling Woodleys...

In Doncaster (Melbourne)...

In Seymour...

In St Andrews...

In Seaspray...

In Mossiface...

In Cann River...