epic exercise

I have a new twitter so feel free to follow me on that: www.twitter.com/carolinefreitag

Yesterday I went for a swim, my first lap swimming in over a year. I only did 500m but it was such a good feeling. I already feel addicted to it again. I thought about going again today but I didn't want to look like a weirdo to the pool staff and thought consecutive days of swimming may be a bit much. So instead I went for an epic walk. There was a huge hill and the sun was beating down on me and I was in a sweat. But it felt good too.

After that bout of exercise, I went home. But then later I walked out to the shops again. I bought a ceramic tower heater and I've got it on now and it's working wonders. I have to say though it was pretty annoying to carry home.

At the moment I'm watching a doco called Life on ABC iView. There is some pretty amazing footage. They must have tiny tiny cameras because they've got images of a tadpole swimming in the centre of a fern which has a small amount of water. I like learning about living things (animals and plants).

From Car-O-Line

blogging

I just spent an epic amount of time catching up on reading everyone's blog. It seems to me that people write shorter blogs more frequently now instead of writing one large post a month. For me I don't think my life is that interesting at the moment to allow for short frequent posts.

By the way, I wish to dedicate this post to Elsie who is still reading my blog despite my lack of posting.

Going back to school this term turned out to be quite depressing. I had such a lovely school holidays and got to go away for a weekend with Rob, and the contrast of holidays and school was just so great. But I've now got over myself and am happy to say that I've made it through the first 2 weeks of school.

Today I had a day off but I still woke up early (6:45). It feels good to have all this time in the morning. I cleaned up the study so that I can actually use the desk. It's quite a nice bright room too and it beats sitting on the couch with the laptop on my lap. It'll be better for my back too.

I don't know what else to blog so I think I'll just finish here.

From Car-O-Line

Recommendations

Wow, I haven't posted anything on here for ages. Truth is... I don't really know what to be blogging about. I feel I've exhausted the topics of early marriage and the beginnings of a teaching career. But I thought about something to blog about today - YAY! I'd like to make some recommendations:

I would like to recommend "The Pilgrim's Podcast." Search it in iTunes or on Google and you'll find it. Basically it's two Christian guys who have a 30-40 minute chat with another Christian person about stuff. And it's really good! I'm not the kind of person who is good at listening to online talks or podcasts (I start staring out the window and lose concentration) but these 'chats' are really interesting and funny. I recently listened to them interviewing Andrew Thorburn (about SRE vs Ethics, as well as church planting), Col Marshall (about the book 'The Trellis and the Vine" as well as discipleship) and Steve Chong (about his church Kirkplace as well as how he encourages ministry in his congregation). From listening to those podcasts, I've been reminded about the importance of deep relationships in discipling as well as the importance of keep the Word central. You should go have a listen for yourselves. There are lots of different topics on offer.

I've also started reading te book "A call to spiritual reformation" by DA Carson. Rob has been bugging me for ages to read this book and I've finally started. And now I can see why he has been so excited about it. It's a really helpful read on how to pray. It looks at a few of Paul's prayers to see what were his priorities and motivations for his prayers. I tell you what... Paul is just an awesome person. God truly blessed him. I have to say though that reading this book is not always comfortable, as it often challenges me about my own prayers, what I pray for and what I don't pray for. But lets not get all depressed here... just read the book and put it into practise!

Now I don't know if this recommendation is worthy but hear me out, I've gone mental over MasterChef. Yes the show is great and I don't know why I love it so much but I'm a big fan. So much so that I realised that maybe I was starting to make it an idol in my life. So here's my recommendation - Bible before MasterChef. That is, now I'm making it a priority to read my Bible before MasterChef. It's a good thing to do.

From Car-O-Line

Holiday Projects

So this holidays I've had two major projects going on. I found a dress pattern online that I wanted to make, and I set up a fish tank.

The Dress:
Here is the dress pattern, and here are my results. I still have to do the hemming and a few zig-zag stitches but it's pretty much done!




The Tank:
I got this fish tank from a friend and I've set it up ready for fish. Left the tank to settle for two weeks and today I went and bought the fishies! I got a ryukin which is the orange one - and I decided to name it 'Orange.' I also got a black moor which is the black one - and I let Rob pick the name for it. He's called it 'Scrambles the death dealer' which is a reference to Metalocalypse (some crazy heavy metal cartoon). Here's a video!

Now I just have to get some school work done.

From Car-O-Line

musings on 2009

I guess it is a bit early for musings on 2009, but I thought I'd get a head start because lots of things have happened this year.

CHANGE. That pretty much sums up my whole year.

The year started with me being fresh out of university and waiting for the DET to tell me where they wanted me to teach. We were told that we'd get a call in January, yet no one got the call. So that was a bit of a bummer - 4 years of training and no jobs. So I used up my free time to write an impressive resume and lots and lots of cover letters. I applied for every single teaching job that came up even if they were in schools far away. And in God's providence, I ended up at Casula high. When I went in for my "interview" their intentions were clear - they were desperate and no one wanted the job. But being new and eager I took up the job - a one year placement. I'm really glad I did actually. It was a rougher school than I was used to but it really opened my eyes to the south-west and the people there and their needs. I was sad to find out that my placement was going to be cut short, but the school was gracious enough to hire me for the whole of term 2 as a support teacher. All the teachers there were lovely and gave me excellent support. It was like we all understood that Casula was a hard place to teach and we needed to keep on encouraging each other in order to persevere.

Something else very exciting also happened in January (gosh we'll never get to february, march, april....). Rob proposed to me and I gladly accepted. I must say it wasn't easy getting to that stage. Some thought the timing was not good but both Rob and I were ready.

Not only did Rob and I get engaged in 2009, but we also got married! On the 11th of July 2009 we were married at St. Andrews Anglican Wahroongha. At first the time between engagement and marriage seemed so small... but by the middle of June, my Mum was definately thanking God that the whole wedding planning fiasco was not going to be dragged out any longer. We easily planned our wedding in 6 months and had the most fabulous day. Everything went perfectly and I'll remember the day forever.

And so with marriage comes more change. I was no longer living with my parents but was now living with my husband. And with this brought so many new responsibilities that I had not had to think about before. There was grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, bills, etc! Not to mention living with Rob. But I do love it. It's great living with someone who you want to serve and who serves you. It's also nice having your own home and organising things the way that works for you. I love our flat and it's in such a convenient location. God has truly blessed us in this.

I also left my church of 22 years - Penno Baps, to join Rob at his church - St Andys Wahroongha. It has been very sad to leave my family church of Penno Baps. It's been good to visit or catch up with people there - it's always as if I've never left when I see them. However starting at St Andys has opened up opportunities for me to try out different ministries. I've started leading the pre-school to year 1 age group Sunday school which has been so much fun. I've always been scared about teaching little kids a dumbed-down gospel, but all the leaders there are so good at teaching a true fullness of the gospel - it has been a priviledge learning from them and being able to be a part of this very important ministry.

With only 2 terms of work at Casula, I was on the job search again. Now with some extra experience to add onto my resume, finding work was quite a bit easier. I had a few casual teaching stints at some local schools and a few interviews. Then I got a job at Crestwood High. It was only part time, but there was the possibility of it becoming permanent. I started at Crestwood in the middle of term 3 and am still there now... and am contracted for the next year as well. Although the culture is very different from Casula, I'm still enjoying it and thanking God for providing work for both Rob and I.

I probably shouldn't bore you with much else. Rob and I are still enjoying being married and have almost had a second honeymoon this past week as we are both on holidays and making an effort to do exciting things together. The next few days will be very busy as we have our first Christmas together and our first Christmas where we will be scooting around both sides of our family. We aren't sure exactly what 2010 will hold but we are excited to find out what God has in store for us. We praise God for his faithfulness to us in 2009. At this time of the year, we also thank God for his grace in giving us the Lord Jesus Christ who saves us from our sins and brings us into relationship with Him.

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday.

From Car-O-Line

Your Kingdom Come

So yeah... I've been married for almost 5 months now. Feels heaps longer than that! Rob will say though that it feels like it's been round about 5 months :P

We are very settled in now. So settled in that the our house is often very messy because we just chuck things down. Though every now and again we do a big clean and the house looks like brand new which is always exciting. I reckon we (meaning all people) subconsciously messy their houses so that they can then clean it, and then get that sense of satisfaction and accomplishment from putting in the hard work. Our place is quite messy at the moment. We'll probably clean it on the weekend. I just got out the leaf vacuum and cleaned our patio - it's leaf spotless now! Looks so good. Go me!

I'm such a handy wife! I can pull out the leaf blower, stack a dishwasher, vacuum inside, organise the house, wash clothes, hang clothes, collect clothes, fold clothes, iron clothes, cook, recycle, empty the rubbish, de-soap-scum the shower... the list goes on! I guess though most wives do that. In a matter of fact, Rob can do all that too! He's a handy husband.

I've also been learning the flute. Just because there was a flute in the house and I thought it might be cool. I watched some videos on youtube and now my embouchure is almost spot on every time which means that notes come out - it's amazing! I can also play the F major scale and I'm practising tonguing now. Man you need a lot of air to play flute. Youtube tells me that when you play flute, half your air is wasted because it just goes over the hole. So I've got to get bigger lungs or a stronger diaphram or something.

Rob and I have been doing this Moore College diploma in Biblical studies external course. We just got to Turramurra once a week for a 2-hr evening lecture. Our subject is ministry. It's been pretty good. We learned that ministry is about the gospel, it's about loving others, it's about creating unity in the body of Christ, it's about community, etc.

There has been one big thing from this course that has challenged me. Our lecturer was talking about the Lord's Prayer, and specifically the line "Your kingdom come." When we pray that line we are praying for God's kindom to come which is a good thing for Christians and something to look forward to. But also, we're praying that Jesus would come back and judge the world - meaning that some people, some of our friends and family, will be condemned. Which got us thinking... do we really want God's kingdom to come soon when some of our loved ones aren't saved yet? So how does this affect our ministry - well it makes our ministry more urgent! And it reminds us of our goal in ministry. Now everytime we say the Lord's Prayer in church, I'm reminded to keep on persevering in my ministry to my non-Christian friends and family, and to make use of every opportunity that I have. It is hard to bring up the gospel in random conversations, but lately I've been finding that opportunities have been springing up all the time. Thank God that he is merciful and loving and cares for his people. Gotta keep on trusting and praying to him.

So yeah... I hope that prayer "your kingdom come" challenges you to think more about your ministry to your non-Christian friends and family, because after all, we are all called to be ministers in our lives. It's not just our 'ministers' at church on Sunday who are called to do it.

Well this has been a bit of a different spiel from normal...

From Car-O-Line

I'm a villain, I'm an idiot

"It is very hard to read the word of God and think that it endorses homosexual behaviour and when that happens we have to say no, I’m going to be faithful to the word of God, even though in terms of the popular culture I’m a villain or I’m an idiot or I’m all the other things that people say."

-Peter Jenson on ABC's Compass

womens stuff and stuff

I just came back from Women's Katoomba Convention (WKC). It's a Christian conference for women and this year the topic was called "Designer Women." When I first heard the title I wasn't too sure exactly what it would about. I thought... "gosh that could be about a lot of things!" And man oh man it was about a lot of things. I gotta say I was very satisfied with it. One thing that I thought that was really good about WKC this year was that the speakers weren't afraid to put down the hard biblical word on tough topics like:

• abortion
• submitting to husbands
• submitting to men
• women preachers
• roles of men and women
• feminism
  
• womens magazines, culture and advertising

It was huge and awesome! I was particularly encouraged to hear at the end of the weekend a woman share that:

I would have considered myself to be a feminist before, but now I can see that God's order and design is the best way for us as women. (paraphrased... I didn't write down her exact words but this is pretty much what she said).

The big thing that I was reminded of at WKC was that God is our designer, and he has designed us for specific purposes. And God's ways are perfect - he works for the good of those whom he has called for his purposes (Rom 8:28). So we should live a life of dependence on him and delight to read his word and pray to him.

Another good thing about WKC was being able to fellowship with the ladies from my previous church. I especially enjoyed catching up with the older women and talking with them about things we had heard and learned. They are so encouraging and full of wisdom, yet they also can learn from us which is an amazing thing.

Today I was back to work as usual. It's still going pretty alright. You always have your good and bad days. I recently got a hair cut and all the art (all female) teachers absolutely love it. It's pretty funny. My new hair is quite arty so I guess that's why they like it. Even though I've only been there for a few weeks they've held nothing back from me. I've got reports due very soon and I've done lots of assessing in the past two weeks. I've also had to write exams, upload info to the school intranet and create worksheets and lots of other stuff. It's nice to feel like a real proper teacher again.

Yay for Rob... he's been a good husband to me. Although I have been finding this passage to be very true:

"I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband." - 1 Corinthians 32-34.

Often I am occupied about thoughts of Rob and marriage stuff that I forget about my relationship with God which also needs to grow and be nurtured. An encouragement to the single: it truly is a blessing to be single and be able to have undivided attention to the Lord. But for me God has led me to marriage and I'm sure he is working his purposes out in me, even though I get lazy and forget about God. Thank God that Rob is there to remind me to not be lazy!

Anways I better go and leave you with this food for thought.

From Car-O-Line

downs and ups

So right now I'm home alone while Rob is out at youth group. I never realised how boring Friday nights at home are because I used to be leading at my old youth group. So I have nothing better to do than blog. Other things I have already done tonight are stacking the dishwasher, turning on the dishwasher, hand washing things that didn't fit, watched lots of The Chaser's war on everything. So yes... blogging is the best option.

Last weekend was a very busy weekend... and both me and Rob didn't get much sleep... and hence we both got sick... which was sucky because I was working 5 days in the week and Rob had multiple assignments due. Spent a few nights just catching up on sleep and forgetting about doing uni work. So we quickly got better. But then the past few nights we've been staying up again doing Rob's assignments. I had to help him with editing and grammar. Last night we were up till 12 to do an assignment that was due at 12. Rob wasn't very happy with the end product. I was feeling a bit sad about it too because I think if we managed our time better we could have done a good assignment. Anyways it's gone now... hope Rob passes. He also had an assignment due today which he ended up finishing at uni... I think he'll do ok in that assignment.

On a happier note... we got our wedding photos!!! YAY!!! Linda and Chloe are the best!!! The photos are beautiful. There are actually a lot of photos! It took us quite a while to get through them. Actually, because Rob was doing assignments, he said I wasn't allowed to look at the photos until we could look at them together, so I had to wait to see them even though they were here in our possession. We're gonna display them on the computer when we have our house warming (finally got it planned).

I have found that ever since I've gotten married, I've become more and more impatient. Like I wanted to just look at the photos without Rob and I opened presents when Rob wasn't around and I just generally don't like waiting for things anymore. I'll be finding out something in two weeks and I just feel irritated that I can't know now. Also my new school hasn't called me since Friday to tell me more about what I'll be teaching. I also find I get more easily agitated with students at school... but maybe that's just because they are talkative annoying girls from a girls school.

Because I've been doing casual for the past week, I've had to supervise some religion classes. They use the Catholic Bible there because it's a Catholic school. I've never had a look in a Catholic Bible before so I had a read of Tobit. It's a weirdish book (from what I've read). I can see why it wasn't included in the Christian Bible. I can accept that what is in the book of Tobit may be true, but it doesn't seem like a very Bible-ish book... if you know what I mean. It doesn't seem like it serves a purpose, but is rather just an account of someone who lived in "Bible times."

I could probably go to sleep now. I am tired. Should I stay up for Rob to come home? Tomorrow I can sleep in YAY! If I don't go to sleep now, I'll have to find something else to do. Youtube is tempting. Eh... I'll get ready for bed.

From Car-O-Line

wireless down

Ok, so my net is playing up at the moment. My mac's airport doesn't seem to like the walls in our apartment. But that's ok... because right now I'm writing up my blog in textedit and then later I'll copy and paste this into blogger... so never fear! You'll be able to read this blog :) (:O you're reading it now!!! I told you so!)

I have more exciting news today. But first... the back story...

Me and Rob (and various other people) have been praying that I get a more secure job. And it's really awesome how God has answered our prayers! If only we looked to God first all the time and trusted in him faithfully. So the day after we prayed, I went online and found about 5 music teacher jobs! Some of the applications were really frustrating to do. Some only required an email. I applied to all the jobs (I've applied to every job that has come up... let me tell you that's a lot of applications and rejections!). Then finally at the beginning of the week, two of the schools got into contact with me wanting interviews. I went to one interview yesterday and went to one interview today.

Yesterday's interview: I almost didn't make it... because they were a bit slow in telling me what day they wanted me to come in, and then when they did tell me what day to go in, it turned out to be a day that Rob needed the car to go to Wyong. Fortunately, the public transport was alright and I made it there in good time. The interview was so-so. Some of the questions really threw me off because they weren't questions I was expecting. I was a bit disappointed after that interview... but then again, it was my own fault for not preparing enough for it beforehand.

Today's interview: This time I had the car and got to the school early. I sat in the car so that I wasn't going to be super early. This school's interview process seemed better. They gave me the questions beforehand and gave me 10 minutes to write notes/answers to the questions. Then they had 2 people interview me... they also provided water (but I didn't need it). Then they asked me those questions and I gave my answers. They weren't intimidating and were very encouraging. They were saying to me that I could take my time and have some water if I needed to think about anything. Though because I prepared beforehand I had all my answers clear in my head and so the interview went by very speedily.

So yeah... 2 hours after my interview today the school I went to today told me I got the job! YAY!!! It's a temporary (maternity leave) part time (mon, wed, fri) music teacher job 30 minutes from my house. Praise God for his love and generosity. I don't know much about the students... they may be good or bad... but I can't be picky about that. I start in two weeks. In the meantime I'm working for the next two weeks at Loreto. Woo Hoo! I'm gonna get income!

Other exciting news for you... here are pictures of the quiche I made! Look at Rob he's so excited about the quiche he had to rock out on the guitar! Don't look at the pictures too close up though... because then it doesn't look like quiche.


We're having a busy weekend this weekend with people coming over. Should be nice to catch up with some people we haven't seen in a while. Hope it wont be too tiring. We still haven't had a house warming yet... that'll have to happen soon. I've also been pretty slow on the wedding thank you cards... hopefully they'll come in the next few weeks. Gosh I'm such a bad person... we've been married a month and no thank you cards sent yet!

That reminds me... me and Rob have been married for 1 month... that means 1 month of me living without a tv! Who would have thought I'd survive? It hasn't been that hard at all actually. I think because we don't have a tv, I've been able to blog more. LOL!!!

From Car-O-Line