God is good!!

Actually, he's amazing. I would even say indescribably awesome but I guess that would be a contradiction. You get the idea, though. :)

And yes, I'm still alive!! Very much so, actually, although you may not have guessed from my lack of activity on here. I've done a fairly major re-shuffling of my imaginary priority list (it does exist, just not written down), and blogging was one of the first things to move down to the 'low priority' area. 

Another thing that got moved down the list was my rabbit breeding program. While I have thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and learning so much about biology and genetics (as well as the very small income generated from this hobby), I feel that my rabbits are distracting my from the things that I consider "more important" at this stage of my life. So after a lot of thought and prayer I finally decided to get out of rabbits completely. I've found a buyer for all the rabbits except 2, and have someone interested in those 2 as well. I actually feel surprisingly happy with my decision, and even now don't have any regrets at all about seeing all those years of hard work gone. At least I know their new owners, so I will be able to hear how they're going, and maybe even one day get them back again. 

It's hard to believe this year is nearly over already!! You'd think we'd used to this happening every year, but I'm sure each year goes faster than the one before. I guess now is a good time to reflect on the past year before we get thrown into yet another one! I wonder how many people can remember their New Year's Resolutions. Or how many have achieved them. I can't even remember mine (if I had any?) so I doubt that I achieved any of them.

I remember this time last year I was getting all stressed about how things were going to work out for this year; no matter how much I thought about it or tried to plan the year, I couldn't see how on earth things could possibly work out. (I'll spare you the details of specifically what I was worried about.) But now looking back I can see how this year God has bombarded me with opportunities far beyond anything I would ever have imagined or dreamed of!! Yet at the time I didn't seem to take much notice. Ironic how it's so easy to long for something so much that you don't recognize it when it's staring you in the face. I can't think of a single prayer that God hasn't answered this year - some of them in a far more wonderful way than I expected.

It's so encouraging to know all this, and to have that assurance that no matter what the future may hold, God will be right by our side giving us what He knows is best. I read a quote this morning, "God will never lead you where he cannot care for you." - W. W. Wiersbe.

What has He done for you this year?

Holidays

It's been a long time since I last posted, so I thought I'd have a bit of a ramble about how I spent my holiday just past.

The very first day of the holidays I got up at 5:30 am with Caitlyn to go to the Australian Flute Festival in Canberra. So much for catching up on some sleep. It was totally worth it though, and the Festival was an incredible learning and inspirational experience. The highlight was that we chose and bought a lovely brand new flute for Caitlyn and I almost bought myself a real piccolo that actually works (the last one worked for about a week before it ceased to be playable and was also completely irrepairable). The only reason I didn't buy it was that my teacher thought she knew of someone who could sell me a cheaper one. It was great fun trying the hundreds of different types of flutes and piccolos, though.

I spent the next 1½ days after that at the Festival as well (it is a 3-day event) before getting picked up in Canberra on Monday morning to go on a family holiday to the coast. It was a nice trip, though I didn't do any driving. We spent about 4 days staying at our grandparents' holiday house in Culburra Beach, and it was just amazing. I'm not usually a fan of holidays away from home, but I loved every minute of this one. Our family has been going on holidays to Culburra since before I was born, but it never grows old; it's a wonderful location, with a lake just down the road, an oval, park and bbq's across the road, two beaches within walking distance and a cove a short walk away. We're so thankful to be able to stay at a place like this, and find that we appreciate it more every time we go.

We spent a lot of time swimming (although the water was absolutely freezing), walking, playing games, talking, and fishing. We are terrible fisherman, and hardly manage to catch anything worth keeping, but still had a great time trying. Joseph managed to catch a baby bream by hooking it's side... I still don't know how the hook got stuck in the fish's body instead of its mouth...

After spending a few days in Culburra we went to a caravan park in a nice little coastal town called Kioloa near Bateman's Bay. This was an extended family holiday organised by Mum's parents for all of their family to spend a weekend together. It worked out very well, and everyone really enjoyed catching up with each other. We had a lot of fun playing tennis, and a bit of healthy (?!) competition was aroused in some participants...

On Sunday we headed back to Culburra, to spend the remainder of our holiday there. Feeling all fired up, we played a bit of tennis there. With the main focus on relaxing, we also did a bit more walking, talking, fishing, and went to the beach although the weather wasn't so great. One unique aspect of Venturas is that we sometimes like to have long philosophical discussions analyzing various issues in some depth. In the holidays when we're all together with Joshua it happens quite frequently. It's a lot of fun, even when we're not really serious, but just talking and getting to know each other better.

This afternoon we arrived back home in Cooma, all recharged and energized to tackle another term. It was by far the most enjoyable holiday I've had yet, but I'm glad to be back in the usual busy routine again getting things done. Fourth term is looking very promising already, and I can't wait to get started again.

How did you spend your holidays, and what are you looking forward to in the new term?

The hills are alive...

... with the sound of music!!! Just when you think you have time to breathe - reality kicks in and it's all back to the busyness of life. Here are a few things I'm involved that are coming up soon:

• ANU Open Day: I am 100% stoked for this!!! I have been asked to play in a flute masterclass with Virginia Taylor, participate in a flute ensemble concert, and perform a solo piece in a pre-tertiary showcase recital. Apart from that I absolutely cannot wait to talk to some people there about the courses ANU has to offer, career advice, and all that sort of stuff. I am really looking forward to a very rewarding, educational day.

• U3A Music Appreciation Concert: This is the 2'nd concert I've ever had (the privilege...?) to organize. Involving the Snowy Mountains Ensemble, it's really encouraging to see how much progress we have made since we did the same concert last year. I'm also accompanying about 10 solo items for this concert, the first 'real' accompanying I've had to do yet. Should be a challengingly nerve-racking but fun afternoon.

• This is the real BIG news for me!! I have very kindly been given the opportunity to play with a professional orchestra in the Cooma Choir Festival 2011!!! The combined choir will be performing a comic opera, 'Trial by Jury,' for which the orchestra will accompany them. The ridiculously crazy thing about it is that I will be getting paid to play! Everyone in the orchestra is getting paid from a grant, and somehow that includes me. I still haven't gotten my head around this concept; normally I would pay a LOT of money to have the opportunity to play with such a good orchestra, but somehow it's the other way around?!?! I don't need to tell you how excited I am, do I?!

• The next weekend is the annual Cooma Music Competition which is a huge highlight for me/us. Last year we didn't get very involved at all, but this year it looks like we'll be quite busy. My students will be quite involved too; I'm looking forward to encouraging them to take the plunge and discover the joys and terrors of playing in public. One thing I love about this competition is that every year we discover some new hidden talent in the community. Plus it's great to be able to catch up with all the rest of the music community and see what progress everyone has made. Watching people learn and improve (at anything, not just music) is so inspiring.

Other exciting but not-so-close things are our holiday to Kioloa (near Bateman's Bay) with Mum's family, the Australian Flute Festival, the Cooma Band Festival, and Cooma's production of Handel's Messiah. We are so privileged and blessed to be given so many fantastic opportunities in a rural area like Cooma.

Sorry this was all about music. One of the advantages of having a blog, though, is that you can talk about whatever you want, and people only have to read it if they want to and enjoy doing so. =)

What are you looking forward to?

Free to a good home

This little boy needs a new home. He's only 14 weeks old, and exceptionally docile and good natured, but I can't afford to keep him as he isn't up to breeding standard. Free with a week's worth of food and rabbit care information sheets.

A little project

Hope you're all having a great week. I just thought I'd share with you something of what I've been doing: this is an audio track I made using Sibelius and Notion 3. Notion, an audio editing program and virtual instrument library, is still very new to me and I have yet to work around such issues as dynamics and phrasing, but I'm very happy with the result of this, one of the first of my finished works. It only took a few minutes to make this track after I'd finished arranging the score in Sibelius. I love the virtual instruments, and while it is apparent that this is not a 'real' performance, it's surprising how real the instruments can sound at times.

So here we go: this is an arrangement of Pavane by Gabriel Faure. Parts have been cut out from the original version to make it easier to play, but other than that I've tried to keep it as close to the original as possible. I hope you enjoy it!

Pavane by Matthew Ventura

Blogging...

I have decided to stop blogging because it takes up too much of my time, so if anyone wishes to continue further getting to know me, my email is emzy.jane@hotmail.com ! =]
Well, farewell. =P
Emma.
xoxo

P.S. You may get an occasional post from me. Once in a while maybe. =)

Winter Warmth Part 2

During the holidays we had some very good friends over for a ps3 and cards night! [Dinner included ;] We did heaps of card games, soccer, ps3 and moreee. =P We got hypo and had fun! =) Here are some photos! =D

OOH! And around the world tabletennis! =P Some hilarious moments... XD
500! =) By the way, the boys team won... =D

More 500...

Some cooks cooking up a storm...

Hard at work! ;)

And a hansome boy enjoying jigsaws! =D

And yet MORE posts to come. Its a bit easier to do lots of little ones rather than 1 HUGE one... =P Bear with me! ;)

God bless,

Emma.

xoxo