1. The kids have spent half their time being helpful (doing washing, scrubbing mould off walls, taking dog for a walk) and half their time in front of a screen. I thought our holiday EM policy would limit screen time. It didn't - but the house is much cleaner and the dog is much fitter.
2. I've spent a good bit of each day asleep.
3. Micah spent a few days with our friends and we had one of their boys in lieu. Worked well. Our kids are nicely interchangeable! But we're really glad to have Micah back home now!
4. Heath Scotland is going really well tonight. Yay for Carlton and the Mighty Penguins (my AFL dream team!) Dane Swan is scoring nicely for me too.
5. I am getting better at viola. I don't hurt my ears quite so much. My bowing arm is developing some control, but it still doesn't sound good. I look at the music, hear in my head how it ought to sound, but I can't. quite. get. it. It's actually a really good exercise for me as a music teacher. I understand my year 4 recorder kids better. We sing the song, they play the song, they get the notes right, but something is still missing.
6. We went away for a night (with the dog) and came back to find rat poo on the floor. I am grossed out. The dog has become obsessed sniffing a particular built in cupboard. I don't want to look inside.
7. I've become really interested in a particular theory of mind and how it relates to gender. I'm incorporating it into my flourish conference workshop on music. Come to the conference if you want to hear about it. It's heaps of fun and has interesting ministry implications (I think.)
Like the sound of 2.
ReplyDeleteRe 5. No experience here to offer, but I *think* that the string family are tricky to make sound good.
6. Time to buy some Ratsak :(
7. Sounds interesting. But why are the cool conferences always in Sydney? And does a women's ministry conference include ordinary woman types like me who don't hold paid positions in churches or who aren't married to paid people...? I don't get invited to do stuff like help lead Bible study groups or run things (other than informally), that kind of women's ministry seems to be limited to the wives of the paid ministry staff here..
#6 - Don't want to get ratsak because the dog will eat it too. It would be a very last resort.
ReplyDelete#7 - I think it's a shame if you have to be married to a minister-type person to do stuff in church. I don't think I do any organised ministries at the moment (except for a committee I sit on) that aren't open to anyone. The women in my bs group take it in turns to lead, anyone can teach RE and Sunday School, anyone with skills can play piano. Something I've noticed... Do you think it could be an extrovert/introvert thing? Introverts need an invitation to do stuff, extroverts volunteer themselves?
ps. I've not been to this conference before. Don't know how cool it is.
Just coming up for some sanity time from the assignments...
ReplyDeleteI would love to be in a Bible study that takes turns to lead. I've been in ones like that before and I like them. A lot. I didn't realise how much until I wasn't in one anymore. I think it's great practice for thinking about passages and possibly also for preparing yourself to read a passage with someone who doesn't go to church.
In general, we have to wait to be invited to do things at our church (not sure I entirely agree with it but that's how it happens and I suspect that there are a greater proportion of introverts in our church as well!), although I'm getting better at speaking up and mostly I don't get knocked back when I do. That's how I got into teaching RE at the local special school (on a break from that at the moment and I do miss it!) and starting up the book club. So I guess it's not quite as bad as my pity party would suggest...
@Simone for #7: I think sometimes it's a trust issue. The leadership tend to know and trust their wives so they are happy for them to lead. Plus they are likely to be the ones volunteering or most feeling the need to step in and help when there is a need.
ReplyDeleteI think this might be part of it in my situation, Deb. My alternative explanation (the me being oversensitive one...) is that I don't get to lead a Bible study because I'm not quite fitting the model of the good Christian woman. In our church, the leadership have very strong convictions that mothers should stay at home when they have little children. Sometimes I feel like others think that my working outside the home is not quite the right thing to be doing..
DeleteOf course, the sensible rational explanation could also be that they think I'm quite busy enough doing all the other stuff I do at church and during the week (including work) so I might not have time to do it... But I think a one off facilitating the group every so often would be easy enough to do, and a way of making each of us take responsibility for thinking about the passage we are studying rather than just turning up expecting the same couple of people to have done all the thinking for us.