talk done.

I've already forgotten what a beast it was to write.


It went well.  I held people even though it was longer than it should have been (it was still only 20 minutes).  I had something to say and I said it.  God is kind.  Thanks for your prayers.

In this talk I explored some new ideas.  New for me, anyway.  Hopefully not heretical.  I'll tell you about them sometime. 

I sat on a table with a non-christian lady who has come along to many such things.  Turns out we have a few mutual interests and she will email me about them.  Could be interesting.

There's buzz to be had in the talk giving business.  It's good that the writing is so painful.  Otherwise, I might get hooked.

Tintin crosses the waterfall

Joel has another talk to do at school.  This time, he has to 'sell a book'.  He's chosen a Tintin comic.  So, of course, we've made an animation.  Hopefully, this is the last one for a while.  I'm a bit over it.  Next term I'm going to encourage him to paint or write a poem or do something less fiddly.  I've heard that there are kids out there who just stand up and speak for a school talk...

2967 words

I speak fast, but this is far too long.

I've finished though.

Just need to lose a third of it.

Did you know...

...that it's possible to run an Easter RE assembly without talking about the resurrection?

Andrew and I ran the year 2-3 Easter assembly today.  We talked about the usual Easter stuff.  Didn't really think there could be another option.

Others ran the Year 4-7 assembly.  There were blessings and modern day parables and prayers for the world and songs about being lifted up on eagles wings... but our boys (in years 4 and 5) did not miss that their RE teachers were on the wrong track.

I can do this

I will write this talk.

two ideas for easter kids' talks

1.  Why did Jesus die?
Aim
To explain how Jesus took our sin when he died on the cross

What you need: 

• A3 piece of paper (landscape) with 2 people outlines drawn on.  They should be labeled 'Me' and 'Jesus', 
• A piece of glass or perspex (A glass chopping board works really well.  If you don't have glass or perspex, make something with clear contact or laminate your piece of paper.)
• Paint or tomato sauce or something messy like that.
• A sqeegey or something maybe a sponge.

What to do:
Stick the piece of paper behind the glass, so you can paint on the person and wipe it off again.
Explain to the kids that the picture on the left is me (and you) and the other is Jesus.  Talk about sin.  Say how it messes us up, gets in the way of our friendship with God etc etc.  While saying this put mess (paint, sauce, whatever) all over 'Me' picture.  Explain that Jesus had no sin.  See?  All clean.  Talk about how God has to deal with sin etc.  He does that by putting all our sin onto Jesus (use squeegy to transfer mess onto Jesus, leaving 'me' clean.).  Talk around all that kind of stuff.

(This isn't original.  Don't remember where it came from.  Was it part of bible in ten?) 

2.  Humpty Dumpty Easter Set
Aim
Explain that Jesus came back to life again.  We used this in our RE assembly today after we had told the story to reinforce the fact that Jesus rose from the dead.

What you need:

• Guitar or piano (if possible) and singing voice
• Humpty Dumpty easter egg, or just a big regular easter egg.

What to do:
Humpty Dumpty is one of my favourite Easter characters.  Huh?  All the shops I look in are filled with humpty dumpty eggs... (show one or ask kids if they've seen them.)  I like humpty dumpty eggs because they are filled with smarties.  Yum!  But Humpty Dumpty is actually a really sad story.  A tragedy in fact.  (Ask kids if they remember the story.  Get a kid to tell it.  Make a few comments about the poor choices that Humpty made.  He should never have been sitting on the wall in the first place.  Dangerous etc.)  What we are going to do now is a re-enactment of the humpty dumpty story.  Just as a warm up, we might sing the song through a couple of times. (sing)  Need a volunteer...  (choose someone.  Everyone sings at appropriate moment in the song, helper needs to push humpty off wall.  Watch him smash.  Sing song.  Watch him smash...  Make sure he gets really broken.)   Like the song says, 'All the kings horses and all the kings men, couldn't put humpty together again.  And it's true.  Look at him.  I can't fix him.

Death is a bit like that.  When someone is dead, there's nothing we can do.  All the kings horses and all the king's men can't make the person alive again... But there's an exception... (talk about Jesus coming back to life.)  To help you remember this, we have a song to teach you (to the tune of Humpty Dumpty):


Easter Friday, Jesus has died
All his friends were sad and they cried (boo hoo)
Sunday morning, what a surprise,
Jesus has risen, Hooray he's alive.

sar 2007

(you can get free sheet music here)

Give the kids a bit of egg each to eat!

fishing for sympathy

I was having a whinge to Andrew today about how painful it is to write a talk, so time consuming, woe is me, who would ever agree to do this etc.

He told me to suck it up because he has two to write for this weekend.

So I'm looking elsewhere for sympathy. 

Anyone? Anyone?

slow cooker loaded for tomorrow night

My self-righteousness is exceeding that of the scribes and pharisees!

aaargh!

I'm trying to work at home. Apparently, it's the godly way.

But I can't.

The mess is stressing me*. 

The windows are dirty. 

The floor needs a mop. 

There are overdue library books.

I need caffeine.

I need strangers around me.

I need the noisy serenity of the coffee shop.

Get me out of here!


*and it's not too bad.

not working today

I was all set to say 'no' to work today.  I was going to be firm.  I worked three days last week.  I'm already booked for Wed-Thurs this week.  I've got a talk to give on Wednesday night that is no where near finished.  We don't need the money.  I don't need the stress.  I will say no.  I will.

But work didn't call this morning.

It's one thing for me to reject them, but quite another for them to reject me!  It's raining.  Teachers are always away when it rains!


Why don't they want me?  Maybe they think I'm incompetent.  Maybe I am incompetent.  Maybe I'll never get a call again...

bones

Off to watch Bones.  Sick of this millimeter by millimeter thing.  How about he gets moved to another unit, she gets sad for an episode, but recovers when she finds that her new partner out-awesomes him...

godliness as patience

I was speaking to Kutz the other night.  He was telling me how he sees sin as the distortion of a desire which was originally good. So if he feels tempted, he thinks about the particular temptation and tries to discern how, pre-fall, that desire would have been expressed.  He looks backwards.

I do a similar thing, but look forwards.  All of the desires that I feel now are in some way a longing for the new creation.  So when I'm tempted to sin (which is usually about half a second before I'm in the thick of sin) I think about what it is that I really want.  What part of the new creation am I particularly hanging out for at that moment? 

Patience, then, is the virtue I need to cultivate.  I will get what I want, and get it in a much more magnificent form than I can imagine.  But not yet.  I need to wait. 

Just a few short years.

carrot pancakes

The great thing about the internet is that it gives me a forum in which to feign competence in areas in which I really have very little competence.  My friends generally do not ask me for cooking advice.

So make what you will of this post.

Here's a recipe I made up tonight.  (The cupboards are bare and I need to fill lunch boxes.)  The kids' verdict was 'pretty good' but my cooking is all they've ever known.  I think they'd be better with more sugar (but that would defeat the healthy thing I'm trying to go for.)

Carrot Pancakes

Ingredients:
3 carrots, cooked and 'pulverized' (as Micah says!)
2 cups SR flour
salt
one dessert spoon sugar
2 eggs
2 cups milk

Method:
Combine ingredients.
Beat with electric beaters.
Heat frying pan and spray with oil stuff.
Pour spoonfuls of mixture into pan and cook.  Flip, cook again. Remove from pan.

planning holidays

Is there any affordable way for a family to go skiing for a week?

the search for blogger approval

Gordon links to me from time to time.  To get a Gordon link is to be personally validated.  A big star sticker on my forehead.  I live for the Gordon link.  But he's picky.  Many of the posts that I deem to be link-worthy don't attract the attention they deserve.  Then a couple of weeks ago I thought I had hit the jackpot because of my insightful profundity, but now I realise it's just that Gordon has a slow cooker obsession happening. Oh well.

baptised before birth

Andrew is reading through the baptism record books for our church.  It's the kind of thing we do on a Friday night.  He just found one Hamish James who was baptised before he was born.  9 months before he was born, in fact.  Don't think too hard about the technicalities.

nostalgia

As I walk to the kitchen to wash up 9 plastic dishes and 9 plastic lids, I look back to the good ol' days when cling-wrap was socially acceptable.

Awake!

A brand new day to praise!

I got a tune for this last night.  I love 3/4 of it (which is pretty good for a first go.)

It has a happy, bright tune.  I can imagine it working first song up in the Sunday service.  Can't imagine it in the evening.

comparison = envy

This is right, isn't it?

I wonder if envy our biggest challenge as christian women (and men too).  We are always looking at one another's children, homes, skill-set or whatever and feeling either proud because we're winning (though we'd not call it that - we'd rather say we're content with our lot!) or envious because we're losing (though we wouldn't call it that either - we'd say we're discouraged or depressed or even 'discontent' would sound better!)  Content is the opposite of envy, but contentment is worth nothing when we're winning.  Just like my kids' doing what they are told doesn't really count as the virtue of obedience if I'm telling them to do something they want to do - like go and play on the computer.

Contentment kicks in when I look at my more accomplished, prettier, richer and happier sister and am genuinely happy for her and satisfied with my own lot.

My ideal week

Sunday - church
Monday - work
Tuesday - RE / Bible Study
Wednesday - Coffee shop day
Thursday - work
Friday - Andrew day
Saturday - kid day

Everything falls apart if I have to work for 3 days.  Then I don't want a day with Andrew on Friday and things are out of hand by Saturday.  I worked Monday and Wednesday and I'm off to work today.  Grrr.

okay theologs. I need your help.

Issues with Never Alone. 

Can I say that God departed from earth with the crucifixion?  Of course I know that God did not absolutely depart.  But God the Son did.  If he didn't, then in what sense did Immanuel happen?  If God didn't depart in some way, then we make a mockery of the incarnation.

What do you think?

I'm trying to rewrite the end of the second verse to show people that I'm not a heretic, but maybe I am...

Help me.

the busy christian's guide to busyness

I'm reading this. Hoping it will change my life... a little bit.  I like (almost) all the things I'm busy with, and don't really want to give anything up!  I try to fit in one thinking/reading day a week, one day with Andrew and one day with the kids... but sometimes things get a little out of control! 

His 4 steps are:
1. Use your time efficiently - he has a whole dreadful chapter about things like intrays! Awful stuff.  A quick skim through was enough to know that I didn't really want to read it!  (I wonder what he would think of my practice of going grocery shopping almost every day?)
2. Sort out your priorities.  I enjoyed this chapter.
3. Glorify God all the time. (I'm up to this chapter)
4. Identify the desires of your heart that make you try to do more than God expects of you.

Family preciousness gets on my nerves. (I'm guilty of it at times.)  So I like this quote:  "I shocked someone recently by asking them to name one occasion on which Jesus speaks positively about families.  Every time Jesus talks about families he sees them as competing for our loyalty to him and his community." p59.

bad songs

As I've mentioned, I'm starting a year 4-5 choir at our kids' school next term.  I'm quite excited about possible repertoire.  There is so much fantastic Australian stuff available.  These guys publish great choral music.  I'm a big fan of Paul Jarman's beautiful work and I also had them send me samples of Ian Munro's settings of Andy Griffiths' verses.  (For the uninitiated, Andy Griffiths penned books like 'The Day My Bum Went Psycho" and "Just Disgusting" and is renown for his ... childish... humour.) To make the choir appeal to 10 year old boys, I thought it would be good to start with some funny and slightly on-the-edge songs.  The Munro/Griffiths samples I looked at were good, but harmonically and rhythmically too ambitious.  So I thought I'd try my own.

Take this delightful little rhyme from Andy Griffiths' Bad Book:

Penny McRose picked her nose
Morning, noon and night.
She picked it until her head caved in
And her family died of fright.

Being such a rhyme, I thought I'd wed it to a classic tune.  Like this one:




Can you see how right it is?

tuesdays are manic.

It would be heaps easier to go to work.

8.45am -shopping
9.30am - bs prep
10am - bible study
12 noon - help with swimming at school
12.30pm - RE prep
1.15 - RE
2.00 - hang around school because there is no point going home
2.45 - pick up, buy N soccer boots
3.30 - afternoon tea, unpack bags etc.
4.00 - homework (this is no small deal)
6.00 - soccer training

Doesn't seem like that much, but everything is pretty intense.  BS and RE and homework are so draining.  Ask me to teach English or Maths to other people's kids and I'll do it without exhaustion.

Crispy No-Fat Banana Bread

It has cooled down now and is crisp.  Andrew likes it.  I find it too sweet.  I don't think we'll have any trouble eating it, though.  I might even take some to bible study tomorrow.  Worth another try with less sugar.

fat free banana cake

Right now I am trying to make a fat free banana cake.  Or banana crisp bread.  Or... something.

Here's what I've done so far.

I beat up 6 egg whites (220g) with 220g of caster sugar and a bit of vanilla essence.  Then I folded in about 220g of SR flour and a mashed banana.  I poured it into a papered square tin and baked it for about 30 minutes in a moderate oven.  I've just removed it from the tin and chucked it into the fridge to cool down.

At this stage it looks like a cake.   The bit that I pulled off the side was pretty chewy.  I'm thinking that I might cool it down fast then cut it open and see what it's like.  I've left the oven on in case I want to slice it up thin and cook it biscotti style.

This sort of experiment can, of course, go horribly wrong.  If it does, I'll comfort myself that the banana had to be used and the cost of the other ingredients was less than $2.

But perhaps it will be a triumph!

Anyone want to take a bet?

a concerning quote

But how many of us think like this!

Today my class of year 7s had to pick a quote, research its author and context and present it to the class.

One boy chose this Micheal Jackson quote : "It don't matter if you're black or white"

He presented the quote to the class, told us about Michael Jackson and did a moon walk, and then the teacher-librarian asked how this quote personally mattered to him.

He replied, so honestly, "I don't care 'cause I'm a white guy!"

a beautiful quote

Today you are You, 
that is truer than true. 

There is no one alive 
who is Youer than You.

Dr. Seuss

Bones and the drawn out love story

Bones is the only TV show I'm really watching at the moment.  I'm under no illusions.  It's entertaining, but pretty average stuff.  The story lines are unconvincing, the characters plastic and the script ordinary.

But it does have the one requirement for an addictive TV series: the drawn out love story.  If you were to ask what Bones is about, one might suggest forensic science or crime or workers at the Jeffersonian Institute.  But these answers would be wrong.  The show is about the relationship between Booth and Brennan.

Without the drive of this romance, the show would be unwatchably boring.  So I switch on each week in order to see their relationship move that one millimeter further.  After 5 series I'm thinking that it's time there was some resolution.  But maybe there won't be.  Bones' character sits somewhere on the autism spectrum... Maybe they'll do what the writers of Doc Martin did - keep us waiting for series after series, give us 2 episodes of delicious immorality, then have it all fall into a realistic but depressing heap.

Anyone else watching?

top 5 things I love about blogging

1.  The community of blogdom.
Blogging is not just about writing, it's about being part of a community.  There are a number of blogs that I read every day.  I go hang with these guys in their rumpus rooms. Some of them drink coffee.  I chat with them as I sip my pepsi max or sprite zero.  Sometimes I just go and listen.  They make me laugh.  They make me think.  I see the world through their eyes and am changed by them.  Sometimes they come over to my place.  This really cool.  (Until they dis my slow cooker!)
 
2.  Blogging helps me think.
I don't know how much I know or don't know a topic till I've tried to express it.  Talking to myself is dull.  Blogging gives me an opportunity to put my ideas into words and have them read, critiqued, and sharpened by others.  I didn't know the exact purpose of the slow cooker till our discussion on Thursday.

3.  Blogging helps me write.
Most of us learn by doing.  If I was teaching high school English, I'd make my kids blog each day. Blogging is a great training ground in written expression.  It gives us a reason to write and a platform to publish what we've written.  If you do it enough you'll find your voice.

4.  Blogging, as a medium, works for me.
It's immediate.  It's interactive.  It's technically easy.  What's not to like?


5.  Through blogging, I occasionally say something worth saying.
I think the world is a richer place now that we've had this discussion.

How about you? What do you like about blogging?

Job and suffering

We had a great weekend away with church friends.  Excellent teaching from the book of Job.  My heart is warmed and challenged.  I have a new motivation to godliness: Trials and temptations are an opportunity for God to show Satan that our relationship is real and that I don't just serve him for what I get out of it.  Now to live it!

tomorrow

- ministry wives thing (I've got to say some stuff on blogging)
- church camp

All good.

Dorothy Sayers - Are Women Human?

This is an excellent post.  I must read the book.

I particularly like Sayer's quote about Mary and Martha.

I think I have never heard a sermon preached on the story of Martha and Mary that did not attempt, somehow, somewhere, to explain away its text. Mary's, of course, was the better part--the Lord said so, and we must not precisely contradict Him. But we will be careful not to despise Martha. No doubt, He approved of her, too. We could not get on without her, and indeed (having paid lip-service to God's opinion) we must admit that we greatly prefer her. For Martha was doing a really feminine job, whereas Mary was just behaving like any other disciple, male or female; and that is a hard pill to swallow.

slow cookers are great...

...because I can feel self-righteous all day about the fact that I have dinner organized.  Normal frypan meals only give me a couple of minutes of satisfaction between the time when I've done the hard work and the time when the dinner is on the table.  And I don't get to enjoy those 2 minutes because I'm so busy yelling at the kids to get to the table.

Slow cookers all the way.

what I like about being a parent

Child #1 sits next to me and asks a hundred questions about all sorts of stuff just because he likes to.

Child #2 takes my pillow to bed with him each night because he thinks it's the most comfortable one in the house (which it is!) but also because it's mine.  I steal it back when I go to bed.

Child #3 has long skinny legs and a front tooth missing.  He still occasionally comes into our bed at night ("It is WAY too dark out there!") but wriggles so much that we evict him pretty quickly.

Sometimes I'd like to just hold on to now.

Clem 7 Family Fun!

We took a trip through the 4.5km long Clem 7 tunnel tonight!

Good times!

I felt like I was on a plane.  The air has that pumped-in flavour.  I can still taste it in my mouth.

Very confusing at the other end.  Took us a few wrong turns to work out where we were.

Manasseh

Manasseh, Hezekiah's son

Broke all God's rules, every one.

His father pulled the idols down

he smashed them all upon the ground

But Manasseh, evil man,

stood them all back up again.

This dreadful king, he truly would,

worship anything that stood

still for long enough, and then

he'd find more things and worship them!

He carved out Asherah poles and Baals

He bowed before the moon and stars

He worshipped all the heavenly host

He talked to witches, looked for ghosts

Jerusalem was filled with blood

From end to end there was a flood

From south to north, from west to east,

Manasseh moved and, what a beast,

he slashed his sword like one insane

and left behind a thousand slain

and then he went back to his home

and turned on those who were his own.

Manasseh took his own poor son

and made him through the fire run

He did all this to please the Baals,

the Asherahs, the moon, the stars

And then Manasseh, what a nerve!

Took all the gods he liked to serve

and stood them in the temple: No!

This evil king would have to go!

Manasseh was so truly bad

That God, though patient, said he had

had enough. He set a date

when like a grubby, dirty plate

Judah, he would scrape and wipe

Away with them! A single swipe

and they'd be gone. God's word was true

and that is what he said he'd do.

Manasseh, Hezekiah's son

broke all God's rules, every one.

And all the people followed him

So Judah writhed and sank in sin.

sar 2010

nothing brings a tear to the eye faster than...

...self pity.

This afternoon I need to get over it and get on with the job.

Wasn't I told beforehand that life would be like this?

TWIST BRISBANE!

This will be fantastic.  Tell the music people at your church!  Let me know if you want brochures.

Chopin animated interval graphic

This is fascinating.

h/t: addison road