is it just me...

... or is christmas spiritually insignificant for others too?

I don't feel bad about this. Christians aren't compelled to keep this particular festival. I make the most of it evangelistically, but I spend plenty of time during the year thinking about the incarnation so Christmas isn't so special in that way.

What do others think? I like the opportunity to give gifts. I like the parties and family times. I like that Jesus is on the agenda. But I'm not feeling a whole lot, spiritually.

How about you?

happy christmas!

Hope you have a lovely day and don't waste too much of it reading blogs.

I'm off to my parents' on the gold coast for a couple of days, then back into things for a few days, then off to Fiji and NZ. Life's tough.

Thanks for dropping by,
love in blogdom.

simone
xo

what does santa add?

In the comments for my Santa post below ('Is Santa a LIE?') Dan asked quite a useful question -

"What does Santa add? How does he help us to remember and celebrate (to reference an Australian songwriter) 'our God come near'?"

Any ideas?

nathan goes to townsville

I've just rediscovered Nathan's blog. He offers his readers much valuable advice and uses a bright and airy template that you just want to look at. Why not add it to your reader?

dear...

I bought you last year in the Christmas sales
your bright red sticker read 'reduced to clear'
I picked you up and checked, not old or stale,
a bargain- yes! Or so it did appear

at first but treasures real never do come cheap
and you've since cost me months of thinking clear,
weeks and weeks of solid restful sleep.
Bipolar flits from fear to joy to fear

are what I bear and still I don't despise
my purchase - No! I send you Christmas cheer.
A costly gift may soon be put aside
and that bought cheap can end up truly dear.

sar 2008

sin and weakness

"Another point: we are often told in the New Testament to 'be strong' (1 Cor 16:13; Eph 6:10, 2 Tim 2:1; 1 john 2:14). Isn't people's weakness (stupidity, lack of independence, forgetfulness, cowardice, vanity, corruptibility, temptability, etc.) a greater danger than evil? Christ not only makes people 'good'; he makes them strong, too. The sins of weakness are the real human sins, whereas the wilful sins are diabolical (and no doubt 'strong', too!). I must think about this again."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, p148.

something I hate...

...awkwardness.

Through the kindness of a well meaning friend, I may be about to enter an awkward relationship. One in which I will have nothing to say (nothing, that is, that can be said) and they, likewise. Through God's grace, something good may come of it, but most likely nothing more than mutual awkwardness.

I hate awkwardness. I hate the stilted conversation that comes when you feel you have to censor everything you say. I hate appearing as if I have nothing to say. Bring on the new creation when there will be no more of this!

hook me up

In contrast to what I've said elsewhere, I think that the current body pump triceps track (#68) is about the best ever. Who needs a bar?

chutney

I made tomato chutney yesterday. My whole family is mad keen on that kind of thing. Fear that it won't live up to my Grandmother's. Anyone know a good recipe that I can try next time?

Is Santa a 'lie'?

I don't think so. I think he's a game that grown ups play at christmas time with little kids. Santa's an imaginary seasonal character. A fairy tale. A mystery.

I don't see any problems with parents telling their little kids stories about Santa. I don't see any issues with adults pretending that Santa is real. I think its good for parents to be a bit evasive when asked if Santa really exists. Here's a few responses we've given to the question 'Is Santa real':

• what do you think?
• you've seen him in shops haven't you?
• He looked pretty real to me when I saw him in myer last week!
• and again... Hmmm. What do you think?

Kids are pretty good at sorting out fact from fiction. If parents are reasonable and don't get passionate and dogmatically positive about Santa's existence, most kids will have worked it out by the time they hit school. And have had fun with the fairy tale while they were little.

Let's not sweat it. Let's not bring out our capital letters and call it a LIE. In christian families where the bible is regularly read, there is no chance of long term Jesus and Santa confusion.

it's all fun and games until...

My 7 year old is in the backyard burning holes in a piece of paper with a magnifying glass. I am upstairs and can smell the smoke from here. He is playing so happily that I don't like to stop him... but I may regret it if he burns the house down. What should I do?

a question

How much gym is too much?

Do I have a problem if one hour a day no longer feels like enough?

Spy Life Kids Club

I have a complete program for a 3 day kids club. Thinking of selling it online. How much do people pay for this kind of stuff?

Package would come complete with:

• three talks from John's Gospel aimed at 4-10 year olds
• 3 sets of bible activity books (pre-readers, early readers, readers)
• spy life song
• 'Get Silly' Spy Drama
• 'Spycraft' booklets for 3 age groups (think craft, but with a spy slant- fingerprinting, codes, invisible inks etc)
• name tag masters
• advertising masters
• hall decoration ideas
• job sheets

all nicely presented and pdf-ed for your convenience.

Interested?

alternate carol arrangements

If anyone has interesting ways of arranging christmas carols, do share.

Last night at our carols service I was nearly falling off my piano stool in boredom. It was only the odd carol which we managed to do something new with that kept me awake.

Post your ideas here so I can try them out next year - or next week at church, or on christmas day.

(Don't get me wrong, I love singing christmas carols. But playing a dozen back to back can get a wee bit tedious.)

In the mean time... Here's what we did with Silent Night.

Silent night is in 6/8 time. How nice. Singers sang it that way. We played accompaniment in 12/16 time. Kind of like this:























Added some seconds to most chords as well. Sweet.

'god rest ye merry gentlemen'

is the only christmas carol I'm not thoroughly sick of. All the others are dull dull dull.

For the 2 of you out there who may care, we play God rest ye merry...

Dm Dm A
1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2

Overall:
Dm Dm A Dm Dm A
Dm Dm A Dm Dm A
Gm F Dm C
F Bb C Dm C
F Bb C
Dm Dm A etc.

spy life song

Just finished writing this for our Spy Life kids club that starts on Monday. Nothing like getting things done in advance! The verses match each day's teaching: 1. the bread of life, 2. the resurrection and the life, 3. the shepherd who gives his life.

The writing is a bit sloppy - syllables don't quite line up between verses - but right now I don't care. Tune is boppy and, of course, there are actions.

Spy Life Theme Song

I spy a hungry crowd
wanting to be fed
Jesus, he can help
gives them fish and bread

Spy Life! Spy Life!
When I spy Jesus
I spy life.
Spy Life! Spy Life!
When I spy Jesus
I spy life.

I spy two women sad
by their brother's grave
Jesus cries, 'Come out!'
and gives him life again

I spy a sheep in strife
who's wandered far away
Jesus, the good shepherd
will give his life to save

sar 2008

busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy

busy busy busy busy busy busy....

Kids club starts on Monday. Too many kids. Too much to do before then.

Carols at church tomorrow night. Need to finish the arrangements tonight.

Also need to iron transfers onto 14 shirts, write 2 kids talks, make 77 name tags, write 2 more verses for our kids club theme song and more and more and more. All tonight.

AAAHHH!

Maybe I'll blog instead.

On rejecting Mr Rochester

Ali's written some personal reflections here, here and here. Good stuff, and not just for the unmarried.

Arch Hart talks

For the last few days I've been listening to these talks and reading this book by Arch Hart. There is much to challenge me in my management of myself (although I don't have depressive tendencies) and in my parenting. AH predicts that within 10 years, all teenagers will be on antidepressants because of over-stimulation of the pleasure-center of the brain (by multi-tasking on electronic media) which leads to anhedonia (inability to experience pleasure). He also has much to say about church services and anhedonia - which I may write about another time.

Do listen to these talks if you're not aware of this stuff.

I'm on the computer less as a result!

christmas carol website

After wasting half an hour last night fixing up the errors in 2 Rejoice Christmas Carols (it's G major that has one sharp, not D and Dm chord is not a good alternative to E major. And yes, it matters) I decided to ask Mr. Google for help.

I found this site. Complete with all your carol needs: SATB, melody and chords, lyrics, transpositions... I played 12 through in practice this morning and only found one mistake.

christmas shopping...

... almost done!

Can I say that going into Target on a busy day is a mistake? I'm sure the checkout girl was playing a slow motion game.

Wasn't worth the $3 I saved on one item.

Oh no.

I'm working again tomorrow. I'm not good at saying no.

songs on abortion

We've just finished our Amos series at church and have a topical sermon this week on abortion. Question is, what songs go with a talk on abortion? I have some ideas but I'd be interested to see the direction others take it.

Any ideas?

the end of an era

For the last 6 years my friend and I have run our 'Open the Box' playgroup. We've had lots of fun, gotten to know many, many families, taught kids about the world and God, and written lots of children's songs (buy them here and here!)

Today is my last day at playgroup. My youngest goes off to school next year and I am moving up with him. I am sad.

I thought about keeping on with it, but I just can't. I've been feeling like a rather pathetic member of the human race this year. Far too busy and letting people down with my inability to return emails, keep commitments etc.

Next year I'll be teaching one more RE class, belonging to one less bible study group, hopefully writing more and trying not to get either too slack or too dependant on the gym (how many classes a week is too many?)

Off to work again

Hopefully, my last day this year. But who can say?

Australia

It's our 13th wedding anniversary tomorrow, so Andrew and I went out to the movies tonight*. We saw Australia. I don't see many movies, but the slight patriotic streak in me wanted to see this one. Truth is, I love Australian scenery and I love the idea of the whole world seeing it.

Australia is an epic. It's like watching 3 movies back to back. The sound track is a little hard to handle (with its not-so-subtle waltzing matilda motif) and the bad guys really do wear black hats, but... I enjoyed it. Visually it's nice and the story could have been a lot worse.

Anyone else seen it yet?

* It was either go out tonight or have a romantic trip to presbytery together tomorrow night.

I have to go to work!

I'm over this.

Same class as Friday, so I can't do the same stuff again.

happy happy day

• house is clean and tidy
• christmas tree is up (only half of it. We don't have much room so I only put branches on one side so it sits straight against the wall.)
• church was great
• drove down the coast and swam and played singstar with a friend
• all kids in bed
• my dinner is ready for me to eat
• hopefully no work tomorrow (really, what teacher is going to have a day off at this time of the year?)
  

how to make a smoke bomb

I think the smoke might be a little toxic, but it looks like fun.

feeling happy

Well, thankful actually, which is better. Tonight we had a gingerbread house evening at church with an excellent talk on the prodigal son. Lots of visitors came (40% of the room?) and many of them ticked the best box on the feedback card - including my two friends.

no idol tomorrow night

What should I do?

spy life is coming!

I love the bellgothic fonts

body pump 68

I've done the new release a couple of times now. Warm up and squats are pretty standard, the chest track is good - doesn't feel as long as some others. I expected the back track to be harder with clean and presses not broken up with rows, but it's actually pretty easy - as far as back tracks go. The 4 clean and presses are all over in 12 seconds (I watch the clock!) and there are only 3 or maybe 4 sets of them. The triceps is different to normal, with no bar work. I'm not sure what I think of it. It's hard to make it hurt because at our gym the heaviest weights you can hold in one hand are 2.5kg. Song is cool. Biceps are pretty standard, though there are no full singles - all the fast ones are bottom halves. Lunges is fun. Right leg with bar, right leg without bar, left leg with bar, left leg without bar, then front squats - where you balance the bar on the front of your shoulders (tricky to do if you're using a decent amount of weight) and squat. The position of the bar makes it pretty intense (but fun!) I can't do the cross hand grip thing, but I don't think it matters. I just hold the bar like I'm going to do a shoulder press. Shoulders, abs, and warm down pretty standard.

Banana Bat #3 - Return of the Banana-i

by Joel R. Age 7.

[this is part 3 of a continuing saga]














Once upon a time people had taken over the banana system. But one day a banana became a banana-i (a banana jedi) and fought the people.



















The banana-i drew his freezing light-saber and whacked the human's burning light-sabers.

Fj fj fj fj fj fj fj went the light sabers.





































Then the banana-i whacked the human's waist. His body fell off his legs. The banana had won, but not completely. There were ten or so more people to deal with.


















F-ching, b-ju, f-ching, b-ju, f-ching, b-ju! Out went the other people with a f-ching!

The banana had won. He went to the banana system and partied.




















Watch out for Banana Bats 4 - The people strike back! The people have invented storm troopers, a type of robot built especially for war, dooming the banana-is....

happiness and gratitude

I was chatting with friends today about happiness. Our discussion reminded me of this, which is worth a read.

If you run out of flour...

I was making some biscuits this afternoon. Couldn't be bothered cutting my 500g block of butter into 2 or 4, so melted the lot and figured I'd just bake up big.

After I had added brown sugar, a bit of peanut butter and some eggs, I realised that I only had about one and a half cups of flour. Around a quarter of what I needed. Hmm. What to do... Cornflakes and rolled oats?

It worked.

(Kind of.)

Australian Idol - Wes wins

Would you believe I fell asleep in the ad break before they announced the winner? Woke up at the start of NCIS. Had to look at the website to see who won.

I've enjoyed this series. May even buy a cd.

Now I'll have to find something else to blog on.

Just for the record...

... I'd like to say that committees are a bad way of getting things done. Issues take on a life of their own, divorced from the people whose lives they affect. Politics take over and bad decisions are made.

But what's the alternative?

jesus cleanses the temple

Our little one is not so little any more. He'll be 5 next month. He draws funny pictures. This is Jesus in the temple going 'whip whip!'. Jesus is on the left and the 'baddy' is on the right.