something's got to give

I've been off the computer this week. Haven't even been checking emails... well not thoroughly anyway. I suppose people out there are still blogging, but I haven't been reading.

Day to day life is really full at the moment. I've barely had a minute to myself.

Just reflecting... This year I started back at work, doing 1-2 days per week. And I didn't loose any of my other commitments. So I'm just doing everything badly. People have been calling my friends to see if I'm okay since I haven't been returning their calls. At 9.28 this morning I was still working out our playgroup program (people arrive at 9.30). I had hoped to write a new song for this unit, but never got to it. I also want to write an adult song. (It's been a while.) I have a germ of an idea but need about four clear, consecutive, daytime hours to see if it has legs.

Oh well. Maybe this is just life.

But I'm getting pretty good at managing 23 five year olds.

a prayer

hold me, father
for I cannot hold you

my weak hands
and weaker will
let go

I slip!

hold me father
or I fall

from christ

sar 2008

Off to Bundaberg

We're off to Bundaberg tomorrow afternoon for a wedding on Saturday. A mere 380km drive. With 3 kids. One of whom is sick.

The drive back home after the wedding on Saturday night should be even better.

Looking forward to the wedding, though.

Mr. Independent

My third son. Age 4.5.

M: Look Mummy. I've nearly finished my [lego] man!

Me: So you have!

M: Just need one more piece.

Me: Is it something to go on his head?

M: Some hair.

Me: [brief pause...]

M: You can go now.

convicted

Over the last couple of days I've spent quite a few hours working on a poem. It was about inner tangles and had some nice lines. I was fairly much into it (read: completely involved in it). But after a convicting talk from our bible study leader this morning about striving for godliness, I've been challenged to put it aside. No. Not put it aside. Throw it away and stop thinking about it.

Can I? Should I?

Last week I posted this poem on weddings. It was fun to write and may amuse someone out there. But I probably shouldn't have written it. It's too cynical.

It's so much harder to write things that are fresh and amusing AND edifying. I don't feel like I'm good enough to do it well.

On dreams and godliness

I'm thinking about dreams. And the relationship between what I think about during the day and what I dream about at night.

Joseph had dreams. Today I told my RE kids the story of Joseph's dreams about his own greatness - you know the dreams - how his brothers sheaves', and the sun, the moon and the stars all bowed down to him... I know that these dreams were God-given and prophetic, but do you think there could also have been a natural element about them? Was it that Joseph was spending a good chunk of each day stroking his own ego, thinking about how he was daddy's favourite and gloating over his brothers?

Is it that our brains are at work while we're asleep filing our thoughts? And are dreams a glimpse into those files? Maybe Joseph needed to repent of his dreams. (And maybe I need to repent of mine.)

Any thoughts?

The troubles of a nearly 7 year old

It's that time of year. The school ball is looming...

Joel: Mummy, dancing with girls is really annoying.

Me: Why, sweetie?

Joel: When you're dancing with them you feel like you love them, and you don't!

On The Contracting Out Of Parenting #1: Swing School

Sick of endless hours pushing your kids on the swing? Exhausted from the constant cries of 'higher, higher'? Tired of people telling you that swing pushing is a stage you have to go through?

Studies have shown that excessive pushing of swings is not only tedious but can also be harmful. Many parents have suffered the discomfort of sore arms and have felt worn out both physically and emotionally after a swing encounter in the playground.

There is an alternative. Swing School teaches children the skills and attitudes they need to become self swingers. Our unique system is suitable for children from six months of age and also incorporates training in swing safety. We specialize in all levels of training: from attitude adjustment for the stubborn child to style enhancement for independent and capable swingers. Swing School also offers advice for parents in managing issues of co-dependency and learned helplessness in the playground. Call us today and talk to one of our friendly consultants about your child's needs.

swing style
swing sense
swing success

swing school

love brought you here

Okay, I'm a hopeless fan. Every time these guys breathe online I link to it. But this is a really good song.

It's a love song, a parent-child love song. Sweet.

Art with 8 year olds

Tomorrow I'm teaching year 3 at a school that I enjoy going to.

I've been asked to do art with them from 9am-1pm. Whatever art I like.

What should I do? I have no particular skills...

Wall*E and Christian Art

This absurdly long Wall*E review is... well... absurdly long. But have a read. It outlines the perfections of all the Pixar movies and explains why Wall*E doesn't quite cut it. Interestingly...

"Pixar has been undone by a great old truth: If you’re more concerned with getting your message across than you are concerned about telling a great story, you’re screwed. I mentioned that I grew up an Evangelical Christian. I also grew up a movie nerd. These two realities were interesting bedfellows.

Every once in awhile, some group of Christians would pool some money and make a movie.

Christian movies suck. Know why? If you’re more concerned with getting your message across than you are concerned about telling a great story, you’re screwed. Ironically, this is why I believe Jesus was successful as a preacher. He told stories with hidden meanings, allowing his listeners to make the connections themselves.

Good point. And not just about movies. Songs (even congregational songs), poems, novels...

Agree?

Celebrity Wedding

Celebrity Wedding

The start of love will never be a chore
So I will raise my glass, enthusiastic,
Delight in plastic joy and see no flaw
Laugh and smile and stifle thoughts sarcastic.

I give them six months. Maybe only four
And they will wish they'd taken steps less drastic,
By then he'll start to think his wife a bore
And she will find his vows somewhat elastic.

This time next year her feet will grace the door
Begin the search for someone more fantastic,
The start of love will never be a chore
Again I'll raise my glass, enthusiastic.

SAR 2008

how wonderful!

Our friend Helen has just had a baby. Hamish. Can't wait to meet him.

when to name your baby?

Andrew and I have been having a bit of a laugh about this.

We'd like to point out that in the biblical cases where the parents knew beforehand the sex of their baby (or babies), they were not formally given names until after the birth(s). It seems that Isaac and Rebekah had not even considered names before she went into labour... And Jesus was not named until he was 8 days old.

Stupid reasoning? Of course it is!

Name your baby whenever you like.

Come Again

If I lived 400 years ago, I would have broken my heart over this song. I still do. Almost.

Come again,
sweet love doth now invite,
thy graces that refrain
to do me due delight.
To see, to hear,
to touch, to kiss,
to die with thee again
in sweetest sympathy

Come again,
that I may cease to mourn
through thy unkind disdain
for now left and forlorn.
I sit, I sigh,
I weep, I faint,
I die, in deadly pain
and endless misery

Gentle love,
draw forth thy wounding dart:
Thou canst not pierce her heart;
For I that do approve.
By sighs and tears
more hot than are
thy shafts, did tempt while she
for scanty tryumphs laughs

John Dowland

will power

For the last few couple of weeks I've been trying to moderate my intake of all things romantic (why? see these posts). It's meant saying 'no' to many of my favourite books and switching off the TV. I wanted to post one of my favourite poems here, Sophie Hannah's 'The Bridging Line'*. It's beautiful and heart wrenching and... dangerous. Poison in my favourite flavour.

So I won't post it. I won't even open the book...

* don't bother googling it. You won't find it!

anxiety

I don't generally think of myself as an anxious type... but after a largely sleepless night I'm reconsidering.

If a sick puppy (which Andrew was looking after) and concern for my father (he was trying to negotiate international airports) was enough to keep me awake, I think I can consider myself a worrier. Unhelpful, too, most of my attempts to distract my mind.

Why not just pray?

Do you have 9-12 year old kids?

If so, what do they like to listen to? What's hip?

I want specific cds, bands, songs etc.

ta.

our little puppy...

... continues to poo anywhere that looks comfortable.

She has two speeds. On and off.

The kids are infatuated. I can see that she's cute. I'm hoping to like her soon.

a kind qantas man

My mum broke her leg on the weekend. Annoying at anytime, but many times more annoying this time because she is in Geneva, Switzerland, by herself. I've spent a couple of hours this morning trying to arrange for my dad to fly over to be with her. I was helped by a very kind qantas man who worked out the best and cheapest way to get him there and back.

Wish I knew who he was so I could tell his boss how good an employee he is.

Our house

Kate wanted to see some pics of our house. I did some clever camera work cutting out the messy bits.

Aravis

Our new little dog is a Cavalier x Tibetan Spaniel. The kids named her 'Aravis' (after Aravis in the horse and his boy). We think she's pretty cute, especially when she's not covered in poo.

Things I have learnt today

• When going to pick up a brand new puppy, 3 children are not a good substitute for an extra adult,
• 11 week old puppies get very stressed on the car trip home from the pet shop,
• It's better to have something to put the pup in than just get the kids to hold her,
• When puppies get really really stressed, they poo everywhere,
• When puppies poo everywhere they also get poo all over themselves and the child holding them,
• Husbands aren't always impressed when you arrive at their workplace on the way home from the pet shop with a pooey pup and pooey, excited kids (I couldn't put up with the dreadful smell in the car any longer). But they are often helpful anyway.

Photos of our now clean pup coming soon.

D-Day

It's today.

dogs again

I've been reading about how to look after a puppy. Not sure I'm up to it.

I thought I was done with toilet training!

It seems that puppies shouldn't be left by themselves or taken out until they are 12 weeks old. How is this compatable with any normal lifestyle?

Give me a human baby instead. I know what to do with those.

A cavoodle is looking most likely at the moment.

The pornographer's dream: or, the problem with contemporary worship

This is worth a read.

spy life again

I have been a busy beaver today. Kids club is well on the way. I've finished the flyer and prepared bible activity booklets - 3 different types - pre-readers, early readers, and readers. All ready to go off to the printer! I was so wanting to tick things off my list that I've also designed t-shirt transfers and name tags.

Don't you love the self righteous buzz that you get from actually accomplishing something? And ahead of schedule! Five months ahead of schedule!

dogs

Let me say right up that I'm not an animal person. When I see a puppy I feel no desire coo over it, touch it, or even to look at it again. If birds became extinct tomorrow I wouldn't care. And cats? Itchy eyes and sneezes. But for the last few weeks I have been spending a ridiculous amount of time surfing the net for the perfect puppy.

For many years we've put it off. But we're putting it off no longer. It's time for dog ownership.

Here's what I'm looking for:

• a young dog (<3)
• attractive to look at
• not smelly
• not needing a daily walk
• not needing excessive grooming
• that can live outside
• small but not too small
• with some character
• interested in people, but happy to be ignored
• good with the kids
• not too expensive.
  

Does such a dog exist? A friend suggested we look in toyworld for one that comes with batteries.

We had an Airedale Terrier when I was a kid. I loved her. (She is the only animal I've ever loved, or even liked.) I can't imagine feeling fond of any dog unless it looked a little like she did. So I've been thinking about Lakeland terriers (similar to airedales - only smaller) but I think it's way beyond our budget.















This is a lakeland terrier.

thanks Jean!

We had a growth group leaders meeting at our place last night. We used Jean's fantastic blog posts on honesty to get us thinking about confession of sin and openness in our bible study groups. Thanks Jean! We also thought that Galatians 6:1-5 has interesting things to say on the topic.

spy life colours

I've been mucking around with the colour scheme for my kids club flyer. Any preferences? (Sorry about the dreadful resolution. Click on the image to see a slightly clearer version.)

Does know anything about uploading homemade graphics to blogger? (Ben?) At the moment I'm making my picture, converting it to a bitmap, saving the bitmap, then putting it into blogger. Is there any way to avoid the whole bitmap business?

spy life

changed it already.

Agent Life

My friend and I are writing a program for a kids club we're running in December. We've written a couple before and have always planned to package them up and sell/give them away to other churches but have never managed this well. By the time we've run the program, we're so sick of it that we don't want to think about it again.

We're planning on doing things differently this year. We want it all packaged up, formatted, pdf'ed etc before we run it, so that we don't have to feel guilty afterwards.

I started work on it today. It may change many times in the next couple of months. We're wanting a spy theme... Slap stick style, get smart, inspector gadgetty drama... Spy crafts - fingerprint removal, booby traps, secret codes, invisible ink, scavenger hunts....Bible stuff from John's gospel. I'm thinking of structuring the teaching around 3 of the 'I am' statements.

1. I am the bread of life
Story: Feeding 5000 (John 6)
Memory Verse: Jn 6:35 Jesus said, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." (or maybe just the first bit)
Main Point : Jesus makes food for his friends! (That will do for the 3-4 year olds) But he actually has something much better to give us.

2. I am the resurrection and the life
Story: Raising Lazarus (John 11)
Memory Verse: John 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies"

3. I am the good shepherd
Story: Shepherd illustration and Cross
Memory Verse: John 10:11 Jesus said "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."

The big point will be that Jesus gives us life. Unlike food - which only gives us life for a little while. Better than what he did for Lazarus - who would die again anyway. Jesus gives us eternal life. And he does it by laying down his life for us. (I need to get this logic tighter.)

Anyone taught this stuff to kids before?



















I've done a rough flyer idea. Not so happy with it. The browns are a bit dull, it's too boyish, and the title is lame. Anyone got a better idea? I'd like the 'life' theme in somewhere. Would 'spy life' be any better?

For female readers

Following on from my Mills and Boon experience (see here and here), I've written a post about women, desire and sexual sin. I'd rather not put it up on my page for general reading but would like to discuss the topic with any women who are interested.

If you are interested, let me know. Send me a facebook message. If you can't find me leave a comment on this post and I'll work something out (just reluctant to post my email address).

Robert Jewett: Reasons for Romans

I didn't have to work on Friday so I went to some lectures at the Queensland Theological College. Visiting Professor Robert Jewett presented a day seminar on 'Reasons for Romans'. It was very interesting.

Prof. RJ thinks that Romans is a situational letter drumming up support for Paul's mission to Spain. He argues that the epistle centers around the ideas of glory and shame, with social prejudice being the top thing on Paul's mind. The Spaniards were seen by Romans as barbarians, a shameful race of people. In ministering to them, Paul couldn't follow his usual evangelistic strategy of starting in the synagogue with the God fearers, because there weren't any God fearers in Spain. So Paul had to convince the Romans to help him out. There were many Spaniards living in Rome - if they could be converted and used as a stepping stone to the rest of Spain the country could be reached in that way. Problem was that the Xns in Rome had no time for barbarians. So Paul had to teach them about the welcome to all that's present in the gospel.

Anyone heard this stuff before? I hadn't. Theologically, Professor Jewett is a good few steps further to the left than me. I don't agree with many things he said - he really downplayed the importance of the jew-gentile thing. Social prejudice is the bigger issue. The problem with the law is not that it can't save, but that it creates distinctions between people and increases boasting and covetousness - I envy you because you have a better law status than me. And he had a completely different interpretation of Romans 7...

Anyway, was an interesting thing to go to. I'd like to think more about the glory/shame motif in Romans.

proverbs 31 woman's work?

The other day Challies posted about how 21st century women can emulate the Proverbs 31 woman by starting small, home based businesses. Here are a few examples of what women he knows are doing:

• making jewellery and selling it through an Etsy shop.
• creating handcrafted creations of all kinds and selling them online.
• creating Pressed flower cards and art on handmade paper.
• selling CD racks, cabinets and furniture through an eBay store.

Now I don't think that any of these things are bad to do. If it's your thing, go for it. But really. Is that what Proverbs 31 is talking about? It seems to me that the Proverbs 31 woman's work is not just a hobby turned into a business. She's buying and selling fields and using her profits to finance farming ventures. We're told she didn't neglect her family but hers is no more a home-based business than her husband's was.

Mrs. Proverbs 31 had to get up early and get her family organised so she could go out and do her thing. I don't think that running a home based craft businesses is any closer to Proverbs 31 territory than dentistry or teaching or shopkeeping. What do you think? Am I right or am I just trying to justify my own work outside our home (and my hate of craft)?

The only good thing about a school fete...

... is that you get to buy homemade pickles.

Tomato Relish.

Yum.

Thanks to whoever made it.

What Women Want

Based on my extensive reading of escapist female literate (many Jane Austen and a couple of Mills and Boon) I thought I'd compile a description of Mr Perfect.

Mr. Perfect is:

1. Competent. At work he goes from strength to strength. Mr. Perfect's competency at work often causes him to be wealthy, but his wealth is secondary. We women (apparently) lust after guys who are seriously good at what they do. Whatever that might be. M&B heroes are also extremely competent in other arenas of life.

2. Confident. In his dealings with people and particularly with women, Mr. Perfect is no pushover. He is clearly in control. He is the initiator, the first to express his feelings. He can tell her off if he needs to. He won't be manipulated by her. In M&B this finds expression in an often aggressive sexuality* - which she seems to like! Hmmm.

3. Consumed with passion. His feelings for her are out of his control. He loves her beyond reason. He can't sleep or work properly, so taken is he with her...

4. Fixable. Mr. Perfect has one flaw. He's shy, brash, proud, or unsociable. But this isn't a permanent thing. One kiss from Miss. Right will fix all!

Girls have I captured him? Guys do you live up to this list?

Clearly, a problem with this kind of hero is that he doesn't exist. Andrew (my husband) says it's hard for single women to understand just how incompetent and insecure men really are. Married women know the struggles of their own husbands - Andrew assures me that feelings of incompetence and insecurity are problems for men generally. So that's the first two down. With number three, long term no-one is going to be so madly, passionately in love that they can't function. Hopefully, anyway. With number four, most character flaws are with us long term. By God's grace they can be softened, but we women can't fix our men.

Girls, Mr. Competent, Confident, Passionate and Fixable does not exist! So why do we want him to? (More coming sometime. Throw me a comment in the meantime!)

* Agressive, yet gentle at the same time. Work that one out!

Boots in the Bedroom: M&B vs. Jane Austen

Let me say from the outset that paperback novels aren't my poison. Mr. Knightly or Mr. Darcy will do me much more long term harm than any Mr. Mills and Boon Hunk ever could, but still, it's far from edifying reading.

At this stage for me, there is a natural limiting factor for M&B. I read one this afternoon and afterwards felt as I would if I'd gobbled a whole packet of banana lollies. One more page and I'd be sick. But as with lollies, if I kept on, my palette would get used to it and soon I'd be able to handle and even want more. I have no natural limit with Jane Austen. I can read the same novel many times over and then another and then another and feel no worse. Meanwhile, my grip on reality may have slipped away...

But Mills and Boon and Jane Austen are not the same. Sorry Ben. They're just not.

Today I bought 3 Mills and Boon romances: Scandals and Secrets, A Man For Mum, and Boots In The Bedroom. My surpassing godliness caused me to avoid buying the books marked 'sexy romances' so this discussion will be limited to the softer M&B novels*. This afternoon I read Boots In The Bedroom because it was the shortest. Let me tell you about it.

Gina is a well off and very attractive 28yo computer programmer from Sydney. She unwillingly travels to a remote property in rural Queensland to install computer equipment and design software. While there, she stays with Ultra Hunk Parish Some-one-or-other. For the first seven chapters they don't get along, but at the same time are drawn to eachother in an inexplicable and uncontrollable physical passion... In chapters eight through to fifteen, they have sex. Over and over again. And again. And again. (It's exhausting.) He loves her but she's not willing to say she loves him, even though he takes her to the highest heaven over and over again, and again and again and ...you get the idea. She gets in a plane to fly home, realises that she loves him after all, gets out of the plane and then they... (you guessed it!). In the epilogue we find that she stays there forever, they have a baby and they go on having fantastic sex.

While they are only physically intimate for the second half of the book the writer goes to lengths to explain the force of their attraction from their first meeting. The first half of the book is largely descriptions of the physical effect they have on eachother. No details are left to the imagination. It's kind of sweet how we have a paragraph from his point of view - what she looks like, what he feels, what he'd like to do to her, followed immediately by a similar paragraph from her point of view.

I was going to give you a few choice quotes, but I won't. I think my blog is already at risk of being flagged by what I've written so far. If you'd like to read Boots, with your spouse's permission I'll send it to you and you can read it for yourself.

At this point I should give a brief summary of a Jane Austen novel. I won't because I can't be bothered. Everyone has read one anyway. Ben, basically the difference between JA and M&B is that well over half a M&B novel is spent describing sex. I don't think the figure's that high in Jane Austen. In M&B the girl and boy characters and threads of plot are just there to provide a framework in which sex can happen. Not so in JA. Is that enough?

Well, that's basically it. I'd like to do a couple more posts on M&B now that I've taken the trouble to read one. Perhaps on why women consume them, why they appeal to so many, and what that tells us about ourselves. Any other ideas?

* given what this novel was like, I shudder to think what would be inside a 'sexy' romance!

Vanishing Point

Ben's blog is just the best. If you don't read it, you should.

His recent posts on Sunday night Austen have been hilarious. Totally inaccurate, of course, but so funny! Ben claims that Jane Austen novels are just dressed up Mills and Boone. Over the next few days I hope to blog some M&B analysis to see if this is correct.

Stay tuned!

Pastor's Wives Sing Out!

This is not really my experience, but classic anyway!

[thanks kate!]