blogging record

70 posts this month. 71 now.

But how many of them worth reading? I think, maybe 12 posts. Probably less.

Here's the month in review: I remain affectionately yours and am still dreaming of jupiter, occasionally telling lies, breaking all the rules for lady teachers, thinking with others about intestinal worms, feeling sad and hating stuff. I've also been repenting in limerick form and obsessing over twilight and teaching a bit. Overall? The wind has been in my face (like the line, hate the poem). Hoping June will be better.

Thanks for reading and commenting.

For men's eyes only

With a title like this, how could I not click?

(And Andrew, this is not a hint. Please don't.)

h/t: craig (who, I'm sure, has already watched it.)

Night at the Museum 2

I took the kids to see this today.

I was cross when Micah woke me up half way through.

I generally don't like kids movies (unless they are disney musicals) but thought this was almost bearable. Possibly not as good as the first one.

The little cowboy guy (Zeb?) is still annoying.

The Pharoh's camp lisp was funny at the start.

The fat security guard (Brandon) was good.

The romance was a waste of time.

Have you seen it? What did you think?

xxx

I'm on the xxxchurch blacklist. Sorry guys (and girls) if this post has led you astray.

[Kind of scarey. '11 year old' and 'pre-teen' must be trigger words.]

Doctor Who...

.. is on telly tomorrow night. Planet of the dead. 7.30pm.

Yes. I'm a fan.

Careful how you hold your glass!

The way you hold your glass can reveal much more than you might realise, a psychologist has warned.

Dr Glenn Wilson, a consultant psychologist, observed the body language of 500 drinkers and divided them into eight personality types.

These were the flirt, the gossip, fun lover, wallflower, the ice-queen, the playboy, Jack-the-lad and browbeater. [From here.]

Hmm. How do you hold your glass? Guess how I hold mine...

Prayer (1)

PRAYER the Churches banquet, Angels age,
Gods breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth ;

Engine against th’ Almightie, sinner's towre,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six daies world-transposing in an houre,
A kinde of tune, which all things heare and fear ;

Softnesse, and peace, and joy, and love, and blisse,
Exalted Manna, gladnesse of the best,
Heaven in ordinarie, man well drest,
The milkie way, the bird of Paradise,

Church-bels beyond the stars heard, the souls bloud,
The land of spices, something understood.

George Herbert

[I just discovered this poem in this anthology. It came with an an essay suggesting that the 'houre' in v2l3 is the hour of Sunday morning worship. I think the writer has missed the point.]

Andrew asks...

...Would your ethics be different if you weren't a christian?

I say yes. Maybe not immediately, but give it a week or two.

What do you think?

(It's a good post. You should read it.)

just think you should know...

All the cool people are into union with Christ. And imputation is best understood in this context. I love Con's royal analogy (about 5 minutes before the end). Justification is an outworking of our union with Christ. When marry royalty we become royal. Royalty is shared with us. Similarly Christ's righteousness is shared with us.

no posts today...

I've been too busy playing grown-ups on a denominational committee. Glad it's over, but I drank two cans of pepsi max to get me through it so may not sleep for a while.

How was your day?

5749MBs

Our family has 7000MB data allowance each month before our internet connection slows down. I would have thought this was unusable. This month we've used up to 5749 MB - 82% and there's still a few days to go.

I blame club penguin. Andrew and I both have penguins now. My little fellow must be chewing through the MBs.

Nathan's new friend

Nathan has a new friend from West Africa. Michel Roberts has been orphaned and has a large sum of inheritance money waiting for him. He just needs a little help in accessing it. Nathan, kind and loving as we know he is, is corresponding with Michel and may help him if his views on baptism are legit.

Read about it here and here. Touching.

God Unlimited

God Unlimited, Emu's new kids cd, is almost ready to go. Here's what's on it:

1. I wanna know more about God (P. Sheely)
2. God unlimited (P. Percival/S. Richardson)
3. Three in one (P. Sheely)
4. Don't let it grow (P. Percival/S. Richardson)
5. You chose me (R. Smith)
6. Through this Night (P. Percival/S. Richardson)
7. Forget the rest (P. Sheely)
8. All for Jesus (P. Percival/S. Richardson)
9. It's not what I do (P. Sheely)
10. Mighty Saviour (R. Smith)
11. Nothing else matters (P. Percival/S. Richardson)
12. So great is Jesus' love (P. Percival/S. Richardson)

Ben has done a really cool Doctor Rocktrin pic for the cover. The cd will be available in a couple of weeks.

You heard it first here!

acrostic

standing on a wall
around, the bottles
drop
no hands will catch them
eyes dart from
side to side
seeing

sar 2009

stupid facebook quiz...

... tells me that only a couple of you know me.

That's not true.

The questions were just bad.

Here are some questions for you. Go on. Amuse me.

1. Left alone for a week, I would...
2. A book/movie that moves me is...
3. I am most me when...

feeling loved

I have friends who express their love by giving gifts. Today I've eaten a meal prepared by someone else, enjoyed chocolates from Scotland and have had my fridge filled with fresh, home grown vegies. Three big serves of gift-love (from different people) in one day.

Also many nice emails and phone calls. Andrew watched a movie with me and many people have done my silly facebook quiz.

I feel warm and gooey and grateful.

Thanks.

I'm feeling a bit pre-teen

I taught year 6 today. In the class a couple of girls were whispering about what they were reading. It was, you guessed it, Twilight. I joined in but felt a little embarrassed that I'm reading at the same level as those (not especially bright) 11 year olds.

In the staff room, a couple of teachers were also talking about what they were reading. It was, yes you guessed it, Twilight. Again, I joined in. They encouraged me to plough on through the whole series.

I also found out that our local libraries are making the decision not to lend them to kids under 9. I take it that this means that kids under 9 are asking for them. Hmm. How old am I?

today...

... I'm teaching the class from hell at the school from hell. I have nothing to offer these kids. They don't like me, or my books, or my lessons. If we all get out alive it will be a good outcome.

Meanwhile, Andrew is going to the kids' school to speak at assembly and bless a tree [!] in memory of Luke.

Should be a crap day all round.

a bit pathetic...

I just made a facebook quiz about myself.

Andrew scored 90%. Not bad. Can you beat him?

Have a go. Become my friend if you're not already. I need more friends.

(Is it more pathetic that I made the quiz or that I'm blogging about it?)

what it is

J: I'm going to break up N's lego and see how he likes it.

Me: Sweetheart, is that what forgiveness looks like?

J: No, it's revenge. [And continues talking about what he's going to do.]

Glad we all understand!

Karen on Twilight

I'm a bit behind. Karen has been through the Twilight phase ahead of me. I was contemplating a series of posts about how reading Twilight has got me reliving some idealised adolescence and reconsidering marriage etc etc but Karen's done it all already. I agree with what she's written and feel there would be no purpose in writing my own posts!

What do we do with wanting?

All of us want things we don't have. It's the post-fall human condition.

We want a house, a better house, another house, a man, a better man, another man, a child, more children, better children, a skinnier body, a prettier face, longer legs, more clothes, a different personality, a better job, excitement, cake, change, novelty, stability, friends, understanding, connection, fulfillment, accomplishment, respect, freedom, space, time, security.... and we can't have them.

Discontent and frustration are part of life in this world. So how do we handle unfulfilled and unfulfillable desires?

What do we do with wanting?

[I'm keen to hear your ideas. I might write mine in a few posts over the coming days.]

Baptism

Had an interesting conversation with friends today about baptism.

My personal view (right now, maybe not tomorrow) is that baptism is about becoming part of the body of believers. Kind of an initiation rite. Baptism is primarily for people (adults or children) who come to faith and join the church. I think that infant baptism (when the parents are believers) is fine, but a little pointless. The kids of believers are already in the church. They are born into it.

What do you think? Am I an heretic?

confessions

Okay, so after recommending that this tasty indulgence be sampled in moderation, I've gone and read 430 pages of it in a day. Too much? Yes.

I bought the first book in the Twilight series to read while travelling yesterday. For a book about vampires, there is suprisingly little action. Maybe 70 pages at the end. The rest of the book is dribble with the two main characters stating and re-stating how they feel about eachother. It was a tiresome read, amazingly like a M&B novel. The movie (which I enjoyed) took the best 10 lines of dialogue and scrapped the rest. A shame that Meyer's editors couldn't have done the same before publication.

So, is it a damaging book? Dangerous for women? Girl porn?

Yeah, maybe*. Especially if the bad writing doesn't get on your nerves. For me, the style emptied the romance of its potency. Any love affair expressed like that seems a farce. Less is more.

* more on this in future post

thanks for your prayers today

xo

there is no hope...

... but Christ.

When a boy is lying in a box in front of you, only the promise of a new creation and the resurrection of the dead comforts.

Andrew did well, but it was horrible. The mother has spiritualist leanings and there was quite of bit of that from the family. Andrew preached on Rev 21 and everyone seemed to be listening. It felt so solid compared to the other stuff.

Nathan found the experience difficult. I wasn't sitting with him, which in hindsight was a mistake. The bit at the end left him very shaken. But I'm glad he went, and so is he - Luke's brother is his good friend. We've just had a monster tantrum to deal with.

Hopefully a happy day tomorrow. Early start, then we'll play on the beach in the Central Queensland sunshine - a warm 26 degrees forecasted!

A busy next few days

tonight - proofread text for new emu cd, write sunday school lesson, wrap up birthday presents for Sat and Sun, washing, finish getting things ready for Luke's funeral tomorrow, boil eggs for sandwhiches tomorrow, sort spell-a-thon money (due tomorrow).

tomorrow - gym, get dressed, buy bread from shops, drop child #2 and child #3 to school, make sandwiches for funeral, go to funeral (with child #1), clean up church, pick up kids, go home and cry, get sorted for Saturday

saturday - 6am flight to Rockhampton with kids 1&3. James' birthday party. Fly home at 9.15pm.

sunday - pick up friend from airport, go to church, teach sunday school, organise child #2 for birthday party

A busy few days. I'm going to see how many of tonight's things I can get done while watching tv.

an unexpected day off

...and a large pile of work to do.

Let's see how much time I can waste.

baby tears

Ben blogged about how newborn babies don't produce tears when they cry.

Ours did. There must be something strange in my genes because apparently I cried with tears from day 1 too. It can be a little alarming at first seeing a newborn with a tears pouring down his face.

Even now when our kids cry there are ALOT of tears. It's a fairly pathetic look, but I'm hardened to it. Strangers have made the mistake of thinking that there's really something wrong.

No. We just look sooky.

water water everywhere...

... but none in our taps!

We lost our water supply for 4 hours today. I was cooking. Tricky.

Brisbane is flooded. Our suburb is a mess and I can't get to the gym.

twilight

I watched twilight tonight. How could I not after reading reviews like this?

I loved it.

As a chic flick it has it all: an impossibly good looking guy who is impossibly attracted to an impossibly good looking girl with whom a relationship is impossible. Add an impossible amount of smoulder - vampire lust as well as regular sexual lust, heroic selflessness, superman-type rescues, great scenery and very nice camera work and you have the perfect movie.

(Why am I writing this? I think I'll go and watch it again.)

A few thoughts.

It's okay for this to be a great movie for girls to watch. It's not necessarily bad just because it's fun and girls get into it. (But it might be.)

The reasons why Twilight sucks us in are legitimate*. It taps into what we really want and what we should want.

• We want a guy who is painfully in love with us. Who loves us so much that he'll deny himself for us and suffer on our account. Of course we want that. We should want that.

• We want to be able to say 'I'm not afraid' and 'I trust you completely' as Bella did. And that's right.
  

• With Bella we long for something more. Another world where the impossible is possible. Now is the time of waiting. We groan with her and we should.

Of course Edward doesn't exist. Mr. Darcy doesn't either. But still we dream of him and our dreams are legitimate. For we are longing for another.

So what of the claim that Twilight is tacky and harmful girl porn?

Maybe the books are tacky - over adjectivised, gushy, sentimental (I don't know, I haven't read them) - but I don't think the movie was. I'm no film critic but I really enjoyed it. Girl porn? Maybe. In the same league as Austen and Bronte and Sea-change. Presents an ideal male for us to lust after, with whom our spouses cannot compete. Harmful? Depends on how you take it and what you do with it. My current thinking is this: Don't deny that you want Edward Cullen. Admit it, but learn to see that lust as an expression for a much deeper longing. And moderation.

I might go watch it again.

* Last year I had a few posts on why Mills and Boon novels work for women. Similar stuff.

teacher's strike today

Brilliant!

A day off with the kids.

I've been looking forward to it.

Hope the teachers are listened to. Queensland teachers are the worst paid in the country. (Supply teachers aren't though!)

what I hate

I hate that all the trees have been chopped down where we used to walk to make room for a new road.

I hate that my Grandparents-in-law who died a couple of years ago would now not recognise this area though they lived here for 60 years.

I hate that my kids are growing up.

I hate that everything is temporary.

I hate that there are people going through the most devastating pain and that my life goes on.

I hate that people blame God for all the bad stuff.

I hate this whole one-directional-linear-time thing.

I hate that the trees outside my window can be so beautiful while the creation that houses them is so so sick.

I hate that the sin in me tarnishes everything I touch.

I hate that people say that kids get over grief quickly.

I hate that the new creation hasn't begun yet.

I hate that the sun still rose today even though a little boy is lying cold in a morgue.

limerick

There once was a girl so dim-witted
that she blogged while her brain was omitted
in a moment or two
she was deep in the poo
but still hopes to be one day acquitted

sar 2009

cooking lessons

The kids cook tea on Sunday nights. They also decide what they'd like to cook. One takes charge of the protein component, another the carbs, another the veges. We have some strange combinations. Tonight Joel made us cheese and onion flan without the pastry (2 onions, 2 cups grated cheese, 2 eggs, 2/3 cup milk), Nathan made 2 minute noodles and Micah made vegetable faces with cucumber and carrot. Here's the result:

names

From my teaching experience, I'm compiling a list of names that parents shouldn't use. Children with certain (dumb) names find it unusually difficult to behave in class. A couple of weeks ago I told you about an unfortunate girl given the singular form of this product* as a name. The name was such a burden on her that appropriate behaviour had become an impossibility. Similarly, a child by the name of D*e*e*-*o*n. That's right. Not Dion, but D*e*e*-*o*n. (Go the hyphen!) With such stupid spelling, how could one not take on correspondingly stupid behaviour?

Parent, parent, parents. Please. Consider your children. Consider their teachers. Consider their classmates. Be sensible.

* I'm using the stars and the link in case the unfortunate children google themselves.

Want kids to listen at Sunday School?

Tell the story of Stephen from Acts 6-7. They may be fidgetty at the start, but they'll all tune in for the violence at the end.

sad

Have been feeling yucky this weekend. Our friend Luke died on Friday morning. Andrew is doing his funeral later this week. No idea where he stood with Jesus at the end. His parents are devastated, as you would imagine.

I have nothing to say

Nothing that I want to say, anyway.

Will blog again when I do.

In my digestive tract... Round-about rhyme #1

In my digestive tract there squirms
a thriving colony of worms
How do I know that they are there?
I can't sit still upon my chair
I feel an itch I have to scratch
And know that there's another batch.
I chewed my nails, they were not clean
And now these brutes, they eat my spleen
But what is this? A little trick
to help my bowel give them the kick?
A tasty chocolate pill to chew
It's laced with chemicals that woo
the wriggly creatures out to feast
then knocks them flat. This poisonous treat
will kill the squatters, dead today
Good riddance to them all, I say!
So let my tummy caution you
Or you'll suffer the same fate too
Be sure to follow Mum's commands
and wash and scrub those dirty hands.

by wendy, simone, nathan, mel, and ben