My Kids - Venn Diagram

I CAN change. I CAN! I CAN!

Andrew is preaching through Tim Chester's You Can Change at the moment. I normally dread topical series' but have been looking forward to this one.

I meant to read the book myself, and started to, but have been distracted by other things. But I listen to Tim Chester while I jog. I'm very slow so get through quite a lot. Today, Tim told me the difference between legalistic talk and gospel talk. You see, while I'm in the midst of sin it is not good news to be told that I must not sin. It's bad news. If I'm being greedy and you tell me I shouldn't be greedy, your words are condemnation to me, not gospel. This is legalist talk. Gospel talk, on the other hand, tells me that I don't have to be greedy. I have all the riches I could ever want in Christ. I have a father who provides for me, an eternity of good things waiting, so I don't need to be grasping after more stuff.

I'm going to try to change the way I talk to myself. No more shoulds, shouldn'ts, musts or mustn'ts. Instead - cans and don't have tos. Let's see if it makes a difference.

more grown up play

I've been asked to consider taking on a particular role on the committee I've been part of for the last couple of years. I'm not sure if I should.

Reasons to do it:

• I am probably capable of it
• I would really enjoy 70% of the job (maybe more)
• It would take a burdensome load off someone else who is already overworked
• I believe in the cause. The work of this committee really matters.
• I understand the issues at stake at least as well as most others
• No other woman in my denomination is doing a job like this. My taking on this job would make our denomination slightly less of a men's club.
• I'd get to hang out with interesting people.
• They've offered to reshape the job so that I could do it.
• It would make me feel important.

Reasons not to do it:

• I already do quite a lot of things.
• Doing this should mean not doing something else. I can't think what I'll give up.
• It is a trellis task, not a vine task. (But the vine does need this trellis.)
• It doesn't have anything directly to do with people in my church now.
• It has nothing (immediate) to do with ministering to women. Should I focus on that?
• It would make me feel important.

Suggestions?

Nathan's new and improved British Isles Venn Diagram

His entry in my competition.

British Isles Venn Diagrams

from here.

enter my venn diagram competition!

Competition Time!

Okay. Nicole ran a competition over on her blog, so I thought I'd share the joy and run one here as well.

There will be a fantastic prize. Blogdom will be jiggling in excitement over this. Your enthusiasm will crash my stats counter. This will be bigger than a certain education debate...

Here's what you need to know.

Task: Draw a venn diagram that expresses something important(-ish) to you. 

Email it to me (.pdf or .jpg, hand drawn, computer drawn, whatever) by next Friday (8th October) and I'll pick my favourites.

Venn Diagrams aren't hard once you get into the swing of them. Once in the swing, you'll find you're able to express just about anything in Venn Diagram form.

Enjoy!

(Don't be scared! Enter!)

9+ months later...

I hurt my foot in December last year. It is finally finally getting better.

Today I ran 6km. It was very slow but I could still walk when I got home.

5 confessions

1. I watched a couple of episodes of Vampire Diaries the other night and... I want more.
2. I'm considering going out and buying the Vampire Diaries books.
3. I'm currently watching X-factor. Idol was tacky. This is tackier, but I like tacky.
4. Yesterday I tried on skinny jeans. People with my thighs should not do this.
5. I'm even more interested in catapult making than my kids. Getting a little obsessed with finding the best table-top model.

7 cards

In the next 2 days we are celebrating:

• 5 birthdays
• 1 farewell
• 1 baptism

joy venn diagram

I am feeling joyful at the moment. I have a new idea for a song. It's inspired by Ray Galea's book God is Enough and is about how joy is found in God, not in other stuff (like new projects.) Irony alert.

Ping Pong Spud Gun

Is it irresponsible to make one of these with my kids?

How to brighten up a boring day.

Go to koorong. Spend up.

I bought the Alpha marriage course dvds and Ray Galea's God is Enough. I'll read the book tonight. I think the title is great.

Demotivators

These are fun.

insanity

A day at home.

No projects.

I need to get out of here or I'll go mad.


[Thankfully my kids are like me. We're all ready to go somewhere. Anywhere.]

some thoughts on godliness at home with kids

1.  I wonder if some of our struggles to be good tempered etc. with our kids comes from an unrealistic (and wrong) view of what our homes should be like. Are they to be a haven from the outside world? A place to which we retreat? Or are they very much in the world and a part of our experience of the world?

What would happen if we changed our ideas and expectations of 'home'? Try this. Home is not a place to escape. In this world, there isn't any human relationship or physical place we can go to escape from sin and fallenness. The world is in my lounge room as much as it is in the street or shopping centre. It is in my relationship with my husband and my relationship with my kids and my kids' relationships with my husband and with each other. Wherever I am there will always be sin and disfunction. If I am trying to make my family life look like a page of a scrapbooked photo album, then I will always be frustrated. Patience will be even more difficult. I will always see the things that aren't good.

2. The more temptation I face, the more likely it is that I will give in to it. It is a good idea for me to avoid temptation to sin when I can. We don't learn how to resist sexual temptation by hanging out in certain aisles of a newsagency or navigating towards MA internet sites.  To some extent, I can flee certain sins by sharpening up my home systems. I was speaking to a friend from church who is a Triple P Parenting instructor. I shared the story of a particularly woeful morning where my children and I were particularly badly behaved. Instead of berating me or encouraging me to berate myself, she pointed out a few ways we should change our systems so that significantly less patience was required of me and the children. Practical stuff. Our kids were refusing to get out of bed in the morning and get ready for school. She simply asked why this was happening. I explained that the house was cold. She suggested we warm it up a bit and have all their school clothes easily accessible (duh!). It made a huge difference. Everyone was in a good temper the next morning. Because we had avoided the first round of morning tantrums, I had more energy left for handling the later rounds.

3. I was listening to a Kellar sermon the other day. It was talking about how the bible talks about the FRUIT of the spirit rather than the FRUITS of the spirit. Keller suggested that we need to look at them as a set and work on all of them together rather than individually. A lack of joy may find expression in impatience. I'm thinking about this.

4. I go better at everything when there is freshness. A new project. A new idea. If I'm bored, I'm disengaged and grumpy. I need to inject fun and creativity into most things I do with my kids. This is just how I am.

5. My first point gets on my nerves. It feels so blah and negative and uninspiring. Home might not be the safe haven we may want it to be, but it can be fun and loving. Mine is.

take it off

Son #2 (aged 9) wants to buy this song to listen to on his ipod. It's catchy. It's talks about freaks. All his friends listen to it. How should we respond?

catapults

When Nathan was little, I decided that our kids would never play with guns or weapons. That resolution lasted about 2 years. Since then our kids have had swords, guns, bows and arrows, light sabers and more. Here's Nathan's explanation of what we made this afternoon.



Our friend Will's video gives a few more details.

movies today

Going to see Despicable Me. I'm not so excited. I was hoping for the Sorcerer's Apprentice but it's gotten bad reviews. I won't take the kids to see the Cats and Dogs one. It sounds like torture.

At the moment...

Watching: Adventureland

Listening to: Tim Finn - The Conversation

Reading: Sophia Hannah Selected Poems, Tim Chester You Can Change

Writing: Nothing much this week. Maybe have another try at an Ezra Pound couplet some time.

Thinking about: Andrew Katay's criticisms of the Vine and the Trellis

You?

In praise of....

Car Lovers!

The inside of our car was embarrassingly dirty. I got the kids to clear out the rubbish then drove to Car Lovers and spent $2 and in 5 minutes it was clean. The vacuums are great. Much easier to use then the home variety. $1 for 2.5 minutes.

school holidays!

It's raining.

twist

Just booked my flights to Sydney for TWIST next month.

Are you going?

I have no responsibilities. Just going as a participant. Looking forward to the cd launch. We will have 2 songs on the new cd. I'll be there Sunday as well so am looking for a church to visit.

Micah

We think he looks like a weeping angel from Doctor Who.

Poetic frustration in venn diagram form

I know, I know. It is a poor workwoman who blames her tools, but...

not getting the Ezra Pound couplet.

I tried to write some of these the other day for Nicole's competition. They are not working for me. All of my attempts feel lame in one way or another: either cliched obvious, obscure or just plain weak. Anyone had any success with this form?

This guy just gets better and better...

Third Eagle Venn Diagram

movie trailor

serial killers

my life and venn diagrams

Andrew has draw a venn diagram too. I think we see things differently.

4 things I'd like to do sometime in eternity

1. Study astronomy. What does Jupiter look like up close? Which star is which? How many billions of galaxies are there out there?

2. Watch a movie get made. I'd like to listen in as decisions are made about colours and camera shots and sets.

3. Learn to sing.

4. Walk a really long way. Like across a country or something.

I know. This is getting out of hand.

blogging and venn diagrams make life better

hormonal venn diagram

I'd rather be at work...

...than keeping company with myself right now.

fair tests

Kids learn all about fair tests in school science. For a test to be valid, you have to keep all variables the same except the one that you are testing. If you were testing kids' numeracy or literacy, care should be taken to ensure that:

• the children compared are the same age
• the children have been at school for the same number of years
• the particular test does not favour one curriculum over another

Grrrr! At least it is not science that these guys are testing.

bored

Will someone blog something interesting?

Here's something I'm thinking about. The word ministry. It's vague. 'Doing ministry'. What does that mean anyway? What would we lose if we lost the word ministry from our vocabularies?

Nathan, the little garbage monster.

My boy has been off at camp for the last few days. I'm very pleased to have him home again. I need someone with whom I can discuss the finer points of blogging and politics.

Before he went to camp he posted a short story 'Nathan, the little garbage monster.' I think the story has potential. If you would like to head over to his blog and contribute another sentence or two I think he'd be amused.

QuadraPop

We're all good at different things. I'm good at QuadraPop. Like any talent, my mad quadrapop skillz didn't come over night. 10% natural ability and 90% sweat.  For the last year I've been practicing daily, sometimes to the point of exhaustion. The kids see how hard I work at it. They learn from me. Dilligence. Persistence. Effort. They know how many hours it has taken me to earn what I thought was dead set legend status at quadrapop.

But now, to my shame, I've found that I am not a dead set quadrapop legend. I don't know the first thing about persistence. So I'm going to point my kids to these guys instead.  

I thought my score of 170,000 was pretty good. These guys are getting 9 million!