Happily married

Dave's sister's wedding was on Saturday. Everything was just lovely. We were so delighted to watch this generous, God-fearing couple commit their lives to each other. 

Kids' wedding washing.
Dave's mum made dresses for the bride, 2 bridesmaids
this dress and pants for F to match the bridesmaids, and a dress for herself.
And a tie for SP.
Come to think of it, where is that tie?

Sweet words

SP is in rest time, singing:

Make me wise, make me wise,
So I'm pleasing in your sight.
Lord, I want to bring you glory,
So I'm asking you to make me wise

From Sovereign Grace's 'Walking with the Wise', which I've blogged about before. So lovely. 

Blog Reading

I read a fair few blogs. Some by people I actually know, but many that I don't, at least not face to face. I organise them in Google Reader in subgroups.

'Family & Friends'

'Thoughtfulness' (mostly fellow Christian mums posting on a variety of topics)

'Kids'

'House'

I recently added another subgroup, and put it right up the top. 

'Marriage'. 

At the moment, there's just 2 blogs in that category, Elevate Your Marriage and The Generous Wife. I recommend them both. And the latter includes a couple of links to similar blogs each day, which I follow more often than not. 

I've been surprised to find that our marriage feels healthy since I've added these blogs to my diet, and apparently Dave has seen the difference too. Which actually makes perfect sense. 

Any others I should add to the list?

W is for Wedding

1 week to go...

Less for More

I'm joining Girltalk's Less for More challenge. 

Less computer for more Bible & prayer time. 

Will you join in too?

Singing with tears

For me, leading the singing in church is all about story telling. My face, my voice, my emotions, pointing the congregation to the meaning of the words. I'm challenging them to switch their brains on, to think about the words they're singing. 

Today, we were telling a hard story. One of a little boy who lived only a few hours. Of a Saviour who now holds that little boy in His arms. Of the amazing faith that this boy's parents have, in a time of immeasurable hardship. 

On these occasions, my story telling must be distanced from my emotions. To allow others their tears, I keep my voice steady and my head high. 

I'll do my crying at home. 

Ride for Refugees

We went along to Ride for Refugees yesterday. 

Dave and a couple of other guys from church (and about 150 others) did the 25km ride. SP rode around the kids' track, about 4km in total, we think. He was complaining of sore legs in the bath last night.

So much fun for our bike-loving boy. 

Show photo

LEGO Club

SP got his first LEGO Club mailout a couple of days ago. He's too young for the magazine and wanted to know why there wasn't any actual LEGO in it, but has spent many hours looking at every detail in the LEGO city pages, and asking lots and lots of questions. 

Just like his Dad, I suspect...

Good advice

from a wise friend yesterday. 

"Don't think about having a good week, or even a good day. Look for good half-hours."

We've had several good half-hours so far today :)

Moby-Duck

On Meredith's recommendation, I've just finished reading 'Moby-Duck: the true story of 28, 800 bath toys lost at sea and of the beachcombers, oceanographers, environmentalists, and fools, including the author, who went in search of them.'

My kind of book. I love to learn through stories (eg. learning history through biographies), and this book taught me lots of fun stuff about the world. Read Meredith's review to find out more - she's said it better than I could. 

If you've ever wondered what I do...

I know my mum often wonders what it is I actually do.  Fair enough.  As an electronics engineer in a specialist niche of the industry, there are no bridges, buildings, cars, or other obvious examples of "I build that".  The closest I've come in the past is saying "we build black boxes that go into bigger boxes that people like Boeing put on their aircraft."

Well, last night I had the pleasure of watching "How to build: A Satellite" on SBS.  Absolutely fantastic.  Although I haven't had the privilege, many of my senior colleagues have been involved in satellite components, and there's a point halfway through that shows about as much of my sort of work as you're ever likely to see on TV.

So if you've ever wondered what it is I really do, take a look at the episode on SBS On Demand.  Season 1 Episode 3 if you're having trouble finding it.