Masterchef Finale

1 hour to go. I've had it muted while I work on church4kids stuff. I wanted to get another module in my first aid course done tonight too. But the sound is now on and less and less work is getting done...

Do you have email apnea?

I've just corrected my posture and taken some deep breaths.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-stone/email-apnea-screen-apnea-_b_1476554.html?ref=technology 

via GTD Times

Children are precious

Since F was about 6 weeks old, I've been donating some extra breast milk to some multiples. 

One of them died last week. 

I've never met the babies, or their parents, although I chatted to the mum on the phone a few months ago. 

Sigh. 

Fire Safety

We had the fire truck visit playgroup this morning. Big success.

SP brought home a Fire Safety Activity Book, and one of the activities is to draw a home escape plan. He's quite keen on this idea. 

I'm thinking that if we're going to draw an escape plan, we might as well add on a fire drill. We'll all pretend to be asleep in our beds and set the smoke alarm off. 

Not certain what to teach SP to do next though. There are two doors to his room, and the most frequently-used one leads straight to the kitchen, where I guess I fire would often start, but also leads to the back door. 

So we're thinking of telling him to get down onto the floor and listen for instructions. Then Daddy will come and get him and they'll 'Get down low and go, go, go!"

Have you ever done a fire drill with your kids? What did you teach them?

Don't be a whingey Israelite

We're studying Deuteronomy at church this term. Bible study on chapters 1-3 this morning. 'Do not fear but trust in God'. 

At the end of the study, we were challenged to think of something to say to ourselves to drive out our fear during the week. I'm focusing in on this verse: 

They say, ‘The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites there.’” Deuteronomy 1:28

This is Moses quoting the Israelites in their reluctance to trust God & enter the promised land. Can't you hear the whinge? 

But how often do I sound like a whingey Israelite, if only in my head? 

No need to fear. God has secured my safety in eternity, and he's in control of everything that happens between now and then. 

I think F is playing peek-a-boo with herself

She's on her tummy in front of the full-length mirror. She keeps dropping her head down to one side then lifting herself up and laughing at her reflection. 

Very cute :)

So that's what the inside of an ambulance feels like...

Before you get too concerned, we're all fine. Here's what happened:

F's highchair tipped over sideways as we were getting ready for lunch. With her in it. SP was the source of movement, but it wasn't intentional. 

So thankful for our little wooden house with its lino-covered wooden floor. Tiles on concrete would have been so much worse.

As it was, she was crying immediately, then going a bit floppy a minute later, so I called the ambulance. SP was so good, trying to be helpful, watching for the ambulance. So was our postie, who happened to be passing. A few scary minutes waiting for the sirens, but once she saw the unfamiliar people she brightened up and cried nicely :)

A few hours wait in emergency and short stay units for observations, and we were home for a slightly late bath time. Both kids now in bed asleep. SP will have lots of questions in the next few days I suspect. But he'll also know how to dial 000. And it's no worse than happened to his dad and aunty thirty years ago...

Kids really do take notice

Recently I've been trying to work more efficiently around the house. And I think it's been working. Things feel more under control. 

After SP finished assembling his sandwich today, he took off his jacket and I reminded him to take it to his room. He said, "While I'm putting my jacket away, I'll just take my plate to my place."

I didn't even realise I'd been saying it out loud...

Recommitment

I've been fructose free for over a year. And loved it. I feel healthy, my eczema has cleared up, and I find it much easier to say 'no' to all sugar than 'yes' to only one portion. 

But the last month or so I've slipped. Bits and pieces here and there that 'won't matter that much'. Then I started eating the sweet stuff at church morning teas, rather than skipping to the fruit & savouries. And discovered that I'm still hopeless at stopping at one piece. 

So here's my recommitment. Back to it. 

Working Together

We have family friends around this week, on holidays from down south. They and Mum spent the day with us today.

We had a fun morning together at the park, then once SP was in rest time and F asleep, I benefited from some extra household help. There we were, three women working away on simple household things, together and separately. There was a peacefulness, a camaraderie that struck me. 

I wonder if that's what life was like in the multi-generational households of yesteryear?

Care & Feeding

"I will look after F. She needs a big brother to look after her. She doesn't need a Mummy or a Daddy or a Grandma. I'm her big brother."

Sounds like I can take a break :)

Memories

Dave's working late tonight. 

I've just spent a happy half hour looking over old blog posts. 

God really is good to us. 

Welcoming

I'm not a great conversationalist. I know this. Some people seem to have the gift of it (my dad, for instance), but I find it difficult. 

Still, I try hard to talk to new people at church. Since Dave coordinates the music, we're usually among the first few to arrive. And visitors often arrive earlier than regulars. So if I don't have a specific job keeping me busy, introducing myself to newcomers has become a habit. 

I'm still not good at it. But I'm getting better, and I figure most people would rather have a short and awkward conversation than sit by themselves for half an hour. And having a cute baby in my arms is certainly helpful. 

But as I was lying awake last night, thinking of church that morning, I was challenged to do more. Yes, it's good to chat to people, to put them at their ease, to find out about them. But it would be so much better to turn their thoughts to Jesus. 

That's the bit I find REALLY hard. Talking to kids about Jesus? No problem. Talking to adults, even a stranger who may be a Christian already, or very receptive to the gospel? Yikes.

Maybe I need to find a good opening question for after we've done the initial introductions. Something with 'Jesus' in it, not just 'church'. Suggestions?

6 months old today

Could somebody tell me where that time went?

Show photo

A timely reminder

I think I need to read a post like this about once a week. 

So I'm going to stop looking at blogs and facebook and head towards bed so I have more energy to read my bible in the morning. 

Times Tables

I did pretty well in maths at school, but my 7 & 8 times tables have always been very iffy. I blame it on changing schools between year 3 & 4 - my old school hadn't done them yet and my new school had, so I never took the time to learn them properly.

But I think my issues with 8s may just have been solved with this Right Brain Math trick, thanks to the Planning with Kids blog. 

And now that I've posted the link here I may have some hope of finding it for SP & F in a few years time. I wonder what youtube will look like by then?

Cooking from someone else's pantry

We don't generally buy recipe bases, bottled sauces, canned baked beans etc etc. Somehow when we got married they never went on the shopping list, and we consciously stay away now as they often contain more sugar than I want to eat on a regular basis. 

In the last few days, I've discovered an interesting phenomenon: if they're there in the cupboard, I can't seem to find anything to cook that doesn't involve them. 

We've had chicken & veg with packet risotto, baked beans & mash, and today pasta with mince & bottled sauce. 

Hmm...

Processing...

Little kids have a lot to process, and sometimes it can be a lot of fun to watch.  Like tonight after I put SP to bed.  About 5 minutes later I hear him talking to Mike (a bear); first in a cherubic voice "daddy, I want to go to kindy", the immediately followed with a deep (for him) bass "no, you can't, you're too little.  No, you're too little."


And then 10 minutes after that, again in conversation with Mike "I have to obey you Mike.  Daddy has to obey me, and you, and Nana, and..."  Crumbs, I don't know what I did to deserve that much oversight!

Bed is calling

Clean sheets. 

New doona, doona cover & pillow cases. 

I've been waiting for this all day.

Here's hoping our poor snuffly little girl lets me spend a little more time there than I did last night...

Little encouraging moments

Sometimes life gets busy, and you (OK, I) find that the things I want to do are shunted to one side to make way for things that for one reason or another I need to do.  Case in point was last Wednesday night.  Wednesday is Bible Study evening for me, and I benefit a lot from getting together with other Christian guys for a couple of hours to study the Word, or even just to have a BBQ and watch the football, as tends to happen at this time of year...

Anyway, last Wednesday I was also playing host to a guest lecturer from overseas.  Different technical societies with the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) pick a few lecturers each year who are not just experts in a topic, but can also communicate what they know to non-experts.  The Queensland chapter had joined up with others around Australia to have this particular lecturer flown out for a couple of weeks, and the travel schedule worked out that he was in Brisbane to speak on Wednesday.  To the IEEE, these guys (and girls) are a big deal, so it's important to look after them.

So, after a lecture at QUT, like a good host, I offered to take him over to Southbank for dinner.  After eventually finding a restaurant that wasn't too spicy, closed after last year's floods, or closing early that night because of low patronage, we eventually found somewhere to have dinner.  At this point my heart wasn't really in it - I was feeling like it would have been a much better use of my time to have left at the end of the lecture and arrived a little bit late at Bible study.

But we sat down, picked from the menu, and had a look at some more technical stuff while we waited.  When the food arrived, the first thing he says is "excuse me while I pray."  Now coming from Asia I wasn't sure if buddhists or hindus prayed before meals, but after a minute or two I asked "so you're a Christian?"  He was, and the rest of the evening turned into a much more encouraging conversation about faith, what heaven would be like (he'd read a couple of books of the "near death experience" variety), and things like that.  On the walk back to QUT we even stopped to pray for each other.

Isn't God great - taking an evening that could have been quite boring, and was looking like a lost opportunity for fellowship with other Christians, and turning it around completely like that!