Sunday Evenings

As of right now we don't have evenings services at McKinnon. This is a bit strange for myself and Brandon who have grown up going to morning and evening services. The change has been useful, it has allowed us to visit a few other churches in the evening as well as contemplate how our Sunday evenings should be spent.

I think everyone should visit another church where they know no one, even better make it a church outside of their own denomination.
We visited a Reformed Baptist church about 20 minutes south of us. The service was relaxed to say the least. Couches replaced pews and the band the A capella singing we are used to. In between the couches were coffee tables where glass bowls filled with lollies sat. Thankfully I saw the lollies before the kids and thumped a Bible over the top of a bowl. I think most parents would understand my reaction to the site of the candy bowl. A big bowl of lollies and sitting quietly during worship do not mix. Especially for Gideon. After the service we all gathered around a table of food. There was a dedication that evening so supper was served afterwards. It took about 20 minutes before anyone came up and introduced themselves. He turned out to be a uni student. That was it, a male uni student came and talked to us for about 30 minutes. No one else. Thank you uni student for relieving some of the awkwardness.

Visiting this other church has reminded me of our own visitors and how they may feel.  I have again realized the importance of unity within the greater church. There are many Christians in our city of Melbourne attending various churches. It is good to know one another.

There are a few churches around us with sad news. One church was recently the headline of the local paper. It seems they have decided to close their doors and sell the building. There were only twelve members attending. Another one that our McKinnon church has ties with is down to less then six people showing up on Sunday morning. They are meeting this Sunday to talk about the future. Last year our McKinnon church only had eleven members. Hearing the news of these churches continues to press on me the importance of praying for our McKinnon.  I do not know what God has in store for our little church. I am praying that God would allow us to flourish in this city of closing church doors.

Living in the "city"

We are actually in a suburb of Melbourne. Do many people actually live in the CBD?

So one thing that many people mentioned before we moved up here was the traffic.

They would say "how can you move up there with all that traffic?"
or
"I could never move up there, there is too much traffic!"
or
"I can't handle traffic, I get too upset."

Well I am one of those people that gets agitated, to say the least, with traffic. Agitated is putting it mildly. I for the most part grew up in a town of 300 people. Traffic was what happened when the train came through town and three cars were lined up waiting for it to pass. So no one can say to me "oh you grew up with it (traffic), you don't know any different." Actually I do.

But I am learning to live with it. God is giving me the grace and patience to deal with it. The traffic here compared to Chicago, Los Angles, and New York City (all three of which I have driven in) is really not that bad. You certainly don't see the forever ongoing road construction Chi-town is famous for. Or the rush hour traffic of the Dan Ryan. So when I think it is bad I think about those cities and remember it could be worse. I also pray that God will help me to calm down and help me remember that life as we know it will not end if I arrive at my destination 10 minutes late.

Besides, what position am I in to tell God that I am not going to move up here to help (when he is leading us) because of the traffic?! That is worse than Jonah telling God he didn't want to go to Nineveh because the people were wicked.

Also here is a new thought for any of you who do not like traffic. I heard this while listening to Timothy Keller's sermon entitled "Should I not Love that Great City?" (click on title to go to mp3)

Why should Christians love traffic and traffic jams? Because they are filled with people.

And people are what God loves most, yes even more than trees and the countryside. God loves people more than trees and therefore the city, including traffic, is way more important to him than a few fields or a forest. I am not saying God doesn't care for creation! He does, but it comes after people.

Now I just need to meditate on the above next time I need to get somewhere in a hurry and there is a wall of traffic in front of me.

For G and B

Your mocking has finally led to the new design,  enjoy   : -P

Using podcasts for your child's education

Many homeschooling sites promote listening to books on CD. I have found that it is expensive to buy them, especially here in Oz. We can borrow the CD's from the library but they don't always have what we want.

Recently I have found a few great podcasts that we will be incorporating into our schooling program as well as for entertainment.

The only thing you need is an iTunes account (free) and a listening device, either a computer or mp3 player. To find the podcasts you are looking for...

1. Go to the iTunes
2.  click on iTunes store
3. Then search for the name of the podcast in the upper right hand corner

Here is a list of podcasts that we subscribe to for free:

StoryNory - Classic stories read aloud. The girls are listening to Thumbelina as I type this out. If you go to their website you can find many of their archived podcasts.



   Free Audiobooks for Children by letmetellyouatale.com- Similar to StoryNory. Lots of Anderson, Grimm, and Kipling.

 



Old Time Radio  - Mystery, Sci-Fi, Comedy, Thriller, this site as them all. . I grew up listening to the Sherlock Holmes series on tape. They were great.  I would love to listen to  "Who's on First?" sometime soon. Here are a few series that we as a family will be listening to soon:
Little Orphan Annie
Abbott and Costello
Hopalong Cassidy
The Lone Ranger
Sherlock Holmes

The Official Adventures in Odyssey Podcast - We used to listen to these every Saturday morning. I remember we would all crowd on the couch with the volume up as loud as mom would allow. Adventures in Odyssey is a radio series about a the event that occur in the town called Odyssey. They have a Christian theme running throughout. Sometimes the kids in the show are transported back to Bible times where they are eyewitnesses to Bible stories. They post a free episode every so often. You can buy complete series from Koorong, Amazon, etc.

Sesame Street Vodcast - (vodcast = podcast + video)  We use these while flying. A great way for some spontaneous entertainment when everyone is tired of waiting for the luggage to come down the chute.





One more thing.
Often if you type in a particular book title in the iTunes search you can find entire books on podcast or to buy. I recently found the entire Wind in the Willows audiobook on podcast for free. You can also buy the audiobook from the iTunes audiobook library for 5$ Awesome!


Enjoy!

Conversations with a toddler, preschooler and year 1 cont.

A: "Mom, what does chat mean?"
Me: "It means to have a little a talk together."
A: "I like having little chats. We're having a little chat right now! (giggles)"

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J: "Do you know what this picture is about?"
Me: "Ummmm, not sure."
J: "These are all the directions that my eyes can look without turning my head."

*a few months ago J was fascinated with the fact that she could see out of the corner of her eye without turning her head. She was quite enamored with the discovery of peripheral vision and talked about it for some time.

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J: "Do you know what this picture is about?"
M: "Raining?"
J: "Its how the rain gets to the clouds and then falls again."

*Apparently B had just finished talking to J about the water cycle: evaporation, condensation, etc. After the discussion she ran inside and drew this picture.

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In honor of A we have named our new Mac hard drive "Pink Sparkly Heart". A, may you never forget this monumental moment.

Handmade

Here are some things that we did today in the handmade realm.


Lemonade from the over abundance of lemons from our lemon tree.

A wall from the shells that fall off our palm trees. For some time now I have been greatly annoyed at all the mulch that runs into the yard during a rain. The mulch kills the grass and has to be raked up before I can mow the lawn. This ='s a big pain. So I built this today with J. We shall see if it does the job. 

These are wooden pallets that we took from someone's yard. They had set them out for hard rubbish pickup. We are going to try and build a cubby house out of them. Till will tell. J sadly thinks that B can build this cubby house over night. I tried to tell her that it would take a while. A lesson in patience is about to begin.

The computer/media centre B just built for a friend. It actually worked the first time we booted it up too! 

Abiding

I am in the fourth chapter of Life in Christ - Walking in Newness of Life by Edward Donnelly.

The third chapter was over abiding in Christ. I couldn't be reading this at a better time.
Finding ourselves here in McKinnon there will be a great temptation to do lots of things to "help the church grow". While as Christians we are called to serve, evangelize, and disciple these all come second to our primary command. Abiding in Christ should always be first and foremost in my/our lives. I struggle with this and can easily take on too much thinking that I can stubbornly overwork to produce results.

This quote from chapter three particularly hit home and along with the accompanying verses is something I need to have stapled on my forehead. Also tying my legs together so I can't walk anywhere probably wouldn't hurt either :-) I am continually reminded and humbled that I am a Martha needing to be a Mary first.

...A.W. Tozer's words are truer now than when he wrote them a generation ago:
'The accent in the Church today', says Leonard Ravenhill...is not on devotion, but on commotion'...The adolescent taste which loves the loud horn and thundering exhaust have got into the activities of modern Christians...We must begin the needed reform by challenging the spiritual validity of externalism. What a man is must be shown to be more important than what he does...We must show a new generation of nervous, almost frantic, Christians that power lies at the center of the life...The desire to be dramatically active is proof of our religious infantilism; it is a type of exhibitionism common to kindergarten.
This is not a plea for quietism, defined in the dictionary as 'a passive attitude towards life, with devotional contemplation and abandonment of the will, as a form of religious mysticism'. It is simply a recognition of the truth of the promise, 'they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength' (Isa. 40:31). The church which make a priority of fellowship with Christ will find itself brought by him, as he has promised, to a new level of fruitfulness.

Edward Donnelly

John 15:5 'Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit'

Break over

It was nice to be away from most computer activities for awhile. I needed time to finish Christmas presents I was making, read a few books, and think decisions needing to be made.

Now that the break is over I should mention our new place and the surroundings.  We are almost unpacked and settled in. Brandon and I are both enjoying the house even with its rough edges. Brandon has been able to fix of few problems. The curtains are still a hazard but we have plans for those as well. As you can see we have decided not to bother the landlord with all of this. After talking to a friend who is a landlord we found out that if something is broken before moving in the landlord is under no obligation to fix the problem. If something breaks while you are there then you have a better chance of getting it fixed.

Sadly the house is not the only thing needing to be fixed. Our furniture and objects seem to be conspiring against us. They are all breaking at the same time. My dresser fell apart, the futon cover was ripped during the move, our camera is broken, the microwave broke right before the move, Brandon's new coffee machine is leaking, and the list goes on. Rather frustrating when we are trying to get our car paid off. A slave to objects.

Back to the house. We have three bedrooms, two living areas, dining room, and a little kitchen. The kitchen is small but I am very happy that it is open to the dining room and lounge. What we lose in bedroom space we have gained in the rumpus room. I think it is at least two times bigger than the one in the last house. I prefer that more than large bedrooms.

I am enjoying exploring the surrounding suburbs. Dandenong is a good one for cheap food. Many immigrants live there so you can be sure to find all sorts of interesting ingredients for purchase. Two days ago I bought 5kgs of red rice and 5kg of dahl(red lentils) from an Indian grocer. That should keep us going for a while.

The Hart family, our full time pastor, has just moved up. It is nice to have another family with young kids here. It is also nice for me to have another "at home mom with little kids" around. The last few months have been fairly void of adult conversation during the week, except for Brandon that is.

Yikes! It is almost 5pm. Brandon and his workmate will be here soon for dinner. Need to get to work.

Conversations with a toddler and preschooler cont.

While eating lunch...

A: "Magic! Make everyone's juice disappear!"

A: "Can you drink your juice fast so it disappears?!"

Me: "I'll try"

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After decorating the Christmas tree the kids had to get ready for bed. A comes to me and says goodnight in this way.

A (with a toe pointed and bowing): "Goodnight your Christmas highness!"

Me: "Goodnight my dear!"