Family Adventure #2 Swan View Tunnel

After last weekend's Family Adventure #1, we decided not to climb another hill but to go through a hill this time!It was just as well that we chose to explore a bush trail that went through an old railway tunnel, since it was a very wet day, and we needed to be kept out of the rain. The kids loved the opportunity to get their raincoats out of the cupboard. Unfortunately we didn't think of getting their rainboots as well... but next time we will not forget.

Though the sky was grey, the scenery was lovely. The Swan View Tunnel is on the Railway Heritage Trail, in John Forrest National Park, in the hills to the east of the city, inland from where we live. Completely the opposite direction of last week's trip.
The kids had lots of fun clambering over the rocks at the side of the path.And I even managed to climb a rock of two myself.
There were lots of opportunities for photos.I think they turned out well despite the fact that we were only using Jeff's iPhone, since I had forgotten to bring the new camera.

Jeff and I

A portrait, taken when we were at Saddleback Church, (Lake Forest, Los Angeles, California, USA) for Mothers' Day, 2010:

Family Photo

It's a little bit fuzzy, and Abigail would not smile - she refused to since she had no stockings to wear, a consequence of making holes in the knees of the last pair - but here it is, our Family Photo from Sunday, when we all went to church together for the first time since Easter.
(as requested, Amy!)

One Big Happy Family

We are back home at last after five weeks away in the USA. Jeff and I drove 6,616 miles together (that's 10,647km!) through 12 states. Our route took us through California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, more of Colorado, more of Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and then more of Oregon and finally California again. We visited 12 National Parks, Monuments and Historic Sites plus numerous National Forests and Wildlife Preserves. And we came away inspired to be tourists in our own city, exploring Perth together with our children.

Today we began our hometown tourist exploits, walking up Reabold Hill in Bold Park, with a few stops to explore the bush on the way, and admire the banksias, taking in the views of city and sea. It was a great "adventure" and we all had a lot of fun. The complete absence of mountains, after so many weeks admiring them, was somewhat startling. But the presence of four happy children more than made up for the absence of mountains.It is absolutely marvellous to be home again with our four beautiful, beloved children.

Thank You God for holidays. And thank You for bringing us home. Amen.

Twilight Sights

Some of the Twilight sights from Port Angeles, Forks, and La Push.
Forks, where Bella moves to live with her Dad after her Mom remarries:Where Bella goes to school:First Beach, La Push where Bella meets Jacob Black and learns of the tribal legends that say Edward is a "Cold One":The Port Angeles Bookstore where Bella buys a book about Quileute Legends, always wanting to find out more about Edward's strangeness:Bella Italia restaurant in Port Angeles, where Bella gulps down mushroom ravioli while interrogating Edward over those same legends, not to mention his mind-reading abilities:If you want to find out more, you're just going to have to Read The Book!

And thanks for the recommendation that we visit Third Beach, Kellie. We really enjoyed the walk and scenery.

"Hmm, this slug looks interesting!""Mmm, and tasty!"Jeff didn't really eat the slug. After all, we were in a National Park!

I'm in America

I'm with Amy and we went to BSF together last night to study the Bible together ... life before The Day doesn't get much better than this!I love to think that our friendship grew out of our shared love for the word of God. To be able to sit together in a BSF class, when we study in BSF classes across the world from each other normally, is such a treat. And we were studying John 19:18-30, which tells about Jesus' time one the cross bearing our sins. In the car on the way home, we were full to bursting with praise for our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

The Kids left this afternoon

And already I miss them.

It helps to know that while they are in the immediate care of their grandparents, they are in the omnipotent care of their Father in Heaven. The same God who is with me, is with them, even though we are apart.
---
Next time (next time!?!) I will not plan a major holiday to begin during and immediately after the Easter weekend. It has really brought a great deal of crazy busyness to what should have been a time of quiet and reflection, focussed on Jesus' death on the Cross, which saved me from my sins, and His Resurrection, which secured eternal life for me.

But when I wished for more peace and quite I was reminded that Jesus promised an abundant, eternal life to his followers, not a bland life. (And now that I have peace and quiet, I yearn for my four children to be smothering me with their elbows as they squirm for one last cuddle before they leave.)

John 10:
7 Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."

Are you living the full life that God offers to those who come to Him through Jesus, the one and only Gate to God?

Car Day

Yesterday was a Car Day. For the uninitiated, that was a day spent primarily in getting myself and at least two kids in and out of the car and driving all over Perth - mostly back and forth, but sometimes in circles. FYI, here's my list of pit stops:

8:30am Drop Josh, Anna and Lisa to school.
9:00am Meet Jeff, Abi and Sam at a friend's house for morning tea with them.
10:00am Doctor appointment to get my stitches out and an asthma script for the trip. (Abi and Sam with me.)
Then home to pick up the things Josh and Lisa forgot to pack for school.
11:15am Drop off items to Josh and Lisa's teachers, Pick up Anna from school.
11:45am Anna's dentist appointment. She needed two fillings. I am a bad mother.
Then Drop Anna back to school (she preferred going back to school over lying on the couch for the afternoon watching a DVD of her choice. I gave her the option. She said she'd cry if she couldn't go back to school. Amazing child!) When Anna asks for a drink of water in the car, I lean over to reach Sam's drink bottle and my shirt rips all down the back. The shirt that I spent half an hour sewing buttons onto two evenings ago. Drat. But I know what is next in the car day after I drop Anna off at school, so I chuckle and pray briefly, Father God, thank you so much for afternoon naps for toddlers. I love them. Especially when they force a break in the middle of a Car Day.
Then stop at the shops to buy some fruit for Abi and Sam's lunch since we have run out.
PAUSE in Car Day. Home for lunch, to change my shirt, for Sam's nap, for Abi's homeschooling lessons, and for my Bible study time. My BSF discussion learer rings me while I am in the middle of my Bible study, and I have a laugh with her over the shirt ripping incident.
4:30pm Collect Josh, Anna and Lisa from after school Italian lessons.
4:45pm Drop Josh, Anna and Lisa home.
5:02pm Miss the Medicare office being open for my refund by 2 minutes. Drat.
Then while still at the shopping centre, swap a faulty purchase at the Target front desk, and briefly peruse shoe shops, looking for something without heels to wear in the US. Nada. Drat.
5:45pm Home for the evening. Kids are having a water gun fight in the front yard with Jeff. Relax.

It is days like this that remind me so thoroughly that everything I do - what little it is - I do in the power and strength of Christ. Psalm 42:11 puts my feelings this day very clearly:

11 Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.

The same verse is also in Psalm 42:5 and 43:11, so the Psalmist must have needed to remind himself of this a lot, just like me.

Yesterday, that time I spent reading my Bible at the dinner table while Sam napped and Abi quietly played in another room was like a balm to my soul. It also brought some laughter. One of the questions from my BSF study notes for John 4:1-30 read, "Jesus uses symbolism in verse 13 when He speaks of this water (the water of the earth). Give examples of things for which people thirst that, while not bad in themselves, cannot satisfy their desires."

I started answering this with some specifics:
money;
chocolate;
caffeine, fat, sugar;
sexual passion or the adoring emotional attachment of another person;
having a clean and tidy house;
quiet;
having perfectly well-behaved children;
knowledge;
rhetorical skill;
having read many of the "Great Books"...
The last thing on my list was "having all the buttons sewn on your shirt". You can see where the laughter came in.

But the truth is, none of these things can satisfy. Even a Car Day that goes rather smoothly by all accounts is no substitute for the new life that is only found through a relationship God in the Person of Jesus Christ.

Do you have that relationship with God in Jesus?

USA Holiday Itinerary

Just the basics of our plans...

Fly in to Los Angeles
Death Valley
Las Vegas
Hoover Dam
Grand Canyon
Navajo National Monument
Monument Valley
Santa Fe
Dodge City
Wichita
Kansas City
More Wichita
Denver
Salt Lake City
Seattle
Olympic National Park (yes, including Forks)
Fort Vancouver
San Francisco
Yosemite
Los Angeles
Fly home from Los Angeles

Only a week to go before we fly out now. One suitcase is packed already. We are definitely counting down.

A reading list for our holiday

Since Jeff and I will be spending many hours on the road over our five weeks in the US, and even I don't think I could come up with enough topics to talk on for the entire 8-9000km journey, we've put together a book list for the trip. I'll read, Jeff'll drive. We may not be able to read our way through everything - after all, I want to see the scenery, not just pages - but we're going to see how we go. Here are some of our selections to read together:

The Cross-Centred Life: Keeping the Gospel the Main Thing by CJ Mahaney

Living the Cross-Centred Life by CJ Mahaney

Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist by John Piper

King Solomon's Mines by H Rider Haggard

The Travels by Marco Polo

The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (on audiobook)

How to Be a People Helper by Gary R Collins

Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp (yes, we never got too far into it before)

Instructing a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp

Guests

As of the last few days, we have a new (temporary) member of our family. Her name is Lisa, and she is my niece. We call her Lovely Lisa. You can see why from this picture:Lisa is living with us for Sunday evenings through to Friday afternoons, and going to the same away-school as Joshua and Anna during the weekdays. She will be with us for the next four months or so. The astute of you will realise that we will have a hard time looking after Lisa while we are in the US! During that time Carla will be looking after the whole family here, or Lisa will be looked after along with our four here by Grandma and Grandad. When we get back from the US, we'll take over the week-day parenting again.

Lisa is staying with us because her mother is in the later months of pregnancy with Lisa's little brother. Because Carla has been diagnosed with Lupus as well as Thalassemia, she needs greater medical care than can be provided in the rural gold-mining town of Kalgoorlie, where my brother's family normally live. So Carla has moved with their younger daughter Rebecca to her father's house near Freo, and we are looking after Lisa here. Lisa is the same age as Abigail, so we have a lot of chatting after bedtime with three girls sharing the same bedroom!

Please pray:
for Lisa, that she will not miss her mother, sister and father too much, and will feel "at home" here with us.
for Daryl my brother, that he won't be too lonely without his family back in Kal.
for Carla, that our nephew will be growing strong and healthy within her, and that the docs here will be able to treat her well.
for Rebecca, that she won't miss her Daddy and sister too much, and will love her time with Nono.
That Grandma and Grandad will be safe on the roads as they drive across Australia to look after their grandchildren for several weeks.


Last night, we had another guest in the house as well. It was Cuddly Koala, a toy from school that Anna brought home overnight.Yesterday afternoon, after one of the driest summers on record, (only one day of rain before yesterday - 0.2mm on 7 Feb), Perth experienced a marvellous thunderstorm, which resulted in many of our roads becoming temporary rivers. The evening news said that Perth metro had received at least 36mm of rain since around 3:30pm, when the storm hit the northern suburbs. Our friends the B family had about 50 holes in their pagola from hail the size of golf balls, and their garage flooded. By around 5:45pm, there were 150,000 houses or businesses in Perth without power, though ours was not among them.

The rain hit in earnest just before 5pm where we live, and we didn't get any hail. But with a Play Room that is not sealed well from the weather, we had almost as much rain inside as there was outside! God managed to keep our two couches dry, but the Play Room had to be "evacuated". The carpet and recliner are now drying out nicely (we hope), since not only is the roof permeable to strong rain, but the floor is extremely permeable as well (really, the floor is just outdoor pavers on sand, with no sealing at all - it's not exactly a "to code" extension) so we don't have any puddles. The canal next door was the highest we have ever seen it as well, but this morning it is back down. Here's how Anna described the events in Cuddly Koala's journal:I went home with Anna.
There was a big storm.
I was scared, but Anna saved me.
She kept me dry so that I
wouldn't get wet, when the
Play Room flooded with water.

Update on Abigail's homeschooling

From Abi's lessons today:

Penmanship
Since today is a Wednesday, Abi's penmanship task was based on the Bible story she heard today in her BSF class. (Oh - How I am going to miss BSF next term! I have been attending for almost 5 years!) Each day Abi does penmanship, she traces one sentence, or roughly two lines. Very occasionally she asks to do the writing as copywork and I let her, but I am discovering she has no idea about letter sizing. She needs a lot more practice from tracework before she goes off on her own.

Abigail copied the most marvellous letter from a book the other day. Unfortunately she had already sealed it up in an envelope to be posted before I had time to photocopy it. The inspiration for that was watching Anna at work writing letters. Abigail loves writing mostly because she sees Anna love writing, I think. I only wish she would learn enthusiasm for reading the same way!

Maths
Abi's favourite part of her homeschooling lessons is the maths. We are using the Singaporean program Earlybird Mathematics and, having finished 1B, Abigail is now working through 2A. At the moment she is doing one "Lesson" (that is, roughly a week's worth of work) each day we sit down together. But we don't do homeschooling lessons every day, so it has taken three weeks to get through the first nine lessons of the book. That is still moving at three times the standard pace. Abigail is really enjoying the lessons on measurement that we are doing at the moment and keeps asking to do more, but I am learning that one "Lesson" worth of material is enough, otherwise her brain gets too crowded and she can no longer concentrate on the rest of her studies.I made some number cards for Abigail which she lines up in order each lesson. She uses them to remind herself what each numeral looks like before she writes it, if she cannot remember. This has helped with Abi's number recognition, which is already fairly good given I only started teaching her about numerals this year. Abigail seems to get her numerals consistently the correct way around, which is encouraging to me since her elder siblings both reversed them sometimes (and still do occasionally). Abigail seems to have taken to the concept of numerals well, and perhaps better than either of her elder siblings. This is balanced by her struggle to recognise individual letters, however.

Geography
Today was the last day Abi has spent of at term of World Geography. I read her a little bit of information each day about various features of the world, and she stuck the relevant stickers in the appropriate places on the world map. Granny found this make-your-own-map atlas for us, and Abigail has enjoyed it. I am not sure how much she can remember, but at least she is now familiar with the names of the continents and oceans.

This geography study has also given me a great opportunity to talk with Abi about our (ie, Jeff's and my) upcoming holiday to the USA, and to mention some of the things we will see - or not - while we are there. Personally, I am hoping that we will miss out on seeing rattlesnakes, although their sticker sits smack in the middle of the places we intend to visit! I hope to post a basic itinerary in the near future, and I will be posting on the blog each day of our holiday (God willing!) so that our kids can keep track of where we are and what we are doing. So keep an eye out here if you are interested! We shall be leaving Perth on Easter Monday, 2010.

Fireproof

Jeff and I watched Fireproof together on Saturday, which my blogging buddy Amy recommended to me maybe over a year ago now. We finally borrowed a copy from a friend and sat down to watch it together.Fireproof is a realistic movie. It tells the story of Mr Holt Snr's dare to his son Caleb to spend 40 days loving his wife deliberately, in a determined effort to save his marriage from divorce. I appreciated the way that it doesn't shy away from the realities of what causes holes to form in marriage relationships. I also liked the clear demonstration that there is always shared responsibility on both sides, even if one person seems to be more "in the wrong". It was great to see how one person's choice to act lovingly can make a difference to a marriage that seems doomed for divorce, even if the other person wants "out".

One of the best things about the movie was the way Mr Holt Snr explained to his son Caleb that God's loving kindness for him had been rejected in just the same way that Caleb's wife was rejecting Caleb's love. What more could Caleb do? Well, what more did God do? God's Son Jesus died for Caleb (and for us). It was a very clear application of the fact that marriage is one way that God teaches us about the relationship between Christ and the Church, and between the Father and the Son.

May God make my marriage - and yours - a glorious example of these mysteries of God to others.

[Image from http://www.fireproofmymarriage.com/.]

"Diagram of a Baden" (aka Bayden)

By Joshua, in the half hour before lights out at bedtime:His spelling may be appalling and he may frequently get letters around the wrong way, but I'm impressed Joshua can write this much in half an hour after a long, hard, hot day at school. And I am impressed that he can spell "diagram" correctly, even if he can't spell "with".

Translation, for those who cannot decode Joshua's spelling:
"Diagram of a Baden.
A Bayden is a human eater.
Its favourite food is a monster.
The eye is a light and a thing
that is an thing that it can
see with. The bag has every
weapon in the whole wide world.
It is very strong.

Labels, clockwise around figure:
Eye which is a light
Weapon bag
Tail
Legs
Arms
Teeth

A Lego Poem

For my sons, Joshua and Samuel.

There was a little Rock Monster
Way down in a mine,
He went for a walk one day
Some crystals to find.

But instead of some crystals,
The Rock Monster found:
A Power Miner digging
Deep down in the ground.

The Power Miner gasped
“You gave me a scare!”
The Rock Monster told him
“I just hoped you’d share.”

The Power Miner thought
“I know I should be kind.
And I have extra crystals
So I really don’t mind.”

The Rock Monster said politely,
“Thank you very much.”
Then he took the crystals home
And ate them for lunch!

Mm-mm. Tasty!

by Sharon Jackson, 2010

The Blind Side

Jeff and I went to see The Blind Side yesterday. It is the first Sandra Bullock movie I have ever really enjoyed, and walked away from feeling happy, rather than frustrated.Based on true events, The Blind Side tells the story of Michael Oher, aka Big Mike, a homeless (black) teenager who is offered a couch to sleep on one night by the (Christian, white, and Rich with a capital R) Tuohy family, and gradually finds a place in their home and hearts - and they in his - before finding his place in the world of American football as well.

I like this movie because it shows how the Christian ethic of "loving your neighbour" on a person-to-person level does as much good for the "helper" as for those "helped". It is a very different situation to that of mass-market financial giving for a cause or a crisis, because while this giving is important and even vital in the lives of the recipients of the help, they have a minimal influence on the life of the person who offers the help. In The Blind Side, we see that helping someone directly can lead to a new understanding of love in the life of the loving helper, as well as in the life of the beloved who is helped.

My favourite quote, Mr Sean Tuohy to his wife, Leigh Anne:
"Who ever knew we'd have a black son before we'd know a Democrat?"

Who have you helped lately?

Our Read Alouds from 2009

Again, for posterity, I am listing some of the more notable stories we read aloud as a family in 2009. Since January is nearly over, it's probably time to re-start our "We've Just Finished Reading" list in the right hand side bar. Asterisks mark the stories we liked best.

For the 2008 list, click here.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne (slightly abridged)

**Heidi (1880) by Johanna Spyri.
Anna wrote in her journal, "I like you being kind and I like your daughter. I know that your daughter is sick. I know that I had to go back to the mountain with grampr."
Two questions for Heidi afficionados: Who was Anna pretending to be when she wrote this letter? Who was she writing the letter to?

**Tom's Clockwork Dragon by Jonathan Emmett.

Blinky Bill the Mischievous Koala (the book of the Yoram Gross film of Dorothy Wall's Australian classic)

*Anne of Green Gables (1908) by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Babar's Little Girl by Laurent de Brunhoff

*Matilda by Roald Dahl.
Anna says, "This book is about a trouble-maker." Matilda is Dahl's heroine in this story, but despite being a "reader of books" who enjoys the humour of Dickens's Pickwick Papers and a "mathematical prodigy" who can multiply 19 by 14 instantly in her head, by chapter 8, she has not yet realised there are alternatives to responding to meanness with spite. With the help of her teacher Miss Honey, Matilda finds a better way of dealing with her enemies, thankfully.

*Horton Hears a Who! by Dr Seuss
*Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr Seuss

*Doctor Dolittle's Zoo (1925) by Hugh Lofting
**The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (1922) by Hugh Lofting

**The Trumpet of the Swan (1970) by EB White
*Stuart Little (1945) by EB White

**Frog and Toad Together (1972) by Arnold Lobel

The Musical Life of Gustav Mole by Michael Twinn, illus Kathryn Meyrick, tape narrated by Patrick Macnee

Dumbo from Disney

*Ten Boys who Made a Difference and Ten Girls Who Made a Difference by Irene Howat, from the Light Keepers series

*Nothing by Mick Inkpen

**The 500 Hats of Bartholemew Cubbins (1938) by Dr Seuss

We have also listened to The Lost World (1912) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on audiobook CD.

Home Grown Pumpkin

I know I said I wasn't posting, but I have been taking a few photos and couldn't resist sharing. This is the giant pumpkin Jeff has been growing in our back yard. The kids cut a face in it - not that it is halloween or anything - and will be appreciating it's candle-lit magnificence tomorrow night.Notice all the boys' buzz cuts? That's another home-grown (or rather home-shorn) deal. Jeff found nits and lice in Sam and Joshua's hair yesterday, so the whole family has been either shaved or drenched in anti-lice oil (disgusting!) depending on gender and willingness to look a bit like an egg, or like someone who could more easily get work as a nightclub bouncer than a pastor!

Doorstep Frog #2

We came home from church on Sunday evening to find our second frog on the doorstep. No-one stepped on him coming through the door, so we were able to watch him for a few moments before herding the kids off to bed:I think he was a Western Banjo Frog:Certainly a very different frog to the first one we found on our doorstep.

Calvin Club

Cathy at The Best Book Co-Op is going to be hosting a collective reading of John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, through the Calvin Club.

I found a copy of Calvin's Institutes sitting on the family bookshelf: it is Volume 20 of Britannica's Great Books of the Western World series. Unfortunately, even at the Cathy's promised gentle pace (getting through Book I in 2010), I am not sure I will be able to partake. I have just applied to work part time, 2 1/2 days a week, as the Children's Ministry Worker at my church(!!). Not to mention the other project I am working on, writing a book. However, I would heartily recommend this challenge to anyone who would like to get a better grip on what they believe and why.

Meredith at The Key to the Door has decided to give the Calvin Club a go already. Why not join Cathy and Meredith at the Calvin Club?

Swimming Lessons and Levels

For the last three weeks, Anna and Joshua have been attending swimming lessons at a nearby pool complex. We moved Joshua from one school to another after term 1 last year, and he missed swimming lessons at both schools. So Joshua and Anna have been in the same classes, which has been great for developing their camaraderie.

Meanwhile, I have been doing laps. I began with 1km and have swum 1.5km a few times, but in this second fortnight the lessons are shorter so I am working hard to get my 1km done in the limited time. The big improvement has been in my ability to do butterfly. I didn't even dare attempt it the first week, but after struggling through 25m in the short lap pool the second week, I am now confidently swimming 50m of butterfly at a time in the Olympic (50m) pool and 100m total, with hopes to increase that next week.

In the first fortnight of swimming classes, Joshua and Anna did Level 1, which covers very basic water awareness skills. Handily, they both passed (although, to be honest, it would have been hard for them to fail) and they moved on to Level 2 for the second fortnight together. I am not sure they will both pass this level, but they at least are getting their first introduction to swimming strokes. One of the skills they need to demonstrate to pass this level is to "Swim 5m freestyle" and it has been fascinating and hilarious to watch Anna demonstrate what she is learning to me afterward. Her thrashing arms and legs remind me of two windmills on steroids, but then, I imagine I look pretty hilarious as I practice my butterfly.

One of the things I have found interesting is how, even in Summer holidays, conversations between parents seem to find the easiest common ground in a comparison of the achievements of their children. I am not going to pretend that I don't do this as well, but it struck me on Friday just how much we parents seem to fall into this, almost as a habit.

"What level is your child in?"
"Level 1."
"Oh, they'll pass that one easily. Level 3 is the killer. My son is on his third go at it. I hope he passes this summer!"

"My daughter is up to Level 3 this summer already. What level are your lot in?"
"They haven't done swimming lessons before, so they're in Level 1."
"Gasp! Oh, well, my son is only in Level 2 this summer."

"I remember my son was in Level 3 six times. In the end, they let him go on to the next level even though he couldn't float."
"I find floating easy. I could float for half an hour if I wanted."
"But boys' bodies are different and that can make it harder for them to float."

Of course, many of these conversations are not about competing, just comparing. When parents discuss what our children have done or are able to do, it can help us to identify those things we have in common, so we can find other things to converse about, and eventually develop a friendship. But at times this sort of conversation can devolve into one-upmanship, which is pretty sad. Just sayin'.

So what is the alternative? Meredith has some questions to start conversations, or fill those awkward pauses, in this post on hospitality.

TwiFun 101

The funniest Twilight-related quote I've read in ages:

EDWARD: You know what vampires love? Baseball!
BELLA: Really?
EDWARD: Sure! Haven't you ever heard of vampire bats?

For more, check out Eric Snider's Snide Remarks.

Happy New Year, New Decade!

Jeff and I have a tradition to go on a date on NYE and talk about our past year and the things we're thankful to God for. As we've added more children to our family and moved away from handy grandparent babysitters, we've found this harder to keep up. This NYE is the first we've spent apart in our marriage, though. Jeff spent it in Albany with the two little ones visiting Granny and Gramps and I spent it here in Perth with the two big kiddies, taking them to swimming lessons and celebrating with bubbly apple cider (non-alcoholic!) with dinner. Jeff gets back today, so I spent most of yesterday evening (with the kids' help, and then on my own after they went to bed) cleaning & tidying the house. But New Year's always brings the itch for change in me, and I decided to move the furniture around in the lounge room late into the night. I wonder if Jeff'll notice the difference when he gets home?
This morning I finished the job, sorting all our CDs out in the CD drawer of our coffee table. I found a CD by eli, called "Things I prayed For", that I haven't listened to for ages, and slipped it in the player while the kids and I had lunch. The first two songs bought tears to my eyes (they always do, that's why I bought the CD in the first place). The second song in particular shall provide food for thought as you enter your New Year and New Decade, I hope:

The Lumber Song

Said a friend to a friend one day:

Was a man who passed away

St. Peter met him at the gate

Pete said: Walk with me if you will

I'll take you to the house you built

Man said: I can't wait

passed a mansion made of stone

But with each new house he's shown

They get smaller by degrees

Stopped in front of a two room shack

Peter said: Hope you're happy with that

Man said: How can this be? Pete say:

That's all the lumber - that's all the lumber

That's all the lumber you sent

Looks like the builder - man, He's got your number

That's all the lumber you sent

Man didn't know what to say

Poor guy was blown away

Said: you mean this is what I deserve?

Pete said: I'm afraid it's so

It's too late but now you know

Shoulda done better work

Said: you mean not lie and cheat

And helpin' old ladies across the street?

Pete says: Well, that's a start

Remember that man back in that great big house?

He found out early what it's all about

Built that house with his heart - as for you

That's all the lumber - that's all the lumber

That's all the lumber you sent

Looks like the builder - man, He's got your number

That's all the lumber you sent

What if that man was me

And all failed that miserably

You're showin' me things I don't wanna see

St. Peter if you can

Send me back to earth again

Is that somethin' you can do?

Peter said: It ain't up to me

If it was I'd like to see

How you plan to improve

Said: I'd love God and fellow man

Take a wife and make a stand

Be the givin'est guy I can be

And when I get back to this neighbourhood

There'd be a gigantic pile of wood

And I'd say: What's this I see? - and you tell me

That's all the lumber - that's all your lumber

That's all the lumber you sent

Big Boss'll help you - hammer it all together

That's all the lumber you sent

What lumber are you sending on ahead of you?

1 Corinthians 3:5-15 says this:
"What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe - as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labour. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.
By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on his foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through flames."

We don't buy our salvation - no one can build a foundation other than the one already laid, the foundational work of Jesus Christ, who died on the cross in our place, so that we might live rightly with God. But we shall all be rewarded for the work we do for Him now, on this earth, before that Day of Judgement.

Matthew 6:19-21 records Jesus' words:
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Are you storing up treasure in heaven?