Why you shouldn't stop blogging

This blog is slowly bursting back into life.  Can you put "slowly" and "bursting" next to each other in the one sentence?  Anyway, there are definite signs of life.

It stopped for grief.  The ramping up of care for my elderly mum and mother-in-law, their deaths nine months apart, and the sadness and weariness of the grief that followed left me with little energy but to get through what needed to be done and then lay on the sofa near the north facing window that catches the warm afternoon sun.  Sometimes I just lay there and stared into space and sometimes I watched something gentle on the television, which later turned into a bit of a habit and the watching of five of the six series of Downton Abbey in fairly quick succession...eventually leading to needing to DO SOMETHING alongside watching TV but nothing too taxing = learning to crochet. And wait somewhat impatiently for series six of Downton Abbey to screen in real time.  [Confession: As it screened elsewhere in the world before it reached Australia I shamelessly read synopses of all the episodes on the Internet before it hit our screens!]

Watching DVDs + crocheting blankets = no reading.

And so it stopped for lack of things to say.  I stopped reading, apart from the Bible, and then at some point there was a return to the voracious consumption of novels during school holidays, but nothing meatier than that. I really had nothing much to say.  Eventually though I'd watched enough Downton Abbey, crocheted enough blankets, read enough novels and took a restoring long service leave trip with my family to Europe - and found myself in the world of paid work.

And so it stopped for lack of time to write because between a couple of part time (albeit casual but reasonably regular) jobs, church commitments and house and home (including the new development of complicated but gloriously wonderful teenagers), there was little brain space for thinking creatively let alone time or energy to write anything down. 

But sometime last year I found myself missing the writing process and my mind beginning to observe the world in sentences and paragraphs once again.  My updates on Facebook were getting (ridiculously) longer.  The front page of our Christmas letter was more of a blog post than a family update.  And just how many paragraphs can you add to your photos on Instagram??

As this was unfolding Tim Challies wrote a lovely series on blogging.  Serendipitously, on my birthday he published a post (called "Why you shouldn't stop blogging") that warmly encouraged small time blogging and celebrated, among other things, the opportunity to build relationships and be an encouragement in that space.  Which, apart from the gentle art of writing, is the very thing I love about blogging.

As I haven't been paying such close attention in recent years, it passed my gaze that while we were away on holidays in January my blog quietly turned ten.  I can hardly stage a loud and grand celebration given it lay dormant for a few of those years - and loud and grand isn't my style in any case - but I think a small cupcake with jellytots and sparklers is definitely in order.  (Picture nabbed unashamedly from the Internet here.) 

While I've been away I have forgotten how to do a few things.  I tried to reply to a comment someone left (COMMENTS!!! I haven't even checked for comments in ages and sweetly, there were a few waiting patiently for me) and ended up replying anonymously because I couldn't work out how to comment on my own blog.  Also I am vaguely wondering about crossing over to Wordpress (are you allowed to mention that on Blogger??), taking the best of what I have here with me.  Things to work out, relearn and muse over.  In the meantime I have a small list of books I am looking forward to reading, a few ideas to write about and I'm encouraged by Tim Challies to stop fussing about the big, spectacular, silver bullet, polished posts and to just write. Which is exactly what I did this evening.

Hellooooooooooooooo!

Hellooooooooooooooo!

It's been two and a bit years since I've put up a post here, with sparse offerings prior to that.  My blog, along with so many of my blog's peers, has been lying dormant, so I'm not sure if there's anyone really out there any more.  But if this post has somehow miraculously found its way to you, HELLOOOOOOOOO. 💜💚💙

Why the return?  Mainly because I have a couple of lists of useful Bible readings I've done with Bible study groups during the year and I'm not great at keeping a record of such things.  I lose (throw away) bits of paper and my filing of things on computers is pretty hopeless, whereas I can locate things on this blog.  So the need to save a couple of documents has spurred me on.

But to get started with, what's been going on these last two or three years?  I've...

...wandered back into the world of paid work - a bit of relief teaching, two or three days per term of training up volunteers to deliver Scripture lessons in government schools and at one stage, I spent the school hours of a day per week in an office.  I've never had an office job before.  Hard as it is some days, I find I like the light and movement of the classroom better.

...got my teaching license reinstated.  That was quite an effort.

...grown a few flowers and vegies (and also weeds everywhere and couch grass rampaging our flowerbeds.)

 

...read lots of books.  Especially novels.  Lovely.  Much Bible reading by myself and with others and various commentaries for Bible study preparation but not many weighty tomes in the last couple of years. 

...crocheted a few rugs.

 

 

 

  

...transitioned both our boys into high school.  This is a surprisingly big transition for parents as well as their children but I am happy to say that I'm loving these teenage years.

 

...read the Bible using this reading plan.  It's refreshingly great to start a reading plan in the middle of September rather than the 1st January.  I'm on the second run through with this one and loving it.  The pairings of readings are absolutely genius.  It's very possibly the best reading plan I've ever used.  So much to say about this one - and about my ongoing delight in reading the whole Bible through every year.  There may be a post in that.

 

...beaten a well worn track to the orthodontist's office, via the bank.  But let me tell you, six weekly trips to an orthodontist at a location far, far away from home with a teenager are worth their weight in gold and orthodontic paraphernalia for unrushed time in the car to chat.  The hidden blessing of crooked teeth.



...travelled with my family to Europe when my husband took long service leave.  Eight glorious weeks.  Yes,  I know. 

 

 ...turned 50.  How did that happen??  But guess what?  It's okay.  In fact, it's great.  I'm liking this decade a lot.

...celebrated 20 years of marriage.  Yay us!

...taken to taking photos of the beach and beds of tulips (not my tulips...these are to be found at the Botanical Garden near our house.)

 

 

...become a basketball mum again after a hiatus of two or three years.  Learning how to score again. 

...watched quite a lot of movies at the cinema, catering to my inner introvert.

...and mastered a few new recipes and conquered scones, having been scarred at high school with a very low mark for cooking because my scones were crooked. 

And of course there is all the normal and good stuff to be found in the daily, weekly, monthly and yearly cycles of life.  Life is goodly full.  We'll see how this return to blogging thing goes. 

Which century to live in?

My flip phone (aka dinosaur phone and dumb phone) is in the death throes.
Some days I think I should get myself technologically up to date.
Some days I think my flip phone has all I need in a mobile phone.
Some days I think having a smart phone would be fun.
Some days I think I don't want all the stuff a smart phone offers at my fingertips.
Some days I think having the answers at my fingertips would be useful.
Some days I think having a flip phone resonates with living simply.
Some days I think I am disadvantaged not having a smart phone.
Some days I wonder why I am making such a big deal of this.
Most days, these days, I know I'm going to need a make a decision soon because there are not many more days left for my flip phone.

Thankful for those who serve us in unbelievably kind ways

My 8 year old went on
this one.  Crazy.

Every year, at about this time, our suburb plays host to an annual show - like a mini-version of the royal show.  There's a side show alley with dodgem cars, laughing clowns and enough rides to keep small and big kids happy, show bags, log chopping, animals on display, all sorts of exhibits, fast food, fairy floss and fireworks at the end of the day.  And it happens a block away from our house - so parking isn't a problem.  (Although sometimes it can be hard to get OUT of our driveway...)

The show committee outsources various roles - set up, pack up, clean up and lots more besides - to community groups, which is great for the community.  For the last four or five years our church has been fortunate enough to score the cleaning gig.  That is, we get to keep the tables clean and the rubbish under control in the food alley and we clean the toilets right around the showgrounds.  (And yes, to put your mind at rest, we do run separate rosters for the tables and the toilets...)

Fortunate?  Yes.

We love to do these jobs, grotty as they are, because doing this sort of work together is a bonding experience.    More so, it gives us an opportunity to serve the community.  We try to do the work joyfully and properly.  It's a great gospel opportunity. 

And I am personally glad to do this work.  Until this year I have been on the table cleaning roster.  Sometimes I've received a warm comment of appreciation.  Most people just ignore us and get on with their eating and having their fun.  Lots of people leave their dead chips, hamburger mess, soggy serviettes and other rubbish on the tables, even though there are rubbish bins just three steps away.  Once someone saw me cleaning the table next door, swept all of their rubbish from the table onto the ground and said to his buddies, "That's OK...she'll pick it up.  It's her job." 

This year I was on the toilet cleaning roster.  We keep on the go.  Each block of toilets is probably cleaned once every half hour or so...so they don't ever get too bad.  But cleaning high use public toilets is never going to be all that much fun. 

I am glad to do these jobs at the show.  I am glad because I only have to do them for a few hours once a year.  But every year it reminds me that there are wonderful people in our community who do awful jobs like this every single day.  They do grotty work and are ignored at best, more often though treated poorly.  This weekend I have been reminded to be grateful, show gratitude whenever the opportunity arises and live considerately.  There are people in our community who serve us in unbelievably kind ways.

The best advice ever

There's lots of good advice out there.

Always eat breakfast.

When you do, rinse the leftover weetbix off the bowl before it sets like cement.

Stick the mobile phone that went through a cycle in the washing machine in a jar of rice to dry it out.  (Not sure if that goes for smart phones...I haven't graduated that far yet.  Actually, I don't think I have ever had to put a phone in a jar of rice...but I'm told it works.)

It's always important to use your manners.

Plan for it to work.

If you have been off work sick, come the afternoon of the day you think, "I am well enough to go back to work tomorrow", go to the supermarket and buy eight things from eight different aisles.  When you get home, if you have enough energy to put all eight items away as soon as get back, then you are well enough to go back to work.  If you need to sit/rest/have a nap first to recover from the shopping trip then you need another day off.

Speak less and listen more.

 

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But what is the best advice I have ever received? 

The best specific advice I have ever received was from a dear, trusted friend, just before our first son was born.  She said, "Five minutes is better than no minutes."  She was referring to Bible reading.  What?  Only five minutes?  But what great advice it turned out to be.  Because having a baby rocked my Bible reading world.  It isn't that mums of new babies don't have time to read.  New mums don't lack time, but what they do lack is a) the capacity to maintain that very wonderful routine of rising early and enjoying a long, uninterrupted quiet time and b) the capacity to concentrate for a long time.  Or even a short time really.  And it was truly good to have my friend's advice in my back pocket for the many times when I was tempted to think, "If I can't have a decent block of Bible reading time then it's just not worth even bothering."  Because it is worth bothering to read even a little bit of the Bible and five minutes is so much better than no minutes in that particular season of life when the big, hour long block just isn't going to happen.

That was advice for a specific time of life...and it was life saving advice. 

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The best, more general advice, I have ever received is this.  Always pray against bitterness.  When bitterness takes hold it escalates into all sorts of horribleness.  Often quickly.  So much can be avoided if bitter thoughts are nipped in the bud.  Bitterness due to some injustice - great or small.  Bitterness wrought of some slow, simmering annoyance.  Bitterness from feeling hard done by.  Bitterness because I am a sinner and prone to bitter thoughts.  I was glad to receive this advice many years ago.  I haven't always been so good at applying it.  But I always look upon it as the best advice I have ever received...and the best advice I would do well to heed. 

See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble.

Hebrews 12:15.

Rules to live by

When I taught year sevens I had three classroom rules.  All three were introduced on the first day of the school year.  

Rule # 1 was issued right at the beginning of the day.  Day one, minute one, every year (apart from my first year of teaching) would go something like this...

"Good morning everyone.  My name is Mrs (insert my surname here) and in this classroom, if you ever think you are going to vomit, there is no need to raise your hand and ask if you can leave the classroom.  You can just run right out the door.  Try to get to the toilet.  Or at least get to somewhere where I won't need to clean the vomit up.  Because if you vomit near me there is every chance I will vomit near you."

It was always a light way to start the school year.  These were the big kids I was talking to and the boys especially seemed to like it.  But I wasn't trying to be all that funny.  It was a classroom rule that was borne out of a Very. Bad. Experience in my first year of teaching involving a sick child and his desk drawer.  Ghastly.

I would introduce rule # 2 a bit later on in the day.  It was more for the boys than the girls and it went like this.

"You will find during this year that you probably need to start wearing deodorant.  And starting from tomorrow you must wear new socks and new undies EVERY day."

Some would look at me aghast.  Why was the need to wear clean underwear such a shock to them?  That's just wrong.  But good for public health purposes to make it right.

Rule # 3 would be introduced at the end of the first day. 

"Be nice to your teacher and be nice to your mummy and all will go well for you."

They would snort and roll their eyes at me for calling their mums "mummy" but eventually they would get used to it.  And they liked it.  It gave them one more year to be small children in a safe place.  And I restated that rule at the end of nearly every school day - hopefully it meant for a good re-entry into family life after a day in the classroom.

 

Turns out these classroom rules transfer into real life.

If you think you are going to vomit, try to be thoughtful of those around you and do it in a courteous manner.
Wear deodorant and clean underwear every day.
Be nice to your teacher (or your boss/those in authority over you/even those with whom you just spend most of the day) and your mummy (or those with whom you share your house) and all will go well for you.

Great rules to live by.  Who would have guessed? 


That moment when...

That moment when I finished my first ever set of school reports, drove straight to a friend's house, put on my tape (yes...cassette tape) of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto and sank into her sofa to the strains of that perfect first movement of the perfect concerto, a huge job behind me and knowing that writing school reports would never be THAT hard again...relaxation.

That moment when I sipped the cup of tea - Harrod's Elderflower and Champagne Tea, no less - served in a fine bone china cup and saucer...bliss.

That moment when I had breakfast out at a restaurant ON A SCHOOL DAY and then came home and danced around the house to "Forever Young" (The Corrs version) because it was the first day of my long service leave...glee.

That moment when I realised, in the dark back streets of Bologna, that I had walked myself off my map having read it upside down...lost.

That moment when I came out of the electrical goods store with my first vacuum cleaner...grown up.

That moment when the real estate agent said our offer on the house had been accepted and no, there weren't going to be counter-offers and counter-counter-offers and yes, the house (and the mortgage) was ours...disbelief.  And slight queasiness.

That moment when I came up the escalator to the waiting area to catch the plane with 20 school children in my charge behind me and saw the faces of all the other adults also waiting to catch that plane drop as they saw the 20 children who would be joining them on the flight...mirth.

That moment when those twenty children, none of whom had ever caught a plane before, let out a collective squeal as the plane took off...priceless.

That moment when I played the whole of the Mozart Flute Concerto, accompanied by an orchestral backing track, completely from memory...sublime.

That moment when, a day later, I played that concerto and three other substantial pieces for a flute exam and failed...gutted.

That moment when I surveyed the contents of my car boot - the things gathered in the moment of forced decision on being evacuated against the threat of bushfire -  defining.

That moment when I prayed to God and said yes, I wanted to live my life fully under His authority - freedom, and the most important moment.

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This is my post for Prompted to Write on the topic of "That Moment When..."  If you would like to join in and write a post on this topic (and take it where you want to) go here for instructions on how to participate.



And peeling off the wrapping on 2013

I still think my theory holds true.  Well, it does for me, anyway.  The first six months of the year are all about energy, getting new things off the ground, having a go.  The second half of the year is the business end of the year - getting stuff done but not trying anything new because it is the end of winter moving into the time of the year when the calendar is overladen.  And so here I am at the start of the year, full of energy - amazing what a few days of laying on the sofa reading a very good book at every possible opportunity (and even stealing a few of the impossible moments) straight after Christmas will do for you - and ready to try some new things.  This is what I'm looking forward to for the year ahead.

Letter writing
This little storm has been brewing for a while.  I do like letter writing very much.  I like writing to friends and I like writing to people who do their job well to say thank you.  I had two little bursts of letter writing last year (and I received some very lovely mail in return) and have decided that this year I want to write one letter a month.  It may end up being more.  But I don't want it to be less.  It is such a relaxing and lovely thing to do.  And it will mean keeping up good Bible reading and good general reading...nothing good in, nothing good out.   And I shall return regularly to Ally's amazing pictorial post about letter writing and the other lovely Ali's post about letter writing for inspiration - just gorgeous.

Bible reading
Going to try out a near relative of my old favourite reading plan.  This year I am going for daily Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs.  This plan will get me through the lot once in the year.  I decided to throw in daily time in the Proverbs after studying this book for six months in a Bible study group during 2012. 

Practising the principles of How to Really Love Your Child

Lots of eye contact - and not just when we are staring them down because we are cross, but lots and lots of warm, happy eye contact.

Lots of physical touch - and Ross Campbell gives a lot of time to the subject of appropriateness in this department and how appropriateness changes as a child gets older.
Lots of focussed attention - not the "I'm half listening to you and half writing my blog post" sort of attention...ahem...

S'pose I better try a bit harder with the cooking...
I got a cooking magazine and have earmarked three new recipes to try this week...jumping in boots and all before I get to the middle of the year and the "getting stuff done and not trying anything new" thing kicks in.  One thing I really want to achieve this year is one of these...



Taken from here.

Not necessarily this one exactly...I am imagining strawberries rather than raspberries.  I'll keep you posted.

And there is one more thing. 
It may or may not have something to do with this.


Taken from here

But I'll talk about that another day, lest it is sounding too much like a New Year's resolution.

Wrapping up 2012

I love this time of year in blogosphere when people look back on the year gone and look forward to the year ahead.  So, 2012 in this neck of the woods.

Stuff I said I'd do...

Reading glasses...Done.  Life changing.  Really. 

Cooking...Adding to the repetoire of weekly meals. 
Epic fail.  Man, mid week meals around here are Oh. So. Boring. 
However...
I could possibly write a recipe book called One Hundred Two Ways with IKEA Meatballs. 
The brief but somewhat intense foray into Tupperware this year means that my hamburgers are so much better and I should mention that for one who is not big on gadgets, I cannot live without the Smooth Chopper.
The boys have learned to eat and appreciate soup this year.
I got a new carbon steel wok for Christmas.  My other wok gave up the ghost (due to my inattention) after fifteen years of good and faithful service.  Looking forward to seasoning this new one and getting it into use.
And the mince pies this Christmas were delicious.

Approach Bible reading differently...This was good.  Really good.  It was excellent to zone in on the prophets (and I only scratched the surface but enough to help me get by for the moment) and then it was quite something to try and race through the whole Bible in chronological order in six months.  I didn't make it through but not to worry.  The thing about the 2012 approach though was that I didn't get near the New Testament in my own personal reading (althrough I did read bits of it in Bible study groups and at church) until half way through November.  I love the Old Testament dearly but I did miss some of my good New Testament friends...so I will doing things a bit differently in the new year.

Add basil and mint to the pot of time on the kitchen windowsill...I got the mint and the basil.  It sat alongside my thyme and a little plant with pink flowers.  The thyme didn't like the pot it was in, never really grew and eventually passed away.  The basil couldn't grow fast enough for my consumption and I ended up a) stripping the plant until it wouldn't grow anymore and b) still needed to buy bunches of the stuff anyway to supplement my measly crop.  The mint however did what it needed to do...and provides me with the odd leaf here and there for drinks, salads and mint sauce.  So the thyme and the basil have gone - and will be purchased by the bunch as needed - and the mint grows alongside the pink flowering plant and another interesting, multicoloured thing.  And that is enough on the kitchen windowsill.

Pray for my friends...Done.  Well, still going really.  What a joy to have a specific prayer project, praying for friends all year. In God's grace they did famously on Kiribati and within their sphere, made a real difference there.  And they managed to get back home just in time for Christmas, despite Hurricane Evan's attempts to keep in them in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for a bit longer.

Reading...

Reading has been a highlight of year. Especially after getting my new reading glasses. Reading has given me rest, joy, things to think about and good things to share.

Favourite book?  That is hard call. I look at my reading list for 2012 and they were all good.  But if I had to narrow it down, Knowing God was an important book to read and wonderful. I will be reading it again - along with 18 Words. And Moby Duck was sensational and life changing.   Where other campaigns have failed, this book has single handedly made me take a serious look at my use of plastics, take my own shopping bags to the grocery store every sing time, tell those kind folks at Subway that I don't need my wrapped roll in a plastic bag that will be dispensed with 10 seconds later, reduced my usage of clingwrap and so on. 

The blog...

Most read post this year - was Infusing Christmas with Christ for Kids - the Jesus Storybook Bible, a post about how the Jesus Storybook Bible could be used as a series of Advent readings that I wrote in November 2009, thanks to some generous linkage by a couple of bloggers whose reach is vast. 

Most read post that I wrote this year - Making the Transition from Children's Ministry to Church.  It's an issue that will never go away, and ultimately it is in God's hands, thankfully.  But good to think about these things. 

My favourite post for the year - One to One Bible Reading - I love this little book that describes the very thing that makes my heart beat...getting people reading their Bibles and furthermore, getting them to love reading their Bibles.

Remember this quote?

Imagine if all Christians, as a normal part of their discipleship, were caught up in a web of regular Bible reading - not only digging into the Word privately, but reading it with their children before bed, with their spouse over breakfast, with a non-Christian colleague at work once a week over lunch, with a new Christian for follow-up once a fortnight for mutual encouragement, and with a mature Christian friend once a month for mutual encouragement.

It would be a chaotic web of personal relationships, prayer and Bible reading - more of a movement than a program - but at another level it would be profoundly simple and within reach of all.

It's an exciting thought!

(It's from from The Trellis and the Vine (page 57) by Tony Payne and Colin Marshall (Matthias Media) and quoted in One to One Bible Reading (page 12) by David Helm.)

New visitors at the blog - I don't really know how many people read this blog but there has been an interesting development in the stats that Blogger provides. It turns out that most of the Key to the Door readers are from Australia, which makes perfect sense. Second in line is the U.S. and I can account for that. Fourth is Chile and surprisingly, I can account for the Chileans too. (Hi guys!!) And fifth is the U.K. But in third place - and only since this year and it happened all of a sudden - is Russia. I'm not sure how you found me, but to those of you in Russia, a warm HELLO and WELCOME.

And life itself...

And of course there many other good and noteworthy things, some of which made it to the blog and others that didn't... seeing Stuart Townend perform and also singing lots of his songs in church, taking in three symphony performances, a holiday housesitting for friends who live much closer to the beach than we do while they went elsewhere on holiday, friends moving near us and then delivering meals to us at times when they knew we were stretched, agapanthus and rose success in the garden (although I understand now why you prune your roses in July and not in September if you want to enjoy your blooms for longer than two weeks before the hot weather sets in) and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel...  All of which makes me wonder about reprising the status reports to catch glimpses of the small but special stuff along the way.  What do you think?  (And if I do, any fellow bloggers out there want to come along for the ride and make it a feature of our blogs month by month?)

And there were the struggles that come with any year too.  The nights of little sleep and much prayer.  The days of being stretched.   The sorrows, irritations and struggles.  Interestingly, instead of tacking "Happy New Year" onto the end of the "Merry Christmas" bit as I wrote my Christmas cards this year, I found myself saying, "And may you know all the through the year ahead how much God has already blessed us through His Son Jesus Christ."  We always hope the year ahead will be happy - but we know that that every year will have its ups and its downs.   But we have been blessed right out of our socks already before we even start because of Jesus.  No matter what happened, 2012 was a year of great blessing.   And happily, 2013 will be the same.

Dispelling a rumour and crossing over to the dark side

There is a bit of a rumour going around that I'm a tea snob.  It's been circulating for years.  And I may or may not have contributed to it with...

...the oft regaled tales of the tea making ritual in my family home - warm the pot AND the cups (certainly no teabags there), take the pot TO the kettle otherwise the water won't be at maximum boiling point, DON'T stir the tea while it is brewing, milk first and tea second...

...insisting in days of old when friends said, "Let's go out for a coffee," on saying, "Yes, let's go out for a cup of tea," until several just got used to saying, "Let's go out for a cup of tea" even though most of them would be drinking coffee...

...continuing to say, when friends drop over, "Would you like a cup of tea?" and then remembering to offer coffee a bit further down the track. (I wonder how many people drink tea at our house purely out of politeness)...

...a year of putting funny little quotes about tea on Facebook as I worked my way through a quote-a-day-about-tea calendar a year or two ago...

But the truth is, I'm no tea snob.  It doesn't have to be teapot tea.  Teabag tea is fine.  OK.  Got that little one cleared up.  But there's more.

You see, I need to say that I recently crossed over to the dark side.  No, I haven't become a coffee drinker.   (Insert personal message here to my two dear tea drinking friends who have recently discovered coffee - I still love you, even if in one case I am still speechless!)

I crossed to an even darker place than that.

I now drink decaffeinated tea.  Decaffeinated. Teabag. Tea.

I used to wonder at the whole decaf thing.  If you are going to drink tea it may as well have the caffeine in it.  (And how do they decaffeinate it anyway??)  But I don't actually drink tea for the caffeine hit.  I drink tea to have a warm drink.  And alas, whereas once if I didn't fall asleep within three minutes of hitting the pillow I thought I had insomnia, in recent months sleep has been somewhat elusive.  So I decided to drink decaf tea during the evening to see if that made a difference.  And having got used to it, I find myself drinking it most of the time now when I'm at home. 

My sleep is good again.  The tea in its decaf rendering is fine.  And I'm not a tea snob.  Although I still prefer to drink it from a reasonably fine cup or mug.  Chunky cups just won't do.  That's all.

2011 - Starting it without a list!

As I reflect back on the last few years, there seems to be a definite pattern forming.  The year starts fresh with new hope, and the quiet month of January provides refreshment and restores energy.  I leap into madcap schemes somewhat rashly in this month of quiet and energy - start a blog, join Facebook, sign up to be on the Taste Test team for an edition of a cooking magazine - and also plan for the things that will fill my year.  And then life gets going a-new during February - new school year, new groups, new things to do.   Things bubble away for a few months with enthusiasm. 

And then, well, it's not that the enthusiasm runs out, but the weather gets cold, the things that were in the planning stages in committees during the first half of the year need action in the second half of the year, other things crop up, people get sick, life gets busy.  The second half of the year is the business end of the year - not a time for new schemes, but a time to get stuff done. 

And then it starts over again.

So, here we are.  The first day 2011.  I don't have any madcap schemes brewing as yet.  But there is still time.  The blog, the Facebook account and the email to the cooking magazine all happened spontaneously in mid-January, just after my birthday, so something crazy may yet happen! 

In terms of a deeper perspective on the year, I am tempted at one level to write a big list of my hopes, dreams, goals, plans and yes, New Year's resolutions and send it out into cyberspace.  I DO love a list and I DO love to plan!!  And it would be all too easy to fill every moment of every day.  Indeed I could overfill a week with ease, such are the possibilities.

But I know that I am at the threshold of the fresh, enthusiastic part of the year.  I need to remember that just four days ago I was at the very end of the business end of the year and could barely drag myself around for tiredness.

And I know that I face another year of transition, as both of our boys will be in school full time for the first time. I think that most of the thinking/work on this subject is done.  But I imagine there will be some new, strange and difficult moments to navigate. 

And my thoughts keep returning to a friend's wise, wise advice to keep a "lazy diary" - making sure we don't over-commit in the early part of the year because things will take longer than we expect, we WILL get sick at some stage in the year and we want to leave time in our lives to respond to the people and the opportunities that God gives us - things nowhere to be found in a year planner on the 1st January, hard as we might try to plan for all eventualities.

It's not that I don't feel a sense of optimism for the year to come.  I stand here looking out on 2011 with great hope.  But this year marks the beginning of a new phase with no small children at home or routine paid employment to head out to each day.  I don't want to be overcautious nor do I plan to be lazy in the true sense of the word (tempting as that big, lovely tin of T2 English Breakfast tea leaves I got for Christmas and the new list on my sidebar...oops!  there's a list!!!...of books I'd like to be reading during 2011 might be.)  At the other end of the spectrum there is the danger of over-progamming the week.  There is PLENTY I could be doing but in the end, being spread too thinly helps no-one and leaves no room to respond to the unexpected.

So, here we are - 1st January 2011.  No lists.  Well, there is a list (besides the book list.)  It's a prayer list - a list of options and possibilities to be prayed through.  And I pray that by February I'll have a clearer sense of what this year is going to look like - and if I don't then I am happy for this to take longer.

Happy New Year.

Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Psalm 90:12

2010 in lists

At the beginning of 2010 I joined Facebook.  An application popped up recently that allowed you to discover which ten words you used most frequently during the year.  My top ten were...

1:  Tea 
(I have had one of those "Quote a day" calendars dedicated to tea on my fridge this year.  Couldn't help but share a few of the gems found there in, although when this list came up I did wonder about have "Tea" before "God"!)
2:  God
3:  Jesus
4:  Reading
5:  School
6:  Book
7:  Club
(Frequent references to The Calvin Club and yes Cathy, I am back on board for 2011!!  I have one bookmark at Chapter 10 and another at Chapter 12...)
8:  Bible
9:  Great
10: Happy

What then is the view of 2010 from surveying this blog?  Apart from the various posts where I signed off from blogging (not once but twice...ridiculous...just ignore it if I do that again!), here are the posts that generated the most comments this year...

1. A Difficult transition
2. Epiphany
3. God is always good
4. How I won the vegie war
5. Highlights from Raising Boys
6. Meredith - Masterchef for the month of May
7. The year of the roast - 30th March 2010

The major decision that dominated the first half of the year, parenting, reading, cooking, reflecting on God.  These posts didn't just rise to the surface because of the number of comments either.  Apart from some of the lists that I have on my sidebar, the Stat Counter suggests that these are the ones that people seem to revisit the most.

In our annual family Christmas letter we each listed our top five highlights of the year.  Mine were...

1. Attending not one but TWO symphony concerts during the year, one of which included the most perfect performance you’ll ever hear of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 – “The Emperor” – with soloist French pianist François-Frédéric Guy.
2. The family holiday on Rottnest Island. Finding two baby mice having a party in our food box one morning was funny. Sitting on the beach with [one of our sons], sheltering from the rain under beach towels was gorgeous.
3. Being a member of the “Taste Test Team” for an edition of an Australian cooking magazine – which entailed testing four recipes and writing reviews – and receiving a Kenwood hand mixer for those efforts. The Pears in Parchment were truly excellent!
4. Rediscovering the joy of reading again. Fifteen books – a mix of fiction and non-fiction - under the belt for 2010. Looking forward to another fifteen (or more) in 2011.
5. Drinking tea – with [my husband] (while he had coffee!), with friends and family, while reading the Bible in the morning – good to have the time to drink the tea hot in good company and to get to the bottom of the cup for the first time in a few years.

In lots of ways these three lists wrap the year up pretty well.  Of course there were many other things that don't rise to the surface because maybe they happen in some form every year - or they can't rise to the surface because they just aren't my stories to tell...

1. The deepening of relationships with others here on earth and with God.
2. The stuff of family life.
3. Meeting new friends and farewelling others to other parts of the world and to heaven.
4. The handful of particularly good Scripture lessons.
5. The a-HA moments during personal prayer and Bible reading.
6. The privilege of walking alongside others practically and prayerfully as they circumnavigated the year in all its joys and tragedies, that in turn shaped my own life.
7. The letters penned and received.

These lists lean mostly towards the positive and don't give audience to the harder times of the year, which, like every year, were there.  Every year will bring good times and hard times - sometimes driven by circumstance and sometimes by attitude.  I am thanking God for 2010 and praying to grow in grace - to be genuinely grateful for the good times that lay ahead and to travel the tough times that will also come in a way that honours God all through the new year ahead.

But I trust in you, LORD;

I say, “You are my God.”

My times are in your hands.

Psalm 31:14,15a

Looking Through the Window at the Old People's Home

Just before I finished up teaching seven and a half years ago, my boss invited me into his office for a chat.  We often chatted about things deeper than classroom management and staffroom politics.  On this day he described a scene from his weekend to me.  He'd been to visit his dad.  On his arrival at the aged care facility where his dad lived, he stood a while in the doorway of the common room regarding his dad and the three friends he was sitting with, chatting while they were waiting for their visitors.  His dad had been a high ranking official with the police force.  With him was a man who finished his working life the CEO of a middle sized business, one who had been a gardener and one who had been a rubbish collector. 

An outsider looking in would never have guessed at the career disparity amongst that group of four - because there was no disparity.  They all belonged.  In their final years, how they spent their working lives mattered little.  What mattered, he observed, as he sat with his father that afternoon, was who received visitors that afternoon and furthermore, what the quality of those relationships was like - and how that played out depended upon how life had been lived alongside those careers.  It didn't pan out as you might expect at first glance either.

That conversation has never left me.

[Top photo from Microsoft Online Clip Art.  Bottom photo from my camera]

For SMR with my love and prayers.

You are near–yes, Lord, I feel it–

You are near wherever I rove;

And though sense would try conceal it,

Faith often whispers it to love.

Am I fearful? You will take me

Underneath Your wings, my God!

Am I faithless? You will make me

Bow beneath Your chastening rod.

Am I drooping? You are near me,

Near to bear me on my way;

Am I pleading? You will hear me–

Hear and answer when I pray.

Then, O my soul, since God does love you,

Faint not, droop not, do not fear;

For, though His heaven is high above you,

He Himself is ever near.

by Octavius Winslow

Dishonesty at the Pool

I've spent each morning for the last two weeks watching children doing their swimming lessons in what is a great Western Australian tradition - Vac Swim - two weeks of lessons for a $1 a day during the summer holidays. Vac Swim has been around for seventy one years now.

Sitting on the sidelines watching the boys have their lessons brought back memories of the Vac Swim lessons I took as a child. The terror of learning to dive and having to duck dive for the teacher's whistle in the deep end of the big pool.  The joy of being allowed to buy a packet of potato chips from the vending machine after the last lesson. Coming home with another certificate having passed the next stage. Green hair and red, stinging eyes from the chlorine.

And today, as one of the boys was tested to see if he will pass his current stage, I remembered how I fudged my way through not one but two swimming tests.  The first was in the very early stages.  We were required to swim freestyle across the width of the pool - eight lanes in all.  I could do the arms.  I could do the kicking.  I could turn my head to the side every second stroke to facilitate breathing.  But I just couldn't manage to take a breath!  And so when being tested, I took in a huge lungful of air and swam as fast as I could to the other side.  It all looked OK and I made it to the other side, lungs bursting. 

I passed.  (Without passing out!!)

Much later down the track when I doing life saving lessons, one of the things required of us was to demonstrate resuscitation.  Every time we practised this we did it for two minutes, pretending to resuscitate a partner, who would count how many cycles we went through.  One breath every five seconds...two minutes...twenty four breaths.  Text book.  When it came to the test, my partner counting my cycles, I got to twenty four and then thirty six.  I thought I must be going way too fast...nerves during the exam!  And so I whispered to my partner that she should say, when asked at the end of the exercise, that I had done twenty four cycles.  And then I revised that to thirty when time seemed to drag on. 

Examiner:  How many cycles did Meredith do?

Partner:  Thirty.

Examiner to Meredith: That seems very slow.  Show me what you were doing.

Meredith demonstrates perfectly timed cycles every five seconds.

Examiner: You must have been going a bit slowly or maybe your partner didn't count correctly.  I did let the exercise go on for a few minutes.  (Meredith did not correct this situation and defend her partner who, at the age of twelve or there abouts, could of course count to forty eight.)  But you seem to be doing just fine now.

And I passed.

So naughty!!

"Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity.  Use honest scales and honest weights, an honest ephah and an honest hin."  Leviticus 19:35,36a 

Was 2009 the Year of Optimism?

The other day I was perusing my notebook and found a list labelled "2009". Here's what was on that list in bold print - and how I went in plain text.

JOBS
Put shelf and mirror up in guest toilet. No. Still on the list.
Smoke alarms in boys' bedrooms. No. But now that we're back into fire season it is on my mind to get onto this again.
Clear out spare room. No.
Sort out the garden. Well, I've made a very small start.

GOALS
Bible reading and prayer. Being more regular, more thorough, more disciplined...it's a given on any list of goals for any year. Always room for improvement.
Be more deliberate about housework. Mmmmmm...I did sweep the floor under the table where the boys eat a lot.
Read other books - alternating fiction and non fiction. Gave up fiction except during the holidays. Small success with non fiction.
Respond to letters and emails from missionaries by email as soon as the letters have arrived. Alas, no.
Write one encouraging letter per week. Had a good month in May. Otherwise, I did what I vowed I wouldn't do. I let blogging get in the way of letter writing.

Well, at least I have saved myself a job. I don't need to think of any New Year's resolutions for 2010. I can just recycle the list from this year!!!

When I started this blog at the beginning of the year I mentioned that a friend and I had declared 2009 to be The Year of Optimism. Looking at my list of underachievements for the year you might guess that The Year of Optimism didn't live up to its designation.

But no. In fact it has been The Year of Optimism. And I think there are probably three good reasons.

Firstly, my husband and I have been married for eleven year and this has been the first year of our marriage that has been uneventful. This is the first year in eleven years that we were able to stand together, looking out on the horizon of the year ahead at the beginning of the year, without anticipating the death of a parent, the birth of a child, moving house, moving church, leaving a job, swapping from worker to student or student back to worker, a diagnosis of a serious illness, having to make a major decision that was going to be life changing. We were looking at our first ever ordinary year together. Which is not to say that stuff didn't happen. It did. But we were able to face the year more steadily because there was nothing looming when the year started.

Secondly, our youngest boy has been emerging from the toddler years. Joy. We have entered that golden five or so years when both boys are neither toddlers nor teenagers. Which again, is not to say that stuff won't happen. But as a primary school teacher, I know the primary years to be a steady time of a child's life. And we are loving it.

Thirdly, I think in declaring that this year would be the Year of Optimism up front has given me an incentive and a determination to think optimistically. It's a little trick of the mind really, a way of training the brain. Yes, there were times when I felt far from optimistic this year. However for the most part, if I said it was The Year of Optimism then I was determined that I would finish it being able to say that yes, it was The Year of Optimism.

So what of next year? The United Nations has declared it The International Year of Biodiversity - a celebration of life on earth and of the value of biodiversity for our lives where the world is invited to take action in 2010 to safeguard the variety of life on earth.

I'm going for something much simpler.
2010 - The Year of..
Yes, you'll have to come back tomorrow to find out.