Thursday, December 27, 2012

Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Lady bird backpack sewn by me

Three cheeky chickens

Ukulele lessons with Nan

"This is exactly what I wanted!!"

What can it be?

I love my Nan

The boys with their toys...
Beer. Lounge. Book. Happy. :)

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Why we don't do the santa thing

Yes, it's that time of year, when I rave about that Santa fellow. Quite frankly, he irritates me.

Growing up, I came across this proverb and it spoke volumes to me:
Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death 
is the man who deceives his neighbour and says, “I am only joking!”
With this in mind, why would I take advantage of the trust of my children to feed them a fairy tale which it will only take them a few years to discover is a complete falsehood?

Now lets do a comparison of St Nicholas (yes, the real fellow who actually lived) and Santa Claus.

Good old Nick - he had an encounter with God, which resulted in him looking at others in a new light too. He became heart-broken for the poor, and used his inheritance to help pull others out of poverty. What an inspiring story!

Santa Claus? Well, strictly speaking, his name is an English variation of St Nick, but he has somehow transformed into this rotund fellow, who encourages a 'what can I get' mindset (rather than 'what can I give'), and encourages us to behave in a patronising manner to our children and lie to them. Not to mention the rich kids get the presents from 'santa' that the poor kids families cannot afford - what does that tell our children? Not to mention that he relies on parents to constantly cover his tracks (presents) because he is completely powerless to do anything himself. I get a little tired of people writing in to columns declaring that they still believe in santa - is he really worth it if you need to go to so much effort to produce the fairy tale and buy his presents for him each year?

I personally would like my children to know that I will always speak the truth to them to the best of my ability, and therefore they can trust me. And trust breeds trustworthiness, does it not?

I mean, whose birthday is it, anyway? Let's think about this for a minute: God loved everyone in the world so much, that even before He created them, even knowing they were going to stuff up, reject Him, spit in His face, He put a plan into action which would sacrifice His own son so that these people would not have to suffer the consequences of their stuff-ups. Forgiveness. Adoption into His family. Blessings without limit. That's way more good news to me than a once-a-year fellow handing out barbie dolls to the rich....

For those still questioning... there is a truckload of evidence out there to find! You could start with Lee Strobel. Or even better: ask God himself to show you if He's real.

Here endeth the rave.

Merry Christmas!

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Friday, October 5, 2012

Back home

We had a lovely week in Brisbane, camping and conference-ing. It's always nice to be back home, though. And nice that some flowers survived our absence.... not that I give them any attention when I'm here... except through the lens... perhaps I should water them sometimes??




Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Clothing refashion

A plain and boring t-shirt into a much more interesting one. I think so, anyway!



A bit of slicing and dicing, changing buttons, and adding a hood to this jacket has made it so very comfortable. I love the urban-style. And the walking foot and jeans needle on my sewing machine made sewing through all those layers a walk in the park. I kept raving about it. Honestly. I think Don was very close to rolling his eyes!