persecuted for righteousness sake

I am enthusiastically awaiting my first night at Bible Study Fellowship. I have been so keen to be in a group Bible study again! The Bible study will spend the year looking at the book of Matthew. I have been reading through Matthew with Joshua each morning as well - it has led to lots of interesting discussions.

We looked at the Beatitudes and particularly "blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven". This then led us on to talking about precious Christians around the globe who suffer for Christ. We looked at some particular articles from the Barnabus Aid magazine - just a shocking reminder of how desperately we need to come on our knees about these fellow believers. Joshua was particularly concerned for a boy of 12 or 13 in Vietnam we read about who refused to leave his church and was beaten until unconscious (by security forces). His family later came and carried him home, unconscious. The article said he is still unable to walk. I know... there are loads of these cases everywhere... some just too graphic and heart-wrenching to read to my boy.

...Yes, there are so many who are physically persecuted for His name sake!

Spare some time in prayer for them tonight!

The glue pot

I have had a crazy day (most are)! It seemed that everyone needed me at once - one needing the potty, one asking questions about school work and groaning about the amount I set... and one following me around and whining...

...then there was the glue pot! Somehow Joshua managed to spill (and just stood there calling for help - while it kept on spilling) a rather large amount of glue on his desk and down onto the floor...

I just about lost it - but instead I wrote this rather wacky poem... please excuse the fact that it was put together in a short space of time and lacks some of the qualities of real poetry...

Glue Pot

The glue from that pot
Made a very large spot
And the spot from that pot
On the floor it got

And the very cranky Mum
saw the glue from that pot
On the floor - a large spot
and lost it!

The boy with the glue
Used his hands, it is true,
Yelled aloud with that pot
Still on the floor it got

Then wondering what to do
Stood and watched the sticky glue
While mother fussed around
with a frown

On a folder it got,
The glue from that pot
In the carpet it sank
My son looked so blank

Cleaning up was not fun
For the glue had just run
And now it spread wide
While the cloth he applied

I must be mature
And for glue spills - a cure?
The glue from that pot
Made me bald on the top

The boy with that glue
Is mine, oh it's true
But the boy with the bottle
His neck I could throttle!

After much wiping round
It begins to look sound
And now that it is clean
I realise I've been mean

So this one cranky Mum
Must speak sweetly to her son
While the glue that is set
Will need more cleaning yet

And this Mum, as she calms
With her boy in her arms
Hears a voice from the hall
And a younger boy's call

She waddles to his mess
Could this be a test?
For this boy holds that pot
Which is dripping a great lot!

Nature Journaling

Great to catch up with some lovely friends - this was the day Josh had been waiting for (see blog re. fork lift) The kids ate lunch in the cubby house, bounced on the trampoline and then did some scientific investigating of creepy crawlies! They found a grub, snails, a bee (with very pollen-laden back legs) and other little bugs under the surface of the bark. Out came the magnifying glass and pencils and they sketched away. The grub was quite a funny creature and was crawling along upside down in the tank...

Moving Days (literally)

Joshua has been looking forward to some friends coming over on Thursday. He has been talking about it a lot - in fact here's what he said this morning which made me smile:

He was holding this fork lift in his hand

- moving the prongs up and down - and he said "Mum, I can't wait until Thursday... I wish I could just lift up the days (here he did a demo) and move them out of the way so I could get to Thursday!"

answers to prayer

It has been lovely to see some answers to our prayers lately in our local church. On Sunday I was looking around the church to see more precious faces coming to worship. There were quite a few children, too. One sweet lady from the church arranged to bring colouring sheets and pencils for the kids. I watched Joshua's eyes light up when so many kids showed up - he was racing to hand out the colouring sheets. There was a little discussion after the service about a Sunday School starting up soon - WOW - so many prayers answered or in the process of being answered. What an encouragement to Joshua in particular who has prayed for these things with us! Thankyou Lord!

Sunday evening service at Grace was also a great encouragement from the last sermon of Stephen before he was martyred (Acts 7).
David so selflessly and voluntarily takes Owen and Rosa out during church when they squalk (and that has been every week for some time now) so that I can take in the message (he listens via. connection in Creche).

Imaginative play

I went to check on the boys this afternoon and this is how I found them. They were having such a lovely picnic! Ah, to be a child again!

I thank you Lord for the imagination,

for brothers having fun together

and for the sound of their happy voices

Let All Things Now Living

We sang this song together as a family tonight (Daddy's choice) from our hymn books. It is still singing away in my head - such a lovely tune and words of praise

Katherine K. Davis, 1892Music:
A traditional Welsh melody.

Let All Things Now Living
Let all things now living a song of thanksgiving
To God the creator triumphantly raise.
Who fashioned and made us, protected and stayed us,
Who still guides us on to the end of our days.
God's banners are o'er us,
His light goes before us,
A pillar of fire shining forth in the night.
Till shadows have vanished and darkness is banished
As forward we travel from light into light.
His law he enforces, the stars in their courses
And sun in its orbit obediently shine;
The hills and the mountains, the rivers and fountains,
The deeps of the ocean proclaim him divine.
We too should be voicing our love and rejoicing;
With glad adoration a Song let us raise
Till all things now living unite in thanksgiving:
"To God in the highest, Hosanna and praise!"

...Do you know, I just realised this song has a Scientific Error in it - (it was written in 1892). According to what I was taught - the Sun doesn't actually orbit... perhaps it should be changed to the earth in its orbit...

Oh well, I guess that was the scientific understanding of the time - the God of the hymn hasn't changed however !!

Poetry rib-tickling

Poetry can be a lot of fun - and Josh and I have had stitches today over some of the crazy/nonsensical poems he has come up with. We took this simple poem:

To market, to market to buy a fat pig,
Home again, home again, jiggety jig;

To market to market to buy a fat hog,
Home again, home again, jiggety-jog.

We discussed which verses rhyme and wrote out the rhythm/syllable pattern of each verse. The tricky part for Josh was thinking of rhyming words which actually kind of related to
eachother... here is his first attempt - which had Dave and I laughing (perhaps it was the way he read it):

To Brisbane, to Brisbane to get a big hug
Home again, home again, sug, nug, tug wug!
(too much Dr. Seuss?)

And another one... (very boyish)

To Brisbane, to Brisbane to buy a big fish,
Home again, home again, cook in a dish;

To Brisbane, to Brisbane to buy a fat toad,
Home again, home again, squished on the road!

By the way, here is a helpful site for any homeschoolers/interested parents who frequent my blog. I stumbled across this in my searching for poetry help:

http://www.kathimitchell.com/poemtypes.html

sharing birthday cake with friends

We trotted on down to Owen's Prep. class on Friday to share some birthday cake with Owen and his friends. When we arrived, one of Owen's friends came up and gave me a bear hug. We walked down to Owen's class and eventually the rest of the class followed after their outdoor play. We say happy birthday, munched on cake and were invited to join in the afternoon program.

I thank the Lord for Owen's teacher and the teacher aides there. There are certainly a lot of needs amongst so few children - one constantly running off, another squealing, one rolling around on the floor and another stony silent. Each precious little one seemed to respond, however and seemed to have some idea of the routine - which to me is just incredible in any group of Special needs kids. They had most kids singing along, playing (or rather banging very loudly in most cases!) instruments and freezing when the music stopped.

Nanna Mulky

Owen and I enjoyed the treat of eachother's company on Thursday - just the two of us ( I think this might be a first, too!). I took Owen late night shopping to try and find him a trike/bike with training wheels that might encourage Owen to learn to pedal. Alas, we found nothing that was suitable as his legs are just too short or the peddles too far forward (physio) recommended having them directly below bottom so that gravity can also help with peddaling and transition to a two wheel bike is easier...

Well, we didn't find a trike but we had fun together. Owen seemed to just soak up all the extra attention he was getting and got quite giggly. We enjoyed some snuggles and a "nanna mulky" - milk shake. He got some smiles from the lady in Wendys when he peeked Over the counter, waiting for Mum to get an extra straw. Here is Owen, proud as punch!