We're moving!

Not literally.
At least, not this week anyway (though we are going to an auction next week and will bid if it's the right price - but Father Bear expects the bidding to *start* at our limit - like the last one we went to!!!!)

My change of address is in cyberspace.
The hilariously-makes-you-laugh-out-loud-funny Sarah, who writes The Funniest Blog in The World commented on a discussion board that Wordpress leaves Blogger for dead. She gave some pretty compelling reasons as to why this is so....and I determined to show her how much I value her professional opinion and Made The Move. This time yesterday she was wishing she had not given any unsolicited advice as I emailed her every hour or so with very particular not confined to blondes technical unique to wordpress problems. I'm sure she would have given me undivided attention except that Karen (who recently moved from just-round-the-corner-to-me to very-far-away-from-me-and-not-too-far-from-Sarah) went to visit her. That would not have been so bad in and of itself - they could have emailed me together....but the visit meant that Sarah, who is obviously a Very Good Hostess, went out to buy milk, because she had visitors coming. And so I was left in the lurch without any help whatsoever until late at night when she was supposed to be doing business administration. Sarah's big trip out to the dairy caused me to drop from her memory and I suspect Karen-n-Sarah spent the day yakking instead of checking for my emails - I'm sure it didn't take All Day to buy milk.
Ah well, all's well that ends well.
Which reminds me, you don't know that all was not well.
At least not HOW BAD it was.

Wordpress is meant to be amazingly better.
It has more options and more themes and better commenting facilities and easier editing functions and fancy schmancy things called Widgets (that's the bit that sold it to me I think - coz let's face it, you only need one theme and you do nothing with the remaining 732 that you don't choose, except perhaps wonder if they would have looked better.....or, if you're like me, you try them all first and in the process lose half your posts and upload pictures that take over the whole computer screen).
I think you're starting to get the picture.
Wordpress was not all roses.
It ate an entire blog. It chewed up my header photo and spewed it out split into three horizontally. It would not let me access the kids' blog and suggested I transfer all hundred-and-something blogposts manually. It insisted on putting my pages in alphabetical order even when I ordered them numerically. And right back at the beginning it didn't tell me I would be stuck with my username forever....if I'd known that I would never have chosen a name with nineteen letters!
I still haven't worked out how to do anything with photos, but that is an invalid complaint right now as Father Bear played with the computer the other night and now the camera and computer are not talking to each other so I can't get photos anyway.
The camera and computer might not be talking, but Father Bear was talking to me. I have a sneaking suspcion that he got a bit nervous about my very nonchalant dropping of new words like "widget" into dinnertime conversation. Now you need to know I will never be mistaken for a techno-geek. Never. Father Bear, on the other hand, could be. Well, only if you heard him talking. If you *saw* him your fears would be allayed, because he really is quite stunningly striking/debonair/spunky/just plain gorgeous - tall, dark and handsome, that's him (though the dark now has to refer to his skin tone and not hair colour as that is becoming speckled).
Anyway, Computer Consultant Father Bear must have been a tad disconcerted that Blonde Wife could use a technical term he had not taught her (in fact, that was probably the hair to break the camel's back - she had been caught doing her own html-ing a few weeks earlier - the first html episode left Father Bear with a slight smile of admiration shimmering on his face, but this widget-talk turned the admiration to threatening-behaviour-alert)....and so he got involved in my blogworld....he even solved one of the Problems (quite funny really, in teaching me the solution, he talked about gif and png.....to Father Bear that is a such-n-such file "just like bitmaps or something else he said that I can't remember and didn't understand at the time"....to me they are gifs and penguins! I told you I wouldn't be mistaken for Computer Geek!)

There you have it. The transition from Blogger to Wordpress.
Here's the link.
Don't try this at home yourself unless you have a Sarah - and make sure you buy her a bottle of milk before you start.

he'll wish he didn't tell

Father Bear came home yesterday saying, "They need someone to deliver the programme in China in February"
My Excitement Metre raced off the scale!!!! It has a habit of doing that.
Within one second I had worked out that would mean two summers in a row - and right now, in the throes of week after week of drizzle and downpour, the concept was instantly appealing. The next second was devoted to wondering whether this summer's clothes would be suitable for China. Affirmative. Second three and I was on to organising passports, vaccinations and visas.
Then I remembered my TO DO list. "The Trip Planning" hasn't even made it on there yet!!!! That's still at-the-back-of-my-mind. There's no way we could be ready for The Big Trip in six months' time.

I slept on it.

And woke to tell Father Bear there's Definitely No Way We Could Do It.
I think I heard an audible sigh of relief!

BUT......

New day. New thought. New research.

What if we went up for the February - April stint and then returned for three months....and then continued with The Trip as per the original plan? My Live In Fear Of Global Warming Friends would certainly be scared by such a proposition.
*All*Those*Air*Miles*
But as I've said before, I am yet to be convinced that it is anything more than political hype.
So my conscience is clear.

We could do our planning while we're up there. No interruptions.

But if we went up there now, could we afford to do The Trip? Gut instinct (aka Father Bear) gloomily predicted it would cost (before you read how much he said, I need to insert a footnote and I'll do it right here to save you the trouble of scrolling to the bottom of the page: Father Bear has been known to err on the side of caution in the past, very much so, in fact. Which is why I have become an Expert in the Field of Creative Accounting. It's probably his caution that got the mortgage paid off - that, and his Amazing Miracle Number Crunching Computer Programme he wrote. Anyway, as I was saying, he thought that to go up to China now-ish would cost....) $50,000 - or did he say $60,000? I forget. Either way it was way higher than my guesstimate-based-on-careful-research - insert cheeky grin here -;-) Unless my figurings are wrong (and they might be, but check my track record, it's never happened before), I work it out at $3993. That seems pretty cheap for ten people for three months of *Cultural Exchange*. It would also give us the opportunity to "try before we buy" the Big Concept of traipsing right round the world potentially forever.

Can you feel my excitement?
I've even sent the kids to play outside so I can write because the rain has stopped and I'm feeling sorry for them all cooped up inside for days on end.
Isn't it funny how you can sit down at the keyboard with just a vague idea of saying "I got excited that Father Bear might take us to China sooner rather than later, but it's not going to happen after all".....but what comes out is a full story about global warming, our mortgage, How My Brain Works, what kind of people we are and justifications for today's parenting methodology. Intricate Simplicity!

to do take two

aka Listmaking 200

Principle 1:
You gotta cross things off (would be great if someone could teach me how to do those little crossing-out-lines on your blog)
Principle 2:
You gotta revise what's already there in case you've changed your mind
Principle 3:
You gotta add some more

So here's the revised list a couple of weeks on:
TO DO LIST
Sub-heading 1: SEWING
*winter clothes All done except for three buttonholes, which J12 could do herself. So consider it done - it's no longer on my list!
*summer clothes definitely too cold to be thinking about summer clothes yet - put on hold
*The Trip clothes cannot be started before Summer Clothes are finished so Put On Hold.
*Christmas stuff I've been doing for three years *this is the year* but not till December, so I don't even need to think about this one yet either.
*pencil rolls soon....sooon.....these ones are making me feel guilty
*quilts (should be a subheading of its own given that there's Father Bear's to bind STILLaha, maybe it doesn't need binding - Sharon got to use it when she was here and it's been on our bed ever since....., J12's to finish before her birthdayI went so far as getting it off the shelf to show Sharon....oh there's still soooooo much to do on it...as soon as the Blue Quilt is bound I'll be working on this one....September will be here before I know it, a pink one cut out and half sewn, fabric for at least four more sitting thereno hurry on these - they are now officially packed away for A Rainy Day (of which we have been having plenty!))
*redwork embroidery wall hanging suffering similar fate to above quilts
*snowman wall-hangings...don't ask! December

Sub-heading 2: KNITTING
*vests (ER1, M4, L6, K8, K9, J11, J12) M4's is very nearly done!! wool is wound into balls for the girls' ones and L6's.
*hats (L6, K9, J11, J12, me, Father Bear) mine is done, but now I add another one for M4 coz I've imagined-up a funky pattern to match his vest and there's gonna be stacks of wool left over
*mittens for J12
*cardy for me (just a plain old sensible boring one....and if I ever get time, I've seen some really funky patterns for wild ones - it's no longer going to be totally boring - I'm going to do some Nicky Epstein fancy patterns on it somewhere)
*socks progress made - remember this?
*giant cooking bag that'll be the summer camping project
*needle holders (really not an essential item at this point in time, but I started on this project and would like to FINISH it) and I'll take them camping too!
*cotton dishcloths (some for us and some for Helen - as promised) eager to do some in the pattern I used for the collar - might just happen soon
*nativity collection (well, when I bought that booklet, I *knew* it was a put-away-until-much-later thing, but I just love it and so I can hardly wait to start) definitely not yet. Plus I can't decide whether I want to do it all in cream wool or in bright funky colours. Not to worry, I have a few years to make up my mind!

Sub-heading 3: READING (books on my shelf that I want to devote some serious time to)
*Don Quixote
*The War on the Poor
*American Adventure Series all 48 of them
*Mollison on Permaculture
*The Blessing
*Endangered Minds we've lent this to someone and I haven't written down WHO...if it's YOU, please drop me a line and let me know coz Father Bear is asking for it.
*The Hurried Child
*The Overload Syndrome
*Complete Charlotte Mason Series
*Houses That Change the World
*A Landscape with Dragons
*Is There Life After Housework?
*Pilgrim's Progress
*PET
*borrowed The Long Emergency from the library. RIVETTING. Nothing happening with any of the others! Expect a review.

Sub-heading 4: THINKING
*non-adversarial parenting now also called non-confrontational in my mind, but I'm looking for a positive term
*response to The Continuum Concept formulating - does talking about it this weekend count?
*my work

Sub-heading 5: OTHER
*Christmas scrapbook
*J12's childhood scrapbook
*have purchased materials to make an Our Life In New Zealand Scrapbook - add it to the list so I can cross it off! Then add "Our Life In New Zealand Scrapbook".
*Website
*Garage sale collecting items
*Book purchases all done - and then some! Got some real bargains on ebay. $85 book for $4.99 and the $30 accompanying workbooks for 99p. Latin here we come. Plus the textbook seller offered us any help we should ever want - she's a Latin teacher. YAY. I'll do a "books purchased this year" post when they all arrive.
*sort through photos DONE. totally completely finished
*the paper pile (sigh) stacked in a banana box!

Sourdough Regurgitated

This blog of mine......some weeks craft-blog, some weeks trying-to-engage-brain-blog, some weeks green-thumb-blog.....but I would never have thought it would ever turn into a foodie-blog.
And I guess by the usually-understood definition of "foodie" (y'know, tiny bits of nice food served on a big plate, all fancy-looking, with swirls of something to cover up some of the Big White Space of plate, which frames the Exotic Ingredients), by *that definition* this will never be a foodie blog.
BUT this is the third kitchen post in not too many days.
So maybe I'm on the way to becoming a foodie.
Or just fat.

Ah well, I thought I'd tell you about a kitchen mishap. But I'll start with a success first. I've worked out why my sourdough starter is bubbling within minutes of joining the flour and water. It's those organisms in the air. We have lots of them round here - because (wait for it) I Don't Dust. I did enough dusting when I was growing up to last my whole lifetime, so now about the only times the duster comes out are before my mother visits (wink). The kids....now that's another story...THEY dust...gotta keep the tradition going! But I don't make them go back seventeen times to move those specks that settle when your back is turned. Maybe that's why *I* have to do the dusting before Visits From Mother - because, quite frankly, the kiddos do a pretty shonky job of it! Anyway, at least I now have a reason to not dust...it's to keep my sourdough bread alive!

And that's what the mishap was all about. The bread, not the dusting.
I completed steps one, two and whatever...and put the bread in the tin without leaving it to rise in a greased bowl under a damp cloth. I totally forgot about that step. I was too busy wondering if it really would work if you didn't put it in a bread tin (as I had suggested the other day you might do if you didn't have a tin). So there I was carefully arranging one blob of bread on a flat tray and putting the "control loaf" in a tin. After they had been rising for a couple of hours I realised my mistake. To my sheer delight, though, they had actually risen heaps, and I decided that not only would I try the bread-on-a-tray-trick, but I would try the bread-only-gets-one-rising-trick as well. Now I know you should never change two variables in a scientific experiment, but really, this is my *kitchen*, not a science lab (though the things that grow in the back of the fridge sometimes look pretty chemistry-lab-ish)
A mere two hours had passed since the kneading had been completed and my loaves were sitting there looking ready to go in the oven. The oven, which, of course, was not up to temperature - primarilly because I had not as yet turned it on.
I have been accused of being and all-or-nothing-chick at times...and this was going to be one of those times. If I had already changed two variables in my experiment, what would it matter if I changed three? So I slid the trays into the oven and turned it on. Didn't even wait for it to come up to temp.

And. It. Worked.

The bread turned out great. Unfortunately I can't remember if I had to let it cook longer or not, but even if I did, it certainly wasn't 20 minutes longer, which is how long the oven takes to warm up, so I discovered a way to use less electricity.
How ecologically-correct of me!

Now can I tell you a funny story to finish?
I know an elderly gentleman who makes The Most Amazing Sourdough Bread. He gave me some of his starter once. And An Explanation. You have NEVER heard such an intricate explanation of how to make sourdough bread - no, not even if you read mine the other day. Man, that was tame in comparison. Not only did I get the full lecture, but he gave me pages of his notes. You see, he takes notes of every loaf he makes; how much the bug weighs before he begins, how much flour he adds, how much of everything he adds for that matter, how long he cooks it for and at which temperature. And he doesn't only keep these screeds of information somewhere safe, he puts the Really Important Bits of Data on a sticker on top of his Starter Jar AND he refers to them.
Well......here's the funny bit......this gentleman had to go to Australia for a month and he asked me to babysit his Starter. I think he doesn't actually *know* me as well as he thinks he did. Just because I haven't killed the starter he gave me two Christmases ago does not mean I am capable of maintaining his pet! (goodness me, our birds flew away and our fish died so we don't exactly have a great track record). And he obviously had never read this post or he wouldn't have even contemplated entrusting his Precious to my care.
But there you have it, Mrs MuddleBrainWhoDoesn'tEvenLikeTheKitchen is looking after
Mr Particular Gentleman's Starter (couldn't call that one gloop!)

Look at them sitting in the fridge - can you guess whose is whose?
Hint: my one has an ill-fitting lid, OK, so it's not even a lid, its a round plate on a square container....his has the aforementioned stickers with each successive loaf''s details written in a contrasting colour.

And THAT, my dear friends, is why I'm not dusting at the moment.

List-Making 101

This is what Leigh commented the other day:

Well I read your *to do* list - and it has just reminded me why I NEVER do lists - unless I am getting incredibly stressed and can't sleep and then it's a 3am job. Because I am Leigh....my lists go like this; I am walking through the lounge and the sun is shinning through the doors, and I think I must wash those windows - so I put down the pile of whatever and go and clean the windows - unfortunately the pile of whatever was my previous job, which now that I have cleaned the windows doesn't look quite so exciting....somehow by the end of the day I get my house back into some form of tidy - but my surprise visitors throughout the week are often welcomed by an eyefull!! Oh but it is fun, and does make my day a bit more unexpected!
July 9, 2007 1:21 PM

LEIGH, my dear, you are Missing Out.
You don't get the *satisfaction* of CrossingOff the list "make winter clothes". I did it on Tuesday...and y'know what? The absolute best part was - not actually finishing something (though that does rate Very Highly round here, given how not good at it I am) - but it was being able to Cross It Off The List! (OK to be totally honest it was a metaphorical crossing off, seeing as the paper list has disappeared - in spite of my predictions to the contrary - and just this virtual one remains). But it's crossed off. And I'm satisfied.

Dearest Leigh, I think I worked out one of your issues.
Window washing.
That is simply not a task worthy of elevating to list-standard, no matter how humble the list.
This is how window washing happens round here.
Every so often, Father Bear gets out the squeegy-thingy and a bucket of water and disappears for an hour or so. Soon afterwards, I re-discover the scenic New Zealand bush just beyond my house without having to go outside to see it....and about this time I usually hear murmurings of "WOW, look out the window! Crikey, you can hardly see them, they're so clean!!" (that's Father Bear)
You see, I figure that if Father Bear likes washing windows (and it's never occurred to me that he doesn't - if he does it with such alarming regularity, that can only mean he actually enjoys it, right? I mean, he wouldn't do it if he didn't like it, aye. Surely he wouldn't take on this task just because I'm such a bad housekeeper and it wouldn't get done otherwise....surely?)...anyway, before I get sidetracked, as I say, if Father Bear loves window washing so much, why would I put it on my list? (like lawn-mowing....I've never mowed a lawn in my life.....you see, I'm not sure at which point it would be safe for me to do. All through my childhood when I wanted to mow the lawns I was told it was too dangerous....well I got to being twenty years old and getting married and I still hadn't been allowed to mow a lawn....and I don't consider myself to have matured an awful lot in the ensuing seventeen years, so that means it's still too dangerous for me to mow lawns....one day I will be eighty years old and will say "I never mowed a lawn in my whole life"....it's one of my life ambitions, you know.....why would I start now? I have a Father Bear and a handful of kids who are big enough to push a mower...if I start they just might think that mowing lawns should be one of *my* jobs.....and even though it does have some attractions (the main one being that you put on earmuffs and can't hear anyone for half an hour), they just don't outweigh the thought of having another job to do, a job that falls in the same category as window-washing, no less)

So, Leigh, find some things you love and pop them on a list!
Things like putting away folded washing, cleaning toilets and cooking dinner can be done in your sleep - the list has to be reserved for things you are looking forward to doing! That's the first principle.

tada....to do

Here followeth an awfully mundane organisational post.
I certainly don't expect *anyone* to read it....but I want it here on my blog, because then I can be certain I will not lose the piece of paper it's written on if there is a backup copy elsewhere....and frankly, here seems as good a place as any!

TO DO LIST

Sub-heading 1: SEWING
*winter clothes (really must finish them before winter is over...on the other hand, I've learnt the boys can get by on two pairs of trousers each)
*summer clothes
*The Trip clothes
*Christmas stuff I've been doing for three years *this is the year*
*pencil rolls (started right back at the beginning of this blog....hmmm, the kids keep asking about them)
*quilts (should be a subheading of its own given that there's Father Bear's to bind STILL, J12's to finish before her birthday, a pink one cut out and half sewn, fabric for at least four more sitting there)
*redwork embroidery wall hanging (though I did tell Father Bear I wouldn't have time to do it and so he really shouldn't get it for me for Christmas last year and that was before we even decided to do The Trip and so any spare time I thought I might have had has gone into that...and rural-block hunting which we also were not going to be doing up until a month ago...so no wonder that one's not done...but I do feel a bit bad about it coz I haven't done ANY since Christmas Day and it was the most expensive present I've ever been given!!)
*snowman wall-hangings...don't ask!

Sub-heading 2: KNITTING
*vests (ER1, M4, L6, K8, K9, J11, J12)
*hats (L6, K9, J11, J12, me, Father Bear)
*mittens for J12
*cardy for me (just a plain old sensible boring one....and if I ever get time, I've seen some really funky patterns for wild ones)
*socks (I sooooo want to learn how to do two at once - I suffer badly from Second Sock Syndrome, a condition that disempowers you from making the matching sock once the first one has been completed)
*giant cooking bag
*needle holders (really not an essential item at this point in time, but I started on this project and would like to FINISH it)
*cotton dishcloths (some for us and some for Helen - as promised)
*nativity collection (well, when I bought that booklet, I *knew* it was a put-away-until-much-later thing, but I just love it and so I can hardly wait to start)

Sub-heading 3: READING (books on my shelf that I want to devote some seroius time to)
*Don Quixote (it's only been three years so far)
*The War on the Poor
*American Adventure Series (I need to know why my eldest two enjoyed every single one of the 42-or-so books so much! 42 is a number I plucked out of the air, but it really must be close to that...they take up almost a whole shelf)
*Mollison on Permaculture
*The Blessing (I borrowed this one from a friend adn then came home to discover I already owned a worn second-hand copy - now to read it!)
*Endangered Minds (funny thing about this is I think I've read it all, but I can't remember what it says!!!! oh the irony)
*The Hurried Child (haven't found the time to finish this one yet!)
*The Overload Syndrome (in light of the above two comments, this should probably be further up the list, but given that the list is in no particular order, I guess its placement doesn't matter, except in a metaphorical sense)
*Complete Charlotte Mason Series
*Houses That Change the World
*A Landscape with Dragons
*Is There Life After Housework?
*Pilgrim's Progress
*PET (well, it's not on my bookshelf, but I have asked to borrow it from a friend...I don't even know exactly what the letters stand for...something like Parent Effectiveness Training)

Sub-heading 4: THINKING
*non-adversarial parenting
*response to The Continuum Concept
*my work

Sub-heading 5: OTHER
*Christmas scrapbook (so very nearly up-to-date...quick finish it before another Christmas arrives)
*J12's childhood scrapbook (actually I've filled one album and hardly made a start on her photos...I'm wondering about getting all the photos we want printed out and then presenting them to her to do herself! Or maybe we'll work on her pages together or something)
*Website
*Garage sale (or do I just take everything to the Sallies and cross this off the list?!)
*Book purchases (Latin, Sonlight, watercolour text, ?polyface books?)
*sort through photos
*the paper pile (sigh)

catching up

My email inbox is overflowing - quite nice really!
But I know I should get some answers out......so here we go.

COCONUT OIL
I get mine from East West Organics - they order it in from Ceres, so you out-of-towners might be able to contact Ceres directly if your local shop doesn't stock it. If any of you are purists, I'd better mention it IS refined. You can get unrefined, but it costs three times as much and so we have stuck with the cheaper-but-still-beneficial option. And even that is not cheap. 10l cost $109 last week.

The other issue with it is SATURATED FAT.
If you have got the heebie-jeebies over it, please go here and read at least three of the articles.

ISN'T THE WEATHER COLD!
Why, yes it is! In fact it's been so chilly in the evenings that I ended up feeling sorry for M4 who wears a knitted soaker over his night nappy (and no PJ pants coz they wick moisture through). I started knitting him a pair of longies a couple of days ago. They will be done in time for tonight.

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN READING?
I've been lent a copy of "The Continuum Concept" by Jean Liedloff, which I really need to FINISH by this weekend. I'm bound to discuss it some time next week!

I've got a great stack of self-sufficiency books by the bed and even Father Bear who is renowned for saying "I'm not a farmer" whenever I'm having a rural-dream picked one up and conceded it was "pretty interesting".

At the bottom of that pile are a couple of books about rural New Zealand architecture in the past 150 years. Why? Well, you never know when knowing that might come in handy! I researched traditional villas a couple of months back. Very interesting.

Two of my *own* books are being flicked through too - the old encyclopedia has been too overwhelming in terms of the amount of information that I don't know....but now in comparison to my newest acquisition, Mollison's tome on the right, it makes positively light reading!

And as these photos show, I am desperately in need of reading Father Bear's new book:

Actually, when we travel next year I am hoping to take the time to learn to a) use the camera well and b) sketch and use watercolours. I wonder if I'll be able to sneak this book into someone's pack;-)

DID YOUR KIDS MISS YOU AT THE WEEKEND?
ER (13 mo) had two very snuggly days when we got back, and M4 struggled having his first weekend away On His Very Own With No Other Siblings (in fact he ended up sleeping one night at Grandpa's with two sisters!) and T3 got a wee bit teary at church when she could see all her family in the distance....but apart from that....they had a ball. One watched lots of tv * another enjoyed playing Mother to ER * another didn't even have to do any chores, only clear the table * one was surprised to discover it's not just our family that goes to open homes at the weekend! *

Thanks all you families for taking one or two, even at last minute notice, and giving us a wonderful weekend.

WHAT DID YOU DO?
Dropping off kids took an hour and a half! Not bad we thought!
Friday night we ate at a Mongolian restuarant and dreamed. "Let's dream this weekend and no judgements" Father Bear had said. That will be a post of its own!
Friday night we Did Not Sleep. I was awake from 2-4am, at which point I decided I didn't NEED to go back to sleep right now coz I didn't have to get up in the morning, so I read until 5:30.
I then slept in till after 9! Just before 9:30 we discovered we could go to look at a house half an hour away at 10am. We raced out the door and turned up only to discover the gate closed. Hmmm.
Time for some shopping Father Bear needed to do for work....and while he was doing that the house guy rang him. We could go back - but not until after an auction of a villa on two acres that we were en route to. Bidding started above our final price so we were not in the running - actually noone was. There were no bids and we raced off to the other house. Father Bear loved loved loved it. We looked round for an hour, chatted with the owner and agreed to let him know what we think it's worth (it's not on the market).
Then we had a spontaneous-due-to-circumstances shopping afternoon, picking up some great bargains to get packed away for The Trip.
A weekend away for us almost always involves at least a few hours at Borders....this was no exception, but we were exhausted by 7:30 so headed to the hotel for the night. We both had a new book to read, but only managed to glance through the newspaper!
Sunday morning we wandered around the Viaduct Basin, stopped for breakfast in a cafe....Father Bear let me take my knitting and he watched the rugby replay on a big screen. Win-win! We thought we could get used to having no children and no church every weekend!
We wandered along the waterfront and stopped for ENORMOUS icecreams before heading back to pick up kids. It would be nice to say everyone lived ahappily ever after, but the reality is the older ones were tired and scratchy and snitching with each other and generally quite unpleasant.
It was still a wonderful weekend though.

WHICH FORUMS HAVE YOU BEEN LURKING AROUND?
http://www.ruralvillage.org/
http://www.lifestyleblock.co.nz/
http://www.bootsnall.com/
and one with a few friends.

ARE THE OLDER KIDS READY FOR THEIR SCIENCE COMPETITION? ISN'T IT SOON?
Yes! And yes. They're tossing up whether to blog about it now (coz they're all done) or wait until after The Day - Monday.

she seems so sure of herself

I have been dubbed a schedule nazi by more than one friend (OK, by two!)
So how is it that I can be so informal with the children?

It's been a journey, and one that I have agonised over. I have come to philosophical conclusions through my readings and thought-wanderings.....then I have had to make the reality of our life reflect those new-found beliefs.
I have questioned the *beliefs*, wondered if I'm just being lazy, occasionally considered I might be ruining the kids!
Time will tell.

As an example of some of my indecisive questioning, here's one more "old piece of writing" (then I promise to hop off this soapbox next week!)

QUESTION: when I plan out what I am going to do during the week, I achieve more than if I just leave it to decide from day to day. Where does this fit in? Is it appropriate for me to be more formal because I am older and at that “stage” of life? How much formal do the little ones need? How much structure to the reading plan? To what extent should even that move in seasons rather than doing science/history/geography all the time? I’ve done the little-bit-of-everything-every-day approach, the month-of-one-thing-at-a-time approach, the something-different-every-day approach.
Is there too much mother-directed? What about the missed opportunities (eg fascination with Vikings at the moment and I haven’t done anything at all about them). This interest was sparked with some reading two years ago and they are revisiting it. Would the interest even be there if we hadn’t done it together first?
Am I really harnessing their interests?
Which approach worked best? Is there yet another way?

a day in the life of......

today may not have been a "typical" day....but neither was it a-typical

you can find the details here if you're interested

and add to them: rang IRD, fielded a few phonecalls, knit a few rows of a vest, bought vege seedlings, supervised chores, folded nappies, emailed a couple of real estate agents!.....

Friday Favourites #6

piles of stuff *to go*

empty spaces where stuff *was*

lack of clutter

I am freeing us from the grips of STUFF

another hour and the room will be minimalist again

favourite

Friday

a personal question

Someone asked me last week which eco-friendly product I use for washing my hair.

And the answer is........

baking soda.

Yep, plain ol' BS. I keep a container of it in the shower. Useful, coz we clean the shower with it too. For cleaning surfaces, we dab a little on a damp cloth and scrub away - shower, bath, handbasin, toilet, laundry tub, kitchen bench. (Really stubborn curry stains on the bench might need a little white vinegar, but other than that, BS does the trick).
For hair washing, I wet my hair and then pour over a spoonful of BS dissolved in some warm shower water. Scrub, rinse and I'm done! Some people like to add a wash of apple cider vinegar - I experimented with this for a while (no, it doesn't smell!!!), but it left my hair really fly-away, so now I just stick to the BS. Works a treat. In fact, a month or so ago Father Bear ran his hand through my hair and said "Your hair's so smooth" - it had been a long time since he'd said that! I'd been baking-soda-ing for about three months at that point - and he didn't know;-)

But that's not all.....
when we (with alarming regularity) leave our dinner in a blackened glob on the bottom of our pots, we pour in some water, a teaspoon of BS and boil for five minutes. The black-whatever-it-is just peels off. It's true!

We tried it in the dishwasher. But the results couldn't be raved over. Within a few washes the glasses were cloudy-looking and stuff stuck to the plates. We are currently using a mixture of half BS and half *real* dishwasher powder. That seems to be working OK.

The washing machine was more successful. Clothes got clean. And didn't end up with that perfumey-stink that is left behind after using washing powder. I realise some people LIKE that smell - I don't, it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end - and my son's too. We don't even like approaching THAT aisle in the supermarket - and now we don't have to!!! Not even to buy a nice bright-coloured plastic container of super-cleaner-with-added-baking-soda! We just use the real thing!

Just in case you have an ant problem, baking soda makes a pretty good deterrent. We had armies of ants at our house, until I sprinkled BS ALL around the outside of the house. They haven't been back in four years....which actually makes me think they just moved on elsewhere....but BS can take the credit all the same!

That's still not all though. Baking soda can be used in the kitchen! My favourite would be watching it raise my sourdough bread.

taming a monster

I'm not going to blog this week. In fact I'm not even going to turn the computer on!
Why? I'm going to attack THE PAPER PILE.
I manage to keep our place mostly tidy. Of course there are always weeds that *could* come out of the garden and a layer of dust *shouldn't* be left to settle....but all in all, given that there are so many bods around here, we don't do too badly.
Except for the paper pile. I've never been good at throwing away pieces of paper with important little snippets of anything on them. I have collected. They have accumulated. And it's time for me to GET RUTHLESS. I can't quite bring myself to just dump the whole lot at the curbside for our recycled-paper-man to take away....but I will start sorting.....

See you next week....but only if I've become master....

Is Reuters Right?

Thursday May 3, 06:50 AM
Stay-at-home mother's work valued

NEW YORK (Reuters) -

If the typical stay-at-home mother in the United States were paid for her work as housekeeper, cook and psychologist among other roles, she would would earn $138,095 (69,000 pounds) a year, according to research released on Wednesday.

The 10 jobs listed as comprising a mother's work were housekeeper, cook, day care centre teacher, laundry machine operator, van driver, facilities manager, janitor, computer operator, chief executive officer and psychologist, it said.

The typical mother puts in a 92-hour work week, it said, working 40 hours at base pay and 52 hours overtime.

Yep - I think I do all that! And I knit too!!!!
What would I get for that?
(and they forgot to mention judge and diplomat with special responsibilty for peace talks)



But it's not all about the money is it? I guess it's just that money is the currency that drives our culture. Wouldn't it be interesting to *value* people's lives according to a different set of criteria - perhaps creativity or learning or satisfaction or service??

how organised is this?

All my RL friends will be rolling their eyes and saying "That is so Rach"....but I'm going to put it on here anyway! Even though I have always bought whatever clothing we need a year ahead in the end-of-season sales, I've never been quite *this* organised before;-)


A few weeks ago I had sorted the winter clothes, but somehow between then and yesterday, all the trousers had disappeared so I had the kids drag everything into the lounge, I got out my faithful spreadsheet and filled in the gaps....this served two purposes.
1) it made sure nothing was hiding anywhere
2) it meant my list of things "to make" diminished rapidly, because I changed the spreadsheet from "four complete sets of clothes for each person" to "let's see if the list I've written for travelling is going to work" (ie considerably fewer items for each person).


I was on a roll and dragged the kids back inside to bring down all the summer clothes aswell and I sorted through them for NEXT summer. Clothes that are still in acceptable condition were noted on the spreadsheet and immediately packed into this box, not to be touched before the sun warms up again. (The pile beside the box is stuff to be refashioned - all op-shop finds coz I haven't gone near any Brand New Shops this year - those things are highlighted in blue on the spreadsheet - LOL, go on, you know you want to). The frayed-stained-don't-wear-this-out-where-anyone-will-see-you clothes have been kept out, along with one nice set Just In Case it warms up again before winter sets in.


All I have to do come springtime is buy two shirts for J11 and sandals for most.

intricate simplicity

(but right now I'd better get sewing those blue-highlighted winter items....especially as the ones with a box drawn around them I have to sew from scratch!)

my fridge door is white

There is nothing on my fridge door. No kids' paintings, no notices, no rosters, no real estate agent's advertising, no pizza vouchers, no magnets, nothing!

I like things to be simple and the clutter of layer upon layer of precious papers on a fridge door is something that I haven't learnt to live with!!!! I know for some people it's their favourite filing system. Others love fondly reminiscing through the treasures. For me, it just messes my mind!


So I have a noticeboard in the hallway decorated with Scriptures, which I'm hiding in my heart as they get covered on the board! It has a calendar where all appointments are supposed to be written. Mostly this stops us double-booking! It has a colourful chore chart, which gets looked at every day, even if it's not followed to the letter. There's another "occasional chore chart", which is a really good idea and would make my house run smoothly if I actually did it, but the reality is I do those things when the whim strikes me (which is not often). There's a long skinny piece of paper headed up "The Children's Day". It's nice to know that's there in case we ever run out of ideas of things to do one day. It hasn't happened yet! We always run out of day before we've used up our thoughts.
There's a lovely picture of a run-down dilapidated old farmhouse that my cheeky father-in-law put up there for me to dream about.....he thought it was more realistic than the castle in Poland I was looking at!!!!!
There are some cards with my friends' names on them made by one of the girls as a reminder to pray for each other.
There's a Korean doll......reminds me of all my friends around the world, not just the Korean one who gave it to me.
There's a scrap of paper with a name and phone number......when I get round to writing it in my address book I'll be able to throw the paper away. But it's nice to look at that Polish handwriting and remember the day I bumped into the Polish family who had only just arrived in NZ!
There are vouchers from Father Bear for a one hour massage and a day out by myself and a dinner with him that I really must use soon before they expire!
There's a collection of photo pages....sometimes when one of the children ahs a birthday I make the time to print out some photos from the previous year (or even longer). L6 has been up there in pride of place since October and we've had four more birthdays since then! Might be time to do another one. ER is nearly ONE!
And there's lavender from the garden. I love the smell of lavender. Isn't it supposed to be calming? ;-)

the 39-piece wardrobe

I read somewhere recently (can't remember where sorry) about someone who limited their entire wardrobe to 100 pieces. I've also been reading about the 100-mile wardrobe where you try to buy all your clothes from places within 100 miles of where you live (just like the 100-mile food thing)....and while I'm not quite ready to make that jump, I warm to the concept (in fact I like the idea of MAKING *all* my own stuff, but I'm not quite there yet either).
We are thinking of travelling a bit round the world in the next few years. And that means taking only what can fit in a backpack. Having already travelled with Far Too Much Stuff and barely been able to stagger through London from one lamp post to the next, we will take far less next time. If we were only going for a few months, we'd stick with a couple of pairs of pants, three tshirts and a sweatshirt each......but I'm hoping we'll be gone for much longer than that and so we will take more. But when I itemised everything I thought we'd need, I was surprised to find it only came to 39 pieces.

01. skirt
02. skirt
03. trousers
04. trousers
05. jeans (heavy and slowdrying, but I love them!)
06. short-sleeved buttoned shirt
07. short-sleeved buttoned shirt
08. short-sleeved t-shirt
09. short-sleeved t-shirt
10. long-sleeved buttoned shirt
11. long-sleeved t-shirt
12. long-sleeved t-shirt
13. fleece vest
14. handknit woollen cardigan
15. fleece jacket
16. rain jacket
17. undies
18. undies
19. undies
20. undies
21. undies
22. undies
23. bra
24. bra
25. bra
26. handknit socks
27. handknit socks
28. handknit socks
29. ankle length sports socks
30.thermal skivvy
31. thermal skivvy
32. thermal long johns
33. handknit winter hat
34. handknit mittens
35. sunhat
36. togs
37. crocs
38. sandals
39. leather hiking boots

Today I packed it all into my pack and discovered it only weighed 12kg (including sleeping bag, towel etc). I could carry that on the road....especially as I would actually be wearing some of the clothes!
This is very encouraging because I have been wondering how we would manage the little kids' gear....now I know I can fit two little kids' clothes in my pack (they'll carry their own sleeping bag, toiletries and eating utensils) and I'll have both hands free.

So the next step was to work out if what I have chosen is a sustainable mix. So I went through my wardrobe and set aside the items I want to take away and then just worked with what was left and tried to pare it down to the above list to use this winter. I had to make some substitutions (I have lots of skirts and only one pair of trousers), but I've essentially ended up with what's on that list....minus the thermals and hat coz it doesn't get cold enough here...plus a denim jacket, corduroy jacket and full length woolen coat, any of which can take the place of the as-yet-unbought-goretex jacket while we're still here. I don't have my hiking boots yet, but I've got a pair of brown suede boots....as well as my pink No Sweat hi-tops, a pair of fancy sandals I only ever wear to weddings, running shoes, "nice shoes" and a pair of slippers, none of which would come on the road. Falling into this category are also PJs and a dressing gown! Even still, my item count remains below 50. (I am guilty of holding on to a little pile of "just in case" things until I'm convinced that what I have is plenty).

As an aside, I find it intriguing that I should consider having 50 items of clothing to be "limited". To many people in the world it would be an inconceivable extravagance to have so many things. I am reminded of Jesus telling us to give away our second coat if we've got two......my extra gear is off to the op shop....and hopefully the just-in-case items will make their way there too soon.

Productive with a capital P

I love days like today when you get lots done. We may not have done any reading, writing or 'rithmetic, but boy oh boy do we have a tidy house tonight.
We rearranged all the kids' bedrooms - we had been having a wee problem with children playing with toys well after bedtime, so I decided to take *everything* downstairs to the "workroom". Now the bedrooms have nothing apart from beds with a favourite teddy, a box each for clothes and a couple of Very Important Treasures on the windowsills. They look so simple and tidy!
My room looks just as simplistic, with every non-essential item removed. We had been storing my fabric stash and boxes of Papers To Be Sorted and Items To Sell On Trade-Me in there, but now it is back to its almost-minimalistic feel. Even the wardrobe has had an overhaul. I went through my clothes again - very excited to say that the pile of "too small" has shrunk. I can fit into most of my "pre-latest-baby" gear....I'm still aiming on shedding another 8kg - and will then be brave enough to try on a pair of jeans I used to wear pre-any-babies-at-all. I had kept two pair....one has been donated to daughter number one this last week. The other I still like enough to have hopes of wearing once more!
But that's not all we've done. We totally tidied and rearranged the games and toys and stationery and art and craft supplies. Now they are all in One Room. Hopefully it will be easier to keep them tidy (I have my doubts!)
As we prepared dinner I zipped through the kitchen drawers....this was not a big job, because I keep them pretty much in order, but I'm always surprised to discover broken ladles and stray bamboo skewers.
After dinner I attacked the hall cupboard, which houses all our linen and togs/wetsuits/beach towels and phone books and dusters and medicine boxes and spare lightbulbs (you get the picture - it's a big cupboard!) It is now a big tidy cupboard!

Tomorrow's Plan:
Find the forgotten corners in the bathroom and laundry
Wipe down kitchen cabinets
Tidy cupboard under the stairs
Straighten "outside toys" in garage
Bookshelves (this is no small task ~ we must have over 2,000 books)
I'll pair the kids up to work together and they should be able to complete the first four jobs while I do the books. They are loving their rooms tonight and so I imagine they'll be keen to finish everything off tomorrow. I hope so anyway!

Then there's just the study to attack. That will be my free evening time this week *sigh*....and next week....and the week after....all my craft gear has been plonked in here, all my papers, all my photos, in fact, everything that has not found a home elsewhere in the house. If you have long legs, you can step over the piles and plant your feet in the footsize spaces of clear floor to get to the computer! Although he would have been more than entitled to, Father Bear has not complained, but I don't want to presume too long on his very laid-back-good-nature!

But right now I think I'll go and dish myself a big bowl of icecream and read a couple more chapters of "Church Without Walls" before heading to bed.

how do you fit everything in?

For as long as I can remember people have asked me how I get so much done. Whether it was *way back* when Father Bear and I were working 7am-noon, studying fulltime (lectures were in the afternoons and evenings) and tutoring refugees and running Children's Church....or more recently when people have seen through my blogs a bit more of my day-to-day life....the questions have not stopped. Maybe one of my problems is that I have so many things I want to do, crafts I want to try, places I want to visit, books I want to read, children I want to cuddle, things I want to think about......there's always something on the go.

So for those of you who have asked.....here's a *typical* day for me.

If I want to exercise or have some quiet time to myself, it needs to be over and done with by 7am when the troops file out of their bedrooms eager to start their own days.
We all start with breakfast and then before we get down from the table, we revise memory verses and sing songs together - and during this time I sneak in the first knitting or embroidery.
Then I supervise chores, checking up what's been done and lending a hand.
As jobs are almost being finished I get a snuggle with ER as I change her nappy, blow raspberries on her tummy and pop her into bed.
While she sleeps for a couple of hours I read aloud to everyone else. Usually someone is on my knee or slouched over my shoulders or braiding my hair - I do love this part of the day!
We all head down to the dining room and I play games with the little ones and supervise the writing of the bigger ones. While the biggest (who work independently) continue with their own work, I help the preschoolers set the table and the slightly bigger ones make lunch......this invariably means sitting in a chair and giving verbal directions (which means I can again pick up some knitting for quarter of an hour).
After lunch the big ones clear up and throw together dinner while I read picture books to the little ones (at the moment this is baby-6year old). Then it's naptime! And that means EVERYONE has to do something quiet for an hour or so. The big kids and I race upstairs to the computer and spend half an hour updating blogs before some silent reading (and on my part) sewing or scrapbooking or sorting out dinner if it wasn't done earlier. The afternoons are pretty laid back - when the little kids wake up everyone is more or less free to do whatever they like, but I will of course keep an eye on them. I usually manage to get some more *stuff* done - I'm always aware I could choose to wash windows or iron shirts, but I rarely do at this point!!!!
Late afternoon we all tidy up (although I am renowned for not tidying up whatever project I'm working on....it stays out for a week or more till I move on to something else), I supervise afternoon chores, baths and final dinner preparations.
After dinner I get little kids off to bed....then middle kids....hopefully all accomplished by 7:30ish. Then there are another three hours for me to potter. I don't watch television. I try to use this time doing things that need concentration and leave the more mindless parts of work to when I need my attention divided in the daylight hours. If I'm tired this is tricky and I'll just end up knitting or reading. We often have people over or go out with others - after reading about women throughout history getting together with their workbaskets, I decided it is a relatively new idea that you should sit together doing nothing but sip coffee and chitchat, so I now don't hesitate to pick up some embroidery or simple knitting (and having my hands busy helps me not eat the yummy chocolate cake that might be on offer for supper!)

Of course, not every day is like this. Some days we head out to the garden first thing and put in full morning's work...other days we go out...occasionally my arm is twisted to read "one more chapter" and "just one more chapter" and then "one really last chapter this time Mama"....or last Friday we got the wooden train set out and everyone spent hours putting it together while I read a book to myself - I was tired; tired of being a mother, tired of doing the same things every day, tired of the normalcy of life, tired of not seeing Father Bear (on average we're only managing two nights a week home together at the moment and then we're so had it we're not connecting), tired of cooking, tired from staying up late, tired of ideas racing round my head, tired of not accomplishing anything tangible....just plain tired. So I rejuvenated myself by letting the kids do something that almost always results in them playing nicely together while I snuggled up on my favourite chair beside them all. It worked. And now I'm way off on a tangent, but I'll leave it in here, coz It's The Way It Is.

busy busy busy

I've filled a whole album with photos for my eldest daughter...and haven't made a dent on the photo pile!!!!! But it feels good to be underway.

I'm on a knitting bender....longies for ER, a soaker and hat set for a charity auction (watch this space), two pairs of slippers lined up to supervise, lots of socks to make.

The sewing pile is looking decorative in the bedroom until I attack it next week (we're going to have a "holiday week" and the kids will look after themselves while I sew sew sew)

The winter clothes are all sorted and the boxes stacked away again.

The house is even mostly tidy.

The garden is doing a final burst of fruiting before we need to replace old summer stock with winter yummies.

Charlotte's Web came to the end and we're adventuring back to Germany and the advent of the printing press.

ER10mo has finally learnt to crawl....FAST....and even up stairs.

The eldest two are making a special-order-muesli to go to Wellington in a couple of days ~waves at Sharon~

Another couple are making a pumpkin soup out of our first pumpkin this autumn.

I've painted beads to make a handle for my knitting bag. It's sooooo close to finished and I'm really pleased with it (apart from the fact that it shrunk really quickly in the machine and came out shorter and shallower than I wanted)

All the little things of life are going on.

Money doe$n't grow on tree$

We've been out all day and I won't have a moment to *write* anything (plus I bought some BRAND NEW fabric and I'm itching to cut it up...yeah, I know I wasn't meant to be buying anything *new*....at least now you know I'm not being legalistic about it!)....anyway, I took a squizz at my docs and found something that I wrote a while ago and can cut and paste (oh yeah, I have to cross out my hubby's name and replace it with Mr Bear too!!) For those of you who have requested a post on finances, here it is! It only just starts to scratch the surface, so if you have any questions, feel free to comment and if I can't answer them, I'll find someone wiser who can!

This is the text of a little chat I was asked to do at a Church Youth Group gathering one evening in 2005, the general topic for the night was stewardship, my Ten Minutes was to focus on stewardship of money:

My qualification for talking to you about stewardship of money tonight is that I am helping my husband bring up seven kids on one income – and a tutor’s salary at that! First piece of advice: if you want to get rich, don’t go into education.

Let me start by telling you a story.

Once upon a time a girl made a lot of money one summer holidays…and God challenged her to only keep 10% of it.
A boy had met this girl and realised it was no ordinary girl he was asking to marry him…and God challenged them both to sell everything they had and follow His leading to Europe. Two days after their wedding they left.
In Poland they learned to live simply. There was no car, no tv, no cellphone, no regular phone at all, no computer, no coke; in fact drinking water was collected from a well up the street and they slept on straw mattresses on the floor.
God showed them a different way of living.
They returned to New Zealand and had $30 to their name.
Six months and a lot of hard work later they were both enrolled in a post-graduate diploma at university – debt-free. Lectures were from 4-9pm so they were able to work from 7-12 in the mornings and study in the afternoons. Somehow they managed to tutor refugees as well.
They studied and worked for a couple of years, having their first baby just before final exams.
In spite of them giving away a lot of their money, God blessed them financially and the dollars started accumulating in the bank, so they asked God what to do with it.
BUY A HOUSE. But they didn’t WANT to settle down with a house, a 25-year- mortgage and 3 kids and become like those thirty-somethings they knew! They wondered why the Old Testament talked about seven year debts and decided to go for that! So with the maths worked out, the girl went to the local real estate office and asked what she could buy for $100,000. The agent smiled pleasantly and noted, “You must be looking for land?” You needed another $30,000 to buy a house. Boy and girl decided to build a house, so they purchased the cheapest section they could find in Nappy Valley the day after their second child was born.
They built for $95,000 all up.
They had a very tight budget. Every cent was accounted for, right down to the $2.36 spent on screws for the letterbox they made themselves. There were no Christmas presents that year.
As the boy’s salary increased, they basically retained the same budget. It got tweaked a little as more and more children joined the family. Seven of them in fact. But after eight years, the mortgage was gone. Now they have added a personal spending category to the budget - $10 a monthJ
And they are living happily ever after.


In Poland we had learnt the joy of living simply – taking walks in the park, having cherry stone spitting competitions in the summer, watching pigeons on our balcony, reading together, playing in the snow, cooking food from scratch……… back in New Zealand we have had to learn to be intentional about simple living. There are just so many choices here. It is no accident that we have one vehicle, make the children share bedrooms, use cloth nappies, grow most of our vegetables and have a home-based life. We are living simply by design within our means, treading gently on the earth (now there’s another stewardship topic) and are content doing so. As pilgrims, we know what we value as we journey together towards our eternal home.

When "R" asked me to talk about stewardship, Mr Bear and I brainstormed what we had learnt about it over the years. Here’s a very quick summary:

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” *Everything* we do has to stem from our love of Jesus – and that includes our stewardship of money. It’s not just about budgeting; it’s about LOVING AND HONOURING GOD.

And it’s about CONTENTMENT.
“When God gives any man wealth and possessions and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work – this is a gift of God.” I love this verse from Ecclesiastes. It reminds me that God is the giver. He is the owner and I am just to take good care of that which he has entrusted to me. God gives and Loreal is wrong – we don’t deserve it! But we will be blessed and experience true freedom if we can enjoy what He has given us and be happy in our work.

So it’s also about WORK.
“We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, to do good works” (Eph 2:10)
In a generation that seeks pleasure and is prepared only to work enough to pursue entertainment as much as possible, we will need to carefully consider God’s plan for work.

And there’s another point. We need to be AWARE. We’ve got to learn to think and be discerning. We need to recognise the trends in society and the tugs they have on us. We can be helped by reading such books as Marva Dawn’s “Unfettered Hope” and the Mennonite book “Living More With Less”

One of the trends today is instant gratification, but we need to learn to be PATIENT. How will we learn to wait on God if we can’t wait more than 60 seconds for our dinner to be made and served? And as far as money goes, advertisers tell us we can have things interest free and not pay till next year – but we need to say NO to these things and wait until we have the money. Save up instead of buying on credit.

Another trend is towards selfishness, each man doing what is right in his own eyes, and just looking out for himself. But God wants us to be GENEROUS and give to others. God loves a cheerful giver.

And look at the trend planned and built into our gadgets – perpetual obsolescence. We always need a newer, smaller, faster computer, cellphone, car. Do we even question these purchases? Do we ask how we will be better able to serve others through their purchase? Do we ask how we will better be able to serve God?

Finally, can I encourage you to be FANATICAL? Mr Bear and I spent the first dozen years of our marriage trying to convince ourselves that we weren’t extreme – we were normal, like everyone else. OK, so we knew we were a bit different, but not *that* different. Now we are reconciled with the fact that we are extreme and supposedly unbalanced, opinionated and intense. If you want to be hot for God you are going to be different. It doesn’t mean He’ll give you seven kids and require that you bake your own bread, but it will be a special plan that is far from mediocre and almost certainly counter-cultural. Will you be a good steward of your money for God’s sake?