anticipation

T3's vest is DONE....all ends woven in and buttons attached. She loves the buttons....and I remember having some exactly the same when I was a little girl! Red, I think they were.

But she doesn't get to wear it.

For one, it's too big.

For two, it's a when-we-go-away-item.

All the when-we-go-away-items are residing on a shelf that is standing as a tantalising reminder of Things To Come, Adventures To Be Had and Places To Be Visited.

fourth of july

I just noticed the date when I posted the lightning post (lightning in content and in the amount of time it took me to write!)

The Fourth of July always makes me think of.....well....America.
At least, it has for the last seventeen years.
You see Father Bear and I got married on the last Saturday in June and then on the Monday we left New Zealand, bound for the rest of our lives together.
We chose the Fourth of July to go to Disneyland. But we didn't realise it was The Fourth of July. At least, we didn't think about it being That Auspicious Day. Admittedly, we were a bit surprised at being handed little American-flags-to-wave before we even entered the hallowed gates, and then American-flag-pins-to-wear once we got through those gates....but we just thought, "Well, it IS America, they ARE patriotic and I guess this IS Disneyland"!!!!!!

It was midnight before we realised. We climbed off a rollercoaster, which had hurtled us through darkness and just about made me cry (I'd never been on anything like that EVER before that day...and I vowed never to do it again, a vow which has been broken on numerous occasions in a number of countries and one that I remake in the middle of every subsequent breaking)...anyway, we stumbled out of my source of despair and looked up.....I thought I was seeing stars exploding...and indeed I was. There was the Fourth of July fireworks display in all its grandeur...and we realised it wasn't just the fact that this was Disneyland....or even America....we were there on
The Fourth of July.

Funnily enough, I remember the fourth of july easier than I do the wedding anniversary!
It was one of the best days of our lives. I am so not into canned entertainment and America-mania and big-business-exploitation now....but oh our memories of Disneyland! We didn't leave until it closed in the wee small hours of the morning. It was a wonderful day.

KIDSPEAK

"The light's on in the sky"

T3 on lightning

published!

For those of you who have asked, and for anyone else who might want to take a nosey, the children's accounts of The Science Competition can be found here.

I must admit, what the older two were going to do was deemed unacceptable my their publisher!
Actually they only got as far as the first sentence
"These two photos show...."
and I said,
"Hey guys you can do *more interesting* than that".

I gave them a sentence starter:

After many years of weather watching......

and they were away.

When they were done we went back and I enquired,

"do you think there's a more interesting way to write "very good"?

how else could you describe those games?".....

and so "very good" became "most professional"............

and so on.

They really jumped on board with trying to write in an interesting style - this is a first, and so worthy of note! And it turned out a little differently to their usual scratchings!

plagiarism

another "what I just read" post

this time by Lisa

You'll notice in this month's news, when life is fullest isn't always when as much gets "accomplished". The "things" that get completed usually aren't the most important things in life. We've had some accomplishments, but we've also just lived life in the fullest, and don't have anything to check off a list for that. Time playing with children, talking with teens, in God's throne room for friends and family, isn't the stuff that makes it on our "works" list. And neither really is time hearing the Word, searching the Word, and living the Word. Life, abundant life, really has very little to do with our works. Abundant Life is about something Someone else hasalready done for us, that we could not do for ourselves, and our humbly stepping into that and reverently living it for His Glory.

Writing Questions

I just read this:

*Strive to have an interesting life*

And I oscillated from thinking "yes" to "no"!!

And not much more.

My gut reactions were

"interesting doesn't just happen,

you do need to be intentional"

and

"it's not about *interesting*"

To give some context, the author was Tahir Shah and he was giving advice about being a writer.

Does this make a difference? Is it valid for someone with the gift of communication to look for interesting things to write about, but not for the rest of us? Is it necessary even for them?

It's not the first time I've come across this very piece of advice (john andersen at unconventional ideas says the same thing, exactly the same)

What do you think?

Proud Mummy Moments

The kids will blog the same story tomorrow....I'll do my version tonight and then we can compare notes!

K9 was entering his very first University of Auckland Science Competition and he really really really wanted to get a "highly commended" mention (like his brother and sister had done three years earlier on their first time)

But there were eighty contestants...and some of them had Very Smart Entries. As he looked around, K9 was coming to terms with the thought that he just might not have made the grade.
Then Mother overheard the judges discussing his piece - the JudgeWhoHadInterviewedK9 was rooting for him. Desperate to keep listening, she Did The Right Thing and moved away so as not to hear any more! But she couldn't help noticing the JudgeInARose-PatternedTop went over to talk with K9! Then the Official Photographer took his picture. K9 came running across the hall, full of excitement. "Mama they want you to sign a thing that says my photo can go on the university website" Thoughts of highly commendeds were banished - he was about to be famous!!

The Prize-Giving
The five highly commendeds were read out. The anticipation of coming fame was not quite enough to soften the blow that K9's name was not among them. He looked disappointed. How I wanted to hug him! All my talks about "the effort you've put into this has been fantastic, you have done your best and that's what really counts, our family will enjoy playing this game for many years " just weren't cutting the mustard.

Third place....goes to.....
K9.
What? Me? They didn't say my name right, but it sounded kind-of close!
Woohoo. I won a PRIZE. A real prize.
AND I'm going to be famous.


Then it was on to the older kids.
J12 and J11 had told me they were hoping they might get a Highly Commended, but so many of the other entries were STUNNING, so they just weren't convinced theirs measured up.
They too got that disappointed look at the end of the Reading Out Of Highly Commendeds.
For an instant I wondered if they might actually get a prize...but there were still so many Great Projects out there.

Third Prize.
Second Prize.
First Prize...well, the guy couldn't read K9's name, and he did even worse with J11's and J12's!
It didn't even sound like them! But it was. For the second year running, they were delighted with first place.

And while those were proud moments for me, the best was when J12 came up to me and said, "Mama I'm happy to get first" (mistress of understatement! I'm sure she was VERY happy)....and she continued, "but I'm really REALLY happy for K9. He'll just be soooooo pleased." That was the precious moment of the day for me.