"No reading at the breakfast table"

Last week Rowan was away speaking on a conference for the uni ministry.  It is the biggest week of the year for him and he leaves tired and gets home wrecked.  If anyone looks at a speaker at a convention and thinks that it is very glamourous, it's far from it.  Behind the scenes are weeks/months of agonising reading and preparation. In 17 years of marriage, I've rarely seen Rowan go off to work feeling happy with what he's prepared for a talk.  There are always concerns like, 'I could have said more if I had more time' or 'Is what I've prepared going to be easy to understand?' or 'Have I covered every aspect?'.  At one level I don't think this is a bad thing - it always motivates him to work harder on what the Bible actually says and think carefully about the people he is speaking to. I'm often asked what my 'role' in the ministry is.  The way I see my role is that I keep the show on the road at home (admittedly with...

This is not far off where our bedroom is headed - this is just a lot more organised!

First week back into the normal routine.  Boy, is that a shock to the system or what?  But I still feel that deep down I have some reserves of energy from my holiday that should get me through a few more weeks. What have I been thinking about?  That when we got home from holidays our house was reasonably tidy, but half an hour later it wasn't.  Seven people started pulling out stuff, using stuff, crafting, dressing uping, legoing, eating, undressing and then there was mess.  At least I know who to blame now! My grey hair is flourishing away and I keep seeking inspiration wherever I may be (as an aside - I've also discovered that silver jewellery is the way to go - it looks great with gray hair).   This may seem like an unlikely source of inspiration but last night at a NSW state music camp concert (250 kids from Years 5-8 from state schools around NSW) I looked around at all the parents - who were exactly like me - and lots of the mums had grey hai...

Part of the reason I changed jobs was so that I could work in a school and get school holidays.  What a great blessing they are, because having two weeks in a row away with our family was lovely.  I actually feel rested and not stressed for the first time in ages.  Spent time with our friends in Melbourne (had a bit of a reality TV tragic fan day seeing a contestant from Masterchef filming in a patisserie and the winners of the show 'The Block' leaving their newly renovated house- haven't laughed so hard in ages). We then drove back up to the south coast of NSW and had a lovely week with friends near the beach.  Sunny days, long walks on the beach, bike rides, lots of reading.  Watching the Brady Bunch together (how come they have six children and a full-time housekeeper?  I have one less child ... mmm.  Oh, and that's right, I don't want a cleaner ).  Enjoying Masterchef, Le Tour.   It was the first holiday when we didn't have o...

Enjoying a break, visiting friends in Melbourne. Survived the 10 hour drive, leaving at 5am. So much easier traveling with older kids. We remembered on the way down doing the same trip when we had three kids ages 4, almost 2 and 3 months old. We had to stop a lot and it took us two days to get there! One advantage of having friends in church work is that they often move around giving you people all over the place to visit (unfortunately it also means that a lot of our long term friends don't actually live near us, but hey, leaves room for new friends). It's also nice when the house that comes with the job is a massive vicarage built in the 1890's (btw this is old for Australia). My kids are a little jealous of all the bedrooms and space. Me not so much - a lot of cleaning (and we're all aware of my love of housework). It is cold though. I'm not a great cold weather person. I do have to say that I'm fully enjoying a gorgeous coat that a lady at wo...