School lunch season begins.

Matilda's back to school on Friday, Ruby and Lily Violet on Monday.

Found Lunchbox Treats—Twenty ideas for Wrap Fillings from a link on Nicole Starling's blog.

This year I have to get Matilda out the door by 7 am, so need to decide on whether lunch gets made earlier that morning, the night before, or on the Sunday before and then pulled out of the freezer.

Still inclined towards early morning, but perhaps I will experiment with Sundays. Thoughts welcome, here and on facebook.

Selective schools

Quite a few letters in today's SMH on the subject of selective schools.

We've had to work through decisions about this lately, as Matilda will be going into secondary school next year. Our main consideration, however, has been about whether she will find opportunity to be encouraged in her Christian understanding and living. At one of the schools where she might have gone, we asked the principal about Christian activities and got the response 'Well, er, I think a few of them meet for a barbecue sometimes on a Thursday lunchtime'.

Now I have no issue with state schools or selective schools (I went to James Ruse, which is both, and Fifi went to Sydney Girls, which is both), but if the choice is between that and another school where 1/3 of the students are in voluntary Bible studies, let me say that the choice is a no-brainer.

The idea of coaching kids to get into selective schools seems weirdly obsessive to me, but no more weirdly obsessive than coaching kids to get to a world-class level in sports. My own weird obsession is about fitting my girls for the kingdom of heaven, hence questions to school principals about Christian groups.

Clarinet

Matilda asked me to find some clarinet music for her on YouTube, so I did!

Isn't it beautiful?

It's Mozart's Concerto for Clarinet, 2nd movement.

Soloist Carelys Carreras, Cuba. Vienna Philharmonic Women's Orchestra

Why trust God?

I can trust God because

he sent his Son to die, and in the Bible it shows how lots of people trusted him and he didn't let them down.

-Matilda Cheng

Bit of a scramble for the volcano

A busy morning. Fifi has gone to church to teach some Japanese women to bake (a lot of Japanese people don't have ovens). I helped teach Scripture to some of my girls at school.

Meanwhile, Matilda decided she wanted to train for the zone cross country, so we went off for a run. Oh, that was before breakfast, but that helps explain why it feels like I've been running all morning.

Meanwhile meanwhile, Ruby was putting the finishing touches on the volcano.

OK, let's be accurate here. She had the idea for the volcano for news, which originally (last Saturday IIRC) involved a cardboard box cut and taped to shape, "2 pakets of tomato saus" (what she wrote on the shopping list), and hands coming in through holes cut in the cardboard box, squeezing the '2 pakets' and vawooshka, Bob's your uncle and there's your volcano.

All credit to her, it would have been a corker of an eruption. "Magma to the left of me! Magma to the right of me!"

However we did workshop the concept just a little bit. I cut the box to shape. Fifi helped her paint and decorate so it looked fairly volcanic, or at least, would look volcanic when I taped it up.

(Child to mother, who is asking child to tidy up bits of paper and cardboard: "But you were the one who made the mess!" And again, to give credit where it is due, this statement was technically accurate)

The active ingredients of the eruption miraculously transmogrified, under our guiding hands, into the good ol' baking powder (sodium bicarbonate, in a plastic party cup, taped to the inside of the mouth of the volcano), plus probably three-quarters of a cup of vinegar, to be poured into the cup during the news presentation in 2F. I was putting the finishing touches to it inbetween teaching Scripture and taking Ruby back to her class with the other kids.

Come to think of it, the volcano may even be happening as I type this. Good luck, Mrs F (her teacher).

Why aren't I there watching? Well I do have work to do today, you know!

The walk to school

The walk to school is 2.2 kilometres.

Lily Violet complains as soon as we turn the first corner that her legs are hurting.

I take her bag.

We walk up the hill.

We go along a flat bit.

We cross the road.

I take Ruby's bag, but Matilda refuses the offer. We walk up another hill, we cross another road. The bus driver waves us through.

We start to run. We run through the park. Lily comes first. Ruby says 'It wasn't a race'. Matilda, who has refused to run, catches up.

We cross the road and walk up another hill.

Lily runs down the hill a bit. We stop and cross the road. Lily runs down the rest of the hill. The Catholic kids are walking in to assembly. Catholic mums are dressed better, at least at this school. What is the need for toenail polish? I think you are showing off to the other mothers. K—— hasn't left home, so we are on time. Matilda asks if we are on time.

Up the hill a bit more. Lily, if your legs are hurting, then why did you do all that running? I don't think your legs actually hurt. Put your bag on. Have you ever heard the story of the Lily who cried wolf?

Then a series of traffic lights, and Matilda, who has said some things, and asked to turn right, now asks if she can go, kisses her sisters and runs the rest of the way. Ruby, Lily Violet and I walk on.

Matilda

Matilda is ten years old today.

How did that happen so fast?

"Matilda, what is the best thing about turning ten?"

"Presents!"

Water or Goo?

This book was quite good. I liked the bit were the toilet at Emily's house exploded. I don't really get it when Daniel was on the TV screen, Dad got angry. It was good how in the end Shanti and her village got water that was clean, and it had a bible verse to it. Thanks Penny, for writing this book!

Matilda Cheng :-)

[aged 9. blogged with permission]

Batman!

You can't not like this:



Matilda's band played a passable approximation of it on Saturday, in fact as a proud dad I reckon it was mighty fine after just a few hours practise. Matilda got a bit lost, she said, but then she's only been learning the clarinet this year.

Middle daughter turns 7

Our darling Ruby turns 7 today. A bit later we will all gather in the parental bedroom, sing happy birthday and have presents. Grandpa will come tonight. Noodles for dinner.

Ruby is in year one and is writing little essays. We had 3-way parent-teacher interviews with teacher, child and us talking for about 10 minutes about child's progress. So with 3 daughters it went interview-wait (I worked on my laptop inbetween, things are majorly busy)-interview-gym (while I walk home) - swim (I take 2 girls) - interview.

The teacher showed me Ruby's essay from Tuesday, a nearly 2 page pencilled description of our trip to Berrima for Gran's birthday. It took a "verey verey verey verey" long time to get there (those four 'vereys' took up most of one line). She talked about visiting the lolly shop in Berrima and buying chocolate.

Fifi knows all this already because she helps with reading on Tuesday mornings.

The ages 5-10, which all our girls are now, is a delightful time of life. Although I regularly tell our eldest that she was supposed to stay the same forever, I am thankful to God for all their lives at every age.

In other news, I think everyone is coming down with colds.

Below par

This is an odd expression, when used in the sentence "I'm feeling a bit below par", as in, I'm not feeling that great, or I'm feeling a bit unwell. Because if you think about where the term 'below par', comes from, it's mainly used as a golfing expression. And if someone is 'below par' in golf, then they are playing a blinder and doing really well.

This morning Matilda woke feeling nauseous, so she stayed home from church with Fifi looking after her. I went to church with Ruby and Lily Violet, and then we went on to morning tea for newcomers, and I met some nice people. It was very good, and we'd heard a good sermon on love from our minister as well.

But then we got home and Matilda was still sick, and started throwing up. And just quietly, I'm now feeling a bit above par myself.

Oppositional disorder.

Now that all three girls are at school, I keep having flashbacks.

When Matilda was two, I asked her if she thought she might be suffering from oppositional disorder.

The answer was 'no!'.

The LORD relented

I read this Bible passage with my daughter Matilda last night:

Ex. 32:11 But Moses implored the LORD his God and said, “O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” 14 And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

The idea that God would 'relent' (which essentially means to 'repent', just the way a sinner would repent of sin) is extraordinary, especially when the apparent cause of that repentance is the prayer of Moses.

The basis of the repentance cannot be the reminder of God's promises, since these could be fulfilled just as adequately through Moses (even if he is a descendant of Levi—see Ex 2:1). That is in fact what God had planned to do ("Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you."—Ex 32:10). So we have to conclude that the basis of God's repentance is his concern for his reputation amongst the Egyptians (See also Ex 7:5; 17; Ex 8:10, 22; 14:4, 18 and compare Ex 8:19 and Ex 9:16).

Did our Lord have this passage in mind in Gethsemane?

Mk 14:36 And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Both the example of Moses and the example of Jesus should drive us to prayer in the face of impending disaster. If the answer is 'yes', disaster has been averted. If the answer is 'no', then we know that the disaster is the LORD's will, and that in the very depths of despair he is with us still, as he was with his Son on the cross.

Christmas 2007

Went down to Austinmer for a few days, including Christmas. Matilda and I looked at a bit of Ecclesiastes together, because she'd picked it out as something she wanted to read.

1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2    Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
3 What does man gain by all the toil
at which he toils under the sun?
4 A generation goes, and a generation comes,
but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises, and the sun goes down,
and hastens to the place where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south
and goes around to the north;
around and around goes the wind,
and on its circuits the wind returns.
7 All streams run to the sea,
but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
there they flow again.
8 All things are full of weariness;
a man cannot utter it;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear filled with hearing.
9 What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there a thing of which it is said,
“See, this is new”?
It has been already
in the ages before us.
11 There is no remembrance of former things,
nor will there be any remembrance
of later things yet to be

-Ecclesiastes 1.

I asked her what she thought of it, and she said she didn't really understand it. I said, that's not surprising, I don't think I understood it the first time I read it. It's in the Bible so we know that God said it, but it's almost like he's pretending that he doesn't believe in God.

We prayed that God would help us to understand his word, even the tricky bits.

A special name

It will be yours, and yours alone, and no sales offer attaches to it, and it will be an expression of Jesus' love for you.

I read it with Matilda just tonight:

Rev. 2:17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’

Compare Isaiah 62:2

The nations shall see your righteousness,
and all the kings your glory,
and you shall be called by a new name
that the mouth of the LORD will give.

That hidden manna sounds rather marvellous, too.

Little robots

The girls at Matilda's sleepover made little robots. A lot of fun! You can see where Fifi got the idea for the robots here.

9 little girls

will be sleeping in the house tonight, or more likely, not sleeping. Matilda wanted a sleepover for her 9th birthday. Eek!

It's going to be a lot of fun, though.

Lily's birthday party

Was today, although her birthday is not until next month. A mermaid birthday party, together with another friend Charlotte.

She is about to turn five and is about to start school. I told all my daughters that they were to stay the same forever, but it hasn't worked. Matilda said that she had heard it worked if you put a brick on kids' heads and left it there permanently. See, that's a kind of a grown-ups' joke and, sentimentalist that I am, it made me feel slightly sad as I laughed.

What do you want to be when you leave school?

What Uncle Ian (Fiona's sister Jenny's husband) asked Matilda, Ruby and Lily, when we visited them in Canberra.

Matilda age 8: "A writer and an illustrator."
Ruby age 6: "A chef."
Lily age 4: "I'm not even at school yet." But then, eventually, "a butterfly."

Lily has now changed her mind and decided she wants to be a mermaid.

Oh, and we're back. 3 weeks of enjoyable holiday, visiting Leura, Canberra and Austinmer. Made asparagus risotto. Basil is coming in now so made a great salsa verde with basil, anchovies, olive oil, mint and garlic. Great with the risotto and fried chicken breasts.

Just about finished reading Personal History by Katherine Graham, and got through a few chapters of Spiritual Depression by Martin Lloyd Jones. I'd recommend the latter to anyone. He begins his book with these verses:

Psalm 42

5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation
6 and my God.

...

11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.

North Austinmer beach

My daughter Ruby at North Austinmer beach.

Will heaven be better than this? You bet it will. This whole world is under judgement, which is our only hope that greater things lie ahead. In the meantime, the world has so many glories of its own to offer, that if you didn't believe in judgement you would say nothing of the gospel.

Matilda took the photo.