StudyGirl

Zachariah's Song

2011-06-28T10:36:00.000+10:00

By Zach's father Simeon

Zachariah's Song

Here I lie awake, alone, in the dark. Helpless, hopeless, restless. No peace or respite in this house of death. No joy or laughter can be heard.

Rest and comfort elude me, pain and sickness are my only companions. This life, this body, has failed me, the world has tried in vain to save.

Men have only succeeded in poisoning me. My blood runs toxic, my vomit burns, and nothing here can help.

The blood that once carried life to my heart, now only brings decay. The food that once renewed my body, now brings only sicknesses, repulsion, bile.

There is no aid here. Nothing that can calm my sorrow, nothing that can ease my pain. I linger on in weakness, pointless and unending.

My nights are filled with groaning, my days a blur of tears. I have exhausted all crying. I want to play again, to leave these fears.

I must look to heaven, to the twinkling stars that bear your names. For I have nothing left here to call my own, nothing that I want to hold.

God, you have taken this life, you have not spared my suffering, have not eased my pain. You have not given me care, or shown me renewal.

Yet this is the way it was meant to be. This is how it is, and nobody, but you, can change this. I cannot rage for lack of strength and will.

Who else can I turn to? Where else can I go? There are no answers here, no cure, no help. I'm compelled, drawn to your pierced feet. Your bloody hands.

There is no love that can cross this chasm, but yours. No hope that outlasts a heartbeat, but yours. No faith that holds, but yours.

So I must put my hope in you. I must put my life in your hands. I must trust in your rest, because there is so little left here, there may as well be none at all.

I wait for you. A journey I make alone, with the multitude. A destination without end. A life I have not known. New, free, good.

Zach

2011-03-25T13:43:00.001+11:00

My very good friend's little boy was diagnosed with cancer June last year. He bravely fought and smiled his way through many nasty and difficult times. He is such a strong and brave child! After 7ish months of hospital time he came home and spent a little over a month at his home, but now has come out of remission.

There are few options left. He can have vigorous chemotherapy in hope that it will fix him, or have less vigorous chemo to give him "quality of life" in his last days. This is such a difficult time for his family, particularly his parents who have to make the decision.

I ask that everyone spend a few moments in prayer pleading with God for wisdom, anwers to tough decisions, HEALING for little Zach and GRACE to make it through this heartbreaking time.

It is not difficult to ask God in faith and confidence that He hears us. It is ALL we can do.

This is the email that Zach's grandparents sent around this morning:

Dear friends,

Zach went into the Children's Hospital on 12 June 2010 with stage 5 Burkits Lymphoma resulting in a protracted period of Chemotherapy. Zach has had numerous operations on his little body to remove cancerous lymph nodes in his abdomen, spinal punches every day for 3 months, a brain shunt, central feed line and drip line inserted into his chest cavity and recently a colostomy bag because of bowel damage as a result of the toxicity effects from the chemo. During his stay in hospital Zach turned 3 years old and we and he enjoyed a happy birthday party along with all the other cancer kids. He and the family had the pleasure to return home for a three week period over Christmas returning to the hospital in January and February for a few days of chemo.

Zach is an incredibly brave boy for a 3 year old to go through all this with little complaining. He prays always for all his friends that he made while in the hospital.

Last week he had to have another blood transfusion and then returned again to Randwick in Sydney. Today he had a cell test to see if there were any cancer cells in his spinal fluid. Unfortunately, there is really bad news, Zach has had a relapse and has a high count of cancer cells in his spinal fluid. There are now few options left for his treatment except more vigorous chemotherapy with all the complications that come from this including more ulcerations and possible brain damage. Alternatively, a chemo maintenance program to maximize his quality of life and to keep him comfortable so he can enjoy what little time he has left to live.

Please pray now for Simeon and Sarah that they might make the right and wisest decisions about what is the best thing to do for Zach. They are in a great deal of grief about this and do not know what to do. Thank you for all your prayers and concerns, this may also again end up in a protracted period of treatment.

A piece from my study reading

2011-03-22T19:44:00.000+11:00

I came across these while I was studying today. I found them really interesting, so thought I would share : )

There is a fragile element with the notion we call 'informed choice'...Embracing uncertainty sometimes brings a sense of calm...this is not about engendering a passive fatalism but more about enabling childbearing women to learn to trust that they will cope with whatever comes their way. Working through these issues is particularly important in a culture that privileges the notions of 'choice' and 'control'.                                                               Nicky Leap 2000

Coming from a non-Christian I find this an interesting quote.

Moral life does not conveniently organise itself into deeds that can be performed, issues that can be decided, or problems that can be solved. Character comes from living. It is an ever-evolving and habituated sensitivity.                                                            Faye E Thompson 2004

And this I love!

Long before history began we men have got together apart from the women and done things. We had time.                                                                                        C. S. Lewis

It's been a while...

2011-03-20T21:07:00.001+11:00

Hi everyone!

It has been so long that I don't think I even know how to blog anymore (not that I probably did in the first place). I thought I would post something (nothing) so that I might get back into the swing of things. Not sure that this will work, but you never know : )

I have been able to breathe more this year so far compared to last year, hoping that things will stay this way! If they do, then I might actually get more time to blog. So far I have been using my extra time to volunteer for Church rosters, read AMAZING books and spend more time with the family. I am also babysitting half a day a week and will start back at the nursing home casually after 6 months break. I am really looking forward to having more than $11 in my bank account!

I am being trained up at Church in the sound system, and will help with set up and pack up in our new Church Hall. We had to move from the Church building as we grew out of it, which makes for a fair bit of extra work to do every week, as we have to totally pack up everything and take it away each week. But so far 3 weeks into it we are going alright. It isn't as nice as being in our Church building as it is large, cold and impersonal; but it does mean that we can chat to everyone and not trip over everyone's feet! It has been nice, just hope that it all becomes a little easier soon.

I read the Harry Potter series while in Tasmania (which I love!), Edmund Spenser's "Faery Queen": amazing and beautiful! I have been reading Oscar Wilde's plays and children's stories and some poetry. And a lot of Midwifery books of course : ) My friend whose birth I recently was privileged to attend has been lending me books from her vast library. So I have read "Pushed" (which was excellent) amongst others, and am starting "Calm Birth" which looks pretty good so far. I love reigniting my passion for Midwifery with books, seems to me to combine 2 passions wonderfully!

Right now at uni we are all trying very hard to recruit our 20 continuity women for this year. I had 11 but 3 have moved out of Canberra, so am down to 8. All the Booking in visits I have done at the hospitals (each taking approx 1.5hrs) have proven fairly disappointing as the women are asked at the end of each of these visits whether they want a midwifery student to follow their pregnancy through, and most of the women are saying no to me. So just have to keep attending visit after visit until I am able to get up 20. What is lovely is that I am able to take 5 women through the birth centre, I am so loving that!

So, I hope to post randomly throughout this year, keeping myself as well as anyone who is even remotely interested up to date with the life of me : )

Here's Cheers to Queanbeyan Midwives

2010-05-07T18:48:00.000+10:00

Here's cheers to Queanbeyan midwives

BY ERIKA SEYMOUR

06 May, 2010 02:38 PM

SPECIALISED CARE: Clinical midwife specialist Cathy Carter, midwife Carla Santarossa and intern Karli Axelby say midwives are important in pregnancy, birth and post-natal care.

The dedicated team at Queanbeyan Hospital's low risk birthing unit didn't stop to celebrate International Midwives Day this week.

But the Age stopped in to talk about the important role the unit has in everything from pregnancy and birth to post-natal care.

Clinical midwife specialist Cathy Carter said many people did not know midwives had a specialised role.

``There's a lot of autonomy in the profession. Our focus is wellness, not sickness,'' she said.

``We have a share-care model with GPs so women get to know their midwives. This has very good outcomes.''
As the Queanbeyan unit is smaller than ones in larger cities mothers get plenty of support. Many travel from Canberra to give birth in the unit.

``They like the personal care, and they have their own rooms here. Most public hospitals have share rooms,'' she said.

``We are involved in the birthing process from start to finish, unlike larger hospitals where midwives are posted to a particular section, for instance post-natal.

``Here we cover the whole lot. For young nurses it's a great educational experience.''

Karli Axelby, 21, of Canberra is experiencing that learning curve first-hand.

She's currently spending three weeks in the unit as part of her studies.

``I'm in my second year at Canberra university studying a Bachelor of Midwifery,'' she said.

``I love being around babies. I didn't know what the course would be like until after my first day but I just loved it.''

Miss Axelby said so far work experience had been great.

``Everyone is so supportive,'' she said.

At university, her peer group includes mature age students, people with adult children, and a few young people.

'`They aren't any men in my year,'' she said.

The course is new in the scheme of midwifery.

``The age of midwives is moving up so they're desperately trying to get more women into it,'' Mrs Carter said.

``In response to that there's now a direct course people can do rather than having to be a registered nurse first then study midwifery.''

The midwifery specialist said research on the benefits of midwifery was very positive.

``For women the unit is essential we certainly have a bond with women,'' Mrs Carter said.
The unit has 25 nurses in total, ranging from casual, part time and full time positions.

One program run by the unit is Midcall where midwives visit homes of new mothers and offer support to the family.

Taking a look around the tea room it's easy to see their work is appreciated.

It's filled with flowers and chocolates from thankful families.

``Many community groups also regularly donate cakes, rugs and hand-sewn blankets,'' Mrs Carter said.

Another program on offer through the unit is a four week birthing and parent class.

In addition there are dieticians on hand to offer healthy eating and pregnancy advice.

``Women who come to the unit have access to a lot of information and advice.

``We cater for everyone; young mothers, mothers having their second and third child and so on,'' she said.
``The size of our unit means we're flexible to various parents' needs.''
Mrs Carter said the birth rate in Queanbeyan was increasing.

Wow!

2010-04-24T19:53:00.000+10:00

Read this article on Marriage:

Marriage weathers icy blasts

"Regardless of Hollywood pessimism, a generation that has felt first-hand the effects of marriage breakdown and instability is embracing the institution afresh.

"Instinctively they know the truth of what C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity:

''If you decide to make thrills your regular diet and try to prolong them artificially, they will all get weaker and weaker, and fewer and fewer, and you will be a bored, disillusioned person for the rest of your life. It is because so few people understand this that you find many middle-aged men and women maundering about their lost youth, at the very age when new horizons ought to be appearing and new doors opening all round them.''

Miranda Devine

This doll has serious issues!

2010-04-14T13:13:00.003+10:00

"Scout's honour: to salute a literary masterpiece" SMH

2010-04-03T17:27:00.004+11:00

Scout's honour: to salute a literary masterpiece
April 3, 2010 ’’I got back and it was like, ‘Oh, Lord only knows what that child has learnt out there in Hollywood’’ ... Mary Badham as Scout, with Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird.

After 50 years the Mockingbird still sings, writes Warwick McFadyen.

'Darling, I'm so sorry, you probably got up at the crack of dawn. We're dealing with major snow here and today was my last day before I fly out, and so I was trying to get everything taken care of. I've been digging for two days, busted up my knee and my shoulders, but anyway ..."

The voice on the line is apologetic, having missed the agreed interview time by four hours. The voice is from Richmond, Virginia, deep in snow and ice, frozen over by winter storms. It belongs to Mary Badham, who, as Jean Louise Finch, better known and loved as Scout, has to many become frozen in time for her role in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Badham grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. Fifty years ago, the city was a synonym for racial injustice, its streets battlegrounds for riots. An image of a police dog attacking an African-American circled the world and became a de facto portrait of the city.

In her youthful innocence, Badham played a part in confronting the racism with her role in Mockingbird. Her portrayal of Scout resonated with millions.

It still does. And she still responds to it as strongly as she did as a 10-year-old in 1962 when, for three months, she became Jean Louise Finch, daughter of Atticus.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. The novel is one of publishing's global phenomenons, selling an estimated 30 million copies. It won the Pulitzer Prize, and is one of the best-loved works in literature.

Lee said in 1964: "I never expected any sort of success with Mockingbird. I didn't expect the book to sell in the first place. I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of reviewers."

And with that, Lee all but vanished from public view, becoming, with the recently departed J.D.Salinger, one of the most famous intensely private people in the literary world.

If Lee is the reclusive keeper of the flame, then Badham is the enthusiastic torchbearer, albeit through film. To Kill a Mockingbird was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won three: best actor to Gregory Peck as Atticus, best screenplay to Horton Foote, and best cinematography/art direction. Badham was nominated for best supporting actress; she lost to Patty Duke but it didn't faze her. She wasn't into movies and was more like Scout. "We read books on rainy days, we went outside and played when it wasn't."

One book she didn't read was Mockingbird. That came many years later, and only then because a professor asked her to do an English literature class on the novel. "I had not wanted to go there. I had everything I wanted right up there in my little memory, which was fine," she says.
But when she did open the covers, the little world of Maycomb that had been defined by the film grew bigger, the characters and their relationships deeper and wider. "It was so interesting," she says. "It expanded the knowledge of everybody so much, it was fascinating. There were all these characters I didn't know anything about; the whole friendship with Calpurnia [the African-American housekeeper] – going to church with her."

Badham could identify with this. The Badhams had an African-American helper to raise six generations of family. Of the episode in the book of going to Calpurnia's church: "Well, we did that when we were kids."

What they wouldn't have been allowed to do was share a seat on a bus with an African-American. "When I grew up in Birmingham," she says, "black people still rode at the back of the bus. They still had to drink out of the coloureds-only water fountains and use their own rest-rooms."

Badham says the filmmakers were doing a "cattle call across the south" and wanted "children of the south who could speak with a true southern accent". They were taken to Hollywood and Maycomb was created on the studio backlots.

The west coast was an eye-opener for an Alabama schoolgirl. People lived in mixed-race relationships and Badham learnt that "there was a whole different world out there and not everybody thinks the way they do down there [the south]". When she returned to Birmingham, she couldn't fit in.

"The Badhams were founding fathers of Birmingham. My dad was a general in the air force, and really well thought of; I had been welcomed into the best homes in Birmingham. Well, then I got back and it was like, 'Oh, Lord only knows what that child has learnt out there in Hollywood."'
What she did find in Hollywood were friendships that endured, most notably with the film's biggest star, Gregory Peck. "He was a wonderful, wonderful human being," she recalls. What people saw on the screen is what they got off-screen.

Too familiar to call him Mr Peck and too young to call him Greg, Badham says, "Atticus it was for him and Scout it was for me, and that's how it stayed. We were really, really close."

Through the years that bond stayed strong. "It was like a family," she says, "and I don't know of any other film where you can say that the people kept up with each other and would take the time to call one another or if they were in the same town to see one another.
"It was nothing for me to pick up the phone and it would be Atticus on the other end of the line, saying 'Watcha doin', kiddo?' And that meant a lot to me."

Memorising screenwriter Horton Foote's lines hadn't been a problem for Badham until she realised the adventure was about to end. There was one scene to go, the pivotal moment outside the jail where Atticus was guarding his client Tom Robinson against a lynch mob. Scout and her film brother Jem (Phillip Alford) were there to see what all the fuss was about. It was Scout who turned the crowd around with her wide-eyed innocence in speaking to one of them. But Badham faltered.

"That was the last scene that we shot and I knew that after that I would have to say goodbye to all these people that I had fallen in love with, and I didn't want to say goodbye," she says.
"I hadn't had any trouble up to that point, and then all of a sudden I started stumbling and bumbling. Finally Mr Mulligan [the director] called 'cut'. My mum took me back to the trailer and she's like, 'Young lady, you better get your lines right and you better do this scene because you know what the freeways are like at five o'clock and these people want to go home,' and I'm like, 'OK,' and I go out and do the scene."

While time has not dented her love for all things Mockingbird, it has taken its toll. "I can't watch it any more, I just can't. It's so upsetting because nearly everyone is gone," she says.

Source: watoday.com.au

1st year of Midwifery done and dusted

2009-12-14T13:21:00.003+11:00

Wow! The first year of midwifery is over!

Well, almost. I do have half an afternoon of class to go to on Wednesday, some revision of pharmacology, and most exciting of all, an extra continuity experience with a woman who is having twins in late January!

I haven't posted up the stories of the last 5 continuity experiences I had. I got really busy with uni, writing essays and horrible things like that! My 6th woman had an elective Cesarean, she had an allergic reaction to the morphine in her spinal block, so that wasn't at all pleasant. Also the midwives were really rude and ordered me and her mother out of the postnatal room later on; I was not impressed. Neither was Jenny my course coordinator. The 7th was another elective Cesarean, that went really smoothly. The 8th was an induction as there was meconium stains in the liquor. That birth was totally amazing! She was given the lowest dose of synto to start off labour, and 75mins later she was handed her baby! I love births like that : )

Unfortunately, I missed the last two births. I had to work when the 9th women was birthing, she reported having a lovely birth! I was able to be present during the labour of the 10th woman, but then had to take Mum and Dad to the airport when they were going away up to the Gold Coast, so missed that birth as well.

I have been attending fortnightly visits with the woman who is having twins. She is really well, just feeling H.U.G.E! I am really looking forward to her labour and birth. I won't be able to do much by way of getting in there and helping because there will be a consultant, neo-reg and a couple of midwives; I am last on the pecking line! But I get to see amazing things : )

This photo was taken at our end-of-year dinner that we students planned as a thank-you for our wonderful teachers.

It was a fantastic night. We saw a slide-show of the year. Heard speeches. Gave flowers and gifts to our teachers. And presented them also with a quilt that many of the students contributed to by decorating a square. N. and I put the quilt together and in the end it looked fabulous!

It has been a fantastic year. I am a looking forward to next year in some ways, and kind of sad also that it will be different. We will be spending 24hours a week in the hospitals doing rotations of all the wards and antenatal clinics and neonatal special care nursery. That will be pretty full on. But we also do not get to do any continuity, so that's really sad.

Hopefully I will get to posting up more regularly next year. I am sure there will be lots to talk about!

Re: my fourth birth...upright position and estimated blood loss

2009-08-20T18:32:00.007+10:00

Catherine commented on my fourth birth post, asking:
I was interested to hear about women bleeding more readily when they give birth on their knees - I have for all three and never had that problem, except for the first but that was most likely because of the length of the second stage.

I replied:
I am not entirely sure Cath, Mum said she had the same experiences as you so that's two (actually many more!) stories against one : ) It is highly likely that I misunderstood, or that the midwife was speaking only from her experience ??

Later on though I was required to do some specific reading around birth, and came across these comments on birth position and estimated blood loss:

"Blood loss appears to be higher following upright birth (Gupta et al 2004), but this may be due to the ease of measuring blood loss when upright."

Chapman, V & Charles, C (eds) 2009, The Midwife's Labour and Birth Handbook, 2nd edn, Wiley-Blackwell, West Sussex

"Gupta and Nikodem (2000) undertook a meta-analysis of controlled studies of positions in the second stage of labour.

They noted that in all the parameters they assessed except one, a policy of upright positions led to benefits for women.

The exception was an increased risk of estimated blood loss above 500mL.

In interpreting these findings, it should be noted that 'upright' included kneeling, squatting, sitting, use of a birthing stool/chair, and use of lateral tilt, while 'recumbent' included on the back, lithotomy stirrups, lateral (without the tilt) recumbent and semi-recumbent.

It has also been observed that where maternal preference was elicited, the most frequent positive responses were from those women who had used an upright position (Sleep et al 1989)."

Henderson, C & Macdonald, S 2009, Mayes’ midwifery: A textbook for midwives, 13th edn, Baillière Tindall, Edinburgh

Hopefully that is a lot clearer than my first reply!

My 5th Birth

2009-08-06T16:59:00.002+10:00

Hi All,

I actually had this birth around 3 weeks ago, but as it kind of disturbed me a little I haven't written about it 'til now.

This woman and I had a very good rapport; we had had a massive chat waiting 1 1/2 hours for the doctor one time, so I got to know her birth wishes quite well. She wanted a natural, intervention-free labour and birth, then wanted to fully breastfeed afterwards. This was her first pregnancy.

Well at 10 days over her due date, she was induced. They tried prostoglandin gel; then broke her waters; and finally hooked her up to syntocinon. She dilated to 3cms, then for 3hrs was "not progressing". I was working a full 8hr shift so couldn't come in until 3:30pm. When I got in, they were just about to do another VE. I walked into her room, she was sitting in the chair (as she said it hurt so much more on the bed) and we had a little chat in between contractions. Another VE was done, still "no progress", and the doctors were talking about a c-section, which I thought was a little weird as her waters were broken only at 7am.

Well the midwife pushed for an epidural instead, as this can make the muscles relax and so dilatation continues. The doctors reluctantly agreed to offer it; the woman reluctantly agreed to have one, and it was put in. Only the anaesthetist drove in 4cms too much of the tube (catheter?) into her back, so after 4hrs of excruciating pain another anaesthetist diagnosed the problem and took some of it out. After that the pain relief was immediate and she could sleep. She was ordered nil by mouth as she might have to go in for a c-section, 2-3 hourly VE's, and given until 1am to fully dilate (the epidural went in at 5pm).

Whenever a VE was done it showed that things were progressing really well, and by 1am she was fully. All this time the fetal heart rate was perfect; but her HR was a little high, and she was febrile but as she had a cold/slight flu this was to be expected, however the doctors were not too happy about it. Her HR rose to 130bpm, and she wasn't seen to be "pushing productively". At around 2:30am the decision was made to use vacuum (without really asking for consent...it was just, this really needs to happen, though they never really said why). Well, we went down to theatre, and trialled vacuum. I was nominated scribe, so had to write down times that the individual doctors came into theatre (neonatologist?, consultant, registrar) and when vacuum was started, stopped, etc. The registrar pulled as hard as she could on the vacuum, then the consultant took over. He pulled as hard as he could, until the cap came flying off; then he tried forceps. He pulled until he was red in the face, and with an episiotomy, the baby eventually came out, at 3:20am.

Baby didn't make much of a sound; and was taken to the neonatologist. Baby was really limp, blue, not crying. The neonatologist picked his arm up and let it drop (just from a small height) and it did just that, drop. He had a 0 for muscle tone, overall a 5 at 1 min. They put O2 on him, and after allowing the parents to kiss him, took him up to special care nursery.
I went up with him and the midwife, saw that he pinked up with O2 (and that I liked the look of the midwives in there...feeling very protective of MY baby...they were fantastic). I went back to the midwive's station, and promptly fell asleep in the chair. I had to get my Mum to pick me up and slept for 12hrs straight!

Went back the next day and baby was doing okay. Over the next few days he got better little by little; my woman was expressing and feeding him, and he went from having mainly formula, to having a little bit of formula to comp the breastmilk. The hospital was fantastic in allowing my woman to stay until baby was discharged on day 5. The last night both parents and baby slept in the rooming-in nursery which was lovely; dad got a little shock from having to get up to baby in the middle of the night though : )

All that week both parents kept saying how wonderful it was to have the continuity of a student midwife, and how wonderful it was to look up in the foreign and scary theatre and see a familiar face (that was trying very hard not to show the fear that was inside!).

In the end, a lovely baby handed over to lovely parents : )

My fourth birth

2009-06-22T14:06:00.002+10:00

Hi All,

I had my fourth birth this morning!!! I received a call at around 6:30 this morning to say that I had better get in there quick as she was in 2nd stage already.

When I got there she was already pushing, but her husband was encouraging her to "breathe through" a lot of the contractions, so she didn't have a fast 2nd stage, but it was good. Her "big" sister and auntie were also there; big sister was such a brave girl! She was calmly eating away while everything was going on, talking about her baby sister coming soon, and eagerly watching for the head with the rest of us! Apparently she was also having a baby, but as soon as she saw the final parts of the birth she changed her mind (probably looked like to much hard work!). When the midwife suggested to the woman to just push, immediately the baby's head was out! Really amazing little thing, trying to breathe even before the rest of her could be born Such a cutey!

The shoulders were a little more tricky to birth, but the midwife pulled gently up. Baby also had the cord wrapped around her neck twice, but it was loose and easily taken off. She was born around 8:30 with a gush of blood, but apparently that is fairly normal when women birth on their knees (the midwife did immediately give her sytocinon though).

Straight onto mum's breast, and feeding away like a starving child almost immediately. She could be heard suckling from across the other side of the room, just amazing! Mum is doing really well, a little knocked around with the afterbirth pains though (she also needed a few stitches). Baby is fantastic! And the midwife and I decided we both really wanted to bundle up both the little girls and take them home with us, so cute!

A C-section !!

2009-06-06T21:00:00.002+10:00

Hi All!

I was called yesterday from my woman to say that she was in labour!

All the time I have been with this woman antenatally she was having some bleeding; which just before I met her was assessed by an Obstetrician. I met the woman at her 32 week ultrasound, which was to confirm the position of the placenta. She was diagnosed with placenta praevia, where the placenta is right down near the cervix. It was unsure at this point whether the placenta would move further away from the cervix, so we were kind of just waiting to see what would happen as things got closer.

At 39+4 the GP advised to go back and have another ultrasound as she had experienced continued bleeding bi-weekly since her last ultrasound (filling up two pads each time), including some clots. I was REALLY worried about this, but every time she rang the birth suite she was told it should be okay. The GP didn't seem all that worried either, so I was concerned that they weren't looking hard enough, or being responsible. At the ultrasound it was confirmed again that the placenta was near the cervix, only 2.5 cms away.

As I was still worried about this, I rang Jenny and had a chat to her about it. She said that actually if the placenta is near the cervix, it can be normal to have bleeding, as the cervix is getting ready to birth it moves a little and can cause the placenta to move a little too...so that should be fine. Next day Michelle rang and re-confirmed what Jenny had said, so I felt better about everything.

On Monday my woman's waters had broken, and everything was fine, until Friday morning when she noticed some green fluid on her pad. So she went into hospital and they said she had a meconium stain in her liquor so they would have to induce her. She rang me around 3pm to say that she was 1cm, so I went in. She was really out of it when I got there as she had just had some morphine...she was hanging out big time for 4cm dilatation when she could get her epidural! I went for dinner with the postgrad students around 6:30. After 3 hours or so the epidural went in, I placed myself in a prime position to watch...that is the grossest thing I have ever seen!! It looked so terribly painful. She had the local so didn't actually feel a thing. The anesthetist was having just a little trouble pushing the massive needle through the ligament (which is apparently what has to happen with every epidural, ewwww!!), but it was all fine, she felt the effect immediately, and we could turn up her sintocinon (induction drip) to speed things up a little.

Around 10:30 she was 5cm, I went for a 1/2 rest. The Midwives were just lovely and so was my woman, they kept asking if I was alright, and did I want to go for a rest. I was amazed at how often my woman asked me that, she was the one who was exhausted!! They are such a lovely couple!

At around 3:30 she was 8 cm, but had a swollen lip of cervix, they gave her a few hours, and even though she came to 9 and a bit cms she never got any further. I and the primary Midwife had an hours lay down, then was called by the other Midwife as they had decided to go to the operating theatre and do a c-section. I didn't have to scrub, just put on the ridiculous clothes, shoe socks and hat, but we all looked ridiculous together so it didn't matter. I put myself in a great position again, and got to see everything as it happened. The woman's epidural didn't work like it should have, so she had heaps of top ups, gas and a few breaks from being opened, but in the end a beautiful baby boy was born!!!! He is such a cutey : )

Poor dad cried so much, it was really emotional for him. He said it was really scary going into theatre, and the poor woman was frightened too. I was nominated photographer, so since the woman was being stitched while baby was weighed and everything I took a million photos! It was just lovely. And the woman got to touch her little one while his dad held him, so I got heaps of photos of that too. It was such a lovely outcome in the end, even though it was a shame that they had to go through a c-section.

So there you go! I am can't wait to go see them, I have developed such a lovely rapport with both the parents, so I just really want to see that poor mum holding and breastfeeding her baby!

The Middle-Wife

2009-05-10T11:22:00.000+10:00

The 'Middle Wife' by an Anonymous 2nd grade teacher

I've been teaching now for about fifteen years. I have two kids myself, but the best birth story I know is the one I saw in my own second grade classroom a few years back.

When I was a kid, I loved show-and-tell. So I always have a few sessions with my students. It helps them get over shyness andusually, show-and-tell is pretty tame. Kids bring in pet turtles, model airplanes, pictures of fish they catch, stuff like that. And I never, ever place any boundaries or limitations on them. If they want to lug it in to school and talk about it, they're welcome.

Well, one day this little girl, Erica, a very bright, very outgoing kid, takes her turn and waddles up to the front of the class with a pillow stuffed under her sweater. She holds up a snapshot of an infant. 'This is Luke, my baby brother, and I'm going to tell you about his birthday.

''First, Mom and Dad made him as a symbol of their love, and then Dadput a seed in my Mom's stomach, and Luke grew in there. He ate for nine months through an umbrella cord. 'She's standing there with her hands on the pillow, and I'm trying not to laugh and wishing I had my camcorder with me. The kids are watching her in amazement.'Then, about two Saturdays ago, my Mom starts saying and going, 'Oh,Oh, Oh, Oh!' Erica puts a hand behind her back and groans. 'She walked around the house for, like an hour, 'Oh, oh, oh!' (Now this kid is doing a hysterical duck walk and groaning.)

'My Dad called the middle wife. She delivers babies, but she doesn't have a sign on the car like the Domino's man. They got my Mom to lie down in bed like this.' (Then Erica lies down with her back against the wall.)'And then, pop! My Mom had this bag of water she kept in there in case he got thirsty, and it just blew up and spilled all over the bed, like 'psshhheew!' (This kid has her legs spread with her little hands miming water flowing away. It was too much!)

'Then the middle wife starts saying 'push, push,' and 'breathe, breathe. They started counting, but never even got past ten. Then, all of a sudden, out comes my brother. He was covered in yucky stuff that they all said it was from Mom's play-center, (placenta) so there must be alot of toys inside there. When he got out, the middle wife spanked him for crawling up in there.

'Then Erica stood up, took a big theatrical bow and returned to her seat. I'm sure I applauded the loudest. Ever since then, when it's show-and-tell day, I bring my camcorder, just in case another ' MiddleWife' comes along.

Births, Fainting, and Episiotomies

2009-05-09T11:20:00.001+10:00

Hi All,

My second woman went into labour late last night (around 11:45). I was called at 12:15 this morning by the Midwife, who said that if I wanted to make it I would have to really hurry! Was totally exhausted, but jumped out of bed and threw on my cool new polo and drove off.

When I got to Calvary, she was in transition and went into 2nd stage very soon after. She was lying semi-recumbent (that was the word the midwife said to use--I was calling it "on her back" at first--but semi-recumbent sounds much more sophisticated!). The midwife asked her if she wanted to change positions, but she very decidedly said "NO!!!!", so the midwife looked for ways to make it more comfortable in the bed for her. But the midwife didn't need to do much, as the woman was instinctively doing most of the right things anyway. She was pelvic tilting, rolling her pelvis around, rolling slightly from side to side (hardly ever was actually on her side, but was moving all the time). But she was flaying her arms around, and grabbing our arms or shirts in the midst of contractions or pushing. So the midwife got her to hold underneath her thighs and push into her thighs, and that helped a lot. (Both us and her) : )

I was so carried away with the fact that it was going to happen so soon (and that I could actually see EVERYTHING that was going on this time) that I didn't think to sit down or move from the one spot. All of a sudden I felt really hot, light headed and nauseous. I fought it off for as long as I could, but then I just couldn't stand up anymore, I HAD to sit down! I sat on the nearest chair, and the midwife looked highly amused and suggested I go out and get a drink of water. I went out, passed the other midwives at the desk (who stared at my total lack of colour), slumped down against a wall and drank as fast as I could. So the heading is kind of deceiving because I never actually fainted, but I felt SO close to it, and it was not nice!
I didn't want to look like a scared chicken or really green, so I went back into the room as soon as I could and started helping again, but found that I had to sit down every couple of minutes; pretty much in between every push.

The woman did not progress normally, and the midwife was worried that perhaps the baby was posterior, so conducted a vaginal examination. The baby was not exactly posterior but lateral and kind of leaning a little on the posterior side (I think), but definitely coming down a little. So we waited, and the woman pushed, and we waited, and she pushed. Eventually we could see some small part of the head, but then it didn't keep progressing. Then about 15-30 mins baby's head definitely coming, but still only a little, the woman began to tear rather badly, so the midwife made the executive decision to do an episiotomy. Baby's face came through and the head had been transverse which is why she was tearing so badly. The midwife allowed me to put my hands over hers, so that I could experience what she was doing, then she had to really wiggle the baby out and I picked baby up and put baby on the woman's chest. That was lovely !!! I also was able to rub baby down a little, and had to keep baby from sliding off its mother as she was a little out of it all.

I was able to watch closely the registrar suturing the (I think 3rd degree incision), which was pretty cool, but a little gross, especially since the woman kept experiencing pain (not from the needle but from the cleaning out of the vagina of blood, so the registrar could see properly).
Baby didn't want to breathe at one stage as he was a little clogged with fluid, but after the midwife rubbed his back vigorously and tilted him forwards, he spewed it all up and became pink again.

I got to measure, weigh, and do all the vital signs on him, so that was cool. I also dressed, wrapped and rocked him to sleep, while his mother was showering. I feel very blessed : )

And tired...

Facebook scams

2009-04-15T18:04:00.003+10:00

Source: Canberra Times
Title: Stolen online identity
Author: Conrad Walters

A study found 84 per cent of people divulged their full date of birth on Facebook, 87 per cent divulged details about their education or job and 78 per cent listed their current address or location.

Facebook safety tips
1 Review your online profile to reveal only what you need to.
2 Don't assume default privacy settings are appropriate or sufficient.
3 Don't post contact info or share any details that could help someone guess your password.
4 Use a unique password for your Facebook account to isolate it from any problems elsewhere.
5 Keep anti-virus software current to detect programs that could monitor your online activities.
6 Ignore emails that ask you to confirm details for your account.
7 Don't share your logon details with other people.
8 Block messages from other people who solicit information from you.
9 If you get an emergency appeal from a friend, confirm it independently.
10 If you suspect there is a problem, contact abuse@facebook.com.

In Facebook the controls that govern what information other people can see rests three levels down. (Look for "settings", choose "privacy", then "profile".)

Time for God's Will

2009-04-15T10:15:00.004+10:00

Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: A Lamp For My Feet

Time for God's Will

One reason we are so harried and hurried is that we make yesterday and tomorrow our business, when all that legitimately concerns us is today. If we really have too much to do, there are some items on the agenda which God did not put there. Let us submit the list to Him and ask Him to indicate which items we must delete. There is always time to do the will of God. If we are too busy to do that, we are too busy.

Lord, help me to take your yoke on my shoulder, not a yoke of my own making. May I learn from You to be gentle and humblehearted. May I find that your load is light.

My first birth story...

2009-04-06T18:10:00.003+10:00

Hi Everyone,

Just to let you all know that "my" woman gave birth last night!!!! I have had four hours sleep this afternoon, so I am now able to articulate what happened : )

She is with the Birth Centre, and I had had two antenatal visits with her already, one at 39weeks and the other on her due date (which was last Friday) ... but no call that day which I was very disappointed about!

I waited all day, and all day Saturday and then on Sunday I couldn't handle it anymore and I packed a "birth bag" for myself in the (possible) case scenario of having to stay 12 hours or so (considering past labour of 21hours).....but still no call : (

I finally decided to go to bed, just lay there looking up at the ceiling, when I was called!!WOoohOoo!!! It was this morning at 12:48 am, by the midwife's stand-in, as the midwife was having a weekend off (apparently a rare incidence). I immediately got together my "birth bag" ... and jumped in the car to head off to the Birth Centre.

I sat in on a few contractions, but both the midwife and I decided that the couple should have some time to themselves, so I sat in the midwife's station and copied out notes about check-in and the initial palpation and vaginal examination....then I went and sat in for a few more contractions, and again went back with the midwife. She periodically checked the baby's heart rate so we went in for that, and popped our heads in just to see that she was okay. Otherwise, we chatted midwifery, this birth, what I knew and didn't know (took longer to tell that bit!), and listened to her moans and (increasing) grunts.

When the grunts became a little more guttural we "moved" into her room and gave her some extra encouragement. I was uncomfortable doing much but observe, but it was a lovely and rich experience. She got into the bath when the pain became too great and I got to see how a water birth looks like. The urge to push became really strong around 5.00am, but after a VE the midwife recommended not pushing as the cervix was not fully dilated. (If you do push when the cervix is not fully dilated it causes swelling of the cervical muscles, the midwife said, which makes it increasingly harder to birth.)

When the midwife had "breathed" the woman through several more really tough contractions, she did another VE and said that it was now okay to push. Very shortly there was a crowning; then baby's head out; then the shoulders were a little stuck and the midwife had to ask the woman to get out of the bath, lift one leg a little, and with the help of another contraction and the midwife easing the baby out, out came a gorgeous baby girl! SO LOVELY!!

I had to really hold back the tears, it was just so lovely! And even though I was "only" observing I did get to document all the "births" (baby, placenta, etc) timings while the midwife was in the thick of it all...so that was exciting : ) And I found out that my name is put on the birth register as a witness to the birth, how cool is that??!!! : )

25 things I hate about facebook

2009-03-07T20:02:00.001+11:00

This is absolutely hilarious!

25 things I hate about facebook

Photos of Grandad

2009-03-07T11:05:00.006+11:00

Bloggy Giveaway--We have a winner!

2009-02-10T19:17:00.000+11:00

I have drawn! The winner has been decided. Commiserations are offered to the unfortunate.

The winner is Ma/Susan/The jewelled path

Congratulations!!! Congratulations!!! Congratulations!!!

The slip of paper was drawn out of the hat by Mum in front of three witnesses. (Oh, and Cath I did add you into the draw.)

For those of you are the sad, misser-outers I am going to be giving away a children's book soon also. Gee, this giveaway stuff is FUN!

True Christianity

2009-01-29T19:06:00.004+11:00

William Wilberforce wrote in Real Christianity:

Measure your progress by your experience of the love of God and its exercise before men....

In contrast, servile, base, and mercenary is the notion of Christian practice among the bulk of nominal Christians. They give no more than they dare not withhold. They abstain from nothing but what they dare not practice. When you state to them the doubtful quality of any action, and the consequent obligation to refrain from it, they reply to you in the very spirit of Shylock, "they cannot find it it the bond."

In short, they know Christianity only as a system of restraints. It is robbed of every liberal and generous principle. It is rendered almost unfit for the social relationships of life,and only suited to the gloomy walls of a cloister, in which they would confine it.

But true Christians consider themselves as not satisfying some rigorous creditor, but as discharging a debt of gratitude. Accordingly, theirs is not the stinted return of a constrained obedience, but the large and liberal measure of voluntary service.

From: Passion and Purity by Elizabeth Elliot

Love God more

2009-01-28T20:13:00.008+11:00

As I was reading "Passion and Purity" by Elizabeth Elliot, I came across this Christina Rossetti poem:

Trust me, I have not earned your dear rebuke,
I love, as you would have me, God the most;
Would lose not Him, but you, must one be lost,
Nor with Lot's wife cast back a faithless look,
Unready to forego what I forsook;
This say I, having counted up the cost,
This, though I be the feeblest of God's host,
The sorriest sheep Christ shepherds with His crook.

Yet while I love my God the most, I deem
That I can never love you over-much;
I love Him more, so let me love you too;
Yea, as I apprehend it, love is such
I cannot love you if I love not Him,
I cannot love Him, if I love not you.

It reminded me of what Elizabeth Prentiss says in "Stepping Heavenward" when someone accuses her of loving her children too much:

You cannot love your children too much. You simply love God more.

Book Giveaway---Prayer by C. H. Spurgeon

2009-01-20T11:59:00.005+11:00

I am giving away this wonderful book! It is open to all readers who want to enter. Just leave a comment ON MY BOOK BLOG POST and share about a spiritual/devotional book that has led you to come closer to God.

Here are some sentences from the back of Prayer:

"You feel like you don't know how to pray--you can't find the right words, or just can't seem to get God's attention. You will be encouraged by this treasury of devotional expressions for Charles Spurgeon."

His elegant prayers, beautiful in their simplicity, will invite you to be vulnerable before your Creator.

His profound trust in God will set an example for your own pursuit of peaceful spirit.

His persistence in intercession will motivate you to pursue God in prayer.

Also, part of one of the prayers from within Prayer:

You who are King of Kings and Lord of Lords, we worship You. "Before Jehovah's awful throne, we bow with sacred joy." We can truly that we delight in God. There was a time when we feared You with the fear of bondage. Now we reverence You, but we love as much as we reverence. The thought of Your omnipresence was once horrible to us. We said, "Whither shall [we] flee from thy presence?" (Psalm 139:7). It seemed to make hell itself more dreadful, because we heard, "If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there" (v. 8).

But now, O Lord, we desire to find You. Our longing is to feel Your presence, and it is heavenly that You are there. The sick bed is soft when You are there. The furnace of affliction grows cool when You are there. The house of prayer when You are present is none other than the house of God, the very gate of heaven.

I'm in !! Midwifery program 2009!!!!

2009-01-08T16:05:00.010+11:00

After completing a year of nursing at university, I have been accepted into Canberra's first Bachelor of Midwifery program.

I love nursing, but my passion is in caring for women and babies. I knew that it was going to be hard to get into this as there were many applicants, and few places; but after much prayer, and a lot of work on my curriculum vitae (read Resumé), I was accepted!!

I have taken on the challenge...

2008-12-31T20:04:00.002+11:00

On Tuesday Mum decided to take the challenge to read 100+ books in 2009. I have also decided to take this challenge!

Here is where you can look into it also if you wish (a note: there may be some objectionable pictures on the sidebar).

I have started a new blog to record all the books I read in 2009...

5 Things the Marshmallow Test can Teach You about Money Management

2008-12-30T14:30:00.009+11:00

This is a post done by Millionaire Mommy Next Door , which I found rather challenging....I am afraid I am the take-the-marshmallow-immediately type. I thought maybe you would find this post interesting anyway.

Millionaire Mommy Next Door

5 Things The Marshmallow Test Can Teach You About Money Management

Tina is an intellectually-gifted bartender who struggles to pay her bills. Tina serves martinis to Susan. Susan is no more intelligent than Tina, but Susan is a millionaire. If not intelligence, then what explains the difference between wealth and financial lack? And what do sticky, gooey marshmallows have to do with it?

In the 1960s, Stanford University psychology researcher Walter Mischel conducted a longitudinal study. Mischel placed marshmallows in front of hungry four-year-old children. He told them they could have one marshmallow now, or if they could wait several minutes, they could have two. Some children quickly grabbed the marshmallow and ate it. Others waited.
Mischel followed the group and found that 14 years later, the children who eagerly devoured the first marshmallow weren’t faring as well as the children who had waited for two marshmallows. Years later, the “grabbers” suffered low self-esteem. Teachers and parents viewed these kids as stubborn, prone to envy and easily frustrated. The “wait-for-two-fers” possessed better coping skills; were more socially competent, optimistic, self-assertive, dependable and trustworthy; and scored about 210 points higher on their SATs.

Perhaps the key difference between between financial lack and wealth is not merely hard work or superior intelligence, but the ability to delay gratification.
What can the Marshmallow Test teach you about personal finance?

1. Avoid looking at marshmallows when you’re hungry
During the Marshmallow Test, some successful kids reportedly covered their eyes so they couldn’t see the tempting treat. My take away tip: Avoid temptation– stay away from the mall when you’re bored.

2. Save a marshmallow today and you’ll eat well tomorrow
The children who waited for the second marshmallow were rewarded with a 100% return on their first marshmallow. My take away tip: Unleash the power of compounding and you’ll be wealthy when you retire.

3. Drooling over s’mores? Wipe your chin and wait for the hot goo to cool– because you don’t want to burn your mouth!
One child reportedly licked the table around the marshmallow while waiting for the experimenter to return. My take away tip: Imagine having what you want, but wait until the time is right to consume. If you shop, wait until you have cash in hand to buy– don’t get burned by finance charges and credit card debt!
4. Stick your marshmallow into the fire, keep your eye on it and remove when perfectly browned– before it bursts into flames.
Some successful children watched their marshmallow to prevent others from snatching it, waited patiently until the researcher returned with the expected second marshmallow, then enjoyed their reward– without begging greedily for more. My take away tip: Invest in the market, monitor your investment and sell your shares when they reach your target price– before the bubble pops.

5. Give your children mini-marshmallows and teach them how to make rice crispy bars.
Some kids handled the wait by turning their back to the marshmallow, singing songs or talking to themselves. My take away tip: With practice, kids can learn how to delay gratification. Provide opportunities for your child to develop strategies. Give your children an allowance and teach them money management skills.

Mansfield Park

2008-12-28T20:38:00.006+11:00

Rebekah and Rachael received for Christmas the 1983 version of "Mansfield Park". We spent Saturday and Sunday watching it, and it proved to be a lovely 5 1/2 hours worth of movie. I highly recommend it to you. We watched it as a family, there was nothing objectionable or boring about it. We even had the youngest children begging to have it put on everytime we paused it!

This is a quote taken from this website, which gives an overview of the plot:

Fanny comes to live with relatives because her mother is overburdened with children and poverty. A selfish Aunt Norris who tries to keep Fanny humble and beholding to rich relatives although Aunt Norris can only criticize. Lord and Lady Bertram come to realize the superiority of Fanny and value her a a family member. Edmund has yet to realize that he loves Fanny. Edmund is blinded by false perceptions and allusion's of love with Miss Crawford. Fanny is pursued by Henry Crawford a man who has no scruples about pursuing her married cousin or any woman he thinks he can make fall in love with him as a lark. Henry meets his match in Fanny because she does not find Henry to be irresistible or sincere. Fanny persevere and wins the love of Edmund and the respect of Mansfield Park's residence.

My husbandry and I: Queen counsels thrift

2008-12-15T10:44:00.007+11:00

For me spending money equals happiness. However, I always appreciate the principles behind thriftiness: especially being a good steward of the material things God has endowed me with.

Also I am an avid admirer of the Queen...so when I found this news story I jumped at the chance to post it here on this blog.

The Queen has invited Britain's royal family to follow her example and tighten the purse strings during the financial downturn.

The 82-year-old monarch has warned her grandsons Princes William, 26, and Harry, 24 third and fourth in line to the throne that all ostentatious signs of living it up would be inappropriate, according to newspapers.

British subjects are apparently in no mood to see the young royals partying in exclusive London nightclubs while the kingdom sinks into recession, the cost of living rockets and jobs are lost.
An author of several books on the monarchy, Nicholas Davies, says, ''Whatever is the mood of the nation, she [Queen Elizabeth] tries to go along with that mood.''

According to the 2008 Rich List published by The Sunday Times, the sovereign has a personal fortune of 320 million ($A725 million) but she is not a spendthrift. ''She's not a flamboyant character and never has been,'' Davies says. ''She is not someone who has gone and spoiled her children, because she doesn't believe in spoiling them. She would expect them all [the other royals] to follow her example this Christmas.

''Children or grandchildren, they will all behave in the same way. It is unlikely that this coming season we will see William and Harry going out to nightclubs, getting blind drunk and fooling around with attractive girls.''

Adapting to the credit crunch should not be difficult for the Queen, who has long since garnered a reputation for looking after the pennies.

She insists that the Buckingham Palace lights are turned off when rooms are vacated and that banquet leftovers be reused.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/my-husbandry-and-i-queen-counsels-thrift/1386192.aspx

Ye Olde Booke #2

2008-12-14T20:23:00.005+11:00

It has just occurred to me that I recommended books that parents will likely want to censor for their children, and perhaps even for themselves.

"The Great Escape" has a lot of blasphemy in it, and some disturbing material at the end (details of some German's techniques in doing away with people...not nice).

Most of those WWII books will have blasphemy, so maybe just a black permanent marker will be suffiecient.

So far "The Wooden Horse" is the cleanest, along side of "The Dam Busters". But for the others, they are SO worth it, once the necessary steps have been taken to rid them of filth.

Do Hard Things

2008-12-08T20:13:00.002+11:00

The next generation stands on the brink of a "rebelution."

With over 16 million hits to their website TheRebelution.com, Alex and Brett Harris are leading the charge in a growing movement of Christian young people who are rebelling against the low expectations of their culture by choosing to "do hard things" for the glory of God.

Written when they were 18 years old, Do Hard Things is the Harris twins' revolutionary message in its purest and most compelling form, giving readers a tangible glimpse of what is possible for teens who actively resist cultural lies that limit their potential.

Combating the idea of adolescence as a vacation from responsibility, the authors weave together biblical insights, history, and modern examples to redefine the teen years as the launching pad of life and map a clear trajectory for long-term fulfillment and eternal impact.

Written by teens for teens, Do Hard Things is packed with humorous personal anecdotes, practical examples, and stories of real-life rebelutionaries in action. This rallying cry from the heart of revolution already in progress challenges the next generation to lay claim to a brighter future, starting today.

Eight Reasons Why I Don't Share My Faith

2008-12-08T19:14:00.003+11:00

You Really Need To Watch this Hilarious Video!!

8 Reasons Why I Don't Share My Faith

The Rebelution

2008-12-08T10:31:00.010+11:00

The official definition of the 'rebelution' is "a teenage rebellion against low expectations." When you look around today, our culture does not expect much of us young people. We are not only expected to do very little that is wise or good, but we're expected to do the opposite. Our media-saturated youth culture is constantly reinforcing lower and lower standards and expectations.
The word 'rebelution' is a combination of the words "rebellion" and "revolution." So it carries a sense of an uprising against social norms. But in this case, it's not a rebellion against God-established authority, but against the low expectations of our society. It's a refusal to be defined by our ungodly, rebellious, and apathetic culture. Actually, we like to think of it as rebelling against rebellion.

And it's exciting, because the Rebelution has become a type of counter-cultural youth movement among young people from around the world, who are not only rejecting the lies of popular youth culture, but they're returning to biblical and historical levels of character and competence.
In 1 Timothy 4:12, the Apostle Paul tells Timothy, "Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity." In other words, as young people we are called to be exemplary in all areas of life. Our generation is falling incredibly short of that calling. Instead of serving as the launching pad of life, the teen years are seen as a vacation from responsibility. We call it the "myth of adolescence." And the Rebelution is all about busting that myth.

Our battle cry is just three words, but it's an explosive concept: Do Hard Things. That's it. And "do hard things" is a mentality. It's a mentality that flies right in the face of low expectations. The world says, "You're young, have fun!" It tells us to "obey your thirst" and "just do it." Or it tells us, "You're great! You don't need to exert yourself." But those kinds of mindsets sabotage character and competence.

Do Hard Things is just the opposite. It's how we build character and competence. It won't drop to meet the low expectations, it won't just do what comes easily, and it won't become complacent. It applies no matter who you are or what level you're on, because there's always something harder to do, something that will take you outside your comfort zone and cause you to grow.

The Rebelution is made up of three fundamental parts. We've talked about character and competence. The third is collaboration. It's not enough for us to be individual exceptions. We have to create a counterculture. We do that is by networking and encouraging one another in our common cause. That's what the Rebelution has become. When you have a community of young people committed to doing hard things for the glory of God and the good of others, that's an incredibly powerful thing.

Taken from: The Rebelution website, www.therebelution.com

Ye Olde Booke

2008-12-04T17:30:00.023+11:00

Today I traveled all the way down to Bungendore to pick up a parcel and do a few odd errands. One of the errands was to hire out the new movie "Journey to the Centre of the Earth", but as our video store doesn't open until 3:00pm (and closes at 7:00 pm), Jamie, who had come down with me, and I decided to walk into the second-hand bookstore.

It has an amazing pile of books, barely any order at all. Any other time I have walked into there I have come out empty handed, as they either do not have anything I might want, or if they do, it is an old, broken down edition with a very pricey tag.

This time, however, I found a whole section of truly glorious books! I squeezed past "bookshelves" and tiny openings, into a back section dedicated to real literature. I found Elizabeth Gaskell, Anthony Trollope and other great authors...and then I came across the WWII section...

I found heaps of books by my favourite WWII author, Paul Brickhill. I have read "The Great Escape", "The Dam Busters" and "Reach for the Sky" already. But Jamie found for me "Escape -or Die"......then I found something that I have been wanting for a while, "The Wooden Horse" by Eric Williams M.C. So Naturally I bought them both, but as hard as I and the bookstore owner looked we couldn't find my favourite war novel of all time, "HMS Ulysses" by Alistair MacLean. I just have to keep an eye out for that one.

"Escape or Die" is a collection of "eight stories: stories of escape in the desert, escape through Poland and Russia...escape by canal boat, and perhaps the most horrifying and amazing escape of a war that was richer in escape stories than any war ever fought--the escape of Squadron Leader McCormac from Malaya to Australia by way of Java."

("Escape or Die" introduction)

"It is well known that when a member of the armed forces is captured by an enemy in time of war, it is his duty, by all possible and reasonable means, to escape."

("Escape or Die" introduction)

"The Wooden Horse" takes its genius from the Trojan Horse myth. The POWs involved in this operation thought through their plan carefully. They built (out of wooden planks shoring the underside of the camp huts) a wooden 'horse'. It was hollow, with enough room for one man. The man whose lot it fell to would climb into the 'horse' and the others would push it over to a certain spot by the barbed-wire fence. Then he would dig through the opening underneath the 'horse'. There were two shifts per day, a morning and an evening. Over time, they dug a tunnel all the way into the woods on the other side of the fence, covering up the hole after every shift. The Germans never suspected what they were doing, not until the escape was made. The escapees traveled through Germany, Switzerland, eventually up through France and eventually back home to England.

I have found the sixth person to tag!

2008-12-02T19:39:00.001+11:00

The sixth person I am tagging for the "6x3 meme" is Sarah at Middlepaw.

Six by Three Meme

2008-11-27T11:57:00.000+11:00

Six things I value

My Family

Spending time watching quality movies with my Family

Reading quality books (Like "Dombey and Son" by Charles Dickens!!)

Learning about everything this earth can teach us (except economics, physics, and complete evil spouted forth by completely evil people--like Richard Dawkins for example!)

Freedom of religion

Smiles and playtime with Michael and Lily

Six things I don't support

Abortion

Infanticide

Rubbish taught as if it were truth

People believing the rubbish taught them without question

The legalising of wrong in order to gain 'control' over it (i.e. legalising abortion so that 'safe' practice may be ensured)

Climate change being taken up religiously by anti-Christians and socialists

Six (umm...five) people I tag

Mum

Rachael

Bethany

Danielle

Liz

This sounds pretty familiar...

2008-11-15T14:05:00.003+11:00

Memes

2008-11-14T18:46:00.004+11:00

I am going to post about a few memes soon, but beforehand want to clear my name of corruption: I totally do not have anything to do with Richard Dawkins! But I will use the term anyway, for the want of a better one.....

A meme (pronounced /miːm/)[1] consists of any idea or behavior that can pass from one person to another by learning or imitation. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, gestures, practices, fashions, habits, songs, and dances. Memes propagate themselves and can move through the cultural sociosphere in a manner similar to the contagious behavior of a virus.

Richard Dawkins coined the word "meme" as a neologism in his book The Selfish Gene (1976) to describe how one might extend evolutionary principles to explain the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. He gave as examples melodies, catch-phrases, beliefs (notably religious belief, clothing/fashion, and the technology of building arches).[2]

Meme-theorists contend that memes evolve by natural selection (similar to Darwinian biological evolution) through the processes of variation, mutation, competition, and inheritance influencing an individual entity's reproductive success. Thus one can expect that some memes will propagate less successfully and become extinct, while others will survive, spread, and (for better or for worse) mutate. "Memeticists argue that the memes most beneficial to their hosts will not necessarily survive; rather, those memes that replicate the most effectively spread best, which allows for the possibility that successful memes may prove detrimental to their hosts."[3]

Origins and concepts

The word meme first came into popular use with the publication of Dawkins' book The Selfish Gene in 1976. Dawkins based the word on a shortening of the Greek "mimeme" (something imitated), making it sound similar to "gene." Dawkins used the term to refer to any cultural entity that an observer might consider a replicator. He hypothesised that people could view many cultural entities as replicators, generally replicating through exposure to humans, who have evolved as efficient (though not perfect) copiers of information and behaviour. Memes do not always get copied perfectly, and might indeed become refined, combined or otherwise modified with other ideas, resulting in new memes. These memes may themselves prove more (or less) efficient replicators than their predecessors, thus providing a framework for a hypothesis of cultural evolution, analogous to the theory of biological evolution based on genes.
Dawkins defined the meme as "a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation", but memeticists in general promote varying definitions of the concept of the meme. The lack of a consistent, rigorous, and precise understanding of what typically makes up one unit of cultural transmission remains a problem in debates about memetics.

Etymology

According to Dawkins, meme represents a shortened form of mimeme (from Greek mimos, "mimic"). Dawkins said he wanted "a monosyllable word that sounds a bit like gene".[4]
The concept of a unit of social evolution called a mneme (from Greek mneme, meaning "memory") appeared in 1904 in a work by the German evolutionary biologist Richard Semon titled Die Mnemischen Empfindungen in ihren Beziehungen zu den Originalempfindungen (loosely translated as "Memory-feelings in relation to original feelings"). According to the OED, the word mneme appears in English in 1921 in L. Simon's translation of Semon's book: The Mneme. Dawkins had no awareness of Semon's mnemes.[citation needed]

Dawkins' genetic analogy

Richard Dawkins introduced the term meme after writing that evolution depended not on the particular chemical basis of genetics, but only on the existence of a self-replicating unit of transmission — in the case of biological evolution, the gene. For Dawkins, the meme exemplifies another self-replicating unit, and most importantly, one which he thought might prove useful in explaining human behavior and cultural evolution.

Dawkins himself, in a speech on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the publication of The Selfish Gene, described his motivation for postulating memes: he portrayed the idea not so much as an attempt at creating an account for cultural complexity, but rather as seeking something with which the selfish-genetic mechanism would still work with unreliable replicators:

Next question might be, does the information have to be molecular at all? Memes. This is not something that I’ve ever wanted to push as a theory of human culture, but I originally proposed it as a kind of... almost an anti-gene, to make the point that Darwinism requires accurate replicators with phenotypic power, but they don’t necessarily have to be genes. What if they were computer viruses? They hadn’t been invented when I wrote The Selfish Gene so I went straight for memes, units of cultural inheritance.
– Richard Dawkins[5]

Taken from Wikipedia

life in the 1500's

2008-11-14T10:43:00.001+11:00

I had these interesting facts from the 1500's sent to me via email, so I thought I would share them with you:

Here are some facts about the 1500s:

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married...

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water...

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying ... It's raining cats and dogs.

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house... This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence...

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, Dirt poor. The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance way. Hence the saying a thresh hold...

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot.They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old...

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special.When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could bring home the bacon. They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat...

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous. Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust...

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial.They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake...

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, thread it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer...

And that's the truth...

Now, whoever said History was boring ! ! !

Song of the Federation

2008-11-13T12:55:00.005+11:00

This is my favourite poem of all time, so I thought I would share it with you : )

Song of the Federation

As the nations sat together, grimly waiting--

The fierce and ancient nations battle-scarred--

Grown grey in their lusting and their hating,

Ever armed and ever ready keeping guard,

Through the tumult of their warlike preparation

And the half-stilled clamour of the drums

Came a voice crying, "Lo! a new made nation,

To her place in the sisterhood she comes!"

And she came--she was beautiful as morning,

With the bloom of the roses on her mouth,

Like a young queen lavishly adorning

Her charms with the Splendours of the South.

And the fierce old nations, looking on her,

Said, "Nay, surely she were quickly overthrown,

Hath she strength for the burden laid upon her,

Hath she power to protect and guard her own?"

Then she spoke, and her voice was clear and ringing

In the ears of the nations old and grey,

Saying, "Hark, and ye shall hear my children singing

Their war song in countries far away.

They are strangers to the tumult of the battle,

They are few but their hearts are very strong,

'Twas but yesterday they called unto the cattle,

But they now sing Australia's marching song."

Song of the Australian's in Action

For the honour of Australia, our mother,

Side by side with our kin from over sea,

We have fought and we have tested one another,

And enrolled among the brotherhood are we.

There was never post of danger but we sought it

In the fighting, through the fire, and through the flood.

There was never prize so costly but we bought it,

Though we paid for its purchase with our blood.

Was there any road too rough for us to travel?

Was there any path too far for us to tread

You can track us by the blood drops on the gravel

On the roads that we mile stoned with our dead!

And for you, of our young and anxious mother,

O'er your great gains keeping watch and ward,

Neither fearing nor despising any other,

We will hold your possessions with the sword.

Then they passed to the place of world-long sleeping,

The Grey-clad figures with their dead,

To the sound of their women softly weeping

And the Dead March moaning at their head:

And the Nations, as the grim procession ended,

Whispered, "Child! But ye have seen the price we pay,

From War may we ever be defended,

Kneel ye down, new-made Sister--Let us Pray!"

I have (unofficially) finished my first year of university!

2008-11-13T11:00:00.005+11:00

I finished my last exam yesterday...such a relief!!

I went into it sure that I didn't have enough study up my sleeve to pass, but when I saw the questions I was pleasantly relieved. So now all I have to do is wait for three results to come in, and kick up my heels and SLEEP!!!!!!!!!

The Anthony's

2008-10-01T19:02:00.002+10:00

It has taken me ages to come up with this post....but finally here it is.

I decided a month ago that I would do a post in honour of the Anthony family who have recently moved to Kazakhstan. I taught the three boys Noah (8), Caleb (6), and Jared (4) piano for 7 months, but even though some photos were taken of me and the boys together, they are rather unflattering photos of myself, so I refuse to put them up (sorry). I have put up some photos of all the kids together though, and of Mrs. Anthony having a cuddle with Michael.

We have had some very fun times with the Anthonys and were great friends, so have been very sorry to say goodbye. May God bless them in their new home and new life.

Jared, Mrs. Anthony (holding Michael)

All the boys and Lily

Robert (holding a teddy bear he has named Libby Tricket), Jared (holding a pine cone), Caleb, Noah.

The Cat Came Back

2008-09-29T18:41:00.002+10:00

We used to have a cassette that had lots of really funny, weird songs and stories on it. When searching through youtube yesterday Mum found this clip of one of the songs. It is really funny....I recommend it to you.

The Cat Came Back

C. H. Spurgeon Evening Devotion

2008-09-21T19:34:00.001+10:00

Sunday, September 21, 2008
This Evening's Meditation
C. H. Spurgeon

"Gather not my soul with sinners."—Psalm 26:9.

FEAR made David pray thus, for something whispered, "Perhaps, after all, thou mayst be gathered with the wicked." That fear, although marred by unbelief, springs, in the main, from holy anxiety, arising from the recollection of past sin. Even the pardoned man will enquire, "What if at the end my sins should be remembered, and I should be left out of the catalogue of the saved?" He recollects his present unfruitfulness—so little grace, so little love, so little holiness, and looking forward to the future, he considers his weakness and the many temptations which beset him, and he fears that he may fall, and become a prey to the enemy. A sense of sin and present evil, and his prevailing corruptions, compel him to pray, in fear and trembling, "Gather not my soul with sinners." Reader, if you have prayed this prayer, and if your character be rightly described in the Psalm from which it is taken, you need not be afraid that you shall be gathered with sinners. Have you the two virtues which David had—the outward walking in integrity, and the inward trusting in the Lord? Are you resting upon Christ's sacrifice, and can you compass the altar of God with humble hope? If so, rest assured, with the wicked you never shall be gathered, for that calamity is impossible. The gathering at the judgment is like to like. "Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn." If, then, thou art like God's people, thou shalt be with God's people. You cannot be gathered with the wicked, for you are too dearly bought. Redeemed by the blood of Christ, you are His for ever, and where He is, there must His people be. You are loved too much to be cast away with reprobates. Shall one dear to Christ perish? Impossible! Hell cannot hold thee! Heaven claims thee! Trust in thy Surety and fear not!

Friedrich Nietzsche

2008-09-18T18:10:00.014+10:00

I stumbled across a page full of Nietzsche (pronounced Nee-cheV) quotes this evening...... I have placed below some of them, and alongside a few have given my answers/comments (which are somewhat flavoured with sarcasm. God forgive me).

What is more harmful than any vice? Active pity for all the failures and all the weak: Christianity.

Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies....that depends if the convictions are based on truth or lies, and also whether the one holding the conviction understands the truth or lie behind their belief.

What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome....he seems to lay a lot of stress on power here, like that is all there is to this life. Strife, resistance, a hold on the power for a time, defeat at last.

There are no facts, only interpretations.......is that a fact? How does he intend for me to interpret that statement?

In Heaven all the interesting people are missing..... Nietzsche is missing certainly.

In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point....I would disagree with this certainly.

I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.

God is dead.....correction, Nietzsche is dead.

Enjoy....

Romans 5

2008-09-17T10:00:00.015+10:00

I was reading this passage in the Bible last night:

"For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." (verse 10)

It has really struck me. It appears to me on reading this passage that the life of Christ (life eternal, since His Resurrection from the dead) is the means by which we are saved from damnation. Not His death, as I had previously supposed. Christ's death is the means of reconciliation. As the verse says: we are reconciled to God by His Son's death.....but are saved by His Son's life. So without the Resurrection, there would be no salvation. Both the reconcilitaion and the salvation are integral to our relationship with God, so both must be given equal consideration when praying, when fellowshipping, when witnessing.

This morning I read Cath's post on The Resurrection and Worship which was timely. I recommend that you click on the link to have a look. It goes further to look at how Christ's Resurrection ought to affect Christian's worship.

In the words of the early Believers (thanks to Cath):

"Christos anesti!"

C. S. Lewis

2008-09-06T21:39:00.022+10:00

I have decided to post a biographical note on some famous persons sporadically--or in other words, whenever I have the time, as I am also supposed to be posting some reviews and quotes from good literature when I can fit it in. I am ashamed to say that all I did was cut and paste from the C. S. Lewis website, but hey, if I had to do it off my own back it would never have come!

So I have decided to start with my favourite author: C. S. Lewis.

1898 Clive Staples Lewis was born on November 29 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to Albert J. Lewis (1863-1929) and Florence Augusta Hamilton Lewis (1862-1908). His brother Warren Hamilton Lewis had been born on June 16, 1895

1908 Flora Hamilton Lewis died of cancer on August 23, Albert Lewis' (her husband's) birthday. In September Lewis was enrolled at Wynyard School, Watford, Hertfordshire referred to by C.S. Lewis as "Oldie's School" or "Belsen".

1910 Lewis left "Belsen" in June and, in September, was enrolled as a boarding student at Campbell College, Belfast, one mile from "Little Lea," where he remained until November, when he was withdrawn upon developing serious respiratory difficulties.

1911 Lewis was sent to Malvern, England, which was famous as a health resort, especially for those with lung problems. Lewis was enrolled as a student at Cherbourg House (which he referred to as "Chartres"), a prep school close by Malvern College where Warnie was enrolled as a student. Jack remained there until June 1913. It was during this time that he abandoned his childhood Christian faith. He entered Malvern College itself (which he dubbed "Wyvern") in September 1913 and stayed until the following June.

1914 In April, Lewis met Arthur Greeves (1895-1966), of whom he said, in 1933, "After my brother, my oldest and most intimate friend."

1916 In February, Lewis first read George MacDonald's, Phantastes, which powerfully "baptized his imagination" and impressed him with a deep sense of the holy.

1917 From April 26 until September, Lewis was a student at University College, Oxford. Upon the outbreak of WWI, he enlisted in the British army and was billeted in Keble College, Oxford, for officer's training.

1918 On April 15 Lewis was wounded on Mount Berenchon during the Battle of Arras. He was discharged in December 1919.

1919 The February issue of Reveille contained "Death in Battle," Lewis' first publication in other than school magazines.

1925 On May 20, Lewis was elected a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, where he served as tutor in English Language and Literature for 29 years.

1929 Lewis became a theist: "In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed...." Albert Lewis died on September 24.

1931 Lewis became a Christian: One evening in September, Lewis had a long talk on Christianity with J.R.R. Tolkien (a devout Roman Catholic) and Hugo Dyson. That evening's discussion was important in bringing about the following day's event that Lewis recorded in Surprised by Joy: "When we [Warnie and Jack] set out [by motorcycle to the Whipsnade Zoo] I did not believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did."

1933 The fall term marked the beginning of Lewis' convening of a circle of friends dubbed "The Inklings." For the next 16 years, on through 1949, they continued to meet in Jack's rooms at Magdalen College on Thursday evenings

1935 Wrote the volume on 16th Century English Literature for the Oxford History of English Literature series. Published in 1954, it became a classic.

1937 Lewis received the Gollancz Memorial Prize for Literature in recognition of The Allegory of Love (a study in medieval tradition).

1941 From May 2 until November 28, The Guardian published 31 "Screwtape Letters" in weekly installments. Lewis was paid 2 pounds sterling for each letter and gave the money to charity.

1942 The first meeting of the "Socratic Club" was held in Oxford. Lewis gave five live radio talks on Sunday evenings on the subject "What Christians Believe." On eight consecutive Sundays Lewis gave a series of live radio talks known as "Christian Behavior."

1943 In February, at the University of Durham, Lewis delivered the Riddell Memorial Lectures, a series of three lectures subsequently published as The Abolition of Man.

1944 On seven consecutive Tuesdays, Lewis gave the pre-recorded talks known as "Beyond Personality." Taken together, all of Lewis' BBC radio broadcast talks were eventually published under the title Mere Christianity. The Great Divorce was published in weekly installments in The Guardian.

1946 Lewis awarded honorary Doctor of Divinity by the University of St. Andrews.

1952 In September, Lewis met Joy Davidman Gresham, fifteen years his junior for the first time.

1954 In June, Lewis accepted the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge. His review of Tolkien' Fellowship of the Ring appeared in Time and Tide in August.

1955 Lewis assumed his duties at Cambridge.

1956 In December, a bedside marriage was performed in accordance with the rites of the Church of England in Wingfield Hospital. Joy's death was thought to be imminent. On August 19 and 20, he made tapes of ten talks on The Four Loves in London.

1960 Joy died on July 13 at the age of 45.

1963 Lewis died at 5:30 p.m. at The Kilns, one week before his 65th birthday on Friday, November 22; the same day on which President Kennedy was assassinated and Aldous Huxley died.

His grave is in the yard of Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry, Oxford. Warren Lewis died on Monday, April 9, 1973. Their names are on a single stone bearing the inscription "Men must endure their going hence." Warnie had written, "...there was a Shakespearean calendar hanging on the wall of the room where she [our mother] died, and my father preserved for the rest of his life the leaf for that day, with its quotation: 'Men must endure their going hence'." --W.H. Lewis, "Memoir," in Letters of C.S. Lewis.

P.S. I am sorry that it is so long, I couldn't edit it any more!

Fungi Madness

2008-09-06T00:00:00.002+10:00

These pictures were sent to me by a friend who lives just up the road from our place when the McLennans were staying at our house for a few days. Mrs. McLennan agreed with me that it was totally weird and freaky! I'll let my friend tell the story though.

"Something really strange happened the other day. Mum was in the garden weeding and pruning when this thing started to appear out of the ground in the outline shape of a soccer ball. It was unfolding out of a ball. She got Daddy and me. It was most bizarre. We found out that it was a fungi. We found another one. A small ball made out of the same stuff as mushrooms. Daddy split it open. And there was one of these folded balls but this one didn't unfold. It was really strange. Like something, not from this world."

Amy researched, and found that it was called Ileodictyon gracile. I did a google search on that term and came up with some pretty amazing facts:

Fruit body--a lattice-shaped receptacle, initially within an egg.

Egg--Subglobose to ovoid, smooth, whitish, with white mycelial strands extending into substrate. In the juvenile stage the receptacle is tightly packed within the egg in a jelly-like layer.

Receptacle--Emerges from the egg (sometimes explosively) to form a hollow, spherical, lattice-like network, with 10-30 meshes. Arms white or cream. The receptacle eventually becomes free, and then has no obvious top or bottom, and can roll free along the ground.

Smell--Foetid, like sour milk or Camembert cheese.

Spores--Forming an olive brown, slimy mass on the inside of the arms of the cage.

Habitat--On the ground, or amongst mulch or wood chips. Common in gardens, and on the edge of tracks, also in native forest.

Have a look at the website. It has a map of where the fungi is most often to be found in Australia (South-East, so basically right in our vicinity!), and some other facts that I haven't put up here.

Happiness is Having Grandchildren to Love

2008-08-20T16:27:00.007+10:00

Five years ago I ambitiously started the largest cross-stitch I have ever done, intending to give it to my paternal grandparents. Mum had made a similar one for her parents a few years before, we thought it might be nice for both sets of grandparents to have one.

The cross-stitch design has an apple tree with the names and year-of-birth of all the grandchildren hanging off it. My grandparents have one grandchild who is not a part of my immediate family, so all the names only just fit into the 15 spaces provided.

I started with a zest, then quickly experienced burn-out (which is quite typical for me where cross-stitch is concerned), and condemned it to the bottom of a craft bag for a few years, occasionally bringing it out to do a few stitches before putting it away again.

But then early last year Grandad was diagnosed with prostate cancer and given a maximum of five years to live. I decided that the cross-stitch should be brought out again and given (in particular) to him before too much time went by. It still took me a while to finish it as I started uni and found that I had increasingly less and less time on my hands. But when my Aunt started making plans for her wedding, and my grandfather was becoming increasingly sick, I made a specific date to have it finished by the wedding.

Last night (two days before we travel up to the Gold Coast for the nuptial celebrations) I finished the last stitches. I hope my grandfather is touched by it and can find some comfort in the knowledge that he has always been loving .....and to be that is a life well lived.

Our 19th Century Ball

2008-08-10T15:24:00.002+10:00

Here are some photos taken at the 19th century ball that our family hosted a week ago.

We organised it as a joint birthday gift for my two sisters Jessica (18) and Rebekah (16).

Jessica, Rebekah & Rachael.

We had a live band playing from authentic instruments, and a caller who has been teaching, calling and writing about this period of dance for over 20 years.

All the guests (over 100 people came) had a wonderful time, and everyone has voted that we do it again sometime! It was SO fun dancing for hours all the dances that one could imagine were danced in Austen and Dicken's time!

We gave out prizes to a boy, girl, man, and woman for the best dressed. Cath MacLennan has posted on her blog some pictures also of the ball, amongst them was a picture of David MacLennan who one the prize for the best dressed man. Cath looked wonderful also (which you can see on her blog), as did everyone who came. It was so wonderful that people put the effort into making their own clothes and accessories. Most of the Gentlemen made their own top hats; and most of the Ladies made their own dresses.

Thoughts on Why Everything Exists

2008-08-09T14:18:00.000+10:00

Thoughts On Why Everything Exists

August 8, 2008
By John Piper

One of the main points of the forthcoming book Spectacular Sins and Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ is that sin and God’s wrath against it were part of God’s plan when he created the world. This is different from saying that God sins or that he approves of sinning.

The main reason for making this point is to exalt the revelation of God’s grace in the crucifixion of Jesus to the highest place. This is the point of the universe—the glorification of the grace of God in the apex of its expression in the death of Jesus.

Jesus died for sin (1 Corinthians 15:3). The death of Jesus for sin was planned before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8; Ephesians 1:4-6). Therefore, sin was part of the plan. God carries this plan through in a way that maintains full human accountability, full hatred for sin, full divine justice, and full saving love for all who trust Christ. And we don’t need to know how he does it to believe it and rest in it and worship him for it.

This morning I was meditating for my devotions on Ezra 8 and 9. I saw there another pointer to the truth of God’s planning for human sin and divine wrath.
In Ezra 8:22, Ezra says, “The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and his power and his wrath are against all who forsake him.” This text leads me to ask: Did God know before creation that his creatures would “forsake him.” Yes, he did. The plan for their redemption was in place before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:3-6).

Was Ezra 8:22 true before the foundation of the world? Yes, it was. God did not become holy and just after creation. He has always been holy and just. “His power and his wrath are against all who forsake him” because this is, and always has been, the holy and just thing for God to do.
Therefore, since God knew that his creatures would forsake him, he also knew that his power and wrath would be against them. Therefore, this was part of his plan. He created the world knowing that sin would happen and that he would respond as Ezra 8:22 says he does.

This planning is what Paul means in Romans 9:22 when he says that God was “desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power. . .” And if you ask Paul why God would go forward with this plan, his most ultimate answer is in the next verse: “in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy” (Romans 9:23).

God knew that the revelation of his wrath and power against sin would make the riches of his glory shine all the brighter and taste all the sweeter for the vessels of mercy.
“The riches of his glory” are the riches we inherit when we see his glory in all the fullness that we can bear (Ephesians 1:18) and are transformed by it (Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 1 John 3:2). These riches of glory reach their supreme height of wonder and beauty in the death of Jesus as he bore the condemnation of God’s wrath and power in our place (Romans 8:3; Galatians 3:13).

In other words, God’s plan that there be sin and wrath in the universe was ultimately to bring about “the praise of the glory of his grace” in the death of Christ (Ephesians 1:6). What is at stake in the sovereignty of God over sin is the ultimate aim of the universe, namely, the exaltation of the Son of God in the greatest act of wrath-removing, sin-forgiving, justice-vindicating grace that ever was or ever could be. The praise of the glory of God’s grace in the death of Christ for sinners is the ultimate end of all things.

Christ is the aim of all things. When Paul says, “All things were created . . . for him” (Colossians 1:16), he means that the entire universe and all the events in it serve to glorify Jesus Christ. May the meditations of our hearts take us ever deeper into this mystery. And may the words of our mouths and the actions of our hands serve to magnify the infinite worth of Jesus and his death. This is why we exist.

Romans 3

2008-07-31T23:06:00.000+10:00

I have been reading Romans as part of my daily devotional for some time now.

I do a sort of take off of an idea I read in a book by John MacArthur. He recommends reading the same book of the Bible in it entirety (except where it is HUGE, as in Luke: where you read 1/3 of the book at a time) for a month. The idea is that you sort of memorise the book and are able to identify and know roughly where to find a quote taken from the book when you read it in books, hear it in sermons or songs.

But, as I said, I am only doing a take off. Instead of the entire book, I read one chapter. In my hectic life I find that one chapter is a realistic goal. And, on the bright side, I may finish the ENTIRE book before I am 30! Something to look forward to : )

At the moment, I am reading chapter 3, and I thought I might share with you some thoughts that I had while reading it tonight.

God's faithfulness is confirmed with zeal early on:

"For what if some of them [those who had the 'oracles' of God committed to them] did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness? God forbid! Let God be true but everyman a liar. As it is written: That you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge."

It has just struck me that I often take this portion of scripture for granted. I have read it many times and it is one of those foundation stones of theology, but I tend tread disregard it. But is IS foundational to theology. Even to putting one's faith in God. How could we have faith if we were not first assured of the faithfulness of the One we must trust?

The thing that most often strikes me though, in reading this chapter, is that we must not be comfortable in our position of being God's children. I do not mean to say that we might lose our faith, but that others may never gain theirs. The lost are condemned as sinners, but we are no better......" For all have sinned an fall short of the glory of God." We have been "justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came through Christ Jesus." Many have not. Many never will be.

One part of the passage jumps out at me. The words are: "God presented him [Christ Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished...." Now I am not implying God's injustice through his never calling the sins of the wicked to account. What I want to get at is this......God was forbearing toward those who sinned for a time. Earlier in the book of Romans (2:4) Paul says that God's kindness lead us to repentance. How would it be if we were kind and forbearing? What miracles could be wrought in the human race?

A Casting Crowns song: Does anybody hear her? demonstrates this point well I think. It speaks about someone "searching for the hope that is tucked away in you and me." And I have to ask why is that we do tuck our faith away?

I must confirm here though that I am a firm believer in witnessing through a life lived for God; as opposed to Bible bashing every person you meet on the side of the road or in shopping malls. But that brings me to another point. Do we live like Christians or like those of the world? Can we be confident that we are witnesses for Christ?

We ought to be kind and forbearing, as he is kind and forbearing. Give the unrighteous an example, time to change, love and compassion. Sometimes that is all it takes. Sometimes when we do not do those things we are driving away the lost.

Great is God's faithfulness

Chivalry Is Dead (but only in the mornings)

2008-07-30T14:09:00.000+10:00

I was flicking through some "blogs of note" today when I came across this post:

Working Girl: Chivalry Is Dead (But Only in the Mornings)

It seems me to be slightly contradictory in that this woman embraces feminism but demands the "respect" due to women, and other "traditional" things like that. There is no logic in having your cake and eating it too. I believe that in many ways women have brought about this lack of respect themselves through their demands for "equal" treatment and status.....but that is no excuse for cowardly men who are afraid to cop the title "chauvinist" simply because they open a door for a woman. I suppose the issue should be considered from both perspectives.

An interesting topic for discussion anyway!

The Hope of Holiness

2008-07-17T20:05:00.000+10:00

Author: Elisabeth Elliot

Source: A Lamp For My Feet

Scripture Reference: 1 Corinthians 13:6 Psalm 51:10

The "openness" that is often praised among Christians as a sign of true humility may sometimes be an oblique effort to prove that there is no such thing as a saint after all, and that those who believe that it is possible in the twentieth century to live a holy life are only deceiving themselves. When we enjoy listening to some Christian confess his weaknesses and failures, we may be eager only to convince ourselves that we are not so bad after all. We sit on the edge of our chairs waiting to grasp at an excuse for continuing to do what we have made up our minds long ago to do anyway. The Lord is ready to forgive sin at any moment and to make strong servants out of the worst of us. But we must believe it; we must come to Him in faith for forgiveness and deliverance and then go out to do the work He has given us to do.

"Charity rejoiceth not in iniquity" (1 Cor 13:6 AV). Let us be willing to call iniquity what is really iniquity, rather than to call it weakness, temperament, failure, hangups, or to fall back on the tired excuse, "It's just the way I am."

Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a right spirit within me. (Ps 51:10 AV)

Thoughts on Literature

2008-07-14T12:22:00.000+10:00

Literature enlarges our being by admitting us to experiences not our own. They may be beautiful, terrible, awe-inspiring, exhilarating, pathetic, comic or merely piquant. Literature gives the entree to them all. Those of us who have been true readers all our life seldom realise the enormous extension of our being that we owe to authors. We realise it best when we
talk to an unliterary friend. He may be full of goodness and good sense but he inhabits a tiny world. In it, we should be suffocated. My own eyes are not enough for me. Even the eyes of all humanity are not enough. Very gladly would I learn what face things present to a mouse or bee.

In reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in a Greek poem, I see with a thousand eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.

Quote taken from: "An Experiment in Criticism"
Author C. S. Lewis
Pages 140-141
Cambridge University Press, 1961

Submission and Independence

2008-07-10T20:46:00.000+10:00

Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: A Lamp For My Feet
Scripture Reference: James 1:4

Paul tells us to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ, and James tells us we ought to have "the right sort of independence" (Jas 1:4 JBP). Can the same person obey both commands? The answer is yes, for in both he is being obedient to Christ. Submission is the recognition of and obligation to authority. An independence that refuses all accountability to those assigned by God to exercise authority--parents, husbands, employers, teachers, government--is the wrong sort. The right sort, according to James, begins with the acceptance of adversity. That in itself indicates a measure of maturity. One who has not attained that maturity but tries to achieve independence will certainly have the wrong sort.

To accept adversity, obviously, goes against the grain of all of us. We don't like adversity. Acceptance takes fortitude and faith--faith that Somebody knows what this trouble is all about and has the situation well in hand. In other words, acceptance is submission to God Himself. Often the real proof of our obedience is the willingness to submit, not only to adversity, but also to the specific individuals whom God has put over us (and sometimes this comes to the same thing--those individuals spell "adversity!"). Take a close look at what James says: whatever tests our faith leads in the end to the right sort of independence.

Time and Beyond

2008-05-17T19:36:00.000+10:00

Elizabeth Eliot has said that C. S. Lewis was one of those rare people who seemed to have "thought-through" everything. Here is one of my favourite quotes from C. S. Lewis. It is taken from "Mere Christianity" (one of my favourite books), and explains in a way overflowing with genius, one of the hardest truths in Christianity.

Another difficulty we get if we believe God to be in time is this. Everyone who believes in God at all believes that He knows what you and I are going to do tomorrow. But if He knows I am going to do so-and-so, how can I be free to do otherwise? Well, here once again, the difficulty comes from thinking that God is progressing along the Time-line like us: the only difference being that He can see ahead and we cannot. Well, if that is true, if God foresaw our acts, it would be very hard to understand how we could be free not to do them. But suppose God is outside and above the Time-line. In that case, what we call 'tomorrow' is visible to in Him in just the same way as what we call 'today'. All the days are "Now' for Him. He does not remember you doing things yesterday; He simply sees you doing them, because, though you have lost yesterday, He has not. He does not 'foresee' you doing things tomorrow; He simply sees you doing them: because, though tomorrow is not there yet for you, it is for Him. You never supposed that your actions at this moment were any less free because God knows what you are doing. Well, He knows your tomorrow's actions in just the same way--because He is already in tomorrow and can simply watch you. In a sense, He does not know your action till you have done it: but then the moment at which you have done it is already 'Now' for Him.

"Mere Christianity" pp 145-146