I have vivid memories of going to a cigar bar with an old Bible study leader. Nowadays I’m less inclined, even after the birth of kids (the traditional cigar moment!) to have one. I can’t get over the cancer aspect. But I’m not against other people smoking them if they choose.

I LOVE the video though. I’m coming to appreciate that I’m a bit of a classical romantic (as in the era, not buying roses), so I just love the story that goes with a video like this.

What if Church felt more like this? What if people had more of a sense of being “real” when they came together in worship?

So, we hung out on the grass at Umina for a bit. The wee ones were looking too cute not to snap.
For some reason they’ve all gone in backwards…. but you get the idea…

Who doesn’t love to see sibs who love each other

So we headed down to Umina playground. It’s a 20+ minute drive but it is always worth it. There was lots of stuff for the kids to play on, but the swings always tend to win out…

It’s a great day to remember the person and work of Jesus Christ.

This morning, at our Avoca Church, we looked at three deaths in the gospel of John.

1. The death of the disciples idealism: They would have imagined a messiah who was a political & military figure, bringing power and new authority to the people of Israel.

2. The death of innocence for the Pharisees: Up until then they’d been the Wylie Coyotes of the Bible. The blustered & carried on about Jesus, but weren’t really effective in challenging him in any meaningful way. That changes when they finally bring about their plan for his death.

3. But all is swallowed up in Jesus’ death, where he achieves through his sacrifice the death of death for all who put their trust in him.

This afternoon, the kiddliwinks got to make Hot Cross Buns with their mum. Lots of fun!

At night…. I finally got a chance to see “Skyfall.” I understand why it’s been touted so much. Favourite line? “Welcome to Scotland!”

Here’s the obligatory kid pictures…

I’m not going to lie to you, this post is a bit of a brag.

I told myself if I got to this point, I’d allow myself this little piece of pride.

I’ve managed to lose 20% of my body weight in just  under 4 months. Not exactly “Biggest Loser” pace, but good enough.

Another 6-8 kilos & I will be sitting bang in the middle of my suggest BMI weight.

What’s scariest is that I’m enjoying (most of) the food that I’m eating (normal stuff, just smaller portions & more healthy fruit & veg) and I’m even enjoying my chocolate more! (again, smaller portions…  but I look forward to it more).

I’m told the bigger challenge is maintaining!

St Eutychus posted this first.

I love artisans.

I love people who are devoted to doing things that I’d never have the time or patience for.

Also, people are interesting, stories are interesting, passion is interesting.

I particularly like how this fella speaks of the enjoyment that he gets from finishing a boat: “It gives you a good feeling, probably like an artist when they finish a painting.” I could be reading too much into it, but I feel like he doesn’t see himself as an “artist” as such, just a guy who sticks miniature boats into bottles. To me, people like him are the best kinds of artists. He’s not interested in being an artist, he just likes that thing he does. He wants to do it to the best of his abilities, and this is what really makes what he does art!

Why not watch & see if you agree…

I will be posting some different stuff about books, theology & other bits & pieces, but, let’s be honest here, many people I know who read my blog do so for the updates on my kids!

I love many things about my wife. One of them is the creativity that she pours into stuff with the kids. A while ago they coloured a bunch of rice so they could have rainbow rice to play with. It comes out occasionally, and Gumnut loves it!

Just yesterday, on my day off, we gave up on getting the car washed by pros & decided to just do whatever we could ourselves. I’m so glad we did! The kids LOVED splashing around & playing with suds & all that kind of stuff. The car isn’t perfect, but it was better than it was & we all got an hours fun out of it.

SO there we go. Keeping busy & trying to survive a hectic Easter season. Buckling up for Palm Sunday tomorrow,then the big run into Easter!

Here, have some more pictures….

Shona got caught in some shocking traffic this afternoon, coming back from Sydney. She let me know in plenty of time, so I could just walk down to the pre-school & pick up Pumpkin & Gumnut. (free exercise is always good)

I powered on down with my headphones on, then, as a hustled the kids along on the way back, I realised I was rushing for no real reason! It’s quite nice to walk along with a little hand grasping each of yours, listening to the sense of wonder that accompanies every little noise, and every new happening that a child’s eyes see.

We spent 5 minutes on a bridge over a little mangrove creek. I’d have powered by without a second look, but the kids were entranced by ducks landing, swimming and taking off in front of them. We watched to see if we could spy little legs paddling (Pumpkin corrected me when I said they were kicking) under the water, and we tried to ascertain if the green-headed, colourful ones were the boys or the girls.

A short trip through a tunnel, cutting under a busy road, added another 5 minutes when we discovered that there was an echo in there just like in the kids favourite episode of their preferred “Movie Night” choice “Winnie the Pooh and the Super Sleuths.” Little two-year-old eyes lit up, as if he were performing magic, listening to that voice bouncing around over the din of cars.

Having pushed on, we finally got caught up with a near neighbour who started with a G’day, and ended up getting Pumpkin’s advice on where he had missed as he waxed his car, a thousand questions about a hundred different subjects from a bold little girl.

What took me 15 minutes on the way there took closer to 50 on the way back, but it was worth every second. Playing “hand squeezes” with my two big treasures, and listening to their appreciation of all I take for granted was a little piece of magic.

Who’d have thunk a chore could be the highlight of your day!