August

We have finished our course on Mission's, apart from the reading, the book review and the other assignment, which I haven't looked at yet. Chris has started his Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) and I am again on Field Education, with plenty of stuff to work through at the moment. I am working with students again, although I will mix it up with some work at Leith too.

Katarina and Janine have finished their Science Fair projects, which have taken a great deal of time and energy to put together. However, they look good and the girls have certainly learnt more about their chosen topic, which is the whole idea really.

Janine represented DNI at the Otago matheletics competition yesterday, which was very exciting for her. She is good at maths but does struggle with the basic facts, as does her big sister.

Hannah is producing some lovely work at the moment, she has learnt how to sew on buttons and she is working on writing letters and words at the moment. She is starting to recognise words at the moment.

Zachary is working on his spelling at the moment, he is motivated to keep working on these at the moment so we are trying to encourage that as much as possible.

We are all well and really enjoying the warmer weather of the last few days, it has been nor-westry. Mum and Dad came and stayed last Friday night, with a load of firewood. No doubt we will need it before the winter ends!

Zachary's big day

Zach turned seven on Thursday, and we celebrated with a family party, complete with the now traditional burnt top and bottom but still fudgy in the middle cake. Actually, that is not quite true, I tried a different recipie and it came out jsut fine, so we managed a proper cake after all. Anna came for tea and we all enjoyed playing with Zak's big present, a slot car racing set. Awesome!
On Saturday we had Zak's party in the afternoon, with a non-burnt spaceship cake, space balloons and space games with six of his friends. It all went very well and then I went to the third music practise of the week afterwards.
Youth group is taking up a lot of time as we are preparing for a youth service in a couple of weeks time and we've just had two workers appointed. Sunday was a busy day as I was involved in two services again, another youth group meeting and then Student Soul again in the evening. I am doing my Field Education placement there again so I need to be around to get up to speed on that.
Janine and Katarina had school interviews last week although I don't know why we bother going as both girls are doing very well. They are also working on their science fair projects.
One of Hannah's good friends has just left Montessori to go to Opoho school so she is missing her a bit, although we sometimes see her walking to school.

Back to school

First week back at school for the children; they all went off in good time this morning and happy to go back and catch up with all their friends. Zak had a bag full of birthday invitations to give out so he is very excited. His actual birthday is on Thursday but the party will be on Saturday. Zak also lost his first soccer game on Saturday which he has coped with admirably. This is the first time his team has lost while he has been there. Chris and I were a little concerned but as it turns out had no need to worry as he was very mature about the whole thing, disappointed but keen to practise hard and get better.
We spent most of Saturday working on Janine's science fair project, extracting iron from cereal. It has been quite a process working out exactly how to get a good result but we are well on the way. Katarina worked on her experiment, testing pH in orange juice earlier in the holidays.
I managed four services yesterday, leading at Leith and it was very nice to catch up with Jackie Smales who was down for the weekend. We also saw the Ryans, who were down visting Jo, and we had them for tea on Saturday night. I also went to Ni's youth service at the PIC church on North Road,and of course Student Soul in the evening.
Chris and I have two more weeks on our Intensive Course on Missions - there are also two assignments to work on which we want to at least have started by the end of the course.
There was a decent frost this morning, not too slippery outside but if we get a run of frosts, life will become interesting again. Blessings!

Programmed for holidays

While it may only be Sunday today, I suspect I will run out of time tomorrow. The three youngest children are booked into holiday programs and Chris and I have seminars tomorrow and start a block course on Tuesday.

I don't really feel that we have had a chance to stop yet, however, the children and I enjoyed "Over the Hedge" at the movies on Friday and the Science Fair at the university on Saturday. THat was funny. It took all morning to get everyone up, dressed and down there but once we got there, I couldn't get them to leave! There were tons of interactive exhibits and they also had a passport with stamps to encourage kids to visit every exhibit. There was plenty for all ages, even Hannah. See, science can be fun!

Chris and I are looking at a profile for a church in Christchurch. This has the potential for being a base for a Student Soul church there, but it is early days yet and we have plenty of homework to do. However, this has potential as far as a job goes for next year, so it is all good.

Short and sharp

The blog is late because we have been away for a short break, one night in Oamaru with my parents, two nights in Christchurch and another back in Oamaru. We are back safely in Dunedin now.

We have been looking around at some parishes in Christchurch, we have one in particular that we are looking with regard to a job next year. Hannah and Zach stayed with my sister and we have had a lovely family time catching up with them all. Katarina has stayed on for another few days and will come home on the bus on Thursday.

We had tea on Monday night in Timaru with my brother Duncan and his family. Janine is staying there for the next few days. So we are down to two children for Wednesday and most of Thursday. We have the rest of this week on holiday and next week we are back with a block course starting Monday and the children will be at various holiday programs.
MJ