Hannah's world

One of the odd family customs we have is standing on the yellow metal plates you find on the footpath, and trying to obey the F H instruction, which, according to our kids, means Free Hit. We've been doing this for years and my attempt at subversion to Free Hug has been, shall we say, less than succesful. The kids have become experts at spotting these, even when we are driving and will promptly hit anyone they can. However the rule is that you have to have at least one foot on the FH plate.

Now, I think they are made by Fulton Holgan, but Hannah has been learning about fire engines in the last few weeks. She was asking what the fire engines do if they run out of water at a fire. So I've been trying to explain about fire hydrants, and she suddenly made the connection about the FH plates they've been looking out for and has spent the last week correcting everybody! It's NOT free hit, it's fire hydrant!

Ah, the joy of learning!

Eight year old boy

It was a big weekend with Zach's birthday on Friday, party on Saturday and a baptism and confirmation service on Sunday.

Zach is a happy boy with lots more computer games around. Chris made a very fine 'alien' cake and we survived the party intact. We had hoped to send the ten boys outside to play soccer but the weather didn't co-operate. BRRR!

Chris took his first baptism on Sunday and confirmed 3. This is one of the great times about being in ministry and a real joy to be a part of their story with God. Yay. (It was a trinitarian full immersion, for those of you who are interested.) We used John Rox's hot tub, the water was way warmer than the church, a comfy 30ish degrees, ambient air temperature sitting around 8 degrees. The session clerk brings a hottie to church! People wear fur hats. Partly this is because we are in the middle of a building project with large peices of ply where windows and doors are going to be. BRRRRR!

Katarina played two games of netball in the weekend. Janine and I did the Columba College tour last week, the one we didn't both with last year because we were not going to be in Dunedin! Janine is also working on a science fair project on chocolate and finishing the new Harry Potter book. (MJ finished last night).

Hannah managed to organise herself an invite to a friend's house so she didn't have to endure the party scene on Saturday. She is enjoying living next to school as several of her friends go to after -school care and she is able to play with them too. This term she is learning recorder at muisc.

MJ is reading lots about worship and salvation, and consequently realising that she doesn't really know anything about either of those topics. Excellent!

Final post of the holidays

You can tell we are all out of routine - I do apologise to regular readers, but better late than never. All the adventurers made it safely home last Saturday, through snow and storms and all had a great time. Chris and Katarina have developed colds this week however.

MJ and the kids were part of the crowd at the Jaffa race, which was a long build up and a very short event! And they sang 'Jesus loves me' for a local radio station, part of a vox pop segment proving that Dunedin families don't sing pop songs to their kids, they sing lullabies etc.

Zach played a blinder in soccer this morning, scoring two of the three goals with some nice positional play going on. The team was pretty happy as this was one of their few wins this season.

We've seen a few movies this week as part of our holiday, and the children have had various friends over or been elsewhere. Janine has had a Mosgiel sleepover, Katarina has caught up with some Columba friends, and Chris and I have even had an evening out together.

Must be the holidays...

Humble apologies dear reader, but let me tell you why it has taken until now to update the blog.

Last week's outreach events for Children and Families at Mosgiel went rather well, I thought. There was noise, fun, fellowship and the visitors were welcomed and included. All in all it was a busy weekend with Chris away at Connect, just north of Wellington, our Fish and Chip Night, a the play I took the kids to on Saturday, the SOM international dinner that night, Messy Church at North Taieri, and Zach had a friend for a sleepover. Wow!
So on Monday, we just didn't stop - I took Zach and Hannah to Oamaru where they have been having a lovely time with their grandparents while Chris frantically worked on having packing up for the Mosgiel youth group camp. This is happening at Borland Lodge which is in Eastern Southland and pretty much takes all day to get to. So Chris and Katarina headed off early on Tuesday while I went to my salvation conference here in Dunedin. Janine had a sleepover on Tuesday and left for her ski camp with the Leith Youth Group on Thursday and I also had a "Meet the new lecturer" dessert evening on Wednesday.
Today I am heading up to Oamaru to pick up Zach and Hannah as long as the road stays open. The northern motorway was closed last night around 7 but is moving again this morning although it is snowing again now. Fun, fun, fun. All the weather will make it interesting for Chris and the team to get home tomorrow, particularly as one of the vans is also towing a trailer. I have heard from Janine this morning - they arrived safely and are heading up the mountain this morning.
So, all in all, that is our week. And I have written a sermon, as I am preaching on Sunday.
Life is good. Live it!