Eco-dying Interest

Some nice stuff has been coming out of Barb's large cooking pot. The unrolling of these blankets are often share by both of us and this latest batch look really nice. It is amazing what can be done with objects about the neighbourhood both for colour and for resist. The results are fun to photograph.

Easter Sunday Moments

We packed in a lot this Easter. Our grandkids were the catalyst for action. Our Christian focus was Resurrection Eggs, each holding a miniature part of the Passion story, starting from the donkey and finishing with the empty tomb. Then we watched a DVD, had lunch with friends and went to a playground to play games. On the way back we stopped to give Jaz time to climb sporting scaffold. He was very adept at that as the pictures below show. After another DVD, Peter pulled out loads of timber off-cuts, left overs from past projects, for the start of a massive shared 'random' construction. We did not know how it was going to turn out and we were pleased with the outcome by bath and bedtime. It is amazing what can be accomplished with faith in the endless possibilities and having good glue to work with.

Easter Parade

At Tallarook, the school had an Easter Parade on the last day of term. There were many kids with bunny ears. There was a boy dressed as a carrot and others had hats with dangling eggs. Then there were two boys each dressed as Jesus. This is something new to ponder. Yes, Easter is not just about chocolate eggs delivered by a magical bunny or bunnies. It is also about the death of Jesus of Nazareth some 1,985 years ago outside Jerusalem. He was overturning religious life. He was a miracle healer, even bring people back alive from the grave. The city's religious leaders with the full support of the Roman occupation arranged to have him killed and did so during the Jewish Passover Festival. To justify this corrupt plot, the high priest had said earlier, "It is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed." His words were prophetic at so many levels. Jesus was executed on a Roman cross but rose a few days later from the grave, stayed a while longer and then left into the clouds. The intervention of God's Spirit into the lives of countless numbers of people, generations and societies following this event was transformational. It tends not to be possible to believe the resurrection (and ascension) story unless God's Spirit works on someone's heart. There seems to be a fine balance between freedom of choice and God's intervention. Many a Christian grows into this realisation and discovers the full impact of it power over time. And today we have children dressed as Jesus offering a relaxed reminder of this message. Its simple and light-hearted look is refreshing because of the total acceptance of their peers, parents and teachers. This is innocence in action and a possible taste of open sharing of faith and spirit for this new generation growing up without the religious baggage that has gone before it.

Family Catch-Up

Our two sons Simon and Dan and Barb's Sister Madonna joined with us for a few hours at Greensborough Plaza's Centre-View Cafe a few days ago. It is getting more and more difficult to have gatherings like this given our work commitments and home locations so this is a fond memory already. We kept it simple and enjoyed the time we had with each other. We are glad of serendipitous moments like these that come along.

Tallarook Rabbit-Craft

Peter was able to use a whole load of plastic lids to act as wheels to transport Easter Bunnies to mark (almost) the end of term and the Easter holidays. He had enough for forty children and this would have exceeded if he had made more for the day. The children were all pleased with what they made, some of them very different to what Peter was expecting them to make.

Piper Twelve

We caught up with Piper around a week after her real birthday. Things were pretty busy at both ends. Piper had a party with peers at that time, plus she was doing a few other things on top of that. We had things on as well. But we had our chance when Bec dropped the kids off last Saturday afternoon. We were able to squeeze in the rituals of present opening, trip to Savers, iced chocolate at Greensborough, and blowing out the candles. We all made it a special time and topped it off with the Ghibli movie, "Spirited Away". Wow, one more year and she'll be a teenager.

Jethro Seven

The venue for Jethro's birthday family celebration was at a community go-cart event near Upway Station in the Dandenongs. We all enjoyed watching kids (and big kids) racing down the slope for a few hours. Jaz now wants to be in it next year. For lunch we left and had the rest of the celebration in a nearby park. This also proved a perfect venue for the things we did (soccer and frizby). We gave Jet a special fold out card of a pirate ship with our gifts to him. As we were about to leave, Simon gave the three kids a whole load of more presents (last photo) so they all scored. We as a family we seem to do the gifting on a massive scale and that ought to be reworked into a proper balance. Enough said...