Rest awhile

When your body is tired, you can lie down and rest. But where do you go to rest when your mind is tired, and your heart burdened?

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Jesus, Matthew 11:28-30 (TNIV)

Painter lady, paint me a wall

I'm pooped! Mum and I began painting the kitchen and loungeroom today (as you can see, they need it badly). It's hard work, but it's going to be great when it's finished. While we're on it, we're going to do the other living room and the hallway.

We chose a fairly neutral colour. I'll show you what it looks like when we're done.

Plug

Necessity is the mother of invention. I have, therefore, created a blog that offers public domain images for the obligation-free taking. Check it out!

*Phew* - II

On Friday night, I was thankful once again for God protecting me... The light went green at an intersection, and I began to drive off (as I should). Suddenly, a police car came flying through the intersection (against a red light) with no warning at all! I nearly hit them. Thankfully, I braked in time.

But what's the go with that? My understanding is that emergency vehicles are supposed to ease out into intersections to avoid an accident. This one simply zoomed through, even though it was a blind intersection.

I'm just so thankful that I spent the night at church instead of in the police station (or worse, the hospital).

*Phew*

Last weekend I was in such a rush to get ready for the wedding that I left my hair straightener on when we went out. I didn't realise it was still on because the 'on' light is faulty.

I came home at the end of the day, and Mum and I could smell this weird rubbery smell. We were looking all around my room, sniffing, and I began to worry that something had died in there. Then I noticed the power point was on. The straightener! I had left it in a drawer full of clothes; I ran to the drawer and picked it up. It was still hot. I looked at some of the clothes and one of them had a brown burn mark on it; it could have easily caught fire.

What a close shave! I thanked God immediately, because I knew He had protected us from having our house burned down. That is how powerful He is - He can stop inevitable things like that because He has power over everything*. He really looked after us that day.

Thankfully I am not in charge of the world because I surely would have burned half of it down by now :)

*P.S. That doesn't mean, of course, that God forces people to do the right thing. This is why bad things happen: because people have a free choice; they can choose to do good or to do evil. But the Bible promises that one day God will fix the world and restore it to what it was meant to be.

Pass the salt, man

These are the salt-and-pepper-shakers I was given at my friends' wedding today. Aren't they cute? I've never seen ones like these before.

The wedding was really nice too, although I was pretty tired by the end of the day.

So, that was another cab off the rank, which makes me wonder: Which of my friends will be next?

Flowers

Cream of the creams

I have re-discovered a wonderful product: Amolin. It helped nappy rash when I was a baby, and now it helps all sorts of things, I've discovered! I was having problems with really dry itchy skin on my eyelids. After trying a couple of expensive eye-creams ($15 is totally beyond my limit), I found the solution in good old Amolin (probably the exact same tube we used so many years before). It's also good for dry lips, otherwise dry skin, and anything that's itchy, cracked, sore, or whatever.

It so seems like some scamming spammer has hacked my blog, but it's not the case, I promise! Lol... Go Amolin.

Sale on

Having a garage sale is a really cool way to meet people. We had one yesterday to get rid of some more of our junk, and actually it was the most successful one we have ever had. All sorts of interesting people came and took our junk off our hands, and even paid us for it. And get this: we had a pile of stuff we marked "free", and a guy came and paid us for that too! Bonus!

From now on, the house should be a lot neater. But don't hold us to that.

Who has all the good dancing?

Dance is a lost art in the Western world, particularly in churches. It is used for so many negative and destructive purposes, but I believe it is time for us to reclaim dance and use it for its true intended purpose.

Dance can be a wonderful part of worship in the church. One form of dance that I find so inspiring and beautiful is tambourine dancing (pictured), which I have seen many times in the Philippines. We should put our creativity to work and discover new ways to use dance both in the church and in outreach.

Mango me, mango you

I was just thinking about mangoes. I love them. So juicy, so sweet, so filling...

When I'm in the Philippines, where mangoes are very cheap, I eat mangoes just about every day. But here, they're more expensive, probably genetically modified and therefore not as tasty.

Not everybody likes mangoes; my mother included. I can't think why. But it just means there's more mangoes left in the world... for me!

Paradise

Top of the Tip

It's nearly Spring. And you know what time that is? That's right, time for Spring cleaning. And in describing what we did today, the term 'cleaning' is hardly sufficient.

As you can see, we cleaned out so much rubbish from our house and yard that we had to stack it on the trailer (an exercise in itself) and take it to the tip.

The tip, I have decided, is one of the strangest places in the world. It's like a wasteland hidden within the sprawl of our outer suburbs. A huge dirt mountain obscures your view of the horizon, and a multitude of all kinds of birds circle overhead in search of something to eat (I don't want to know what). The crows, ibis and seagulls made me curious as to what lay beyond the mound that loomed in front of us, as we waited while the men at the recycling shed salvaged parts of our load.

When we finally ascended to the top of the hill, what I expected to be a glorious view turned out to be yet another series of dirt mounds, being shovelled around by a front-end loader. When I got out of the car, the all-too-familiar smell of copious amounts of rubbish bought back memories of my previous visit to the tip many years ago.

As we left, and I watched the men working tirelessly at sorting heavy pieces of wood and metal for recycling, I wondered what it would be like to be a 'garbo'. How would you answer when people asked what you do for a living? Since for most people garbo carries very little prestige, the best way one could answer would be "I work in the management and environmentally sound disposal of unwanted materials".

D'oh, Donuts, and Lots of Dough

What is it about the Simpsons that is so enthralling? I personally have never been hooked on the show, and aren't likely to become so any time soon. In my entire life I've probably seen two episodes.

So what is it? An outlet for people's frustrations with bureaucracies and life in general? Just a good laugh? A thought provoking look at American life?

In any case, the website is good only because you can make a cool Simpsons avatar for yourself. Apart from that, I just shrug and go back to reading a good book.