Dog in common

Last night we had a women's event for church, about hospitality. It was all about the practicalities of having people over for a meal, to get to know them better and share part of your life with them. It was interesting and the basic message seemed to be to just get on with it and not worry about having a perfectly tidy house or glamour meal prepared.

Afterwards I got chatting to someone I'd only met briefly before - she lives only a few minutes away from us, and turns out they have a Husky. This was very exciting information as huskies are quite similar to malamutes, both in looks and personality! It was good to talk with someone else who owns a "snow dog" and understands the *ahem* special qualities of the breeds!

It raises the prospect of a doggie play-date, although I don't think Ruby would cope too well with that. Who knows though -it definitely bears further thought...

Online shopping

Well, today I did some grocery shopping online. We have tried this before, years ago, and it was ok, but not the same as going and choosing things yourself from the shelves. So we'll see how it goes.

I figure if I can get it working for the basics - pet food, cupboard stuff like pasta and toilet paper etc, then it will help us get by for the moment. I'm too tired to go to the supermarket on the weekend, and Adam spends every day there for work so he doesn't want to go on his days off, so perhaps online is the answer for now.

It's expensive though for delivery - $15.95! But because we have a discount card, we get $7 or $8 off the shop so I guess it's not too bad. If I went to the supermarket and asked for home delivery, it would only be $7.50 for up to 10 bags, which is much more reasonable.

One for the Evangelicals

It occured to me today that being pregnant has certain parallels with the "Now, Not Yet" concept - the idea that God's kingdom exists now but is not yet complete, as we wait for Jesus to return and judge the earth.

This baby's life has begun, and therefore he exists now, but he's not yet here in full. So this is a period of anticipation, tension and hope for me, for this new life, which reminds me of the new life we have in Christ and my hope for His return.

The things you think of when you're utterly exhausted! I wrote one of my best ever school assignments when I was totally out of it with the flu - a pretend interview with Augustus, emporer of Rome. It included the classic line "Rome wasn't built in a day" in answer to a question about why he hadn't completed certain building projects. I wish I'd kept a copy of that assignment, it was a cracker.

Food for thought

There was an interesting comment on the tv show "House" tonight - I can't remember the exact words but it was something along the lines of if you feel responsible for everything, you must think you are all-powerful because you think you are capable of solving everyone's problems.

It got me thinking that part of letting the wheels fall off is about a taking a healthy dose of humility and giving up on the idea of control.

Thinking in capitals

Do you ever feel like you are thinking in capital letters?

eg "I JUST REALLY WANT TO LIE DOWN". Or "The problem with the world is ALL THE OTHER PEOPLE!!!' or "Stop talking now or I will THROW A BRICK AT YOU!"

For added emphasis, you can add full stops: "If.you.do.that.one.more.time.I.will.WRING.YOUR.FURRY.NECK!!!" (this one is usually directed at a cat or malamute)

Makes me laugh. And realise I NEED SOME SLEEP! hahaha

More on bare minimum

What I also mean by letting the wheels come off, is to relinquish the desire to SOLVE EVERYTHING. I have a real tendency to try to fix things, whether it's my responsibility or not. Letting the wheels come off means learning to live with things being imperfect, even if it's a bit heartbreaking at the time.

You can only do what you can and sometimes I have to let go of expectations and roll with the punches a bit more.

Something about our culture (or perhaps just me!) means I have a desire to cope all the time. Craig touched on this theme in his post about Joy.

One example of this is that I get very stressed when I don't feel the dogs are getting enough exercise and stimulation. I feel like we have a responsibility to give them a minumum level of daily interaction, and sometimes this is hard to achieve, so then I feel like a bad and irresponsible owner. But I have to accept that sometimes they are just going to have to have a boring life because there's only so much I can manage. I can't solve this one, not in the short term anyway, so I try to accept it - i.e. let those wheels fall off for a while.

I guess the 'wheels' I find hardest to let go of are the ones where I feel they affect someone else. I'm usually quite happy to let go of things that affect only me.

Baking

This easter, I made a cake in celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. It was very tasty, and nice to do something to mark the occasion. I also tried out a new recipe for a dessert called Clafoutis – a French fruit custard pudding thing. It tasted ok, a bit bland though – will add berries next time. It’s a good recipe because most of the ingredients are ones you’d probably have in your cupboard at any given time, apart from the fruit perhaps.

Furry Paws News Update

Oscar seems to be recovered. He’s looking chubbier (which has a lot to do with Minnie, but more of that in a moment!) and is more active. He seems mostly happy to be an inside cat, although we have let him out once or twice for an hour when it’s generally quite traffic-wise. The idea is to give him a bit of time outside to loll around in the sun, but to limit it so he’s inside most of the time, thereby minimising the risk of him getting squashed. It feels a bit like he has entered retirement, although he’s only 10.

Minnie on the other hand, is driving us MENTAL! She will sleep all day and then miaow all night to be let out. We haven’t let her out at night for around 2 years, but I think being kept inside during the day has given her too much energy. Plus she was refusing to eat her dinner and losing weight (which Oscar picked up by eating all her meals!). So we’ve tried her on different food which thankfully she is tucking into with great enthusiasm.

But the miaowing continues, so the last couple of nights we’ve put her outside. I’d rather not have to, but she sounds like nails on a blackboard and it’s quite hard to get a restful sleep with that going on. She doesn’t go on the road really, so her chances of getting squashed are much lower than Oscar’s. Perhaps as the weather gets cooler she will be happier to stay inside. In the meantime she can sit in the carport all night! Last night she was very keen to come back inside at around 3am-ish but I ignored her – she can’t have it both ways.

Bare minimum

One thing I believe in is that when I’m not really coping with life, it’s ok to let the wheels come off for a while when it comes to managing everyday stuff like housework and keeping up with friends etc. Although I firmly believe this, I’ve had trouble implementing it lately. My idea of ‘bare minimum’ seems to include getting the dishes washed and keeping the place tidy, which is a fairly recent development (as anyone who witnessed my low standards in these areas when I lived in Leichhardt will agree!) Although I have to say that getting bills paid on time does seem to have dropped off the list lately which doesn’t really bother me too much – they always get paid in the end.

I realised all this over the long weekend, when I decided to do NOTHING for as long as possible, greatly assisted by Mary and Julian helping out with the shopping, and Adam wielding a vacuum cleaner in a cleaning frenzy. Doing nothing was great, and I realised how much I have been pushing myself lately to get the bare minimum done, when really what I need is to rest. I think my bare minimum might have to be lowered a notch or two for a while. Thank goodness for microwaves and dishwashers!

Trust in Action

One thing I ponder from time to time (usually when I feel like a TNW!!) is how to trust God when life is a bit stressful*. I know the theory of turning to God and casting all our worries upon him, but sometimes I’m not too sure what that should actually look like.

Last night I decided that it meant actually asking God to look after the problem, and to show me how to deal with it, instead of fretting about it and trying to solve it all myself. This takes mental discipline, and it’s helpful to have reminders of God’s character at times like this. I also decided it’s ok to totally freak out about something and get upset, rather than bottle up emotions and pretend everything is fine – even if you only tell God you’re not coping, not the whole world.

*By ‘a bit stressful’ I mean when I’m REALLY NOT COPING!! For whatever reason.

Funny lyrics

I haven't been in a great mood today, for a few different reasons, and I feel a bit like a TNW (Total Nervous Wreck). I'll be fine after a decent rest, just have to get through the day.

But as I listened to my iPod, the song "Breakthru" by Queen came on, and these lyrics made me smile:

"I get religion quick
'Cos you're looking divine"

I think it's safe to say Freddie Mercury wasn't religious, but he did write good songs. Corny, but good! Sometimes things like this seem extra amusing when I'm really worn out.

It's a bit of a challenge...

...to work on a laptop when the cat wants to help!

Convalescing together

After not feeling so great on Wednesday, I've developed a cold/sinus thingo and so have had a few days at home. Oscar is getting better, although he has been sneezing and seems pretty worn out and a bit withdrawn. So today we had a nice rest together on the lounge.

Keep on keeping on

I feel not so great today - tired, stressed, a bit unwell. So I found this post on Girltalk comforting:
http://girltalk.blogs.com/girltalk/2008/03/talking-to-your.html

I've written out the verses and stuck them on my computer screen. And I've eaten some dark chocolate - I like to take a holistic approach ;)

Blood Pressure

It's often said that having pets is good for your health, as patting a dog or cat reduces your blood pressure.

I'm starting to wonder if there's some point at which the opposite is true, as pets certainly have the ability to make blood pressure rise! There could be a formula for it, based on the number of pets, their age and breed.

You could draw a diagram of it, it would look like a game of reverse Snakes & Ladders.

I sometimes think in my house it's 50/50 - having 5 cute, pattable pets brings the pressure down, dealing with the noise and mess they all make (and trying to keep the peace so they don't kill each other) sends it straight back up again. So we're no better off than if we didn't have them, if we're measuring only blood pressure.

We're all stuffed - or are we?

We’re doing Ecclesiastes in bible study at the moment, and I’m really enjoying it. On first glance a lot of the book seems to be quite depressing (eg Ch 7:4 "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure"), but I like it because it helps me keep my life in perspective. Both times I've studied it have happened to be rather stressful times in my life and I've appreciated the lessons learnt from the book - it takes me out of my everyday worries to focus on the bigger picture.

A lot of the things that worry me or stress me out pale into insignificance in the light of eternity. The section we looked at last week was chapters 7 – 9 and we concluded that the basic message of these chapters was that we are stuffed - we are all destined to die, and can’t do anything about that. Pretty sobering stuff, but accurate! So I was glad when we finished with this from John Ch 11: 17-27 (my emphasis):

On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
"Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask."
Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again. Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
"Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."

Extreme time wasting device

Have a go of this - you have to click the mouse on the black screen and then you can start to play around with how the sand falls....warning - it can become addictive!

http://www.bored.com/fallingsand/index.html

Special Offer - Free Cat with every Bassinet Purchase!

Danger Cat

On Saturday at around 5pm, I answered a knock at the door to be told that our cat had been hit by a car and "it looked really bad". We went into panic mode - we found Oscar in the carport with his face all scratched up and his feet bleeding. It didn't look like he had massive injuries but we still felt really really worried and scared.

We ran around getting a cat box out of the shed and calling the vet, and then drove very quickly to the vets - luckily they are only about 1 minute away (when Adam drives!) We got straight in and the vet checked him, and said he looked ok but that they would keep him in overnight for observation. I was feeling very shaken - I think hearing he'd been hit was the worst as it was quite dramatic and not something you ever want to hear.

The person who saw him get hit wrote down the numberplate of the car and gave it to us. They said the person didn't stop although they thought they knew they had hit something. I rang the police infoline to ask if it was worth reporting and they said it probably was, as you're meant to stop and exchange details if you hit anything, even just a garbage bin or something.

So this morning, after an awful night's sleep, we went to the vet's to get Oscar, who looked a bit better, and took him home. He wandered around for a while before settling down for a long sleep on the bedroom floor. He kept trying to sharpen his claws on the furniture but there's nothing there to sharpen - his claws were all ground down by the road.

Then we went to the police station.

The lady we spoke to there was initially quite brusque and unhelpful, but then she relaxed a bit and offered to check the numberplate and call the registered owner. She rang them and told them they'd hit a cat and said they should come to our house before the end of the day, or she'd advise us to file a report. We felt a bit weird about this and nervous about a possible confrontation with whoever was driving the car.

A man turned up around 4pm-ish - it was his wife driving the car and she knew she'd hit Oscar and totally freaked out when it happened. She was on her way to pick up her husband and when they came back they had a look for Oscar but by then we would have been at the vet's with him. Turns out they live just over the road, so they are our neighbours, and I had quite a nice chat with the man. The wife didn't come over because she was too nervous - I think she felt really bad about it and he was really relieved to hear that the cat was ok.

So there you go - all's well that ends well. Although it is unlucky that Oscar got hit, there are a lot of things that were quite lucky - he wasn't too badly hurt, people saw it happen and told us immediately, the vet was open, Adam wasn't working so we could drive to the vet's, and we were able to speak to the people involved. It could have been a lot worse.

The cats are on house arrest for the time being and we're thinking of putting in a cat run of some sort so they can go outside without going on the road. I know that cats like to roam around but our road is busy and people go along it quite fast, and I don't want to have to scrape one of my cats off the road ever.

Having the cats on house arrest means the dogs have to be tied up when they come inside - we were going to do this anyway when the baby arrives. So far Ruby has settled down quite quickly to her post, while Saffy is whinging her head off. She'll get used to it! It's less stressful than having them chase the cats around, especially while Oscar is recouperating.

The end result for Oscar is some gravel rash on his face, all his claws shredded or missing, and a few scratches on the pads of his feet. I imagine he feels pretty bruised as well. We calculate he's down to 7 lives.

I think Oscar has always helped Adam and I to feel like a family so it's quite traumatic when anything happens to him. He is a top cat and we love him a lot. I'm so glad he is ok.

1,000 Hours

I've added it up - I spend 3 hrs a day, roughly 4 days a week, on trains, and have been doing this for 1 yr and 7 months. That equals roughly 1,000 hours on trains, give or take.

1,000 hours is equivalent to 41.67 full 24hr days. SO I've spent over a month of my life getting to work and back since June 2006.

And now I have to go and spend another 1.5 hrs today doing the same thing. In the words of the prince from Blackadder, "Lucky, lucky, luck."

It Is Well With My Soul

Further to my last post, one thing I have found super, super helpful as a Christian over the last year is Christian music. Particularly music where the lyrics are closely based on the bible. Here are some lyrics from a few of my favourite songs:

The Christ has regarded
My helpless estate
And nailed all my sin,
To the cross that he bore
It is well with my soul
To live now is Christ,
To die would be gain
But Lord ‘tis for thee, for thy coming we wait
It is well with my soul.

Whatever my lot, thou has taught me to say
It is well with my soul.


Before the cross I kneel and see
The measure of my sin
How You became a curse for me
Though You were innocent
The magnitude of Your great love
Was shown in full degree
When righteous blood, the crimson spill
Rained down from Calvary

Oh, the precious blood
That flowed from Mercy’s side
Washed away my sin
When Christ my Saviour died
Oh, the precious blood
Of Christ the crucified
It speaks for me before Your throne
Where I stand justified


In the daytime there are stars in the heavens
But they only shine at night
And the deeper that I go into darkness
The more I see their radiant light
So let me learn that my losses are my gain
To be broken is to heal
That the valley’s where Your power is revealed

Songs like these have encouraged and challenged me during what has been a difficult period for a variety of reasons. The main thing it has done has been to remind me that God is in control, and that my priorities and worries need to be seen in the context of a loving God who cares about me. It brings me back to the fundamentals of trusting God and walking the walk, even when I can't see a light at the end of the tunnel.

The bible talks about the power of preaching the word of God, and one way this can be done, and has been done throughout history, is through songs. I'm really glad there are people out there making music based on God's word.

It's also why I don't like Hillsong style music – it might sound great (although that is debateable!) but it often isn't based on the bible. It's more just "Yay, God" or "Yay, me". I was listening to Rhema FM the other week, and they played a pop song (not sure what it was called) but I honestly couldn't tell from the lyrics if it was about Jesus or a boyfriend.

A bit over it

I've been a subscriber to the Briefing magazine for probably 6 years, and Southern Cross for about 12 months. Lately I've found it pretty much impossible to get into reading them – I flick through and then put them aside, feeling vaguely guilty about my lack of interest in the finer points of evangelical theology or the Sydney Anglican scene (and for paying for something I'm not reading). Plus I struggle to bother to read newsletters from places like missionary organisations and charities.

I'm not sure why this is – I used to really enjoy them. I think it's ok to stop enjoying something, I just want to work out why this is how I'm feeling. I think in general I'm more interested in practical Christian writing at the moment, so blogs like 168hrs.blogspot.com and girltalk.blogs.com/girltalk/are more interesting to me, plus perhaps I'm just too tired to care really about theoretical things.

It could be, in this age of blogs, I'm less tuned in to reading magazines and papers. But I don't have a problem getting through the Herald on the weekend. Hmmm.

Or perhaps as we go on in the Christian walk it's natural for different media to connect with us at different times. I guess I should just make sure I am getting some sort of Christian encouragement and stimulation, and that whatever it is, is true to the gospel and bible in general.

Have your reading habits and where you look for spiritual stimulation changed over the years? I'm interested to know if other people have had similar experiences.

Have Dog, Will Travel

The other day on central station, I saw a well dressed lady wheeling one of those old fashioned shopping trolleys behind her. In it was a small white dog. It looked like a maltese and was very quiet as she wheeled it along. She got on the same train as me, and I snuck a photo of it – it's not a very good photo, but I thought it was worth sharing with you as it's not something you see every day. Not something I can imagine doing with our dogs – you'd need a fully sized supermarket trolley for them!

Adjusting expectations

I've been casting my eye over a series of posts on the Girltalk blog about dealing with stressful/hormonal times as a Christian.

I liked the point made in this post about finding a new normal. Adjusting expectations can definitely make life easier when things are out of kilter for whatever reason, and it helps develop a spirit of humility! Saying "actually, I can't do it all, or even cover what I consider to be the basics, at the moment" is a healthy challenge to my ego.

Here is a pictorial account of my train travels of late

Cat Dog Theology

Someone at work explained Cat Dog Theology to me this week. It goes like this:

The dog says "you feed me, pet me, and look after me – you must be God!"

The cat says "you feed me, pet me, and look after me – I must be God!"

So true, so true...