Just Jack

Jack is our PFB (precious first born) and is 6.5 yrs old. He was a total textbook baby - if the book said that your baby might roll over from 12 months onwards, that's what Jack would do. He was (and still is, mostly) very cheerful and easy going. Jack is in his second year of school and loves to read.

Jack is quite a serious sort of chap, but comes out with some great lines. The other night we were eating dinner together, which was fish and talking about how Jesus had fishermen as his disciples. We were talking about the calling of the disciples and I said to Jack "So Jesus said, come with me and I will make you...." There was a small silence and Jack said "something to eat?". Okaaaay. On the other hand he recently told me that God talked to Moses through a burning bush (yep) and told him to go home. I had to pull my Bible out to double-check that was right - bible lessons from my six year old!

Jack has just been away this weekend on his very first Beavers camp. Tiff went with him and I'm still not sure which of them had the best time. It was quite strange being home alone with the "littlies" and I wasn't at all thinking about the day to come, when all four of them will be off and I will get some peace and quiet. :-)

Loo-key Tiff-in

Here's honourable son number two, Luke. Luke is half past four, to use his own words and regularly voted child most likely to give me grey hair. Luke is a little person with a big imagination and a recently discovered talent for telling tall tales with a straight face. On Monday he assured me so absolutely that his preschool key worker was off sick for the week that I nearly FBed her to wish her a quick recovery. You can imagine my surprise when she was handling sign-in on Tuesday morning. Then on Tuesday afternoon I got a very convincing story about how a big dog had attacked another preschool worker's dog in front of the children and they'd had to scare it away. I fear he is destined for a life of crime, or possibly a career in politics.

Luke made me smile today in the car. We were on our way home from swimming lessons with a little friend in the car. They started to talk about the sky and Luke said "God lives in the sky. We sing a song called "I have a Father in Heaven" and that's about God. He is all our Fathers."

Today at Bible Study, we looked a passage from a book called "Barefoot in the Kitchen" by Alie Stibbe. This is an amazing book, which really speaks to me. We looked at a passage about cultivating an inner attitude of praise. The study acknowledged that it's hard to maintain this when you've got small children who need you all the time, but challenged us to try to cultivate a heart of blessing and compassion, which can remain cheerful in the face of constant interruption. This is a big challenge for me. Only last night, at a church meeting, I was thinking how great it was to be able to focus on worship. It's been 6.5 yrs since I sat uninterrupted through a church service, or really got down to worship without a little hand in mine. This is just a season though and when it's over, I know I'll miss it. In the meantime, it's about finding the presence of God where I am. :-)