Daisy Sophia McLaughlin!

Very excited to introduce our beautiful Little d, born at 11:04pm on Friday night. 3.055kg and 49cm long.  It all went really well, and God's timing has been great. E strarted feeling the first twinges around dinner time, we put the kids to bed, got to the hospital at 10pm, and Daisy was born an hour later. E did an awesome job, and is going really well.

I brought them home yesterday, and so now we have a couple of weeks to settle in to things; me on leave, and the two excited big sisters starting their holidays today. 

I'm feeling very happy and thankful to God for my wonderful little Daisy.

The Voice

Are you watching The Voice? I'm sucked in already. It was interesting to see the guy on last night with a stutter.

It always feels empowering for me, seeing other people with the same struggle, stepping outside their comfort zone and doing big things. The majority of stutterers hide away a bit, and there can be a tendency to under-achieve. So it's great to see a young guy up on stage like that.

On a cynical note, they really milked it for all it was worth though.. he was right at the end of the episode, yet they played snippets of him 'coming up' every two minutes, with little heart-string tugging clips of him stuttering.

I find it hard to eloquently put into words what I mean, but it would be cool if it was more of a non-issue, rather than a thing for producers to latch on to in order to make him likable and unusual. I'm sure that kid really wants to be seen as a singer who also happens to have a stutter, not as a stutterer who sings well. From where I'm standing there's a big difference.

Death Of An Iron Lady

I don't know enough about Margaret Thatcher to comment, I just know she was very passionately disliked by a lot of people.

Still, I found it quiet chilling to see the celebrations following her death yesterday. So many years after her time as Prime Minister, and yet still hated with such vehemence. It's quite a legacy to leave.

Captains Log

You know that thing how the Tardis is really small on the outside but inside is big? Well that's our VW Golf. We discovered the other day that we can actually fit the two car seats AND the baby capsule along the back seat. Yeah baby.

So, the car is still a priority, but it's not such an urgency now, which is a relief. It wasn't fun trying to choose something with the clock ticking. By the way, we've pretty much decided on the Toyota Avensis. We like it a lot. Just trying to find the right used one out there.. good miles, right price.

Bubba Mk3 is due in five days. Eek. So excited about meeting this beautiful little girl.. I can't wait to hold her in my arms, and bring her home, give her a bath, and dress her in a warm little suit. Can't wait. It's been four years since we had a newborn, so we are probably going to be a bit rusty. Those new ones are very small and breakable if I remember correctly.

In the meantime, your prayers for my E and my little girl are highly valued. Thanks.

A Bit Of An Update

Hi friends. It's been ages, hasn't it. Things are going okay. Bubba 3 is due to arrive in less than two weeks now, so apprehension and excitement abound. E is going well, but very tired and eager to dispense of yon child from yon belly.

Yesterday was Little i's 4th Birthday, which unfortunately coincided with an ear infection thing for her. She's been pretty miserable for the past few days. Actually all the girls were crook over the long weekend, so it wasn't the most amazing holiday known to man, gotta say.

This morning when I was on the train, I got a call from E saying just after I left, a big whopper branch from next doors' maple crashed down in our yard, over the power lines and rather close to our car...

The neighbours are away, blissfully unawares. Thankfully the car seems okay, which is a relief as we just shelled out a wad of cash to fix up a big dent to get it ready to sell.

Anyway, that's that for now. Not sure about post frequency at the moment.. I've been seriously wondering whether my blog has run it's course. I don't want to do anything drastic though-- you go through these ups and downs over the years I spose. For the moment the stream may be a trickle or an occasional drop, hard to say. Sorry to be a downer. Hope you're well. Love your work. 

Lamington Drive

I've put up some new comics over at Lamington Drive.

I'm loving that I'm finally doing this thing I've been wanting to do for so long. Feels great. I've been daydreaming of working from a little home studio, doing my strip full time. Finish a strip a in the morning, have a potter in the garden, and then go and do a painting in the arvo and be back to pick the kids up from school. Now that would be great. Dream on.

Kids These Days

I was talking to my now adult nephew the other day, and looking at his little brother with a mobile phone, he said 'you know it wasn't until I was in year 9 that I got my first phone'. As if that was some amazing thing. And yet his little brother did think it was an amazing thing.

I then informed them that I was in my late 20's when I got my first mobile. And they smiled politely and slowly edged away.

It is pretty amazing how tech-savvy the wee bairns are these days. My girls are pretty good on a computer. At the moment they still yell out 'Dad! This is stuck! Can you help me?' But I wonder how long until the dark day when they overtake me and it's me yelling out to them? I give it a couple of weeks.

You Know..

..you're spending too much time online when..

Six Weeks..

Number #3 is due to arrive in about six weeks.  I'm getting very excited- I can't wait to meet the new little tacker.  Room is of the essence at our place, so the two bigguns have gone into a bunk bed as of a week ago.  It's going really well, they seem to like sleeping in the same room.

So far E has been going well. She's tired and uncomfortable as you'd expect, but coping like a trooper.

It's going to be a big change again, going back to all that broken sleep and dirty nappiness and whatnot. And just the further scale-tipping of another lady in the house. Me and Buddy are already going to ground and bracing ourselves. We've been secretly building a small exterior shelter and stockpiling canned goods in preparation for the onslaught. 

Quiz Rest

I hope you won't be too cross, but I've decided to rest the quiz for a while.  Potentially a long while.  Having done it weekly for a few years now, the Quizmaster is very tired.  His well is very dry. His barrel bottom is very scraped. His dead horse is very flogged.

This is maybe silly, as it's the post each week that people seem to most comment on, but I'm just all questioned out for the moment.  I hope you aren't too wrathful and that you stick around this flailing blog I try and get some new inspiration.

Quizmaster out.

The Quiz

1. I like movies that have..
2. I avoid movies that have..
3. Something you've learnt the hard way
4. One of these days I'd like to learn how to..
5. I'm slowly getting better at..

Big Night Last Night

Better To Have Mulched And Lost Than To Have Never Mulched At All

And then all of a sudden, just like that, it's gone, dissapearing into vapour and meaninglessness, and the sound of ten thousand gardens crying.

I Can't Forgive Myself

'Some of you are stuck because your primary identity is in your sin and not in your Savior. You’re unable to move beyond your past because of shame, and guilt, and conviction, and condemnation. God has forgiven you, if you are in Christ, for things that you would say to this point, “I just can’t forgive myself,” which sounds cute, but it’s blasphemous. Because if what you’re saying is, “God forgives me but I can’t forgive myself,” what you’re saying is, “There’s a God above Jesus with my name, and though the lesser, lower God named Jesus forgives me, the higher, greater God with my last name cannot.”

Some of you have wrongly thought that if you will obsess over your sin more, God will be more pleased with you. Some of you have taken your sin on as your primary identity, and the only difference you would see between a Christian and a non-Christian is a non-Christian is a guilty, evil, vile, wicked sinner, and a Christian is a guilty, evil, vile, wicked sinner who’s forgiven. No difference in who you are, no change in your nature, no alternation in your identity whatsoever, that the Christian and the non-Christian are the same, and the only difference is one is forgiven, the other is not, but neither are changed.'

-Mark Driscoll, from this talk.

Tramampoline

 

Excuse the jarmies.

The Quiz

1. Life was a lot simpler before..
2. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever..
3. I have this dream where..
4. The perfect breakfast cereal
5. I hope today brings..

Practising The Tenth

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's mulch pile.

Lamington Drive

I have something I want to share with you, but it's giving me small waves of anxiety doing so. I've started a comic strip.  Actually, this thing kind of started over ten years ago. I had the idea and inspiration, but have been too scared to properly put pen to paper. A lot of scribbles in notebooks, but never anything final. What if it sucks? What if it's not as good as it sounds in my head? What if people hate it?

Blah blah blah. Shut up, brain.

Anyway, I've made a tumblr site for it, and am finally getting the ball rolling a bit.  I just finished my fourth strip this morning.  The basic premise is these two kids have moved with their parents, from the city to the country, and.. er.. hilarity ensues.

I'd love you to read along, if you feel the stirring in your waters to do so. And ps, thanks heaps to RodeoClown for encouraging me to get moving.

Failure To Launch

As you might have noticed, I'm finding it a bit difficult to get this show back on the road. There was an end of year lag, but even now with the not-so-new year well and truly underway, it's not really proving to be the refreshing new start I'd pictured.. Sorry about that. I'll keep chugging along until the muse returns.

The Quiz

1. What are you going to do to make today a good day?

2. Are you thick skinned or thin?
3. Do you choose things quickly or obsess about weighing options? And "depends" is not an answer The Great Quizmaster will accept.
4. A piece of truth that gives you peace
5. How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?

Sniff Sniff

 

My big girl starts school today.  She's really excited, and E tells me the drop off and everything went really well, which is a bit of a relief. they grow up fast!

Just Saying

I feel the need to put it to you that there are very few things in this world as wonderful as the Cocteau Twins.

Nobody can sing like Elizabeth Fraser. And no one played guitar like Robin Guthrie until a decade later.

An acquired taste maybe, but once your palette adjusts your mind will explode into little devastated pieces. Trully.

A Spot Of Fishing

 

 

Baby Bellison

We are struggling a bit to think of a name for our little #3. One of us will optimistically put forth a suggestion only to be snidely poo pooed by the other.

Meanwhile, Little e is fighting to have input into the decision making process. Her suggestion is Bellison, which is some kind of frankensteined amalgam of her two favourite names, Allison and Bella.

Rebuked

Me: (Gruffly) 'Come on, eat your mash. Hurry up.'

Little e: (Gently) 'If you want a kid, you've got to be patient with it.'

The 'E' Word

I have noticed that guys (in general. There are exceptions. And a lot of women are like this too, though I've noticed it mostly in men) have a bit of a quietly smug superiority complex about their music taste. They also think they are fairly unique in what they listen to.

Now just to clarify, I am one of the worst offenders. The most scathing insult you could ever give me about what I listen to would be to say I was narrow-minded. Ohhh man. My skin would turn green, muscles would grow, clothes would rip. Right now my instinct is to list off all the many genres of which I am savvy. But that would be uncouth.

Another thing about guys and musical taste is that they are very, very predictable. Ask a guy what they listen to, and I will guarantee you they will use the exact same word. Every time. You know what the word is don't you? Eclectic! Another frequent term used is 'a bit of everything'. The painful thing is that I use the 'E' word every time I'm asked, while smugly thinking I'm the only one of my species using the word accurately.

But we love to use the 'E' word, for in a few heady syllables it says 'oh, I could list all the many multitudinous widely varying styles of music I listen to, but it would potentially take all day, for they are so many, and you probably wouldn't have heard of them anyway'.

I guess what I'm wondering now is, does it make you any less of a music taste tool if you realise and admit you are a music taste tool? Probably not sadly.

The Quiz

1. Movies or TV series?

2. A fictional character you identify with

3. When are you most prone to worry?

4. When are you most optimistic?

5. What are you grateful for today?

An Anniversary

It was our 11 year wedding anniversary on Saturday, so on Friday night we had planned to celebrate in style. Breaking Dawn Part II at the open air cinema! Oh yeah. But, it turned into a bit of a debacle, unfortunately. Your remember what Friday was like, an absolute inferno of a day? Well we wandered about in the wilting heat looking for a place to eat, and after forever found a little pizza place. Then wandered back to Centennial park with take away, and arrived precisely in tandem with the southerly change. So, we set ourselves up in the park, negotiating picnic chairs and rug in the gale, just in time for the announcement that the movie was cancelled due to the bad weather. Oh.

So we ate our lukewarm pizza, and I drank a beer (well, about half of one. Turned out it wasn't a screwtop, so I spent about ten minutes trying to knock off the top with my makeshift bottle opener, which comprised of a picnic chair edge combined with a hammering motion with the handle of an umbrella. Results may vary. Finally getting the lid of, my celebration was short lived, as I lost most of it to frothy overflow. Anyway, where was I...)

Long story short, we finally ended up at Fox Studios and saw a late session of The Hobbit instead. Hmm. I'll save my verdict for a proper review. Got home much too late, thanks to Peter Jackson's lack of editing skills.

Happy anniversary anyway, my lovely E.

Of Dogs And Cakes

 

This little fella turned 1 on the weekend. At the urging of the kids, E made a dog-cake. That's a cake made for dogs, not a cake made of dogs, by the way. 

The main ingredients were peanut butter, honey and carrot, and it was supposed to be a recipe enjoyed by both dog and man. Sadly, neither really liked it. It may have been the pregnancy factor, but E was gagging up a storm when she was making it, and when it was cooked Buddy had a bit of a nibble before turning up his nose, and the kids did the same.  You know who really, really enjoyed it though? Ants.  Anyways, it was bin night last night, so that monstrosity is off the premises at least.

Happy Birthday Buddy Boy.