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I needed new swimmers before we go on holidays to the beach (the pressure!!) The last lot I bought when Mr 8 was 4 months old in Darwin, no joke. I was frustrated to see this catalogue - which was presenting their view of what I should be doing at the beach -

vs what the guys are going to be doing at the beach -

and that is just the front covers (the two sections were in the same booklet, starting at different ends of the book). The insides weren't much different. Ugh.

I did manage to find swimmers (but not from this catalogue).

All the leaves are brown...

All the leaves are brown,

And the sky is grey

I've been for a walk

On a winter's day.

I'd be safe and warm

If I was in LA

California dreamin'

On such a Winter's day

It seemed appropriate that mum left on a grey, drizzly, miserable sort of day. I wandered around and took some bad artistic photos of the dreariness, then went home and fed the baby. We're on our own now!

New Orleans - thoughts

A very typical balconied house (prob small flats by now)

View through to the courtyard of our guesthouse

Architecture - after a couple of huge fires that burnt most of the original structures in the French Quarter, the government (Spanish at that time) banned building with wood, and imported building codes from Spain including having to have an interior courtyard with a well for defense against future fires. The back of the house faces onto the street, and the interior courtyard was the front of the house. Used for hanging laundry and hanging about. The street balconies were only added on after sanitation improved beyond chucking it out the window. The courtyards were sort of open air extensions of the very open house, with lots of big shutters front and back to provide airflow and storm protection. Thats my summary anyway. There are whole books on the subject if you want more precise details. It is all beautiful, and I loved seeing it. There are other styles, from later on, but I loved seeing the glimpses of the courtyards. I also loved the idea of sitting on your balcony with a drink watching the world go by. It was too cold for this when we were there.

Music - they are very proud of their musical heritage. There are heaps of buskers. The first day we were there, a brass band made up of teenagers were on a street corner going for it, with about 5 brass instruments and a couple of drums at the back. They were pretty good. All the shops and restaurants play jazz music. The National Parks Service runs a Jazz preservation park there - essentially a service to encourage the music.

Food - seafood based, simple, usually stews, we ate very well, and enjoyed every bite. We even got the kids to eat some Jambalaya, because it is sort of a rice dish with shrimp and chicken and sausage.

Bourbon street - I walked down Bourbon St, including the busy end (full of clubs and pubs) that we had previously avoided, on a quiet Tuesday morning. My experience was that it stank... no matter how the pavements were washed down (and they were all sprayed, every morning) the smell of stale beer and worse lingered. It just didn't seem like a nice place.

Alcohol - New Orleans has an open carry licence, so you can purchase alcohol then walk around drinking, or purchase a drink then stand around on the street drinking, so there seemed to be a lot of random drinking, from around lunch time onwards. I wondered at the point, given a lot of places had a 'no outside drinks' rule. It looked like a lot of people were just doing it because they could.

Homeless - Maybe because we're out in the 'burbs here at home, and maybe because of the tourist activity, I'm not sure, but there were a lot of homeless congregating on the streets of the French Quarter.

Beads - I don't get the beads. I think they are some sort of party favour,thrown from Mardi Gras floats, but they are generally very cheap, imported from china, and worn by tourists whatever the time of year? They are strung on balconies or trees or bits of ironwork.

Hurricane Katrina - most locals have a story to tell, or an opinion to voice. It felt like a semi-oppressive elephant in the room actually. Because although life goes on, you can still see the occasional boarded up house, and it was all such a big shake up of the city. One big change was the skyrocketing cost of real estate in the French Quarter (which didn't flood), which means it is now being (or has been?) gentrified or turned into B&B's.

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Hymn 457 - Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing - Robert Robinson, 1758

Come, thou fount of ev'ry blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above;
praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it, mount of God's unchanging love.

Here I raise my Ebenezer; hither by thy help I'm come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger, wand'ring from the fold of God:
he, to rescue me from danger. interposed his precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be;
let that grace now, like a fetter, bind my wand'ring heart to thee.
Prone to wander - Lord, I feel it - prone to leave the God I love:
here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.

Oh, that day when freed from sinning, I shall see thy lovely face,
full arrayed in blood-washed linen, how I'll sing thy sovreign grace.
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry; bring thy promises to pass,
for I know thy pow'r will keep me til I'm home with thee at last.

Raising an Ebenezer - reference to 1 Samuel 4-7 - where Samuel raised a stone which he called Ebenezer, (stone of help) as gratitude to God who had just given the Israelites the victory. A reminder of how God helped them. (thank you, internet - http://www.housetohouse.com/BibleQuestions.aspx?Letter=all&Question=4234)

Notes

When you're feeling harassed and short of time;

When you feel fatigued, not just simple tired, and its getting monotonous;

When you're stuck in the twilight zone (what ever and where ever that is);

When you're feeling a bit like you're doing everything badly...

Your little boy scrawls you a note and smiles and presents it to you. And things don't seem so bad anymore.

July 4th

The morning was wet, and our planned BBQ dinner was cancelled because someone got sick, so it was a quiet day for us.
I finally realised that I didn't need to find the perfect combination of events to go to  in order to feel excited about July 4. the issue is that I think I'm looking through a window when it comes to July 4th - watching someone elses party.
I'm not sure I'll ever completely feel excited about the buntings, I guess. But it is a very handy long weekend.

Identification

I am starting to get a feel that lots of people here identify themselves to the world by brands
- more than just brands of clothing, but stickers on their car, universities on their clothing, key chains, mugs, car licence plate frames, etc. Lots of veterans have caps that record what ships they were on, in what war, and I see quite a lot of "Navy mom" or "Proud Parent of XX school honor student". And of course, there is the ring thing - rings that say you've graduated from the Naval academy, rings that say you won the football, rings that say you're married to someone who graduated from the Naval academy, etc. I'm assuming its some sort of club identification or subtle (and not subtle) preening.

My reading lately

I have read some books recently (in the last 3 months...) that I would love to recommend:
1) Curly Girl - Lorraine Massey. She is a hair dresser who has created a method of looking after curly hair. As a result I have made some changes to my hair care, and am hoping my hair will appreciate it and stop being quite so unmanageable.
2) Overwhelmed - Work, Love and Play when no one has the time - Brigid Schulte
Part documentary, part self discovery. Brigid looks at "time pressure and modern life" according to the inside cover. She looks at the family, and work and leisure, and how no one feels like we have any quality time any more.
At the end she has a section of practical suggestions in the area of "Work", "Love"(family, roles, etc) and "Play" (which relates to having hobbies, remember them?)
One thing she mentioned was being aware of unconscious bias - on roles in the family. She mentioned gatekeeping by mothers which prevents fathers from having more than a 'helper' role with babies. And for work she mentioned chunking time - and committing to building up the muscle to sit there and concentrate on work/one thing, without checking emails every 5 mins. I know I have the Twitch - to check news websites when I'm frustrated with my work, instead of looking out the window, stretching and getting a glass of water.
And when I was looking for strategies for decluttering, I found The Minimalists - two american guys who have (they mention often) left their thing centric life and their 6 figure salary and found peace in minimalising, and are now, I guess, preachers of the lifestyle.
3) All That Remains - Joshua Fields Millburn - written as a series of dated essays over the two year period that he started being minimalistic. I don't always enjoy the writing style, especially the "conversations" that sound a bit preachy, but as an exploration of the idea of not organising 'stuff', but simply not owning it, the book is quite intriguing, and the length is such that you can read once, then go back and reread sections. A compelling argument for not owning as much is that it frees up time and money to spend with your family, because you're not having to clean, organise and look after all your stuff.

The American Man

It seems we spent enough at Nordstrum to be put on their menswear catalogue list, so I have been treated to a fascinating insight of the different 'tribe' looks that exist here (according to Nordstrum). In the catalogue, there is an actual blurb that says "Breath new life into your Ivy League looks....", (I honestly only thought that line appeared in romantic fiction) or another that talks about vintage vibes, or the one I like the best, picture of a guy wearing a maroon shirt with flowers on (basically, but a very expensive shirt, which of course makes it ok) saying "Dark earthy shades add an exciting new dimension to spring". I think they're trying not to mention the flowers. My other favourite page is a suggested "Pack for a Warm-weather getaway" to do you "a day on the beach and a night on the town", but - there is no underwear or toiletries included in the pack - he's going to remember his vintage camera and his pictures of the Colosseum, but not his boxers?!
The photos above seemed a good summary, as it is the same model, with jeans on, and they're just changing the look around the jeans. And you can sort of see how you can judge people - their likes, dislikes, their job, whether they're vegetarian, whether you'll get along with them, without even meeting them.
Left to right, top to bottom, this is what I think the looks are aiming for:
1.Uni student ? Slightly activist? (Berkinstocks, big bag for books) or Tourist, or grocery shopping with a very expensive green bag?
2. Can't place this one, it just seems a little off. Like, what guy would wear a tie on his day off? With a tie keeper? Maybe he is a bit psycho. Or, is going to the laundromat (ie, washing day clothes!),or a smart casual birthday party.
3. I think this is either Boaty or Ivy League? (ie, pots of money - either for a boat, or an expensive university education)
4. Going to a ball game - sporty spice.
5. No sense of fashion here either. jeans are too short (but I know from other pages that you do this to show off your shoes), top half is still in the office, bottom half looks a touch like it should be at a wine tasting for its 35th birthday.
I have thoroughly enjoyed this catalogue - almost more than the other one with the expensive pocket square.

Fort McHenry

Because we had to be in Baltimore anyway with the boys, to put in our tax, we decided to make a day of it, and visit Fort McHenry on Baltimore Harbour. Fort McHenry is where a famous battle between the British Navy and the Americans in 1812. The British had just burnt Washington DC and were moving in to do the same to Baltimore. The defenders at Fort McHenry, which is on a peninsular that sort of sticks out and guards the entrance to the harbour that Baltimore was built on, helped by earthworks to the East of the town and various Militias holding back the British troops on the ground, had a huge night of exchanging canon fire with the British Navy. In the morning, a huge American flag was raised by the defenders to show their defiance. 

Which would be a lovely story in itself but what made it remarkable is that Francis Scott Key (of Annapolis) happened to be unwillingly watching the whole thing from a British Navy ship, having gone out to negotiate the release of a friend of his. He wrote a poem - "Defence of Fort M'Henry", which later became the words to the song "The Star Spangled Banner" - and the American National Anthem.

A while ago I wondered about the attachment to the flag here, and really, you can't blame them. To have a flag that is closely associated with such an important historical event, and have a poem/song written in with the full force of the relief of seeing that flag rise up that pole. Part of American pride seems to be in their self-determination, and their struggles to become a nation, and that is bound up in their flag, their national anthem, and so many other aspects of their culture. (Says I. Just thinking!)

In terms of visiting: very lovely for children, except possibly the video showing the historical re-enactment of the battle. We have had to answer a lot of questions about canons from our 5 year old, who couldn't finish watching the video. Fort McHenry was used by the military as recently as WWII (?), so it has a very interesting history, displays about which are set up in various buildings that you wander around to look in.

Never Forgetting

This is a sticker they gave the boys for walking through the metal detector at the airport in Texas on the way home. Not sure if it will show up in the photo, but the small writing around the outline of Texas in the middle?
*9-11-2001* Never Forget*
One of my friends commented, it is a bit like Dec 7 being a infamous day in one generations memory (Pearl Harbor). Likewise, while we have no first hand memory of Pearl Harbor, there are kids born since 2011, who didn't get first hand experience. Interesting to think about.

Too little ambition

"It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea."
C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

While your kids are breathing...

I have a sense of sadness as a result of the Lindt Cafe hostage situation in Sydney, and a sense of horror, that something like that would happen in a place that I was familiar with, rather than somewhere overseas that I only read about, not have jogged past.
I think my take home message is, if your kids are breathing, have an ice-cream with them. Not necessarily literally, just take the opportunity to spend time with them. Stop and help them with that jigsaw puzzle. Hold them upside down. Tickle them. Read books with them. Have indoor picnics when it is raining. Skip on the way home. Go for a bike ride. Explore not only the opportunity to bring up God's precious children, but to enjoy their sweet, loving, playful natures too.
This even applies to Mr Indescribable, the stubborn 2.5 year old, who is currently lining up the dinosaurs and doing jigsaw puzzles.

Death at the Center of Love - Ruth 1:16-18

Ruth 1: 16-18

The secret of love is commitment - v17 Love given voluntarily, and until death

The cost of love is uneven - v18 Naomi silenced. No thank you recorded. The people we love may not love back the way we expect. We shouldn't be keeping track in a relationship! Eventually, because we are human, this will grate, we will get tired of this. How to endure?

The power of love is faith
Her love was rooted in God, not in a person, and it flowed out to Naomi.
Ruth didn't follow God in wealth, with His specific promises in her ear, as Abraham did. She loved Naomi inspite of Naomi having no future in a man's world. She was willing to narrow her own life to love another - this was going to cost her a chance at finding another husband and security (she doesn't know about Boaz yet!).

Faith as a noun - rather than a verb? So, instead of faith being a mountain you climb, it is a valley you fall into. She rested in her faith.

The life of love is beautiful
Ruth's love pointed to Jesus' love. So incredible that she (a woman) is included in Matthew's lineage for Jesus. God calls us not to a pilgrimage/task, but simply to receive His love. From receiving that love flows the natural consequence of wanting to tell everyone about it.

Photo - http://pastor-taylor.blogspot.com/2010/09/finding-god-in-unexpected-places.html

Flying Flags in America

There are lots of national flags flying outside houses here. I am not entirely sure about why, but you can buy flag flying kits from the hardware store with a flag, and a stick, and the mount to attach to your front porch uprights. I think the flag is very deeply tied in with national pride.
We bought our car from a navy guy, who flew the flag of his regiment/company out the front of his house. Flying regimental flags and US flags together is not uncommon. I also know that since 9/11, firefighters especially, have been more patriotically associated (and therefore, more likely to have flags?). This may be because 9/11 was seen as an act of war by some, and the firefighters took heavy casualties trying to rescue people.

We have had three public holidays so far that encourage the flying of flags -
Presidents Day/ Washington's Birthday (Feb 17th) (not a public holiday for hubby)
Memorial Day (May 26th), also seen as unofficial start to summer
Independence Day (July 4th)
There were also observances for the D-Day landings in France in WWII - the USA forces were a large part of the initial landings, and a lot of their men died as a result.
On May day in Annapolis, people are encouraged to decorate their homes in red white and blue (and flags, and flower arrangements).
I'm also pretty sure that on Veteran's day (November 11th) and Thanksgiving (November 27-28th) there will be flags!

The American flag is deeply tied into the birth of the nation - with the national anthem 'The Star Spangled Banner' being penned after Francis Scott Key saw a flag flying over Fort McHenry after particularly heavy bombardment by the British during the Battle of Baltimore in 1814. It has changed as the union grew - increasing the number of stars and stripes.
In fact, after warring with the British, the Americans warred with each other, and this was the flag chosen after the dust settled. So maybe the fact that they chose their flag, and fought for it (the winning side atleast), influences how they feel about it?

I'm not sure if any of this helps to explain why you can walk through neighbourhoods today and see flags on several houses on every street, and over restaurants (and not just in front of official state buildings).
 (final note - this is a 'Navy' town, so flag flying might be more common here than in other American towns)

School?!

We have had so much thrown at us in the last five years, so many things to work through, so many crises, and so much busyness, that it seems almost wrong to be sending a child to school. But there you have it. Five years have passed, and we have to cut that apron string.
He was so excited he was up at about 6am, wanting to get ready. We were a bit shell shocked. The tension of holding it together while simultaneously acting suitably excited really took its toll. But he was delivered back to us this afternoon, excited and safe, so we're starting to feel like we might survive the experience.

Justification and Sanctification - not to be muddled

Todays lesson:
Not muddling Justification and Sanctification.
Justification - Forgiveness from God, made once, for all time. Jesus' work FOR us
Sanctification - Transformation into image of God - ongoing process, completed in heaven. Jesus' work IN us.
If you have a rotten day or don't feel like you're doing so good, some get muddled and tend to think along the lines of not being saved any more. Having a rotten day/month/year/decade doesn't change your Justification. Nothing changes you being saved!

National Pride?

I had an interesting conversation with a friend about how she felt that she wasn't allowed to be proud of being American when travelling overseas - because if she was, she felt that she would be labelled as just an arrogant, loud, American. I remember after Germany won the World Cup in 2006 that there were some comments on the apparent re-emergence of national pride in Germany as a result (and they were talking about post WWII - some 50 yrs). I wonder if at some stage in the distant future, Americans will be able to shake off that cultural cringe from being in the spotlight, and making some unpopular/retrospectively stupid decisions.
I think as an Australian, I have been shielded from this sort of issue - because Australia is too little/too neutral (?) to be particularly disliked anywhere (and I guess, while everyone is hating the Americans, they're not hating us...). But when you think again, a) a lot of good stuff has come out of America, including and not limited to Billy Graham, and b) perhaps it is not so cool to dismiss an entire nationality based on decisions that they might or might not have agreed with, and c) - whether or not you agree with the decisions America has made in the past (or their culture, or whatever), to a certain extent, you have to give them points for being out there and having an opinion, right? It certainly is more difficult to be involved in the playground, than to stand on the side and agree with everyone/do nothing?
Discuss.

Trust vs Surrender

It is easy to trust in God's plan when we're down, when we just don't know where else to turn, when life really hasn't gone 'to (our) plan', when things are horrific and awful and out of our control. But what about surrendering to God's plan when everything is ok? What about acknowledging God's control over our life in the good as well as the bad? What about asking what God would have us do, before doing it?

Shame vs Guilt

Someone put forward the idea that you feel guilty about something you've done, but shame is related to who you are - ie, feeling guilty about telling a lie, but feeling shame that someone would think are a liar.
I've never had the distinction made before. What do you think? Discuss :)