Breadtopia - No Knead Bread

I know many of us have breadmakers nowadays or buy our bread from the shops. But if you fancy your own home made bread, try Breadtopia's videos. The sourdough bread method sure looks  great!

Oxygen 3D animation

Oxygen from Christopher Hendryx on Vimeo.

Day 1, God's work begun

A family friend of my dad's is a staunch Buddhist who will not hesitate to tell you what Buddha teaches. I believe so are many people out there.

I am a Christian. I have nothing against Buddha himself, but that is only as far as I will go, to acknowledge a good philosopher.

I used to be an inquisitive teenager like most other teenagers out there. Asking a lot of why and seeking answers. I was brought up in a Christian environment and was taught from the Bible. I had my doubts. I wanted to find out about other religions.

I didn't go too far, because I could never get past the Creation.

Most religions talk about peace and doing good to others, but none, except Christianity strongly teaches about the creation of time and space. After getting past the you-must-do-good-unto-others part of religions, I cannot help but probe deeper as to what makes me 'me'.

Why do others not talk about Creation? Only because they are religions formed from human beings. Buddhists have many gods, so does Hinduism. Gods for the fields, kitchen, earth, finances, health, etc. But none for Creation.

I'm a little more familiar with Buddhism, so I'm going to make some references to it.

Reincarnation. I don't like that idea at all. How tiring can it be to go through life again and again, based on one's good deeds? If I have done enough good, I can choose to be reincarnated to be a better person, perhaps born into a more affluent family. For how long? Does this not discriminate against the poor or sick who are not able to give financially or with their strength?

I chose Christianity eventually, only because I know where I came from. Right from the beginning of the Bible, it says that God created the heavens and the earth. All living and non-living things on earth are of His handiwork.

He made man. And woman. In His image. That's where I came from. Adam and Eve to Noah and his ark, to my parents and now me. The Big Bang theory didn't take root in me. I cannot believe that things can happen by such pure chance. It is already so difficult trying to 'bump into' a neighbour from the same street, how much more impossible it can be to have the universe and living things happen out of chance?

Why is it important to believe what you believe in? For me, it meant a life of hope, of eternity spent with my maker, praising and worshipping Him.

You know, the thought of mankind worshipping another man just do not attract me. It's as good as my descendants worshipping me, a mere mortal, who did nothing, but lived and died.

Or, what about worshipping animals and carvings out of wood or a story figure? I might as well cut out the prettiest-looking Snow White who came back to life after the Prince kissed her. One myth as good as another.

Why would man worship man who could not bring hope to life? Look to the Creator and let Him give hope.

When age catches up!

Posted by a fellow blogger, the list of things that come with age!

My favourites are :
1. Kidnappers are not very interested in you. 
2. Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.
3. Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can't remember them either.


Read the full article here : The Perks of Reaching 50, or Being Over 60 and Headed for 70

Sushi making!

Amazing sushi making! I love sushi and this just made gave it even more reason to have one soon!

Itadakimasu!

The Geek Alphabet

I'm not geeky, but this alphabet poem is rather cute and so true of the "Geekdom" as they call themselves!

Read them here.

Appreciating crafts and receiving them

Anyone who knows me well will know I'm quite a practical person. Sometimes, too practical. And will try to save money on better things, though when it comes to food, I'll succumb.

For as long as I can remember, I don't like chocolates, lollies, soft drinks, sweet drinks, flowers, decorative items, heels, make-up and dressing up.

The one thing I cannot understand is giving cards. Friends give cards for almost everything! Birthdays, festivals, thank you, get well soon, etc. Ever since migrating to Brisbane, I have struggled to accept cards from people. A lot of them were hand-made cards, which made it even more difficult to decide what to do with them. For the past few years, I have kept them in the drawer after reading them. I threw everything out at a recent major house clean-up.

Had this conversation with husband and he said that it's a form of affirmation and appreciation towards me and I should accept them with an open heart.

I have no problems with people making cards or sending cards. I do know of a handful of people who are great crafts people and make beautiful cards!

I have a problem when it's made for and sent to me. You see, everytime I receive a card, I'll read it and it either goes straight to the bin, or will sit in my drawer for a couple of years before being thrown out into the bin. Doesn't matter whether it's store bought or hand made. I don't know what to do with them. Recently, Miss 2 gets to cut them up after I have read them. I felt a little better that the card was put to good use in developing a child's fine motor skills.

The first thought that came to my mind was thoughtfulness on the sender which I greatly appreciate. The next few thoughts that flashed through usually include "a waste of time and money on me", "can save the postage and paper on others." etc.

I have come to ask friends not to give me any cards. A text, or email, or a word in person works better. Or, something practical, like a Coles gift card.

Until I can appreciate the receiving of cards, I'm going to stick to a no-cards policy.

What should I call it now?

I'm so going to change the name of this blog. Will think about it...

A new church

I don't really know how to upload this video here, but here's the link to watch it.

"Sunday's Coming" video.

May our hearts, soul and mind be filled by the Holy Spirit as we learn to worship Him in truth and in spirit.

Australia's Top 10 Child-Friendly Cafes

If you haven't been on Kidspot, you probably are not aware of the vast amount of information up there for parents, especially.

One of the articles claimed the top 10 kid-friendly cafes in Australia. Most of have some sort of play equipment or cordoned off safe play area for children. Some have children's food menu and Tulip's Cafe in ACT has a potting workshop that children can be booked in to have some potting fun. And for the busy mums who need their laundry done, TAS has a Machine Laundry Cafe for you to wash clothes, play chess and enjoy a meal.

NSW :
Bitton Gourmet on Copeland Street, Alexandria
Flying Fox on Mona Street, Mona Vale
Nosh @ Newport on Hall Street, Newport

QLD :
Breathing Space Cafe on Lambert Rd, Indooroopilly

SA :
Bugs Cafe on Norwood, Adelaide

ACT :
Tulip's Cafe on Beltana Rd, Pialligo

VIC:
Happy River Cafe on Moreland Street, Footscray

NT :
Blue Marlin Bistro on Atkins Drive, Fannie Bay

WA :
Stickybeaks Playground on Kings Park Road, West Perth

TAS :
Machine Laundry Cafe on Salamanca Square, Hobart

Dyslexia is a gift

Before you think I'm crazy for saying that, read on a little about dyslexics and this page that I came upon by accident explaining dyslexia and the type of help available in Australia.


All information taken from Shire Learning Strategies and no, I'm not paid to review the website. I found what the author wrote about dyslexia to be fascinating and interesting. Took an interest to dyslexia because my sister is a psychologist with the Dyslexic Association of Singapore. You can read her blog on special learning needs on Joys of Learning.


To be honest, I've never heard of dyslexia until very much later in life, after I was done with all my formal education. Don't even remember the first time I heard about it. But with increased awareness, more children are able to receive help earlier.


People with dyslexia are called dyslexics. They have difficulties in reading, writing and spelling, especially in languages that have "more complicated orthographic, phonological and / or grammatical systems".


However, they are very gifted in thinking in pictures. Shire Learning Strategies describes dyslexia as a gift : 
"Dyslexia is like a coin and as such, has two sides. On one side is the difficulties experienced with learning. The other side is the undoubted gift of enhanced picture thinking. 

This gift enables us to picture things with great speed and clarity. It allows us to experience our imagination as though it were real.

The gift of dyslexia is the gift of Mastery. Dyslexics learn best when we are using our creative talents. Through hands-on experiential learning we can master concepts that become part of us – we know it because we have created the concept in the real world. This is true mastery."

While dyslexia is a learning disability, it does not mean that there is no hope for dyslexics. Dyslexics face difficulties with reading and writing, but their visual spatial abilities and oral skills can be strong. For the teacher with a dyslexic student, try a multi-sensory approach to teaching. Instead of just writing and reading from texts, include some picture and tactile activities to stimulate and help the dyslexic child in learning.

See you later?

Just recently, I have come to notice myself saying, "See you later," to friends and people I meet. I have also found it a problem for myself when I say that without thinking.

Maybe I'm being picky here, but does anybody really mean it when they say, "See you later"?

Most of the time, I don't even see the person 'later', but whenever we meet again.

I think, for this month, I will work on my goodbyes. So, instead of "see you later", I'm going to put a specific time frame to it and work at catching up with the person at the said time.

A "see you tomorrow" or "see you next Sunday" won't take too much of an effort, I'm sure.

Ways to show your mother that you love her

Just a couple of weeks more and it'll be Mother's Day! Some may have already prepared a gift for mum, some may still be cracking their brains over what to give.

To be honest, birthdays and special occasions like these always give me a big headache because of the gift involved. Buying a gift for someone else is just as good as telling me to finish a Maths or Science paper. It eats the energy out of me. I'll do it because I have to, but will avoid it if possible.

Personally, I'm not a gift lover. No cards, no flowers, no chocolates, thank you. The cards just go straight into the bin the next day or my daughter gets to cut them up with scissors in the name of developing her hand-eye coordination skills. The flowers only get left in their packaging till they die and wither. The chocolates will most likely be sitting in our fridge or pantry (depending on whichever one has space) for a few more years before it goes out into the bin. So, yes, don't waste your money on me.

Anyway, when it comes to showing love to someone dear, gifts may not be the only answer. Here are some ways to show your mum that you love her.

1. Prepare a good dinner for her and the family, with enough to bring for lunch the next day. After all, mum had been cooking dinner and getting lunch the rest of the year, so, make this day an easy one for her and give her a little more time off.

2. Rent her favourite movies and have a movie marathon at home!

3. Get all the housework done before you have the movie marathon. Mothers fret about not getting housework done.

4. Have a topsy-turvy day and swap roles for the day.

5. Give her a hug if you haven't done so since you started primary school.

6. Let mum have an early night and do all the washing up for her.

7. Let mum and dad have a night out for themselves.

8. Make a donation to a children's support service in her name.

Hope you'll enjoy this Mother's Day with your mums!

Aluminium foil people

Taught Sunday School yesterday and one of the crafts that we were supposed to make was aluminium foil people. We were on the topic of God creating man from dust and breathed life into him. The children were supposed to make their own people creation with aluminium foil. I came up with a sample first and after shaping it here and there, decided on a runner.

These are what the children came up with.. not very clear though..
There's a ballerina, two gymnasts doing splits, a swimmer, someone killing another person, a bodybuilder, a skateboarder, a skiier and some others, I can't remember.

It was a very fun and easy craft to do. With a 30x30cm aluminium foil, cut a slit at the halfway mark at the bottom about 1/3 into the foil. Then, mentally divide the foil into three parts, cut two slits at the top, also 1/3 into the foil. The top 3 portions are for the arms and head. The middle part is the body and the bottom two are for legs. Scrunch them all up and shape it into your desired person action.

Uses for unused CD/DVD

Do you have old, scratched, music CDs that you cannot use? Or the movie DVD that just was not fated to be watched ever again? What about those old installation drivers for computer use? How many do you have?
Recently, when we did a clean up of the cupboards, we threw away a lot of the boxes that had these old CDs, DVDs and installation drivers. I kept the discs. Did a few things with them.

As a sun catcher / reflector - If you have many to spare, glue to pieces of discs cover to cover, allowing the shiny side to reflect the sunlight. String a few of them together and just watch the sunlight bounce off. Or if you are one to be out till late, why not hang a CD from your bag and it will reflect light off oncoming cars.
As an activity toy - Teach hand-eye coordination. Get children to spin it on the ground, or roll it on the floor as far as they can.

As a fan - Glue (hot glue works best or double-sided tape) a pop stick between two discs. Allow to dry completely before fanning. It is up to you to decide whether you want to have the covers glued together or the shiny side glued together. Or, one of each.

As a jewellery holder - For necklaces and bracelets, simply cut away two strips from the CD at the 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock marks. How deep into the disc to cut depends on how many necklaces or bracelets you would like to hold on a disc. Hook your necklaces or bracelets over the cut areas. To hold earrings, use a craft puncher and punch holes in sets of twos for pairs of earrings. The CD can either be laid flat on the dressing table or buy one of those adhesive hooks and stick it to the wall.

As a coaster - Leave the discs as they are as coasters or you can stick on non-slip mats on both sides of the disc.

And my personal favourite is :

As a mirror - Stick the discs shiny side up on a wall or cupboard or tuck one in the car or handbag. They are really compact. So thin and light and do not take up much space either. Children will enjoy looking into the discs and see their reflections. It is much safer than buying a mirror which would have cost more anyway. These discs will not break when children hit them and are very hardy against throws.

It is quite surprising what these round little things can be used for and it helps to reduce landfills too.

Ideas inspired by Make Stuff, "Recycling Those Old CD's"

Sinus Remedies at Home

Came across this article from Everyday Health on sinusitis. Having friends and family suffering from sinus problems, this article caught my attention.

It is probably for the not so severe cases of sinusitis, but if these remedies can help a little, I'm sure the person would feel much better even if it was just for a few minutes.

The website suggested the following to ease sinusitis :
1. Steam from the vaporizer of shower
2. Warm compress on the painful area
3. Drinking enough water
4. Keeping allergies under control. Some sinus related problems are caused by allergies.
5. Keeping the house clean

Did a further search on what sinusitis is, and Sinus InfoCenter explained that, "Sinusitis (also called "rhinosinusitis") is an inflammation of the sinus membranes that can be infectious (caused by a virus or bacteria) or non-infectious (often caused by allergies)."

Sinus InfoCenter further explains that sinusitis may either be acute or chronic.

"Acute bacterial sinusitis is an infection of the sinuses caused by bacteria. It is usually preceded by a cold, allergy attack, or irritation by environmental pollutants.

Chronic sinusitis is defined as sinusitis that persists for at least 12 weeks."

I hope some information from these sites will be useful to the sinus sufferer.

Children Beauty Pageant

Came across this article from the Herald Sun that Melbourne will be hosting a beauty pageant for children up to 13 years old. Apparently this beauty pageant was inspired by the US children's beauty pageant. It costs $100 to enter and children will be judged on costume, apearance, smile and posture.. There will also me a talent show by the children. You can read the article here.

I don't know about you, but when I read the news title, the first thought that came to my mind was that entertainment has gone overboard.

Why should children be paraded and judged at such a young age? Some say that their children wanted to go into the competition and they let them. Or is it for the parents' own glory? I wonder how much of the consequences do children realise once they enter such pageants.

You could probably tell by now that I'm not a beauty pageant advocate, especially when it comes to children pageants. The next thing you know, they will be having international children's beauty pageants.

Will superiority or inferiority complexes stay with them forever? Are parents willing to take the name of the one who came in last? For the child who won and given a modeling contract, will outward appearance be his/her focus from then on? Could a confident child's confidence be wiped out because he/she lost the competition? On the other hand, some others might say that it would be a good learning experience and a boost to confidence.

Whatever the reason, I do not believe that children need to enter beauty pageants. It is tough enough having to model for catalogues, , magazines, calendars, commercials and TV programmes. Do we need to add another line of work to them? I hope all children get to enjoy their childhood without having to worry about looks and posture, smiles and presentation.

Glad to wake up

It's strange to say that I'm glad to wake up, but I truly am. The past weekend had been busy. We had guests over for a BBQ on Sunday night, so there were foods to buy and marinate. Then there's the tidying up to do in the house and re-organising things. Sure was tired.

A sore throat developed and had a headache yesterday. Temperature went up to 39C last night and I had to succumb to sleep by 8:30pm. The only thing that I wanted to do over the last few days was to sleep, but could seem to manage it.

Gave myself a panadol and some vitamin C pills and off I went to bed. Woke up at 6am when Miss 2 cried out to be awake. Laid in her room with her till 7am. But, I have to admit that for the first time over the last few days, I am glad to be awake. To meet the day.

Being sick sure isn't a very pleasant experience, but it is God's way of making our body say, "Stop! Rest!". There's only so much that our bodies can take and God has designed us to rest and get recharged too.

I'm glad He knows that we can get carried away by work and not rest. Not just sleep, but also to stop and come before Him in worship and in stillness, listening to His word and talking to Him.

Thank you, Lord, for a good night's rest.
Thank you, Lord, for breath today.
Thank you, Lord, for this new day,
That I may live and work and play.
Amen.

Easter and its message of salvation

It's strange how special occasions make people think of certain things a bit more than usual.

Easter is one of those occasions. It's not just rabbits and chocolate eggs, but the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Ever since I became a parent, I could relate a bit better to the sacrificial love of God. Well, not totally, because I'm not God, but a step closer to why God would send Jesus Christ to die for us.

At MOPS on Wednesday, we discussed about how we relate to Jesus dying on the cross for us. I shared this email that I read many years ago. I cannot remember who sent it and or if it is a true story or not.

It goes like this : A father and his teenage son invited the son's best friend to a fishing trip out at sea. While at sea, both boys fell into the sea. Unfortunately, the father could only save one child and without hesitating, threw in the life buoy to his son's friend. He watched his son cry for help and drowned. When the friend's parents heard about it, they were also saddened by the death of the son. The father responded that both he and his sons are Christians and will meet again in heaven one day. But this friend hasn't and his son would want the friend to hear the good news of salvation too.

I could feel the father's pain when he had to save his son's friend. To a certain degree, I could feel God the Father's pain when he sent Jesus Christ to earth. To be born a God-man. To be charged, judged and paraded to the cross and nailed to death. For what? To save us, those willing to be Jesus' friends, from sin.

Jesus died. He died a terrible death on the cross. He died, but he didn't stay dead. He was resurrected. He was alive 3 days later. That is the hope that I can have in the Lord that I will be resurrected when He comes again.

The condition is simple. Those willing to be His friends, to receive Him as an infant and His death and resurrection on the cross will receive the gift of salvation. To be able to stand blameless before God and be with Him in heaven for eternity.

Parenting the parent?

We've heard a lot of children disgracing their parents in all sorts of ways - swearing, abuse, not being responsible, etc..

What about turning it around with those actions and say that there are parents who disgrace children too? I know it can be a rare situation where you have bad parents but well-behaved children.

It is hard to imagine parents not being responsible for their lives, parents who waste away their time, life, money for unreasonable purposes. Or, parents who are always out to hurt others to gain satisfaction or benefit.

I have met people like that and the unfortunate thing is, they are people whom I have to be in contact with. There are people whom I'd rather not be acquainted with in my life, but God does seem to want to put difficult people on this earth and we learn to live with them.

Children who live with parents who do not know how to take care of their own lives are very brave. Well, at least the ones that turned out better than their parents. These children would be shouldering responsibilities much earlier in life and be able to stand up to their parents for whatever wrong things that their parents do.

I know of children like that. They still love their parents but not what they do. They refuse to be part of their smoking or gambling routine, but would be there to comfort them when their parents failed to quit or have lost money.

These children have become the parents of their parents. When these children become parents, I think they would make great parents.

Tea

I enjoy a cup of tea every now and then, especially on a cold winter night. My favourites are green tea and black tea with milk. Actually, I should say, I like milk tea.

I've made the difference between tea with milk and milk tea :

Tea with milk has more tea than milk. Usually at least a 70% tea, 30% milk.
Milk tea on the other hand, would be, for me, 50% tea to 50% milk.

Heard of arguments that say milk isn't good for tea and that it takes away some of the nutrients in it. What's it called? Catechins, that's right. Then there are others that say drinking tea after a meal is harmful to health as well. Oh dear.. does it matter to me? Not really. I don't drink it aften after a meal anyway.

I loke the fmell of tea, especially when I have plenty of them stashed in a cupboard and when I walk past the cupboard, this light aroma of tea leaves fills the nostrils.

Cooking with tea leaves takes some experimentation too. Sometimes, I'll sprinkle a pinch of green tea leaves into my rice while it cooks in the rice cooker for that light tea taste, or in my meat and vegetable stir-fries. I prefer Longjing tea leaves when I cook because the leaves are edible. They give a light bitter-dry taste when you first chew it, but after you swallow, it has a tinge of dry-sweetness.

My favourite tea dish is the tea egg. I've not successfully done it myself, but everytime I walk past a herbal shop that sells it, I'll surely buy a couple. It's done with some herbs, I think, with tea leaves and soy sauce. Smells good, tastes good!

Then there's green tea ice-cream, green tea jelly, oh and ginger tea! Stumbled upon this website dedicated to tea.. It has recipes for tea. Chai Tea Oatmeal, Chocolate Green Tea Sorbet, Earl Grey Mushroom Risotto with Brown Rice....

Makes my mouth drool just writing about it! Have not tried any of the recipes, but they all sound amazing!

Art and me

Ok, I am no expert at art. Or rather, I can't draw for nuts. Even if you paid me a billion dollars, I still wouldn't be able to give you a decent looking pear. I'm hopeless at drawing, do not have a sense of colour-coordination, not able to see things in 3D, have no appreciation for abstract art and do not like cutting and pasting.

Despite all that, I was born into an artist family. My grandfather was an artist. He specialises in oil paintings. An A4 piece of work can bring in thousands of dollars. No, I'm not kidding, and he was well sought after in South-East Asia while he was alive.

So, what happened to the artistic genes? I don't know. Honestly, I think it went to my other cousins or it skipped generation.

But one thing I can tell is good art from one that is not expressive. I guess, it is as what they say with money? Something about being able to recognise a counterfeit if you've dealt very much with real money. There is just that 'something' missing in a counterfeit dollar.

Now, I'm not saying that I can recognise an imitation. Probably not. But I do appreciate art. Paintings. Sorry, not pottery. I don't understand vases. Can't wash them properly and flowers die in them. That's a different story.

Anyways, back to appreciating art. I love looking at paintings. They fascinate me. And I'm critical about them too. If I have the time and peace of mind, I could stand in front of them, scrutinising every stroke and colour, feel it, absorb it and be part of it. Good art brings the viewer into the art piece. It stands out in a gallery, but blends in with the surroundings that it was painted in. Just like a good story. It leads the reader into the world of imagination and into the story.

I'm probably the last person who is qualified to criticise art, since it can and probably is a full-time job. People are trained in this you know...

Anyway, hubby and I have been frequenting a few local eateries here in Brisbane and they have this trend where artists showcase their artwork on the walls as a decoration and also for people to purchase them if they like. I'm sure the store owners get some commission, but that's beside the point.

Having seen them and some of them at prices higher than I'd buy, I have not come across any that I would truly call a must-have. Sometimes, all it takes is one object in the painting to result in the failure.

Had an art dealer come by a few months back and we spent almost half an hour looking at the students or even professional artwork. Was very impressed by some. There was one London scene that was perfect. In black and white. Depicted a street of solidarity. Absolutely felt the loneliness and stillness in that picture.

There were others that just didn't make the mark. My sympathies to the dealer who had to put up with my comments. Saw one titled "Storm". It felt like it was the end of the storm rather than in the storm. Sky was rather calm, clouds were not full, sea was not raging.

I sure would not have been able to draw anything out, much less something that should look real. I know and understand the difficulties in creating that real-as-life painting. Unfortunately, if that is the point of the painting, then it should look real.

Enough of my criticism and ramblings for now. All the best to all you promising painters!

What I learnt from "The Blind Side"

Watched "The Blind Side" with hubby two nights ago. To be honest, I hardly ever keep up with movies, let alone English movies. This one caught my attention one day while browsing the internet and it came up as an advertisement somewhere.

Did a search on it and read the synopsis from IMDB. Sounded like a great movie and decided to watch it with hubby.

"The Blind Side" is a true story of Michael Oher, an African-American NFL player in the States whose background was not worth anyone's notice. Somehow he was adopted into a white family by the name of Touhy, was accepted and loved by them and was given the opportunity to realise his talent and potential.

I know nothing about NFL, so when it came to scenes where they were discussing the sport, I almost nearly had to run a dictionary, except hubby was next to me explaining.

What hit me was the start of friendship between SJ and Oher in the film. All SJ did was suggested that Oher smile a bit more and he'd not scare little children away. SJ wasn't afraid of Oher, otherwise known as 'Big Mike'. He took the first step and spoke to him with a smile.

For me, starting a conversation with someone I know is really difficult, but a lot of times, all it takes is that first step of smiling and saying, "Hello, how are you?"

Then there was mum Leigh Ann's motherly instinct that led her to take Big Mike into their house for a night out of the cold. They do not know each other, but she was willing to clothe him, give him food and talk to him. What was it about Jesus telling us to receive those who are not as well off as we are? She did it. And when I thought about that first invitation into the car, then into the house, I couldn't help but admit that I probably would not have done it. Yes, there is the element of doing good to others, of sympathy, but I also worry if my daughter would be safe with a total stranger in the house.

The Touhys aren't big strong looking people, but they didn't seem afraid, nor did they reject Big Mike. There is something about being family to those who need it that can be learnt from here.

I'm sure there were many more lessons to be learnt, but I can only remember this much for now. I'll be working on that first step, that first smile to say hello.

SHOPping around

Thinking of a shopfront for my online bookstore, Ling's List. Really thinking hard about it. Not that I have the finances for it, but just somehow, having a shopfront for books is better for customers to browse the books.

Books are not like gadgets where you can just look at the specifications online, read some reviews and decide, "Hey, that's a really good book to read and purchase!" Personally, I do like to read the summary of the book itself, run through a few pages in the first chapter, compare prices with other books then decide whether to purchase it or not.

Does it matter what size the bookstore is? Maybe. Big bookstores give me this tingling excitement that seem to beckon me to spend more money. Smaller cornerstore type of bookstores have this personal feel to it, maybe because they're more neighbourhood situated and the owners know the patrons who enter their shops.

I'd like to be both, I guess, in a sense.

Saw a few shops around my area and came to really like, no, LOVE, one shop space that suits my ideal bookstore space. Rent isn't too high, and it's at a rather good location. Being in Australia, it's ok that the bus stop is not at the door step or that there're no train routes nearby. The most important factor is it's visibility and accessibility. This one has got both.

I can't help dreaming about it. I pray about it. It is really difficult to say, "Lord, please let this be your will and not my own fantasy."

I've been praying, "Lord, I have no money for the space. I don't want to take a loan from the bank. I don't want to mortgage my house. I know money doesn't fall from the sky, but I do need that amount to not be in more debt."

But why look at a shopfront in the first place? To be honest, I am working towards opening a shop. What kind of a shopfront, I do now know. But to even get there, I'll need some concrete figures to work with. Some facts and terms and conditions to understand. Otherwise, I wouldn't have a clue as to how much it'll cost, what kind of negotiations can be done, the type of space I'd want, the location and opening hours to consider.

So there. I'm still running my family day care and working towards a shopfront for Ling's List.

Pre-Easter Thoughts

Two more weeks to Easter. The shops are already filled with chocolates, rabbits, and hot cross buns. Haven't bought any of them and probably will not buy them anytime in the future. If I have it my way.

The reasoning is :
1. I do not eat chocolates.
2. Rabbits and eggs do not go together.
3. The hot cross buns are rarely hot by the time they're eaten.
4. I prefer savoury breads.
5. Everything is doubled in price and not worth it.
6. I take on the Biblical Easter story of Jesus dying for our sins and rose to heaven on the third day.

Sang this song at Sunday School Worship this morning. By Colin Buchanan :
God our Father sent His Son
To die for sinful man.
After three days Jesus Christ
Was raised to life again!
So come to Him confess your sin
And bow before the Lord.
God will honour Jesus' friends
With life forevermore!

Parenting

Saw these two equations on morenewmath.com and thought I'll share these two that are so relevant to me!

Teaching Faith to Children

Had MOPS today. We had a panel discussion on "Teaching Faith to Children". It was a great encouragement to know that good modeling with Biblical teaching guided most mums to Christ.

We all agreed that no matter how much we teach in theory, if we do not do what we teach, or as the saying goes, "Walk the Talk", then chances of children coming to receive Jesus Christ as their personal saviour is slim.

At our discussion tables, we talked about how our parents influenced our faiths and how they did not. Some of us came from Christian families and we had our parents to thank for bringing us up in the Word of God, giving us solid foundation to deal with life's challenges and coming to the realisation that God is so big and great, that He is aware and able of everything and anything.

I remember that when I was in school, there was this popular slogan that says, "Christian - Without CHRIST, I Am Nothing".

It was, to me, a hip thing to say in those days. But, as I grew to know Christ deeper personally, I have also come to appreciate and understand that statement a lot more. And truly, without Christ, I am truly nothing. My life would be absolutely meaningless if not for the hope of eternal life with the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is probably the greatest gift for any Christian parent to see their children grow in the knowledge and grace of God. And I pray too that all my children and yours will also become children of the kingdom of God.

How do you teach faith to your children?