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.