Holidays

The kids are on school holidays and it's time to relax, enjoy them and celebrate Christmas as a family. 

So this blog will shut down for the school holidays.

Thanks so much to all of you for reading this year.

I will be back next year with hopefully a bit more blogging than I managed this year.  If my planned reading list is anything to go by, there will be lots of reviews at least!

I hope you all have a Christ-centred, merry Christmas, a chance to give thanks for 2012 and to look forward with joy to 2013.

Snowflake craft

As we approach school holidays, you (like me) might be on the lookout for some things to do.

I recently discovered some paper cut-outs which should appeal to a number of ages and both sexes. 

If your kids can fold and cut reasonably well, let them at it - otherwise, you will need to help.  Or, as in my case, be near the computer to deal with the stream of requests for more printouts!

Ballerina snowflakes: translated from a Russian blog.  She has heaps of Christmas craft - have a look around for many other ideas.

Star Wars snowflakes.  My son loved these.  Look at both sites:  Matters of Grey and Anthony Herrera Designs.  If you have sharp cutting knives and are willing to let kids use them, the sky is the limit.  If you limit them to scissor use only - choose the simpler ones or adapt them to make them easier.

Some more general ones from Matters of Grey


Have fun!

Hope Springs

Hope Springs

This movie does a rare thing - it gives an open, realistic look at intimacy in a mature marriage. 

After 31 years, Kay and Arnold have settled into a functional life, structured by routine and sleeping in separate bedrooms.  Kay longs to rekindle the flame she and Arnold once shared, so she pays for an intensive couples counselling course to which Arnold reluctantly attends.  As the week unfolds, they are each challenged to see their role in a relationship in which they have both settled for OK, but not good.   

The acting is great with Meryl Streep as the frustrated Kay and Tommy Lee Jones as the grumpy Arnold.   Steve Carell is the couple's counsellor and it took me a while to get used to him in a serious role, I kept waiting for him to make a joke.

It was honest and confronting, both heartbreakingly sad and very funny.  It did leave some questions unanswered (why had Arnold changed so much?).  Also, I would not recommend it to unmarrieds, as the main issue in the counselling was intimacy, and so the discussions and ensuing scenes were very frank at points.

I suspect we will buy this one on DVD* to have as a resource for marriage enrichment, I can imagine us using scenes from it at times to illustrate various points!

*I saw this at the movies over 2 months ago, so it's probably not long now till the DVD comes out!