Windows Live Blog Writer?

Testing a new tool...

So, I've updated Live Messenger and it kindly offered to include another three hundred plugins during the update. As usual, I unchecked them ALL, but then read the description of the "Writer" tool.

So here I am, I've installed the Writer tool which allows me to write to my blog in a convenient manner - not having to login to Blogger.com for every entry.

Will this encourage me to write entries on a more regular basis? Check back periodically to see...

(I must admit, the interface is pleasing...)

Whom to serve...

Is my heart being reshaped? Am I being forged for some kind of mission?

The more I look at our greedy, self-magnifying culture, the more I wonder what cultural baggage I'm carrying that is causing me to miss the purpose and beauty of life.

Materialism has gripped the heart of the West and with its general rejection of God the Creator under the guise of spiritual "liberation", the choice to believe in nothing has resulted in a belief in anything. It's a smorgasbord of false gods where you take a spoonful of this, a slice of that, pile up your plate with what looks delicious... but in the end it all has the same bland taste and you wind up still feeling rather empty.

I'm feeling the pinch financially, and I'm sure we're in the clutches of a economic recession. But this is NOTHING. We whinge and complain about interest rates, bank fees, petrol prices, grocery bills, etc. But this really is nothing if we care to think outside of our immediate selfish wants.

As I prepare for Russia, I am hoping God will break my heart with what I experience. I want it broken and reshaped into something beautiful for Him. I want to rid myself of this cultural baggage and discover something real and lasting. I know I can only find it in Him.

What are your gods?

SEND ME TO RUSSIA!

The brochure in the corner

Recently on a trip to Canberra with Janene and the kids (Janene is studying Christian Family Counseling and was doing res-school for 3 days), we visited the local Koorong bookstore to do some shopping.

In the back corner of the shop I, for some reason, decided to look at the local noticeboard. My eyes nearly popped outta my head when I saw the title of a big A4 newsletter "Love For Kids - RUSSIA".

I quickly unpinned the newsletter and started reading. The title inside presented its challenge - Will you send? Will you GO?.

That challenge ate at me for the next 10 mins or so while I walked around the shop holding the smaller brochure that I'd also unpinned from the noticeboard. Then finally, flexing my huge grin, I showed Janene... who returned a suspicious glance at me with a slow motion "Ahuh".

Needless to say I got a photocopy of the flyer from the staff at Koorong and thoughts of Russia consumed me for the rest of the day, and that night... and pretty much ever since!

I found the website (kidsoutreach.org) and emailed the director with a blurb about my long-time desire to be involved in some kind of ministry in Russia. Kari replied to my email in a very welcoming and encouraging way that just reinforced my desire to get busy!

So anyway, a few days later I'd made the decision - I'LL GO! Kari Lehelmä advised me it's likely I'll join a group leaving on the 15th June, that's around 3 months away so I better get crackin!

What will I be doing? Friendship evangelism! We're showing the love of Christ to kids who otherwise may not experience much love at all - especially since a large portion of the kids will be orphans, street kids and disadvantaged.

I'm brushing up on my Russian, although it's more like brushing a crew cut, because there's not much there to brush yet. So I'm really going back to basics and re-learning.

MONEY
It's terrible to need it, and even worse to ask for it. I personally hate it when I get phonecalls at dinnertime from telemarketing charities asking for donations. So I'm sure people are equally annoyed when I'm going to have to basically beg for support to get me over there.

I'm sure some people are going to think I just want a free holiday - but I think I'd be more interested in seeing the sights than being stuck in a dormitory with other leaders and eating cafeteria food. It's not a matter of where, but WHO. These kids are gonna love having us there as friends, while learning about our culture and our faith.

PLEDGE
I'm asking people for donations. Big or small! If anybody is reading this and wants to contribute even a few bucks, please contact me ASAP!

Whether you can afford a cash donation or not, please take a minute or so to PRAY for this. Thanks!

Missing Link tshirt

I designed and added a tshirt to Threadless.com to see what would happen. My design passed through to selection and is now up for voting.

Check it out, and please vote. I could win munny:



(YES! It's supposed to look like a broken link. Just click it!)

Eli's Homework Sentence #1

I've decided to pick out the odd sentence that Eli does in his homework book, because quite often his crazy, over-imaginative brain comes up with some doosies. Here's one from this week:

Word: Summer

People say that Summer sucks, and it does.

Well done Eli, I agree!

Flashback #1

Horrible things I did...

Now and then I remember things I did as a child - the worst of them during my teenage years. One just resurfaced in my memory, and thinking back, I really wince when I consider how horrible it was.

Of course, in our de-sensitised society, those are the stories people love to hear. So I'll retell it here, rather than 100 times elsewhere. (Keep in mind, I'm NOT very proud of this).

So....

One day while exploring a large vacant lot of ground in the town of Narromine (where I was quietly going about the business of growing up), I came upon the corpse of a domestic cat in the long, dead grass.

The cat wasn't overly decayed, though it had been dead long enough to maintain it's curved death pose when picked up by one paw and held horizontally.

Incidentally, I don't know if it's true or not, but I've heard that cats don't seem to be as readily infested with maggots and such (thus getting bloated and smelly) like other animals are. Can anyone confirm?

So back to the story. I gather it was mid or late December, because there in the vacant lot I had the most brilliant idea for a prank, and almost wet my pants as I entertained my active mind, playing out the script.

I put the cat in a bag and took it home. Luckily mum and dad trusted me during the school holidays, and knew that I wouldn't get up to mischief... so there was no guardian to oversee what I was doing that day.

Once home, I raided the cupboards and wrapped the dear creature up in Christmas paper. I also wrote out a pleasant card and attached it to the 'gift'.

I returned to the area I found it, and knowing that the house next to the vacant block was the abode of some neighbourhood children (of the Santa-believing age), I dropped the gift at the door and made haste for the long grass, then home.

The best I could do from there was lie on my bed and giggle at what might happen. For when those children found that gift (or hopefully their folks found it first), the would've discovered a lovely Christmas gift with a little card, reading:

Dear Children,
Do not open until Christmas!
Have a happy Christmas,
Love Santa.

Clayton Wisdom

Clayton says...

We were all sitting at the table last week some time having Eagle Boys pizza. Eli announced

"I've had four pieces, and this piece counts"

(referring to the piece he was currently eating).

Clayton then glared sideways at Eli, and in slow, condescending tones, informed him:

"Eli... Pizza can't count."

So true!

Eli's Nightmares

Like clockwork...

Eli is having nightmares every night. I'm trying to discover what it is that's causing them!

A hint came the other night when, around the same time as most nights (9'ish), Eli comes staggering out of his bedroom with a fearful expression and babbling some nonsense such as "Please, shhh. No... dad, please just... Ssshhh".

I sat him down and asked him what was going on (expecting a cryptic response, seeing he was still mostly asleep). He muttered something about ground walkers and men running away.

The next day I had a game of Rise of Legends, which Eli had played the day before. Lo and behold... what units do we find there? "Ground walkers".

However, based on his other nightmare experiences, I doubt the game is to blame. It's more that whatever held his attention during the day becomes the theme of his nightmare that night.

Hopefully he'll grow out of this. It's getting annoying!

Awakening from Blog Slumber

Yeah yeah, I know it's not the first time my blog has suffered a lengthy stretch of neglect. Things (and babies) happen, OK?

But I'm making it up now with a quick update. Time to brief you on the most major event of the previous 4 months:

WHITE HOLIDAY!

Howlong to Albury?
You gotta love the white stuff! We've been planning this holiday for some time and we stuck to the plan! That's quite an achievement in itself.

We headed for Albury on Friday 6th July, stopping frequently (like I said... babies!) along the way for various reasons. We were greeted finally with rain in Albury, and I didn't care.

Staying in a comfy motel in Howlong (yes, it's a place name), we soon made our own fun. Most memorable was the sock fight which resulted in an amazing discovery -- socks magically clug to the brick wall! We have the photos to prove it.

General Eva Burrows
Saturday morning we attended a breakfast at the Howlong Golf Club with special guest retired General Eva Burrows. What a lovely woman of God. She has some fun and inspiring stories to tell, and overall I can describe her best as a good old Aussie grandma. Very down to earth and fun.

We went shopping in Albury, and bought a few items for our forthcoming white adventure.

On Sunday morning we attended the Albury Salvation Army Corps where Eva was speaking. She spoke on the Holy Spirit with the main question posed being "You m ay have the Holy Spirit, but does the Holy Spirit have YOU?" Think about it.

Crickennis
Eli and I invented a game in the motel tennis court. We named it Crickennis. Ball is bowled from one half of the court OVER the net to the batter (wielding a cricket bat). The batter needs to hit it back OVER the net to score - which makes being caught out a real threat.

The batter doesn't have to run, but scores points according to where the ball is hit to. Hitting the side fences of the court in the bowler's half = 2 points. OVER the side fences on the bowler's half = 4 points. Hitting the back fence behind the bowler = 4 points, OVER the back fence = 6 points. Just hitting it over the net and not hitting a fence = 1 point.

Eli "won". He can remember the exact score.

The White near Bright
We loaded up the car on Monday morning, had a nice cosy breakfast with Ralph and Gwen Brown at their little cottage house, then made for Bright, Victora, via Beechworth.

We checked out the Ned Kelly museum in Beechworth, and had a yummy lunch at the bakery there. I've never seen such a busy bakery in my LIFE! I'd guess they served 100 people while we were there.

Back in the car and we headed for our destination, that lovely little town in the valley between all the large, snow-capped mountains.

Tuesday we gathered the things we needed, hired toboggans and snow chains, got dressed in our snow gear and headed for Mt Buffalo.

The trip UP the mountain was extremely edgey - literally! Our nerves were on edge because our car was on edge. We could seen a sheer drop on our right side, with no barrier between us and a quick trip to Heaven. It became kinda scarier once the sides of the road began to ice up. When a large coach suddenly appeared around a sharp corner, we were at the height of our nervousness.

Remarkably we survived :-) The exciting part of the journey was when we first started seeing patches of snow, then little mounds of it... and finally big walls of snow next to the road. For the kids and Janene, who'd never seen real snow before, it was just brilliant.

We geared up completely at the top in the car park, then we spent about 3 hours tobogganing and smashing large slabs of snow over each other's heads. We were limited to what we could do as a family since Layna was so small, but overall we had a marvelous time, and I do believe I am the best tobogganer in the Southern Hemisphere.

The day was fun, but we decided it was enough. The memories were there... next time we'll have a crack at skiing when the kids are bigger. So the remainder of the holiday we spent visiting other touristy things, such as the huge hedge maze at Wandiligong and pretty little towns like Harrietville.

We headed home on Friday 13th, and apart from Clayton spewing up for the first 2 hours, the journey was smooth sailing. However, it was lovely to be home, greeted by our ecstatic dog Molly.

I did say though, I'd live in Victoria. If only I had a good enough reason :-)

Things of note

There have been a lot of things worth remembering over the last few weeks. Mostly to do with my kids.

Eli's adult teeth.
One morning Eli was brushing his teeth in the bathroom. I was busy doing my own teeth or whatever... Suddenly Eli finishes his teeth, rinses, but then loads his brush up again with MY toothpaste (his is for "milk teeth").

Then he proceeds to scrub his two bottom teeth for a few seconds until I say "What are you doing?". He replies "I'm cleaning my adult teeth...".

I masked my amusement as I realised he thought he needed different toothpaste to clean his new bottom teeth.

Audition time!
In an effort to channel Eli's creative energies, he auditioned tonight (Tues 3rd April 2007) for the part of Oliver in the upcoming DATS (Dubbo Amateur Theatrical Society) production of Oliver Twist.

I helped Eli learn the segment of the song that was required for the audition, and tried to help him keep it all in tune. He did fairly well at home in practice... and apparently it worked well in the audition because he got a "call back" to come and do an extra audition on Thursday night.

I'm looking forward to hearing how he goes. At least he'll be guaranteed a part in Fagan's gang or something.

MAD POWER!
One morning while attending to his little sister (i.e. putting her dummy back in), Clayton suddenly caught sight of a fountain of milky spew errupting from Layna's mouth. On seeing that he dove backwards as though he'd trodden on a land mine. Then after recollecting his senses he exclaimed "That's a mad power Layna!"

In Clayton and Eli's fantasy world, everybody has a super power, whether it's lava, ice, electricity or.... spew.

more to come... (as I remember them)

Clayton the strong-willed child

That's our Claytie...
I came home for a quick lunch today and while I was eating, Clayton climbed up on the chair next to me and wrapped himself around my arm, hugging it very tightly.

Fishing for some extra reassurance I asked him "Aww, do you love me?!".

In typical Clayton fashion, he replied "Nah... I'm just tryin' to break ya arm".

--

We've decided Clayton must be what Dr James Dobson refers to as the "Strong-Willed Child". He presents a whole new set of challenges when disciplining a young boy - ones we haven't experienced while raising Eli. We bought Dr Dobson's book and Janene has set about reading it to hopefully learn some tricks for dealing with kids like Clayton.

He's the funniest kid, but becomes very dark when he's upset. He doesn't express affection that often, but is mostly a gentle boy.

That's just Clayton for ya!

Merry Chooshamoosh

--or "Christmas" for all those unfamiliar with Phillips-speak.

I'm having a break! I'm out at the farm writing this blog post on ancient dialup connection on mum's slow pooter. Mum and Dad have finally taken some time off together and are up north in Brisbane visiting Uncle Lionel and mum's good friend (and my godmother) Jean Herford.

The farm rocks! We're near desperate to get our own, but it's kinda awkward right now for two reasons. 1) Janene's on maternity leave, so it's hard to re-finance an existing loan on just my wage; and 2) we'd have to sell the house in town BEFORE we could buy a farm... well that's as far as I understand.

Any legendary homeloan specialists or financial advisers out there that can give us some hints on another achievable method?

Chooshmoosh Eve
To accommodate everyone, we decided to have an early Christmas dinner at Janene's Parents' house with her family (two sisters + their husbands + kids).

The most memorable part of that day was the rain! We had steady drizzle most of the afternoon, which really cooled things down, making it a rather unusual Aussie Christmas.

Chooshmoosh Day
Surprisingly I had to wake the boys up myself at 8am. We opened our little bunch of presents then jumped into some respectable clothing and went off for the 9am church service.

After the service we came home and had an afternoon of playing with toys etc, and generally staying indoors, since it was very chilly outside! This Christmas will go down in history, as further South they had a heavy fall of SNOW! While it might be something taken for granted in the Northern Hemisphere, it really is an extremely rare occurrence for us Antipodes. A REAL White Christmas.

I guess we were just happy that it was cold, giving the rain from the day before more time to soak in, rather than just evaporating.

Christmas afternoon we had a nice big dinner at the Radburns' house (Corps Officers), followed by some general chit chat, a few game of darts and a twilight game of cricket. I retired by hitting a few catches, after a lengthy innings of first class backyard batting.

That was my Christmas in 2006.

Happy Christmas everyone. God bless youz and I hope you experienced the genuine meaning of this season.

It's a... a...

Holy Guacamole, it's a GIRL!!
Wow, Janene went into labour tonight (15th November), just one day after Eli's 7th birthday! Her water broke at about 8pm, so I quickly contacted Sarah Radburn to come and get the boys.

I took her to the hospital, but the strange issue we were having was that even though her water broke, she wasn't having labour pains. Eventually the doctor saw her (one she didn't like and hoped wouldn't be on duty the day she had the baby) and induced her into labour.

She was induced at 11pm, and to all our surprises (mine and the nurses), Janene popped out a little baby girl just before 1am... (i.e. less than 2 hours since being induced).

It's SUCH a weird feeling to have a "daughter" now! I honestly didn't expect a girl... I got used to having boys after the first two. So when my little daughter came out, I just laughed and cried at the same time!

So who is our Daughter?

I N T R O D U C I N G
Layna Evelyn Phillips
Born 16th November 2006
Weighing 3.56 kilos
Measuring 49.5cm

Click for bigger pics




"Nice to meet you Dad!"

Worth Quoting - No.01

Occasionally I'll find verses in the Bible and from other wise sources that I'll keep record of in my blog. First one in the ongoing series follows:

1 Thessalonians 4:3-8

It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honourable, not in a passionate lust like the heathen who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you His Holy Spirit.

A Change

Months later...

Wow, yeah... it's been months since I wrote in this thing. The main reason is the huge change. I left my job as a graphic designer at Panscott Media and now I'm working full time for the Salvos as Assistant Manager at the Dubbo Salvation Army Family Store!

*GULP*

It wasn't exactly an easy decision to make, but then it did become much easier through persistent prayer. Eventually the doubts in my mind were laid to rest and I felt incredible peace about making this huge change.

The most difficult thing I had to face was the fact I'd be dealing with people. Not just business people either... a whole range of people, including those in desperate circumstances that you are bound to attract in an organisation such as the Salvation Army.

Well this is WEEK FOUR of my journey with the Salvation Army, and I am really loving it. God's blessed me here, and I'm hoping that I can bless Him in return.

Perhaps I'll find more time over the coming weeks to express more of my thoughts. I hope so!

Clayton says...

"When I get bigger, I'll grow eyebrows in my nose."

Triple T

Thanks to Pete (kewlio, chilblain) I've discovered a career path that I can see myself doing for the next 10 years at least. IF only I can get into it. Seems like a pretty l33t field.

Office Linebacker Terry Tate is the inspirational example to follow. He almost single-handedly turned a failing corporation into a booming Fortune 500 company with profits soaring through the roof. How? By "mentoring" his colleagues and keeping them in line.

Check him out. "Terrible" Terry Tate in action! "Terrible" Terry Tate

*WHUNK* "That aint yo cake Phillip. That's Simone's cake! You eat someone else's cake agin and I'm gonna give you a slice of Terry's special PAIN CAKE. And you WON'T want seconds of dat!"

SAGALA hits Dubbo

What a turnout!

SAGALA (Salvation Army Guarding And Legion Activities) has been running for two weeks now and the number of kids has been awesome! The first night there were 24 kids... 8 in my group. We started the night with a couple of crazy games, and if anyone doubted whether we had enough kids, the sheer volume of screaming and laughter would've been more than enough to convince the skeptic. They whole hall was just booming with the voices of happy kids - it really was amazing. Mine and the other leaders' faces were glowing with excitement too.

After the games we lined up in our sections with each leader behind their group. Sarah explained all the bits of the flag parade and finally I played the national anthem on the cornet while they all sang. I was way nervous and I had a burning feeling in my solar plexus, and ultimately played crap :-) I bummed every note above high D - but nobody seemed to care.

We broke off into our groups and I soon learnt that I need to prepare more stuff for the boys. Three in particular got "bored" and started acting a bit silly. The rest of them enjoyed themselves and did some nice work in their books.

The night ended with the closing flag parade, followed by a short devotion.

WEEK 2
Even better than the first! I organised the game tonight - 4 teams, first player gets two balloons and has to keep them off the ground (easy!). The second team member comes in and is given another two balloons - the two of them have to keep 4 balloons in the air. This goes on until there are 5 kids keeping 10 balloons in the air. It's actually NOT that easy! Then once the whole team is in there, I throw in an extra balloon every 10 seconds. Most teams got to about 14 balloons before one dropped on the ground. The best team set the record of 17 balloons. It was quite a good fun game (invented by meeeee!).

We did the flag parade (I had nominated Jarrad the week before to parade the Adventurers flag), then I played the National Anthem again. I prepared well this time... and I also transposed the anthem down a tone, so it only went up to high Eb. Easy! And I didn't bum a single note.

In the Adventurers group we had a good night. Two of the 3 aforementioned boys from the week before were absent, but another soon filled the spotlight as troublemaker. There was not an excuse of "boredom" this time, because I had planned things for them. I had a private chat with the guy at the end and hopefully he will come back next week with a different attitude. I heard later that his younger sister also caused trouble in the Sunbeams group. Perhaps there's an issue at home.

Caleb also came this week, and a new boy - Matthew (which makes 3 Matthews in my group! How confusing).

I'm looking forward to the 20th August. We will be enrolling AT LEAST 24 kids! Certainly a day to be celebrated in the Salvation Army.

I thank God for all these kids. I pray I can be a positive influence on their life - especially as they edge towards those volatile teenage years.

More Catalepsy

I'm convinced fatigue creates the perfect conditions in my body for catalepsy. I was very exhausted on Saturday night and several times through the night I awoke with awareness but no power over my body. I think this happened perhaps 3 or 4 times, and at least one of those times I noticed my head or jaw was shaking very minutely as a video paused between two frames.

The difference in this last experience was that it occured in other sleeping positions. Previously catalepsy only seemed to occur when I was lying on my back. However, in this instance I was lying on my stomach and on my side.

Should I be concerned at this stage? I've noticed a renewed frequency of catalepsy, and this is the first time that:

1. It has occured in these different sleeping positions;


2. That it has occured a number of times in succession;


3. It has occured during the night (where it would usually occur either at the beginning or end of a sleep cycle)


4. It has happened without warning, for which I could adjust my position to avoid it

I'll keep an eye on it!

Just... things

An entry about nothing in particular

I'm sure if I had something greatly important to announce the headline would have already drawn a large readership. However, I was just sitting here tonight pondering upon... things. With nothing else to do, I decided to write what I'm writing now in my blog.

Indoor Cricket
We played indoor cricket tonight, and most of the team were absent (as has been the case this past season). We managed to field a team of 6 against a full team of mighty Nunfa warriors (someone needs to call them that... just for encouragement). We did what we could with 6 players but we only managed 1 skin and we lost the game by about 15 runs.

God Stuff
After cricket, I arrived home in the dark driveway with Sons of Korah playing on the CD player. I stayed in the car, closed my eyes and listened to their beautiful musical/lyrical interpretation of Psalm 73. It was a peaceful time alone with God. I need more moments like these!

I took the time to read this Psalm just now - yet another thing I need more of! The Psalm is by Asaph (another Psalmist with David) and reading it rang very true with my experience and the words answered a cry in my own heart. Amazing how God works...

Psalm 73 ends with these 5 beautiful verses (though it's worth reading all 28):

25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.

27 Those who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.

28 But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds.