I was watching two elderly ladies from the Jehovah's Witnesses trying to leave their magazines with the volunteers at the Salvation Army second hand clothing shop this morning. I'm sure I heard one of the JW's say, "You can just leave them on the counter for people to collect."
So when I went up to pay for the shorts and T-shirts I was buying, there the magazines were on the counter.
I hope the volunteers were planning to take them away once the JW's had gone. Probably not the kind of material they'd be wanting to promote.
I did find it a little bit funny though.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Thinking about....
...Christians who choose to marry non Christians.
A close relative of ours (single, early 40s, similar age to me) has just announced her engagement. My husband told me that when he spoke to her, she sounded happier than he had heard her sound for many years. I think she has been really lonely for a long time.
But we have mixed emotions about it all. She is a Christian. My husband clearly remembers when she was converted to Christ. But her fiance isn't. This is his second marriage/partnership. We haven't met him yet. He has met some other members of the family, all of whom say he seems to be a really nice guy. He even asked permission from her parents (both Christians) before he asked her to marry him. They did say yes, but they also told him they weren't happy that he wasn't a Christian.
I'm finding it hard to know how to be supportive in this situation. I think there are other members of my husband's family who might refuse to go to their wedding. I think we will go, but I have this feeling that I'll find it very hard to watch. She has a lot of non-Christian friends who I think will probably make up for the mixed emotions coming from her family's direction.
We're not on the kind of terms where I could say to her upfront, "Look, if you think you were lonely before you got married, that's nothing compared to what it could be like AFTER you get married if you marry someone who doesn't believe what you do!" I'm probably not the right person to say it anyway, she would just see it as coming from the smug perspective of someone who's been married for many years and doesn't understand how hard it is to be single. And on one level, she's right.
But at the same time, I think single people find it hard to believe that even in a marriage where the two partners are both believing Christians, there can be lonely times. I have had them. But I do know that if I pray about things that are bothering me, then my husband will pray with me and we will work through it because we share the same perspective on life. We believe God is in control of what happens, that He has a plan for our lives, and that despite our sinfulness, He loved us more than any other human being could possibly love us. I don't know what I would do if the person I was choosing to spend my life with didn't share that view.
My husband and I decided to pray for her husband-to-be each day, that he will come to know Christ. We know there is no guarantee that this will happen. But I think it's all we can do right now without causing a family rift.
A close relative of ours (single, early 40s, similar age to me) has just announced her engagement. My husband told me that when he spoke to her, she sounded happier than he had heard her sound for many years. I think she has been really lonely for a long time.
But we have mixed emotions about it all. She is a Christian. My husband clearly remembers when she was converted to Christ. But her fiance isn't. This is his second marriage/partnership. We haven't met him yet. He has met some other members of the family, all of whom say he seems to be a really nice guy. He even asked permission from her parents (both Christians) before he asked her to marry him. They did say yes, but they also told him they weren't happy that he wasn't a Christian.
I'm finding it hard to know how to be supportive in this situation. I think there are other members of my husband's family who might refuse to go to their wedding. I think we will go, but I have this feeling that I'll find it very hard to watch. She has a lot of non-Christian friends who I think will probably make up for the mixed emotions coming from her family's direction.
We're not on the kind of terms where I could say to her upfront, "Look, if you think you were lonely before you got married, that's nothing compared to what it could be like AFTER you get married if you marry someone who doesn't believe what you do!" I'm probably not the right person to say it anyway, she would just see it as coming from the smug perspective of someone who's been married for many years and doesn't understand how hard it is to be single. And on one level, she's right.
But at the same time, I think single people find it hard to believe that even in a marriage where the two partners are both believing Christians, there can be lonely times. I have had them. But I do know that if I pray about things that are bothering me, then my husband will pray with me and we will work through it because we share the same perspective on life. We believe God is in control of what happens, that He has a plan for our lives, and that despite our sinfulness, He loved us more than any other human being could possibly love us. I don't know what I would do if the person I was choosing to spend my life with didn't share that view.
My husband and I decided to pray for her husband-to-be each day, that he will come to know Christ. We know there is no guarantee that this will happen. But I think it's all we can do right now without causing a family rift.
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Man Is Surprisingly Chill About Almost Being Assassinated
The title of this post says it all really. This guy is hilarious.
Best line: "two grand is not enough to get this done right."
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Marking blues are here again...
It's been a while since I've blogged regularly. My sporadic posts have been ordinary and I felt like I was forcing myself to write them. I've felt like I've had stuff to say but I've been too exhausted to put it into words that make any sense. I make no guarantees that this will make any sense either but Ben has just announced a blogging comeback, and I was feeling inspired reading about it. So here I am.
Life has felt very full on for the past few months. Work has been demanding...both the teaching at Uni and at the same time learning all the skills I need to rehabilitate people who've had strokes, fractures and amputations. An interesting world. I'm going to blog about some of the memorable moments and the ups and downs of working with old people when I get going again.
In the meantime, I'm in assignment marking mode. I have two assignments left to mark out of twenty. You would think that would be incentive to knock the last ones over and get it done, but instead I find myself looking for ways to get out of it (you know... I haven't blogged for over a month, but now that I have to mark stuff, blogging becomes a far more important priority...). This assignment involves prescribing a client a wheelchair and an electric mobility scooter. Since I started marking them, I find myself analysing every wheelchair and scooter I see when I am out and about. We live in an area heavily populated with retirees so there are plenty of them out there.
Tomorrow's Uni teaching session is on dressing techniques for people with disabilities. There's a big focus on doing things one handed. I have reviewed fastening a tie and putting on a jumper and a button up shirt one handed, and I have finally mastered the art of one handed shoe lace tying. I didn't quite get there last year, which led to a few embarrassing moments in the tutorial, so I was determined to fix that up this year. It's actually pretty easy, and kind of cool. So cool, in fact, that I'm going to teach my kids how to do it. If I can find some pictures online, I might even blog it so that you'll all know what to do when you have a stroke or your hand gets amputated.
Enough procrastinating. If I can get through one more paper before bed, I'll be feeling great about having just one more to do tomorrow.
Life has felt very full on for the past few months. Work has been demanding...both the teaching at Uni and at the same time learning all the skills I need to rehabilitate people who've had strokes, fractures and amputations. An interesting world. I'm going to blog about some of the memorable moments and the ups and downs of working with old people when I get going again.
In the meantime, I'm in assignment marking mode. I have two assignments left to mark out of twenty. You would think that would be incentive to knock the last ones over and get it done, but instead I find myself looking for ways to get out of it (you know... I haven't blogged for over a month, but now that I have to mark stuff, blogging becomes a far more important priority...). This assignment involves prescribing a client a wheelchair and an electric mobility scooter. Since I started marking them, I find myself analysing every wheelchair and scooter I see when I am out and about. We live in an area heavily populated with retirees so there are plenty of them out there.
Tomorrow's Uni teaching session is on dressing techniques for people with disabilities. There's a big focus on doing things one handed. I have reviewed fastening a tie and putting on a jumper and a button up shirt one handed, and I have finally mastered the art of one handed shoe lace tying. I didn't quite get there last year, which led to a few embarrassing moments in the tutorial, so I was determined to fix that up this year. It's actually pretty easy, and kind of cool. So cool, in fact, that I'm going to teach my kids how to do it. If I can find some pictures online, I might even blog it so that you'll all know what to do when you have a stroke or your hand gets amputated.
Enough procrastinating. If I can get through one more paper before bed, I'll be feeling great about having just one more to do tomorrow.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Here's what happens when you leave a tutor with poor motor planning skills in charge of a tutorial on wheelchair mobility...
A multitude of blunders, of course.
Today I managed to tip a student out of a wheelchair going forwards down a kerb. Not quite the demonstration I was hoping for. Luckily she had a quick reaction speed and managed to jump free before she hit the ground.
That was after I'd fallen at the last hurdle of disassembling and reassembling a manual wheelchair. All was going well until I got to putting the footplates back on at the end. There's nothing worse than having twenty pairs of eyes watching you struggle with what should be the easiest part of the whole job.
And all of that happened after I arrived somewhat underprepared, not having watched the mile long list of videos on using various items of equipment that are part of the required pre-reading and viewing for the session. Every other week I've watched them. I didn't get to it this week. So obviously it would follow that a student would ask me about a piece of equipment from one of the videos, that I had sitting at the front of the room and couldn't work out what it was or what to do with it. I'd hoped that I might be able to ask my teaching partner later about it so I could show the students in a future session.
So the student asked if we were going to have a demonstration of the equipment (something that I now know is designed to assist with lifting a wheelchair into the boot of a car). And then I had to own up and say I didn't know what it was. I ended up having to get her to demonstrate to the rest of the group. Embarrassing.
One of those teaching days that I would like to erase from memory forever. Or the next best thing, I hope I'll learn from all the mistakes and do a better job next time around.
I'll be praying for a better day tomorrow, when I have to do a formal memory assessment with a guy who's had a stroke and now has some memory loss. I've never done the test before. I looked at it last week and thought it wouldn't be too difficult. Hope that turns out to be true.
I feel like I'm on a really steep learning curve at the moment. It's not an easy place to be.
Today I managed to tip a student out of a wheelchair going forwards down a kerb. Not quite the demonstration I was hoping for. Luckily she had a quick reaction speed and managed to jump free before she hit the ground.
That was after I'd fallen at the last hurdle of disassembling and reassembling a manual wheelchair. All was going well until I got to putting the footplates back on at the end. There's nothing worse than having twenty pairs of eyes watching you struggle with what should be the easiest part of the whole job.
And all of that happened after I arrived somewhat underprepared, not having watched the mile long list of videos on using various items of equipment that are part of the required pre-reading and viewing for the session. Every other week I've watched them. I didn't get to it this week. So obviously it would follow that a student would ask me about a piece of equipment from one of the videos, that I had sitting at the front of the room and couldn't work out what it was or what to do with it. I'd hoped that I might be able to ask my teaching partner later about it so I could show the students in a future session.
So the student asked if we were going to have a demonstration of the equipment (something that I now know is designed to assist with lifting a wheelchair into the boot of a car). And then I had to own up and say I didn't know what it was. I ended up having to get her to demonstrate to the rest of the group. Embarrassing.
One of those teaching days that I would like to erase from memory forever. Or the next best thing, I hope I'll learn from all the mistakes and do a better job next time around.
I'll be praying for a better day tomorrow, when I have to do a formal memory assessment with a guy who's had a stroke and now has some memory loss. I've never done the test before. I looked at it last week and thought it wouldn't be too difficult. Hope that turns out to be true.
I feel like I'm on a really steep learning curve at the moment. It's not an easy place to be.
Monday, July 15, 2013
Last day of the school holidays...
...hooray!
Today we did one of our regular holiday activities, morning tea at the lighthouse. We generally get to see a few dolphins playing.
The kids did a bit of running around too. Always guarantees a good afternoon sleep for them both. And some quiet time listening to stories on CD for the big guys.
Today we did one of our regular holiday activities, morning tea at the lighthouse. We generally get to see a few dolphins playing.
The kids did a bit of running around too. Always guarantees a good afternoon sleep for them both. And some quiet time listening to stories on CD for the big guys.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
The Labor "faceless men"
They've been around longer than you think. Here's a great post on their history and their relevance (or lack thereof, actually) to recent events in the Labor Party.
I love reading educational blog posts like this one. Thanks Jon!
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