Saturday, December 08, 2007

St Nicholas. Medical Tests. And Other Miscellaneous Things.












We celebrated the feast of St Nicholas with an awful Christmas movie - don't watch it, save yourself the time and money! "Deck the Halls" with Matthew Broderick and Danny de Vito. Poor script, bad supporting actors...All in the name of Christmas.

However, Anthony's Christmas craft ( Fr Xmas Aussie style, on a surfboard) and our book on the dining table, near the wreath ( The Miracle of S Nicholas by Gloria Whelan) and our Stollen ( bread) made the celebration.

Happy Name Day, Nick! ( son number 3).

Luke and Greg ( two eldest sons) are here in Sydney - so we are back to our push up competitions and arm wrestling. The family that wrestles together stays together??

Had my medical tests - the cysts appear to be benign! Deo Gratias! See my doctor this week to see what further treatment may be needed.

What else?

Rifle shooting, a group outing I organized for Homeschool Teen Group.

Advent reading - we are all reading something - Anthony is reading 'The Screwtape Letters' by C. S. Lewis and Jonathon feels melancholy at the thought that his youngest brother is now old enough to read Screwtape!

Me? I am finishing off 'Jesus of Nazareth' and want to share some of last night's reading ~

" One last question remains: is God also mother? The Bible does compare God's love with the love of a mother: 'as one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you.' (Is 66:13)...it is nonetheless also true that God is never named or addressed as mother, whether in the Old or in the New Testament. 'Mother' in the Bible is an image but not a title for God. Why not? We can only tentatively seek to understand. Of course, God is neither a man not a woman, but simply God, the creator of man and woman.....the image of the father was and is apt for expressing the otherness of creator and creature and the sovereignty of his creative act...the prayer language of the entire Bible remains normative for us, in which, as we have seen, while there are some fine images of maternal love, 'mother' is not used as a title or a form of address for God. We make our petitions in the way that Jesus, with Holy Scripture in the background, taught us to pray, and not as we happen to think or want." ( page 140)
And, from my light reading, a delicious quote from 'The Immaculate Deception' by Iain Pears ( in the Jonathon Argyll art mystery series, thank you Pam for the suggestion!) ~
a companionable quote on housework ~
'I have a vague image of tidiness I keep in my mind, rather like some people have a notion of eternity in paradise. You never approach it, but it's good to believe that you might get there one day.'




10 comments:

Ladybug Mommy Maria said...

Leonie,

I am thrilled to hear your cysts are benign!

Prayers of thanksgiving for you!

Glad your family is all together, too!

Leonie said...

Thanks, Maria! Just waiting for Nicholas to join us and we'll all be together for Xmas!!

Anonymous said...

Dear Leonie,
I was checking in on Cay and wandered over to you....realizing for the gazillionth time how much I miss you and how lucky we each are to have such an easy means of reconnecting and more faithfully living as the family of God we are blessed to be. I'm delighted your medical news is good...cysts are benign!!!...and that you will know the joy of all being together this Christmas. Next Saturday we'll all be together again, too, and very soon we'll get to see the little face of our youngest son, Samuel (C-section scheduled for Jan 9th...but Sam seems to be eager to push that forward a little...:))!
God bless you!

Anonymous said...

Excellent news Leonie! I am so glad!

I might just have to borrow that quote on housework. I had a depressing but realistic thought about it but you'll have to go to my blog in a few days because I'm too lazy to type it out twice.

No more health scares ok?

Pam

Ruth said...

Great news! I've been praying for you.

Sally Thomas said...

I've been praying for you, too -- happy news all around!

Sally

Anonymous said...

Benign!
I love that word. :)
Cay

Mary G said...

Sending up a prayer of thanksgiving for the benign tests! YIPPPPPEEE!

And, I'm hoping the family that wrestles together stays together as that's what my "puppy dogs" are ALWAYS doing!!!!!

Blessings for a great Advent!

Leonie said...

Thank you, everyone!

Maria - congrats on the new baby, I will say prayers.So coll to "see" you. :-)

Pam - look forward to reading your blog over the next few days.

Hopewell said...

Wow! Do the boys compete in arm wrestling? A guy at our Church went to the U.K. {"England" here in the sticks) to compete. My son and a friend are learning from him!!!

Thanks for that link in the sidebar for the homeschooled Heisman candidate. With only one football fan in the house I wasn't really clued in.