Into Australia

In the Midst of It

Sarah's daughter will be having surgery in a matter of hours, and there is nothing that I can say here that is worth delaying a visit to her sight.

Parenting Magazine

I've pointed out Bowden McElroy's sight before.  He serves as an interim minister and is a marriage counselor (a crisis manger of sorts, I would assume :) ).  Anyway, he is a great resource himself, but he also acts as a filter for lots of marital advice that is out there in the blogosphere and in the media in general. 

He linked to this post at Total Depravity.  He brings up a couple of points: 

• There is no reason to call Parenting magazine Parenting.  When I use the word parent I do so to refer to either a mom or a dad.  The magazine really has little to do with dads, and sometimes very little to do with parenting. 
• Advice given to women about men sort of assumes that men really are as bad as they make them out to be in almost every commericial that uses comedy.  The man is always incompetent.  Always bumbling.  Always another one of the children.  I like to think that men are the butt of all jokes because they can take the ribbing.  But in sit-com after sit-com and comercial after commercial, the man is always so juvenile.  Certainly not the kind of son I would like to raise.

Anyway, I hate to duplicate, go read his post. 

Sarah's new gig!

Sarah will be writing for Lisa Welchel's site.  Read what she has written so far!  Congrats Sarah! 

Definitely Mighty and Sublime

Tammara shares the story of the birth of her third.  This was written several posts ago.  But it is still worth a read. 

100 year drought at an end

Or so it seems.  It has rained every day we've been here.  They exceeded their rain total for June three days ago.

I found Paddy's Market that runs on the weekends and sells cheap produce.  Apples are cheaper than in the US.  So are avacados.  Bananas are still $7 a kilo  (The metric system is still pretty foreign to me) or about 3.50 a lb.  But that is about half of what they are in the supermarket. 

In other news:

• Watched all that I could of Australian Rules Football.  The amount of sports teams here is dizzying.  I watched Rugby the night before.  In the news there's about 10 min. local, 10 min. international, then the weatherman tells us it is raining and going to rain until sometime in the distant future.  The rest is sports.  Principally Soccer (the World Cup is happening as we speak--this would be news to me, but as we are in a country who is going for the first time in 32 years, this is a big deal.  Also, Australia seems to care a bit more about Soccer than American in general), Rugby, Australian Rules football.  Cricket is also big here.  But I haven't heard that much about cricket lately.  I don't think it is cricket season.
• Also watched Australia's funniest home videos.  Australians have a great sense of humor.  But here the numbers just do not play out.  In America we have 200 million people? I think.  Australia only has 20.  Yet both shows have to fill an hour of programming.   

I am enjoying reading blogs this morning.  Here is what I've found so far:

Toni posts about the utilitarian value of her toes and the Dixie Chicks (not in the same post).

Sarah posts about stripping down and dancing wildly before our God.

The Backyard Missionary (great title I think) who lives in Perth, Australia has listed some questions given to the Australian Tourist Center along with their replies.  Very funny.

Note to self:  Add BooMama and Toniwrites to sidebar.

Lori has a great post on speaking scripture into the lives of our children (and our lives as well.)

Here is another that I need to add to the sidebar.  Sarah's grandmother, Judith ,posts about growing up in East Texas among other things.  She is always a delight to read.

Okay, I know there is lots more out there, but I've got to get going this morning.