Springtime in the Garden

With the recent warm weather combined with some (although not enough) rain, the garden is coming to life. The daffodils are all but finished but the viburnum, wisteria, genista, wigelia and irises are all in full bloom.

"Go" Now is the Time to Worship

Annette and I dropped in on another church's gathering this morning and they sang the song "Come, Now is the Time to Worship" as the closing song. I reflected on the fact that - yes - now we are about to go out from this gathering to worship. I am sure that this was not what the worship leader intended for us to think because that was not stated but the song is actually very appropriate for helping the church to see that they worship all the time and that we worshi as much when we are apart as we do when we are together. However, sung at the conclusion of a gathering the song could be changed to "Go, Now is the Time to Worship" and would read:
Go, now is the time to worship
Go, now is the time to give your heart
Go, just as you are to worship
Go, just as you are before your God, go!
It's not that we don't come - it's a both/and thing. We come so that we may go!

Philip Island

The family headed down to Philip Island last weekend. We booked a bonus week ($99) at the Island Breeze Resort. We enjoyed the pool at the resort and the weather was good enough for some time at the beach at Cowes. We also visited the Penguin Parade on Saturday night. We hadn't done it for a few years and the kids are old enough to appreciate it now.
Annette and the kids went home on Sunday and I stayed on to do a few days reading and writing on my Doctoral thesis. I'm still working on the history chapter of ministerial development in the Wesleyan Methodist church.

Kid's News

Kate - Passed her preliminary Piano exam. Passed is an understatement - she got first class honours - well done Kate.
Matthew - completed a poster of Blue Tongue lizards (see photo) and will also be starting basketball this season.
Thomas - Became a champion bike rider today and can take off, ride and stop all on his own. Now Mum and Dad need to get bikes and do some family rides.

Sweet Harmony

My latest gadget is the Logitech Harmony 525 programmable remote control. Our coffee table was cluttered with 5 remote controls and it was quite a complicated matter to switch from watching TV to watching a DVD. Changing input on the TV, changing input on the HiFi turning off the set top box, turning on the DVD then switching remotes to control the DVD once it was playing.
Everything can now be controlled through one remote. The Harmony uses a web based programming system based on knowledge of thousands of different device remote controls. You just need to know the model numbers of your TV, DVD etc and it finds the information and programs the remote accordingly. You can then set up activities such as play a DVD. You program the harmony to turn on the DVD player, turn on and switch the HiFi to the DVD5.1input, turn on the TV and switch to the HDMI input - you can even program it to to open the DVD tray ready for you to put in the DVD. I had a bit of trouble getting it to switch to the correct input on my Toshiba LCD because you have to scroll through the inputs but it works like a charm now. Very easy for the wife and kids to get Dad's toys working in harmony. Oh - I got it on sale at Dick Smith Powerhouse for $99.95 - a steal. I like my gadgets but usually wait until they've been out for a year or so and drop to half of their original RRP.