Picture Post

I've been taking a lot of photographs recently and have decided to try and do a "photo from the week" post on a regular basis. I've surprised myself by being good at keeping up with this blog (heading into its fifth month!) so we'll see how this goes.

Anyway, the photo this week is from a lovely evening out with some friends playing TopGolf (kind of like a driving range for people who aren't that interested in golf). This, ladies and gentleman, is my wonderful husband.

Outside World

My final piece of Kreativity!

Much as I love many indoor things (reading, blogging, cooking, sleeping) sometimes it's good just to get outside. Whether it's a stroll down the road to Tescos, a walk in the park, or just lying in the sun, being outside has such a big impact on me.

I like the varied weather we have here in England - a few months ago it was snowy, five days ago it poured with rain, and today I see glorious sunshine out of my window.

I like taking indoor things outside - having a picnic or eating fish and chips on the beach gives a meal time a completely different feel. Being outside is more romantic, carefree and relaxed.

Today we're hoping to go geocaching. T has some minor corrections to make to his thesis before he makes the final submission, and he's been up since about 7:15am working on it. We also plan to go and buy some "gardening supplies" - pots and soil. As we don't actually have a garden, our green-fingeredness is going into pot plants at the moment. A strawberry plant we were given at Easter is sending out runners so I want to give them something to grow into.

The sunshine is streaming through the leaves of the trees outside. Can't wait to get out there. Have a good weekend everyone!

Cutlery and Why it is Exciting

We had a lovely day at Besom today. Sadly my lovely Besom boss was away so I missed seeing her but things went so well. The hut was FULL, so much beautiful furniture. I'm not sure I've ever explained Besom - basically people give us second hand furniture, clothes, linen, electricals etc that they don't want any more. We get clients referred to us by social services, churches and other charities, and then we call them and find out what they need. When it comes in, we deliver it. Simple as that. The whole thing is prayer based, and really wouldn't work without God - we pray the whole day - especially when collecting or delivering things, but often also we ask God to provide things.

So on Tuesday afternoon, a few of the ladies at Besom prayed for some cutlery - just a set to send to a man who had requested some. We were down to two (non-matching) spoons, and hadn't had any in for months.

Today we were sorting a load of stuff that had been brought in last thing on Tuesday. One of the items was a tray of cutlery.

After lunch a lady brought in a whole load of stuff and towards the end of the day, as we were waiting for the van to come back I unpacked some of it - two more sets of cutlery, one brand new.

When the van came back, the lady we had visited had given us even more than she'd first said, and among the items, yes you guessed it - another set of cutlery.

I love it when you get to see how huge and generous God's love for us is - he didn't just give what we'd asked for, he quadrupled it! We prayed. God answered. God answered big time.

Look Around

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around every once in a while, you could miss it.” - Feris Bueller

A couple of posts have caught my eye recently - this quote was in one by Sam at Life is Like A Box of Chocolates. There are often milestones we strive for, things we hope to achieve and places we want to get to. When I was at secondary school I couldn't wait to leave and go to university. But looking back I wonder if I fully appreciated the time I had there with those friends. In my third year of university I was looking forward (understandably) to getting married and living with T. Looking back, although tried to enjoy the time I had living with the girls, I probably didn't always appreciate it.

Recently I decided to do the graduate teacher programme. I wanted to start as soon as possible, to get on with it. It's pretty clear now that I won't be able to start in January, I'll have to wait until September 2010. When I stop and think this is probably better for me. I'll have to learn to be a bit more patient, sure. But I will have time to find the right school and the right mentor for me. I will also have time to do more work at Besom which I love.

At the 20-something stage of life, there are always milestones we long to reach - whether it is in our career (new job, new qualification, new promotion) or personal life (marriage, buying a home, having babies). Sometimes we forget that life isn't just the huge milestones, it's the little bits in between as well. I want to try to appreciate how life is now, and be happy with it. Being happy with how things are rather than focusing on how you want them to be is such a skill. Kayla Aimee wrote recently about this - that sometimes, you have to choose to be happy.

So I'm working on being patient. On appreciating having to wait. On thanking God for the life I have right now. I don't want to look back on this time, which actually is pretty perfect, and wish I'd appreciated it more. I'm going to trust that a career, a house of our own and children will come when we're ready, and when God is ready. And I'm going to appreciate the journey.

Blowing in the Wind

There are a lot of things going on at the moment, and there are a lot of feelings and thoughts going round my head and heart.

I'm exhausted - we had a great (energetic) time at playgroup this afternoon. We had a parachute out and the kids loved it. Have you ever seen a three year old cry with laughter? He was just bubbling over with joy. It was wonderful.

I'm praying - it seems like a lot of people are having hard times at the moment. Whether its exams, job troubles or personal struggles, I'm thinking of you and praying for you.

I'm scared and excited - I've decided to train as a teacher. I'd really like to do a course starting in January because I've been doing a lot of "floating" since graduation and I want to get going with something. That means I need to talk a school into taking me on, and do the whole application process before the 5th of June. I will be talking to a couple of headteachers tomorrow. Please pray!

I'm hopeful - that my driving licence will come this week. Then T can start taking me out driving. It's only been three years since I last drove. Did I say hopeful? I meant petrified.

I'm happy - T and I spent a great day out at the Science Museum for his birthday on Saturday and I spent most of Sunday afternoon on the phone to my family and Shiv. Lots of laughter, lots of catching up.

I'm looking forward - this bank holiday weekend we're going to visit my family for three whole days, partly to celebrate Mum's birthday. Then I also get to spend some time with Lulu - which means a good few hours of the West Wing, a great lunch and lots of catching up.

Psalm 139 just came to mind. It's one of my favourite chapters at the moment and this bit is especially wonderful...

O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
Psalm 139 v. 1-10.

Escapea

I like Jelly Babies A LOT. I could disappear a whole pack in less than half an hour. Easily. I always eat the legs first and my sisters and I used to say that was so they couldn't run away. If you were eating the head first it was so they "couldn't scream for help".

At lunch with the kids yesterday, one of the little boys had a gingerbread man. The others found it highly amusing when the gingerbread man lost his legs so I told them it was good - now he couldn't run away. The little boy eating the biscuit looked at me, thought for a second and then said, "Yes, he can. He can just sit on a horse and it will carry him away. Or he might use his arms as leggers."

Of course. I'd never have thought of food using arms as leggers. I'll just have to start eating my Jelly Babies whole.

Board Games

Some people like board games, some people hate them. In our house we have a whole cupboard dedicated to board games so we pretty much fall into the first set of people. Now, that said, I don't like all games. One of my particular dislikes is Scrabble - I'm not very patient and like a game to keep moving, while in Scrabble people often take a really long time to make their move.

But this is really about games I do like. In no particular order, here are some of my current favourites and why...
1. Puerto Rico - This is a five player game. It is reasonably fast paced, every game is different and there are a lot of different strategies to winning. It also looks nice which always helps.
2. San Juan - This is a slightly simpler version of Puerto Rico using just cards instead of lots of fiddly pieces. It is a bit more dependent on luck - you might pick up a great combination of cards, or you might keep missing one that would really help you. It's also really good for couples - it makes a good game even with just two of you.
3. Settlers of Catan - This game is really nice looking in all the forms I've seen and is pretty simple to pick up. You have towns and cities - they bring in resources, you spend resources on upgrades to earn more victory points. It's not too luck based, although there is some dice rolling. I would say you probably need at least three players for a good game.
4. Carcassonne - You build up the region of Carcassonne by laying tiles. You score points for roads, cities, farming and monastries. It's a bit complicated at first - the farming really floors some people but after a couple of games you get used to it. There are lots of expansions which keep the game fresh - my favourites are Inns and Cathedrals and Traders and Builders. For a wedding present Lulu gave us the fantastic Hunters and Gatherers version which is really good with two players and a bit simpler on the "farming" aspect.

In the spirit of linking this with kreativ-ity, one of the best things about board games is that although they come with rules you should never be afraid to adapt them or invent new ones. Or even whole new games - our latest one (an adaption and improvement on the game "Hey, That's My Fish!") has proved very popular with our friends and relatives. And look, we even got to make these cute penguins to play with. (This is them mid-creation. They're still missing white tummies and eyes.)

So what's your favourite game?

My Blogging Skills

I am VERY proud of myself this evening. Earlier today I was reading one of my favourite blogs, and saw something I thought looked good. Later in the day, I described the "tag list thingy where they're all different sizes" to T, and was informed it is called a "Tag Cloud". Later still I searched, followed instructions and made my very own Tag Cloud. All by myself. I then prettyfied it and made it fit with the rest of my blog. Feel free to admire my beautiful cloud. I feel like I accomplished something today.

Books

I realised yesterday that I completely forgot to finish my Kreativ blogging thing. It kind of got lost in other things. Oh and my smart little sister told me a few weeks ago that "kreativ" is just German for creative. That didn't take a huge leap of imagination but somehow I hadn't figured that one out. Well done Bronnie.

So - Books.
I love reading. It's actually the main reason I picked English Lit as my degree subject. I actually looked forward to working on my third year dissertation, as we got to choose what we read and the topic. Mine was on "The Role of the Gentleman in Nineteenth Century Literature" and I wrote about some fantastic books*. Since I was a little kid I've been perfectly happy reading for hours on end, often I'd be sent to tidy my bedroom and two hours later my parents would look in to find my room in the same state and me on my bed with a book.

My main problem these days is that I'm a pretty fast reader and so I can easily finish a book in a day. Which means I run out of new books to read quite quickly. Luckily there are some books I just love to read over and over, and that I'm quite happy to go back to. My favourite book is one most readers have probably heard of and read already (If not, please go find a copy and read it. When you've finished reading this.) - The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. It's a beautiful love story with a twist (in that one of the couple is a time traveller), and it follows Clare and Henry's relationship from their first meetings through to the end of their lives. If the time traveling thing sounds too sci-fi for you try to ignore it, it doesn't feel like a sci-fi novel at all.

I've just finished reading Carole Sheilds' Unless, about a woman writer (Rita) whose daughter drops out of college to sit at the side of a road with a sign reading "Goodness". I love the mundane detail of the family's lives, even as they are trying to work out why Norah is behaving like this. Rita wonders about women's roles in the world - are they, even in 2004, taken seriously as equal citizens? - and about goodness as a quality. It's quite different to most of my reading but I'd definitely recommend it, even just for its difference to a lot of modern writing about women. It's very introspective but also considers the place of women in family life, society and the world.


* All the Jane Austen novels, North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens and The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde were my favourites.

Peace with Friends

Our holiday last week was lovely, and having filled up my memory card with photos I have way too much for one blog. So here's a pictorial summary* of the holiday...


All six of us (three couples) used to be at uni together but now that we're not students we don't see as much of one another. Having time to catch up on one another's lives, and just to spend so much time together was really great.

It felt like longer than a week but in a really good way. Being on a narrow boat really slows life down - you travel at about four miles per hour and it takes twenty minutes just to boil water for tea. You can't help but slow down. The TV was the smallest I've ever seen, with just three and a half channels and there was no internet. If you're not driving the boat or winding the locks, there's not much to do - you can read a book, do a crossword, chat, play a game or just watch the countryside slip by. It was wonderful...

*Click on the photo to see it bigger, and most importantly to see how cute those ducklings were!