Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat as they say and we've just about reached the stage of being ready for Christmas and being able to settle down to enjoy the festivities. We're off out tonight for the last bits of food and then we can come home and hole up. Tomorrow we can spend the day wrapping presents to put under the tree.
What I'm really looking forward to is the nine lessons and carols service at church. This year it's being held on Christmas Eve for the first time which is really good. I always find that it sets the scene for Christmas and brings home the real meaning for the season. All I need to do now is prepare the prayers which I'm leading....best get my finger out with that then.
Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Sunday, 21 December 2008
Why is it...
that the day before I'm due to finish work for the Christmas holiday I come down with laryngitis? It's not the first time this has happened - the year before last I had the flu over Christmas... I mean, there's loads to be done, our house still hasn't recovered from the new boiler going in and then with the garage being burgled we had an influx of boxes which had been stored in the garage move into the dining room....
Robin's still not up to much, I've spent most of the last couple of days asleep, in bed or sitting pathetically on the sofa when my intention was that I would use this two weeks off to go through the house like a whirlwind and sort it out from top to bottom so that it was all clean and tidy ready for the new year. As it is, we're going to be lucky if we can get to the dining table for Christmas dinner...
Still, I shouldn't complain, we do at least have a roof over our head and food to eat. We had a visit at church recently from an organisation called Compassion who enable sponsorship of children in third world countries to give them education and food etc. It's a really good worthwhile scheme, although I'm leaning more to Tearfund because more of the money goes to the child rather than scheme admin although you don't sponsor a child individually with them. (Other similar schemes are done by Worldvision and Plan - UK , ActionAid and SOS Children for those who are interested.) But just reading about what those children go through on a daily basis puts everything into perspective and makes you realise just how lucky you are. Ok so I've not won the lottery, I don't have a mansion and drive a flash car... but I'm loved, cared for, have plenty to eat and drink and don't have to walk miles to get it. Neither do we have to worry about rains which wash meagre crops away or invading armies who raze villages to the ground... all in all, actually, I'm really rather blessed... and hopefully the cold etc will be gone by Christmas day!
Robin's still not up to much, I've spent most of the last couple of days asleep, in bed or sitting pathetically on the sofa when my intention was that I would use this two weeks off to go through the house like a whirlwind and sort it out from top to bottom so that it was all clean and tidy ready for the new year. As it is, we're going to be lucky if we can get to the dining table for Christmas dinner...
Still, I shouldn't complain, we do at least have a roof over our head and food to eat. We had a visit at church recently from an organisation called Compassion who enable sponsorship of children in third world countries to give them education and food etc. It's a really good worthwhile scheme, although I'm leaning more to Tearfund because more of the money goes to the child rather than scheme admin although you don't sponsor a child individually with them. (Other similar schemes are done by Worldvision and Plan - UK , ActionAid and SOS Children for those who are interested.) But just reading about what those children go through on a daily basis puts everything into perspective and makes you realise just how lucky you are. Ok so I've not won the lottery, I don't have a mansion and drive a flash car... but I'm loved, cared for, have plenty to eat and drink and don't have to walk miles to get it. Neither do we have to worry about rains which wash meagre crops away or invading armies who raze villages to the ground... all in all, actually, I'm really rather blessed... and hopefully the cold etc will be gone by Christmas day!
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
What will they come up with next?
I get a daily round up of stuff from the Baptist Union which often has interesting and quirky things, today was no exception.
The latest thing to come out is an electronic reader called the eBible. Click the title and you'll see what I mean.
Not only does it let you load up several different electronic versions of the Bible, it's also a perfectly good pda and all for about £7!
Wow is all I can say, I'm off to write to Santa and tell him what a good little girl I've been and can I have one in my stocking..... I wonder if he'd like smoked salmon canapes instead of mince pies too?
The latest thing to come out is an electronic reader called the eBible. Click the title and you'll see what I mean.
Not only does it let you load up several different electronic versions of the Bible, it's also a perfectly good pda and all for about £7!
Wow is all I can say, I'm off to write to Santa and tell him what a good little girl I've been and can I have one in my stocking..... I wonder if he'd like smoked salmon canapes instead of mince pies too?
Monday, 15 December 2008
Advent Calendars
A bit late into Advent I grant, but I found this really cool online Advent Calendar today - it's got everything you need to sit and meditate on the real reason for Christmas so you are prepared for the coming of Jesus this year.
As you all know, I knit and crochet, so for those of you who are that way inclined too, check out this Advent Calendar - not religious in any way, but some lovely patterns which don't take long to do. I've already done some of the snowflakes and a bell and am half way though a candle mat thing which they call a beobeche?
Hopefully I'll get some pictures posted on Ravelry, but that rather depends on hubby and the camera as we all know I'm hopeless with one!
As you all know, I knit and crochet, so for those of you who are that way inclined too, check out this Advent Calendar - not religious in any way, but some lovely patterns which don't take long to do. I've already done some of the snowflakes and a bell and am half way though a candle mat thing which they call a beobeche?
Hopefully I'll get some pictures posted on Ravelry, but that rather depends on hubby and the camera as we all know I'm hopeless with one!
Thursday, 11 December 2008
'Tis the season
For oiks and other undesirables, to break into houses and outbuildings.... in particular ours and those of a couple of neighbours.
Thankfully, for some reason best known to them, they didn't take very much. Even more thankfully all of our bikes are still there, even though one of our darling daughters didn't lock them back up again the last time she had hers out. Our neighbour likewise only lost a few batteries and some nails? One can only assume that they were planning on building something but the mind boggles really.
I was about to go on about 'don't these people have any respect for other people's things' and so on, when I realised that actually, they don't. I suppose we should be sorry for people who believe that it's ok to steal and break in to houses/garages etc. I'm trying hard to find Christian forgiveness, but to be honest it's hard.
The last laugh is however on the burgulars who took the golf clubs and train bits from the garage - they had been in the garage last year when it was flooded - and covered in sewage!
I hope the rest of you out there are having a better run up to Christmas than I am at the moment.
Thankfully, for some reason best known to them, they didn't take very much. Even more thankfully all of our bikes are still there, even though one of our darling daughters didn't lock them back up again the last time she had hers out. Our neighbour likewise only lost a few batteries and some nails? One can only assume that they were planning on building something but the mind boggles really.
I was about to go on about 'don't these people have any respect for other people's things' and so on, when I realised that actually, they don't. I suppose we should be sorry for people who believe that it's ok to steal and break in to houses/garages etc. I'm trying hard to find Christian forgiveness, but to be honest it's hard.
The last laugh is however on the burgulars who took the golf clubs and train bits from the garage - they had been in the garage last year when it was flooded - and covered in sewage!
I hope the rest of you out there are having a better run up to Christmas than I am at the moment.
Tuesday, 9 December 2008
Christmas is coming
so they say, the trouble is that I can't get into it this year. Perhaps I'm too worried about Robin and how he is, or perhaps I'm just getting fed up with they cynical commercialisation of the event. There are children nowadays who think that Santa has a part in the nativity story and have no idea who the baby Jesus really is. No wonder our country is on the road to a moral decline.
I know I'm generalising and there are many children who do know about the true meaning of Christmas... but they are so much in the minority now they should be preserved before they become like the dodo.
Now, I don't know if this will work, but have a look at this aim lower : it certainly made me stop and re-think about children when I saw it. I'll confess I got it from a friend's blog, but it's worth sharing to as many people as possible.
I know I'm generalising and there are many children who do know about the true meaning of Christmas... but they are so much in the minority now they should be preserved before they become like the dodo.
Now, I don't know if this will work, but have a look at this aim lower : it certainly made me stop and re-think about children when I saw it. I'll confess I got it from a friend's blog, but it's worth sharing to as many people as possible.
Monday, 1 December 2008
Some good news
I went with some trepidation to see my boss today, fully expecting not to have a job at Christmas - only to have the opposite happen.
It turns out that the lady they have appointed has to work her 4 month notice period so she can't start until the end of March.... which means that they are going to extend my contract through to the 27th March. :)
I'm so happy, it means that I don't have to worry about finding a new job for a month or two and we will have money coming in until the end of March. I shall keep looking but it really takes the pressure off. I've been clinging to God and the belief that He's got something in mind for me but I was really starting to find the way ahead impossible to see. I feel now that God has opened the pathway up ahead a little bit and I can work with that. I just need to pray that things go as well with Robin and the doctors now :)
It turns out that the lady they have appointed has to work her 4 month notice period so she can't start until the end of March.... which means that they are going to extend my contract through to the 27th March. :)
I'm so happy, it means that I don't have to worry about finding a new job for a month or two and we will have money coming in until the end of March. I shall keep looking but it really takes the pressure off. I've been clinging to God and the belief that He's got something in mind for me but I was really starting to find the way ahead impossible to see. I feel now that God has opened the pathway up ahead a little bit and I can work with that. I just need to pray that things go as well with Robin and the doctors now :)
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