Why do I bother?

I want to change my blog look again but I never can manage to do it right.  I copy the HTML and then try and add my own widgets but it comes up with an error.  So I will stay with this look until I can figure out where I am going wrong.  If anyone can help then please let me know.

Some Light Relief

I have someone incredibly important to me who thinks I need to lightened up a bit - I think she has a very good point.  A lot of the time I have my 'serious head' on and it isn't necessary.  Life can be deep but it can also be hilarious, frivolous and just down right daft.  So here remembering the times of lunacy I have shared with my special person (aka my sister) I post this video.



Love you loads and am looking forward to our holiday together.

A thought for this week.

This week has not been a good week for me in lots of different ways which don't need writing out publically.  If you want to know please ask.

A thought that I have read a number of times this week is: 

"Never question in the dark what God has shown you in the light."

It is time to keep on plodding on and do some good old-fashioned preaching to myself.  The trouble is I don't like what I am telling myself to do but wallowing in misery isn't an option either.

 I have managed to keep up with the exercise and feel better for it.  I am reading Oswald Chambers and find the thoughts good for me at this time. 

I am off to a Conference for the weekened and am looking forward to balm for the soul.

New Challenge

Last week in order to take care of my Emotional Health I blogged.  This week the Challenge is to get my sleep routine sorted.  Nowadays, I fall asleep really quickly after years of desperately struggling for nearly one hour.  This is down to a combination of more physical exercise, putting worry to a lower place in my list of priorities and reading before I drop off.  I need to get to bed earlier and make my sleep longer.  I get up at 6am most mornings and getting off to sleep after 11pm is just too late.  So hopefully, I will manage to go to bed a lot earlier which would mean turning the light off earlier.  We will see.  Now I am older I do need more sleep; I used to be able to burn the candle at both ends but alas no more.

I am really enjoying these Challenges, it is good for accountability.

Day 6 & 7 - Success from failure?

I work up this morning and did 20 minutes work on my Abs; I really felt them working.  Walking will be the only Cardio I do today.  That and housework!

Dinner is made and eaten.  We had Bulghar Wheat Salad (it lasted a few days), raw Spinach and BBQ Chicken Drumsticks.  I didn't have any complaints from any member of the family.  It is lovely to see the way my children eat and we find there isn't much they don't like.  Except that is the Cornmeal Mush I experimented with this morning, that didn't go down well even with sugar and honey in it.  I was with them on that one though.  Oh well, maybe the Prairie Life isn't for us after all.

It is strange how all my reading can come together and which then fires my grey cells with a lot of thoughts.  Yesterday a friend posted on their Facebook Status this: Sir Winston Churchill said: "Success consists of someone going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." But, if you think about it, that's also the definition of an airhead.  Interesting.  Today, I read an article on Spark People about Abraham Lincoln which explained how he battled on with life through many disappointments and failure.  It got me thinking about how I cope with the trails of life.  I have a tendency to attend amazing pity parties with a guest of one.  How much more could I  achieve if I  use the set-backs as fuel to carry on?  Since my MIL died I have been trying to do that.  Life will throw up junk as we are in a broken and yucky world.  A verse in the Bible says "More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."  I need to get this way of thinking into my very being and see what I can achieve.

Day 5 - Who let the grump out?

Today, my alarm went off at 5.55 am as usual.  I got up, collected my things in the same order I do every morning, walked along the landing and then realised that I needed to go back to bed.  Spark People and Exercise TV did not get my presence today as I had a small little lie-in.  I told myself as I snuggled back under the covers, just because you missed it once does not mean it has to become a habit.

It was my last day at work for this week and I am glad.  I did not feel that happy at all. My tiredness made me a little on the grumpy side; and also the thought of a driving lesson.  Thankfully, I finished work on time which meant I could come home and take a breather before the lesson started.  My Instructor stopped the car for me to take the controls very near my house.  I was as nervous as anything but I felt more in control of the car.  We drove a long way from home (well it seemed like that) and I had a variety of road conditions to deal with: Lots of bends, a wonderful straight section of road, hills (there are an awful lot of those near where I live), cars overtaking me and a myriad of Lorries.  At the end of the lesson I felt exhausted but the Instructor thought I had done a good job and I have booked 2 more lessons.  So I feel better about this (until next week that is.  LOL)

I have been pondering about my place in our church.  I am not sure that I am contributing with the skills I have; not sure if there is anything for me to do.  It is beginning to make me feel useless but I was reading today that God Himself is what is important.  Of course, I must look for ways to use my abilities but that must not be what defines me.  At the moment I need to carry on with the little I already do and work on my Hospitality and befriending of people. 

Off to put the final touches to dinner (Salmon and Bulghar Wheat Salad) and we will see if the others like it.

Day 4 - Unremarkable Day

Today was just like any other day really so I will not bore you with the minutiae.  Please humour me as you read the following 2 quotes.

John 221:17 - Feed My Sheep.  "Peter now realizes that he does love Jesus, due to the revelation that came with the Lord’s piercing question. The Lord’s next point is— "Pour yourself out. Don’t testify about how much you love Me and don’t talk about the wonderful revelation you have had, just ’Feed My sheep.’ " Jesus has some extraordinarily peculiar sheep: some that are unkempt and dirty, some that are awkward or pushy, and some that have gone astray! But it is impossible to exhaust God’s love, and it is impossible to exhaust my love if it flows from the Spirit of God within me. The love of God pays no attention to my prejudices caused by my natural individuality. If I love my Lord, I have no business being guided by natural emotions— I have to feed His sheep. We will not be delivered or released from His commission to us. Beware of counterfeiting the love of God by following your own natural human emotions, sympathies, or understandings. That will only serve to revile and abuse the true love of God."



Oswald Chambers by 'My Utmost for His Highest'.  

Question:  What sort of sheep are you?




"I wish I could be like one of the old Vikings.  I'd have the deacons carry me in and lay me down at the foot of the communion table, and then torch the old ship, and it and I would sail into eternity together.  Though in fact I hope they will save the table.  Surely they will."

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

I am not sure whether I am supposed to laugh at this quote but I did and a few others from Gilead.  I am thoroughly enjoying the whimsical trip through the thoughts of John Ames his son. 

Day 3 - A Comedy of Errors

Today was a funny old day.  I got up and felt much better than yesterday, so I did 30 minutes of kickboxing plus my Strength training exercises.  The school 'getting ready' section went really well and nobody had to sit on the stairs (including me!)  I had a lovely few minutes with my eldest daughter on the way to school as the youngest went to her Physio appointment.  It was great just to be able to have that 1-on-1 time and she loved it as well.

Work, however, was just one of THOSE days. Everything was all tickity-boo until I cut my finger with a knife whilst cutting up apples at snack-time.  It was a classic example of 'more haste less speed'; the clean-up operation took a considerable amount of my time and that of another work who had to bandaged me up.  It was a good job I had already done my activity for the day.  For the rest of my day at work I had to work with a rather Heath Robinson-style dressing but even that could be turned into a puppet to entertain the children.  I also looked like I was doing a Masonic-type hand-sign as I held my hand in an awkward position in order for the finger to stop bleeding.  Apart from that,  the Deputy had to show a new member of staff around, show the Nursery to a potential new parent and their baby and we had a visit from Rentikol just as we sat the children down to lunch.  And to top it off a child was sick at the end of Lunch-time.  Thankfully, I was able to smile about it.

After school the girls had their annual Opticians appointment.  I was one proud mummy when she told me that I had very good girls who sat and did as they were told.  I am thankful that they have never been much bother on visits to the Medical Establishment. 

I  will have to leave the world of the Net to go and do something more realistic like catching up on my work paperwork.

Day 2

So I am doing a Challenge this month and for this week I am to write a blog about how I feel.  It may go on but I haven't read that far.  I was supposed to start yesterday but didn't.  So here goes.

Today was Monday, back at work.  I work up as usual to do my exercises but could only manage a small amount of Strength and Cardio.  The rest of my morning routine went well and I managed to get the girls to school on time, come home and read my bible and then be at work on time.  Over the weekend I hadn't managed to catch up on my work paperwork so wasn't prepared to start this week.  Thankfully, I managed to think up an activity.

I have an ongoing issue that is causing me stress but thankfully today I was able to talk it through with my husband and work it out in my own head and I can see a way around it.  I need to now act on some of the conclusions I have come to.

I have been feeling generally a little tired all day and have felt incredibly hungry but am pleased to say I didn't grab the easiest snacks in the house; instead I eat fruit, veg and healthy snacks.

I am way behind on my planning for work but managed to get one section of it finished and that felt good.  I also sorted out the mountain of paperwork that had grown on my kitchen table.  So today was a good day for Admin.

Tomorrow is another day.