If you're going to name your kittehs in your will...

This tickled me...

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Snapshot of life

Photobomb!

Squidge - like Bambi on ice.

It's a gazillion degrees out there. You want to try working in a school kitchen in this weather. Phew! With all the ovens, bain-marie, steamer, dishwasher going it was like, well, an oven in there today.

Be advised; Heat not a furnace for your [school dinners] so hot, That it do singe yourself: ~Shakespeare-ish (Henry VIII).

Hope you're enjoying your week!

Pip, pip!

Blog with integrity

I saw this on Melissa's blog. I like it.

Click on the button to take you to the site.

Blog-arino

Quite a few blogs that I used to read don't post any more, or at least post very infrequently. So I have a number of 'test' blogs in my Google Reader.

I'd really like to find some British Christian blogs, but they are few and far between, particularly female British Christian blogs, there are a few that I follow and enjoy (I think I have three or four) but most are from the USA.

Can you recommend any blogs? They don't necessarily have to be British, but it would be nice to read some from over here.

Dah, dah, oh what are the words??

I often get songs in my mind but for the life of me cannot remember the lyrics. Today was the turn of O Worship the King, except what I was singing was:

Dah, dah dah dah dah, O gratefully sing His power and His love, dah, dah, dah, dah, the Ancient of Days, something about pavilions...and girded with praise.

It has been driving me mad, oh thank goodness for Google!

Here are the words:

O Worship the King: Sung to the Hanover tune.

O worship the King, all glorious above,
O gratefully sing His power and His love;
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,
Pavilioned in splendour, and girded with praise.

O tell of His might, O sing of His grace,
Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space,
His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,
And dark is His path on the wings of the storm.

The earth with its store of wonders untold,
Almighty, Thy power hath founded of old;
Established it fast by a changeless decree,
And round it hath cast, like a mantle, the sea.

Thy bountiful care, what tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air, it shines in the light;
It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain,
And sweetly distils in the dew and the rain.

Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
In Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail;
Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end,
Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend.

O measureless might! Ineffable love!
While angels delight to worship Thee above,
The humbler creation, though feeble their lays,
With true adoration shall all sing Thy praise.

Such a beautiful hymn.

Hope you're having a super-diddly-dandy Monday.

Mmm, Butterfly cakes

with buttercream filling, I made them for hubs as a treat for Father's Day.



...and Boots looking malevolent or snooty, I can't decide which.



Oh and speaking of the kittehs, I LOVE this advert from Cravendale - "Ever wondered why cats stare while you're pouring milk? It's because they know that it is only a matter of time... That time is the only thing between them and opposable thumbs."



LOL.

It's Friday...

What time is it?

08.02 am

My plans for the day.

To fit black-out lining to Chatterbox's curtains - I'm taking them down to Mum's later today we are going to do it together (they're quite heavy). She did have a blind but the plaster is so bad in our house the blind kept falling down.

Work - I have to go in an hour earlier because we are a member of staff down for a while.

Some ironing, a bit of cleaning.

What am I listening to.

The music on my blog.

What song have I been singing this morning?>

Jesus is Lord, creation's voice proclaims it, and by His power each tree and flower was planned and made!

What I am thinking.

How wonderful our God is and how beautiful Jesus is. My heart swells with the wonder and the depth of what we don't even know and yet will one day. Our Lord and Saviour, King of Kings, Lord of Lords. Amen.

What I am reading.

The Stripping of the Altars by Eamon Duffy, a look at religion in pre-Reformation England and the aftermath.

Chronological reading of the Bible - I'm in Genesis now with the stories about Abraham, I've read part of Genesis and all of Job so far.

To Chatterbox: we are about to start The Sea of Adventure by Enid Blyton

To Squidge: James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

Cat of the Week

Simon's Cat - Hidden Treasures



Some blog plans:

I want to put some profile stuff on - perhaps as 'Page Elements': what I believe, my testimony, a few likes and dislikes. Other than that I'm quite happy with the look of my blog right now.

Scripture thoughts:

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part.

But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13.

Love abides eternally. The love we have outside of God is transient and doesn't last - as CS Lewis wrote: "Everyone feels benevolent if nothing happens to be annoying him at the moment". The love of God lasts forever. The greatest act of love in all time was the giving of Jesus upon the cross. The only way we can show love is through God abiding in us by His Holy Spirit. Love is the greatest of the gifts from God. What we understand now is just a shadow of the truth that awaits us when we will meet God face-to-face.

When He died in the Wounded World He died not for men, but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, He would have done no less. Each thing, from the single grain of Dust to the strongest eldil, is the end and the final cause of all creation and the mirror in which the beam of His brightness comes to rest and so returns to Him. Blessed be He! C.S Lewis

Have a great weekend!

Back on the vitamins

Hahahahahaha. I love these old adverts. So subtle.

I'm going to re-start taking my vitamins (which I was prohibited from whilst taking the antibiotics - something to do with iron and magnesium). I suffer with low-iron, which makes me very snoozy and breathless when walking up hills. I eat my red meat and greens too. I'm also going to eat more fruit, I am determined (I say this often and slip back into old ways).

Do you manage to get your 5 a day? (Fruit & veg. that is, here in the UK that is the recommended amount - not sure what other countries recommend. Do you take vitamins? Some people swear by them and others think they're a waste of time.

Hubster on the other hand is recovering from a knee operation (you may remember me mentioning it here). He had been suffering excruciating pain. They found two pebble sized piece of bone floating around in his knee cap. They had broken away from his thigh bone. They then drilled into the damaged bone to try to encourage regrowth of cartilage to try to improve the smoothness of the bone (essential in a useful knee cap!). Anyway, the doctor was amazed at how well it had healed and so quickly. He was back at work after a week. We are convinced it is prayer that has sped up the healing process. Thank you God! We will continue to pray that he cartilage grows back because really he needs a new knee - but they are reluctant to do that for someone so young because new knees don't last very long.

Blogger is still annoying me, but I'm sticking with it for now. Wordpress may be the answer, but I'm going to try to stay with Blogger until I get to throwing computer out of window stage.

Pip, pip!

Whilst the hubster was at church music group I've been playing with a playlist in the sidebar. Most of it is folk music, which I love, it may change to classical or Christian or whatever depending on my mood that week. You can click the pause button if you don't wish to listen. The playlist is underneath if you want to choose a different song.

Happy listening!

Paradigm shift

Carrying on from my rather garbled post yesterday (I was tired)(Oh Sisyphus, I Understand), I think I have pinpointed the source of my discontent...

Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this [paradigm shift]...ahem. :)

As I observed to Melissa in my comment:

Melissa, part of the problem is that my life has changed in the past year in that I am still trying to do all the stuff I did before I started working (and I am absolutely shattered when I get back from work because it's such a physically demanding job). House has become a pressure, I'm constantly watching the clock, I'm constantly bothered that I've not done all my cleaning, I'm constantly bothered that I'm not having enough time with the girls; all the joy of home that I used to have has gone. Something's gotta give!

I felt like it was an endless, thankless task. You clean, then it looks messy again (ah such is the nature of housework).

I know that I need to refocus and change the paradigm of home in my own mind. It isn't about cleanliness (though that is to some extent important), it isn't about perfect interior decoration, it's about something deeper.

So a light came on. I need a paradigm shift. Too often when life gets busy we put our heads down and push (like ol' Sisyphus) and push, the difficulty and the work is all you can see and feel. Housework is such a small part of being a mother/wife yet it had become that boulder I am sick of pushing. Silly really. Stand outside and it is such a small thing.

I feel better now I've decided that.

Carry on chaps...

Oh Sisyphus, I understand.

The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labour. ~Albert Camus

I love my home. I really do. Many a post I have written about home - and I'll always be passionate about making a home for my family. But, of late, too much I have concentrated on housework and not home, until I am Sisyphus endlessly pushing that rock that never reaches the top of the mountain. I am the woman that Rudyard Kipling speaks of: You sometimes see a woman who would have made a Joan of Arc in another century and climate, threshing herself to pieces over all the mean worry of housekeeping (From Plain Tales of the Hills, Rudyard Kipling). But I am a perfectionist. I make no joy of my housework, but make myself a martyr to it. If I haven't thoroughly cleaned my living room by Tuesday I am stressed. But who made the rule that it must be done by Tuesday? Me. And if it is done by Tuesday by Wednesday it looks like it did Monday, so then I'm stressed again. Oh Sisyphus, I understand!

But what is the plan? Yikes, I always need a plan (that can't be good). Moving on with trepidation then...

• Firstly, the husbando helpfully informed me that I simply have to lower my standards - yep, still working on that.
• Secondly, I have decided to enjoy my home - that is not the perfection of the cleanliness (no cleanliness ISN'T next to godliness!) but the family and friends therein.
• Thirdly, I will remember one of my favourite quotes by Thomas More: the ordinary arts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest.To enjoy each simple task in itself. It's not a race, it's not a competition. To find God in the small things and to thank Him for it.

I'm not sure if Sisyphus really did find life meaning in the all-encompassing task of pushing that rock up the hill (as Albert Camus suggests), I'm sure he'd much rather stop and do something else for a bit at least! Surely there had to be a worthwhile point to his rolling?

But will my inherent perfectionism let me let go? Watch this space. Can you make home without the perfect house? Intriguing.

I'll leave the last words to Mother Teresa:

Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do...but how much love we put in that action
~ Mother Teresa

Anyway, enough of my mardy moaning, let's talk about the Kittehs!

Here's a cute site: Cat in a box We all know that if there is a box and a kitty the kitty will be in the box. Rather like if there is a kitty and a piece of paper in the middle of the floor, before long the kitty will be sat in the middle of the paper. We love the kittehs.

Toodle-pip chaps.

We're going to the zoo zoo zoo....

How about you, you, you?
You can come too, too, too
We're goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo.

See the elephant with the long trunk swingin'
Great big ears and a long trunk swingin'
Snuffin' up peanuts with a long trunk swingin'
And we can stay all day!

Well we stayed all day and I'm gettin' sleepy
Sittin' in the car gettin' sleep sleep sleepy
Home already gettin' sleep sleep sleepy
'Cause we have stayed all day.

We been to the zoo zoo zoo
So have you you you
You came too too too
We been to the zoo zoo zoo

(from'Going to the Zoo' by Peter, Paul and Mary

Isn't my husband handsome? :)

And I think I'm just the belle of the ball. :)

We had a fun day. This was Squidge's choice for her birthday treat. The Saturday before her 7th birthday we went to Build a Bear and she made a lovely rabbit, we met Hello Kitty, had some balloon animals made and went to McDonalds for tea (NOT my choice, we tried to persuade Squidge that another eating establishment would be preferable, but she was adamant). The weekend after her birthday she wanted to either go to the beach or Chester Zoo. The weather made the beach an unattractive prospect so the zoo it was.

I'm in two minds about zoos. Chester Zoo has a great conservation scheme, but I still dislike seeing animals in captivity, especially the big cats. Although the lions just spend all day snoozing, the jaguars seemed distressed to me walking round and round and round. There are a multiplicity of arguments for and against zoos. The aim of conservation schemes in zoos is to maintain population of endangered animals and then reintroduce them to the wild at some point, but as Born Free point out this doesn't always work. Tigers, apparently, have never been successfully reintroduced to the wild.

But, for me, I think zoos like Chester Zoo are a useful and important (but imperfect) way to protect certain species. Hopefully, though, a better method of animal conservation will be found and promoted. I do love to see the animals, but always, always, feel a bit uncomfortable.

POINT OF INTEREST: I really don't like monkeys/apes/chimps. I try to like them, but they creep me out. Lock 'em up I say, they're plotting the downfall of mankind!

I jest, I jest.

Pip, pip!

Edit: my husband has just made the point that one of the birds on display at the zoo is extinct in the wild, which is an example of a zoo maintaining the existence of a species. Though, whether the bird happy to be alive in the zoo is perhaps another story.

Brief history of mine

I've been ill this last week. Hence the plethora of blog posts recently. Too ill to clean but not ill enough to blog.

I had an awful headache for three days. After trying a variety of pills and potions I gave up and went to my GP. I have a sinus infection. The anti-biotics he gave me are very jolly. I MUST eat them sitting down or standing up, or else! This is because they disturb the delicate balance of one's belly and if you lie down too soon it'll all come back up. Additionally, I am warned NOT TO GO OUT IN SUNLIGHT when taking the pills. Not sure why I'm not allowed out in sunlight, maybe like Dracula I will turn into a small pile of dust. If I stop seeing my reflection in mirrors then I think I'll pop back to my doctor and ask for the antidote. :P

Just noticed the time, I must away to work. I'll tell you all about Chester Zoo another time.

Pip, pip.

Saturday's post about our recent trip to Newby Hall is at my Wordpress blog: Meow

Book Reviews

A couple of my book reviews from Good Reads...the question is, will Blogger let me post this?

The Tempest by William Shakespeare

My rating: 3 stars


It was OK. I haven't read The Bard for quite a few years, so getting used to the style of writing took a bit of time. I'm not the hugest Shakespeare fan to be honest, I find the characters' long speeches a little wearing sometimes.


Apparently, many think that it was Shakespeare's last play and I can see how Prospero's 'retirement' from magic is Shakespeare alluding to his retirement from playwriting. Because it is such a short play the characters aren't very rounded and I didn't really care about them much. There are a few amusing parts involving Caliban and his drunken mates.

Would I read it again? Possibly.

Balderdash and Piffle by Alex James

My rating: 4 stars


A very interesting book. I am fascinated by the English language, so much so that I wish I had enough money to do a course. But then if I had enough money to do a course perhaps I would do Theology. I digress.

Anyway, this isn't a scholarly tome but a fun look at the evolution of the English language. Some parts seem a little rushed, but it does provide a broad scope rather than an in depth analysis.

I'd certainly recommend the book, though it does cover profanity and swear words so if you're sensitive to that kind of thing be warned - there's a whole chapter on it.

I don't know if this will post, but I'm blogging at Meow until Blogger sorts out whatever it is that is causing me endless problems here.

I really don't have the hours available to upload photos, write a post, blah blah blah, for it to disappear into the wilderness.

Hopefully see you over there!

Denomination Derby

Derby /ˈdɜːrbɪ/ n. (pl. Derbies) ^2. (derby or local derby) Brit. a sports match between two rival teams from the same area. (Oxford English Dictionary)

In aimless internet wandering last night I fell upon a Christian forum 'CARM'. It is naive I know, but it never ceases to amaze me - the attitude of superiority amongst so many contributors, who really are all essentially batting for the same team but end up committing verbal hooliganism with the hatred and venom of Manchester United and Liverpool fans. To quote yet another clichéd idiom - we should all be singing from the same hymn sheet, even if we disagree when the hymn was written and the speed at which it should be sung!

Perhaps it is a case of a superiority complex - one must appear to be superior and have all the answers in case you are rumbled and discovered to actually be just as in the dark as everyone else.

But what, dear reader, what, at the end of the day*, is a Christian?

(*at the end of the day, it's a game of two halves - my British readers will rejoice in my excessive use of football commentator stock phrases)

Christian ˈkrɪstɪən, tʃ(ə) adj. ¹ . relating to or professing Christianity or its teachings. ² informal having qualities associated with Christians, e.g. kindness. n. a person who has received Christian baptism or is a believer in Christianity. (Oxford English Dictionary)

"[H]aving qualities associated with Christians, e.g. kindness", the editor of the OED obviously hasn't visited CARM recently :P

How are Christians called? We are called to serve, to humble ourselves. To teach - yes (if we truly believe that in God's sight we have the answer), to beat down no. To reason - perhaps, to bully - NO! To exhort - yes, to destroy - no.

"Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave — just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." Matthew 20:26-28

Oh I love a good discussion, I agree that we all don't agree on the finer points of doctrine and probably never will until that great and glorious day when it will all be revealed. But we all know Jesus died for us, He set us free and we have redemption and resurrection because of Him. Surely that should count for something...everything!

Wouldn't it be beautiful it we enjoyed talking about Jesus, if we enjoyed discussing what He really meant, if we prayed before we shared, if we prayed for the people we discussed with, if we kept humble servant hearts and were more ready to listen than to speak, if we displayed the fruits of the Spirit and not the fruits of darkness.

Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:29-32

I could write all this on the forum, but I would be eaten alive, alive I tell you! And would come across as being full of myself...which would defeat the object. And then I would get all offended and commit some verbal hooliganism of my own - yes, I am aware of my own weakness. I have written some pretty ham-fisted posts and comments in my time. I have started arguments, I have offended and I have fired off the odd stinging email - so I ain't writin' this from my pedestal in the clouds!

Going back to the OED definition of Christian, the main issue is that we cannot agree what 'Christian' actually means - what is 'Christianity'?. Does it simply mean someone who, to the best of their ability, follows Jesus? Or, are there criteria? We cannot agree on that either. We cannot agree what 'born-again' means. We cannot agree on what communion/breaking bread/Eucharist really means. We cannot agree on baptism. We cannot agree what 'church' means. We cannot agree on the work of the Holy Spirit. We circle one another like hyenas or coyotes, making little cutting remarks and personal insults, "You belong to a cult, your voice is not worthy to be heard", "You believe XYZ, you must be insulted because your viewpoint is quite frankly stupid". No. The only One Who is not stupid is God. We are all truly fools in our own minds - only God has the full truth and NONE of us have reached the goal yet. We press on, indeed! We seek the will of God. We read His Holy Word and pray for understanding. Because if we speak the truth we speak from His understanding and not our own. Man can never in his own mind understand, it is with the mind of Christ that we understand so that no man may boast. This, I believe, is the work of the Holy Spirit who reveals the truth to us as He wills.

Oh I agree there are Christian cults out there, who believe some weird things and try to get their followers to live in caves and drink poison! But even they don't need a circle of coyotes ripping them apart and treating them as monsters. We need the truth, but we need the truth in love. Not wishy-washy nicey-nicey bleugh, the truth hurts sometimes. But between brothers - and even if you don't agree you are brothers you are at least humans! - there should be mutual respect, prayer and love.

I love a good debate. I don't like the nastiness, which I why I shy away from actually commenting on forums - in case the full moon comes out and I start to howl.

I am the fairest daughter of the year.

Mine is the Month of Roses; yes, and mine
The Month of Marriages! All pleasant sights
And scents, the fragrance of the blossoming vine,
The foliage of the valleys and the heights.
Mine are the longest days, the loveliest nights;
The mower's scythe makes music to my ear;
I am the mother of all dear delights;
I am the fairest daughter of the year.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

June is a lovely month, not quite summer, not quite the end of Spring. That joyous moment between, before we all start to think about Christmas...Ahem.

It is also the month of Squidge's birthday...the fairest daughter of the year. Well, along with Chatterbox, who - bien sûr - is also a fair daughter! :)

Squidge is 7 years old. I'm so proud of my little girl, she's a little treasure.

Boots is in every birthday photo of course, she's quite the kitty Prima Donna.

Have a super-dooper week.

Pip, pip!