Lazy Saturday

It's lovely to be lazy, to rest and relax sometimes. To have nowhere to rush to, nowhere to go, no-one to see. We've not had much of that recently.

So I've had a nice time this morning.  Done a bit of reading, a bit of praying, a bit of pottering, a bit of gardening, a bit of sitting here typing this.

I've been to Bible college this week, I really enjoyed it.  The topics covered the Cross and prophecy.  I loved it.  I was particularly exercised by the teaching on the historical cross and the 'current' cross and it's effect on our lives.  Christ died once for all and our sins are eternally dealt with, but there is a daily application of the cross to our lives - carrying our cross, etc.  Very good. Lots to think about.

We had a lovely evening with G's mom and dad on Thursday, eating out at a local Tapas restaurant. Lots of fun.

Last night we had a couple view our house.  They live on my mum and dad's street. It seems a strange move to us, but we don't care the reasons LOL. Hopefully someone will buy soon!!

Today I've been pottering in the garden.

My hydrangea bush is blooming nicely...LOL amusing shot of my toes too.

Even a horrid fly is made beautiful by its surroundings :) (Click on the picture to see better)

My gorgeous dahlias - it's a constant struggle to stop the slugs devouring these.

I love my garden, but I am no expert.  The bare patch below was full of gorgeous happy pansies.  They were healthy and beautiful, but then one by one they started to wilt and die, so did a number in my pots.  I watered them regularly.  But no, they still wilted.  So I researched and found out that it could be a number of things.  Digging discovered a number of tiny worms - some tiny white ones and also some slightly bigger brown ones.  I then researched how to deal with them, but our local garden centre didn't have what I needed. 

So I dug them out, rinsed the roots (which were eaten up), removed the top few inches of soil and repotted the pansies with some rooting powder in new compost in a couple of pots.

As you can see above, some have revived, but some are just brown sticks.  My pansies failed last year too, it's very frustrating.  But IT'S OK TO FAIL! :)

My other plants are doing well (ignore the tall grass, haha).

Happy days. x

Sunday beauty

Well, it's 7am here.  I've fed the cat, had my morning coffee, pondered what a hard verse Luke 14:26 is, prayed a little, and now I thought I'd do a little bloggeroo.

It's beautiful outside, the grey skies are clearning a little sun is starting to break out.  The house is quiet.  Squidge was briefly woken up when I switched off the house alarm,  but has obvioulsy gone back to sleep.  Chatterbox is away with the church youth on an adventure weekend.  Praying she's had lots of fun!

Well, that's it for now.  I'll just share a recent picture of Squidge on a local walk, we are so blessed to live near such beauty:

You laid the foundation of the earth, 

And the heavens are the work of Your hands.

~Psalm 102:25

What's goin' down?

I've really been missing blogging. So, I'm hoping to get chance this week to blog a bit more.

So what've I been up to?

Helping mum look after Grandma - mum has been diagnosed with poly rheumatica myalgia, it's an inflammatory disorder.  She's on steroids, but hopefully should be off them in a year or two.  Keep mum in your prayers, she's been through so much health wise with her stroke and migraines and then this.

Keeping up with the Bible College summer programme.  We've done about Job and suffering, and Fear. Next week it's the Interior Christ - which should be interesting.

I gave a message at church a few Sundays ago.  That was great and I loved it - despite huge nerves!  I did about Life in Abundance.  I'll perhaps share my notes on here if anyone is interested :) People were so encouraging.

Our house has gone up for sale, we've only had one viewer though and he was a landlord who wanted an investment property and didn't want to offer anywhere near the asking price.  PLEASE pray!  We need near full asking price to afford to buy the house we want. I long for a house with nice neighbours with a nice garden and enough room for our family.  I don't even mind a house that needs work, we can make it pretty. But it's in God's hands, He knows best.

We've viewed a few houses, one that we loved and could afford has gone already, one that we LOVE but can't really afford needs a miracle LOL.  I covet your prayers.

Here are some pics of our house (if you're like me, nosying around houses is just the best).

Love my garden.  We've never had money for landscaping, so it's all just what we've done.

Boots tried to get in on every photo.  Had to put her outside LOL

Hallway

Living Room

Living Room - it's lovely to overlook the garden, very private. The picture to the right of the window was by Squidge.

More living room - the pictures over the lamp are by my girls, the one to the right of the door was by my nan.

Kitchen - where the magic...erm fire...happens.

Diner end of kitchen - one day I'll have a dining room...without a tumble drier in it!! Haha

Birds eye view of our tiny bathroom - but isn't it pretty?

Our bedroom.

Chatterbox's bedroom

Squidge's bedroom

Well, that's the tour of our house...it's a lovely little house, but it's time to move on.  Here's my wish list:  nice garden, not too overlooked, space to have people over for meals, near church/schools (I don't have the car during the day), nice neighbours, and if we are very blessed a place that I can study and space for the hubster to practice his music, and a utility room!

Hope you're having a soooooper weekend!

So what's going on?

Just some things that have happened.  Nothing gripping. Just chit-chat.

Boots just ate a blue-bottle fly.  I heard it buzzing in her mouth...and then she crunched it.  YUK!

I've been on a short course at Bible college looking at the Book of Job.  Job is my least favourite book of the Bible, I like the beginning and the end, but the discourses just go on TOO long.  However, I got myself a commentary and attended the course, and the book means so much more to me now.  I'm quite interested in the concept of redemptive suffering now.

I have too many books on the go:

• Let God Be God: Life-Changing Truths from the Book of Job- Ray Stedman [the Job commentary I mentioned above]
• Sacred Rhythms - Ruth Hayley Barton [About creating space in various ways to seek God taking inspiration from monastic traditions.  To be honest I'm not getting much out of it...but hopefully will have the willpower to finish LOL]
• A Reformation Reader - Denis R. Janz [A compilation of various theological texts from the Reformation and pre-reformation period from both sides of the fence. Each text has a brief introduction]

Got a stack that I want to read too.  *Sigh* not enough hours in the day.

Husband broke my garden swing today.  I was sat on it, reading A Reformation Reader, enjoying the sunshine and I thought to myself, "Chuh! Bloomin' husband sat in the living room on a nice day like this!"  So I told him to come and join me on the swing, to which he harumphed but obliged.  After about five minutes of sitting his side of the swing collapsed.  Curses!

And then he "fixed" it...

Such artisan skills

We did some work on the garden today.  I've been busy over the past two weeks planting and tidying, but as usual I've let the whole thing slip so far that it's a bit of an uphill task.  I'll post some photos perhaps but it's getting dark now.

I've also been painting the bathroom and toilet.  The plan is to decorate the house ready to sell..AGAIN. Lol we've been down this road before and been unsuccessful, so please pray.  Pray for wisdom about timing and price and all that jazz.  We've tried to sell many times over 10 years, we've not be entirely happy here but we want the people who buy to love it and enjoy it, so please pray about that, thanks!

Granddad has had some operations recently on his head - some cancerous growths - he's in quite a bit of pain.  I was going to visit, but Dad said that he wasn't feeling up to it, so perhaps next week I'll get over there.  Please pray for his recovery, he's had skin removed from his neck to graft.  At 95 years old it doesn't heal quickly.

Please pray for Mum too, she's been quite poorly, she's diagnosed with polymyalgia rhumatica and was in quite a bit of pain.  She's on steroids and they are helping, but she's very tired and the steroids have side-effects.  She's fed-up with being ill.  I'm basically in charge of Grandma at the moment, which is fine, but I just want Mum to be well.

OK...so is that everything? I think so.

Have a great weekend. :)