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| Look at that sky! Beautiful |
Good morning! It's been a while. Things have been busy. The weather has been beautiful and I have been feverishly working in the garden. Clearing weeds and planting some flowers. Living as we do in the shadow of the Pennines where the rain likes to settle you have to make the best of the dry weather. It has been GLORIOUS. In fact, it's been so sunny for so long that I can't believe that I am praying for a bit of rain. My front lawn is turning brown! It's cloudier today and there is a slight chance of rain, so you never know.
We've also been on a few lovely walks locally, and places where it is usually so muddy has been bone dry, even dusty.
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| Don't you think this tree looks a bit like it's shouting into the wind with the branches like its hair blowing behind? |
I've also made it to the final week 9 of the Couch to 5K programme. I am so proud of myself. I think I will stick to running twice a week (the programme has you running 3 times a week but I'm not a huge fan of running). My plan is to maybe supplement the runs with some swimming and going to the gym with my husband because I can go once a week with him as a guest on his subscription plan. At nearly 52 it was so hard to get into the running and I am still very slow but I feel much better and have lost a little belly fat too, which is good.
L, my youngest, has finally submitted all her assignments for her degree course at university. So it's just waiting for marking to be completed and then graduation in July!! She's bored already haha! But her boyfriend is visiting and then she's off down south to go to a football event (he's on a Sunday team) so that will keep her occupied for a while. B is off to Rome in Italy soon. A friend from the USA is visiting there so she will meet them there for a couple of nights. They are going to visit the Vatican as part of the trip.
Oh our oven decided to blow the electric this weekend. We got the electric back on but the oven is broken. We've had it for 11 years(ish) now so we've got a new one coming next weekend. Praise God for air fryers!! I could cook my salmon in there yesterday, and it came out nicely.
This afternoon B and I are going to the cinema to watch Thunderbolts which is a Marvel film. Should be fun.
Anyway, let's get onto Happy Homemaker Monday, hosted by Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.
The weather in my neck of the woods:
I bet I'll be complaining about the rain by Sunday! 😂
As I look outside my window:
It's actually cloudy. A few breaks in the clouds. I can hear birdsong, which is such a summery sound. Today I've heard robins, wrens, willow warblers, blackcaps, blackbirds, chaffinches and chiff chaffs. Such lovely sounds.
Right now I am:
Sitting on the bed typing this up. It's 11:42 am here. So far today I've taken B to her volunteer role at a local animal shelter, had breakfast, done a bit of Bible study and read my book, then walked to meet her its a lovely walk through the country footpaths.
Something fun to share:
This post about gardening and friendship by Ryanne Molinari. It's so true, when you're pulling up weeds and working with living growing things it makes you ponder deep things. Like as I was pulling up some weeds some of my plants were being pulled out with them and it made me think of the Parable of the Tares (Weeds) in Matthew 13:24-43. Good friendship helps us pull out the weeds in our lives and their support network helps us not get pulled out too. Click on the image below for the link.
Also YouTube videos by
Peter Santenello. He travels round the USA and makes videos as he chats to various people. I've watched one about Deep Appalachia and another at the US/Mexico Border with Arizona Sheriff. It's really interesting seeing other people's lives and perspectives. Really talking to people and not just hearing opinions in the news or on social media.
Thinking and pondering:
How hungry I am! I've been really hungry the past few days, like ravenous. I have phases like that. No doubt it's some kind of hormonal fluctuation like everything seems to be at my age haha!
I'm also pondering the things I need to do today. I need to do a post weekend house reset - tidy and quick clean round. I've washed my bedding and will hang it out after finishing this post. Then it will be past 12 noon, which I feel is an acceptable time to think about lunch 😂😂
On my bedside table:
Eyedrops, a pile of books, my diary, lavendar essential oil and coconut body cream.
On my TV:
Rewatching The Office (USA version). IT Crowd (British comedy from the 1990s) - just finished it. Season 1 of NCIS. Good American Family.
Listening to:
Birds chirping outside. Coco (our cat) washing herself - she licks so loudly! haha
On the menu for this week:
Monday: Lentil curry
Tuesday: Tuna pasta.
Wednesday: Chicken burgers.
Thursday: not sure, we are at a church event so it'll be something quick and easy.
Friday: Pizza, if I can get the top oven working, not sure if that one is broken too.
Saturday: don't know
Sunday: don't know
On my to do list:
Hang out bedding.
Go to cinema.
Tidy and clean house.
Maybe gardening if I have time - but at least water pots and hanging basket.
On my reading pile:
Tangled Web by LM Montgomery.
Currently in Job in my Bible reading plan.
Letters of CS Lewis.
My simple pleasure:
The smell of washed clothes/bedding after it's been hung outside to dry. It smells so much better than if it's dried indoors or in a dryer.
Looking around the house:
I need to paint the new doors G has hung. But the weather has been too nice for indoor work!
From the camera:
We went to see How to Train Your Dragon with a Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra playing the music. It was AMAZING. Absolutely wonderful. If you see a similar thing being done in your neck of the woods, go! You won't regret it.
Bible verse, devotional:
"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." Matthew 22:36-40
I was thinking about this in church yesterday. We had a visiting preacher and he was talking about grace. He gave an example, what would you say to a man who was drunk every day of the week and was unkind to his wife, but who said to you that it was OK because God forgave him because of grace?
There are many things you could say to this man, but it set me off thinking about the Matthew verse above. God is our father, a good father loves us. He doesn't want us drunk because alcohol in excess is so damaging to our health and behaviour. Any good parent wants the best for their children and it really hurts us when our children engage in self-destructive behaviour. Therefore to drink to excess is not loving towards God. And the way he was treating his wife was not loving towards her - he was mistreating someone who was nearer than a neighbour. So he was breaking the two commandments on which everything else hangs. Love God. Love people. We don't have grace from God so we can extra-sin, we have grace from God because of Jesus, because he loves us, wants the best for us, and hopefully that love which God has given in abundance would overflow from us so that our lives would be one of loving God and loving others. That should be our prayer...not 'how much can I get away with because of grace'.
I guess that might be a bit garbled, but that's where my mind went.
Have a lovely week.
Sarah xx
