Happy Homemaker Monday

The weather in my neck of the woods:
Wet and muddy with patches of ice here and there.

One of my simple pleasures:
A lovely cup of coffee - black, no sugar please - and a good book.

On my bedside table:
The Stripping of the Altars and The Book of Common Prayer, You're Coming With Me Lad: Tales of a Yorkshire Bobby and my Bible.

On my TV:

• A History of Christianity with Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch.
• History of Britain with Simon Schama. There's more info. on Wikipedia, if you're interested. I'm up to 'Revolutions' 1649–1689. Britain after Charles I's execution, when Britain was led by Oliver Cromwell. This was really a miserable period in history - Oliver Cromwell wasn't the most jolly of chaps, and he did some fairly atrocious things.

On the menu for tonight:
Lasagne

On my To Do List:
Catching up with chores after the weekend.
Hopefully some reading.
Some washing and ironing.
Taking the girls to dancing.

New Recipe I tried last week:
Chocolate brownies, which were a partial success.
Beef and carrot casserole with cheesy dumplings from the recipe book From My Mother's Kitchen.

In the craft basket:
Nothing at the minute.

Looking forward to:
Getting to church tomorrow, I missed yesterday.

Homemaking Tip for this week:
To get scum off your bath, sprinkle washing powder (laundry powder) onto a cloth and use it as a gentle scourer. The scum should come off easily without scratching the surface of the bath.

Favorite Blog Post of the week (mine or other):
2010 - Living in the Future by Angela. I want this book! It's a book written in 1972 in which some chap predicts what life would be like in 2010. Angela links to a website devoted to the book. She also writes about her day in 1972. Ahh, it makes me all nostalgic...well I wasn't born until 1973, but anyway...penny sweets, long hot summers, our Vauxhall Viva, my Dad's big moustache...LOL!

And also, Simple Arithmetic by Monix. I have such a time with Chatterbox's maths because it isn't taught in the same way that I was taught...and I find it so confusing that it was good to read that someone else finds it rather befuddling too.

Favourite photo from last week:

Not one of mine:

Friends of Irony

Lesson learned the past few days:
Can I say 'lesson learned' when it's something I keep falling down on? Guarding my tongue (or my typing on the internet) is an ongoing lesson. And also not reading things on the internet I know are going to wind me up! Let it go Sarah, let it go! :)

Onwards and upwards one hopes...

On my Prayer List:
My dear friend who has cancer and is being put onto an aggressive cancer treatment. However, she is a walking miracle confounding doctors, they cannot imagine how she has carried on with her life. She is an inspiration - but does suffer so needs lots of prayer.
My Dad who has been made redundant and who finishes in March.
My family, my church and my friends.

Devotionals, Scripture Reading, Key Verses:
Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." Matthew 19:21 (NIV)

Hosted by Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.

Typically British Reading Challenge

Oh the possibilities! Hat tip to Pamela for this one.

I'm thinking, Elizabeth Goudge, some more Sherlock courtesy of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Rosamunde Pilcher, Douglas Adams, Sir Terrance Pratchett (more commonly known as Terry), and perhaps I ought to find some English/British authors that I'm not familiar with?

The plan is to read a certain amount of British authored works of fiction over the next 12 months. There are 4 levels:

• "Put The Kettle On" – Read 2 Typically British novels.
• "Gordon Bennett" – Read 4 Typically British novels.
• "Bob's Your Uncle" – Read 6 Typically British novels.
• "Cream Crackered" – Read 8 Typically British novels.

I'm going for 'Cream Crackered'. I don't really read much foreign fiction so I think it will be fairly easy (that's if I'm not still reading 'The Stripping of the Altars' for the next 12 months!!).

To join in click on the image at the beginning of this post.

New Year's Resolutions

Reads: May Your Troubles Last as Long as Your New Year's Resolutions
Allposters

So it's that time of the year, when I think to myself, "New Year, clean slate". These are my general resolutions - or in my case New Year 'hope to achieve but no doubt will slip up a gazillion times'. My main hopes n' dreams are mostly to do with growing closer to God, but if I'm being specific I'd say, prayer-life and Bible study/reading. I also want to read more (for me and the girls), exercise more and eat healthier, do something special with the kiddiwinks at least once a month. Nothing earth shattering there - and rah rah rah heard it all before, but we all need a dream don't we? :)

Prayer-life
With regard to my prayer-life that is just a case of making time and trying to set aside the first part of the day and leaning on God more throughout the day.

Bible Study/Reading plan
For Bible study, this year I plan to read through the Bible using the Anglican Book of Common Prayer's reading plan because it reads through the Old Testament once and the New twice. It also reads through all the Psalms each month. I thought it was a good plan to follow.

If you're interested:

Bible readings for each day of the month can be found here. It's listed as Morning and Evening, but as I am doing it in my own time I'll just read the lessons for the day.

Special readings for Sundays and Holy Days (Christmas, Easter, etc) can be found here.

The order for Psalms for daily reading can be found here.

Of course some days it will be too much, so I'm going to endeavour not to make it a ENORMOUS issue if I miss a chapter on the 'correct' day. I know me, I'll get stressed out if I don't do it all, then get disenchanted with the whole idea. For example, the Psalms - it would be lovely to read through all the Psalms every month, but realistically it is likely not to be done every month.

Also, you might note, the Church of England does use the Apocrypha for some lessons (here is the view given by the CofE in their 39 articles on the Apocryphal books: "And the other Books (as Hierome saith) the Church doth read for example of life and instruction of manners; but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine"). My personal view of the Apocrypha is...well...I have no idea really. Some denominations say it's canon, some say it's useful but not canon and some reject it entirely. But it'll be interesting to read the snippets that the reading plan involves.

If you're wondering why the Book of Common Prayer, for those of you who don't know, I am not CofE although I used to be:

I was baptised as an infant Moravian
I was raised CofE and confirmed CofE
Was 'born-again' in a Venetian Roman Catholic chapel (it's a long story)
Was baptised as an adult in a non-denominational church

So I'm quite a smorgasbord Christian. Lol. Although I must say I have been a member of the same church (as in body of people) since I was 4. We used to be CofE but separated in 2001 - also a long story. I have a deep affection for the Anglican church and its liturgy, which is why I mention Anglican stuff on occasion.

Phew, I do rather over-explain things don't I! Are you bovvered? ;)

Books (for me and the girls)
I do want to read more books...but time doesn't always permit does it? I'm in the middle of a rather weighty tome entitled The Stripping of the Altars, I want to read more historical books, and some more Elizabeth Goudge because I LOVED The Herb of Grace that Dulce Domum lent me. I also plan to read Slow March Through Hell - which is written by a soldier (Douglas Swift) that served in my Granddad's regiment, they were prisoners of war and had to march across Europe. My Granddad doesn't remember Mr Swift, but my Granddad endured that awful march across Europe:

The gripping and harrowing personal account of a young Eastbourne Corporation gardener’s forced march through eastern Europe as a POW while his Nazi captors fled the Russian advance during the harsh winter of 1945.

Douglas Swift, of the Royal Sussex Regiment, was captured near Amiens in 1940.

He and his scandalously ill-equipped comrades had bravely tried to withstand General Guderian’s Panzers as they made their lightning advance through retreating French troops.

Shipped off to Poland with the few remaining survivors of his unit, Douglas Swift endured the hardships and brutalities of several Stalags, before the notorious Death March.

From this review.

With Chatterbox we are on the last book of the Malory Towers series, we also have some of the St Clares books to start and my Mum has bought her some of the Adventure books - these are all by Enid Blyton. I also want to read The Children of Green Knowe because I loved it so much as a child. Chatterbox has just bought with her Christmas money the set of C.S. Lewis stories The Chronicles of Narnia. We're also working our way through Grimm's Fairy Tales - warning these fairy tale versions are rather gruesome! I'd also like to find some good Christian books for Chatterbox. Chatterbox loves the Horrible Histories books too. She loves history, next term they're learning about World War II, so we'll have to pick up some good books about that.

For Squidge, we are reading through all the Mog books, we love the Gruffalo books and will read them again and again and also Stick Man and A Squash and a Squeeze also by Julia Donaldson. For Christian books we LOVE the Lost Sheep books. Squidge loves choosing books from the library, very often with a cat theme, one we recently borrowed that she has read over and over was Scaredy Cat and Boo no doubt I'll have to read that at least another 30 times before we return it! She also LOVES You Choose, so much so it's been banned for a while whilst me and hubs recover!

Exercise
Lots and lots of lovely walks I reckon, I'm not a big fan of jogging or aerobics.

Eating healthier (and perhaps a little more ethically)
More fruit and veg - make sure I and the kiddiwinks get our 5 a day at least (hubs takes tons of fruit to work for snacks so he's OK). I'm not a big fruit eater, I have to remind myself to eat it. I am going to continue to honour my pledge to eat only British pork products (I must admit though I did buy some German Bierwurst, ahem, but hubs likes German sausage because he was born there (another long story) so my pledge is, er, flexible), to try to buy fairtrade when I can, to buy organic (particularly eggs) where I can, to avoid too much junk food. Hubs is on a diet so I need to think about that too when I'm shopping and cooking.

Doing something special with the kiddiwinks - at least once a month
What I mean here is that we will go out as a family on a short trip at least once a month. Of course on a daily basis hopefully I will do fun things with the girls!

Oh, and I forgot, to try and save some money! This recession is going on and on and on...

So there you go...
xxx

I need to cull my book pile

Today I tidied and cleaned our bedroom. So that I could vacuum I piled up all the books I have next to my bed on my bedside table - the result was a rather dangerous leaning tower of books. Don't imagine for a moment I am reading all these books at the same time...but I am chopping and changing. Some are being read now, some are for reference and some are on my 'to read' list. I think I need to get myself some kind of basket or box or something next to the bed! It looks like a health and safety issue at the moment.

Books are (from bottom upwards):

• Tolkein's Ring, David Day (library book, read)
• Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version
• My Dear Child, Colin Urquhart (dipping into now and then)
• Holy Bible, King James Version (study Bible)
• Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Douglas Adams (read for the zillionth time)
• Some notes from church
• Holy Bible, New International Version
  
• Rough Guide to Ethical Living (library book, dipping into now and then)
• Interlinear Greek/English New Testament Bible (KJV)
• Life Application Study Bible, New International Version
• Enquire Within Upon Everything (Mum's book, was her Auntie's, old book from 1930s, really interesting)
• Slow March Through Hell, Douglas Swift (Soldier's Memoirs from WWII, Douglas Swift was in my Granddad's regiment - they were prisoners of war)
• Home Hints and Tips, Rosamund Richardson (library book, natural tips for homekeeping)
• Keeping Christ in Christmas, Steve Russo (book from church, has some great tips)
• Longitude, Dava Sobel (my Dad's book, on my to read list)
• Book of Common Prayer (Anglican)
• The Herb of Grace, Elizabeth Goudge (wonderful book, lent to me by Dulce Domum, only one chapter to go!)
• Short story of my Great Granddad's time in WWI, written by my Dad - really interesting.