Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day!
This has been my table decoration:

This morning at church we sang the amazing hymn:
"Praise to The Lord, the Almighty the King of creation"
A brilliant hymn written by Joachim Neander (1650-80) and translated by Catherine Winkworth (1827-78)

The last few lines of one of the verses to this hymn seemed particularly poignant to me this morning, Valentines Day:

"Ponder Anew,
What The Almighty can do,
If with His love He befriend Thee."

I think I had previously sung the words If to the end He befriend thee.
I really really liked this translation today...

To ponder anew, think afresh, gain fresh understanding, to look with new perspective.
Fresh insight.
I love the word ponder too.
Probably because I am a bit of a natural day dreamer!
Pondering was good enough for Mary, though, wasn't it when she pondered on all the things that were spoken to her with the birth of Jesus.

It was this line that I really liked today:
If with His love...
It reminded me of His loving kindness that draws us close to Him.
The freshness of Him befriending me, drawing alongside to be a friend with Luci.
It has such a simple, a lovely childlike quality don't you think?
Friendship works both ways doesn't it?
He chooses to befriend me and I choose to befriend Him.
I am glad we are friends.

The rest of the day has been great too.
Yummy food and great friends.
9 of us this time:

A meal with Abbie and Tim, Emily and Jamie, Anna, Jenny, Ralph, Beefy and last but not least - me!
A brilliant chance to use my New plates.
I snuck in a mini bag of malteasers and magic stars into each napkin bag and tied them with raffia!

The meal was, as usual, a collection of amazing contributions from each of us.
We had this yummy Moroccan salad for a starter with bread from Abbie and Tim.

Then we had the Beef Burgundy with baked potatoes and sugar snap peas.
Apple and Blackberry crumble, yummy lemon pudding,chocolate gateau was all delicious too. Thanks Beefy and Jenny.
The meal was all washed down nicely with some rather nice red wine! Thanks Ralph and Emily and Jamie.
We rounded off the meal with tea and coffee and ginger shortbread.
Thanks too, Ralph and Tim and Beefy for doing all the washing up!!!
you guys are great.
This smiley face, Ralph, :-) is for you - as I know you didn't know how to write one earlier today - and apparently can't do one on your blackberry.
:-) or should that be :-(
Thanks friends.
Thanks for the food and the laughter.
It has been a good day.
Thank You God for being my friend and Thank You for my friends too.
Happy Valentines Day, bloggy friends.
xxx

That Lovin' Feelin'

You got That Lovin' Feelin'?
Or do you see it as a huge marketing thing?
Those of us with a partner spend a fortune and those of us without save a fortune!

Typically, Valentines Day here in the UK tends to be very much for those wishing to declare undying love, secretly or for already existing couples and the marrieds.
Quite exclusively, it has to be said.
Very different from the USA, I think.
No buying Valentines for friends or children buying them for classmates.
Nope. Just the boyfriends/girlfriends/partners/husbands/wives.
Traditional cupid stuff.
But...
As you know, I am a bit of a rule breaker and love any excuse to get friends together!
This year I am planning, with the groovy girlie chicks, a yummy Valentines meal for our friends and husbands.
There should be 10 of us if everyone comes.
We asked more but some have other dates, it seems!
I am really looking forward to it - and excited to use all my new plates and bowls I now have.
I collected the rest of them today!
I had some money for Christmas to get some more of my chosen tableware I have been collecting these last few months. Sophie Conran in the Portmeirion range.
I love it!
I had some for my birthday after I ditched my old Denby at China Search and I went shopping the other weekend with my friend Tanya to get some more with my Christmas spending money.
I made my lovely purchases and opted to get it from customer collections later in the day after we had done more shopping.
A great idea, we thought... except that we were so busy gabbing and shopping elsewhere that we simply forgot the time.
When we realised the time and battled the car park and traffic to get round to customer collections... yes you have guessed it... they were closed.
Too late.
They had all my shopping.
I came home empty handed.
(Well, almost!)
This...

became my new challenge!
I managed to arrange for them to deliver it.
It arrived...yesterday - when I was at work!
A little frustrating as they said it would be either Friday or Monday. In a way, I had hoped for Monday as I am off work next week.
So I picked it up from the local parcel depot this morning!
It will be great to use it tomorrow, though!

Of course, Tudur was on hand to help with the unpacking!
He was just as excited as I was and jumped right in to help!

Once it was all unpacked and washed and put away, I got everything ready for the slow cooker - Beef Burgundy.
I used a recipe from this Fix it and Forget it.

A fabulous slow cooker book.
I also borrowed one of the girly chicks slow cookers as we need 2.
Friends will bring things to go with it - either savoury or a yummy sweet.
We will accept any food or flowers, wine or chocolates, most gratefully.
Will take photos and post them soon.
Happy Valentines Day, tomorrow!
x

My Musings On A Monday!

At my local church yesterday, we had our monthly all age service and it wasn't me leading it!
My minister graciously offered to lead it for me this month - and I said yes please!
It was really lovely to take part without leading it for a change.

One of the things to do was this:
A Life Audit Bookmark.
The Bible reflection passages were Matthew 22:34-40, Matthew 28:16-20, Hebrews 11:6

1. What are/should be the priorities in my life. What do I spend most of my time doing?
2. As I reflect on my life - how much of it relies on my faith? ie: that God would play His part?
3. How much time do I spend building up relationships with others?
4. When you were young, what did you enjoy doing? Are you still doing this now?
5. How much have I grown in my love and knowledge of God in this last year?
6. When did you last laugh?
7. Of your list of things to do before you die, how many have you done?
8. What am i holding onto, that I really need to give away?
9. If you are a Christian, if a friend/colleague asked - what does it mean - what would you say?
10. What was your last piece of good news and how did you share it?
11. What am I most looking forward to in the next year?
12. when i die what would I like people to say about me and how am I going to make this happen?

Here are some of my thoughts I would like to share with you:

1. My priorities in life and what I spend most of my time doing at the moment are to continue to get into the groove of being back at work full time in my new job, sleep, food, friends, family, rest and time for God within that.

2. My faith continues to be central to my life but at each twist and turn in my life journey, I often find myself with fresh and new challenges. I have to grab hold of what I have learned and been taught with the last leap of faith as I begin to venture into the new. Without the past I would just stand still and not leapfrog into the future, I suspect.

3. I love my friends and making new ones but really need to grow in developing the new friendships I am making to see them deepen. I need to invest time into these.

4. I used to love being creative and music and swimming. Looking at my creativity is like a breath of fresh air - so need to re-fill my lungs and start singing and swimming again next.

5. I really felt that I grew in my love and knowledge of God this last year. It hasn't been the easiest year with being ill, job hunting, weird relationship, but God has once again proved Himself faithful and brought me through each of these.

6. I last laughed yesterday and today - the book, Water for Elephants is very funny. (I cried yesterday too. Chick flicks do it every time. oh, a hug too did it.)

7. I actually don't have a list, but then again I do have lots of things I dream of. The list is huge, growing and loads to be crossed off!

8. Well, I just got rid of all my Denby but I suspect the things I am holding onto are in my heart, rather than them being real and actual objects. so, things of the heart probably are fear of the unknown - in terms of taking risks for the new opportunities- trusting others.

9. I think I would be happy describing my faith - it would be very personal thoughts and I hope they could see reality in what I share.

10. Last piece of good news would probably be my new job. I texted, phoned, emailed and facebooked it! And shared it in bloggyland too!

11. I think I am most looking forward to discovering more about the word change and flourish for me this year. deep stuff I know.

12. I have no idea on this one. I hope that people will remember my love for God, my smile and hospitality and that I lived life, loved and laughed.

What about you?
I'd love to hear!
Leave your comments here:-)

Week 5 of 365

Quite a productive week, making more of dent in tidying and sorting at work and finding my feet. Have seen some friends and had friends round too, which is an improvement on purely coming home and collapsing on the sofa in a heap!
It has only taken me 5 weeks!
Here are my photos for the week:
Monday 1st February 32/365
The start of the new month and a new page in my calender of cats! I also watched a mr. bond movie - Casino Royale - with one of my friends,Ike, who was repeatedly biffed on the head by Tudur! Sorry Ike. I think he thought it was rude to snooze whilst watching such a great movie?

Tuesday 33/365
I met up with one of my friends after work to eat a yummy carvery, forgot my camera, so took this photo instead! (Well it is nearly Valentine's Day, isn't it!)

I transformed my Christmas wreath, having retrieved it from hanging outside on my front door. I threaded another heart decoration with twine to hang in the centre. I think it looks fab, so wanted to show you!
Wednesday.34/365
Another of my hanging hearts in my hallway. (bit of a heart theme this month!)

Thursday. 35/365
The girlie chicks night. Too busy eating cake to take a photo of the cake, so took this one instead. I love my friends. and I love cake.
This bit of the banner was done by the amazing Emily. Great patchwork! and great coconut and banana cake too Emily!

Friday. 36/365
Cooked food for friends in my slow cooker and took it round to them after work. Yummy beef with potatoes, carrots, red pepper, sweet potato, parsnip, onion and stock and ketchup. Yummy. I even remembered to take my camera, but forgot to take a photo and left it in my bag all the time! (It was Friday!)
So, I took this one of the slow cooker pot after I washed it all clean!

Happy memories, all the same and it was lovely to see Rachel and Mike and Jacob and Daniel! Thanks for letting me eat with you!
Saturday. 37/365
Time to relax, bake, sew, tea and cake and time to read my book.

Sunday.38/365
Survival for the week ahead. Some Fresh Fruit and Vegetables.Bliss.

Saturday Sew and So

So Today, Saturday, Abbie and Jen and I did some more sewing on these banners that we are working on for our church.

We had Fun!

We have been a bit frustrated that when we meet on a Thursday night, we seem to get so little sewing done. Also, we did start them ages ago and really want to get them finished by Easter if we can.
So, it was good to have a good few hours to sew and chat and mess around with fabrics and ideas.

Quite a productive day!

Here is how the 2 banners are looking now :-)


Of course there was lots of time for tea and cake and chocolate bread!

I also made these Peanut Butter and White Chocolate Blondies!

I used a yummy recipe from my Rachel Allen book called: BAKE!
There are just a few left to take to our bring and share tomorrow at church for lunch. If I manage to bring any, I will feel very virtuous. If I manage to share any, it will be quite a miracle.

Wednesday's Turn the Page Tuesday.

Yes, I know it is Wednesday and I am a day late for Turn The Page Tuesday...sorry, but...Yippee!
I finally finished this book:The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
It took me waaay toooo long to read just the last few pages. I had nearly finished it a few months ago and then, fatally, left it unfinished.
Tonight, I relaxed in the bath and read the last few pages.
An intriguing book, magical in places. A love story, tangled lives, mystery surrounding the Cemetery of Forgotten books set in Barcelona. It is set in a beautiful city, where I have been and the book was recently translated into English. It would have been better if I had completed it a few months ago before I fatally put it down and left it as I rather lost the flow with it towards the end.
I had this book recommended to me as I had so loved reading The Time Traveller's Wife, which is brilliant brilliant brilliant! the movie is good but the book is wonderful.
If you want me to tell you more, I can!!!
In my mini pile to read next is his next book: The Angel's Game.

Also, as recommended on Turn The Page Tuesday a couple of months ago - Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen

and The Winter House by Nicci Gerrard.

I have had a busy few months with job searching and starting a new job in January.I got these 3 books as one of the 3 for 2 deals at Waterstones for my Christmas treat. I was sooo tempted to start but also wanted to finish Shadow of the Wind. I am now beginning to re-surface from starting my new job and looking forward to tackling my mini pile of chosen books!
You can check out other inspiring reviews and participants for TTPT over at some of a Kind here
So now I am really looking forward to starting a new book - and it is half term week mid February... yeah.
I am sooo looking forward to hibernating.
Question is...
Which one first?

Happy February, sweet dreams?!

Happy February everyone!
It is nearly valentines Day and I love hearts.
I was woken up by my neighbours canvinced somone was knocking on my window.
I crept downstairs in the dark.
Tudur purred, happy to seee me and snuggled close in my arms.
My fearless kitten.
Their kitchen door is now open.
Their lights are on.
And their garden sensor light.
looks a bit smokey.
Probably burned toast.
And they woke me up.
bah!
Not a great start for the month is it?
Now I don't feel very loving.
Maybe I should take round some butter for the burnt offering?
It is late - or early.
humpf.
Tudur is now asleep next to me.
Alright for some.
I shall try and go back to sleep again.
Sweet dreams.
Sweet February.
Will try and have more grace and be more loving...
Tomorrow.