I hope I remember

We have just come back from blackberry picking, and elderberries too. We are home and Beth and Ben just made a home for their pet snail that they found on the way. They are playing schools for snails… Alyssia and I are sat cosily on the sofa.

I hope I remember days like this. Where there’s no schedule, nothing “has to” be done so we do what ever we like. Amazed to say the tv hasn’t been on at all today. We really are enjoying each other

I spent some time studying and reading this morning. Which I thoroughly enjoyed. I had quite a weekend. I will write about that later.

Beth has just made me “mrs Huggins” in her game. Got to go teach some phonics with Fred (yes, primary school teachers she does Fred words!).

And Ben. He has started calling ‘hello kitty’ hello cat it makes me giggle every time. Not quite the ring;)

Moments to treasure. My family is amazing. Quirky and wonderful. I want to remember the berry slow walk home. The chatter. The laughter and excitement. Forever!

Love a xox

I have all that I need

I have been thinking about what I want to do with my afternoons now Bethany is in school and Benjamin is asleep. It has taken 6 afternoons for me to have one to myself- and do my own thing. Unless you count the one where I fixed all my broken bracelets that my bbs broke over the past year or so But today I could actually sit down and watch tv. So I did. I made a coffee and sat down in front of the tv. Understand: I don’t do this. I don’t watch daytime tv. Well, unless you mean cbeebies. (I think I referred to the opening songs to the programmes between 9-10 and 3-4 as the soundtrack to my life!!) Ok, my favourite programme is Baby Jake. He is one of ten children and they live in a windmill. A windmill. WOW!

Aside. I scoured through ALL of the freeview channels. And tried itv’s whatever the show is called with Phil & Fern, there were psychics on. Switch over. Well,  I did pray for them. There is someone I met who used to be a psychic(one who used to do the readings over the phone). She came to our church about 4 years ago and saw that the power of God was more powerful, more pure, and affected her so much deeply than she had ever experienced and right there and then gave her heart to God, got saved! There was some other shows. But I gave up on tv. And knew it was time to file Ryan’s tax return – did I say I had an afternoon to do what I wanted. Ah I am a geek. I love spreadsheets!!!

I will write. That’s what I decided. So here I am. Looking for inspiration and I am reminded that I have all that I need. I am content. Not having to search for it, put it on, or make something up. I really am content with this season in my life

And for that. I am so thankful. I was out with my sister yesterday, we went to a beautiful historic town with a river.  We mooched in the shops, and we had a coffee/cup of tea. And Ben had his first Babychino We talked and talked and talked. It was lovely driving the country lanes thinking  about what God has in store for us, where are lives are at right now and how we are thankful for where we are, and where our parents have brought us to!

Last week a friend gave Bethany a cd with this Psalm on it. Patricia King reads the psalm and prays for you and then gets you to recite it. It has been wonderful to hear and have had on the l-o-n-g car journey back from London on Sunday morning. Read it, and see why:

Psalm 23

A psalm of David.

¹ The Lord is my shepherd;
I have all that I need.
² He lets me rest in green meadows;
he leads me beside peaceful streams.
³ He renews my strength.
He guides me along right paths,
bringing honor to his name.
⁴ Even when I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will not be afraid,
for you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff
protect and comfort me.
⁵ You prepare a feast for me
in the presence of my enemies.
You honor me by anointing my head with oil.
My cup overflows with blessings.
⁶ Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me
all the days of my life,
and I will live in the house of the Lord
forever.

Ponder on this scripture today. I pray that you will be able to remind yourself that you have all that you need – in Him. That you will find rest, strength and guidance; To be protected and comforted. And to know the goodness and unfailing love pursuing you all of the days of your life. Amen xox

This week – a week of firsts!

So, Bethany started school. She loved it! Because of her age she is mornings only for a month. However, I guess she thinks she is ready. On the first morning I went to collect her they said she told them she was hot dinners as she wanted to stay all day!  Shame, she was so sad to come home with me! But she’d had such a good time with her friends, and playing outside!

Day 2 was also fine. Not entirely sure what she is getting up to. But she is happy. I think that she snuck off during class time to get the cake out of her bookbag and started eating it when it wasn’t breaktime… cheeky huh She told me later that day that I had to “Look and Listen!” and “stand up tall like a marcher, and NO touching things!” I love that she is using her teachers’ phrases I wonder if the girls in my class used to do that?

Day 3: She got her first reading book. It has no words….. Beth noticed that: “It’s not a story without any words!” hmmmm…….. wonder what ever she will think of poetry?

I am delighted she has settled in so well. So have I. I mean really I have. Ben and I are having fun play time together. I’m realising that he has a much shorter attention span than Beth – obviously! We did glueing and sticking. It took about 10 mins to set up, get the glue spreaders out, cut up the shapes. And then 3 minutes for him to be done. When Beth got to the table later that afternoon she started without me even knowing. I only realised she’d been glueing (for like 20 mins) when I looked at the sequins all over the kitchen floor…. How to clean a kitchen floor? With glue and sequins? This is a new low in my cleaning career I decided to leave it a day so I had more energy. I don’t. I gotta go scrub the floor. Bleach or Flash? Mop or on my hands and knees? So many choices.

Have a wonderful weekend. I have been foraging as I walked to a friend’s house this morning I have elderberries, slow berries, apples and pears so will just have to make something Love xo

 

Too busy to write!

I have been so busy! And I don’t have that much to show for it…. How crazy is that? Beth was poorly for a while, Ben has been fine. Cakes haven’t been baked but new toppers have been created
What I have been up to: walks in the village, planning my holiday. Wait. We’re going away! So exciting to take a tour of France to arrive at the farmhouse my parents are renting for a few weeks this summer. Thinking, working out what to do on rainy days. Seeing friends.
What I haven’t been up to: blogging.

Sorry about that. I love my blog and you my readers and I’ve had some wonderful emails recently with such lovely, kind words.

You know when you just have so many things that you are thinking about, working out, considering that you don’t actually know where to begin? Well, that’s where I’m at. And Beth was off preschool with half term and almost a week off sick, that I honestly haven’t stopped. Life goes by so fast sometimes. I realised that when I called someone and they asked what I’d been up to. It was a normal day. I had worked, played, tidied up, gone to work and sorted some things out and even had coffee with a friend and it was only noon…. She said “gosh, that’s so busy!” I know. But that’s how we roll!!! I love lazy pj mornings and I love the days I wake at 5.30 to blog, read and pray. I love the fast, busy days and I love the slow, calm days. I guess I found my rhythm in life and I am content.

Did you hear me? I just said “I am content”! I love the season of life I am in, the way things come together, the way that I’m living my destiny. Here I am, just Anna. Just a mom with two absolutely incredible children, with a love for cake. I obviously love it so much as so many people are asking me to help them with cake. Just me, with a love for reading and writing with so many friends encouraging me on this journey.

And I have been trying to work on the layout of my blog. It’s not there yet, but it will be. I realised I sent so much time reorganising the categories that my writing time was used up. I guess I was a bit sad about that, you know, you can’t see immediate results- I’m still re-categorising the past 4 months’ posts. It’s amazing how many things I’ve written about and how organic it was, but now I have bunched the topics together and realise that there really are themes in my life, themes to the way I respond to situations. And I would never have known if I hadn’t blogged!

Now to go sit outside and think about where to plant my new flowers, where to train the honeysuckle and clematis. And the never ending question…. What to make for dinner? Can you reply with your favourite dinners. I want to make a meal plan part to my blog. Can you. Help? I have easy dinner favourites and the ones that the children don’t join us for. So comment below your fave thing to eat and I will make some easy to follow meal plans. Mine feel a little dated.
Thanks!

Enjoy the sunshine. And your season of life!
Love xox

Lessons from the children

The more I am with my children, the more I love them- which I don’t know how it is possible! The more I see their characters, the more childlike I want to become. Is that even possible when there is a socially acceptable model for adult living? Aka: Boring!

I want to share some beautiful quotes from my beautiful Bethany:

On seeing the volcanoes on TV: Why are there volcanoes? Can we get a plane and fly to see the volcano? Will the Volcano be on fire? Why did God make Volcanoes?

-After the first few minutes of questioning, I felt out of my depth! And to think I taught science to Y3/4 and we included volcanoes in one topic. I taught her everything I knew, magma, molten lava etc. But then we had to look into why there was ash rather than lava…! She said yesterday “God wants to make another volcano”!!!!!!!!! Right Beth. Let’s just hope it’s in an uninhabitable place where it doesn’t affect planes or my parents returning from Finland, or my sister going on her honeymoon part deux.

At bedtime: Mummy please pray so that the bads don’t come. (‘bads’ is a generic term for bears, scary people in shops-in her opinion- you get it) So I tried to get her to tell me about the bads she was worried about: “Oh the bads outside, you know Mama, hiding in the cave!” No babe, I don’t know who’s hiding in the cave. That’s pretty scary… Yes of course we can pray! After I prayed, she said ‘thanks, they’ve gone now’ I love the way that she has such faith. I wish I had faith like a child. Like Beth. She honestly doesn’t have any doubt when it comes to praying. She expects instant results. I guess I don’t. Not everytime. Do you? I totally need to be more child like in faith. Sounds biblical

Then there’s Ben. His words are still so cute. His little voice saying ‘shoe, stairs, down, door, stink(whilst holding his nose!), Bess(Beth, isn’t that adorbs!) and a few more…. But mainly it’s his character that can overwhelm me. We were in ‘fake’ Starbucks (yes, really. If you’ve been there, you know where it is!!). And Ben walked over to a Grandpa and started babbling to him. Ben went and got some toys and took them to him. Then he saw some ladies talking and went and said ‘haaaaa’ (hi). They ignored him. The Grandpa however was really interested in Ben, talking back and sharing his toys. Ryan and I were close by watching. We decided it would be amazing if your first impression of people was that they would totally be interested in you, that they would want to play with you, talk to you, that they would think you were the best.

Honestly, imagine walking into a coffee shop and talking to anyone who you saw? Telling them what you’d been up to. Being interested in them. Suggesting things to them. People would either talk to you. Or not. Life would be so much more fun. Imagine, the shopping trip talking to everyone in the cake aisle, maybe you do already. I talk to a handful of people every shopping trip but that’s mainly because of the children… Talking to everyone? It would be like being in Church. Maybe that’s the model Ben has learned. We talk to everyone in our Coffee Shop at Church. Everyone (Well, almost!) makes a fuss about Ben and his cute looks (BLESSED!) and he loves it. He does not have a concept for people not liking him. I wish I were more like Ben. More childlike. More interested in the small things. The detail. The chaos!

I was telling our friends about the way Ben will play with the toy cooker and place a teapot in the cupboard and close the door. Then look around for approval and clap himself. My friend said ‘oh, I have lost the wonder of tidying the kitchen’. I know. Haven’t we! Imagine if I did a big dance after loading the dishwasher, or had a cheer when the washing machine was turned on, or shouted ‘yippeeeeee’ and expected applause for dusting. Yes, housework would be more fun. Have you lost the wonder?!

Looking forward to being more childlike. love xoxox

I love my family

First of all….. Sorry! I was writing and uploading my blog but they don’t seem to have made it into wordpress.com. Ooops!

This one is from Friday….. Right. Now. How to fix my blog…..! xox

The other night, we went shopping after work. And then took the children out to Nando’s. I have to say it was the best time as a family at a restaurant EVER. Our children were amazing… You know like the well behaved children in a restaurant you aspire to having one day. Beth even went up to the manager to ask if she could have a balloon!

We have found more music. Ok. Ryan found more music:-

Ryan found this band and we love it – hope you enjoy it. This music is exceptional. Watch on youtube to get a taster – they are a three piece band playing at least three times as many instruments. Beautiful Lyrics. Beautiful Worship.

Future of Forestry is a band from San Diego. I don’t know much else, but aren’t the words melting you right now?

Yesterday we painted the fence and Ryan fixed up the garden shed. Our patio was completed and it is looking amazing out there. We have been relaxing ready for the big conference this week.

Enjoy the music. And everyone who is close to you! Love xox

Generosity

On Sunday, I hosted a meeting at Church and I did a little talk on Generosity. Being a generous person. Here you go -

Being generous – my lesson learned. A life lesson maybe. A way of life to be generous. In all areas.

Generosity means:

	1.willingness and liberality in giving away one’s money, time, etc;
2	freedom from pettiness in character and mind
3	a generous act
4	abundance; plenty

2 Cor 2: 2 In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own,

Have you ever been in a situation where you know that you are to give but don’t know how to afford it, how it would be possible. Bible shows that there is a grace for obedience. That giving beyond your ability to be obedient leads to giving – on their own accord.

Generosity Encouraged: 6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Reminds us that it is not grudgingly given.

2 cor 9:11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

If you are giving thanks, that must be because you have received something – the joy of giving, or the joy of receiving.

When I was talking with Ryan about being generous, he said that Ruben Morgan – tweeted this week: Generous hands are never empty!

I don’t want my hands to be empty, I want to be generous in time, words, money, things, I want to be free from smallness of mind – not a trait that runs in our family, but if i stop being generous or don’t see it as important then small minded ness is the opposite of generosity, worse till being stingy?

Whether it was the time the neighbour’s house was flooded and she needed water – I offered to do her laundry too, if I am generous with the small things, then the bigger things will be a delight!

I am reminded that it is far too easy to be generous with a throw away negative comment, or criticism or a question (that as my mum says, can also be a criticism). After having a coffee date and walk in the river town with my sweet sister (if you know her, you will love her – promise. Not only is she a fashionista, but she’s too cute and totally adorbs. I might one day give you a link to her blog!). So whilst we were talking we were finding out how easy it is to be negative, and the impact of one’s mood on the atmosphere around you. It’s as though you can create a wave around you/forcefield that people are totally aware of. If you are able to do that in a negative way – you are also able to do it in a good way. Being full of faith, full of encouragement and generous with your words. More than a compliment. Looking for uniqueness in everyone.

Remember – some promises

Proverbs 11:25: A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.

Psalm 37:26 :They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be a blessing.

You know. I want my babes to be a blessing – so I’m going to adhere to the generous lifestyle!

Love, xox