Chocolate, Coffee, Crisps and Good Habits! Coffee & Conversation

Okay just admit it - who doesn't love at least one of these three things?

                    CHOCOLATE?

                                     COFFEE?

                                                CRISPS?

I started drinking coffee when I was twelve years old, up until then I had always drunk milk and I have never liked tea even though I come from Northern Ireland.

I started eating crisps and chocolate long before that but they were more of a treat and not an everyday snack when I was a young girl.

In the UK we are very proud of Cadbury's Chocolate.

Having lived in America I have to say (and I'm sorry but it is true) that Cadbury's chocolate is way better than Hershey's.

My favourite Cadbury chocolate bar would have to be the Caramel - Lovely milk chocolate with gooey soft toffee inside.

However I do also love Maltesers made by Mars.

But my real favourite of all is actually the Toffee Crisp by Nestle

For a chocolate fix it doesn't have to be a bar of chocolate or chocolate sweets, I'm never going to want to say NO to a slice of chocolate cake. 



I often say I can take coffee any way as long as it's coffee.

However I do prefer a Mocha

and in a large mug so that I can sip at it for ages.

That's the best way to waken me up in the mornings.


My friends and family know I love coffee and for my birthday one year our daughter bought me a new coffee mug, our son and daughter-in-law bought me a taster pack selection of good coffees and our daughter's friend who owns a coffee shop in South Korea sent me some of his coffee beans as gifts and his coffee is great.

Because I am so fond of coffee I am also fond of coffee mugs which I have written about in quite a few blog posts.

This is my favourite coffee mug and I have had it for a long number of years.

Of course we live in Northern Ireland which is the home of the greatest crisps - Tayto.

They are so good they are even made in a castle!

We now live quite near Tandragee where Tayto Castle is located and so we finally arranged a trip to go see the crisps being made.

We had always hoped to do this when the kids had been younger but even though we are all grown ups now we had a great time.

When we went in the first thing we saw were the bags, of all the different types they make, hanging from the ceiling and of course we just had to get a picture of that.

Each time our daughter has been home from South Korea she also gets loads of these crisps to take back there to share with her colleagues and friends.



However there has been just one problem!

Sometimes what we love can be loved too much

and then

 it is not good for us 

BUT

 in moderation it is ok.

When the children were young and at Primary School, Fred was out two nights a week at church meetings while I stayed home with the children and did my marking of Maths homeworks (I was a teacher a long time ago).

It started off that occasionally Fred would stop at the shop on the way home and buy two packets of crisps and two bars of chocolate and we would have this little treat before bed.

Then it became a regular occurrence on each of these evenings and eventually we started getting the packs of chocolate bars and as the years went on we simply nearly always had crisps and chocolate in the house to snack on.

Not so good for the girl who got married in a size 8 dress but now will never see that size again. Too much chocolate, coffee and crisps means too much weight and once the weight is on it is hard to get it off.

It is the same with other things in our lives, we can get too caught up in certain things and it can be bad for us.

It means we neglect other things and get into bad habits.

God has only ever wanted good for us

and that includes good habits.

Good habits and bad habits are always a part of our lives but sometimes it is very important and useful to stop and think about what are the good ones and what are the bad.  

It is okay to love something 

but

it is not ok to get into a habit that in the end is harmful to us and then stops us doing other things that God would like us to do.

We consider this more at the start of a new year but we should be alert and careful throughout the year too.

There is no right or wrong time to start a good habit but there is always a wrong time to start a bad habit.

There are a few things I'm thinking of as I write this and I need to ask God to help me get them back into the right perspective so that my habits and my life are more glorifying to Him.

What about you?

He doesn't give up on us and is ready and willing to help us, so come on we can start to make the change today!

I think I'm turning into my father! - A Dose of Encouragement

I know, I know, that sounds ridiculous:

          how can a girl turn into her father?

Well the thing is I can remember well the times years ago when my father would need to buy something new and we would get annoyed at his choices.

Basically because he hadn't made any new choices.

You see I remember the day my dad came in and showed me a new tie he had bought and I was very bewildered because I was sure that I had seen that same tie often; 

tied around his neck.

I was right he had simply gone out and got himself the exact same tie.

Why had he done that?

Well his response was that the other one had started to fray a little.

Yes, if the tie was fraying then it probably was time to pop it in the bin and maybe even a good reason to go buy another one but not to buy one the same surely.  However my father was very pleased that he had managed to get the same tie.


Then I remember the shoes he liked to buy, & the sweaters; practically the exact same each time. 

When he needed anything he liked to get the same as he had before.  

I'm sure it was a relief to my mum that he was not that interested in buying furniture for the house so she got to go pick that and we did not have something just like the previous one.

There was one main exception; he did not get the same car each time.   But I think that had more to do with the fact that he felt he didn't know as much about cars as my brother-in-law did, so he would take his advice on that issue.

So have you guessed it yet?

Why I say I'm turning into my father?

I love to wear slippers around the house.  

As soon as I get home I take off my shoes and on go the slippers. Due to the situation of where we live now and the fact that I am not working, I do spend a lot of time in the house so I have slippers on for many hours each day.


What have I discovered?

In the last 3 years since we moved to this area I have gone to the same shop and bought the same slippers on several occasions.  The last two times I bought two pairs at the same time.  I don't just mean the same style of slippers, or the same make of slippers; I mean the same make, style, pattern and colour (blue of course).

It actually started before we moved here, while we were still living in Belgium.
For the last few years there I had bought the same slippers each time (not the same as here though).  I just got to the stage where when I found a really comfortable pair of slippers at a reasonable price then why go looking for any others. 


And It's not only the slippers.

No it has now progressed to my shoes.  

I discovered a very comfortable pair of black shoes and loved them so much that when I saw them in cream I got a pair of those also.  Since then I have bought 2 more pairs in cream and two more in black.  Hence when I am not wearing my boots you will find me in these cream or black shoes.

Undoubtedly I am turning into my father.


There is one time when I wear a different type of shoe.
  
On Sundays going to church I wear a more dressy shoe and I do have a variety that I can wear.  But of course as you already know, as soon as I return home from church I won't have the shoes on.

    I'll be in my slippers. 


There is a white top that I just love to wear and have worn it for over 10 years.

This top has v neck short sleeves and has a butterfly design to one side which is made from little diamante things.  It has always been easy to wash and only recently have I found that it is not as easy to get stains out of as it used to be.  I have searched but cannot find the same top - of course I can't when it is so old. 

 I just wish that I had got 2 of these (or even 3) because I would wear it with almost anything.  


Do you not agree that I am turning into my father?


I mentioned this to my sister one evening a few weeks ago and she laughed at me, but then she did agree because she remembered being with me a few years ago when I actually did buy two of the same black top (I knew that it was going to be a good one as soon as I tried it on and I was right).

She also remembered that just that same afternoon I had complained when I was in the shoe shop (the one all those slippers had come from) because I could not see the same slippers and I am down to my last pair - why did I not buy more!

I am worried now that I am not going to be able to get those same ones again.

I suppose we all have to admit that some things are passed down to us from our parents; likes and dislikes, some habits, some distinguishing features, some attitudes.
Unfortunately we don't always get the good attitudes, habits, likes, or features.  
More often we tend to pick up the bad habits and attitudes.

Thankfully we can't pick up any bad habits from our Heavenly Father,

we don't witness Him having a bad attitude,

He has no ugly features for us to inherit. 

No, our Heavenly Father only has beauty to pass down to us,

grace, mercy and loving attitudes that we can learn from

and only good examples of good habits to set us like forgiving over and over again.

Thank you Father for your love and all the great attributes we see in you and in Jesus.  

Help us to focus on these and grow to be more like you day by day.

   Amen.

I want to be able to see that I am growing more like Jesus and my Heavenly Father in all parts of my life.

Do you?