Wednesday

She Burnt Them Again! - A Dose of Encouragement


Do you ever ask your kids for the password?


Do your kids think you are mad?


We had a little password in our family which I would often ask for as any of our kids were coming into the house.   And they all knew what it was - Sausages.  


You may ask:  What does this have to do with Encouragement?

But as often happens here at Sandra's Ark - Let me tell you a little story about us.





So we had this little password in our family and everyone knew what it was - Sausages. 

They would humour me and say it as they were coming into the house

And I would then repeat it in a silly bass voice and kind of draw out the word


A silly little thing that as the kids got older they would frown at.

There was never anyone else around when I would ask for it so why would they be embarrassed by it?


They also frowned and muttered at the fact that whenever I would grill sausages I would burn them.
Well they and their dad would say I had burned them but I would just cut off the really hard bits and eat away quite happily.


But I have to tell the truth - I had burned them!


I burned them because I could never have enough patience to wait for them to cook nicely but always went off to work on the computer or to read a book or even do some housework (ok not too often for that last one) and then - well - the sausages just got burned because I would forget about them.


I tried baking them in the oven too but even then I would forget about them and burn them.







You see I'm always looking for shortcuts to things because I don't have enough patience, or because I get bored doing any one thing for too long.

I love to make nice meals if there is someone else around to help or talk to me while I do it but when I'm preparing & cooking on my own - no!

I want the quickest way to provide the meals.

I have been known to make easier, quicker versions of meals like the 10 Minute Chicken Korma
and sometimes I have even made the desserts so easy that they hardly even really qualify as desserts such as my Ginger & Pineapple Log (Super Short Version) which basically is not a log!

I promise you I really do know that microwaves are not just for reheating coffee  -  oh yes this is another one of my little quirks or one of the "Oh No Mum!" things that the kids would frown at but I see nothing wrong with reheating my mug of coffee two or three times during the day.

I Love Coffee!

I really Love Coffee!

and

I Love my Coffee Mug!



I Love my Other Coffee Mug!

I really Love my Coffee Mugs!



And then we come to the big, big, bad thing that I did to our middle child

Fred & I went to live in Belgium and left him behind in Northern Ireland 

because he had started university there.

I know this is something that people outside the family probably found more strange than the family did.  I felt I could sense people saying:  "What kind of a mother would leave her child on his own?"



So there you have it I am not perfect and never have been a perfect mother.


I would rather read a book than do the ironing.

I would rather do a word puzzle than clean the oven.

I would rather write my blog than hoover the house.

I would rather write a list than actually do the things on the list.



I would rather go sit watch a dvd 
than 
finish up the mess I made because I had started to try to organise the study 

boy can I make a mess while trying to organise things.



I am not perfect and never have been a perfect mother!


But Mostly

I would rather have a coffee and sit & chat with my now grown up kids about how 

He has redeemed us, healed us, kept us safe, 
answered our prayers, never left us alone, helped us in everything


 and 
we are all thankful that He is still doing so 

no matter what country we may have lived in 
or are in at the moment

because 
He is the Perfect One.


You see I can't be perfect because I am human but thankfully with Jesus I have the help to do all the things He has planned for me.





If you like you can visit my about me section and see the poor hubby and kids who had to put up with me not being a perfect mum - oh and the middle child is the tallest one with his arms around us all in the snow.





Tuesday

The Cry - Book Review



Firstly I want to say that I did not receive a free book or ebook of this novel  "The Cry" from the publishers as is sometimes the case for my reviews.


I saw "The Cry"  originally on Amazon and the kindle version was a really good price.







I was intrigued
  • by the cover and 
  • by the title and
  • by the description
and that is something that rarely happens to me.





So from my opinion


            Is it worth reading or not?


Yes it is!  If you like mystery novels and families.



(UPDATE on 18/10/18:
THIS BOOK HAS BEEN MADE INTO A SERIES FOR TV so I am eager to watch it too.)



Happy that ebooks are available almost instantly I downloaded it from the cloud into my kindle and my kindle app for the ipad and was ready to read but of course I didn't get to it straight away because too many other things had been going on in my life so it had to wait a few days.


Well we were getting ready to go on holiday!


But when we did get away on holiday -



I was hooked from the very start of this novel!








Perhaps because of the fact that we have travelled a lot and I'm always so careful about having all my liquids in my checking luggage as opposed to my husband who having travelled for his work for many, many, many years still always has that little clear plastic bag to bring out of his carry on as he goes through security even when he has a bag checked in.



I was actually hooked when I saw this original cover picture on Amazon.






Here you are your first hint to the incident that starts off the narration of this novel.


I just needed to know what had happened and why.



It is always refreshing to read something that is different and to me that is exactly what this book was. There were things I didn't like about the people and the relationships and the events; but without these this book would not have been the different one I so much enjoyed.


Perhaps another reason I was hooked is that we were travelling when I started reading it and also I love babies and mysteries. Normally I am not keen on sad stories because I don't want to waste time on something that will depress me and would much rather be amused, uplifted or challenged to solve a mystery but this time I wanted to read on through the sadness because



I wanted to know the "why?"



I wanted to know the "why?" when I read this novel



The Cry can be found at Amazon at the link below




 Kindle  &  Paperback





Monday

I've got the Coffee! Where's the Conversation? - Coffee & Conversation.


Where do we see a lot of conversation these days?


Mostly on Social Media!





Yes, Blogs, Twitter and Facebook but some of you might like to add in Instagram as well although I don't know it well (having seldom used my account) and perhaps it hasn't gone down the road of connecting people so much in the conversation type way.


We talk about
            our friends on Facebook

and
we talk to 
            our friends on Facebook

and
we talk to
            our Facebook friends on Facebook.


A conversation used to be face to face over a cup of coffee or tea.


Now it's on a Social Media and consists of emojis, photos, memes and videos with a bit of writing but basically not that much or maybe in short bursts if you use Messenger or texts.


Facebook used to be a good way for me to keep in touch with my friends from different parts of the world we have previously lived in but not so much now as we all just don't share as much on it and with the inclusion of so many Facebook Groups and Pages there is now so much in our feed we don't get offered all of our Friends contributions any more.







We end up not having real conversations with our friends and sometimes not even having a Facebook conversation with our real friends but instead it's a Facebook conversation with Facebook Friends.


Let's have some real conversations and get to know each other better.


Photo from BigStock Images


When was the last time we just sat down together with a friend and had a coffee and a chat?


Are we still up-to-date with how our friends are, truly are?


It's easy, let's do it more often, much more often.


I've got the Coffee! Let's have a Conversation!



So let's say to someone  "I've got the coffee!  Let's have a Conversation!" and invite them over.