The Flamingos in Philadelphia! - A Dose of Encouragement

Every time we hear the word "Flamingos" we think of a certain person.

Every time we see a flamingo on television we think of a certain person.

Yes "flamingo" = Fred.

It all stems back to many years ago (in fact 20 years ago) before we returned to Northern Ireland from living in Delaware, USA.

We went one day to visit Philadelphia Zoo and had a great time as we all liked to visit Zoos to see the animals.

The kids were between 7 and 12 years old so you can imagine some of the excitement they showed especially when they saw what they considered to be their favourite animals - cheetahs, turtles etc.

Fred and I don't particularly have favourite animals although I do like elephants and pandas and definitely do not like snakes (which you might remember if you read "I Don't Want to Pet a Snake!"  from April this year).


Well after this visit the kids just loved to tease Fred that the "Animatronic Pink Flamingos" were his favourite animals.

Animatronic?

Walking around the Zoo we had come to a large pond or lake where there were many flamingos and you have guessed it they were Pink.

As you may know about flamingos they can stand very still and this is exactly what they were doing when we arrived at their location.  We stood and watched and then a few of them moved very slowing and gracefully but did not move very much.

Fred could not resist telling the children that these flamingos were not real ones but were actually animatronic ones.  Immediately we all said "no they're not" a few times but Fred stood there looking very serious and proclaimed "Of course, they were" and then went on to explain why he thought so.

Well we had been to some Theme parks and the kids were familiar with this word "animatronic" and they just stared at the flamingos and the longer they stared the more unsure they became and did not know whether to believe their dad or not.

Still to this day Fred will just laugh and say that he was right but of course we all know he wasn't.

So that is how hearing about flamingos or seeing flamingos always makes us laugh and think of Fred and generally one of the kids will say "Are they animatronic dad?"


That animal is now associated with Fred and we cannot get that association out of our heads.

It's not bad, in fact it's a nice association; bringing up a reminder of the happy shared memory we have as a family.

Other associations are not so nice and can bring back hurtful memories or angry memories and once the association is in our minds we may never be able to get rid of it.

Sometimes our associations can even come from our first impressions of people because of the words we heard or the action we saw even if those were taken out of context or not heard or seen in full.

Or sometimes an association can suddenly be forged after knowing someone for a long time but some action or word now conjures up bad thoughts about that former friend.

We need to be careful to not throw away a friendship.

A friend can end up no longer being a friend because of some small thing that you just cannot get out of your mind about them but about which they may not even know.

We may have overheard/been told something that was not the full information or was almost a complete fabrication and now a relationship is destroyed.

We need to be careful to not throw away a friendship or alienate a family member because we have changed in our opinion of them due to some association we now have in our minds.

The only way to do this is to ask God to help us keep our minds pure and to not jump to conclusions.
Always stop and think.

The only way to do this is to ask God to help us keep our minds pure and to not jump to conclusions.

Let's ask ourselves why our friends would suddenly seem to be almost the opposite to what we had already known them to be.

Does one thing mean that they have changed?

It should take more than one incident, sentence or thing to change the character of a person, and it would take a period of time for a major change.

Then what about how we perceive the incident?

We can let that change us instantly - not a thoughtful, Godly way of behaving is it?

So should we believe that our friends would change so quickly?

Maybe we are the ones in which the change is taking place and not our friends.

Songs for Worship #24

Welcome to the Sunday Series

Last year from January to June I wrote a series on
Why We Worship  where I considered an attribute of God each Sunday.


At different times people mentioned to me about a song that a post reminded them of so I thought that I would now go through those attributes again with a song for each one.

I hope you will follow along with me.

                         Looking today at 

God is The Trinity

Fountain of Goodness

Fountain of goodness, beauty, ever-streaming love,

Pouring out every blessing on your perfect Son;

Father, before all things, your joy was found in him.

Radiant light of heaven, ever-cherished Son,

Knowing such perfect closeness, with your Father one;

Jesus, you came to us, to share all that was yours.

Our God is good! He's shown such love.

Now adopted in the Son, to you we come,

And we delight in you our God. 

You loved us first and now our hearts are yours.

Giver of life, for ever resting on the Son,

Bringing the joy of knowing all the Father's love,

Spirit, you've made us Christ's; now we're as loved as him 

God is the Trinity

If you would like to see the post from last year that this is based on please click on the graphic below

An Organised Craft Armoire

While we lived in Hockessin in Delaware, U.S.A for 3 years we we very fortunate to find some very useful good pieces of furniture which we still have after 22 years and are still in great condition even after being relocated to Belgium for 6 years in between.

One of those items is my Craft Armoire.

But organising is always a problem with crafts.

So

How Do You Organise Crafts?

How Do You Organise a Craft Armoire?

Now when we bought it originally it was a Computer Armoire and that is how we used it during our 3 years in America.

Of course it suited well as a computer armoire for then because of the large computers and keyboards of the 1990s, the fold out desktop was great and the ability to close the doors and hide everything was a great asset but later when computers did not take up as much space I was able to take it and use it for my crafts.

Again the doors were great for hiding the mess within but eventually it really was time to organise it successfully

because even though I tried over the years it never really got much better than this

Yes I had a lot of containers and bags and tubs to keep things in but they were shoved in tightly together most of the time and so it was not very inviting to actually use the crafts.

Still there was the fact that I could just shut the doors and try to forget about the mess and that is what I would do until the next time I needed something.

So last September I decided it was going to get the proper overhaul it needed and it did which you can see here in Too Many Places!

Over the past year it has remained the same - so it must have been a pretty good job and today I thought I would explain more about how it is organised.

How to organise a craft armoire:

CONTENTS:

A.  Top Left Shelf

Embellishments - some wooden, some card, some plastic in containers with compartments and handles for easy lifting out and in and taking to the kitchen table when I need a large surface to work on as in Easy Kids Heart Banner
Small items like this have to be kept separated for ease of use - no point in having to hunt through a box of mixed up items every time.

Punches - these are in two boxes, one for the smaller individual picture punches and one for the larger corner and edging punches.

B.  Second Left Shelf

Wooden Stamps - various pictures, words and sizes kept in compartment boxes and can clearly be seen through the clear lids.  The smaller purple boxes are double sided so hold two lots of stamps.

Clear stamps - various designs and the holders to put them on for stamping.

Stamp ink - various colours, clear for embossing, and cleaners

C.  Third Left Shelf

Plastic Lidded Containers - variety of craft materials for making projects for Christmas and other times of the year.


Two black & White Lidded Cardboard Boxes - I keep larger rolls of ribbon in one and coloured string in the other.  Although these were made especially for the purpose of storing ribbon I think I would like to get something better in the future.




D.  Fourth Left Shelf

Embossing Trays & Stencils 

This shelf is not as deep as others so it is a good choice for these larger or longer flat stencils which would get pulled and twisted if they were mixed in with other heavier objects.

I have the large Fiskars Embossing tray that will hold up to 12x12 sheets and also the smaller Fiskars card embosser.

E.  Fifth Left Shelf


Paper Cutter

This shelf pulls out so is ideal for the paper cutter to have a place of it's own.

F.  Second Bottom Left Shelf

Larger containers fit better on this shelf


Blue cantilever style container - double sided sticky tape, velcro dots, glue dots, craft scissors etc.

Blue tool box style container - lollipop sticks large & small, glue sticks for glue gun etc.

G.  Bottom Left Shelf

Deep Scrapbooks

Boxes of Papers & card 

Because it is at the bottom I thought it more natural to put some heavier things there and things I would not want to lift out so often.



H.  Large Castors

I know this is not storage and not crafts but this is a great thing that my husband decided was needed very shortly after we got the Armoire all those years ago.

We do laugh and say that Fred would like everything to be on castors but definitely in this case it made such a difference for all the times we have moved the armoire as we moved house and also makes it so much easier for cleaning around, behind and underneath it.



J.  Armoire Doors

These doors are great in that they have those special hinges so that the doors will open right back beside the actual sides of the armoire.
(you can see what I mean better on the left side)



K.  Top Right Shelf

Magnetic Memo Pads - these are also items that I have made and materials for making more

Magnets - these are laminated card magnets that I have made and also materials for making more

Bags - a box containing a variety of cellophane bags

L.  Second Right Shelf

Cards & Envelopes - these are ones for use with the kids in church

Greeting Cards - some cards that I had made previously

Black Roll-up Cases for Calligraphy Pens and Markers

M.  Third Right Shelf

Blue Expander Files  - sticker, paper embellishments, cards & envelopes
(I hope you like the labels.  I love to label things even if others laugh at me!)

Various Boxes of Special Themed Embellishments - ones that I have got for special scrapbooks I intend to make




N.  Cubby Holes

I keep some rulers, hole punches, long stapler, staples and odds and ends in these. 

This is the one area of the armoire which is under utilised and I should rethink it better.




P.  Fold Down Table Top

This is so handy as an extra workspace when sorting out things for our Sunday School and of course it is right beside where the paper cutter is kept! 




Q.  Bottom Right Shelf

Scrapbook Albums - these are ones I have bought over the last 5 years and intend to work on when I get some more time!!!!
(guess if you had frequented my blog before you will know how much I Love Arks)

Clear Plastic Box - a box for storing 12x12 scrapbook papers flat.

R.  Filing Drawer

This is the one part of the armoire which is not used for my crafts.

It still contains files for various things from over the years but may be changed later.

I do like to be able to open this craft armoire and see something that is properly organised

I of course would much rather be doing something like this even though it takes time, thought and effort; than doing any kind of housework.

Now just need to get the rest of the things in the study organised like the bookcases, desk, printer unit etc.

The Geese At The Lake? - A Dose of Encouragement

Fred & I enjoy going for some leisurely walks - well his leisurely walk is more like a quick walk for me because he has long legs and as I have mentioned previously "I am Petite".


Walking along one day (around a not so well known lake) I could see some large birds in the distance.

I asked Fred "Are those swans or geese?"

I was a town girl, he was a country boy!

Fred said they were swans.

I said "Are you sure they aren't geese?" and we both laughed.

Now something you need to know about Fred is:

Swans he likes - we often stop to watch them on our walks and take some pictures.

Ducks he likes - we have a lovely memory of Ducks from our life in Belgium


BUT


Geese he does not like!


You see Fred has long since told me and our kids the story of the day he was attacked by the geese on his family's farm and apparently according to Fred geese can be very aggressive and when you are a small boy they can be very frightening if they turn on you en mass and chase you, snapping at you noisily.  He has never liked geese since then.

Now Fred is quite mild-mannered but when it comes to mentioning those geese on the farm you could almost say he becomes stern.  He is also very cautious any time he is around geese because he knows he cannot trust them.

GEESE

SWANS

It's easy to see the difference between Geese and swans in these pictures above, the shape of the heads, beaks and necks but not so easy to see this when they are on the edge of the other side of a lake.

Often it is hard for us to tell the difference between things from a distance.

We need to be closer to objects to tell more clearly what they are like.

We need to be more familiar with certains things to tell them apart.

We need to remember the differences between geese and swans to recognise them.

When it comes to people we need to get to know them well rather than just being acquaintances to know what they truly feel or think or believe.

We need to be in their company in different situations to know by reactions and more casual words just how their minds work and what they really feel about things.

Another thing is we need to listen and hear properly what they say, not just presuming how they will finish the sentence they have just started.

From experience we will learn to know who to trust and who not to trust and from that we can make good decisions about who to spend our time with and who to not allow ourselves to have to be in the presence of too often.

I also relate this to people who are well known preachers.

Just because they are

well known 

or have a large church 

or sound entertaining 

or are talked about by many other people we know;

they may not be actually saying 
what we would expect them to say,

they may not actually be leading or pointing
 to Jesus,

they may not actually be preaching 
the truth of the Word of God
 but instead
 be preaching their own ideas. 

We need to get familiar with the differences between the men and women who are out there truly promoting Jesus 

and the ones who are really out there promoting themselves.

We need to get familiar with the differences between those promoting Jesus and those promoting themselves

Just because there may be crowds of others who live and breathe by everything that a well known preaching might say, does not mean we have to do the same.

What we have to do is 

make sure we keep ourselves grounded in the true Word of God,

keep our eyes fixed on Jesus,

and ask the Holy Spirit to be that still small voice within us that cautions us away from the falsehoods and towards the truth.

  

The Bible tells us we need to be alert to those who do not speak truly in the Name of Jesus.

We need to be alert to those who do not speak truly in the Name of Jesus

The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit will guide us to know the truth.

The Bible is the Word of God so let's get familiar with Jesus through the Bible so that we can know the differences between true men of God and those who are only of themselves.

Songs for Worship #23

Welcome to this Sunday Series

Previously I wrote a series on
Why We Worship  where I considered an attribute of God each Sunday.


At different times people mentioned to me about a song that a post reminded them of so I thought that I would now go through those attributes again with a song for each one.

I hope you will follow along with me.

                         Looking today at 

God is Spirit

HOLY SPIRIT YOU ARE WELCOME HERE

There is nothing worth more

That could ever come close

No thing can compare

You're our living hope

Your Presence, Lord

I've tasted and seen

Of the sweetest of loves

Where my heart becomes free

And my shame is undone

Your Presence, Lord

CHORUS:

Holy spirit , You are welcome here

Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere

Your Glory, Lord, Is what our hearts long for

To be overcome by your presence, Lord

Your Presence, Lord

There is nothing worth more

That could ever come close

No thing can compare

You're our living hope

Your Presence, Lord

I've tasted and seen

Of the sweetest of loves

Where my heart becomes free

And my shame is undone

Your Presence, Lord

CHORUS

Let us become more aware of your presence

Let us experience the glory of your goodness

So thankful that God has sent His Holy Spirit to dwell with us 

God is Spirit and the Holy Spirit dwells with us

If you would like to see the post from last year that this is based on please click on the graphic below

The Temporary Detective - Book Review

I need to state clearly to start with that I was not given a free copy of this book to read in return for my review.

I did not need to request this as I was able to get the ebook on Amazon for free.

That was however a few years ago (even though I only read it last month) and at the time of writing this review it is available for £1.99 but if interested keep an eye and it could well be offered free again.

AMAZON Book Description

Phones, light typing…and murder. 

Think breaking into show business is hard? Try landing a temp job without office skills. That’s the challenge facing aspiring actress Isobel Spice when she arrives in New York City, fresh out of college and deficient in PowerPoint. After being rejected by seven temp agencies for her lack of experience, Isobel sweet-talks recruiter James Cooke into letting her cover a last-minute vacancy at a bank. New to his own job, and recently sober, James takes a chance on Isobel, despite his suspicion that she’s a trouble-magnet. His misgivings are borne out by lunchtime, when she stumbles across a dead secretary in a bathroom stall. With her fingerprints on the murder weapon, Isobel sets out to prove her innocence by investigating the crime herself. While learning to juggle phone lines and auditions, she discovers an untapped talent for detective work—a qualification few other office temps, let alone actresses, can claim.


This is the first of three books (so far) in the Isobel Spice Mysteries

Author Joanne Sydney Lessner

My Opinion

A great title and a very enjoyable read

The title is definitely related to the story which I so often lament about not being the case in books these days.

Now I am not saying that this is a "whodunit" in the league of Agatha Christie but I enjoyed the easy reading style the novel was written in and the main characters were definitely believable.  The plot may not be the most intricate or serious but then I like humour in any book.

I started it in the hairdressers and finished it in the hairdressers - although not on the same day.  It was an easy book to grab and read a few chapters at a time and keep up with the story.

I would almost go as far as to say it was a Cosy Mystery but then some people may decide not to read it and that would be a pity.

As for the next two in the series I will watch for them to be free and grab them too - in fact might just get them if they come down to 99p.

I think you can tell from that last statement that I probably have too many ebooks waiting in my kindle for me to get round to reading.


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