A Simple Christmas Cards Upcycle - Organising My Home

Got lots of Christmas Cards that were nice this Year?

I did so I had an idea!

Today is the first Monday of the new year, 
   

 So today is "Back to Normal Day" for me.

I both like this day and dread this day.

Like it because I get my house back in order (it just never is completely tidy or in any sort of routine over the Christmas Holidays).

Dread it because I have to be the one to get it back in order.



Like it because it means all the decorations get put away until next year and I am really ready for that after 3/4 weeks

Dread it because it means all the decorations having to be taken down and wrapped up and put away mostly by me.

Just some of the Lounge Decorations 

Like it because it is the start of the year and I feel like making changes and promising myself I will keep all the household things up to date.

Dread it because to get things up to date is a tall order after the slack time of the holiday and I think of all the things that I am always saying I must get round to doing but don't do them.

I bought this TUIT for my husband years ago because he is just as bad as me

AND

Like it because I can sort out the Christmas cards, cut out parts of the cards I want to keep or take pics of the cards I think I might want to use as illustrations and make a list of who I should be contacting by phone, email or letter from notes and letters that came with the cards.

Dread it because then that list either has to be worked through and I am hopeless on the phone etc. or it will eventually be abandoned and I will feel bad about that.



But then I had an idea that brightened up the day.

Something I could do with the cards I really liked, because normally I just cut off the picture part and put them away thinking I will use them someday.

So today I did something different

I cut off the pictures I liked and laminated them and then put some magnets on the back and now I can use them as Christmas magnets to decorate the large fridge freezer next year.  That was after I had taken photos of them because you never know when those would come in handy.

The new Christmas Card Magnets

If I had been willing to spend more time I could have cut them into different shapes or placed them on different coloured card slightly larger than them to make a sort of surround or frame effect but I just took the easier and quickest option.  

Maybe some day I will hunt out the pictures I have kept from Christmas cards in previous years and make better magnets with them.

Only problem with all that is it means   -    MORE DECORATIONS!

AND  I didn't get everything done that I should have!

What have you done with your Christmas Cards this year?
I would love to hear more ideas.


Do you have a back to normal day like this?

Why We Worship #1

If someone were to ask you today why you worship God would you know how to answer?

If we are honest most of us would stutter or hmm and haw because we would either not have thought about it or we would be trying to think what the "expected" or "right" answer is.


Probably we all worship God for different reasons because worship is a very personal thing.

Perhaps because  we feel so blessed,

                             or  we feel so thankful,

                                    or  we feel that God has rescued us from a broken life,

                                           or  etc......


However if we ask a Theologian what answer would we get?

Well those who know me well will know that I can easily do that because my eldest son is a Theologian, so I did and this is what he said

"To respond with thanksgiving for God's grace to us in Christ"

                                                       Jonathan Black   
                                                          APOSTOLIC THEOLOGY BLOG

For myself I have always equated worship with glorifying God and so I thought of the Catechism I learnt growing up in the Presbyterian Church in Northern Ireland.



Q:   What is man's chief end?


A:   Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever




But I think in plain terms I would just have said because

We see this in Job 36 v 26

Taking it in context of the passage around the verse we see that it is voiced by one of Job's friends.

Elihu Proclaims God’s Majesty

24 “Remember to magnify His work,
Of which men have sung.
25 Everyone has seen it;
Man looks on it from afar.

26 “Behold, God is great, and we do not know Him;
Nor can the number of His years be discovered.
27 For He draws up drops of water,
Which distill as rain from the mist,
28 Which the clouds drop down
And pour abundantly on man.
29 Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of clouds,
The thunder from His canopy?
30 Look, He scatters His light upon it,
And covers the depths of the sea.
31 For by these He judges the peoples;
He gives food in abundance.
32 He covers His hands with lightning,
And commands it to strike.
33 His thunder declares it,
The cattle also, concerning the rising storm.

There is no doubt that God is Great.

 In the evidence of creation of the world around us 

there is no doubt that 

God is great.

The Coffee Mug - A Dose of Encouragement

I have a very annoying habit 
             -  according to my husband Fred.  

     You see everywhere I go in the house, I leave a trail of coffee mugs behind me.  Well really I think it's only in our bedroom and study and the living room, but I suppose that's bad enough.

      

Admittedly I do love my coffee in bed on a Saturday morning (compliments of Fred) but then Fred enjoys his tea and toast too!   

      Now my coffee has to be made just right, and sometimes for a treat some cinnamon added and it all frothed up in the mug, a home-made cappuccino.  

     

Anyway I do tend to take a mug of coffee with me to the study when I'm working at the computer and I never really drink all of it.

So you've guessed it - 

Fred found a mug of coffee in the study the other day which had congealed and was (according to him)

         "considering becoming an experiment for new life forms".  

He was not amused. 

"How can you ever drink out of that mug again?"  he said,

as he carried it at arms length into the kitchen.  

     Well to me that was no problem because I am a great fan of boiling water and dishwashers.  I left the offending mug to soak in boiling water planning to put it through a couple of cycles in the dishwasher later. 

      A few hours later I was passing the mug when I noticed how all the gunge had come away from the sides and bottom of the mug and was ready to be poured out.  


     Suddenly it struck me that exactly the same thing happens to us as we sit in the presence of the Lord each day - all the ugliness that has caught hold can be gently drawn out by God's Spirit.  Then as we confess to God and accept His forgiveness we are made clean and pure again just like the mug when it was finally taken out of the dishwasher.  

We find a wonderful prayer in the Bible that puts this request to God and we know that what we ask of Him believing in Him, He will keep His Word to us.

But you know what the good thing is, with God it doesn't have to take as long as the mug soaking and going through the dishwasher.

                  Now guess what is sitting beside me as I type this - 

Yes!  

Another coffee mug

   and I will try to remember to take it with me 

when I leave the study this time.

A Dose of Encouragement from a Coffee Mug.

Thanks for dropping in today and remember 

God wants to make us clean.

Are you a coffee fanatic like me?

I'm thankful God loves coffee drinkers like me, are you?

Thankfulness, Goodness, Love - A Dose of Encouragement

HAPPY  BIRTHDAY  to our daughter  LINDA

This is the first time you have been away from us for your birthday in all these 26 years.

The first time the boys have not had to complain that you get a day completely devoted to you and they never do because they are at school or work on their birthday.


Not that they ever minded because it was always a complete family affair.


The go-karting

       The ice-skating

              The bowling

                     The cinema   .........

                             and of course always dinner in the place of your choice.


First time apart might as well be on the other side of the world

        - oh yes South Korea does sort of fit the bill.

In church last night Pastor spoke on Psalm 107 v 1  and I think it is very appropriate for you.

Of course it's also appropriate for all of us.

Let's take some time today to focus on this thought from the verse.

         

We should be THANKFUL 

                             Why?  

    Because  God's Love endures forever so He can NEVER STOP being GOOD!

Isn't it great that no matter where we are we can know that God will never stop being good because He will never stop loving us?

What are you doing for Christmas? Advent 5

Today is the last day of Advent.

The last time to consider the four words we have looked at through this time of Advent.

Our last update on the Advent reading plan 

Day 24.        1 John 3:7 & 8

Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.

He that commiteth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning.  For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Jesus came into the world to help us to stop sinning and to be our substitutionary sacrifice, taking away God's wrath if we do sin.

We received a lot of cards which wished us a Merry Christmas and some took words from a carol or mentioned the shepherds, wise men, angels, star etc.

Here I have picked out 4 of the cards we received which highlighted the four words of Advent

HOPE

LOVE

JOY

PEACE

May I wish you the true 
Hope, Love, Joy and Peace 
that Jesus brought on the first Christmas 
and still brings to us as we trust in Him.

I took some time last week to sit and listen to an old Christmas Music collection that my son had found on YouTube.

It was a compilation of Christmas songs by Max Bygraves which my kids used to listen to on the way to school with their cousins.  Their uncle played this same album in the car all through December every year and they all used to moan and groan about it but now it has turned into a fond Christmas memory.

On You tube it is in several parts to cover the whole album, the first part is here if you want to have a listen.






That is something that Christmas does in us, it stirs up memories.

Today I was thinking about how the memory of the first Christmas with Jesus coming to live on earth in God's plan of Salvation brought Mary to the anticipation of this Salvation.

Then how the memory of working alongside Jesus and knowing Him gave the disciples the faith to proclaim the Saviour and that He would return one day.

And because we know God's word came true about Jesus coming to be the Saviour of the world then we can trust that His word will come true about the return of Jesus too.

So the first Christmas leads us to the anticipation of the return of Jesus hence the celebration of Advent, where we are awaiting His Coming.

           Advent means arrival or appearance

Are you awaiting His arrival or appearance ?  

Have you trusted in Jesus and believe when He said He would come again?

What are you doing for Christmas? Advent 4

This is the Fourth & last Sunday of Advent.

We are in the time of the year when 

is one of the things we talk about.  Today in church I spoke to the children about Peace because the story in Sunday School was about the Angel's Proclamation to the Shepherds.  

The other day there was a small explosion in the Cathedral Quarter of Belfast, Northern Ireland (my country of residence again now and my country of birth).  

A bomb had been left outside a restaurant very close to St. Anne's Cathedral and and warning phoned in to the police.  While the nearby residents and the diners in the restaurants were being evacuated part of the device blew up but not enough to do any real damage or injury.

The Cathedral and all the people nearby were safe and sound but many of the comments of people who were there at that time is now anger and unrest about whether we really do have peace in Northern Ireland.

As I said above we are in the time of the year when Peace is one of the things we talk about, Peace on Earth, wishing you Peace at Christmas, Have the Peace of God in your hearts.

But so many people are going around every day without this peace in their hearts.  

I believe this is simply because they can't believe that Peace is an easy thing to have. They think that it would be a complicated matter to make this type of change in their lives.  

Thankfully God has made it easy for us because He is the one who brings about this Peace through His Son Jesus.  

Our easy part is just to stop resisting and accept that God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to be our Peace.  Of course if we keep edging Jesus out of the picture at Christmas then it is harder to even draw our thoughts to Him let alone trust that He will be the way to Peace this Christmas. 

A couple of years ago I chose this Christmas card (below) that has the message I wanted to send, a message that I feel strongly about and also I loved the look of the card, simple but eye-catching at the same time.  I loved the card so much that I kept one so that each year I can display it.  I have even written on it from Fred & Sandra, because I want to continue to send this message to myself as well.

So this card is sitting at the front left hand side of the TV this year and will remind us of that special message.

   There is no Christmas without Jesus and there is no Peace without Him too.

Here is a very quick Advent video on Peace.






Do you keep Jesus at the heart of Christmas?

We have a true high Priest in Jesus

We have a Saviour who is at the right hand of God

We have a mediator in Jesus

We have life because Jesus came 

We know that Jesus Christ is Lord

We know that God gave Jesus to bring freedom and Joy 

We know that Jesus wants to send us to others 

We know that Jesus has the power over Satan so that we can be free

Are you still enjoying this time of preparation in the run up to Christmas?


Our oldest son Jonathan arrives from England very Soon!


So you can all guess some of the things I was up to this past week but some of the others might surprise you.

• A bedroom had to be dusted and hoovered.
• An ensuite had to be cleaned.
• A bed had to be made.
• A check of "plain biscuits" (this son nibbles on plain biscuits regularly throughout the day).
• A check of "Northern Ireland Tea" (this son always goes back home with a supply of Northern Ireland Punjana Tea which is hard to get in England).
• A certain Agatha Christie Poirot novel had to be started (the two of us are looking forward to sitting down one day to watch "Curtain" which I recorded when it was on ITV a few weeks ago and we had decided to reread the book first).

I bet you didn't guess the last 3 things!

It will feel even more like Christmas once Jonathan arrives as no doubt there will be renditions of

                                                                                      

which is His favourite Advent hymn.

I think there may also be

Lots of talk about 

blogs as he is also a blogger

church as he is a Pastor

books as he is an avid reader

food as he loves to eat.

Of course I can say all this because I know him so well.

Which makes me think about something Fred & I and a couple of friends were talking about last night. 

How can we express ourselves towards Jesus if 

we do not 

know Him well.  

Surely we will run out of words to describe Him, 

to praise Him 

and 

to worship Him.

Do you know Him well?

What are you doing for Christmas? Advent 3

This is the third Sunday of Advent

Today we are focusing on 

The children in Sunday School are into their stories leading up to Christmas.  They were looking at "Reassured by an Angel" telling the story of the angel message to Mary, then the angel message to Joseph and the birth of Jesus.
So when I was doing the children's slot at the start of our service this morning I talked about Joy because the messages by the angel to Mary and Joseph resulted in great joy for them.

We sang two choruses about Joy.
One is an old one but it doesn't matter about whether things are old or new but whether they help to teach our children about the truths in the Bible.

The other is a Christmas one about Joy which is sung to the tune of "Jesus loves me this I know" 

Through my Advent reading plan I am now reading how
We have joy because 

we worship Jesus the King

we know about Jesus

we are led to Jesus

Jesus has the victory over satan.

During Advent we think of various things about Jesus coming to earth as He did at His birth and as He will again in the future.

Are you full of Joy as you think of Christmas?

I've included a very short video about Joy at Advent time for you.

Are you still enjoying the joy of Advent or is it getting lost in the midst 

of all the practical things?

I am thankful for the Hope and Love and Joy that we are reminded of during this Advent time.

Are you making time to remember the Joy of this Christmas time in the midst

 of the busy days?

This past weeks I have been writing our Christmas cards for the UK and the rest of Europe.

This is not too big an amount of cards as a lot of our friends within Europe will be getting eCards from us.

Christmas Card 2013

Christmas Letter 2013

eCard 2013

I also wrote the cards for my little group of university mates because we were getting together this week for a meal and catch-up chat.  It's been a year since we met up like this but before that it was over 7 years since we all met together because Fred & I had been living in Belgium.

Isn't it lovely that we can have friends that even though we don't see them often we can still fall easily into conversation again.  

It was great to catch up last year and will be good this year again.