Pondering the Psalms - Psalm 2

Each Sunday I am going to choose a Psalm and write down some brief thoughts on it.


Today I'm looking at Psalm 2

This Psalm falls into three parts:

V. 1-3
People and Nations in Opposition to God.


V. 4-9
God sees all.
The Lord is on the Throne, He is in control.


V. 10-11
Warning to the rulers that if they do not serve God they will perish.

Overall Theme

No matter who thinks he is better than the Lord and God's people, he has to remember that Jesus is Lord and will do with them as He wills.

This Psalm encourages us to know that God is in supreme control.


People & nations may seem to be making the world a horrible place to live in 
but there will be an end to this.

The end will be GOOD for those who have trusted in God.

An Organised Printer Unit

There is a place in every room where you just tend to leave things down.   True?

I know that happens in our house and I am pretty sure it happens in your house too.

But the Printer Unit in my Study really is not the place I think that should happen but that is exactly what has been happening.

I think it was because it was the place that had shelves that were not so full of things - well to start with!

Then it just seemed like there was space there so something (and everything) could just be set down there until I had time to put it away or indeed decided where it should go.


Hence it became one big mess.

The only way to do the job properly was the usual Sandra method of

"take everything out and only put back what needs to go there"

But Fred calls it

"take everything out and make a mess somewhere else"

Well what else can you do until you have decided where all the "stuff" will go?



So I cleared the shelves and left only 3 things:

• the printer on the bottom shelf
• my containers for various sizes of laminating pouches on the second shelf up
• the A3 laminator on the middle shelf

The printer goes on the bottom shelf with plenty of room above it for the back feed tray and also a better position for lifting out unto the floor when needing to get at the connections and plugs.


The second shelf up is a pull out shelf and I keep the laminating pouches there handy for use with the laminator just above on the middle shelf.


I love the containers I have for the pouches because they hold the different sizes (except for A3 but what could hold A3 size?) and they sit on top of each other taking up less space.
They were a good buy but now I don't remember where I got them.


There are three containers

The first is A4 size so holds the A4 pouches and then there are two A5 size, one for the A5 pouches and one for the A6 and A7 and business card size pouches.

At the moment I have run out of the A5 size which explains why one is empty.

These two smaller trays sit on top of the larger one

supported by the shape of the sides of the larger tray.


It is very handy to grab the pouches as I need them and just lift the front top tray to get at the A4 ones in the bottom tray.


So these were the essentials for the printer unit.



Then the decisions had to be made about what other things I should keep on the other shelves.


The most obvious thing would be to have anything else that I would normally want to use with the printer at close to it so immediately you would think of paper

but 

I already use the two Ikea drawer units immediately to the right of this unit for all my paper and card and I see no reason to change this because there is a drawer for each type of paper and card so that is all well organized.

All I had to do with it was tidy up the top of it to make it neater  -  easy job.



So what should go on the other shelves in the Printer Unit?


Well I decided that I should consider how to make the best use of the space.

Firstly I knew that would not be to store my A3 white, black & coloured cardstock because that could mean losing out on the height allowance of the shelves by putting in something large and flat.


In the end I decided it would be best to store my various boxes some with old greeting cards, some with note paper & cards and some with more miscellaneous items.  These are boxes which I will not be lifting out and in too often so it doesn't matter that some are on top of others but look how well they fill up the two top shelves - good use of space here.

Then I remembered something else which definitely should be kept in the unit and these are the new ink cartridges for the printer so I grabbed an old small black box I had kept (knowing it was good and sturdy and would come in handy for something) and put the cartridges in it and placed it at the back left corner of the middle shelf behind the laminator.


Another item that made sense to be in the unit because of it's height and what it is used for was the Photo Negative Scanner so I placed it at the back right corner of the middle shelf again behind the laminator.

I have a small metal case which came with a shaver or something for my husband a couple of years ago and I decided straight away when I saw it that it would be ideal for keeping things to do with my phone and mp3 player and bluetooth gadget and charging leads so it was put back on to the shelf beside the laminator pouches where it had been previously so not much change there.



Well with the printer unit and the drawer units done I thought I might as well finish off with the metal & wicker shelf unit that stands to the left.


This is now the place for most of my other books that I need to read and then after that decide to give away or keep - they are in the wooden crates with the chalkboard fronts.

The other nice boxes and files are for

• my recipes,
• greeting cards for use throughout the year,
• old letters
• A4 Overhead Projector Song Sheets for when we are working with the Kids Club in the school.

Did you notice the little bit of decoration I had hanging on the printer unit?

Yes the heart that had hung on the key before

Well it is back again - it is a heart and I love Hearts and it is dark red which ties in with other decorative things in the Study.  Plus I love that old "Home is where the Heart is" phrase.


And now

I am pleased with the difference in looks and the better organisation of the unit and the shelves.

compared to the before

This was more Housework than Funwork this time and more housework to come very soon with the sorting out of the other stuff that had been left on the printer shelves in the past

but

then eventually it will be more Fun because I will take some time to read my old letters and look at the old cards and enjoy memories  with a nice cup of coffee on several occasions yet to come.

This project also brings another project to my mind

How to imaginatively keep old greeting cards - might need a bit of research time on Pinterest for that!

But for now this job is finished and the pull down door can be closed on it when we want to but if it remains this well organised we won't need to try to hide it.

So another part of the Study has been overhauled and organised but we still have many more parts to tackle.


For the other parts of the Study already overhauled and organised click below


An Organised Craft Armoire

Organised Bookcases

For More Posts on Organising please click below

Organising

The Spider in the Hall! - A Dose of Encouragement

If you have read other posts on this blog you will know that my husband travels often on business.

Although some people think this has perks - it rarely does.  In fact there are so many other things that are downsides of this fact.


The Spider in the hall being just one of those.

When we moved into this house in December 2010 we noticed a lot of spiders appearing in the first 6 months here.

Suddenly we would be sitting quietly watching a dvd in the lounge when something would run along the floor past us and Fred would have to jump up to get it and kill it before it disappeared again.  Slippers were even known to have been thrown across the room in some cases.

These spiders were not wee tiny things but quite big and therefore noticeable when they tried to sprint the length of our room.


The 2 good things about that time was that

• Fred was not travelling much so he was there to do the killing (please don't judge us for killing them).
• It came to an end, we presumed the spiders had been hiding somewhere after being free to roam the house while it was empty before we bought it and now they had all ventured out and been GOT.

I'm not saying we didn't get any spiders since then but to be honest we got more outside on the patio than we did in the house and the ones in the house were not big.

Until September last year that was.

It was enormous!
I mean really enormous!

But worse than that - Fred was away on business!

I was on my own in the house!

It was 1.15 in the morning when I should have been in bed fast asleep but well.....

All I could think of was

That thing could make it to our bedroom 

and the door of our bedroom doesn't close properly 

and this thing could be crawling all over me in bed. 

 I would never be able to sleep.

It has to go!

But there was no Fred to get it for me.

Now just to prove that I did not zoom in on this spider to make it look BIG you can see it compared to the mirror which is about 4.5 feet long and 2 feet deep.  The spider was just approaching the corner and was about 1.5 feet from the mirror.

Before I decided how to kill it I had to take a picture because otherwise Fred would never have believed me about the size of it.

My biggest problem was I did not want to squash it on the wall because I did not want to mark the paintwork - too lazy to have to clean it!

I would have to act quickly before this thing ran off.

But I didn't because the spider seemed content to just sit there while I took the picture and stared at it considering my options.

No way was I going to try to scoop it onto a piece of paper and try to take it outside - it would have been far too close to my hands.

It had to be the flick it off the wall and stamp on it method!

But I was in my slippers and my feet are small so I had to go get a newspaper and would you believe that brute just sat there on the wall and waited for me to come back.  I think he thought I would be no match for him.

Then with a swift flick off the wall (making no mark), I threw the newspaper on top of it on the floor and jumped on top of the newspaper.  

GOT IT!

I actually think it was so big it couldn't move as fast as smaller spiders.

After what probably would have looked to others like a little flamenco dancing on the newspaper it was definitely dead.

Well I felt so good (not because I had killed a spider) but because I had managed something I usually relied on Fred to do and I would be able to sleep unworried about the spider.

But then the thought struck me

What if there was a spider's mate somewhere in the house?

How quickly I could go from one feeling to another!

How quickly my mood could be changed by one little thought!

But the devil sure knows which little thought to put into our minds - that one little thought that will be the one to do his evil work.

He knows just when to slip it in to rob us of any joy we have.

He tries it all the time.
He is an expert at it.
He thinks he knows us so well.

And let's face it he does know us well.

He knows all those thoughts, feelings, fears, reactions, worries that he can attack us with.

But

God knows us better than anyone.

God does not attack us.

God does not rob us of joy.

God does not throw discouraging thoughts at us.

God does not plant niggling fears in our minds.

God is the one who gives us joy.

God is the one who helps us overcome all that the devil wants to pull us down with.

So next time you feel your joy being sucked away by the devil and his whisperings in your ear think about this story of the spider and 

imagine you are flamenco dancing on the devil 

because 

Jesus has the victory over the devil and so do we.

Don't let the devil hold you back!

Segway Titanic Tour - Xtra Special Day

Okay so I never learned to ride a bike when I was young.

I know you are all thinking

                    "Who can't ride a bike?"

Well I can't.

But I can definitely ride a Segway!

Over the last several years I have occasionally seen people on segways and I always thought I would love to have a go but even though I am attracted to trying more unusual things I do not like making a fool of myself in front of others.

Then I read that they were very easy to ride/drive so I probably would not fall over and make a fool of myself and I also found out that a company in Northern Ireland were running "Titanic" Segway Tours which were obviously tours around the "Titanic Quarter" of Belfast on Segways.

I kept thinking how I would love to do it and hinted to my husband several times but Fred is not one to really take a hint - well not quickly anyway..

Then last year I decided we were going to go on the Titanic Segway Tour when all of the family would be together in Northern Ireland - not something that often happens now that our oldest son is living in Leeds and our daughter is living in South Korea.

To make a full day out of it we were going to go to the Titanic Exhibition first and then do the Segway tour and then go for dinner.

So we went online and booked 6 places on the tour one day in August, yes 6 because of course our middle son got married so we have a daughter-in-law as well.

Unfortunately Jonathan (the one from Leeds) took ill that morning and had to stay in bed all day so there were only the five of us in the end.

You can see the Titanic Building in the background - a rather impressive sight as you drive across the M3 over Belfast - designed to make you think of a ship.


I was so looking forward to this and as soon as the guy said we could get on the segways I didn't wait for the others.

It was so easy to do and very enjoyable.

We were told to go in single file and follow the tour guide so Linda led us off after him.


We were like ducks in a row and Linda enjoyed taking these selfies trying to get us all in as we rode along.

I laughed and laughed as we segwayed all around the Titanic quarter even though everyone we passed stared at us.  In fact I think that made me laugh even more.

The guide took us to different parts of the Titanic Quarter and we did listen as he explained what had happened at each part.

You can see me concentrating in the picture below when we were beside the dock.

Well shortly before that shot I had been giggling and not long after it I was giggling again but I did stop to listen in between.


When we had been all round the Titanic quarter and heard all about it we stopped for a ...

It seemed very strange parking the segways alongside the water and sitting in the coffee shop looking out at them.


Then after coffee we segwayed back toward the Odyssey Arena where the guide then let us have about 15 mins of free time on the large flat area riding round just as we pleased.

It was hilarious!



Daniel took this video.

No-one fell off, no-one collided with anyone else (although Daniel and Suzie almost did) or with the posts or the benches in the area.


Linda took this one.





Can't remember who took this one.  All I know is I was too busy enjoying the play time that I didn't take any videos or pictures at all.






But all good things have to come to an end and when Jonathan - the guide, said it was time to go back to the tour Office we were all disappointed but we had to go.

Well the chat was great after this event as we had all thoroughly enjoyed it and felt the time had gone too quick and I was already wondering when I could do it again.

However it is not a cheap day out, but it was a Special Day for us.

They do claim to be the only Segway Tours in the UK you see.

And I have been scheming & planning and hopefully there will be another Xtra Special Day !!!

Pondering the Psalms - Psalm 63

Each Sunday I am going to choose a Psalm and write down some brief thoughts on  it.


Today I'm looking at Psalm 63 

This has long been one of my favourites and I remember learning a song based on verses 3 & 4 of this Psalm when I was a teenager.

While I was contemplating which Psalm I would put up for today's post I had a phone call from my son who is a Pastor in the Apostolic Church, UK.  He had rung to tell me that Pastor Hugh Mitchell had died this week.

During the past year we had all been very happy to hear that Pastor Mitchell had celebrated his 100th birthday and had been well enough to write a thank you letter to our church for the card we had sent him.


So why am I sharing this here?

Because it led me to choose Psalm 63 for today's post.

Pastor Hugh Mitchell was the writer of that song I mentioned above.

The song is entitled   "Thy Loving Kindness is Better than Life"

Looking at Psalm 63 v 1 - 8

This Psalm is about the Psalmist and his reaction to God:

V. 1-2
the Psalmist is seeking God earnestly
and he knows he has found God;
he has seen God's Power and Glory


V. 3-4
the Psalmist recognises the loving kindness of God
and how great it is;
his response is to praise, bless and adore God

V. 5-8
the Psalmist is joyful in his praise
which comes from fixing his attention on God;
recognizing God's help
and being secure in God's Hands.

There had to be a specific word used in this Psalm to express exactly what 

the Psalmist wanted to say


Lovingkindness

So great and special was the character of God that the Psalmist wanted to picture it for us.

Have you experienced God's Lovingkindness?

Do you think it is better than life?

Do you want to Bless God because of your relationship with Him?

Perhaps you know this simple but profound song

If you know this song or have heard of Hugh Mitchell then you might like to read this tribute to him.

UPDATE

Since writing this post my husband and I have recorded some videos of songs of bible Verses so I have included the one for Psalm 63 v 3 featured above.