Wednesday

Stop & Let The Ducks Cross - A Dose of Encouragement


Thinking back to some years ago there was a Saturday that was just too busy a day.

Had to have a lie-in because it was Saturday and on Saturdays we have a lie-in followed by breakfast in bed unless we absolutely have to travel somewhere early.






Then preparation for packing for the drive back to our hometown for a family event only staying overnight but outfit for the event needed and then clothes to wear travelling, pyjamas, coat and of course all the things we will not leave without like the iPad, phones, etc.

Next came the Skype call with our daughter to talk about the notes I had made while proof reading her latest script. That was a long call well 3 calls actually because there was bathroom break and another break to check up on my husband Fred to make sure he was getting ready to go away and sure enough no, he was reading instead.
His punishment was to make the very late lunch but it was a very easy lunch to make.

Then the packing and the gathering up of the Sunday School materials & other things which had to go with us to be dropped off at church on the way.

A few other texts and phone calls fill in the gaps and we are finally ready to leave at 3.30pm to be at our first destination by 5.30pm and the journey will take us almost 2 hours. We actually needed to arrive before 5.30pm to get parked and walk to the location where our younger son Daniel's band was playing at a culture event in Londonderry.

Then over to my sister's house for a light meal and chat and introduce Daniel's girlfriend Suzie to my side of the family. Change of clothes and on to the restaurant for the Surprise 40th Wedding Anniversary Dinner for Fred's brother and his wife. Time to introduce Daniel's girlfriend to the other side of the family.

Back to my sister's around 1am and flop into bed.

At least we weren't driving up the road to Belfast like Daniel and Suzie.


There have been many days when it has been just one thing after another and I feel like I'm going through one stage just as the preamble to the next and so on, never really savouring each part of the day.

One such day was when we were on a trip to Belgium in 2004 to find a school for our daughter and find our way around before finding a house and moving there to live for over 6 years.

We were driving in an area near the airport and not sure of the road at all when we came to a lake. The road ran alongside this lake and it was the approach to a small town.


          Suddenly we had to stop at a zebra crossing.



                    What was unique about that then?



Crossing the road on the zebra crossing were a duck and 3 little ducklings.



We laughed hard at the fact that the duck was taking her ducklings across the road via the crossing, was she a very clever duck or was it just by chance?

Whichever it was it caused us to stop, be amused and it brightened our hectic day. I just wish we had had a camera ready for that moment but regardless of the lack of a picture the memory hasn't faded.
I often think of it fondly and remember how we enjoyed that simple action.


That is actually the thing I remember most about that short trip to Belgium.


We need to remember to stop and wait in the busyness.

When we are very busy we just go through the motions of everything but when we are forced to stop and wait at times we can find so many other things we didn't expect.

We can find amusement in a little snippet of life.

          We can find a source of peace and contentment.

                    We can find gratitude to God for the unique times in our lives that are so special.

                              We can find joy.







We need to remember to stop and wait a while with God in the middle of our busy days as well as in the not so busy days.

Not thinking about always sitting still and not doing anything else but thinking of always being ready to think of Him in all the busyness of our lives while we are in the midst of each of those busy days.

You know we don't need to let the busyness take over and swamp out our thoughts and prayers because we can still pray as we go, as we make the decisions that we face each day as we do all the practical, usual or sometimes unusual things we have to do.

In stead of having our minds dwell all the time on what is next on the list to be done we can be more aware of how God has said He will always be with us and that means even when we are busy, not just when we are sitting down saying "Ok God my to-do list is complete, I have time for you now."


He always has time for us.




Sunday

Smile God Loves YOU! Romans 5:8 - Sunday Scripture


This Sunday's Scripture on God's Love is Romans 5:8



As I read through this one I thought of the 6 Question Words as I call them when teaching English as a second language.

Who, Where, What, When, Why & How.

So that's how I want to look at this verse today.






Who's Love?        It's God's Love.


Who to?      Us.  Everyone because all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God.


How?       By giving His Son to die in our place.


When?        While we were in our sin.     When we were separated from God.


Why?       There was no other way.      No other substitute would have been good enough.


Where?      On the cross at Calvary.


What does it show?      The perfect Love.    The perfect sacrifice.


Who is it for?         The Imperfect People.



The Perfect for the Imperfect.








The Perfect Father 
because of His Perfect Love 
gave the Perfect Son 
as the sacrifice for the Imperfect People.










Monday

The Magpie at the window. - Coffee & Conversation


Sitting at my desk in the study one morning I had a visitor.







I don't get many visitors to my study as not many people get near that room in our house because it is not very tidy most of the time.

But that day sitting in the quiet, which I enjoy as I blog and work on things for church, a Magpie perched on my windowsill and made those cute bird noises as he watched me through the glass.

I smiled and said hello, I like Magpies and we often see them in the garden but never so close to the house except for the times they perch on the roof and then run around for a while.

There was another magpie on the grass but this one had decided to sit a while at the window with me.  We usually see the two together somewhere on the grass or fence or in the trees just on the outer side of our fence.




I took a break from the computer and just watched this brave and perhaps curious magpie, it seemed so unimpressed with anything but so contented and carefree on the windowsill.

Then a few minutes later it was off again.

I realised I had not even thought to try to take a picture of it but it probably would have flown off if I had moved to get the camera.


A break of even a few minutes can be good for us.


       
Sometimes life can be too busy or we can make each day too busy.

          Always something to be thinking about or doing or planning to do.
                    Always "What needs to be done today?" or "What's next on the Todo list?"


   Anyway

I think that little break of a few minutes was good for me.










Saturday

The Simplest Easter Egg Hunt! - Xtra Special Day

Last year we had our first Easter Egg Hunt.


Yes we are not young, in fact we are grandparents yet up to now I have never had an Easter Egg Hunt.

But now we are grandparents and I decided that we were going to have one.

So I planned that I would hide them all around the back garden for Matthew last year when he was 17 months old.  He was well on his feet and always full of energy and loved running around playing with nanny, grandpa, aunt or uncle or whoever would be around when he would visit our home on a dry day.





Hence my idea was to get some eggs that were a decent size for him to find easily and some Cadbury Creme eggs (really these ones would be for the grownups) and I would hide them all around the back garden.

BUT!  It wasn't a dry day.


Plans had to be changed easily and quickly so it became an indoor hunt with eggs hidden (well sometimes almost in plain view - he was very young) in the hall, lounge, sun room, and guest bedroom.  5/6 hidden in each room some easier to find than others so that he could get some by himself and so that uncle Jonathan could help him while his mum and dad had a little sit down and catch up with social media on their phones.


In the Sun Room Matthew immediately decided he would have to get into the TV unit





then he jumped around to look behind the furniture so fast that I could hardly get a picture that wasn't blurred.




With the eggs found from that room he headed off down the hallway and immediately spied one on the little flower stand there.




We had not hidden any in Fred's Office because Matthew loves to play the drums there and might have got a bit distracted but we were surprised when he didn't even ask to go into it at all.


Next was the guest room where he sometimes stays overnight or takes a little afternoon nap.




After finding one beside the teddy bear doorstop and a few others on one side of the bed he quickly ran over to the wardrobes and found one behind a briefcase.

Now there were several more still to be found in the guest room and he needed a little help for some of them as you can see in the short video.




Then back up the hallway because he thought maybe some would be upstairs and he went so quick he missed a very obvious one




so we had to call him back.




He was now so good at this hunt that he easily found the ones in the lounge and then



it was time to make sure they were all in the crystal basket (yes I hadn't thought to buy an Easter Basket so we had to improvise).

We counted the eggs to make sure he had now got all of them and he was rewarded with a few to eat straight away and the rest were put into a bag to go home with him.



Sometimes the simplest things are the best.





It was such a simple easy hunt to prepare but such fun to watch him enjoy running round and searching excitedly for each one of those tiny eggs.  

The quick, simple, inexpensive things we do together can be as much fun as big outings or more expensive adventures - we just judge things by how many laughs and smiles we hear and see because a joyful time together is an Xtra Special Time.





Sunday

Smile God Loves YOU! John 3:16 - Sunday Scripture

What is good for you?

Smiling!

So we are going to smile.

Why?

Because we know God loves us.






I have a favourite mug.
Oh, ok, if you have read my blog in other years you may well have noticed I love mugs and I do have some that are special to me but this one has always been my absolute favourite.



I blogged about it in

Another Coffee Mug  -  A Dose of Encouragement


This mug is going to be my theme pic for this series because


God thinks we are special.

Why?

Because He loves us.


When we think of God loving us there is one verse that will spring to most people's minds and that is






Sometimes we skim over it because we know it so well.  

You learnt it as a child if you went to Sunday School and even people who do not read the bible regularly can quote it  (and I hope correctly because often we are all getting too casual about the Word of God and thinking we know a verse but instead we are misquoting it).

There are so many things we could say about this verse, so many key words, so much truth and hope and promise and love all poured into it.


I always like to take verses in their context so let's read over the verses surrounding this in John chapter 3

The New Birth
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? 11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.   14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

In verses 14 to 18 we are focused on Jesus, the love God has for all of us and the proof of it.

Not just once do we get the message of John 3 v 16 but we have it repeated in this passage.  
In fact the message of salvation is in each of those 3 verses.  

Words are repeated and phrases repeated and if God repeats something then we need to take heed because it is very important.


Then there in the middle of it all is the reason why Jesus came to die


Then there in the middle of it all is the reason why Jesus came to die -


Because God loved us so much He wanted to make a way for us 

to be able to live and not perish, 

live with Him and be in His presence 

even though none of us could ever deserve such a privilege.










Friday

The 5 Best Organising Apps


I love to try to get organised in everything I do but I'm not saying I always manage it completely.


However I really do want this year to be my best organising year in our home and other aspects of life and to help me in this I will definitely be using





My iPad is like my diary, filo fax, novel, organiser, all rolled into one and a lot more.

It goes everywhere with me and when I'm at the computer it is sitting beside it.

There are certain apps which just have to be on the first screen of the iPad and on the dock at the bottom so that I can easily open them quickly.

These would include what I consider to be the 5 best organising apps I have.

Of course if you know me any way well you will know that I like free things and all but one of these 5 apps are free.


These 5 apps keep my everyday organised, just exactly as I want it.





Spark   by   Readdle
     FREE
They have a phrase "Love your email again".
This is exactly what happened - I did fall in love with dealing with my emails again.
You really have a look at this because it has a Smart box thing for sorting out your emails as they arrive but also it senses where you will probably want to file your emails and it just looks good.






Google Keep   by   Google
     FREE  
Great for short notes, lists, messages, I use it regularly.
So easy to slip in and out for quick note and easy to add photo.
My husband and I use it for those things we need to remind each other about "buying on the way home" or things we need to "find a day to do around the house" etc. plus keep short notes for easy access later.
Syncs great to android phone and sharing with other people and you can colour code everything.






Documents    by   Readdle 
     FREE
My favourite place to download files and Pdfs to.
Quick and easy to find and open and read through my files again.
I can move files around easily and it can deal with pictures too.







Doc Scan    by    Ifunplay
     FREE
I no longer use the scanner on my printer this is just far handier, in fact I haven't even bothered to link up my new laptop to scanning software for my printer.
If is called a PDF scanner but you have the option to save as a picture too.  Printing from it and sharing from it are simple.







Things 3   by   Culture Code
     PAID
I use it every day,  and in so many different ways.
It's a ToDo app plus so much more.
You can organise everything with this app, make all your lists, have deadlines, make projects, decide when to start work on something and check things off, have repeating todos plus have notes on your todos plus more and more.


Are you looking for the 5 best organising apps for every part of your life?



I have choice between them all and within each one so to me they are ideal for all I want to do and not hard to learn to use  -  definitely the 5 best organising apps for me!












Tuesday

The ABC Murders - Book Review


I am reading through the novels of Agatha Christie in the order in which they were written and writing a review on each one.







The ABC Murders



1936



Description


Agatha Christie’s world-famous serial killer mystery, reissued with a striking cover designed to appeal to the latest generation of Agatha Christie fans and book lovers.
There’s a serial killer on the loose, bent on working his way through the alphabet. And as a macabre calling card he leaves beside each victim’s corpse the ABC Railway Guide open at the name of the town where the murder has taken place.
Having begun with Andover, Bexhill and then Churston, there seems little chance of the murderer being caught – until he makes the crucial and vain mistake of challenging Hercule Poirot to frustrate his plans…






My Thoughts



This is the 25th book by Agatha Christie and the 12th Poirot Mystery


It is one of my least favourites even though Hastings is involved with Poirot for the solving of this mystery.

Miss Christie used a similar method by the murderer in this story as is Curtain and that is almost a spoiler which is unusual for me to write.
Perhaps that is why both those books are among my least favourites because I particularly do not like that kind of evil. 

Then there is another trait of the murderer that is also very evil so when the culprit is unmasked the reader has no sympathy for them at all.

She writes it full of red herrings but yet even among these all the clues are there waiting to be picked out and pieced together.  

This is one of the books that I would definitely recommend to be read before seeing the TV adaptation of it.  In fact I am a believer in any book being the real source of the story and so should always be read first but in this case I feel it really matters.



If you would like to know more about this book then click on the title or picture above.


 Here is a link to a list of her novels on Amazon
Books by Agatha Christie



If thinking of reading this book in the future why not pin this pic to go back to later.
















Monday

Is Your Child Safe? - Coffee & Conversation

What is the most precious thing for a grandmother?




The answer is in the question.

A grandchild!

Our family do a lot of travelling so we have little tips we have picked up from our experiences along the way. We have lived abroad for two periods of time one in the US and one in Belgium hence giving us some regular travel and experiences with certain companies.

Up until 4 years ago we were a family of 5 - Fred and I and our 3 grown up children. Then in 2013 we became 6 with the addition of our daughter-in-law, 2 years ago we grew to 7 when our grandson was born, last year we added our son-in-law to make 8 and then 2 months ago we celebrated the birth of our granddaughter and now have to think of 9 people.

Last August we rented a house in Cornwall (south of England) to have all the family together to celebrate our 40th Wedding Anniversary - the first time we have all spent a week together.





This meant co-ordinating travel from Banbridge and Belfast in Northern Ireland, Leeds in North England and Seoul in South Korea, not the simplest of things to do.

Flights were booked eventually and then hire cars had to be sorted out which included 2 child seats and specifics had to detailed because different ages and heights are taken into consideration for the right seat to ensure the safety of each child.  So we got our son Daniel to get all the info right for booking the car seats along with the hire cars.

Unfortunately when we got there HERTZ did not have the right seats for us and one of the seats they were giving us was partly broken.  We suggested they ask the other car hire place beside there's to help out with a seat but they didn't have any suitable either.  This was on a Saturday afternoon and the Car Hire was closing down soon and we were stuck.

In the end we had to drive to our destination (over an hour away) with the two seats they had for us putting one seat in each car and have someone sit beside each child.  The arrangement then was that on the Monday Daniel and Fred would buy a new seat and drive back to the airport to return the two seats from the Car Hire and get one replacement seat.







Then after the holiday was over we had the job of trying to get the proper refund and compensation for what had happened and that was not easy or quick.

Although we had booked the right seats with the original reservation, the Car Hire company either could not be careful enough to get the right seats or just didn't know it really mattered but to us our grandchildren really mattered.


Are your children important and kept safe by others?

So to parents and grandparents
Please watch out if you are travelling and need child seats in your hire car to ensure that the ones they are giving you are right for your children.

And to the Car Hire Companies
Please train your workers to know more about child safety and to show concern when there may be a problem because we did not see any evidence of those two things from the employees we spoke with.