Tag: General

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Maybe we’re just trying to get it all out of the way?

‘snot been much fun of late over at Hartley towers sadly with Mrs H feeling seriously run down and then getting a cold to boot along with the kiddies all coming down with varying bugs, viruses (anyone else noticed how *everything* is a virus these days?), sickies and colds.

Me? Well, I started to come down with a dodgy stomach mid-week but seemed to manage to fight it off thankfully – which was nice 🙂

I’m just really hoping that we’re all coming down with the usual bits and pieces now and getting it all out of the way so we can try and have an enjoyable winter instead of spending 4 months looking after one sickie after another… that sorta thing can put a crimp on what is an exceedingly busy season for us, but one that should be seriously enjoyable as well.

Gotta admit that I’m *really* looking forward to Christmas this year, not only have I managed to book a few days off but it will also be the first Christmas for several years that we can truly celebrate it properly as a family – and really enjoy the occassion for its true meaning!

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Making Life Work – or at least, trying to!!!

We’re now 2 weeks in to the new season of teaching at KingsGate, using Bill Hybels’ rather excellent “Making Life Work” book to take us through Proverbs and then looking at how this can affect different areas of out everyday lives.

The first session was looking at Wisdom – and boy did I feel foolish by the end of *that* one! (and supremely challenged it has to be said), and last Sundays session was about taking the initiative and “getting a grip)

As part of the series everyone in housegroups were given a copy of the book to work through and to study as a follow-up on the Sunday teaching and to use when we meet as groups. We have also been challenged to learn one proverb each week in line with the sermons.

It’s YEARS since I’ve done any form of memory verse and getting back into the habit has proven to be somewhat fun! Yeah, I know that I need to do more of it… but I’ve gotten out of the habit and now I really need to work to get back *into* the habit.

As an aide-mémoire I have started to create some desktop background images containing relevant images along with the proverb of the week… and being the sort of person I am, I thought I’d upload them here. (And by “the sort of person” I mean the sort who forgets so often it’s useful to keep such things on the Internet where I know I can find them wherever I am!)

So here they are in all their glory – to get hold of the images for parts 2 to 5 simply click on the desired image and then save it for your consumption. Hope they help others of you out there as they are helping me! Continue reading “Making Life Work – or at least, trying to!!!”

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One day a year – you can be proud and nationalistic!

Ah… the proms – specifically the second half of the Last Night of the Proms.

A joyous occasion where sitting in front of the telly belting out patriotic tunes is fully acceptable and totally enjoyable. You just cannot beat it. A rousing chorus of Rule Britannia and the joy of our true national anthem (I wish!) “Land of Hope and Glory”

This years event was one of the best I’ve ever seen with the conductor really enjoying himself and looking so proud to be there (as well as actually sticking around to sing at the end) and Bryn Terfl was really going for it and joining in with the whole lot.

Sir Andrew Davies has always been my favourite conductor as he always did the proms justice, and since he left we’ve had nobody who has embraced the night with such passion but Richard Norrington was definitely up there with the best of them.

We let our daughter stay up to watch them this year, her first proms, knowing full well that it would be a very late night for her (since the proms never run to time!) and it was definitely a great evening sharing the event with her.

I did watch some of the other proms as well this year, and I cannot wait until they show the Dr Who prom of course – roll on the 2009 season! If it’s half as good as this years then it’ll be a supreme event.

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2 Weeks – still shattered, but loads achieved :)

Blimey… that was a real corker of a “holiday” – I know some of you were really looking forward to my “Paint Drying” blog but I didn’t even get a chance to get on my PC for long enough to check emails, let along do any blogging.

Saying that – it all looks a heck of a lot better! Nice clean walls that aren’t disgusting colours, decent carpet downstairs and on the stairs and landing, tidier looking and a much cleaner and more spacious look and feel to the place.

We keep getting comments along the lines of “You won’t want to move out now” and there is a degree of that as it really does look good… but we do still want to move. There is a property we really like the look of that keeps popping up but until we are in a good place to take it further we are just praying that either it, or another one like it, are available when we come to the crunch.

For now though we are busy de-cluttering and packing bits and pieces as much as possible to make the house look homey but not cramped… and we are slowly returning to normality.

Normality… yes… great word – I suppose it’d be more accurate to say we are now entering the next phase as there is nothing normal at the moment.

Our girl started at secondary school last week, growing up fast and it’s way too scary for me too keep up with. I think I’m going to be one of *those* dads who can never see their little girls as anything BUT little girls…

Our big lad started back at school today, and out little’un returns to play school tomorrow… so it’s all going back to the normal 5-day-week but with enough changes and other periphery to make it feel quite weird.

Oh well…. I’ll post some pics at some point but thought I’d keep this place updated 😉

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Mixed times…

Cor… it’s been a couple of weeks since I last posted here! Time flies… nah, I won’t finish that as I’m not sure it’s all been fun.

Life’s a bit of a mixed bag at the moment and I really don’t know quite what to make of it all in some ways.

The weather caused our housegroup picnic to be cancelled at the weekend which was really annoying as we are on a summer break with the group and it would have been the first time in ages we’d have all had a chance to get together (other than at Church – but you can’t really catch up with people there much)

Sunday morning I stayed at home to look after our daughter who was ill with a headaches/stomach bug virus. Quite a nasty one as even double-dosing her on Calpol and Nurofen didn’t hold off the headaches much and timing was oh-so critical to ensure that we had some doses left to keep her going through the night. To cap it all off it’s rubbed off on me now but with all the painkillers I take I can at least manage the headache aspect of it a bit.

Sunday afternoon we all popped over to my Nans house to throw a surprise 60th party for one of my uncles. It was a nice time but overshadowed by my girl not feeling too good along with a few other family events that subdued people a little. In the end we had to leave quicker than we wanted ‘cos me girl was going downhill fast. Don’t get me wrong, it was really nice to see everyone and it was good fun… just a shame that we weren’t all at 100% for the occassion.

With the illness etc, sleep has been a rare commodity and we also haven’t managed to get much done on the house these past couple of weeks (our schedules haven’t exactly been conducive to such things!) – but the next week and a bit should hopefully see life moving along a fair bit more as I get my first “break” of the year and spend the first week decorating!

I’ll try and keep a decorating blog so you too can join in the joy of watching paint dry 🙂 It’s bound to be a thrilling experience, albeit a little wierd as we lose the kids for a week to the in-laws. In fact, that’s going to make it really odd as there’s only been once we’ve ever had no kids for a week and that was 8 years ago!

Interesting times.

P.S. Apologies if this comes across as a whinge – it’s not meant to be… things are just a roller-coaster now.