Tag: me

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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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Still trying to make life work…

Yikes! Really sorry for the delays on these folks…. going away and being ill have slightly impacted upon my free time and things have just been so crazy lately. Don’t know about anybody else out there but we just seem to be rushed off our feet at the moment and even a 48 hour day wouldn’t be long enough right now.

Anyway – I have FINALLY managed to get some desktop backgrounds done for week 1 and weeks 6-10 of the Making Life Work series we have been doing at KingsGate.

Wowsers, what an… “inspiring” (i.e. scarily challenging) series it has been so far with not a week going by without several “OUCH” moments and many action points being brought out either in my own study or in the small group discussions. But, despite the pain, the series is absolutely superb and totally spot on for what I need – this is definitely going to be a life-changing series and I am making sure I have all the sessions downloaded to be listened to over and over again in the coming days, weeks, months and years…

Continue reading “Still trying to make life work…”

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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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Keeping going

When life is tough, or thoughts are darkened by fears and pressures…

How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?

How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.

Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.

That’s Psalm 13 (from the New International Version of the Bible) and I heard this as the basis of a song yesterday and was blown away by the words as they really were so honest and true, whilst also being a challenge to keep on rejoicing and praising.

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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 😉