Tag: me

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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.

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One missing thing…

Driving into work with music playing, as always, and I started praying again (I do this fairly regularly – but not as much as I should do it must be said!) and really felt a gentle nudge about my personal relationship with God.

If you recall from my previous entries here – the big thing about me coming back to God was the realisation that I needed an intimate, on-to-one, faith and not just a corporate experience.

The past few weeks have been chaos, me and Mrs H are still worn out and barely seem to have enough energy to climb out of the sofa and walk up the stairs to bed at night… and during this I’ve let my personal time with God falter and get pushed out of the way. “I’m too tired”, “Got no energy” or the classic “If I close my eyes to pray I’ll be snoring in 30 seconds” seem to have become a ridiculous part of my lingo these days and I’m actually noticing the effects this is having – I’m finding myself slipping into “old-ways” of thinking about people or situations and even mentally responding in a way I used to do, and that had changed in drastic ways.

As with any relationship of any kind be it working, friendship, business, parental or intimate – my faith requires a commitment from myself and an effort in maintaining it.

It’s not easy as the intangible can easily be pushed out to make way for the tangible and it can often be too late before we realise how detrimental that can be. Thankfully I’ve been given a nudge to make me realise what I’ve been doing so now I can rectify it!

The other thing that struck me during this revealing time is that I miss Worship. “But wait”, I hear you say, “Don’t you have a time of worship on a Sunday” – well, yes we do but I’d classify most of it as Praise and although I really do enjoy it and love the songs we sing and the atmosphere etc, and even though I do meet with God during it, I miss the more intimate style of worship in many ways.

It’s kinda difficult to explain fully what I mean – but when we visited Trent Vineyard the other week, the worship there felt more intimate, even though there were a similar number of people present. The songs that were sung, the way it was led and the way that there was time left for the songs to soak in and for people to receive during the worship felt soooo refreshing.

Don’t get me wrong – I *love* KingsGate and love the worship there…. but if you compare a Hillsongs CD (which is pretty much how the worship at our Church operates) to a Vineyard UK CD (such as Holy or Hungry) you can feel a difference in where it leads you. It’s all about God but both have an equal place and a balance is what I need.

I guess I need to find time – no, MAKE time!! – to worship at home, pray and study Gods word and get that intimate worship as part of my life… but I also can see that visits to my parents are going to be, in part, about giving and receiving that more intimate style of corporate worship.

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Thanks to everyone :)

I passed into the “Mid-30s” bracket yesterday, turning 35 – now requiring me to tick the box that says “35-44” instead of “26-34” on a lot of the surveys i always seem to get in the inbox routinely.

Didn’t feel much like a birthday for most of the day, although Mrs H did put a smile on my face when she crawled out of bed to make sure she’d given me her card and wished me a happy birthday at 6:50am before I left for work. The birthday really took off when I arrived home to have the 3 kids jump from the fence next to the gate screaming “Happy Birthday” and then rushing into the house to give me their cards and gifts.

I got given loads of CDs (got to catch up on all the stuff I’ve missed for the past few years you know 😀 ) which have now all been turned to MP3s ready for my car stereo.

So it’s a huge thanks to all those who got in touch yesterday and for all the great gifts and cards… can’t wait to start learning all the lyrics so that I can get singing along (poorly) to them all 🙂

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29 hours… 3 events… sleep not included

Wow. Simply put… WOW! That one word sums up this weekend pretty well. Of course, another word for the weekend would be “Chaos” or maybe even “Whirlwind” – then there is “MAD”. I’m not complaining – don’t get me wrong – it was a totally stunningly awesome weekend that I 110% loved and don’t regret in any way!

We always knew the weekend was going to be a mad but I don’t think any of us fully appreciated just how much of a rush it would be. So, beginning at the beginning of the weekend as it’s probably the only way I’ll get my thoughts together, here goes an update of life with the Hartleys (and not just us 5)

>> WARNING << This blog post is HUGE! Get a cup of Coffee/Tea before reading it!

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