Loving the day already. Just about to go and get ready for church. The sun is shining and I'm enjoying the peace and quiet. Graham is away golfing in the Lakes with three friends, Charlie is in bed, Harry is camping in a field somewhere for a practice D of E and Rosie left early this morning to go to London for a friend's birthday party.

I drove 400 miles yesterday- a 350 round trip with Rosie to visit my mum and then we drove to Horwich and then to see my dad's tree and then to Frankie and Benny's for tea. We got back at 9pm. I'm glad I did it and whilst it's difficult trying to communicate with my mum I feel less guilty that I live so far away from her. She seemed well physically though.

Next week will be very busy. Two draft chapters in for Friday, Twenties on Tuesday, Prayer meeting on Wednesday and lots of the usual children's taxiing around. My car needs a major overhaul so will be in the garage all day on Tuesday.

We start prayer and fasting for a week, so Facebook and lunch will be replaced with prayer! That is my plan and with God's help I will do it. I know when we have prayed and fasted previously God has moved in our family and within the church!

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful to God for many things at the moment:

Family-Graham and children and our health
Friends-I'm thankful that God always provides supportive friends especially at times when I need them.
The privilege of helping lead the Twenties group at church with Graham. We had 17 young adults in our growth group on Tuesday night and it was great. I'm so excited to see how God is going to help us all to grow and how He will transform us over the next few weeks. We're still running our Saturday group for the time being.
The opportunity to work from home and I'm praying that I won't get so easily distracted when I'm trying to write.

Another deadline approaches and I need to get my act together and start working hard. It has been difficult to write anything half decent during the last few weeks with the children being off school. Normally I can work when the children are here, with fights, arguments and laughter surrounding me alongside the general background noise that three children plus their friends make but since Harry has upped his band practices the noise from electric guitars has caused my brain to cease functioning I think!

I took my car to the garage this morning to sort out the air conditioning (which they couldn't fix and I have to return it next week)and as I was walking to collect my car I took the above picture of the lovely countryside.

Good Friday 2011

I was up early this morning. I love this early morning solitude whilst everybody sleeps. I relish this short amount of peaceful time on my own when I read my bible and listen to the sounds from outside which are birds chirping away at the moment. The sun is peeking through the trees and it looks like it's going to be another beautiful day.

Good Friday today- what's good about a day that commemorates the brutal murder of God's son?

''He is broken, beaten, bloody. Pilate's soldiers are hitting him, making fun of him. They give him a crown of sharp, twisted thorns.''

I thank you Jesus for that brutal death on a cross because it has changed my eternal destiny! That is what is 'good' about today.

We have a busy weekend ahead. Church service this morning then an Easter witness service in the town centre at lunchtime. We are then driving to Cambridge to see some friends for a BBQ. Tomorrow we are having two families round for dinner and then on Sunday Graham's parents are coming over for lunch.

I've had a great few days this week and in between working a friend who was visiting from Australia came to stay and we went to Cambridge for the day which was really enjoyable. The weather has been stunning-it's like the middle of summer here.

Our new church leader has arrived from South Africa and will be preaching on Easter Sunday for the first time- really looking forward to that.

Easter holidays

We had a few days in sunny Interlaken over the week-end. It was so hot and the weather was like how it is during August. We were going to go sledging but went walking and swimming instead. The snowline was retreating higher up the mountains so we decided to give it a miss. We climbed Harder Kulm which took two hours and then two hours down again. Rosie brought a friend with us and I was worried as she had never climbed a mountain before, but she was fine. The short break did me good and I started back working straight away and finished my second draft chapter yesterday.

I'm so enjoying the lazy mornings when I can stay in my pjs without school runs to contend with. Looking forward to seeing an old friend next week who I lived with in Switzerland. She is over here from Australia for a holiday and I spoke to her the other day. We are planning to meet in Cambridge next week as she will be staying with her sister who lives in Norfolk.

30th March 2011

Another month which has whizzed by. It has been a challenging last few days:

Leaking bathroom- if we stood in the kitchen we could shower due to the leak from the bathroom above which is coming through the light sockets! So I managed to find a great handyman via a friend who has re-grouted and re-tiled most of the bathroom. He has also re-sealed and whitened the grout in our bathroom.

Broken laptop- I knocked my cup-a-soup over my laptop on Monday! It immediately stopped working. Thankfully I had just backed up my work. I have also managed to install NVivo on Harry's laptop and have copied my project onto that. So I can still work whilst a friend is going to try and retrieve the data from my old laptop. A lesson learnt.

Crisis with my mother- My mum's mental health is deteriorating and she allowed some dodgy guys to do some work on her roof. However, when they were demanding £600 from her a lady who was driving by recognised the roofers ( who had done the same to her ) and she dialled 999. The police arrived within minutes and did a great job. Apparently these guys were well known to them. My poor mum is obviously very shaken up about this. So I drove an almost 400 mile round trip on Sunday to go and see her. We had a nice day and I took her to my dad's tree and then we went out for something to eat. She is so confused though and can't remember much at all. It is a worry and she won't move in with us.

Working on a second draft chapter this week and just about to have a brief interlude to meet a friend who is coming over from Cambridge. I'm planning on taking her to the John Bunyan museum and then out for lunch.

Looking forward to a night in tonight. Monday we had book group and last night was Alpha which was excellent.

Everything/Love Came Down

Spring is here

What a fab sunny day it has been. Recovering from a chest infection so haven't done much work at all this week. I'm feeling much better now that the antibiotics have kicked in so back to it tomorrow. The cold virus thing that both Graham and I had over a month ago unfortunately got the better of me despite prayer, echinacea, acai powder and vit c and zinc supplements every day! However, I'm sure I would have been a lot worse without the above as I feel ok really.

We had a busy week last week and ate out several times. Alpha is being held at an Indian restaurant which is great. I am accompanying someone who I used to work with who started coming to church a few weeks ago. It was a friend's birthday so the four of us enjoyed a lovely steak meal at Box End. Friday night we had friend's round and Saturday night we out to friends' dinner. Sunday, after church was spent watching Harry and band busk.

On Saturday several of us visited the Charles Rennie Mackintosh museum in Northampton which was a real treat. The museum is a reconstructed house which he had designed during the 1st World War. Mackintosh started the Art Nouveau Arts and Crafts movement which is evident throughout the house he designed for his friends.It was fascinating to see how each room had been designed and I was very surprised to see how the decor would not look out of place today.

Decision time in our house as Rosie needs to decide by Friday which school to go to. She may join her brothers or opt to stay with her friends and go to the newly-merged school from September. She has got friends at the other school. We continue to pray for wisdom in this.

Can't stop singing the Tim Hughes song Everything at the moment which is a constant reminder that God is in the everything of my life. Whether it is writing my thesis, doing the washing, spending time together as a family, eating and sleeping, He is there with me. I briefly sat outside today and for the first time this year I felt warm sun on my face. I am so thankful for the seasons.