Hope For Today

Dear Friends, I have a close relationship with my Mum.  She lives just a 15 minute walk from my home making it easy to pop in and see her, we often share lunch and a chat together once a week, and if we don't see each other then we speak  regularly on the phone or send each other text messages. Being the summer season, over the last few weeks either my parents have been away on holiday or I've been away with my family.  During those weeks I found I really missed her as we weren't able to connect in the same way.  We did manage to send a text or two during that time, but this didn't make up for the lack of real, meaningful conversations.  It was so good to come back from our holiday and meet up a day or two later to have a proper sharing time over a cup of tea. I also found that while I was on holiday I faced a similar situation in my relationship with God. I know it's not the same for everyone, but I find I tend to thrive and live life best when I h...

Dear Friends, Where does the time go?  Have you ever found yourself saying that?  I'm sure most of you have said that on more than one occasion.  I had planned a relaxing week when I was home alone whilst Jason and our kids were away at camp.  I knew that if I was going to feel at my best so that I could really enjoy my holiday with my family, I needed to be careful the week prior to our holiday (the week they were all at camp). But before I knew it the first day had gone by and I was on to my second day, and frankly I wasn't feeling particularly relaxed!  Instead of relaxing I kept noticing things that I thought needed to be done, such as hoovering, or changing the sheets on the children's beds, or giving the living room an intense dust and polish.  I know if Jason were here he would have told me not to bother, but he wasn't and so there was no-one to stop me.  I do tend to put pressure on myself to do things that aren't always necessar...

Dear Friends, These last few weeks have been busy with preparations and planning, firstly for the Youth Camp that both children have been on this week, and which Jason also went on as one of the camp leaders, and then a day or so after they get back we are off to Spain for a holiday.  So there's been much washing to do, sorting out what needs to be packed, leaving keys with our neighbour for them to take care of our fish, giving our rabbits a holiday at Jason's parents home, making sure our flights are booked, that we have car hire whilst in Spain, leaving our home in a reasonable state to come home to (strangely enough I'm the only one who seems to see this as a priority. Neither of the kids could understand why I asked them the morning they went to camp to make sure their bedrooms were tidy before they left!)  Although there is much to do, I am glad that I'm not solely reasonable for everything.  All the planning and preparations pay off in the end because it mea...

Dear Friends, My family seem to be getting used to me using family experiences in my blogging.  We had a family get-together on Saturday and Josh, my son, said to me, "You can use this in your blog!"  So here goes... My sister, her husband and my niece came to spend Saturday with us, and as the weather was lovely we decided to go to the beach.  Jason and our children very quickly got in the water and started swimming.  It took me a little longer!  Even though the water was cold, I was happy paddling in shallow water where I was in my comfort zone.  However, my family kept encouraging me to come further in and join them.  After a few minutes I was in up to my middle, but they still said I wasn't in deep enough yet, telling me that I would feel a lot warmer once I had my shoulders in too.  My sister was cheering me on from the edge of the water.  I really wanted to do it, if they could do it, so could I, but it was sooo cold!...