Years ago, our dear friend Natalie started Friday Felicities. I say “our” because she was a friend to so many women online.
Natalie passed away on June 7, 2007 after a sudden illness. Becky took over hosting Friday Felicities and those of us who participate now still consider her the host.
What are felicities you ask? Why they are things that make you happy! So, this is not a hard meme at all! Becky gives permission to use the graphic in this post but please load it to your own site. List your happies and please go over to Becky's to sign the Mr. Linky link up with other Friday Felicities participants.
Becky Recently was the blessed Recipient of a Kidney Transplant and may not get to post the main felicities post. But there is still nothing stopping you making your own post and leaving a comment here!

So, my Friday Felicities for Friday 30th April are:

• All the ingredients for chicken soup tonight, ready in the fridge.
• great afternoon with a friend on Tuesday.
• meeting with a teacher at local school on Wednesday went really well and may open up new opportunities.
• Public holiday this coming Monday means an extra day with my hubby.
• Delicious meal hubby and I shared at a new Persian restaurant on Wednesday evening.
• The beautiful sunset we saw on the way home from that meal

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1000 Gifts

In no particular order . . . .

107. New connections being built at the local youth cafe project.

108. Old friends hugged and caught up with at the weekend at another local church mini conference.

109. AWESOME sermon on Sunday morning at our church, we have a fantastic future, but ONLY if the members of the body step up and get involved. Count me in!

110. New "mask pillow" and head strap for my CPAP machine should mean I get a better fit than I had been getting.

111. Headache I had this morning is now gone.

112. Back door open, letting the fresh air in.

113. Nice clean car, thanks to hubby.

114. Awesome conversation after church yesterday about the older kids/younger youth and how we can pull team together to make provision for them.

115. Such a sense of the presence of the spirit of God all weekend, both at the conference and at our church, WOW!

116. Less busy week this week, should leave some ME time.

117. Everyone in our house is now over their bugs and illnesses.

118. Awesome assembly this morning at local primary school. Using the medical use of maggots to make the point that one day you might need that person you think of as your enemy, as your friend.

119. 24-7 pack on prayer rooms in schools has me thinking and wondering and pondering and praying.

120. Still keeping up more or less with the Bible in 90 days reading. Loving doing it in the Message.

121. Tickets now bought for show by local college that our eldest is deputy stage manager for. West Side Story.

122. Trip to theatre last week to see a member of our small group in an amateur dramatic group performance of Return to the Forbidden Planet, a musical production with Shakespearean style scripting and rock and roll tunes, hmmmm, interesting but it worked and we had great fun.

If you wish to participate in blogging about your list of 1000 gifts, head on over to a holy experience, by clicking on the banner at the top of this post.

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Hayden Panettiere Short Haircut

Wow! The already stunning Hayden Panettiere has just unveiled the most stunning short haircut at the Home Tree Earth Celebration. She slowly grown her hair longer after wearing an equally stunning bob cut a couple of years ago.

Here's the transformation before and after:

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The Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY, Thursday 22nd April....

Outside my window... the sun is shining, there is a beautiful blue sky and I have laundry on the line, drying in the breeze. Sadly the breeze means it's still a little chilly for having the door open, because in the breeze but out of the sun is not a good mix. Whereas actually OUT there, in the sun it is plenty warm enough.

I am thinking... that it is interesting to see who "likes" the things that I write on facebook. I am often surprised.

I am thankful for...

• the beautiful weather
• hubby, I and youngest son being well again after getting nasty stomach upset over the weekend
• new opportunities to be involved in new areas
• blankets for wrapping round me when it is a bit chilly
• friends

From the learning rooms... hmmmm, Well, last week I learnt a new pattern for making tote bags. But other than that I'm learning how to get back on the healthy eating wagon after being off it for so long.

From the kitchen... there has been no bread making for a while, but there will be some today. I will use the last of the current batch of dough to make pitta breads. Then I need to whip up a new batch of dough.

I am wearing... brown trousers, walking shoes (I have bad fallen arches and wide feet and these give the best everyday support), and a purple jersey top.

I am creating... as I said I made some tote bags last week. I used IKEA fabric and I think they look great. I'm really pleased with them. I think I'm going to adjust the bag size a bit from the original pattern so that I can get exactly 2 bags with no waste from 1 metre of the IKEA fabric, then I might make a few more when I have some pennies saved up to buy the fabric.

I am going... to a mini conference this weekend. Joy in the Harvest with Stefan Driess and John Scotland. It's listed as a time of refreshing and prophecy and Holy Spirit joy and will be an awesome time of worship and fun with people I love and don't get to see very often.
It does mean I have to take both a packed lunch and a packed evening meal for Saturday as it is too far to come home for dinner and I cannot afford to eat out at the moment.
hmmmmmm, any ideas?

I am remembering.... a previous time at that church when there was an eclipse of the moon and standing outside in the dark, after the meeting watching it in the distance over the Welsh hills.

I am reading... a booklet about running prayer rooms or "spiritual spaces" in schools! Not going to happen in the very near future but as I work on building relationships with schools it MIGHT be something for the future.

I am hoping... for the good weather to continue so that I can get a lot of laundry done and dried on the line outside, today and tomorrow.

I am praying.... for friends who are anticipating a house move because of an exciting new job, for a friend who recently had a kidney transplant and is recuperating in hospital, for God to show me clearly the way forward with the schools work.

I am hearing... the ticking of the clock on the wall behind me and the clicking of the keyboard and the occasional car or other vehicle travelling down our road.

Around the house... today is master bedroom cleaning and laundry day and I believe another load has just finished and needs to be put out onto the line.

One of my favourite things... is to be able to find delicious recipes that are quick and easy but don't cost me a lot in calories or fat. Ho hum, not always easy.

A few plans for the rest of the week... Well, there is the conference this weekend. And then I have a meeting next week with one of the teachers at my son's school about getting involved there on a volunteer basis, should be fun!

Here is picture thought I am sharing...


SO, if you want to read more daybook entries or you would like to take part yourself. Click on the image at the top of this post and check it all out.

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Back to the Bathroom

No, the dreaded stomach bug has not made a return visit, all are more or less feeling well now after the stomach flu made it's rounds of our house over the weekend. I say more or less because hubby, is still feeling a bit tired and just not quite right, but almost there.

No, I am referring to the piece I wrote last week about having worked on cleaning the bath and how God spoke to me through that. Go check it out if you haven't read it yet here.

Today I cleaned the bathroom again and yes that meant 10 minutes or so scrubbing away at the stain. The funny thing is that this week I really did see a tangible difference in the limescale from when I knelt down to work on it to when I finished. Why is that funny? Because today I am struggling. I am struggling with the raw ugly selfishness of my human heart and how it reacts to not getting what I want, to the ugliness of my heart when I fear not having control.

And yet TODAY was the day I got to see IN THE MOMENT, the difference I am making on that stain. And I knew God was speaking again, I knew I needed to discern what it was.

Through that, this week, God has spoken a real encouragement to my heart, not to give up. That sometimes he has to scrub and scrub away at our hearts and we don't see any new results, we have to rely on the knowledge of how far we've come, but sometimes he reveals things and we get to see them as he is working on them, we get the encouragement in the RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW, we get to see what He is changing in us.

So, what I see revealed in my heart today may not be nice and it may not be pretty but it IS what God is revealing, what He is allowing to be uncovered so that he can work on it and he can change it.

Father God, thank You for revealing another layer, thank you for bringing me to this place in you. Thank You Daddy that you hold my heart safe in your hands, not safe from all hurt but safe in you, Amen.

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Thanks Catherine

Big thanks to the beautiful Catherine Huntley for her kind Twitter post mentioning this Blog.

"To whoever did this- http://bit.ly/91BeCd -thank you!!I'm so flattered to be blogged about"

You can follow Catherine on Twitter here.

Keep up the great hair Catherine!

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1000 Gifts

In no particular order . . . .

95. At least it was school holidays when my youngest son got sick last week so he didn't have to miss any school.

96. It being school holidays meant I didn't have any assemblies, etc so could be available to look after him and then wasn't missing anything when I and hubby got sick.

97. Even though youngest was too sick to head down to the youth conference with his older brother on Thursday, there was anther couple from church heading down there on the Friday who were able to take him since he felt better by then.

98. Both boys had fantastic blessed times at the youth conference.

99. Hubby and I are both much better this morning, and should be over it completely within a day or so.

100. Because the boys were away for 2 and 3 days the house didn't get too messed up, and I had done all last week's chores before anyone started getting sick. So this week's chores don't look too daunting, which they could do after a weekend sick.

101. Although hubby is not up to being back at work today he may be able to help with a few of today's chores.

102. Eldest son's termly bus pass restarts today so less ferrying him around again for another 13 weeks.

103. Being ill like this and not feeling like eating today has to be good for taking off a little of the weight I have put back on before I see my Sleep Apnoea doctor on Wednesday.

104. Fantastic fun God time coming up this weekend. Listed as a "time of empowering and direction", but seriously it will be fun!

105. Trip to the local theatre tomorrow evening.

106. Buying something as simple as a desk spike for receipts is helping us keep a bit of a better track on our spending.

If you wish to participate in blogging about your list of 1000 gifts, head on over to a holy experience, by clicking on the banner at the top of this post.

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Thursday 13 - Bread

13 breads I either have made or would like to make - All from the basic Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day Method.

1. Of course, I started with the basic recipe and the basic Boule shape. The method took a bit of getting used to but I got there in the end.
   
   
2. The next thing I did was play with different shapes, so I made French sticks and used a linen lined bowl as a batard as well as using loaf tins.
   
3. Soon I started playing around with adding things to the basic loaf, when shaping. This is usually done by rolling out the dough after cloaking, spreading with your added items, then rolling up like a swiss roll and tucking the ends in underneath to get back to a more or less loaf shape.
   
   In this way I have made bread with chopped olives, sundried tomatoes and parmesan, pesto and parmesan, tapenade, and a mango chutney one. We weren't keen on the mango chutney one and the favourites so far seem to be the sun dried tomato one and the pesto one.
   
4. Then I started playing around with the flat breads. It took me a few attempts to get the pitta breads right, I think I was rolling them out too thickly, but in the end I worked it out.
   
   
   
5. Next I started playing around with the enriched doughs. I made a batch of the Bricoche dough and made Cinnamon Swirl Brioche loaves as well as Beignets, or odd shaped doughnuts as they are known in my house.
   
   
   
   
6. Then I made Challah Dough and of course made a challah loaf. I feel there was much more definition in the braid before baking than after, but it tasted fantastic and went down really well with our friends.
   
   
   
   
   
7. Also from the Challah dough I made pletzel, that stuff is DELICIOUS and has to be my favourite so far.
   
   
   
8. My final attempts with the enriched breads has been to make a batch of the chocolate bread dough. Somehow I don't think I mixed everything quite well enough because when used to make a loaf of bread patches of the bread tasted fantastic and patches weren't so good. More mixing next time! BUT it did make awesome chocolate beignets.
   
9. Back to un-enrinched doughs and the most common dough I mix up these days is a batch of the peasant bread. That uses mainly white flour still but part rye flour and part plain wholemeal. I do all those things I mentioned up in point number 2, with this dough and they come out great.
   
10. That only leaves 4 points for beads I still want to make with this method, so I had better choose my absolute favourites that I want to attempt. hmmmm........
    I REALLY want to try the apple and pear coffee cake made with Brioche dough, it looks fantastic.
    
11. Some time if we have guests stay over I'd love to try the breakfast Pizza recipe.
    
12. The fresh picked strawberry Danish looks amazing and just the thought of it makes me feel summery.
    
13. And i really would like to try the lemon poppy seed mini Brioches. In fact, I might even have a go at that over the next day or two.
    
    

If you want to read more Thursday 13 posts, head on over to Thursday 13 by clicking on that banner at the top of this post!

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Meeting God in the Bathroom

I'm not talking about when the children were younger and hiding away in the bathroom was the only alone time a mom has to be with God. "mommmyyyyyyy" "Mommy's using the toilet darling, just wait" "Dear Lord, I need your strength today . . . ."

No, I'm talking about cleaning. Today is bathroom cleaning day (amongst other things), the day where I focus on the deeper cleaning of the bathroom, the things that don't need doing more often. One of the things I do in that time is work on a long term problem in our bath. Before we moved into this house it stood empty for quite a while, and during that time one of the bath taps dripped. We live in a hard water area and that means limescale, and that means a really nasty limescale build up that runs down the inside of the bath, beneath that tap.
Think about stalactites and stalagmites and how they build up drip by drip drip and you see how this got to be so bad.

For a long time I did nothing about it, but since I have been focussing on getting stuff done around here, each week, when I work in the bathroom I spend 5 to 10 minutes or more scrubbing away at that stain. I use a scrubber and a cleaning paste, scrub, scrub, scrub away.

I sat there and looked at it today as I finished up and I wondered, "Does it look any different than it did when I started today? Can I see any more of what is meant to be there? Can I see any more of the real surface of this bath?" And honestly, today, as in many weeks, the answer is NO. No, I can't be sure that what I am looking at now is any different than what I looked at 10 minutes ago. I can't tell if that gap in the stain is any bigger than it was, or if that edge to the stain is any further in than it was.

BUT

I can see a huge difference from when I started trying to do this. I really do see gaps in that stain that were NOT there when I started. I really do see genuine surface of that bath, where before I just saw limescale build up. It is not my imagination, there is a most definite difference. And today as I finished and wondered, I ran my finger across the surface of that area, and that was when I knew just how much difference I had made, that was when I knew for sure that that really was bath surface and not just a bit of the limescale that looked like the bath.

And I wondered about my relationship with God.
About the areas in which He is calling me to step outside my comfort zones. About the things I have been trying to "do for him" rather than REALLY listening to what He wanted me to do. I thought what I was doing was what he wanted, and in some respects I think it was but I have worked away and worked away at it, for very little visible return. Within the last few weeks I have made an approach (well two now actually) to step outside my comfort zones, to take this work in a different direction than I had ever imagined it taking, to take it in a direction I had told people I couldn't do.

And as I scrubbed that bath today and ran my finger across the surface as I finished, it was as if I felt God run his finger across my life and say "Yes, NOW I really can see a difference, now I am beginning to see what this creation was really meant to look like all along. Now I am beginning to see the real you."

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1000 Gifts

81. Piles of dishes to wash means plenty of meals enjoyed over the weekend.

82. Easter Monday fun with friends from church last week.

83. Watching young people stepping out and moving into their calling.

84. Grace and Mercy poured out for me, especially when I have lost all mine.

85. Stepping out of comfort zones is SO worth it!

86. my CPAP machine, I cannot imagine how I would do life without it.

87. No apparent damage to my husbands hand after the car he was working on fell off the jack and landed on his hand.

88. My husband needing to be at work extra early the next two days means he gets to use one of the company cars tonight and tomorrow, thereby saving us petrol (gas) money.

89. His car is still going despite not being able to use 5th gear much.

90. Hubby's absolute trust that God will provide when the time comes and his car has to be scrapped (sooner rather than later probably).

91. 2 days this week where my teen young men get to go spend time with hundreds of other Christian young people, worshipping God and having his Word spoken into their lives.

92. The fun they will have, doing that.

93. 2 batches of bread dough in the fridge, ready to be made into delicious treats.

94. Wonderful reminders to stop, breathe and let go, I cannot do it all and that's OK.

If you wish to participate in blogging about your list of 1000 gifts, head on over to a holy experience, by clicking on the banner at the top of this post.

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Feed the Birds

No, not the Mary Poppins song, but feeding them for real. Do you do that? We make a bit of an effort, but with our whole garden (yard) being quite small, we don't have as much opportunity as some people might.

The other day I noticed some way in which we have been helping the birds by accident.
Last year we lined out hanging baskets with liners made from Coir (Coconut fibre). My husband had emptied the hanging baskets at the end of last summer but not got around to dealing with the liners. The other day as I was standing facing our back door doing a lot of pressing for the sewing projects I was working on, I watched as a female blackbird went backwards and forwards to and from where that Coir liner was, and each time she ha a beak full of the fibres. So while we may have fallen behind a bit on the feeding of the birds, apparently we ARE helping them to build their nests.

She was back again this morning. Maybe I'll try and get a photo or two of her later in the week.

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Friday Felicities

Years ago, our dear friend Natalie started Friday Felicities. I say “our” because she was a friend to so many women online.
Natalie passed away on June 7, 2007 after a sudden illness. Becky took over hosting Friday Felicities and those of us who participate now consider her the host.
What are felicities you ask? Why they are things that make you happy! So, this is not a hard meme at all! Becky gives permission to use the graphic in this post but please load it to your own site. List your happies and please go over to Becky's to sign the Mr. Linky if she posts and link up with other Friday Felicities participants.
So, my Friday Felicities for Friday 9th April are:

• Sewing, sewing, lots of sewing
• craft podcasts to listen to while I have been sewing
• my friend Becky has a new Kidney (yes the Becky mentioned above), and the medical team taken care of her are being really careful to make sure everything heals properly, but we would appreciate your prayers for her at this time.
• A Saturday morning to myself tomorrow as hubby and the boys head to men's breakfast at church.
• 2 nights with our boys away at the same time this week!
  
• Hubby has booked time off for those 2 days, so we can spend some time together.
  

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Sewing Projects

Yesterday and today I have been doing a lot of sewing. No dresses or other clothes this time, just household stuff.

I had some fantastic fabric from IKEA that I used to make a few tote bags. I followed a tutorial that I found online but altered the size of the bags so that I could get two bags out of each metre of fabric that I had.

I am quite pleased with them. They have gusseted bottoms, which makes them look wider at the top when they hang, but every piece was just a simple rectangle and all the stitching was straight lines. I have an overlocker and I used that for the seams on the main bag, but everything else was done on my standard sewing machine with either a straight stitch or a triple straight stitch where needed for extra strength.

I also made a huge tablecloth to either use when I want a really long hang around our normal table, or when we put our two tables together to make one big one. I had some pieces of fabric left from when we bought some IKEA curtains years ago that were a good deal but too long for our windows. I had cut a same length piece off each of 4 curtains, so today I put them together in a line using a flat fell seam each time. Each piece was made of 2 pieces that themselves were connected with a flat fell seam. So there is a nice long flat fell seam that now runs the length of the tablecloth and 3 that go across it. I'm really pleased with that and can't wait to see it on the table.
Hmmm, maybe we'll have to invite friends round for dinner so we have an excuse to put the two tables together.

Finally I pulled my over-locker (serger) back to the front of the table. I had been looking for some flannels (face cloths) to use as napkins at the table. We use too many paper napkins and when in America recently visiting a friend, I noticed that they used flannels instead of paper napkins. I thought it was a brilliant idea but wanted to use some that were distinctive enough that my teen boys would not be able to mix them up with ordinary flannels when sorting laundry.

This week I found a solution. I found some fantastic, really bright coloured tea towels (dish towels) in a really soft, fluffy fabric. So bright there will be no mistaking them!
I took each on, laid it out on my cutting mat and cut it into 4. I then took them to my over-locker (serger) and went all the way round each piece to edge them. I think they will work well, be really absorbent and easy to toss in the laundry and get cleaned and dried again. There were 4 tea towels in the pack, so we now have 16 of these washable napkins.

I'll get a photo of them later in the week and share it, also one of what happens when you cut really fluffy fabric on a self healing cutting mat with your rotary cutter. Oh dear.

I have a little bit of mending to do and then my machines will have to go away again. Maybe next time I get them out it will be to make some clothes and maybe one day I will have a dedicated sewing room, or at least a multi purpose craft room for all my different craft activities.

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