2012 - The Year to ENJOY

I really was NOT going to go seeking a theme for 2012, honestly, truly, I wasn't going to stress about it and make a big deal of it.  It wasn't so much that I was determined not to have one, just that I wasn't going to actively seek one out.


It seems God had other plans. One day at the end of November I thought I got an inkling of something, just one word but it seemed ridiculous, so I pushed it out of my head. 


The following morning that one word got more flesh on it and made more sense. Then that afternoon I was at a lunch with the team of a local anti trafficking group, where we met with the young ladies who put on the play about trafficking at the big fund raiser/awareness event we attended last year. We're going to put on a big event which all the other agencies working on trafficking will be invited to, at which the ladies will perform their updated version of the play, which we will then invite school staff, youth workers, local politicians, etc to, in order to build awareness but also build credibility for he organisation by hosting an event which all the other established agencies come to. Oh and we're also going to be planning a masked ball for October next year as well. Well after that I kind of knew I was right. 


The word was ENJOY. I mean, seriously, like God is going to tell someone to take a whole year to just ENJOY? D'you know what that's not actually an accurate representation of what went through my head. If I'm being more honest it was "Sure, God might tell someone else to do that, (I have a close friend who had a year of Delight) but he'd never say that to me". There, I've said it!  I figured it was something God could quite possibly say to others but never to me.  


I did say that that one word got more flesh on it the morning before the meeting mentioned above.  It did indeed, it became ENJOY THE ADVENTURE So there you have it. 2012, the year to enjoy the adventure.


 . . .


What will that mean? What will it bring?  I certainly don't think it's going to be a year of sitting back and doing nothing and just enjoying life like that, at all.  I have an inkling of a slight possibility of something that MIGHT be coming up, that would certainly fulfil the adventure part for me.  But it isn't even a definite possibility yet, so news of that will have to wait.


One thing I know I am going to be enjoying is the year long online art class I have signed up for over at Willowing.ning, which you can find a link to in my sidebar.  In fact, as I write it is 5 minutes to midnight on New Years Eve and I am waiting for the stroke of midnight when I think the first class (or at least something) will go live.

 . . . 


Do you have a theme for 2012?  If not, maybe it's something you could think about.

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Taking a Trip in the Coming Year?

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of My Travel Checklist for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

One of the things I did in the last year was take a trip to Romania.  This wasn't any ordinary trip, it wasn't a holiday (vacation), it was a trip to a mission project that my church is involved in to teach craft projects to a group of Roma Gypsy women.  That meant my packing needs were a little different than usual, we could only afford to take one case because of the airline we were using, but I filled nearly my entire case with craft materials.  I ended up buying a bigger case!

Have you ever had problems packing for a trip?

Do you worry that you might forget things?  I know I do.  I usually write lists, lots of lists, but the problem is there is only one copy and that is at home and if I am out shopping and try to remember what I need to pick up for the trip, invariably I either forget something or pick up something that I already had.

That's where My Travel Checklist comes in.  You can make a list online, or download an app to your computer or mobile phone, by first choosing between a number of option regarding who you are, how long the trip is and what type of trip it is, you will narrow down the options the checklist then offers you.  

At this point you go through the suggested items and check which ones you want added to your list.  Once you have completed this process you can add any extra items that you can think of.  It doesn't just cover packing lists, it covers anything you need to get done before you leave.  From this point, you can print out your list, or send it to your email.  You can also continue to access it online or on your phone where you can check off items as your complete them, knowing that the list will be updated both in the app and if you check it online.

It makes making your list so much easier and ensures you will always have access to your list, no matter where you are!

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2011 - The Year of NEW

If you want to know more about yearly themes, or about my recent yearly themes and how 2011 came to be the year of NEW, check out my recent post about my yearly themes and the links I shared at the end of that post.

Specifically, you might want to check out the post from the beginning of 2011 about my theme for 2011, NEW, how I came to that realisation and the bible verses I was standing on.    If you read that you will see there were certain things I was pretty sure were going to be part of my year but I wasn't yet ready to discuss.  One of those was "teaching".  I had NO IDEA how or why or when, but I knew in my gut it would be part of my year.

If you have followed my blog during this year you will know that I did indeed get to do that.  I travelled to Romania at the very end of the summer to teach craft projects to a group of poor Roma Gypsy women and teens at a project our church has connections with.  These were projects that hopefully will continue and be grown through the people that are still there, and eventually lead to these women having things they can make to sell. It was a hard trip in many ways, but we also had fun.

Other New things,

I have an eldest son at university and a younger son at sixth form college.  That means I no longer have a son at school.

I picked up a new school in my work doing talks in school assemblies.  I also lost one because their schedule can't fit around the other new thing.  I now lead a team of 4 of us women from church plus the head teacher of the school, doing weekly bible story assemblies in our closest school.  It has been a really exciting first term doing that and we have had lots of positive responses.

Do the New things end as 2011 ends?

As in previous years, there is certainly going to be an overflow of the previous year's theme into the new year.

On 1st January, Life Book Starts and I am really excited for a year of online art classes.

And as last year there is another possibility in the wings, waiting to be fleshed out and opened up.  It fits with both the theme for 2011 and the theme for 2012, but at this stage is still only a POSSIBILITY, so I won't be talking about it until I know more.

Later today I will get around to writing a post about my theme for 2012, so check back tomorrow if it's not up there yet!

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What is a Yearly Theme all about

Reposting from December 2010, which is, in itself a repost from December 2009, which was an edited version of what I posted in 2008.  Anyway, here it is:

1. I first came across the idea of themes for the year a few years ago through reading the blogs of friends. Basically the idea is to seek God for an underlying theme for the coming year and then watch how He works that out in your life. Also considering your actions and lifestyle in light of that theme.
   
   
2. I started doing this myself a few years ago and have noticed more and more people commenting on their themes for the year.
   
   
3. Some years this has been a process of taking time out, sitting with God, looking at the previous years theme, how that went, praying, reading, listening, and other times it has just been one word or phrase that dropped into my spirit and I KNEW that that was the theme for that year.
   
   
4. Some years the theme seems like a really nice one and you approach the year thinking "Yeah, I can DO this, this will be fun." and other years you approach your theme with a little trepidation.
   
   
5. For instance, I have friends whose recent themes include Patience, and everyone knows if God wants to grow patience in you, He's going to put you in some situations that will require you to grow patience and those might not be fun. I have another friend whose theme for the coming year is Enjoy and I'm really excited to watch and see what God does with her this year.
   
   
6. Other years you look at your theme and you think it's going to be one thing and looking back on the year at the end you see it totally fitted with your theme BUT absolutely NOT in the way you had expected that to work out.
   
   
7. As an example a few years ago my theme for the year was "Seeking God for myself, not relying on others to speak into me." I thought "yeah, I can do this, lots of time praying, reading my bible, listening for god to speak, yeah, I can do this." What I did not expect was for it to be the most isolating year of my life socially, where a lot of relationships were stretched, broken, and there were fewer and fewer people close enough to be able to speak into my life. I had no choice but to seek out God for myself.
   
   
8. Then there was 2008. REST! Great, fantastic, slow down, take it easier, REST. HA! God really has a sense of humour.
   
   
9. I started 2008 knowing that I was having some medical symptoms that I suspected were sleep apnoea related. I had tried to seek medical advice previously but had been rebuffed by our family doctor who would not refer me to a specialist. As my symptoms began to worsen, and I realised I had less and less energy, needing frequent 3 or 4 hour daytime naps just to get through the day, falling asleep sat up at the computer desk, and even, at times mid conversation with my family, I knew I would have to face the doctor again. And I was prepared for it to be a battle, I was prepared that I would need to FIGHT to be heard.
   Alongside that, hubby and I had been struggling in our role as small group leaders at church. We had taken on what turned out to be an incredibly difficult group, for various reasons. We HAD previously tried to get help in our role, but had not been heard, we had even tried to quit before, but had been persuaded to stay. I was prepared for this, too to be a battle, I was prepared to have to FIGHT for what I knew God was doing in me!
   
   So, here were two situations in which I was totally expecting a battle.
   When I finally got up the courage to approach the doctors again, in the end I got my referral to the sleep clinic! PRAISE GOD. I went to my first appointment and for the first time in relation to these symptoms I felt like I was really HEARD. It truly felt like God had gone before me and prepared the way.
   
   Small group leading? It was awesome. We hold no blame over the couple who led the ministry at that time at all, and they were absolutely fantastic, totally coming to terms with where we were at, apologising for not having realised before and giving us the space to step back with no repercussions.
   
   So, two situations in which I expected battle and found nothing but the way already prepared before me.
   A year in which physically I was forced to take more and more rest as my symptoms grew.
   A year in which I tried to make much more of a focus on getting to "soaking" meetings, where we just sit on a comfy sofa, or lie on the floor and rest while appropriate worship music is played over us. Sometimes someone prays and sometimes they don't, but we just SOAK in God's presence.
   Then, at church family camp 2008 I had the most amazing experience.
   I wasn't sure about how attending camp would affect my sleep, and not being able to nap during the day, etc, but I went anyway, figuring if had to hide out in our unit I would. There was this one meeting, and worship was awesome, and I was singing and dancing, and then the tiredness, slowly began to come over me. And I got to a point, where I could not dance any more, but I still stood and sang, and raised my hands. And as the tiredness grew, my hands came down to hold on to the seat in front, and then I had to sit down and eventually even stop singing. I could not even muster to the energy to do that. I COULD NOT fight the sleep, I could not DO anything for God in that moment, I did not even have the energy to think through the words of the song in my head, it was all I could do to just BE. And in that moment I felt the nearness of God like I have NEVER felt it before, I felt His love and His closeness, and His passion, and it overwhelmed me. I mean, seriously overwhelmed me. I could DO NOTHING, and in that moment He came to me. I could DO NOTHING and in that moment He poured out His love on me. I could DO NOTHING and in that moment he came to dwell with me. I could do NOT ONE THING to make myself acceptable to God, I could not earn it in any way shape or form, I could not even keep my eyes open in the worship service, and in that place, He expressed His passionate love and care for me.
   
   
10. 2009 began with a theme of Breakthrough but in fact, at first glance, it started with some situations that did not look like breakthrough at all.
    I would not be allowed to drive my car for a few months at least. Due to my diagnosis of Sleep Apnoea, my driving licence had been medically revoked. My precious little gift of a car was put off road for a while!
    I was to receive a local bus pass because of that but that would take 5 or 6 weeks to come through, so in the meantime, and for any journeys after it came through that were not possible by bus, I was reliant on others!
    
    So, NO, this didn't look like breakthrough, and it didn't feel like breakthrough, but I KNEW that I knew that I knew, that God, the Father had His hands completely on this whole process and that He would use this, even this to bring about the breakthrough He intended!
    
    And at the same time, I was heading towards some fantastic moments of breakthrough that I already knew about!
    Hubby and I celebrated 15 years of marriage in February. Something a lot of people never thought we'd do!
    I got my CPAP machine (Sleep apnoea treatment) at the end of January 2009 and despite an early struggle to get used to it and moments of absolute despair at the possibility of things never improving I am now able to go about my day without falling asleep and without needing daytime naps and live life more or less normally. Of course there are still bad days, bad nights, and I still don't have the energy to do EVERYTHING, but this is SO much better than things were before I got treated.
    The restoration of day time energy levels meant I could focus once again on losing some weight and increasing my heart health through exercise! And that year I lost almost 30 pounds.
    I have also seen breakthrough in other areas of my life, I got my driving licence back at the end of the summer 2009, and God met me particularly in the struggle and desire for deeper female friendship, with that being met in more than 1 way. God had also spoken to my local church about breakthrough, that October, using the very verses from Joshua that I had used to back up my theme for that year.
    
    2009 was NOT over yet when I wrote this list of points. I did not Believe the year of Breakthrough was over yet! I believed there was much to come, both in the remaining 5 weeks of the actual year, and truly, I believed beyond that! When I sought God for a theme for 2010 it was not denying the breakthrough that would continue, it was merely adding to it!
    
    
11. So, 2010? This list was originally written in November 2009 and friends had been speaking of their themes for this coming year already, and I was refusing to even acknowledge it, refusing to accept that this was possible. I was still in the middle of my busiest 2 months of the year and quite simply, it was not even on my radar and I was fine with that.
    
    
12. THEN, one morning in November 2009, I was lying in bed and a thought dropped into my head, ONE WORD! And I thought after it, "Oh that might be my theme for the year" Then I reminded myself that I was refusing to think about that yet and that anyway was I really sure I wanted a theme like that? Remembering what I said up in points 6 and 7.
    I mentioned to some friends that I thought I MIGHT have my theme and was GRUMP GRUMP GRUMP in response to it.
    The truth is this theme fits in with other things that God has been speaking to me over recent weeks, and was confirmed by a blog post from someone whose writing I trust, the morning I wrote this list.
    
    
13. One word - or at least one word, that can be put in a number of different ways.
    SIMPLE
    simplify
    simplification
    SIMPLE!
    Not working harder and harder, but working smarter. Not doing things just because "well someone's got to do it" but focusing on those things that I believe God wants ME to do. Not doign things because "Doing A is the only way B is going to happen" but trusting God that what He has promised to do, He WILL do. Simplifying STUFF as well, de-cluttering, getting rid of junk, emotionally, spiritually and physically. NOPE, I don't think this is going to be an EASY theme to live through, but I think it's going to be an adventure, and I am up for that!

addition in December 2011:

Check out the following links to see other posts on my yearly themes

What I Thought Simplicity Would Mean in 2010

How the Theme for 2010 Actually Went

Finally, a theme for 2011  

An Art Journal Page to go With My Theme for 2011

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Living Thankfully

Another week, another list.  Here we go then, in no particular order, I am thankful for . . . . 

499.  Fun evening playing Wii with my boys and hubby.

500.  I reached 500 things on this list.

501.  Don't think I badly hurt the kid I accidentally whacked on the head with a microphone in this morning's Christmas celebration at church.  He seemed OK when I last saw him.

502.  The rest of the celebration went really well!

503.  With the school term (and therefore Open the Book) being over, I could now take a bit of a break from costume and prop making for a couple of weeks.

504.  I could also take some time to get a little bit ahead if I wanted to.

505.  Fun evening with hubby in a gorgeous hotel, for his work Christmas party.  Our table consisted of us, another couple a bit older than us, and the three youngest engineers in the company at 23, 23 and 26, with their girlfriends.  Don't know if we were meant to keep them in line or what.

506.  Fresh eggs from a friend's son.  It's getting colder here but his chickens are still laying like it was summer!

507.  Youngest son making the wise decision about what he should do with his time tomorrow even if it's not the fun one.

508.  Eldest son is home for Christmas!

509.  Small Group Christmas dinner was fun and got a lovely secret santa gift.

510.  Think I've now bought every gift that needs to be bought, other than a few stocking stuffers.

511.  We had a head start on writing this years Christmas cards when we discovered a pile we had written last year but not handed out!

512.  New family were back at church this week and were able to stay for the bring and share meal.  Would like to get to know them better.

513.  God is good and his mercies never change!

514.  Awesome book I picked up that is a great advent read!

515.  

If you wish to participate in blogging about your list of 1000 gifts or in Thankful Thursday, you can do so by clicking on the banners at the top of this post.

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How Much Could You Save?

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of ING Direct for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
Do you have a savings account?  In these tough financial times, savings might be the last thing on your mind, but it is still important to put some money away, especially when the rainy day is more likely to be around the corner. Having that buffer to fall back on might be just what you need if the worst happens.
Maybe it's not a rainy day you are worried about, but you need to save for a big event such as a wedding, or family holiday.
How much are you saving compared to others?  Ever wondered that?  I had, and so I was interested to find out that ING Direct, here in the UK has a widget that gives you the ability to find out the average that households in your area are putting into their Savings Accounts.
Find out more about ING Direct SavingsCheck it out and see how you compare and whether you might need to increase your savings to keep in line with others or if you are doing really well and can give yourself a pat on the back.
It is just one tool you can use to work out how you are doing and maybe it will give you a push in the direction of putting even just a little away for the future.

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Christmas Shepherds in Colour

You may remember this picture from a few posts ago:

There was some question over whether I should colour them in or leave them as they were.

Then a week went by and this happened:

Can you see that?  Yes, a child took a crayon to the wall.  I spoke to a couple of people and it was one of our young adults who gave the most insight.  He said if you were a child, with access to crayons and you saw an almost life size colouring page, what would you do?  I concluded that he was right, and set about colouring them in over a few sessions.  We do keep crayons in that corner for the children to use during the service, but most of them were broken, so we have temporarily removed them and all colouring pages.  I will buy a new set of crayons for the children that use that corner in the new year.

I pulled the box of kids paints back out and began mixing colours to suit what I wanted.  I quickly learnt that some brands of children's paints are better than others and know which ones to buy when we come to need more.

Finally though, the corner was finished.  We have now pushed the tables up against the wall beneath the picture as the children kept standing up against it yesterday and we don't want the paper to come down.

You can find the sites I link up to over in the side bar!  Have a blessed week, and if you don't come back before Christmas, I hope it's a good one!

Edited on 14th December to add:
One final photo that I grabbed last night.  From the outside at night, with the lights on inside you can see the window shepherds just as clearly.

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Living Thankfully

Another week, another list.  Here we go then, in no particular order, I am thankful for . . . . 

482.  Eldest is coming home from university this week.  It will be good to see him.

483.  Youngest saying what needed to be said in a difficult situation.

484.  Husband who while eager to move forward in a particular area is happy to wait and not pressure those making the decision.  I wish I could be as patient, I wanna know now!

485.  Ladies tea party and some ideas for how to move forward in the next year.

486.  Losing my hair could be a fun event next Spring! (heehee)

487.  Youngest having so much fun singing, both in the college choir and in the local Light operatic group.  Although having to sing every conversation he had with me was a bit much last week, GRIN!

488.  Apps on my phone that help keep me organised, things are a lot more likely to get done now that I can use this.

489.  A second charger for that phone so that I can charge it by the bed overnight, means if I remember something at bedtime that needs to go on a list, I can add it right there on my phone.  I can't tell you how many things this means have not got forgotten.

490.  Enjoying journaling through some advent devotionals.

491.  It looks like my father in law will be coming to us for Christmas day.  Wish we had an extra bed so that he could stay the night too.

492. Slice and Bake cookie dough that is already in my freezer so that making the cookie trays for the schools that I do assemblies at will be so much easier than in previous years!

493.  That also meant it was really easy to do one tray a week early for the school that finished their term a week early because they are moving to a new building over the Christmas break.

494.  An invitation to the opening of the new school building.

495.  Lunch at "Top Table" in one of the other schools I do assemblies at, with the whole Open the Book team.

496.  The wall that was damaged in our church building is still standing and the landlord is insisting our neighbours who damaged it have to pay for the repairs. They drove into the party wall with a forklift truck and moved it 1 inch towards our side in a number of places.

497.  Although that damage meant the local school could not come and have their Christmas carol concert in our building as planned, they were able to find another location.

498.  The Shepherds corner (Christmas Decorations) at church is finished.  Had I known it was going to take a total of 8 hours work, I'm not sure I would have started it but I AM glad I did it.

499.  

If you wish to participate in blogging about your list of 1000 gifts or in Thankful Thursday, you can do so by clicking on the banners at the top of this post.

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No Tree?

We only have a small house and as various bits of furniture have been added over the years, there has been less and less room for a tree at Christmas.  So I am having to find creative ways of using our decorations.  In the dining room, I decided to go with something that hangs from the ceiling.

We have a whole load of blue tree decorations from a blue phase I went through a couple of Christmases ago, and our Christmas placemats are a snow scene with blue sky.  I figured blue and white was a good idea for the whole room then, so I got hubby to put up our string of blue lights and I got to work.

I knew I wanted a frame of some sort to hang from the ceiling and then hang the decorations from.  I grabbed my one remaining embroidery hoop, which I no longer use, some blue and white ribbon from IKEA and a glue gun.

Attach the end of the ribbon to the frame with a blob of hot glue at an angle, so that you can wind the ribbon around the frame.

Wrap the ribbon around and around the frame, gluing every few turns.

When you get back to where you started, cut the ribbon at an angle to prevent fraying and glue down.  I used an extra blob of glue over the end of the ribbon to be sure of no fraying.

And you will have something that looks a bit like this:

You can leave the frame like this or you can add more to it.  I had some wired decoration string, that I decided to use.

Being wired it was easy to manipulate into place and only needed hot glue at the very beginning and end, although I did have to hold the wire into the glue at the end, it kept wanting to pop up out of the blob of glue before it has begun to set.

I had just enough wired thingy left to create the hanging method.  You could use more ribbon, or string, or even fishing wire if you wanted that part to be less visible.

I cut two lengths

Then I attached the first one by bending the wire around the frame at one end and twisting it back around itself like a tie wrap.

Did the same at the other end on the opposite side of the hoop.  I didn't measure the exact opposite point, just eyeballed it.

With the second string, I did the same, but when it crossed the other wire in the middle, I looped it once around the first wire, to keep them together.

Next I grabbed narrow ribbon and baubles.  If you don't have narrow ribbon, you could use embroidery thread, fishing wire or anything else you have to hand that you think might work.

I started with the 4 long, pointy baubles.  I cut off those fishing wire loops that are on them in the above picture. I cut 4 matching lengths of ribbon and tied them onto the baubles.   

Tie your baubles onto the frame.  I started by putting these 4 in the centre of each section created by the upper wire and then worked to fill in the gaps.

Use a variety of lengths of ribbon and keep holding it up as you work to see where you need to fill gaps.

Deciding when to stop, when you have added enough, may be the most difficult part.  But in the end I did.  And this is the result.  I have hung it from the ceiling in the dining room, using 2 drawing pins (thumbtacks), slightly to one side of where our usual dining table is.  The reason it is slightly to one side is that we have 2 smaller identical tables in there, that we push together for special occasions.  When we put the tables together for Christmas dinner, it should be hanging right over the middle.

You can find the sites I link to over in the sidebar.  Go check a few of them out and come back soon.

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Living Thankfully

So much to be thankful for this week.  Here we go then, in no particular order, I am thankful for . . . . 

461.  Journaling 7 days running!  Compared to recently I am doing well and this is something I am so thankful to God for because it keeps me grounded and helps me grow.

462.  Children in school assembly who are totally willing to "give it a go" and eat a whole chocolate covered Brussels sprout.

463.  Whole school that burst into spontaneous applause for her bravery.

464.  My youngest got to pick up his exam certificates this week and we heard some awesome news about the future of that school that is also awesome news for the whole local community.

465.  A friend's son being willing to loan us some toy swords for Open the Book.

464.  Fantastic Open the Book assembly resulting in head teacher and 6 "Egyptian Soldiers" being drowned by another group of children who were playing the part of the sea.  It was incredible!

465.  Another school expressing possible interest in Open the Book.

466.  Even though I had switched phone to silent in advance of assembly I still got message from the friend who picks me up, in just enough time to run up to school.

467.  Waiting by writing . . .

468.  Possible further involvement for one of the team in our main school.

469.  Awesome meeting with a group of young actresses who want to bring their antic trafficking play to our church building as part of an event for the anti trafficking charity headed up by two members of our church.

470.  Their acceptance of our concerns over the level of language in the original play and willingness to tone that down because of the performance being in a church building.

471.  Their eagerness to go away and write more into the play to include everything they learnt from their meeting with us.

472.  The incredible day 2 friends had at a government event in London on Monday.

473.  The incredible day those same two friends had at another event on Friday.

474.  Even though our next door neighbours in our church building ran into the wall with a fork lift truck (we meet in a converted factory unit), and have actually shifted the wall between the two buildings by about an inch towards our side, everything is still standing, no one was hurt and we were still able to use that room (our main room) this morning.

475.  I have my theme for the year 2012, and find it quite amusing.  God certainly has a sense of humour.

476.  I actually got that theme confirmed on 30th November.  Later that day someone pointed out to me that advent is the start of the church calendar year.  How cool, so I could start considering this my yearly them right now!  (I will write a post or two about that theme later this month).

477.   Reminder from a friend that if I am tired my body needs rest and I should listen to it.  Yes miss Dana, thank you!

478.  Fantastic family that visited us at church this morning.  The first time I know of that we have had a child in Sunday's Cool who is only just learning English.  I hope they come back.

479.  God speaks, today, and encouragement comes!  THANK You LORD!

480.  Invitation to "Top Table" for the whole Open the Book team.  A weekly event in the school's dining hall, where specially chosen children and adults get to eat together at a special table, waited on and treated really specially.  So looking forward to that this week.

481.  Father in Law went away on holiday (vacation) by himself for the first time since his wife died earlier this year.  He seems to be having a good time and coping OK.

482.  

If you wish to participate in blogging about your list of 1000 gifts or in Thankful Thursday, you can do so by clicking on the banners at the top of this post.

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Christmas Shepherds

It seems the job of organising the decorating for Christmas at church has fallen to our small group.  Thankfully others are helping but we are doing a lot of it.  I volunteered for one corner in the main room and the room that the children meet in (although the idea for that room came from someone else, I am actioning it).

The corner of the main room that I am decorating is where we have our nursery corner.  We do have a separate nursery room, but we have this corner as well, so that parents can keep their young children occupied and still be in the meeting.

First of all I took down the one piece of art work that was on the main wall in that area, and began covering the painted brick wall with frieze paper.

Once that was done I fetched an Overhead Projector and brought out the images I had printed onto OHP sheets the day before.

I pencilled in all the lines onto the paper.  This wasn't easy as the sun coming through that window was very bright and making it difficult to see where the lines were.  I had to put myself between the sunlight and whatever particular part of the paper I was working on.  That, of course, meant I sometimes got in the way of the light from the projector.  But eventually I got it done.

You can tell how bright the sun was by how difficult it is to make out the pencil marks in the above photo.

I used children's colouring pages from the internet for the images, and put bits from a number of pictures together to make my final image.  I couldn't resist this sheep and had to include it, a number of times in fact.  I even had one peeping out from behind the shepherd's robes.

I grabbed paint and brushes from the children's ministry supply cupboard and got to work going over those lines with the smallest brush I could find.

I only had that sheep printed on the OHP sheets once.  I moved the projector around to get the sheep smaller, and flipped it over to make the other one face in the opposite direction.

Finally that wall was finished with the outlines and I turned my attention to the windows.  I had found a fantastic colouring picture with shepherds looking in over a stable door or dividing wall.  I couldn't resist using that on the windows.

And this is how I have left it for now.  I had originally planned to colour them in as well, but now I am thinking that maybe just one or two pieces, such as the belt, hat, etc.  Also, I can't decode whether to cut the excess backing paper away on the windows.  I had planned to but I am worried about how narrow that crook is and whether it would get ripped if it was cut to the lines.  If I don't do that then I will cover the rest of the window with paper.

We're also planning on putting a star up in the other window panel, above the shepherds looking in.

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Advent Anticipation

Referring to Luke 2:21-40


I cannot begin to imagine what it must have been like for Anna.  To have waited and waited and waited for God to show up.  Always waiting, staying faithful, never giving up, day after day after day.


And THIS day, when it started, probably seemed like every other day.  I wonder when she realised.  Was it the very moment Mary and Joseph entered the Temple, even though she couldn't see them yet?  Was it not until she caught sight of them or did it take a while of watching the family not yet understanding what it was that was stirring in her soul?


Whatever or however it came, that moment of realisation did come.
"This is it" the Holy Spirit whispered in her ear, "THAT child, He is the one you've been waiting for" and then He nudged her until she walked across and approached the family.


Waiting was over, anticipation was done, her joy was complete.  The Saviour had come!

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Living Thankfully

Loook, 2 weeks running!  How impressed with myself am I?  This week, in no particular order, I am thankful for . . . . 

446.  Both my sons.  The first doing an amazing degree in stage management and apparently having lots of fun but working very hard during show weeks (this week being one!).

447.  The second doing well at sixth form and winning a RECORD 7 awards (including student of the year) in the awards evening at his old school.

448.  Even though I don't drink tea or coffee, squash (cordial) that is nice hot means hubby has added a hot drink for me to his morning routine!

449.  Awesome day's training in child protection.  Came home with two things to implement ASAP, one of which we already have a plan to act on, even though training was only Saturday.

450.  Chocolate covered Brussels sprouts.  Heeheee.  I may write a blog post about that one later in the week!

451.  Open the Book is still going well.  The head teacher told us the other week that more staff make an effort to be at this assembly each week than ANY OTHER they do!  WOW.

452.  I was able to find a way to make the props for this week's Open the Book without me having to draw 10 huge pictures!

453.  Even though hubby had offered to let me have the car for the training day at the weekend, someone else offering to drive meant he was still able to have the car.

454.  Good bargains on ebay this week.  I needed some inkjet printable OHP sheets and Staples wanted £23 for their smallest box (25 sheets).  On ebay I managed to pick up a full unopened box of 25 plus an opened box with 17 still in it for less than £6.50 including postage!  NOT BAD.

455.  A school deciding they didn't want the Christmas assembly next week was actually a good thing as it means my incredibly manic week will be much less so!

456.  Sunday's Cool (say it out loud and you'll work it out) "Wall of Rejoicing" which was started yesterday is already filling up and will most likely expand past the edges of the noticeboard and onto the walls by the end of the 8 lessons it will be up for!

457.  The mild weather we seem to be having this year.  This time last year we had already had the first big freeze.  I don't mind some snow but last year was a bit much and it's nice to not have to worry about slipping and falling and so on.

458.  Having a washing machine.  I do remember what it was like before we got one and having to do laundry in the bath!  Don't think my back could cope with that these days.

459.  An interesting conversation last night about future possibilities.  Things MIGHT turn out to be better than people expect, if they'll just look more carefully at the details.

460.  ADVENT - a time of anticipation is HERE.  Come Lord Jesus, come Holy Spirit!

461.  

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Bible Costumes - Egyptian Princess Wig

I am still making costumes and props for our Open the Book Team.  Open the Book is a program that takes weekly Bible Story assemblies into schools that are local to  the church providing the team.

So far, I have shared our first team photo (we were the 1000th team to be registered), quick and easy basic costumes, Joseph's Multi coloured coat and a basic male Egyptian costume as well as one or two props.

Today we have a black wig for an Egyptian princess because this week's story was about Moses being discovered in his basket floating on the water by Pharaoh's daughter.

I had looked in a number of places online for solutions for this part of this costume and got absolutely nowhere as far as making something is concerned.  I did read something about making fun play wigs for children using yarn and a baseball cap with the brim cut off.  I went through my yarn stash (what is left of it) and found that I did have some black yarn, but I couldn't find an old baseball cap, so I grabbed the next best thing, an old fleece hat.  Fleece is good for this because it won't fray when you cut it, whereas a knitted hat would.  You can see that I cut part of the fabric away.  This is part of the section that would be turned up when wearing the hat.  In the end I went back in and cut all of that section away, but it is up to you whether you do that.

I worked out and marked where each of the layers would be attached to the hat and began to cut yarn to double the length.  I then gathered a bundle of cut lengths together and tied them at the midway point, in a knot.  I used 4 strands together for the chunkier yarn and 7 for the Double Knit yarn.  This worked OK, but I soon worked out a better way.  Find or cut a piece of card (I used foam board that I happened to have) that is the length you want that layer of hair to be and wrap the yarn around and around and around it.

Don't go all the way across your card, you will need some space to section it off.  Also, do not wrap too tight, this will stretch the yarn and mean your finished product is not as long as you want.  Keep it only just tight enough to not slip but no more. Then, using a spare piece of yarn, gather the correct number of strands at one end of the board and slip the spare piece underneath them, tying it off.  Do this all the way across the board.

The simply slip your scissors under the strands of yarn at the other end of the board and cut across.  You will be left with lots of bundles of yarn.

Take your hot glue gun and begin attaching your bundles, at the knotted end, to the hat.  You can either go all the way around and cut a fringe in later or do what I did and leave space for the fringe.  Try and keep the tops of the yarn in as straight a line as possible and keep gluing.

On that photo you can see that I decided to do 4 layers of bundles, the bottom line you see there, the two lines you see marked, and the very top of the head.  To be honest this gave a very thick and full wig that feels a bit bulky when wearing and I would suggest that 3 layers in total would be enough.

This next photo show you how I tried to keep things even.  I would glue on the front ones on each side, the centre back ones, and then split each side into sections, gluing on one to mark the section first, then filling it in.  I made these later bundles slightly longer than the first one.

Keep going until you have your first three layers done, or two layers if you have decided on 3 layers in total.

Then you need to work on the fringe.  Obviously the fringe (bangs) needs to be long enough to cover the remaining edge of the hat, other than that it is up to you.  I did two layers in much the same way as the sides.

Then I trimmed the fringe to give as straight a finish as I could manage.  I don't think I would have made a very good hairdresser, ho hum.

That just leaves the top of the head to finish.

I decided that I would do the front and back section in slightly different ways.  Truly the easiest way to show you that is with a diagram, because if I try and explain it in words, it probably won't make sense.

Because I realised at this point that I had worked slightly lopsided, I made the two sides meet, slightly to one side of the seam line of the hat.  You need to be more careful with your glue now, making sure you cover up all the blobs of glue with the yarn, leaving none showing.  For me this worked best by working with two bundles of yarn at a time.  I applied a line of hot glue, across the seam line and then placed the two bundles into it, touching each other in the middle.

Keep going until you have covered the top of the head as shown in the diagram.  You may then want to trim the bottom of the hair to even it up a bit.  I did a little, but not too much.

Finally, I chose to braid some strands at the front on each side.  I did about 6 thin braids on each side.

And there you have it, an Egyptian Princess Wig.  

All in all it took me a total of about 3 hours, but if you dropped the one layer like I suggested, you could get it finished quicker than that, and it is the sort of work that can be done while watching TV as long as you have an electrical socket nearby for the glue gun.

It would work equally well in other colours for fancy dress costumes and so on.

If you put my wig together with my team members ability to put costumes together out of seemingly nothing, you get a fantastic result.

Next week I have no costumes to make, so if you check in here, there might be another craft project, or maybe some art journal pages.

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