The last couple of weeks for me have held a few ups and downs. When people use that phrase they are usually thinking more of the ‘downs’ than the ‘ups’, and that is the case for me: self pity often seems to be nipping at my heels lately. It is in this frame of mind…
Category: Lifestyle
Finding Faith in Christmas 2
Recently I posted about the goodness of God – how knowing He is good can help us to rediscover the true joy of Christmas. But it can be hard to find faith in this: when we see those around us suffer, when we feel our prayers have not been answered, when we feel forgotten as we…
Finding Faith in Christmas: Small Things
In my previous post about Finding Faith in Christmas, I wrote about seeing and sharing God’s goodness. Sometimes, it’s hard to believe in the goodness of God, but being deliberately thankful can really open our eyes to it as we notice small blessings we might have missed if we weren’t looking. That’s what my Small Things…
Finding Faith in Christmas 1
I love this quote from Ann Voskamp (image downloadable from her website): It’s what I’m thinking about as December drifts in. Everyone’s getting ready now for the big day, aren’t they? Presents and food and outfits and parties… Amid the excitement, I’m feeling a little subdued if I’m honest. It’s not that I don’t enjoy…
An Uncomfortable Read
I have just finished a novel – a good book with a great story to tell, but one which I found a little uncomfortable to read. You see, there was so much in it that I identified with, so much that felt painfully close to my own heart. Perhaps that is what made it a…
Life Lately
This Friday was the loveliest of Fridays. I have Friday afternoons off, and this week Jamie and I had an unspoken agreement that the rainy weather obliged us to spend it in the kitchen where the Rayburn would keep us warm and we could generally do very little. Jamie duly snoozed for hours and I was the…
Small Things
I never get tired of writing my Small Things posts – isn’t gratitude the best way of life ever? Ann Voskamp never fails to remind me of this and I love her recent post on spending Thanksgiving with her family. Even when things are hard, there are always Small Things to be glad about and I…
Recipe: 3 Slow Cooker Meals to Welcome you Home from Work :-)
Slow cookers are a great invention 🙂 As the evenings get darker and colder, our dinnertime cravings tend to be for warmer, heartier fare and we’re often ready to eat much earlier. Slow cooked dishes can give us just that. I’ve been experimenting a lot with our slow cooker, leaving it on while we’re at…
Making home homely
I LOVE the concept of an imperfect but personal home, one that is welcoming, cosy and restful – and the last month has seen me enter a phase of working out how to create this for us, in our place, in the day-to-day. I recently chose The Nesting Place by Myquillyn Smith as one of my current…
Small Things
It’s time for another list of the ‘Small Things’ I’ve been feeling thankful for. Having written a few slow, rambling posts lately, I thought it would be good to make this mid-week one short and snappy – so, without further ado, here are the past few weeks’ lovely Small Things: *New pens, and writing letters. *Making…
Spiritual Whitespace
Since reading Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Where you Are, I have discovered a whole range of American writers who are exploring different ways of thinking, living and believing. All have come to points in their lives where they realised they were desperate for change. They wanted to break away…
Bitter Sweet
Later this week, I’ll be posting a few reflections on a great book I just finished, Finding Spiritual Whitespace: Awakening your Soul to Rest, by Bonnie Gray. I enjoyed Bonnie’s book so much that I looked up her blog, Faith Barista, and found it a beautiful way to slow down for a moment with a coffee…
Life Lived 