Age to Age...

This Sunday, we're introducing a new song at Church... thought I'd give you a heads up! Awesome words and great music, as always, from Sovereign Grace... something for you all to meditate on this weekend!

Have a great one!

Happy Birthday hub!

Yesterday was my wonderful hubby's birthday... he left the house at seven, worked all day and then had to go out to a meeting in the evening... but he never complained (I would have had something to say if that was my birthday!!) We did, however, have time for a yum family meal at Mum and Dad's (Fajitas) and enjoyed the birthday cake - Ava also wanted a go at blowing out the candles!! Of course, we had then some time for little pressies and Ava enjoyed showing off her artwork!

He is fab. And Ava and I love him very much. Happy **th birthday David!

Helping Papa unwrap his presents

All smiles!

One of Dave's presents was a book of vouchers to be used on all sorts of occasions... my husband loves
to talk (as anyone who knows him will know) and will often try and launch into some discussion late at night when my brain has switched off... hence this voucher!

I may regret this one!! Ava's voucher was "unlimited cuddles with Ava Margrete"... she will happily oblige!

One Big Adventure!

Life is a bit of a whirlwind at the moment... since Ava turned one, it seems life is one big adventure of discovery for her. Everything is exciting, to be explored... crunchy autumn leaves, conkers, spiders webs. Everything is felt and turned over in those little hands and prodded and poked... its helping me to appreciate creation once again. To see everything through the eyes of a one year old who has never seen these wonders of nature before! The lovely scrunch those leaves make when crinkled up in little hands, the smooth texture of the conker, and the wonderful "conk!" it makes when bashed together with another, the sticky intricacy of a spiders web that tangles itself around you... its made me think a lot of Psalm 8...

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?

This incredible God who has made all these intricacies, alongside the huge fire-balls of stars. THAT God cares for me... for my family... for my little ones. Incredible. Breathtaking.

And watching the pinnacle of his creation - people - who he made in his image has been the most breathtaking of all. Watching this little person - so helpless and vulnerable - turn into this little personality with bundles of energy - wriggles and laughs and tantrums and sleepy cuddles - has been such an incredible journey. And now she's starting to SAY things... I caught her the other day with her dolly on her lap rocking backwards and forwards and singing "row, row, row..." on repeat. I mean, when did that little newborn learn to do that?! She comes out with words in german and norwegian and english and I'm left astounded at this God who has made a little human brain capable of picking up these words in three languages at such a young age (I mean, I knew this whole trilingual thing would work... but seeing it actually happening before our eyes is OH so very exciting!)

Anyway... here is my daughter's rendition of "Row Row" with her dolly... I hope you enjoy and I'm only sorry I didn't grab my camera quicker as I only caught the tail end of it! The video was originally about 30 seconds long, but somehow my laptop is playing up and has cut it down to 4 seconds (the first 4 seconds before I managed to get it in focus!) Still... you'll get the idea!

Autumn treats...

After our "Pick-your-own" experience last week, I came home, laden down with blackberries, and excited about conjuring some YUM treat. As they can be a little on the bitter side, I figured a blackberry-apple crumble was the way forward. When I got home from Mums and Tots on Friday, and put Ava down for her nap, my friend Chez and I headed out to the garden to attempt to retrieve some apples from our apple tree.

Sounds easy, but when you only have a leaning ladder, and all the apples seem to enjoy growing on the outskirts of the branches, it can be a little interesting. With the aid of a rake, a little jumping, and two pairs of hands, we managed to get two yummy green apples down and hit the kitchen.

I googled the following recipe from BBC recipes... HIGHLY recommended!

Apple & blackberry crumble recipe - Recipes - BBC Good Food

Absolutely AWESOME, delicious and scrummy! My NCT friends popped over that afternoon and this...

became this...

I did actually adapt the crumble mixture, because I love my crumble to be a bit oaty, so I halved the flour and put in the other half as porridge oats instead.

A perfectly delicious, autumny treat!!

With all this yucky weather (though I am actually a bit of a secret rain fan... it's just so nice and COSY!), Ava and I snuggled up with Big Bear and Baby for a bit of "Caillou" as well... here's my little telly addict...

Autumn's coming... and I'm so very excited! Crunchy leaves, cool, crisp air, snuggly afternoons and being shut in while it pours outside... I LOVE it!

Thank you Lord for the lovely rain, for blackberries, fresh-baked crumble, lazy afternoons and back-garden apple trees! What a good Provider we have!

He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses

Psalm 135:7

Raising "good" kids...

On Saturday morning, Dave and I handed Ava over to her grandparents and headed up to church for the yearly "Parenting Seminar". This was only our second one, due to it being yearly, and Ava being only just over a year old, and it was amazing to think how much has changed since we rocked up with our 4 week old baby last time!

Last year we sat and listened and gleaned and soaked - information that was SO VERY helpful, and yet seemed so far from where we were at, with this perfect little bundle who was so needy and helpless. The thought of her ever being disobedient, of us ever needing to think through how we discipline her, or spend "quality" time with her, or draw out her thoughts and feelings on life. All of that was so alien. Now, its a little bit closer to home!

We were led, really helpfully, by our Youth and Families Pastor, Gareth, through a book called "Giving them grace" which is, in its own words, all about "dazzling your kids with the love of Jesus". I felt challenged, convicted, inspired and excited about my role as Mum at the end. There was one quote that I found really helpful as I thought about what it means to raise "good kids", something which I think all of us parents out there are so eager to do...

“Raising good kids is utterly impossible unless they are drawn by the Holy Spirit to put their faith in the goodness of another. You cannot raise good kids, because you’re not a good parent. There is only one good parent, and he had one good Son…Give this grace to your children: tell them who they really are, tell them what they need to do, and tell them to taste and see that the Lord is good. Give this grace to yourself too.” (Give them Grace, p50)

It was so refreshing to be reminded that I don't need to be the perfect Mama. Of course, I strive to be the best Mama I can... but I will fail. Guaranteed. I will hurt Ava. She will hurt me. We are both sinners. But, thanks be to God, I am a sinner saved by a great Saviour and my prayer is that Ava will trust this Saviour too. What freedom there is in being a follower of Jesus! I don't need to kill myself over this parenting thing... I don't need to bear the burden of being "responsible" for how my kids turn out. Don't hear me wrong... God has given me great responsibility as their mother, but at the end of the day, only God's Spirit will make them really "good" on the inside. That's something I can't do.

We left the seminar feeling so encouraged, and daunted, by the responsibility we do have... but God is good, and I'm praying that he will give us the strength, patience and wisdom to dazzle our kids with the love of Jesus by giving them grace upon grace upon grace. And if you missed it? You missed out... make sure you're there next year! It was such a great morning to be encouraged and thrash stuff out with other parents on the "battlefield" of kid-raising!

My hubby, who blogs about once a year, has put his thoughts on his blog too... defo worth a read!

Pick-Your-Own Adventure!

This week, I met up with some of my uni friends for a catch-up, yummy lunch and a trip out. Ali, Rosie, I and the babies headed to my favourite Pick-Your-Own farm and pricked our fingers on the blackberry brambles, trudged through the dust and had our fingers stained with berry juice. In essence, we had a whale of a time... and the babies even more so!

Feel the need to explain a) my hair and b) my hand... regarding the hair? It was windy... My hand? This was me telling Rosie that we should take a picture AFTER gathering our corn and not before and that this was how we should pose for it. What I didn't realize was that she was taking the picture as I was talking. 

Eating dirt... way more tasty than runner beans, sweetcorn and blackberries!

Cheese!

Ava walking through the cornfields with Ali and Mama! She was absolutely filthy!

Clearly picking fruit and veg is exhausting work!

We had great fun... my fridge is now packed with all kinds of goodies and Ava slept like a log and gave Mama a lie-in the next morning! Not complaining about that! On the way out, we spotted a huge pumpkin patch, so I feel a return visit is in order soon!! Oh, and thanks Rose for the fab photos!!

Published!

So I made a rather exciting, if not also rather late, discovery this week. Apparently, my blog got published on Britmums (the UK's largest parenting blog) back at the start of August. Somehow, the email informing me of this fact missed me and I just got another confirmation this week! How crazy... anyway... my first "officially" published piece of writing can be found here.

In other news, I had my 16 week check yesterday, and Ava and I heard her little bro or sis's heartbeat. Crazy how quick this pregnancy is zooming, and how clueless I am in terms of how far I am. Last time round I tracked my pregnancy like crazy - every week I would be reading articles on "what the baby is doing this week" and looking at 3D pictures of what Ava looked like. I knew to the day how pregnant I was because I was counting... this time - I'm so clueless! Life is so busy with a one year old that I have to stop and look up how many weeks I am, I have no idea what part of its body this baby is developing. Trust me, this baby is as loved and precious as Ava... but I'm just in a different phase of life, I guess, and I can see this time is just going to fly by.

Next stop, 20 week scan, and I'm a ball of nerves. I love the scans once I'm in there and know everything's OK, but I always feel nervous as we walk in that room. It's a good opportunity to trust God and remind myself that he holds all things, including this little one, in his hands.

He is good!

Changing days...

We are in adjustment mode at the moment... one of those periods where, as a Mama, you don't quite feel like your in control because the way your child has functioned for the past few months is changing because they're growing up. I have loved our 2 nap routine. An hour and a half in the morning to get all my housework done and and hour and a half in the afternoon to catch up on blogging, emails, lesson planning, coffees with friends... but all that is changing. Ava is letting me know that she's ready to go for the one mighty nap and I have finally realised I need to go with it.

Oh how I want to cling to that morning nap! The thought of a grumpy baby at 11 o clock and trying to stretch her to at least 12.30pm does NOT sit well with me, and the thought of losing that hour and a half of productivity ALSO does not sit well with me. I know I can get stuff done when she's up and about... but its not the same!


The upside is the afternoon nap gets a bit longer, and she's been sleeping in the morning til 7.30am/8ish... so that's a result and when we're out and about, the morning whizzes by for both of us. On Friday, we headed to our church's Mums and Tots group and had a whale of a time. It was lovely to be back. When we got home I turned round and realised Ava's helmet had fallen over her eyes so the poor child couldn't see anything the whole ride home. When I lifted it up, this is what I found...

 

Bless her! It was then I realised that this season is an adjustment for her too and I need to stop being selfish with my time and appreciate every minute with this little, noisy bundle of joy! Our schedule will shift and change a lot over the next year, and will change dramatically, I'm sure, with the arrival of Bubba 2 (who incidentally has started to kick me hard enough that I can feel it this week!), but I need to embrace the change and go with the flow and enjoy it as we navigate this growing up thing together!

ITV all the way...

Is anyone else out there totally loving and absolutely overwhelmed by the amazing array of awesome drama currently being shown on ITV...?? Like, seriously, this month is better than the last ten years put together...

 

Sunday nights, started this week, my all time favourite drama (aside from BBC's Pride and Prejudice) I am a HUGE Downton fan and so excited about this new series!!

I am loving "Mrs Biggs", on Wednesday nights; the story of Ronnie Biggs (of the Great Train Robbery fame) and his wife as she copes with her husband's crime.

And, as if that isn't enough, then there's "The Bletchley Circle" on Thursday nights, which follows 4 Bletchley codebreakers ten years after the war as they try to solve a murder mystery...

I am loving this!! Thank you ITV... 

My only concern is, all these shows are going to stop, and then I'm going to feel utterly lost and bereft! You better have some good christmas dramas up your sleeve!

Dealing with Doubt...

25. Resolved, to examine carefully and constantly, what that one thing in me is, which causes me in the least to doubt of the love of God; and to direct all my forces against it.

- Jonathan Edwards -

Yesterday, in the evening service at church, we watched this short video...

It's a guy called Steve Saint who has done some serious suffering. His Father was brutally murdered when he was 5, his daughter died of a brain tumour when she was just 21, and now he's suffered a serious accident himself which seems to have left him almost completely paralysed. One of the most astounding things about this man is his faith in God. If anyone has a reason to doubt God's love for him, then surely he? I find myself asking "How can God say he loves this man, and yet allow him to suffer such awful tragedy and heartache" and yet what is completely astounding is that this man has said "I don't ask why; I trust him".

Doubt hits all of us at some point - is God really in control? Does he really love me? Does he really have power to deal with this huge issue? And suffering throws those questions into the limelight perhaps more than anything else...

Edwards challenges us to think carefully about the one (yes one - perhaps more like 100,000??) thing that most causes me to doubt God's love for me - is it suffering? is it situations and circumstances? is it the seeming mundaneness of daily life? is it my own insecurities? The list could go on... but I think he makes a good point here. So often we are overwhelmed by our inadequacies that we don't even know where to start. Edwards challenge is this... find the BIG thing that makes you doubt, and attack it with all your strength.

I know, for me, the big thing is my work-ethic. I believe in earning my way in the world... that flows into my relationship with God (even though it shouldn't) and means I feel great and secure in God's love for me when I'm reading my Bible daily, praying regularly, having lots of opportunities to share Christ with my friends and family... but take this past week for example. I haven't looked into my Bible once, I've thrown up arrow prayers throughout the day, normally consisting of "Lord - please help me to...(find my keys/settle Ava/fill in gap as appropriate!)" and I didn't even make it to Bible study. On these kind of days, I find it very easy to doubt God's love for me...why should he love a useless Christian like me, who can't even prioritise time with Him? Who talks all the talk and yet day to day, this week at least, has not shown in any way that God is even part of my life? That's when the devil hits with his "pharisee-fork"... and that's when I have to use "all my forces" to preach this to myself...

God doesn't love me for what I have or haven't done... he never has. That's never been the basis for his love for me! He loves me because he loves his Son, and his Son has taken up my pathetic attempts and failures at following him, and presented me, before his Father "pure and spotless"... not because I am, but because he's covered me with himself through his death and made me God's child. That's how I "direct all my forces" against those seeds of doubt!

So what is it for you? What is the ONE big thing that causes you to doubt that there is a God who loves you and wants you for his own?

Grab that ONE, and direct all your forces against it today! 

Pin of the Week...

In our house, I'm getting myself ready for autumn... its my FAVOURITE season and I can't wait for the crunchy leaves, conkers and crisp cool air...

I also love to get my house all prepped for autumn, and although I know its still a little early, I thought I'd start rooting out some good ideas from Pinterest. Here are my top five...

Love this Burlap cushion with stenciled message... very autumnal!

Felt leaves would look cute on bunting??

Bell jar vases filled with pumkins... anyone know where you can get cute mini pumpkins in the UK??

I am STILL scouring charity shops for a game of scrabble, just so I can get all creative with the letters!

I just adore the colour!

Hopefully that gives you some pinspiration for your autumn decorating this year!!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Cx

So VERY VERY cute!

OK... I need to start this post by saying I am not receiving anything for this post, I have never met these people in my life and I have no personal interest in this business whatsoever. The reason I need to say this is because I am going to ABSOLUTELY RAVE about a company from Northern Ireland I just discovered this morning (thanks Caroline!)

For the past half an hour I have drooled (almost literally) over their Facebook page at all the pretty, oh so very pretty, lovely, wonderful things "Bitty Button" are creating... you HAVE to check them out! This Saturday, they are opening a shop in Portadown, and already I'm counting down the days to my trip there next summer so I can go visit this cute little shop and spend an absolute fortune and steal some wonderful ideas and have a go myself!

Just look at these lovely, lovely things! (All photos property of Bitty Button)

This was my original inspiration... my friend Caroline received this as a gift for her baby girl - how cute!!!

I love this... I have to admit, I have been the recipient of some incredible teacher presents... and some slightly more interesting ones... this is so simple - a bookmark and a teabag. BUT SO CUTE!

Felt and buttons... my favourite combo!

Love these brooches, and the message that comes with them!

What I think is MOST exciting about this company is their creativity, the fact that they aren't scared of colour (which I love) and the fact that actually, a lot of this stuff, wouldn't be so very impossible to have a go at yourself...

My creative juices are flowing... time to go make something, methinks!

We're home...

... and tired, and pretty dead from the long journey, but we had a FAB time and it was so special to catch up with so many good friends while we were out there. It was lovely to have Julie and Lucy with us too and be able to introduce them to so many special people and places.  I feel sad that I won't wake up to the mountains and cowbells tomorrow morning, but its nice to be home; back to Dave, back to normality, back to this little bit of England that I love!

Today we have a jam-packed day... Bible study this morning and then Ava's off to Nanny's while Mama's off to work.

Straight back to the madhouse then!

Out in the sunshine...

This weather is so beautiful... we have been making the most of the sunshine and spent most of today in the grand outdoors! Yesterday morning, after a lazy start, Julie, Nicole and I (and the babies of course) headed into Bregenz to do some shopping. I always stack up on books when I'm here... its cheaper than trying to order German books over Amazon, and I've got some really nice bedtime story books for Ava for less than 3 euros each... bargainous!

We then headed to the Pizzaria for lunch and sat out on the terrace enjoying the sunshine... the babies tucked into a margharita pizza between them and we had a real feast!

After lunch, we headed back up to the Fluh for the babies nap time. After putting Ava down, Kaya suggested we go out and sunbathe on the trampoline. It was so nice to lie there in the sunshine and catch-up with her. Its amazing to think this is the same little girl who I looked after here when she was two... putting her to bed, getting her dressed, singing all day long, taking her to Kindergarten. It made me realise how much time flies, and that soon I could be lying in the sunshine on a trampoline with my own 9-year-old Ava having a heart to heart (I hope so much we have that kind of relationship). It reassured me as well, though. Sometimes I find it scary to think of Ava growing up... I just want to put time on pause and enjoy those bedtime snuggles and giggly days... but time with Kaya today reminded me that every stage is precious and brings its own challenges and special moments. Its a joy to watch these little ones grow up into sweet-natured, sociable and happy young people.

After the babies woke up, we headed over the border to this beautiful herb garden in Germany... the girls enjoyed crawling/toddling around finding flowers and picking grass, Leon enjoyed running around with the dog, Kaya enjoyed exploring every nook and cranny and us adults just enjoyed nature and each others company.

It was a great photo opportunity as well!

Today we head back home to England after our short but sweet trip to Austria. I'm not sure I'll make it back again before our next arrival, but coming back always reminds me of how special my year here was, and how precious it is to have lifelong friends from different backgrounds. This country will always be incredibly special to me, but for the most part, thats because of the great friends that I have here. I will miss you guys! Thanks for always making us so very welcome! Until next time!

A busy weekend...

Phew... we arrived in Austria late on Friday evening, and have managed to pack a lot into a lovely weekend!! Walks in the mountains, musical rehearsals, movie nights, church services, Kässpätzle in the BEST restaurant in Vorarlberg (don't get me started on how amazingly yum Kässpätzle is!!), cable car trips, walking through flea markets, playing with water and so on! Some photos to give you an idea!!

First up, the musical. I was blown away by these kids, yet again! I have worked with some of them for eight years now as Nicole and I have produced the musicals (to be fair, my role in the production has got smaller over the years due to the distance! In this one, I simply co-wrote the script and wrote the lyrics for the songs... Nico does all the hard work!) These  kids have grown up so much... developed in their singing, dancing, acting... and I feel so privileged to have been part of this big musical adventure! "No Exit?" premieres next weekend and this is, sadly, the first of our musicals that I won't be able to see live, never mind perform in! Still, at least I was able to see a full run-through rehearsal. Nicole and I wrote this one back in December and it has,as they always seem to do, totally exceeded my expections. I was in floods of tears at the end! Hard to believe that Theresa, who plays the main part, was one of my first dancers in that humble little dance class I started back in 2004...she was 8! Just look at them now!

This duet was so beautiful - she and Renaldo gave me goosebumps...

Yesterday morning Ava and I headed to church... it was great to catch up with brothers and sisters there, share a little bit about what is going on in our home church, and they prayed for us, which was so nice. Its amazing that even after 8 years we are still so loved and welcomed there.

After church, we headed back into Bregenz and met up with Stefan, Catrin, Leon, Julie and Lucy... for yummy Kässpätzle (really good homemade pasta dough bits with cheese and fried onions - an amayingly tasty, fancy mac and cheese!)

We then took a little walk down to the Seebühne (stage on the lake) which is what Bregenz is famous for. The girls enjoyed exploring!

After which we got the cable car up the Pfänder (our local mountain) where we enjoyed the playground, beautiful views, lots of animals, a nice walk and Kaiserschmarren (typical austrian desert)...

Catrin and I brought the girls back down in the cable car while the others walked (we couldn't, unfortunately, take the route with the buggies.) On route, we stopped off in the town and the girls had some serious fun playing with the water!

Look at those cheeky smiles!

So we took two grubby, wet, but happy babies back up the mountain to the Fluh! And that was yesterday... more adventures to follow today, no doubt!

Off we go...

Well, Ava and I are off on our travels again! I'm squeezing a quick trip to Austria in before school really gets going and we're looking forward to catching up with all our lovely friends out there! Our friends Julie and little Lucy are joining us, so I'll keep you posted on what we're up to!

Can't wait to see this view again...

and, of course, this view is pretty special too...