We are still alive, blessed and....

looking forward to the rest of 2009 but really need to blog more here!

Hello...its been a while but we are all still alive and being blessed! We moved house by the way and are enjoying being part of a church family that love us and care about us. God is good to us!

Fern cones

Last night we had 'Home Church' which is still just at 'us' stage but still a surprisingly amazing experience... Wow!
This morning after Meg serving us all breakfast at 7am we went for a walk in the redwood forest, the original trees were brought over from America by a guy called Charles Acker for his Country Estate in Leighton about 5 miles from us. He built a dove cote a huge scale... yes the whole cute red building, we had fun and collected a basket full of fern cones for Christmas decorations.

Star Awards

Quick update... life is wonderful and busy but not stressed.
One of my various projects at work has been spending the last 8 months planning an awards ceremony to celebrate the positives in the lives of the 170 ish kids in care (foster kids and children's homes) and young people who have recently left care. I had a great time and I got to present it too!
The second picture is of me with my fabulous glasses with Lembit, a politician and a celebrity and a friend of ours. Seeing the delight, joy & pride as these young people got their awards was a tremendous privilage and an inspiration.

Simple things

A quick update on the simple things in my life: I still love my new car (VW Passatt) everytime I walk into the yard or out of work... I smile and and give God a thankyou hug in my heart. I got my chainsaw serviced and a new chain on it this week... woohoo! and I've just been out using it and oh what a difference! and after a break of 18 months I've just registered to do my dissertation which will finnish off my MA in Community Education ....ouch! I've finnished my Health Matters film project and it is so nice to get paid another installment, just some final little edits before signing it off. All in all I love life, homeschooling, family, God, Beth, Home-cooking, the car, communion, music, the view from my bathroom, the chainsaw, apple computers and my comfy bed when I get there! (Please note the preceeding list has no particular order and uses the word 'Love' to cover philio, adelphos, eros & agape but I'm not telling you which one where!)
In the midst of all the wedding stuff we took a field trip to the National Space Centre.

Big Macs tonight!

Tonight we are home, from the wedding, we went to church and on the way home Megan paid for us to have BigMacs for supper! It might not be the healthiest snack but it was generous and beautiful to be treated by my daughter.
Here's a couple of pics from the wedding.

Art

We've had my nephew Jacob with us for the las week. Beth has had them doing fun things every day, whilst my contribution was a lateral thinking game each evening when I got in from work, a hill walk where I took everyone to a forested ravine so we had to turn round and come back the way we came and a trip to the little Oriel Art Gallery. There were exhibitions from various Polish artists which is great because we have an awful lot of Polish people who have settled in the area in a very short time and understanding between the communities needs encouraging.

Back in time!

Well my patchwork life is continuing well. Yesterday I took time out to go back in time! My office is in the Spa town of Llandrindod Wells. Each year they have a Victorian week where hundreds of people come dressed in period costume and they shop, and eat and talk ... I think! but all the shops change their window displays accordingly, it is really quite surreal!














Then today we took an trip to Ikea as you can see the kids really feel at home there and they hate us going to the bargain corner so they hide the 2 foot high sign and tried to hide this one but their just not big enough!

Patchwork Life

I think that I'm quite good at multitasking, however, under stress I find I revert to being narrowly single task focussed. I have a filmmaking commission I'm working on at the moment and many things I'd usually do are suffering: less walking, less trips with the kids, less simple pleasures.


Today I had a meeting for work at Staylittle; one of my favorite places. I took the time to leave early so I could stop, read my bible, walk & pray on the hill above the lake (LLyn Llewedog - pronounced Klin Clew ed og) then after the meeting I went for a walk and bought some lunch in the village shop. Then on the way home I stopped in Llanidloes (clan id loy s) and went to a patchwork quilt exhibition in the local art gallery. I think I might be inspired to try learning to make one!
Simple little intentional actions in different areas can mix together. If I'm at work it doesn't mean I can't mix in other things, If I'm busy I might be more productive if I do sessions of a variety of things rather than just one till I get it done. In a film called 'About a Boy' the main character starts by saying he divides his day into 48 half hours sections and allocated them to different activities. I like that.... perhaps my inspiration to patchwork could become an organisation ideology as well.

United values

Last weekend, driving up through the Lake District to visit the Church holiday was stunning.(hence the pictures) By contrast, this weekend was supposed to be relaxing, catching up on some of the chores on the farm, and do some extra work on our business. However, Dad managed to experience a nasty breaking of his leg. This meant the weekend was a little more stressful, with another trip to Manchester and a couple of hospital visits.

One weird thing was that because Dad was in hospital there was a free spare ticket to go with Mark (my brother) to see Manchester United at Old Trafford. We were all there and we weren't doing anything and.... not one of us wanted to go! It just seems so wrong, such a insult to not tack advantage of something that most of the world values. I find it intriguing how people value different things, and how our own value systems change. I used to love United and hate church, and now I can't be bothered going to a match for free and I travel anywhere and give lots of cash to sit under the teaching of people who really KNOW and love God.

VW Passatt

For a long time I've not cared about what I drive, we were challenged by God to dream, to desire Him first but also to let Him know how we'd like to be blessed. So with Beth's encouragement I started (last year) to look at cars and we started to believe for one. This morning our new VW Passatt was delivered to our home. (That's it in the background of the first picture.)So we jumped in and headed for the beach, we walked, paddled, played and prayed, we ate gorgeous honey ice-cream and the Sun shone on the righteous. (Joff took the best of these!)

Loving the Holiday

Monday May 14, 2007
We are half way through this amazing holiday, the Sunshine, the colours and the smells are wonderful here. We’re on the southern coast of the Algarve region in Portugal. Local history is deep with Moorish flavours, crusades and pirates. The culture is a fascinating blend of Latino, Mediteranean, North African and European and the food is …. Fish, pulses, piri prir fish (in hot chillies) spicy chourico (sausage) and salted fish! We don’t really like fish!



Our villa is spacious, cool, clean, well equipped and comfortable with an awesome pool, we have daily maid service and a gardener & pool man. We even have a cute little hire car with air con – thankfully! This is such a relaxing & delightful blessing from our God.


Every evening I walk out onto the flat roof balcony in my pyjammas and breath in the warm sweet air I look out over the white plastered homes with their Moorish chimneys stretching toward the sea and the light from the lighthouse, I listen to the crickets and the waves crashing in the distance and I breath out… and I talk with God.

Every morning I wake up early I open the shutters and walk out onto the balcony to watch the ear;y morning shadows of the palm trees creep across our pool, the sweet scents of olive groves, orange trees & flowers fill the air and I breath in… and I talk with God.


Tuesday May 15th
Yesterday evening we ate fresh fish at a cute restaurant by the beach at the end of the lane here. The mackrel was just delicious and watching the setting Sun was fabulous too.

This morning we drove inland to the Sierra Monchique region, a pretty Portugeuse town in forrested mountains with fresh springs and beautiful pottery. On the way home we stopped in Silves which is probably our favouite place here, a enormous castle on a hill with traditional narrow cobbled streets around it where ‘real’ Portugese folk (not pretend ones?!) go about their lives disappearing into fascinating doorways a tiny cafes. Right now I’m sat by the pool enjoying solitude. Adorable Beth & the children have walked down to the beach to play and I’m getting some work done editing a film. I’ve got Frango & Patatas frites in the oven (that’s chicken & chips!) for when they come back and I just love the Sun and the relaxed pace of life here. I could be tempted to live in such a climate, but probably not Portugal.

Wednesday May 16th
One of the kids favourite things here is to walk along the beach early in the morning before anyone’s there and whilst the tide is out. The rock pools are deep & clear and there’s literally thousands of them filled with fish, giant spiky sea slugs, anenomies, urchins, shells, crabs & other crustanceans. There’s loads of caves, tunnels, bridges, and deep crevaces to explore too in addition to the soft sandy beaches and coves.

Thursday May 17, 2007
How amazingly awesome, refreshing and relaxing was that, it was a little sad to leave the villa behind and as I’m sat here on the plane watching the fabulous Portugeuse coast disapear below me I’m browsing through all the photographs and remembering fondly already .