Something for Saturday

Well it's Saturday here (I'm guessing it's probably Saturday where you are, too, unless you're like on the other side of the world or something) and we're doing normal (ish) Saturday things. 

I went around taking lots of photos of the family doing their Saturday things but then the computer went all grumpy on me and only one of the photos managed to get uploaded! So I went to upload that one photo to my blog, but the server rejected it. (Don't ask me what happened there. I don't know.) So there isn't any lovely Saturday photos for you today, I'm sorry to report!

Anyway..  you may have wondered at my absence over the past week. From Monday to Friday (yesterday) Abbie and I were at a 5 day Bible camp about 2 hours south from where we live, called Jumpstart. It was amazing. I did schedule two posts for the week though, so you weren't completely abandoned and forgotten. :) 

And while I was away I had my birthday. I can now report that I am a whole year older than I was and able to sit my learner's licence. (That feeling of awesomeness!)

This morning Danella made me a sponge cake and this afternoon I iced it. Hopefully it kinda looks something like this cake.

Anyway, as I was saying, Jumpstart was amazing. Absolutely awesome. Incredible. I learnt so much about God, the Bible, my friends... even myself. I'm hoping soon to write a couple of posts about some of the awesome stuff we got taught in class during the week.

I've spent this morning writing thank-you notes for my birthday presents, reading one of my birthday books, trying to wade through some of my emails that I've got stacked up from last week when I didn't have internet access, writing facebook thank-you messages to my leaders at Jumpstart, helping clean the house, unpacking my stuff a bit, looking at all the photos of Jumpstart and showing the Jumpstart movie (it's got all the best photos in it plus some hilarious footage of the talent night) to my family. 

Oh, and eating birthday chocolate. 

How have you spent your Saturday so far?

You May Be A Chocolate Lover If....

You May Be A Chocolate Lover If...


a). you find yourself feeling awfully hungry whenever the word 'chocolate' is mentioned, no matter when you last ate

b). you find it terribly easy to eat an entire block of chocolate (or more) in one go

c). you can't make up your mind what flavour you like the most, so you spend hours in front of the chocolate display at the supermarket trying to decide which one to buy

d). you find it extremely difficult to refrain from eating any chocolate in your possession

e). the sight of the chocolate wrapping is one of the most wonderful sights you can possibly imagine

f). you have, on occasion, purchased a bar/block of chocolate as a gift for someone's birthday, then eaten it guiltily yourself before their birthday when the craving possessed you

g). the thought of any long period of time without chocolate fills you with the most utter dismay imaginable

h). When you're sad: out comes the chocolate. When you're happy: out comes the chocolate. When you're kind of in-between: out comes the chocolate.

i). you can easily eat (no, devour) chocolate at any time of the day or night

If you related to any of the above statements, you may well be a chocolate lover. Please note: this list is by no means exhaustive, and should not serve as a proper chocolate-lover test. 

Are you a chocolate lover? I am. :D

Live for Jesus!

Last night Dad got a phone call. It was from a man who Dad hadn't heard of in 30 years - not since they were both at University and living next door to each other in the University Halls.

The man on the phone (I 'll call him Alfred for privacy reasons) identified himself, then proceeded to apologise to Dad for his behaviour 30 years ago. It turns out that he had been rather too fond of booze. Dad was concerned for him, and talked with Alfred and prayed for him many times. Then Alfred failed his first year at Uni and went to live in the North Island. That was the last Dad heard of him... until last night.

This next part is awesome. Alfred told Dad how he had been impressed with how Dad lived his life. He told him that although he never showed it, he had been feeling kind of 'empty' and like something was missing! Then Alfred would see Christian students like my father who had that something that he wanted. He said that he could see Jesus's love shining through people like my father.

Anyway, Alfred moved to the North Island thinking these sort of thoughts. Eventually, and I'm not sure exactly of all the details, he gave his life to the Lord and became a Christian.

Alfred is now an architect and has moved down here to help with the Christchurch rebuild. He goes to a church near us (with his family :) ) where he was talking to a mutual friend who mentioned Dad's name. He recognised it as the name of his Christian next door neighbour from his University days! So he found our phone number and gave Dad a ring.

It just goes to show, doesn't it, that you often won't know the results of living for Jesus. Unless Alfred had heard Dad's name mentioned in a chance conversation, Dad wouldn't have known how he had encouraged a non-christian fellow student 30 years back. He wouldn't have known how people can tell if you are really living for Jesus or living for yourself. He wouldn't have known that all that time spent praying for Alfred had not been wasted time.

Live for Jesus!

happy birthday Mum xxx

Happy birthday to my absolutely stunningly incredibly amazingly absolutely wonderfully awesome Mum!!!

I love you, Mummy xxxxx

Exciting Times

We live in exciting times...

I'm thrilled to announce coming soon an exciting and fresh design for my blog, custom made for my blog by the amazing and super talented Eve from Designs by Eve.

It's going to have purple in it.... and it's going to be awesome..... but I'm not going to tell you any more about it because very soon you'll be able to see it for yourself!!! :D

Yay!!!!!

Throwback Thursday

Good evening everyone. Tonight I have two throwback pictures for you, one from 2012, one from quite a few more years ago than that.

May I present to you...

the first throwback picture...

 Miss Petunia Snodgrass!

A little of an explanatory sidenote here. The Snodgrass family were a fictitious family thought up by myself and several other members of our family. They were originally begun in 2012 when I did a speech at our public speaking group, speaking as 'Penelope Snodgrass'. It just went from there. Petunia is Penelope's sister, and made her first appearance at the speaking group a few months after Penelope made her debut.

The drawing of Petunia was done a little after the rest of the family was invented (we had other characters like Percivelette, Boris and Brutus). I think Petunia is rather cute, don't you?




May you now permit me to unveil the second throwback picture.....
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you:

Myself! 

I'm not sure how old that picture is. I imagine I was 7 or 8 at the time of the photo. Just think - in one short week I'll be 8 or 9 years older than that! Goes to show how time flies, doesn't it! 

Did you like my first Throwback Thursday? Shall I do more?

My name in Elvish

Guess what this is:

Completely weird, huh?

It's my name in Elvish!

I found, semi-recently, this awesome site that tells you how to write your name in Elvish in ten minutes. It was pretty cool. I don't really make much of a study out of Elvish, but even I could do it and it's actually quite fun.


Go here to see the site I found. Oh, and this is quite interesting too if you find Elvish fascinating.

In Loving Memory

In Loving Memory

of Toffee the rabbit

Passed away sometime between Saturday (17th May) afternoon and Sunday (18th May) morning

Sister of Snow White, Bubbles, Snowflake and Fudge

Proud mother of Rusty, Erica, Walnut and Splash

Toffee will be sorely missed.

What NOT To Do In Your Spare Time

1. The most important one. Do not EVER spend your spare time reading blogs like mine. You might be permanently addicted for life.

2. Never ever ever spend your spare time folding up washing. Your mother might see you doing it and helpfully give you more washing to fold up.

3. Don't spend your spare time looking bored. You might be noticed... and then you won't be bored any longer.

4. If you want to be bored, at least try to look busy. That way your boredom will go under the radar.

5. Don't spend your valuable spare time on the telephone. Use the phone only in the direst of emergencies. I've found that phone calls almost always take way longer than anticipated.

6. Do not ever waste time explaining complicated principles to someone who won't understand them anyway.

7. Try your hardest not to spend your spare time helping people. They aren't grateful enough for your time and efforts, and you always finish up feeling grossly unwanted.

8. Never spend your spare time doing what you really want to do. Chances are you'll: a) botch it up somehow (in which case you'll feel awful you did it), or b) do a really good job (so you'll be really annoyed you didn't start doing it sooner).

9. Don't spend your spare time reading boring books. If you must waste precious time on a few scraps of paper sewn together, at least read a good book.

10. Don't spend your spare time feeling thankful. Thankfulness only makes you happy and everyone else happy.

A Beautiful Sunset to Make you Happy

I was biking home from work this evening watching the sun go down behind some hills. It was an absolutely beautiful sight.  Well, I was so disappointed I didn't have my camera with me because it was such a gorgeous sunset! You know sometimes you get these amazing sunsets and sometimes they're a bit boring. This one was stunning.

In fact, I knew you'd be so sad that I didn't have my camera with me so I could show you my beautiful sunset.... so I took some initiative and hunted up this gorgeous sunset for you to enjoy instead. 

Beautiful sunsets make me happy. :) So here's a beautiful sunset to make you happy. Gaze upon it for a while and fully appreciate the beauty in this scene. (After all, I went to a lot of trouble to find it for you, you know!)

source

Let's Go Fly a Kite

I have been tagged by Daniel Sampson.

1. Put a music playlist on shuffle.
2. The first song is the answer to the first question, the second to the second question and so forth.
3. You must write that song name down no matter how silly it sounds.

Okay, here we go.


If someone says, “Is this okay?” What do you say?
Country Gardens

What would best describe your personality?
Lion of Judah

How do you feel today?
I Am the God that Healeth Thee

What is your life’s purpose?
Lullaby

What is your life’s motto?
The Flight of the Bumblebee

What do your friends think of you?
Forever

What do your parents think of you?
The Court of King Caractacus

What do you think about very often?

See, What a Morning (Resurrection Hymn)

What is 2 + 2?
The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (from 'Solomon')

What is your life story?
There's No Doubt

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Daisy, Daisy

What will they play at your funeral?
Undo the Wrong

What is your hobby/interest?
How Deep the Father's Love for Us

What is the worst thing that could happen?
He is Exalted

How will you die?
Medley: God with Us (He Walked Where I Walked)/God is Good

What will you put as the title of this blog post?
Let's Go Fly a Kite



I'm not sure who has policies of doing tags and not doing tags... so if you're reading this then you're officially tagged. Unless you don't want to. In which case you have to give me chocolate to make up for it.

Bye!

Mums are awesome!

I know it isn't Mother's Day anymore, but I came across this and just had to post it.

I'm sure you'll forgive me!

To Anyone Who Currently Resides in this Category - (particularly my own Mum)

Adorably Cute in Pink + Large and Very Well Dressed Pumpkins

A few Saturdays ago some of us went to see a Giant Pumpkin Festival/competition thingy. Here are Caleb and Jacob beside a massive monster of a vegetable!

A very well dressed pumpkin

Click on the pictures to make them bigger (so you can see them properly). :)

Maybe I'm a little biased, but Jana is sooo cute!

What have you been up to recently?

Some Random Thoughts

Jana is such a precious little life. I can't believe how fast these last 3 months have gone! It seems that it was only yesterday we woke up to find we had another gorgeous little blessing bundle. Having a baby in the house is such a wonderful time.

Touching her chubby little cheeks and seeing her giggle with delight when I pick her up and show her books.

Sharing those 'special sister smiles'.

When she has been crying and she suddenly stops crying when you pick her up and looks at you with her big eyes as if to say, "I'll stop crying now that you're here!"

Having the privilege of holding her while Mum gets other things done.

Because it is a privilege. It won't be long before she'll be a beautiful big grown up girl and I'll look fondly back at the memories of these precious days. 

Psalm 127:3 says "Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward."

It really is a joy to serve Him in such a beautiful and wonderful way. Whenever I see my youngest sister I can't help but feel so happy that Jesus gave her to us.

While I was away at camp I missed out on this privilege of holding her for a whole 6 days. I can't believe how much I missed it!

How to get from A to B (and make lots of money along the way)

(Click on the image if you want to make it bigger)

The Family Hairstylist

Yup, that's me! :) Here are some of my recent creations.

Yup, my first attempt at french plaiting that actually kind of worked.

This one is probably my favourite. It looks like something from here.