M 'n' M // Part 1 // Remembering

Have you ever walked into a room, forgotten what it was you had gone into the room to do, so frustratedly walked out again?
Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night and remembered something you urgently had to do next morning, then completely forgotten to do it when you woke up?
Have you ever wished for an easier way to memorise long boring fact lists (or just long lists of anything) than just repeating them mindlessly to yourself over and over?

My friend, you're going to love the newest series I've got for you here on Bonnie's Blessings.

Allow me to proudly present to you:

This is the beginning of a series on easier ways to memorise stuff and remember the things you need to remember. It will most likely be somewhere around the two or three post mark, given that I'm not exactly sure what each post is going to have in it yet. :P

This series will be fondly nicknamed M 'n' M. Just because Maximise Your Memory is a wee bit of a mouthful, and who doesn't like M 'n' Ms?

Today's post, this first post in the series, is entitled "Remembering". Remembering.

This isn't exactly about memorising techniques as such. but some ways to remember the things you know you need to remember.

Let's first tackle the annoying problem of waking up in the middle of the night, knowing something you need to do the next morning, and hoping against hope you won't forget... but knowing you probably will. How can you remember it?

Idea 1: Write it down
This might be a bit of a disappointing solution. Hop out of bed, go find a pen and paper, and write it down. Put the paper somewhere where you're guaranteed to find it the next morning. This is the best way to guarantee you're going to remember to do whatever it was you thought you might forget... but it's not the best solution for us lazy people who don't want to leave our warm beds!

Idea 2: Bring it In
The solution to that problem would be to have a pen and paper on your bedside table all ready for the next time you wake up, remembering that thing you know you'll forget. Just leave them on your bedside table. Then you won't have to leave your warm bed.

Idea 3: The Something's-Wrong Principle
If, for whatever reason, you choose not to put a pen and paper beside your bed, here's a solution that will hopefully work for you. (It's what I do.) Take something that normally sits somewhere near your bed and change it. Then when you wake up in the morning you'll notice what's wrong, and remember why you changed it. So for example, I have a little, flat alarm clock that sits beside my bed. When I have something I need to remember, I turn it upside down, and go back to sleep. Then when I wake up I see it's upside down (because I reach over to turn it off and can't find the button :P) and remember what I thought of in the night.

Idea 4: By Rote
Of course, another way to remember something in the middle of the night is to recite it over and over to yourself. Then you'll hopefully remember it when you wake. This method is not guaranteed.



Well, now we know how to remember something in the middle of the night. But what do we do if we think of something that we need to remember - but it's during the day? We might be out and about with no pen or paper handy. How on earth do we remember it?

Idea 1: Pull out that device
If you are lucky enough to be one of those people who has a convenient mobile phone with the ability to enter stuff on it, then good for you! Any device with that ability would work of course. Just pull out that device and make a note to yourself to remember whatever it was you wanted to remember.
If you don't use your phone much, worry that your note to yourself will get lost somewhere, or just plain don't have a phone, read on!

Idea 2:  The Something's-Wrong Principle
Hehee, you thought you'd seen the last of this one? You're wrong! The way I use to remember things when I'm out and about is to change something, as I discussed earlier in the alarm-clock-upside-down discussion.  Only this time, because I don't have a convenient alarm clock on the table next to my bed, I have to change something else. And this time, it's my watch. My watch lives on my left wrist all day. When I have something I need to remember, I turn my watch upside down, so the clock face is on my palm, instead of on the back of my wrist. Because I constantly look at my watch, I constantly can't see the clock and have to turn my wrist over. This is a constant reminder of what I need to remember. Then when I get home and write it down, I just reverse my watch again. Back to normal. Other ideas would be to take one earring out (for girls), switch your watch or a bracelet from one hand to the other, roll your sock up weird, take your hairtie out and put it round your wrist, roll one of your sleeves up one roll.... there are a multitude of things you could do. Something that's a bit out of the ordinary and will remind you of what you were thinking of when you changed it.

Idea 3: Enlist your friends
A good way to ensure you'll remember the thing is to ask a person you're out and about with to remind you to do whatever it was, when you get back home. Your friend or family member will hopefully try their best to remember it too, so you'll have two minds working on it. Score! Of course, this method isn't guaranteed (your friends might have bad memories too) and you may be out alone, in which case I suggest reverting back to idea 1 or 2.

Idea 4: Imagine It
Another way to remember something you are worried you'll forget is to imagine yourself doing something that you always do when you get home. Maybe it's hanging your keys up, maybe it's removing your shoes and putting them away. Let's say, for example, it's hanging your keys up. As you imagine yourself hanging your keys up, imagine yourself thinking. "Oh! I know what I'm supposed to do next!" and imagine yourself remembering what it is you're worried you'll forget. Keep imagining it. Replay the scene over and over in your mind. In your mind, pair the situation you know you'll be in with the thought of remembering the thing you're worried you'll forget. Hopefully, when you get home and go to hang those keys up, de ja vu will kick in and you'll remember the thing because you imagined yourself remembering it. Of course, you might be distracted by something else and so you hang your keys up mindlessly. Or you might lose your keys. It's worth a try, but it isn't guaranteed.


And that's all for this post! Check back in a few days time for Part 2: Memorising!

What's your favourite way to remember things that you need to do?

The God-shaped Hole

I've seen many searching for answers far and wide
But I know we're all searching for answers only you can provide
'cause you know just what we need before we even say a word
- lyrics from 'Good Good Father' by Housefires


It's funny, isn't it, how people the world over are searching for answers here, there and everywhere. They want meaning. They want purpose. They want something more in the their lives.

Sometimes they have tried God. They may have had preconceived ideas of what He is like, or they may have encountered obstacles or things that put roadblocks in their minds. But they leave Him and try elsewhere for answers. They haven't earnestly sought Him with every ounce of their soul and committed to finding Him. If their hearts are lukewarm, their experience of God may be lukewarm and so they leave again, frustrated.

Sometimes they haven't tried God. They know there's an emptiness inside them that they were designed to have filled. So they search for meaning, purpose, something... to fill the void inside. To find answers to their questions. They might try new age, astrology, buddism, humanism, atheism... whatever it is, it won't be satisfying and fulfilling.

Because nothing in life is satisfying and fulfilling. Each human born onto this earth was created with a God-shaped hole in their hearts that only God Himself can fill. God is the only one that can absolutely fulfill and satisfy. To answer all our questions, to provide meaning, richness and purpose in life.

It's only God who can do it. Only God. Nothing else.

Whatsoever.

'Life is what we choose to make of it'

In the end of the book 'A Little House of Their Own' (by Celia Wilkins), Caroline Quiner is trying to decide whether or not to marry Charles Ingalls. He wants to go out west, and she doesn't. In the end she decides that she will marry him anyway because she loves him, and decides that 'life is what you choose to make of it'. They marry and eventually become the parents of author Laura Ingalls Wilder, who wrote the Little House series.

Now I'm not writing a blog post about the fact that I'm getting married and going out west, so you can calm yourselves down and stop freaking out, okay. :P :)

I was thinking about the conclusion Caroline reaches at the end of the book, though. The conclusion that life is what you choose to make of it.

I reckon there's a lot of truth to that statement.

Of course, life can't be completely what we choose to make of it, because obviously there are circumstances outside of our control a lot of the time!

But it's the circumstances that are inside our control that we can choose to make of what we want. It's those circumstances and decisions that make life what we choose to make of it.

And I think that that statement, life is what we choose to make of it, sums things up beautifully. Don't you? Because it shows us that we have responsibility for the choices and actions we make and take in life. And the things we do have impact. It also shows us that clouds do indeed have silver linings, and we can choose to make the best of a bad situation and smile anyway, through whatever our circumstances may be.

To a certain extent life isn't what we choose to make of it. That's the extent to which our situation is governed by a bunch of things outside of our control. Things like our families, our workplaces, the society we live in, the people around us, a God above us who knows best.... the list could continue for a very long time! :)

But for the rest of the time, life is what we choose to make of it. Our decisions matter. The choices that we make influence what happens to us. 

Galatians 6:7-8
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

You are responsible for your actions and your decisions.

If you choose to make bad choices, you will have to face the consequences for your actions. Often it's not just you that will have to face consequences - your family end up with a bad reputation through your choices. Others around you that you care about may suffer because of your choices.

Proverbs 14:12
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

If you choose to make good choices, you will also face the consequences for your actions. However, this time, you will reap good consequences.

Deuteronomy 30:19
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live...

The choices that we make are of lasting significance.

Don't make choices lightly!

Life is what we choose to make of it.

A + A // Late Night Convos + Spring Is Coming!

I know! Another awkward and awesome post! I find it difficult to churn these out very regularly because it's hard to think of enough points... but you're in luck today! :) 

Awkward:

- Being twenty minutes late to work through no fault of my own. I dislike being late to things, and being late to work of all things annoys me tremendously! 

- Attempting to to eat sloppy noodles neatly. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

- When you're having a discussion with someone, and they carefully lay out all their reasoning and why they think the way they do. And then you're just sitting there, trying to think of what to say. It's late at night, and your brain's already switched off for the night, and you know you should know what to say, but you just can't think of anything except, "I can see what you mean". Which was a completely appropriate thing to say, but doesn't have much substance to it.

- When your computer decides to randomly go super slow for no apparent reason. More annoying than awkward, I guess.

- Being asked to do something for someone else and saying that yes, you will do it. And then completely forgetting.

- When you put an awesome pun into a conversation in just the right place. And someone else follows it up with another pun. And then you can't think of any more puns to use, which frustrates you somewhat because you wanted to win the pun battle.

- Having to navigate somewhere in the dark. I had the map out and was trying to find the right street in the square of the map that the index told me it was located in. Trouble was, I couldn't find it in that square. It took me quite a lot of frustrated searching before I discovered that the square I was looking in was J3, not J2 (where the street was supposedly located), which discovery led me to the next-door square, where the street was (of course). I am possibly not the best navigator the world has ever seen.

- Typing out an email and accidentally sending it to the wrong person.

- Walking to the bus stop in the pouring rain and awful wind, and having the wind blow your hair around EVERYWHERE because you forget to put a hair tie in your bag. Seriously girls with long hair, if you're going somewhere, put a hair tie in your bag if it's a windy day!

- That rather awkward moment when you're talking to someone and a random person you don't know walks up and (rudely) starts talking to your conversation partner. Do you just stand there awkwardly and wait for them to go away so you can finish your conversation? Or do you just awkwardly walk away?

Awesome:

- That moment when you're talking with someone and you both say exactly the same thing at exactly the same time. They do say that great minds think alike!

- Laughter.

- Coming across this again. I may or may not have posted it on my blog once before, but I found it again, had to laugh, and figured you might enjoy seeing it too. :) 

- That wonderful feeling of satisfaction you get when you've just cleaned/tidied up and the house is spotless. It only lasts five minutes, because after that it starts getting messy again, but it's nice while it lasts! :)
- Encouraging people. They're just so lovely to be around.
- Seeing the daffodils coming up... and trees with buds on them, ready to blossom. So exciting! I love spring!!
- Hot soup on a cold day.
- Feeling like your driving is actually improving. Learning to drive is a long road (pun sort of intended), but I feel like I'm slowly getting there.
- Coming home from work and being able to just flop onto the couch and enjoy the heat from the fireplace.
- Being able to help Lydia with ballet. She's improving so much and is a wonderful dancer.
- People who are excited about the same things you are.


What's your favourite kind of soup?
Does your house have the strange habit of messing itself up as soon as you tidy it?
Have any advice for eating noodles? Do share!

Pictures 'n' Puns

The first three pictures I'd like to share with you today are all hand drawn by yours truly. Recently I've been doing lots of drawing and illustrating Bible verses and various things. Art and music are two things I will never get tired of. :) 

My first exploration into hand lettering. The words, if you can't see properly, come from the bridge of a song called "Oceans". Click on the image to zoom in.

Matthew 5:16, complete with a drawing of a lamp post. 

This didn't turn out quite as good as I hoped, mostly because it was done in crayon and I'm not so confident drawing with crayon! :) It's Jeremiah 16:19.

Some good advice here. 

Calm down, old fruit!

Annnnd I can't think of any puns to put here so I'll move on :P

"'Stat ue" (That's you)

They really lift your spirits.

May you have an absolutely amazingly incredibly superbly stupendously wonderful week. :)
Your friend

Yay for Yellow!

I was just browsing through a blog post of blog post ideas when one of the ideas caught my attention. A colour themed post. I stopped scrolling and thought about that for a while. Yup, that sounds like fun. So here's my first colour themed post. Of course, I had to do the first colour themed post themed around yellow, seeing as that's my favourite colour!! :)

The first thing I did when I decided to do a colour themed post was to go hunting around my house for random yellow things to photograph. I was surprised by how few bright yellow things I could find, actually! I love bright yellow things. (In case you didn't know that already.)

So yeah, without further ado, I proudly present to you:

Some of the yellowness in our household

Our lovely yellow walls! Our house is painted yellow. It's so sunshiny and cheerful.

A bright yellow spade in the sandpit.

This is Rudolph. He's a ride-on toy that we've had in the family ever since Abbie was young. He used to have more hair, and different wheels, but over the years he's had a lot of use.

Some yellow soap by the handbasin

Yellow roses on my mirror!

One of my little yellow flower stud earrings. I just love them. They're so tiny and bright and cheerful.

Now I've shown you our lovely yellow walls and Rudolph the Ride-on, it's time to do something else yellow themed.



So I decided to find some quotes on 'yellow'. I uncovered some pretty random quotes. Here's my:

'Yellow' quotes

"How wonderful yellow is. It stands for the sun." 

-Vincent Van Gogh

Couldn't have said it better myself.

I have these new policies toward my life, like 'I will not accelerate when I see the yellow light.'
-Elizabeth Gilbert

Being a learner driver, this is actually a pretty good policy to have.

The sound of colors is so definite that it would be hard to find anyone who would express bright yellow with bass notes, or dark lake with the treble.
-Wassily Kadinsky 
Aside from the fact that the guy's name is pretty cool, I thought what he had to say was fascinating. Because colours have sounds? I hadn't thought about it before, but when I thought about it, it made sense.

I really just want to be warm yellow light that pours over everyone I love.
-Conor Oberst

I thought this was sweet. :)

After I discovered those quotes, I decided to hop onto Pinterest and just search for 'yellow'. Ready for some serious floral yellowness and cute ducklings? Well, ready or not, here they come!

Yellow on Pinterest

(via)

Can you all just agree with me that yellow flowers are amazing? They're so cheerful and sunshiny and well, just, yeah. 

(via)

Annnnnnnd these ducklings. Guys, I've officially just melted. Excuse me while I go and un-melt myself, okay?

(via)

Daffodils!! I tell you what, daffodils have to be my favourite yellow flower. They even come pretty close to being my very favourite flower overall. I can't wait for spring. I was biking to work the other day and discovered some daffodils flowering in someone's driveway. It's still only early August so we really can't expect many daffodils for a while yet, but oh-I-can't-wait-for-more-daffodils!!! Yay for spring! Daffodils and blossoms! Wahoo!!

I think the thing about the colour yellow that draws me to it is that it speaks of cheerfulness. Smiley faces are usually coloured yellow. It's a light, bright and happy colour. It's a cheerful colour. Speaking of cheerfulness and joy, what better way to talk about cheerfulness and joy than to insert some applicable Scripture references?


Yellow in Scripture
(well actually cheerfulness, because there aren't too many Bible verses mentioning 'yellow'! I did find one actually, Leviticus 13:30. Look it up if you like.)

Proverbs 15:13
A joyful heart makes a cheerful face....
Psalm 118:24
This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 28:7

The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.

Philippians 4:4

 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.

Nehemiah 8:10

 …for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

May your heart be joyful and your eyes see lots of yellow as you go about the rest of your day.

Yay for yellow!

PS. Just thought I'd let you know: Life's been crazy recently, so posting won't be as regular as it has been. I'd have liked to keep posting every second day as I had been doing, but I'm afraid this won't be necessarily possible! I'll try to post every third or fourth day or as often as I can.
Thank you for your support! A big hug to all my readers. :)

Gas Bottles

Gas bottles sit outside your house and feed gas through your home

And they're useful to carry with you if camping's where you'll roam

What I'd like to tell you all today is how gas bottles are just like us

They're absolutely useless for your family if inside they hold no gas.

And I'm useless for God's purpose if His life lives not in me

So as a Christian I should strive to be as filled up as I can be.

Cause that's how for my Jesus I can be of utmost use

When the gas bottle of His life in me is filled up with His juice!

But then, I think, complacency is what some Christians feel

They're filled with Jesus's gas and He to them is very real

However sometimes they neglect to give. Their gas is just their own

They hold it tightly to themselves as they sit back at home.

What they've not seen, my dear, dear friend, is a bottle full of gas

Attached to just one house can only have just so much use

Now if you take a bottle of gas, and pour it on the ground

And hold a match up to the gas, strike it, now listen to the sound!

The gas goes 'whoof!' And there you have, a cosy, warm bonfire

That all the neighbours, friends and whanau can all gather round to share.

But the thing that gas needed to do was give itself away

So the community was blessed by its unselfish display.

It's easy to keep our gas, that is, the life of our great King

We hold it tight, cause after all, it's worth more than anything!

But Jesus's love and what He did was done so we could share

This 'gas' we have and what we've learnt with people everywhere.

written on the 6th of August 2015

Let's All Hug Mr Change

In my previous post, I mentioned a little about contentment and how God's been reminding me of it recently. As so often happens, when God decides to remind me of something, it's top of my mind for a while, so guess what's the only thing that came to mind when I decided to write a blog post?? Yup, you guessed it!

Hence a post on contentment.

Contentment. It's a funny thing.

contentment

kənˈtɛntm(ə)nt/

noun

1. a state of happiness and satisfaction.

   "he found contentment in living a simple life in the country"

   synonyms:

   contentedness, content, satisfaction, fulfillment

I think the thing about contentment that gets me is that I don't like change. I tend to dig my boots in a bit when it comes to anything new and a bit scary.

So when I've kicked up my wee fuss, borne the change and am settling in to my 'new normal', it's hard to find contentment.... because I'm too busy grumbling to myself about how much life would be better if I was back where I was!! (I know, it's dreadful isn't it.)

Discontent robs you of your joy in life.

Contentment is a state of happiness and satisfaction, as that useful dictionary definition above shows us. It's being content despite the circumstances. It's being happy and satisfied no matter what curveballs life throws at you.

I'm going to have to learn this at some stage in my life. Life has a habit of changing on you, just when you're getting nice and comfortable. I sometimes think of change as a little man who sneaks up behind you and yells in your ear, "Surprise!!!" You struggle getting to know him after that because even though he's a nice enough man in himself, you can't forget that initial shock he gave you. But then you eventually push past that mental barrier and get to know Mr Change and he's actually quite a nice chap.

As I was saying before I got sidetracked ascribing a personality to change, life has a habit of changing on you just when you're getting nice and comfortable. I'm going to have to learn to be content at some point! Because changes happen. And life goes on. And if I keep disliking change, I'm going to end up a very grumpy person to be around!

This is so true, isn't it. 

The secret to contentment (says me who is trying to learn this too!) is knowing how blessed you are. Like I said in the previous post, contentment is all about choosing to see the blessings in a situation and turning a blind eye to anything that we might grumble about.

Because if you choose to see the flowers and not the weeds, you'll enjoy your garden a whole lot more!

So I think the thing is to embrace change. Think of it as a learning opportunity for you. Think of it as an opportunity for you to learn contentment. And enjoy the journey. Buckle your seatbelt and prepare for the roller coaster ride of changes in life! :)

So here's Bonnie, trying to push past this mental block and embrace Mr Change when he taps her on the shoulder. I'll give him a hug right off the bat and see what happens, shall I?

PS. Also, maybe just google image search 'cute cocker spaniel' right now, okay? You're welcome :)

Current Events

So these past few weeks have been a wee bit crazy. Going and helping out at a kid's camp for a week, then coming back and getting a really nasty flu along with my family. So I didn't get much study done last week. Then this week I had to work double the amount I normally work due to one of my workmates being off on sick leave (she's getting her tonsils out, poor thing!) and also having to make up on all the study I missed out on when I was on camp and when I was sick. I've also been trying to sort out and organize a speaking competition, and organize a fundraising concert (fundraising for a mission trip I'll be going on at the end of the year) Danella and I will be playing in.

Here's a recent photo that we're using on the advertising for the concert, that I thought you might like to see.

So yeah. Life's been a wee bit hectic. As life has a funny habit of being.

This is a bit of a random post, I guess it's to let you know what's been going on in my life recently. It's also a good opportunity to just chat. Because usually my posts are structured (read: have a point to them) and I don't get to just chat with you about whatever. This is weird because it's my blog, I write the posts, and I decide how much 'chatting' goes on, but I sort of feel like you'd be more interested in 'structured' posts, not so much my life/chatting/random posts. I don't even know what I'm trying to say here. I feel like I'm rabbiting on.

Annnnnyway, enough excuses. This is a chatty post whether you like it or not. :)

Semi recently my family was blessed to be able to have Rosie and Ellie Boom in our home for a few days. Rosie is a wonderful author and she was down here with her daughter Ellie because Ellie was participating in a singing competition. Anyway, Rosie's just released her latest book, a devotion. It's entitled "My Heart Overflows" and is absolutely amaaaazing! She wrote it when she was younger, and on the mission field. It's a lovely book. Highly recommended.

You know how much I love jokes, right? :) Here's a couple good ones I've come across recently.

• Why did Star Wars episodes 4,5 and 6 come before 1,2 and 3? Because in charge of scheduling, Yoda was.
• A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. ''But why?'' they asked, as they moved off. ''Because,'' he said ''I can't stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.''
• What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta.
• Knock knock.Who's there? Broken pencil. Broken pencil who? Don't worry, it's pointless.
• What's red and bad for your teeth? A brick.
• A waiter comes up to a gentleman in a restaurant and says, "How did you find your steak, sir?" To which the man replied, "I just moved my potato and there it was!"
• What can think the unthinkable? An itheberg.

Okay I better stop there. Enough terrible jokes.

Jana's growing up fast and getting cuter (and more mischievous) by the day. Her hair is now long enough to put into two tiny pigtails... can I just say it's adorable? I was going to take a photo of her and her wee piggytails so I could share it with you.... but I ran out of time. Content yourselves with a few different random cute photos of her instead.


(Oh and yeah, there she is getting into one of the drawers. Did I mention she's mischievous?)

I labeled this post 'current events' because not only is it talking about my current life events, I wanted to briefly mention one of the world's current events.

One of the big topics out right now is euthanasia. Obviously it's a massive topic, and a big issue! I know how I feel about it, and I'm sure you have a stance on it, whether it's the same as mine or not. A friend shared this article on facebook which is how it came to my attention. It's excellent, and I thought I'd share it with you. It's a thought provoking and well thought out article. Worth a read.

This isn't exactly current as such, because my relationships post was put out over a month ago (!) but since there was such a big amount of interest in that post (only one comment, but hundreds of views, and several people contacted me about it), I thought I'd share something that's blessed me recently.

So I wrote a post on relationships. And one of the questions that was asked in that post was what sort of reading material/literature I'd recommend. I recommended the Duggar book, if you're interested in that feel free to go check out the post. But anyway there's this blog called A Lovely Calling. I found it through a friend's random blog post, actually. And it's not specifically about relationships. A lot of the posts are relationship oriented, but there's a lot of really worthwhile material on there. I recommend checking out their 'most popular posts' page. It's all about, as they say, "The whole package is embracing God’s lovely calling for your life. As a woman we should pursue biblical femininity with all passion and put our whole hearts into discovering what God wants us to do in our brief time on this earth." (Oh, and yeah, it's written primarily for young ladies, too.) I highly recommend it. A lovely blog and helpful if you're interested in relationships/living for Jesus in this day and age/virtuous womanhood/Biblical homemaking/whatever.

Recently, God's been laying on my heart the issue of contentment. The idea of being content no matter what your situation looks like. Being content no matter whether things happen that you agree with or not.

I'm struggling with being content at the moment. Things happen that make me go, "grrrrrrr!" and I sometimes just wish life was back to how it used to be a few months ago. But the Lord is ever gracious and loving and is teaching me how to be content.... in everything. To be thankful despite my circumstances. Because I should be thankful. I've been blessed far, far more than I deserve! I have been lavished with blessings and my life is certainly not something to grumble about. :) The Lord is showing me how a thankful spirit leads to contentment and joy. Because if we focus on what we're grateful for in our lives rather than what we we're not grateful for, we become thankful, joyful, realise how blessed we are, and discover contentment. The secret is realising how blessed we are. It's choosing to focus on the blessings and not the I-wish-this-hadn't-happened-to-me's.

Goodness, I do tend to ramble on a bit, don't I!?!

I'd better stop now before I bore you too much... lol :)
How's life been for you? Crazy or quiet? Been reading anything interesting? Heard any good jokes?

A + A // Toothpaste In My Hair

Awkward:
- When you strategically position all your hair over your shoulders so you can brush your teeth, then after about four seconds it flops back over to your front again. And gets toothpaste all over it.
- Trying to hastily decide if the urge to hiccup or cough is more desperate, so you pick one, only, it was the wrong choice, so you end up doing both at once.
- Managing to smash the family's food processor. Good one, Bonnie.
- Trying to convince yourself that you don't desperately need the chocolate sitting tantalisingly in your drawer.
- Snapping open a glow stick and having it burst and squirt straight into your eye. Definitely not the cleverest thing I've ever done. Rather painful too, I might add.
- Being pushed out of your comfort zone. I know, it's good for me, and I'm very glad I got pushed out of my comfort zone, but that doesn't mean it's particularly comfortable at the time.
- Becoming well known in your family for saying entertaining things at the dinner table when you're sick.
- Pouring out the tea while on morning tea duty after Church. And running out of tea. So you make a very un-dignified rush to the cupboard, locate more teabags and fill the pot up with boiling water in front of your queue of people who are waiting for hot drinks.


Awesome:
- Hot water bottles. 'Nuff said.
- Looking through old family photo albums. We were so cute when we were little... :)
- A quiet evening with a hot cup of lemon and honey, a great book, a lazy boy chair (that one of the other siblings hasn't bagged) and a cute dog asleep next to you = a happy Bonnie!

- Having absolutely amazing friends who encourage you and stick with you no matter what. 

- Coming home from camp and getting sick with a nasty flu the day after. No really, it was truly awesome, because I'm forever grateful I didn't get sick on camp! 

- Watching a movie that isn't the sort of movie you'd normally watch, because your friends convinced you to watch it (don't worry, it wasn't against any of our boundaries or anything) and being pleasantly surprised by how much you enjoyed it.

- Philippians 4:24

- Getting lots of useful practice writing poems. (And when I say lots, I mean absolutely lots.)

- Playing Scrabble and winning by over a hundred points. Scrabble is a good game.

Do you like playing Scrabble?
Do you appreciate it when you get pushed out of your comfort zone?
What's been awkward or awesome about your week? Do share!