Baking stones and other things

Childlessness

Sitting in church on Sunday morning, for the celebration of two precious babies through their baptisms, I was aware of a) so so so many new babies in church and b) people in church who are not able (for all sorts of reasons) to have their own children. 

Having been in that place, I know that sometimes I felt so jealous of those around me looking after their newborns; but at other times I felt overjoyed in the birth of another.  For me it depended partly on the day (and my emotional state!) and partly on my relationship with the new parents (the closer I was to them, the easier it was to be joyful with them).

Anyway, having said all that, I read this blog post this morning on childlessness and the Gospel, about 1 Samuel 1 and how Hannah had to accept that the Lord had closed her womb. Some wise words, concluding with:

He says to us today: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Still Moments

At the start of the new year we often make resolutions... I have just one this year and it is to stop trying (unsuccesfully) to have a 'quiet time' with God every day and instead aim for a 'still moment' in the midst of the busy-ness.  In practice there is probably no difference between the two, but linguistically, a still moment sounds a lot more appealing!  So we shall see if this works.

Especially as I go back to office work for 2.5 days each week; no more being a housewife!

Christmas in 140 Characters

The Natwivity - to follow on Twitter or Facebook..

http://natwivity.com/

 

Christmas Lists

For want of anywhere better to put it, I thought I'd start a Christmas list here - of presents I'd be happy to receive this year - just in case a Secret Santa might be looking :)

• A Mary Berry cake cookbook
• Cycling gloves (in the hope I might get back on my bike sometime!)
• "Death in Paradise" season 1 dvd
• "Sherlock" season 2 dvd
• Time
• Big soup/pasta bowls (for eating out of, not serving bowls)
• A big jigsaw
• A book of inspiring / "how to" sewing ideas
• River Cottage baby & toddler cookbook
• In fact, any River Cottage books..
• A pilates dvd

This may be added to at a later date..

And to any friends on whose Christmas list Joshua appears... please don't!  Well, him or me, I reckon for the next year or few...

My First Carrot

Love Deeply

Yesterday we celebrated with many many people as Janice & Raj got married in Holy Trinity Brussels.  As it is almost exactly four years since Jonathan and I got married there it was a lovely reminder for us of our marriage, not least as Jonathan was asked to do a reading on our behalf (I was nominated to hold the baby ;) – which was more or less the same reading we had at our wedding and from which we took the quote for our invitations: Love Deeply.

It is from Romans 12, the version called the Message and goes like this:

(Verses 1-2 which we included) So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

(Verses 9-21 – used by us and by the Singhs) Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down. Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody.

Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you've got it in you, get along with everybody. Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. "I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of it."

Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he's thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.

Celebrating People

We seem to be the midst of a period of celebrating people around us which is rather special.

It's a reminder of the good things of life and the joy that celebration brings, but as I prayed at Punita and Andrew's wedding, life isn't like that. Life is full of ordinariness and we sometimes forget that in the search for greatness and excitement.

So to those of you (us) in the midst of the mundane, my prayer is that you would know the love of Jesus as you (we) strive to do our best for him in our ordinary life. And to those of you celebrating - we are SO glad to celebrate with you and to enjoy these highlight moments of your lives.

Andrew and Punita - newly married
Alice - newly baptised
Janice and Raj - to be married on Saturday

Rosemary Cake

As requested by a recent taster, the Good Housekeeping recipe for Rosemary Cake.

3 tender rosemary sprigs
175g unsalted butter (I use soy Marg)
175g caster sugar
10ml (2 tsp) vanilla essence
3 large eggs, beaten
225g self-raising White flour
30ml milk (I use soy)

Grease and line a 15cm round tin. Preheat the oven to 180^C.
Finely chop the rosemary leaves and put half in a bowl with the butter and sugar - beat until pale and fluffy.
Gradually beat in the eggs, a little at a time, adding a little flour to prevent curdling. Sift the remainder of the flour into the bowl, add the milk and fold in.
Turn into the prepared tin and level the surface. Bake for 50 minutes to an hour until firm and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
I never do this bit, but this is for a glaze:
Put remaining chopped rosemary in a small saucepan with 2 tbsp water. Heat gently for 2 minutes to infuse; leave to cool.
Sift 225g icing sugar into a bowl and add zest of 1/2 orange and 1 tbsp orange juice. Strain the rosemary juice into the bowl and mix to the consistency of pouring cream, adding a little water if necessary.
Leave the cake to cool for 5 minutes, then run a knife between the cake and the lining paper. Pour the icing over the cake and leave to cool completely before removing the paper.
Decorate the cake with rosemary sprigs to serve.

Collective nouns for people..

With thanks to Frederica Cards

A host of angels

A company of archers

A knot of astrologers

A thought of Barons

A fighting of beggars

A bench of Bishops

A blush of boys

A goring of butchers

A crew of cameramen

A drunkenship of cobblers

A ring of conspirators

A temperance of cooks

A threatening of courtiers (!)

A pack of cubs

An incredibility of cuckolds

A charge of curates

A doctrine of doctors

A confederacy of dunces

A stalk of forresters

A skulk of Friars

A circle of friends

AParty of guests

A herd of harlots

A melody of harpers

An observance of hermits

A multiplying of husbands (!)

A congregation of hypocrites

A sentence of judges

A damning of jurors

A route of Knights

A bevy of ladies

An eloquence of lawyers

A bevy of maidens

A faith of merchants

A diligence of messengers

A devoutness of monks

A side of Morris Dancers

An execution of officers

A laughter of ostlers

A poverty of pipers

A safeguard of porters

A converting of preachers

A state of princes

A chapel of printers

A disguising of tailors

A skulk of thieves

A drove of tourists

A squad of trainees

A collection of trainspotters

A cluster of twitchers

A pool of typists

A prudence of vicars

An army of washerwomen

A nonpatience of wives (huh?)

A commune of workers

A worship of writers

 

What's the collective noun for a group of people all pulling wheely suitcases?

Holidays, no more

Well, there will be more holidays I guess, but no more posts about them for the time being, except to say that we LOVED Portugal.  Not just the lovely weather, but the friendly people and the general helpfulness all around.

Starting with the fact that just about every set of steps anywhere had a matching ramp so making buggy (or wheelchair) access simple, to the desire to help you get where you want to go, to making you as a customer feel welcome, even if it means a bit of extra effort on the staff's part.

Arriving back in Belgium at the *lovely* Charleroi airport (in the rain) to be greeted by a grumpy, unhelpful bus driver just highlighted all the more what a helpful place Portugal is. 

No pictures of helpful Portugese people I'm afraid, but here's the man in his buggy that they were being helpful to :)