Head in the shed...?!!!

Hmmm.....
I really don't know how I'm feeling....my head is in the shed. I find myself doing more stupid things than usual, not a clue what day it is, or if something happened this morning, yesterday or 4  days ago!!!

I keep getting little sentimental 'Mam Moments', sometimes tearful, sometimes pure grateful and love :-)

My Mam had a life well lived, so fruitful, so effective, so giving.....she gave so much of herself to her family & God and managed to reach out to so many others in all kinds of ways.
Her heart was open and her house was open. No one was ever turned away.  There are so many happy memories that I have, so fond, so fresh, so beautiful.

It is because she is all this and more I have every reason in the world to miss her.  I've been missing her so long because of her illness.  Missing her so very much with an ache in my heart, in my being.....and now, well, she is healed in Heaven.
But I truly look forward to seeing you, Mam, with your new mind and new body.

I miss you Mam, so much.

I've been looking at some old pics & appreciating the fantastic childhood you and Dad gave me, gave us.  I've been talking with friends & family and we've been tripping down memory lane :-) I'm looking forward to some more of that on Friday.  But I wish you were gonna be there.....you'd love that too :-) People say I take after you in more ways than looks.  I can see that in some ways I do......and those are all the bits of me that I actually like :-)

See you'll always be with me :-)

But I miss ya.

Now what was I gonna blog about....oh yeah, I'm not sure how I'm feeling..............did I mention my head is in the shed?!!!!!

Thanks for listening!!!!
                                                                                                                                                 

xxx

                                                                     

Cathy Parvin

10.7.38 - 23.11.12

 

 Proverbs 31: 10-31 NCV

" It is hard to find a good wife, because she is worth more than rubies. Her husband trusts her completely. With her, he has everything he needs.  She does him good and not harm for as long as she lives.  She looks for wool and flax and likes to work with her hands.  She is like a trader's ship, bringing food from far away.  She gets up while it is still dark and prepares food for her family and feeds her servant girls.  She inspects a field and buys it. With money she earned, she plants a vineyard.  She does her work with energy, and her arms are strong.  She knows that what she makes is good. Her lamp burns late into the night.  She makes thread with her hands and weaves her own cloth. She welcomes the poor and helps the needy.  She does not worry about her family when it snows, because they all have fine clothes to keep them warm.  She makes coverings for herself; her clothes are made of linen and other expensive material.  Her husband is known at the city meetings, where he makes decisions as one of the leaders of the land.  She makes linen clothes and sells them and provides belts to the merchants.  She is strong and is respected by the people. She looks forward to the future with joy.  She speaks wise words and teaches others to be kind.  She watches over her family and never wastes her time.  Her children speak well of her. Her husband also praises her,  saying, "There are many fine women, but you are better than all of them."  Charm can fool you, and beauty can trick you, but a woman who respects the Lord should be praised.  Give her the reward she has earned; she should be praised in public for what she has done."

'Nuff said  :-) 

Uniquely alike :-)

I'm unique... you're unique. We may have similarities but no two people are exactly the same. The mold was broken when each one of us was made :-) We may have many things in common, the main one being that, whether we believe or not, we share the same creator.

It should come as no surprise then that our creator often tells us the same things, guides us the same way, gives us the same tasks, breathes the same words of encouragement & motivation over us!!! 

It doesn't always  happen but sometimes it does.......and I've discovered that this happens most with people of a similar character to me.....what I term as 'Soul Sisters'.  

I've had periods of no particular closeness with my Soul Sisters yet we still meet up after the silences to discover God leading us a similar way, speaking to us about the same things, using the same analogies, pictures, bible verses, songs etc  and asking (some of) the same things of us, whispering the same words of encouragement along the way.

  

But we respond (or not!) in our own unique way.....maybe alike but not (often) exactly.  There is nothing wrong with this. People of the same ilk tend to be good at & enjoy the same types of things.  It's these things that we have in common that lead us to pass on from being acquaintances to friends.   

I'd like to draw encouragement from such times as these, that I'm not as on my own on my journey, as I sometimes feel, that others do understand more than I realise :-) That some of the things that are being asked of me may sound strange, trivial, impossible etc..... but hey, I'm not the only one being directed that way so let's be strange, do the trivial... & conquer the impossible together!!!

Let's support one another to be the best we can in all that we are, and to reach the full potential of who we were created to be :-)

Catch 22

I currently find myself in a catch 22......

I stopped smoking at the beginning of July (with the help of champix).  Already overweight this problem has been heightened with the slowing down of my metabolism.  My eating habits worsened the first week or two but are back to normal now.  So a bit of dieting and exercise are in order.
However I just CANNOT get into a dieting mindset. Probably because I know that it's not dieting alone that is gonna solve this problem - it never is!!! I need to exercise.  I need something that is cheap (preferably free) close by and something I can do with my daughter.  So we tried jogging together in the local park and I made my back problem worse for my effort  :-s  herein lies my catch 22 - my weight is worsening my back problem and my back problem is stopping me from exercising!!!!

What I need to do is diet anyway, get on top of my physio exercises and hope and pray that that will make enough difference to allow me to exercise properly again.  Swimming would be good but I'd need a babysitter & someone to go with regularly (yes I'm a coward in a costume!!) and I have neither!!!  Pilates is also recommended but with an instructor who can tell me which exercises to avoid.  Still, both are things for me to think about  :-)

Today, then,  saw the return of my physio exercising and a new determined attitude to keep positive and to keep on trying. The important thing is that I keep looking forward and don't give up hope. I could look back to my past where the smoking kept my metabolism (and heart rate) high PLUS it curbed my appetite and was a welcome replacement for a bar of chocolate or a packet of crisps.  But THAT isn't really the answer is it?!!

So yeah, I aim to keep positive, hopeful and forward thinking - in this and in another thing or two....watch this space  ;-) 

 "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Romans 15:13

Hmmmmm......

Tomorrow it will be 6 years since I, along with 4 other girls, reaffirmed my baptism vows.  Nancy had the idea to go over the beach after church just to think on that for a while.  So three of us went over.

Such a lot has happened since then in my life.  I've become a single parent; turned 40; changed jobs; Mam & Dad's health has really deteriorated; I've completed a Living Theology Today course; been really involved in the community church where I worshipped; moved to another church for a while (and did a lot of learning & attitude changing while there); said adieu to some very dear friends who've left the country; and am now getting ready to move back to the church where my walk with God all started - to where I was baptised as a child, made my commitment to Christ, got confirmed there, grew up there, got married there, served there as Sunday school teacher and youth worker as well as singing in the choir there as a child.  I'm not going to be 'Cathy's daughter' or 'Glenn's wife'. I'm going to be me. I'm going to be Lynda.

Sadly we lost one of our little quintet that got dunked in the surprisingly warm North Sea that day.  Lisa passed away earlier this year. Nancy, Steph & I thought about her as we stood on the beach this afternoon.  They too have seen many changes over the last 6 years, as has Pam, who couldn't make it today.

Life is always changing, moving on, leaving things behind & embracing new.......we can choose to fight against it or go with the flow.  I, for one, intend to dance wherever my Makers melody takes me...........  :-)

new day, new term, new year!!!

Today had been dreaded for a while, for more than one reason - my daughter was starting secondary school and my return to work after the hols was to a place I'd rather not be;  there were things I needed to sort with my parents later in the day that weren't going to be easy and Pog had asked for a treaty tea to celebrate her new start (this meant takeaway and I was skint barring a couple of pound).....but hey ho I took it all in my stride as I always do and was rewarded with a pleasant surprise or two......


After following our children in my friends car to make sure they arrived at their new school safely (not that we're paranoid parents you understand) they rumbled us when they took a wrong turning and we went looking for them; knowing our 2 this could have turned out badly with ensuing strops and sulks but they found it highly amusing and weren't buying for one moment that Michelle was just taking me the long way to work 'cos she needed to chat to me.......smiles all round thankfully :-)

The next pleasant surprise was arriving at work to find that I'm not working exactly where I thought I was going to be.......this, along with my daughter's school change, has been the one of the hot topics on my prayer list all all summer, for me to have peace, patience.......... and mercy!!!!

Things weren't quite as smooth when I arrived at my parents however.............when Social Services arrived to see how things were going Dad disappeared out the back gate under the pretense of hanging the washing; it wasn't until Claire wanted a word before she left that we discovered what he'd done!!!! At least he took today's walk while Mam wasn't alone in the house so no harm done really :-s  Next job: The paperwork I'd come to help him find surfaced within 5 minutes of our 'search' beginning; we managed to unexpectedly solve a couple of other minor problems and he's finally agreed to a helpful suggestion his daughters have been cajoling him with for the past week or two :-) result!!!

The only hurdle now was to provide Pog with her celebratory tea!!!

On arriving home I found £20 had been put through my door......an anonymous love gift or the wrong house?!!!! who knows.......but if anyone out there DOES know...thanks very much :-)

There is a God, and He is Good.............keep the faith ;-)