Pay It Forward...the noo!

Having read Ann and Richard's holiday shinnanigans ( see side panel for links) I feel a fraud when I think of what made me cry while we were away.

Bonnie Scotland was less than bonnie when we arrived at Glen Nevis Camping and Caravan Park - it had been raining solidily for 3 weeks and the pitch we had been given was boggy in places. Neighbours advised us of the best place in the quicksand to pitch and soon we were gazing proudly at our very brightly coloured trailer tent - looking slightly out of place in amongst the muted greens and blues of our neighbours, but we had arrived. However, day one was not yet over and already I had half a black bag of washing..and it was still raining. In fact it hardly stopped for the next 24 hours and by the time we were making our way out for day 2 I had a full bag of washing, had argued with Thomas ( a misunderstanding, but horrible none the less) and then I began to cry.

The ground keepers at the site agreed that we were in an awful position and said they would return in the afternoon and help us move to a more suitable pitch, so off we went to explore Fort William in the rain.

The groundsmen could not have been more helpful, but here's where the Pay It Forward starts. A family were watching the goings on and the dad ( Andrew) came over and asked if the kids wanted to hang out in their tent with his kids. All my Safe and Sound antennae were twanging like mad, but the kids were getting soaked and we could see them all the time so off they went. It's kind of different when you go camping - everyone really mucks in.

That wasn't all - he then came over to help, plyed us with coffee, invited Joe in to watch a dvd on their PSP and helped some more. Needless to say we remained friends for the rest of the week.

Later, through the rain, the sun came out and what was plastered over the hills behind the site - a rainbow, we could even see the end of it!

Then, on the Monday a guy arrived on site with three children and was having a nightmare putting up his tent.I felt bad just sitting and watching him, but Keith and Joe had gone off for a bike ride,and knowing my tent putting up skills are pretty lame went to offer them anyway. He declined, so I offered to make him a drink, which he also declined, but I had payed it forward and set the tone for what was to become another great friendship for the duration.

HowALL the kids ended up in our tent most evenings eludes me somewhat, but it was great.

Scotland is a land born out of conflict. It's very existance is down to some rather violent volcanic eruptions and sliding together of fault lines pushing up random mountains ranges, with glens and lochs filled with melt water from the ice age! Fighting for political independance, the Scots fiercely mark out that they are Scottish in anyway that they can: The National Trust, SCOTLAND; The Daily Mail SCOTLAND in fact any daily paper SCOTLAND.

The Highlands are littered with Battle Sites, we visited Culloden and were embarrased to be on the side of the percieved baddies. We drove through Glenshiels -site of another Jacobite uprising. We read of the Clan Wars and I could see how people would be prepared to die for a patch of the beautiful if unforgiving land.

But we also visited what has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world - Loch Sheil at Glenfinnan. Historically important as it is said that Bonnie Prince Charlie landed there from France to raise his fathers standard and begin the Jacobite Uprising, and it also has the viaduct used in the filming of Harry Potter and Chamber of Secrets but all that aside, stunning anyway.

While we were there we must have taken about 20 photos and looking at them the sky is different on each one, the shadows on the mountains are different and ripples on the loch are different and we were only there about half an hour.

Was this Loch and the surrounding hills the result of some random clashing of tectonic plates or did God think long and hard about placing this hill here and that rock there and know that when the sun shines on it from any angle it could, if you were in the right frame of mind, break your heart?

I don't know, but I do know that I was reminded that day that God NEVER changes, no matter how much the landscape appears to and wondered how someone so constant could create a world so amazingly diverse, so awesomly beautiful...yes and sometimes so randomly ugly; why slugs, I just don't get it?

We returned to Glenfinnan later that week for their Highland Games, the sky was grey, the rain fell in buckets, but still folks in kilts tossed cabers, swung hammers, danced the Highland Fling and piped their hearts out and there is nothing quite a stirring as the drone and skirl of the bagpipe on the banks of a Loch. I cried again.

We also visited Fingal's Cave on the Island of Staffa, just off Mull. Another jaw dropper, but be warned, there are no loos on Staffa, you can just about hold on to the Island as you creep around on million year old basalt paving slabs!

The only mountains I have now and ones made out of clothes to be ironed - ho hum, home sweet home.

These are TWO of ....

Today I had the offer of a pot of Green and Blacks Chocolate Ice Cream , which I didn't turn down, and OH MY WORD it was truely divine.

Also, I have rediscovered Diva by Annie Lennox. A seriously timeless album, many of the tunes evoking memories of those early heady days after Joe was born and the world was good, or at least more peaceful that it seems to be these days.

If music can be delicious, then this collection of tunes totally IS!

'Precious Little Angel', 'Walking on Broken Glass' and the uplifing, if oddly disturbing 'COLD'.

Chocolate and music, could there be a better combination, do you think?

( Tom and Jerry is NOT allowed!)

Invisible or Transparent.

This snappy title has been rolling around in my head for a while when our meetings were about Faith. AM Unbelief and PM Exposure.

My morning thought was about a quote which suggested something along the lines of - the more doubts we have, the deeper our faith is, the less we doubt the shallower our faith is. I was distracted by that for a moment.I get the concept, but was prompted to to think about friends who have the gift of faith and just don't doubt for a moment. Some of them have pretty deep faith. I guess there is always an exception.

Following this up with a chat with one or two people I was challenged to consider that faith, or the appearance of it could sometimes be considered as a kind of lacking of spiritual responsibility. Does that way we attribute various things - inspiration, opportunities etc to God equate to us shirking some kind of responsibilty towards those 'things'

OR maybe it's easier to believe than doubt, because doubting means thinking and thinking means looking inside ourselves, dregging up stuff that just isn't pretty. Thinking means finding the time to explore the thoughts and sometimes time to do that is hard to come by. Thinking and doubting also means spending quality time with God....um...!

Does than mean that belief is the easy option then?- did the father of the possessed boy ( Mark 9 v 24))say 'Help my unbelief ' because he wanted an easier life? Did he somehow think it would be the right thing to say to make Jesus more likely to heal his son, particularly as Jesus has just seemed to have dispaired of the unbelief of the 'generation' ( v 19)? How different was his life and how much deeper was his faith after he witnesed a miracle...and would it be easier to believe after seeing something incredible like that.

Just musings you understand.

However the evening meeting prompted the blog title, as we were thinking about having our faith/motivation/everything exposed before God, to be totally transparent.

I have to admit to sometimes feeling like a complete fraud. I feel totally transparent and exposed and assume that everyone else knows more than I do, has more experience than me, is better qualified ( NOT hard!) and can really see me for what I am. Now it might just be my hormones that cause this occasional paranoia and maybe it's God's way , if He works like this, of keeping me humble, but it's jolly uncomfortable

I once had a friend who did really well in her her job and got promoted really fast and we all congratulated her. 'How did you manage in the interview?' we asked. Her response I BLUFFED!!

Sometimes I feel like I'm bluffing!

Of course, there is the 'transparent' that means we are totally honest, our motives are pure and we have left a trail of accountability for all to see. The problem here is that even if WE think we are like that, we will always be judged by other people's standards and motives will always be questioned.

Sorry this is a bit of a gloomy blog, and I haven't been 'misunderstood' lately, that I'm aware of, to promp this angst, it's just how I feel.

Then I read Cedric's blog about the beauitiful and transparent building that is IHQ ( The Salvation Army's International Headquarters)

A building that can be seen into and out of but how much impact does what goes on there have on the people that walk past it everyday? Might it just as well be INVISIBLE?

Might I just as well be invisible? Might you?

There might be a part two to this at some point as this still feels unfinished and illusive, but I was fed up of it being in my draft box!

For Whom the Bells Toll!

Summer Holidays wouldn't be complete without ice cream vans plying their trade and on the whole, I'm partial to a Mr Whippy, but on my terms!

So when the jingly bells echo down our road at the most inconvenient time - just before tea time, during tea time or when I have no money to hand out, it stikes fear into my heart.

It's not really the Ice Cream Man's fault, it's just that saying 'Not Today' to the children isn't as easy as just saying no because alongside the - IT'S NOT FAIR...YOU PROMISED ( I NEVER promise, I know what I'm like!) my children have this uncanny nack of being able to recite every time when I have done them out of an ice cream.

This is despite the fact that we have some really yummy cartons of the stuff in the freezer which they can have whenever they like - within reason of course, unless thay have lain a MASSIVE guilt trip on me about some other neglectful misdemenour.

The thing is, I like to be able to choose when I buy ice cream , in the same way that I like to choose what company to buy my gas and electricity, home insurance, car insurance, Accident Protection Insurance from.

That's all folks!

Vaaay - caaay - shun!!!

So, the School Holidays are upon us, or me rather, and at this moment in time, I feel the weight of them bearing down on me.


I really messed in my School Holiday Planning this year, writing in my diary that the Easter ones finished earlier that they actually did and that the Summer ones started later that they actually do. According to me, my kids don't break up 'til next Friday.


Anyway, Keith and I have done some amazing team work planning which means that our kids don't have to go and assist the roofers at school for the next week, which is good because it's probably against the law anyway and I really can't see what any learning outcomes might be...actually there's possibly loads to be honest but....nah!


I guess for any working mum that isn't a teacher and actually for working mums who are teachers (as they still have to work in the holidays) as the children run out of school full of plans for bike rides and swimming, all day long footy tournaments and picnics, our hearts sink as we (I) realise that I'm going to have to still say no sometimes, so what makes the holidays different to any other day?

Stop snivelling and pull yourself together - they'll survive!

Why?


I will over compensate, I guess, and give them some of the most fun filled, adventure packed moments they have ever shaken a stick at and do you know what?

Apart from getting a whole bunch of fulfilment from shaking a stick,they will still want to be in front of the tele in time for High School Musical 2 every time it is shown.

Mr Disney, I salute you!

http://tv.disney.go.com/disneychannel/originalmovies/highschoolmusical2/

Disney Channel from Friday 17th August!!

Very Interesting.

To save you having to do this experiment at home, you should know that a Toffee Hoops Crunch Corner, when droppped from about 70 cms ( roughly half the height of a Hall 8 year old - small prize for the first person to correctly guess which one!) creates an abstract splatter pattern spreading over an area of about 3 mtrs by 1 mtr.

The toffee hoops highlight the yoghurty splat in a compelling way, suggesting that if you joined the dots the resulting picture would be... well...very interesting.

The vanilla smell lingers for some time afterwards even when you have used Vanish Carpet Stain Remover.

I await your thanks!

You Saw Me Before I Was Born.

Well, I think it's time to share with all the world (!) the amazing and exciting news that my brother and his wife are expecting identical twins. We know what sex they are going to be too, but I'm not gonna blog that!

Tracy is now 24 weeks into this marathon and apart from one blip last week is doing really well. She has to rest now, which is by far and away the toughest part of being pregnant.

The pregnancy has been incredibly fragile and if the babies had not separated when they did, they could have been co-joined ( see diagram c above). They are highly dependant on one another even though they are two separate little things and only one ounce in weight difference - , in fact they only weigh about a pound each anyway - isn't technology amazing?

When our twins were born there was a pound between them, but they are boy and girl so fairly easy to tell apart although some people still got confused in the early days, ' How do you tell them apart when they are in the bath?' 'OOhh umm...you've got me there' and 'Which one is the girl?' 'The one in the dress!' - and no, it wasn't Keith!!

So my brother is trying to get his head round the fact that the Doctor has told him, ' Mr Fuller ( cos that's his name) these babies are so identical that you essentially have one baby.......only twice!' Apparently even their fingerprints could be the same.

Anyway they have had their photos taken quite a few times now and most everybody who's anybody will have seen them before they are born, but what's amazing is that only God will have a specific plan for each baby as an individual.

I am really excited and terrified at the same time! Please, if you do, pray for Jon, Tracy and Libbie and the two little shadows with a flashing sparks of life, that have so much potential.

Thanks

Will keep you posted :)