A quoi je pense??

didn’t intend to blog today, but having been onto Jon’s flickr and noticed that he pilfered a title from one of my photos, i thought I’d say how very very cheeky!

watched Aeon Flux this evening with a couple of good friends and must say i knew it’d be my kind of film: entertaining. I’m not too fussy. But I was very pleasantly surprised. Good film, twists that i didn’t see coming and very thought provoquing. It’s in the ‘will one day purchase a copy’ category.

Daniel T is a very cute baby and is steadily gettin bigger and better. He fell asleep resting on me this afternoon. My kind of highlight to a day.
He is such a bundle of joy and hope. I think he’s encouragin us all already. Dare to think the impact he’ll have on us later in life when he learns how to verbally and other ways be an encourager on behalf of our King… Rock on kid!!

Some of you will already know something of my heart for my generation and the one that follows, for the young people who will be world leaders and employed workers in 10 years or 20 if they’re not there already…
There is an echo in my heart of the song History Makers by Delirious. There is recollection of the young people of the Black Country being pryed for and sent out into their schools and workplaces as soldiers, harvesters and world changers. There is the knowledge of the way I could just break down and cry when I feel in my Spirit the vision of how awesome and incredible the destinies are of the crew I rub shoulders with, care for, welcome into my home and feed, have fun with and pray for… There is the awareness that whether I realise or not, some of me will rub off onto them and whether they know it or not I am a tool in God’s hands that is instrumental in forging their destiny.
I watch my crew closely (you guys may not always notice that I keep an eye out for ya, but I do…) and I see them grow, walk through rough patches, struggle with one thing or another, lean on trusted friends and learn to lean on Jesus, joke and banter together, lift one another up and encourage one another, challenge each other, surprise everyone, and so very very much more. Each is precious. I could say like gold, but I think finely chiselled crystal is more the way I sense it. Gold is more workable and so on, and it’s a good comparison at times, but more often than not I notice how vulnerable and easy to shater young people can be, so much more like crystal that’d end up in a squillion shards if you drop it.
I want to look after them in the small and confined ways I can. I want to be there for them and lift them up in the way God has appointed. I’m not a counsellor or confidante. That’s a role others have and I don’t begrudge it. I offer space and time, a place that is welcoming and that asks nothing in return. My home has an open door and it’s opening wider and that is simply brilliant. I tremble with joy to know the victories in the life of one and the lessons in the life of the other, the hopes of yet another… It’s enough for me sometimes to know that between these four walls, in my little house, there has been laughter, stupidity, silliness and general merry-making, munching and chatting, relaxing and friendships growing, and even better (Thank you you lot!! You are total stars!!) washing up being done that I never thought of asking for…
Truly, truly, I assure you, this small flock rocks my world!
And I’m just a hostess who said to God: "Please use my home". Can you imagine how they change the lives of their youth leaders and their parents?
A spin off of all this is that I forget sometimes that I’ll be 30 in August, because I simply don’t feel it with such a springy bunch of friends, but I’ve decided that being 30 has to be cool. 29’s amazing and in Jesus’s way of working it appears that regardless of what we go through things only ever get better, so I conclude that 30 will be just that: better than ever before.

I wouldn’t have guessed that half hour before finishin work I’d be sat in the office with a colleague and an agency staff and been talkin about God, my Jesus, things theological and how all that affects our lives!
I’d chatted with my colleague earlier about our NVQ and work and life. She said she felt burdened, heavy. It had come on after talkin about our coursework. So later on when the agency guy who arrived for the night shift turned out to be a Christian she pointed this out and lo and behold, 10 minutes later we were Church. Now she’s not a Christian, tho as she says she’s a magnet and is surrounded. We’ve talked about faith before and as she was brought up in a pentecostal background it’s usually good chats.
Anyhow, we talked, then I prayed for her re: stuff she needs insight about… And well, watch this space.
My God is a great big God!!
Voila!
Time for bed now
good night all
xxx

Well, wasn’t planning on checkin in today, but thought I’d say a few things.

Some dear friends joined me this evenin and we did very little ended up going to asda and gettin milk and lemon and made wAAAffles. They’ve just left.

Just before that I chatted with some more dear friends on phone and on net. Down the road, other end of the country or overseas… How awesome is technology!! I heard of God’s amaginz goodness near and far and am amazed and brimming full of thanks and praise.

Back at work this mornin I had the great surprise to find nothin changed while I was away. Unheard of, truly, in a place when enough can happen in a day to make feel like a week or 2… You’d think a week’d be more like a month, but not this time. I’m not complaining. So I stayed in and read and answered the phone while the guys went out shopping for accessories for the newly decorated bedrooms and when they got back we unpacked and arranged some treats for the young people we look after and had a laugh in the process. I need ask for no more!

1 Peter 2 and 3… I like that man’s talk. I can’t remember all the words that have meant lots to me but these still stand out:
"It means turning to God with a clear conscience because Jesus Christ was raised from death" All in all, I think that could say enough, but I can’t help myself…
It is beyond amazing. ‘because’
What comfort! ‘because’
What a challenge. ‘It means turning to God’
What a requirement! ‘It means turning to God with a clear conscience’
What a priviledge! ‘turning to God’
What a joy! ‘turning to God’
What a marvel! ‘with a clear conscience’
What Joy! ‘turning to God with a clear conscience’
What a security! ‘because Jesus Christ was raised’
What a wonder! ‘Jesus Christ was raised from death’
What a miracle! ‘raised from death’

My soul sings, my Saviour God to thee, How great thou art, How great thou art…

I wish I didn’t lose sight of Him the way I do. I struggle to keep focused for moments let alone hours or the day just gone or to come…
That I would be so dazzled by Jesus that no other light would ever compare!
That I would so fear God that I never again know fear!

Sweet Dreams

Oh my oh my it’s cold in this place!!!!!!!
What’ve you lots done to the weather while i was away?

I’ve had a long day travelling back, including plane delayed at take off and again for landing, coach having to go round roadworks in London and random queezy-sicky-fainty felling all day… Nice!! Just to add to the 1 good next bad track record I seem to build when travelling.

Though on the bright side, bearing in my my regular frustration at the fact that RyanAir and especially the St Etienne airport staff never let me get away with excess bagage (had 2 transfer 2 book and a wash bag from suitcase into hand luggage on way out cos case was kilo over!) …. The guy let me through this mornin with 2.4kg excess and didn’t even bother checkin hand luggage!!!! Very refreshing!

I got home to a cold house, have had first proper food in the whole day and found internet not working and had to pester poor bloke to sort it out, and it still didn’t work, and then later on all by itself it did, so here i am, supposedly checkin train times to Swansea.
Martyn informs me that Wood’s got my Delirious ticket for the 7th. Plan is i’d invade Monday eve and travel back Weds for 1400h when i have to be at work. I’d thought of makin a weekend of it but have summat lined up on Monday…

I am sole occupant of the house for a while with my bro still in France. It’s not real yet… I know I’m going to miss him and enjoy it at different times. Empty houses don’t pan out in my understanding. I suppose the fact home was like clapham station when i was young affects that.

Voila… time to check out i think… my mac told me ‘it’s 22hours’ and i didn’t want to believe it. The computer doesn’t lie!! So it must be time for bed.

night night

Tired and Emotional, I’m sure chocolate soup would do just fine as part of a balanced diet though… I only buy organic cocoa and choc and have just purchased a 250g slab of solid unadulterated cocoa paste for a friend of mine whose son is diabetic. So none of that gack at the bottom of the cup or excess sugar etc. Cocoa contains stuff that’s good for girls ( ) and a fair amount of caffeine (shrug) as well as being excellent comfort food when made in to milk chocolate or hot choc drinks, so I hazard a guess that if I made some chocolate soup, with croutons and marshmallows of course, you’d visit regularly and bring your lady wife!!!

I’ve been for a walk down the road with my nephew today, to see the donkeys and horses a few fields away.
We had a great time feeding the donkeys dry grass (that’s all that’s left after the winter) and watching the lady who owns the horses feed them and brush them.
The neighbour’s dog, a short yorkie sized houndlet, about 30cm long if you stretch him, followed us down there. When the lady was dishing out dried bread to the horses and fed the donkeys some for a treat too, the dog sunk it’s tiny teeth into a hunk of dry baguette about 15 cm long and ran off home with it!!! The cheek of it! I don’t think it even likes bread.
Tristan laughed lots throughout out and practiced donkey breighing, said "chal" instead of "cheval" and the like as any 2year old might. Then we came home.

Read 1 Peter 2 lots of thoughts but shan’t gass about them today.

I’ve been doing sudokus again. Guy (that’s my bro) gave me a book of them in november and i got quite addicted but then lent a mate the booklet and it’s been gone 2 months. I bought another book at the airport and it’s got big sudoku grids that go up to 12 and then bigger ones that have 0 to 9 and A to F in each block/line. I’ve been doing one of that last type for the past 3 days on and off… It’s hard! It’s driving me potty. If any of you have tips… welcome!

Oh, I’m going to try something. I’ve been on websites and wanted to share them. I’ve not done links before, so time to have a go… http://www.clayhillmusic.com/ was one of them. Now I understand that I can somehow write the name Clayhill and give it the link. How do I do that?? Feel free to tell me, so that if I can’t figure it out myself i’ll have help.

ttfn
xxx
Mm

ol, it’s day 4 but i tought i’d confuse the issue cos it’s more fun that way.

Saturday evening a 1 of Claire’s best friends came to vist. 1st time I met her & I’m really glad. I knew B’d be lovely as Claire’s very selective & her close friends r marvellous good people. We had a brill evening celebrating birthdays & went to bed very late after chatting for ages.

Yesterday was chilled. Jef & Claire vanished to the workshop for hour or so & reappeared brandishing a brand new chair they’d just made. It’s 1 of those Africa style chairs & looks like an X if viewed sideways. It’s basically 2 well cut planks of wood, the back-rest plank with a hole & the seat plank with a T bar which slots into that hole. And VOILA! a chair, which Tristan immediately tried out & adopted. Today Jaf’s taken it 2 work 2 sand & polish. I hope I sound adequately impressed.

Mum left 8ish this morning to go back to Bayonne, a good 7 hour drive without the breaks, taking Guy with her. I knew he’d go the moment I booked our tickets over here. He doesn’t have a return flight… I guess he’ll b back up here sometime & will eventually find his way back 2 Walsall. Your guess is as good as mine.

Today, Claire, Tristan & I have been pulling faces at my phone camera and chattin & chillin. Oh & we’v been speakin English 2 Tristan, who of course doesn’t answer much apart from French but seems 2 enjoy it as a game.

No sign of dead birds falling from the sky so far! Pray that stays so.

Oh and the stormy wind has stopped, so outside has gone quiet and still again.

ok ok… it chocolate & cuppasoups separately, the chocolate being in bars for chomping merrily, though I’m sure I could arrange making chocolate soup (basically hot chocolate with a little cream or something nice to thicken it) & croutons (sweet not savoury) & of course the odd marshmallow bcause they are so very yummy melted in hot choc.
Chilled all day. Slept late actually. I totted up 10h solid sleep! Only downside was the truly weird dream i had & the fact it’s stayed with me all day. I wonder if it means anythin but I’m no sure i want to know as it was tad traumatising in bits.
Mum’s spent most of today sewing it seems & has mended a pair of trousers per person in the house, which is great in my books cos I now own a pair of beautiful tartan pantalons. Well smart.
We nearly went to Ikea today, but saturdays in ikea r bad wherever you r in Europe.

I read 1 Peter 1 today.
I find frustrating the fact that the non-informed so ofte give the word holy wrong & pointless connotations which confuse them. I mean, of course there’d b aggro if God were removed from our world & wanted nothing to do with the people upon it, let alone the scum amongst the people (whether self-appointed or designated).
For 1 He’d have steered well clear of me & every1 I know, most of whom r so lovely & decent.
Next He’d not have reached out to any of the needy drug, alcohol, crime or other addicts or any of the broken & damaged people who would have sunk without His touch…
To see what God means by holy we need to look at Jesus & it doesn’t take much to realise that holy means set apart to b involved at grass roots in the good, bad & ugly moments of 1 another’s lives…
Jesus was in & out of every1’s life who cared to stop & listen, to let Him touch them, heal them & make them whole. Occasionally they were well to do, often not.
(At least that’s what it looks like when we read the Bible, and i wonder if there may have been more unmentioned ‘nice’ people than we think. No matter…)
Holy went up to the leppers, the beggars, the prostitutes, the adulterers, the robbers, the liars and even the lazy do-nothings.
Holy wept and laughed with a motley crew that included rough (& probably uncouth & swearing) fishermen.
Holy reached out to me & is still cleamin me up inside to b better at puttin out my hand to others and liftin them up whether they fall or r flying.
Holy died a criminal’s death instead of 1 criminal so that all of us can go free, & be holy too.
Holy rocks my world and I would b nothin if not for what Jesus does in me to make me more holy & less mucky.

I’ll b quiet now.
Love
xxx

Salut les Rosbeefs!!!

Well here I am in France, shattered but good, at my sister Claire’s, once more battling to get used to the fact that the a & q have been swapped, the m migrated & the whole of the numer lines which would be 1 to 0 give me this: &é"’(§è!çà
Oh yay!!! Welcome to the azerty keyboard & the world of lost punctuation & letters…
The sun rose this morning as we took off & Guy’s got a pile of photos of the sky & clouds from the journey which hopefully 1 day I can retrieve from his O2 X3 onto my mac… If any1 has tips, do please share!
My nephew is more cute than ever & I am totally smitten. I’m sure he’s the bestest kid alive! He was 2 yesterday & is already being funny & cheeky professionally. Claire & Joffrey have their work cut out.
I don’t miss work but I miss my crew! At a lose end inside. I belong more than I ever have & it feels kind of odd but so very good. Yet I’m home, & amazed at the work they’ve done on the house over the past 9 months (oh goodness, no way it should be that long!!) & how great it looks. How different but wonderful. It’s not the house I grew up in any more… It’s not even called Bag-End any more (great sadness & mourning on that day;) but well…)
I went to the organic supermarket in St Etienne today. It’s organic heaven for choice and I got essential: chocolate, cuppasoups and biscuits. I’ve also bought seeds. The plan is to get busy and grow some of my own veg… tomatoes, letuce & courgettes and a few others. We’ll see.
Wow, I am tired… Jon & Hannah were marvellous & dropped my bro & I at coach station last night, coach left 00:30 & was too hot so I slowly cooked & barely slept.
à bientot!!

I feel like ti’s all I’ve done all day. 4 hours in ‘class’ with colleagues from my work and other homes and then a full shift at work with, what was it? oh yes… ONE teenager.
All in all that is all I’ve done all day. Writing and tracking PCs.
I’ll be doing it in my sleep too.

Nessa, I’m glad you think I sound like me. I know I do. But it’s cool to hear so.

OOOH! I go to France in little more than 24h.
Tomorrow I work an early again, starting 0730, then by that time on Friday, the plane will be taxi-ing, or even taking off!!
Wehey!!!!!!

My nephew Tristan is 2 tomorrow. This weekend, at my sister’s, we party.
Tristan, age 2, Joffrey (his dad) age 27, Maman (my mama!) age… oooh that’s be telling!

Brilliant stuff. It’ll be nice since I have my brother travelling over with me on the way out. He has no return ticket though, which is standard procedure. The man’s free. I’m a little jealous.
I’ll be back Thursday week. Not bad really since I’m not actually taking a single day off from work. Not this week. Not next week. Part-timers hey!

Hmmm. Tell you what though, you Swansea lot… you’ll have to tell me who is who cos some of you I know or have figured out and then others, well, you’re just way too anonymous!!!
Or maybe one of you just send me a comprehensive list??

My tea was very yummy yesterday.
Today, at work, we had chicken fajitas.
No desert tho…. Ah well, can’t win them all!

A bientot!
Dominique