Pheasant

Took these pictures of a pheasant through our bathroom window - a bit gormless looking but beautiful.

Hail and revision

J managed to stay at school all day Tues and then had a day off yesterday due to teachers being on strike. Had what could be last German tutor session yesterday. His overall mark for his speaking assessments was A* - so pleased for him. His tutor has obviously helped him a lot.

Got an email to say they've got to go in for compulsory English revision sessions when thery're on study leave - how do I break it to him?

Had massive hail storm yesterday. J looked out of window and said 'Hope this turns into snow so school's shut.' 

Lounging around in bed cos I'm tired. P busy sorting out loft in order to turn it into workshop.

Sea-lion liver

Sometimes at night I don't sleep well. I read this article about how foods containing tryptophan help you sleep. Ok. I googled 'foods containing tryptophan'. Top of the list was .... sea-lion liver. Not being sure they'd have it in Waitrose I went for another option - almonds - recommended dose 23 nuts before bedtime. Only problem is 23 almonds before bedtime causes indigestion, so bad it kept me awake nearly all nigt and went on for days until I had to take tablets.

Should have gone for the sea-lion liver.

My mega bath

J seemed a lot brighter this morning and stayed at school all day. When we picked him up he said he had a headache but looked a lot better than he has done of late. Good! Then we went to Costa for a mocha for P, chocolate cooler for J and a decaf flat white for me then on to the optician where both J and I escaped without needing new glasses.

The other thing we did today was look for a bath tap. I've had a problem with our bath for the last 6 years. The thing is that a hot bath is really the only thing that helps my aches and pains (helps them to go away I mean). The other thing is that the bath we hurriedly installed back in 2008 was just too small - too short for my 5ft 7 in height, too narrow and too shallow. It was a bit of an ongoing niggle - would it be extravagant to take it out and get another? Then a few weeks ago P said we could take it out and put it in his dad's old house which we're planning to do up (better get tenants who are small in stature). So we found a bigger one and actually P suggested getting an 'air bath' as well which will help my aching muscles even more - I love you P. Ok so we have this lovely queen size bath in the space where our little bath was and P had idea of cutting a notch in the wooden panel at the end to push the front of the bath in so there'd be a bit more space at the back. This then necessitated getting a tap to go on the wall at the side. We discovered though that apparently wall taps are out of fashion so are a bit tricky to find plus we need ones my arthritic fingers can manage but we have found two possibilities. Won't arrive until sometime next week so just looking longingly at my bath at the moment and having showers instead - which is ok and infinitely better than the caravan.

Yesterday

One of our new friends at church I'll call Melanie. She started bringing her neigbour's au pair to church. She is a really lovely girl from Brazil. She has been part of our church and housegroup for about 6 months but is going back to Brazil on Friday which is so sad. We all went to lunch yesterday to say goodbye although we're taking her to the station on Friday so it wasn't our final farewell.

Another woman at church asked me to pray with her because she's got anxiety issues and other stuff going on. She said she'd used a friend's blood pressure monitor and it said hers was high. I asked if she'd seen her doctor and she said no she wasn't seeing her doctor at this stage as she just needs to change her attitudes and God will heal her. I totally believe in the power of God to heal but sometimes He uses medical means to make us better and if there's something really wrong with us we might need to take drugs for a time. High blood pressure can be really serious, hope I can persuade her to go to the doctor. 

I'm getting this real sense of frustration at the moment because I feel don't know how to pray effectively for people. There are so many people with really complex problems and I don'tknow how to help them.

Humph

J was off sick on Friday but went back in today even though he said he felt awful. Got a call from the school nurse just before lunch saying he wasn't well and looked pale but the year administrator didn't want him to go home as his attendance figures are so poor. I pointed out that all he was missing was PE and we went and got him. Trying to stay calm and keep trusting God. Really want him to get better.

What annoys me is that this is all about attendance figures. Can't it be primarily about his welfare?

When got home there was an email to say school will be closed on Wednesday due to teachers' strike. 

Last few days

Was exhausted after conference but so was everyone else. Was a 'welcomer' again at church, quite enjoying it. Baby Benjamin was there, doing so well but only his parents are allowed to touch him until he gets a bit bigger. For the second part of the meeting (after nappy change) he wore the little yellow and white suit we bought him. I just love babies in yellow, don't know why.

Sunday was a really sunny day, just like summer. Has been a bit cooler since. Fell asleep while watching grand prix with P. J made a pizza for tea as in actually made base from scratch. Very nice. 

J went back to school on Monday although still not all that well. I then started feeling ill as well and spent a lot of Tuesday lounging around. Managed to go to coffee morning on Weds then went to local farm shop cafe for lunch - butterut squash soup and cheese scone - yum.

Today was J's hospital appointment. Spent lot of time in waiting room with babies and toddlers. Doctor was nice and tall and thin like J so he understood some of the issues with rapid growth. He said all J's neurological test ok so headaches not due to brain problems (yay), his tummy was tender so they decided to do blood tests. Had trouble finding a vein and after all the needle-waggling J went white and almost passed out. Otherwise went ok and doctor didn't say any of the 'must have psychological problems cos your mum's in a wheelchair' sort of stuff. When got home there was a letter from school saying attendance dropped to 79% and this could affect his academic performance. Last time I replied to one of these pointing out that the previous week they'd written to congratulate him on his good report the head of year said the computer just automatically generates theses letters. Hmm.

Wow!

Ok this is what happened at the women's conference: at coffee time in the morning they had people available to pray with us and I thought 'Why not?' This woman came over and I told her about all the illness stuff that's been going on with J and she prayed about it. Then she said 'I'm just thinking that Elizabeth is the Queen's name, a royal name and I feel God is saying that you're His daughter, the daughter of the King and you have the authority of Jesus'. Anyway after lunch we divided into groups according to our 'sphere of influence' ie family, business, education etc. While I was sitting there in the 'family' group another woman came and offered to pray for me and she started saying: 'I'm just thinking that Elizabeth is the Queen's name, a royal name and I feel God is saying that you're His daughter, the daughter of the King and you have the authority of Jesus'. Really she did, she said the same words as the other one and I'm sure she couldn't have known. Wow!

Amazing

Went to church women's conference today, very good. Sitting next to J's German tutor. An amazing thing happened but fingers achey so will blog about it tomorrow or Monday.

Still ill

J been off school all week got hospital appointment next week. Really hope will be back on Monday.

Sickness, Spring and a busy weekend

We've had sunshine for four days in a row! Daffodils, crocuses, plum blossom, birds singing and building their nests - could it be the start of Spring?

Bad news is that J has been off school yesterday and today - ill again. The doctor has referred him to hospital for tests to see if there's any reason he keeps getting infections. This isn't making me feel very good but trusting God with my boy. Meanwhile making sure my boy takes his vitamins, eats his fruit and veg, cuts down on sugar and goes for a walk outside every day if he's well enough. Think he'll be back to school tomorrow.

I also am not feeling very good but I had a busy weekend. Saturday night was fish and chips at family house group. Sunday morning was our church meeting at the school. Had to be there 8.30 - 2 whole hours before start. Despite this there were still some teething problems with audio so P says we have to get there at 8.30 again next week. Baby Benjamin's parents were there looking remarkably relaxed and he's doing well, might be home in a couple of weeks. She's asked for her money back for the NCT classes they didn't manage to attend.  It was luxurious being in the school - underfloor heating, comfortable seats, indoor loos -  but also felt a bit strange: looking at everyone in their rows we suddenly looked like a conventional church not a group of people meeting in a hut. I'm now part of the 'welcome team' which means I sit on my scooter grinning manically at everyone as they come in.

In the afternoon we had a dinner with a charity we support.

Good weekend but a bit tiring.

Pancake supper

Went to pancake supper on Tuesday. Becky had asked us to do the quiz as in I wrote most of questions and P stood up and asked them. It was a 'true or false' quiz and anyone getting it wrong was eliminated. I thought the first question was easy in that the answer seemed so obvious that it was obvious that it couldn't be that obvious. It had to be 'just a practice question' as nearly everyone got it wrong.  It went fairly well after that but not sure the man who won really did win, I think he just thought he had cos he didn't really understand what was going on but we were on his table and he shared his chocolates with us. Hope someone else does quiz next year. Good evening though.

And another couple of things

Should mention that yesterday I had my hair cut - drastically. Really short now but with my physical problems I've been finding it hard to wash and dry my hair and hopefully this will be easier.

Oh and can you believe it - J has been unwell again but heroically kept going to school.

Brief update

Had neck x-rayed Monday, still very painful. Had blood test yesterday - for cholesterol. J had second lesson with new piano teacher - went well. I stayed at home having a rest in bed.

Surprise

Last June a couple at our church got married and we went to the wedding (wore bright red jacket!). A really nice couple, in their thirties when they got married and a couple of weeks after returning from honeymoon she kept rushing out of the church service and returning looking a bit green so we all knew and baby was due April 15th. P helped them move into their new house a couple of weeks ago and they'd started decorating the nursery. I was chatting to her on Sunday and she was in a lot of discomfort as the baby was lying sideways and squashing her stomach and lungs. Because of this she'd given up work early and had left on Friday. So, we were all praying that the baby would move into better position. Imagine my surprise when I opened our regular 'church update' email on Monday morning and there was a photo of their baby - little Benjamin - born prematurely at 34 weeks just a couple of hours earlier. He is doing well, out of the high dependency unit now and into a cot in the nursery but will be there another 2 or 3 weeks. A nice thing about facebook is that we can see a photo of him every day. Aaaah.

Treasures of Darkness

Oh and another thing: Saturday was the twentieth anniversary of the day I first started getting really ill with the viral infecton that would lead to me being diagnosed with ME/CFS/fibromyalgia or whatever you like to call it (I think 'ME' stands for 'Messed-up Existence'). I remember the date cos it was Mum's birthday (well sort of birthday - she was born on Feb 29th but it wasn't a leap year in 1994). Actually it would turn out to be her last (unless they have birthdays in heaven).

So 20 years of illness, 20 years of almost constant pain, 20 years of not doing all sorts of things with my life that I'd like tohave been doing and actually on Saturday I did sit down and have a cry. But it's been also a time of adventure - in seeking God for healing I have been on such an amazing journey. I've come to know God as my Father who loves me to bits & won't ever let me down, Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, my Redeemer, my King, my Friend and perhaps most of all my Shepherd who leads me along the path to where He wants me to go and when it all gets too much wraps me in His shepherd cloak and holds me close to His heart.

'And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.' Is 45:3 (KJV)

Update

A brief update of what has been happening apart from rain: P has got a part time job invigilating exams at J's school. J coming to terms with it. J continuing to get a succession of illnesses, had to have German oral exam re-scheduled last week as had tummy bug. Church going very well, making some more friends there, had three of them round to lunch last week and ... wonderfully, we are moving from the function room of a pub which while it's served us very well, is basically a hut, and in winter a cold hut, to a school. This is the direction we feel God is leading us as a church but it will have some side benefits eg lots more space, central heating, indoor loo, a separate room for children's work, some audio and kitchen equipment provided... Bliss.

As for me: tooth has stopped hurting after two lots of horrendous dental treatment in which all the nerves were removed. Have to go back in a couple of months to have it crowned (think we're talking money here). Meanwhile I mustn't crunch on that side. Neck and shoulders have been bad. Three trips to doctor, tried 4 types of drug, x-ray tomorrow. Sigh. One of drugs was diazepam aka valium which can act as a muscle relaxant and helped a bit but turned me into a bad tempered monster and P says if I take it again he moves out. Sigh.

Also had a prayer ministry appointment at Pierrepont, stayed overnight and went on a healing course next day. God is at work in my life. Still praising and trusting Him.

Can't stay on computer too long, it hurts.

Wet!

Ok so that was an incredibly long time uploading a quite boring video. It really has been wet, but while we've had some flooding it's been nowhere near as bad as some parts of the country. Pictures of some of our wet scenes:

The top one is part of our garden aka 'the swamp'.

Rain!

This is what it's done a lot of recently.