Still waiting

Plan A: gets into firm choice uni. Yay.

Plan B: gets into insurance choice uni. Still yay, it's a good place.

Plan C: he won't talk about it.

So Thursday could either go very well  or...

Waiting

This may seem like a normal Tuesday but it's not.

This is the Tuesday two days before the exam results.

I didn't know that waiting for your child's results can feel as bad as waiting for your own.

And the newspaper article saying this year's A-level results will be the unfairest yet really helps.

Knee update

Meanwhile the knee situation has been worsening - sharp stabs of pain and hardly able to bend it. Have heard nothing from hospital despite consultant saying he'd try to bring operation forward. Trouble is all the hard work I did in the physio gym is now being undone. All I can do is straight leg raises to strengthen my quads.

Yesterday I tried phoning the hospital. I tried two different secretaries and the waiting list manager but just got through to answephones. The waiting list manager's message was 'this phone will not be answered in the foreseeable future'. This, together with the Telegraph article about the NHS - waiting lists at worst ever - kind of made me feel that there isn't all that much hope of my op happening any sooner.

Trusting God. He'll get me through this and somehow it will be ok.

Staying away from the cocoa bean

So why is it that for 40 days I'm going without this:

Because it seems that whenever I'm doing well with cutting down on sugar/ losing weight someone gives us some delicious chocolate and I end up eating it. The other night I had a sort of  'I can't stop eating chocolate' meltdown and then I had a thought:

'I can stop eating it. My life isn't controlled by chocolate, it's controlled by Jesus.'

Then I remembered the course we're doing in our housegroup - the Grace Course by Freedom in Christ Ministries.  This includes a 40 day 'Stronghold Buster' in which for 40 days you reject whatever lies are holding you into wrong behaviour and replace them with truth. So I reject the lie that I can't give up chocolate and I declare that I am more than a conqueror (paraphrase of Romans 8:39). And I thought while I'm doing that I won't eat any of the cocoa bean stuff.

For 40 days.

None of the yummy bars of chocolate Melanie gave us. Nor any of the' Hotel Chocolat Tasting Club' box Mavis gave us. No chocolate biscuits or pudding or cake. No Magnums (or should that be Magna?), not even a mint one, or any form of chocolate ice-cream. No hot chocolate. 

Can I do it? Yes I can.

Three days in.

Doing ok.

Update

So here I am 10 days later having:


been to Faith Camp for a day - awesome

been to Ellel Pierrepont for a one day course - again awesome

been for another day out

had a bit of a situation with trousers that wouldn't do up - must have shrunk

been to church picnic

decided to give up chocolate for 40 days - can I really do this - yes

started making some new trousers (having not made an item of clothing since I made maternity clothes 19 years ago)

decluttered and sorted loads of paperwork, organised greetings cards and stationery into folders  

been out this morning to church ladies' breakfast at local Wetherspoons - 'Eggs Royale' yum

been waking up each mornng acutely aware of how longit is until A-level Results Day

Yummy food and beginning to wonder if...

Last night our friend Melanie came round for dinner. For once I didn't totally exhaust myself tidying up. This was because a) since doing so much decluttering we are starting from a better base and b) I decided to be sensible, delegated a lot of it and lay down and had a rest after lunch before cleaning the bathroom and preparing the table.

P and J between them produced Chicken with Apricots - a Madhur Jaffrey recipe:

 - and a chocolate and cherry dessert which was a River Cafe recipe. Both totally delicious and we had a lovely evening together. Such a shame she is soon going back to America but she is coming back for a visit next year and has already booked another meal with us. 
  I've always wanted to go to America and a hint of plan is beginning to form...

Another day out

I have this new resolution to stop pushing my body too hard, It's a difficult balance because I need to try and do as much activity as I can manage without overdoing it but there is a point when I go into 'driven' mode and know I'm doing too much it and is it reasonable to expect my body to heal if I'm doing that? It is hard though when this means stopping doing something half way through and asking othe rpeople to do things for me when I feel I can do them better etc etc

Anyway we went out today, had a nice 'walk' along the banks of an estuary, saw a swan family, went into a cafe where they hadn't got the drinks any of us wanted and P said we'd leave (I'd have just stayed and drunk what they had got but he was probably right - why spend money on what you don't want?) then we found a better cafe and had a light lunch - smoked haddock pate was delicious but can still taste it. Then P went for a little walk and J and I stayed in car and I had a little sleep then P suggested ice-cream and I had an Almond Magnum which was nice but then I regretted it then we went round an interesting museum then we 'walked' round a bit more of the estuary and it was lovely and sunny.