Eco Country Dream

Pay It Forward.........

If you are wondering what this is all about and to join the fun go and check over to seem what Pay It Forward is all about at Forward To The Past

See you over there :)

Saturday - Garden Party

Yesterday family & friends celebrated my Sister's 60th Birthday. The weather was just glorious, company was great and excellent food (including curries - yum).

My sister and her husband have a stunning garden which was where the party was held.  There are so many different aspects to the garden and so many wonderful beautiful plants, flowers and wild life. Up until a week or two ago, there was a robin's nest in one of the sheds in the garden. Five baby robins plus it's parents - none of us wanted to take photos in case this scared/disturbed these tiny birds. We really hope all five babies survive, what the survival rate is of tiny birds surviving, we don't know but we have a feeling that this may not be very high :(.

It was lovely to catch up with family again, some of whom Andrew & I have not seen since our wedding last year and two cousins, I haven't seen for several years but despite this, they have hardly changed over the years - which is a compliment.  It was really lovely and very special for my Sister too.

Jackie has not aged very much at all and definitely does not look her age by any means - anyone who doesn't know her would think she was ten years younger than her actual age. My brother too who is now in his mid 50's again, would easily pass as being in his very early 40's.

I am so blessed to have a wonderful family even though some members I don't see very much - they are great.

Below are some more photos that I took throughout the day. Here are some taken in Jackie & David's fabulous garden.

Of course, I had to take a photo of some of the balloons :)

Here are some general photos that were taken during the afternoon/evening. These are a mixture of pics of family & friends.

Andrew needed to pop home to make sure that Patch was ok plus to give him some more food - one of my niece's came with us as she absolutely adores dogs. She loved Patch and thought he was great - Patch was very gentle with her and very good.

 In the evening, we had more family come over which was great. Chloe was having great fun with Andrew playing with our iphone. I am not sure who was teasing the other the most as they were playing games and checking out photos on the phone - they were having fun which was lovely to see.

 And to round the dayoff - gathering together, relaxing and enjoying each other's company listening to piano music being played by Jackie, David & Various friends - what a delightful way to end an absolutely perfect and very special birthday :) 

 If anyone would like to comment, please go to Forward To The Past - thank you :)

Ups & Downs of Married Life

PLEASE NOTE: Not suitable reading for readers under 18

For the next 30 days as many of you know we are praying for our husbands - this could not have come at a better time to be honest :). Last week was an especially difficult week in our marriage and one where to be honest I could quite easily have walked out on but I didn't.

As many of you may be aware, my Darling Husband is not a believer yet. DH does at times come to church with me and or come to various Life Group Socials that we have - he has also played golf with a couple of the guys from Life.

We are now heading towards our first Anniversary which will be at the end of this month. As I look back on the last twelve months this has not been an easy ride at all for either of us. We have had to deal with varying trials, more than we should have had to through in twelve months. Some of these trials have been to do with work, losing our unborn baby, finances, my hysterectomy, communication problems plus my depression which included my ending up in hospital last August (this last bit, Praise The Lord I am still here as I almost didn't make it!).

DH & I are in many ways like chalk and cheese - total opposites but on one hand we both have a stubborn streak which is not a very nice trait to have.  When we have fights, (I) at times back down and make the first move to make peace. I get this little nudge from The Lord which intensified especially when I feel like "why should I have to back down" kind of feeling - but in the end I do it and more often than not the situation between DH and I improves.  It is far nicer when we are getting along.  There are times that DH has had enough and makes a move to ease the tension between us.

There have been many testing times throughout our first year of marriage and I know that we have both had a lot of adjusting to do and still are continuing to do so. I have been told many times over that the first few years of married life can be difficult.  You (we) are getting to know one another, we do things differently and don't agree on a lot of things. We have different and varying interests. In regards to our home, I am the type of person where I like to have a place for everything and for our home to be clean, no clutter whereas DH is the total opposite to me. When Andrew doesn't put things away (i.e. tools etc) then I put them away but quite often I forget where I put things and DH when he wants something & I have to look for it, either gets irritated and/or stands around with that knowing look of amusement when I can't find something.  There was a time when I lost a whole 2 months worth of his medication which he had to re-order - he wasn't happy and I can't blame him. 

Most of the time I know where to find things but there have been times that I have just gone on a cleaning frenzy and just put things in bags and put them away in the understairs storage cupboard in the dining room.  We are waiting until we can purchase a shed by the way and when we do, all DH tools etc will go in there along with his set of golf clubs - then I can have the understairs cupboard totally free as my pantry and freezer storage space. At the moment everything gets dumped in here as we have very little storage room elsewhere.

Now onto something else - a few months ago, I found a magazine in one of the draws under DH side of the bed - I became upset and this was dealt with or so I thought.  Last week, I decided to listen to a sermon on our iphone before going to sleep but when I went into the phone, I found some unwanted sites on there that had been bookmarked.  I was shocked and very upset.  To cut a long story short, DH could not understand what the big deal was or why I was so upset (and still doesn't totally to be honest).  Things were very fraught and I did pack a small bag and a friend took me to my sister's home where I was going to stay for a few days. Within a couple of hours of being at my sister's home I felt I should return home so I did.  The next couple of days were very fraught and I just basically felt as if it was all my fault and I still do to an extent.  I booked an urgent appointment with our Family Therapist which we both attended.  DH is a little more understanding of how and why I feel the way I do but not totally.

I know DH has been on his own for a few years and probably had no issues with this kind of material before. He also without a doubt didn't give this a second thought and/or could not see that what he was doing was wrong (and still doesn't to a degree) but he does know how much I am unhappy about this.  DH does not even use the iphone now at all now - I don't have any objections to him using the phone but as long as he does not go onto sites that I know are not right.  DH said that he came across these sites by accident - I don't think so, besides which, I am not that daft!.

I guess this is something that is not going to go away overnight and I need to continually pray for us as a couple, for our marriage and also that DH no longer accesses these sites either on the iphone or televisision or anywhere else for that matter.

I am aware that this is probably "the norm" amongst non-Christian guys but this is also a problem with Christian men too unfortunately and no matter what anyone says  - this is sin and sin is sin........................

I know that we are going to go through more rough patches as no doubt all marriages do. I know that I can call on The Lord at any time and there are times that He has carried me through situations and will continue to do so. I also believe that He is also with Andrew even though, DH does not see this yet!

Another thing I am learning to do is to keep my mouth zipped at times when I can get so frustrated & irritated which believe you me I do not find easy. As soon as I open my mouth at times like these we can often say things which we regret afterwards - I am sure that others can identify with me here.  Learning to keep our mouths closed is one of the best things we can do - when the road becomes a little rocky (I will be posting a vision about rocky roads that was given to me yesterday from a Dear Christian Friend) we need to get down on our knees and hand the situation(s) over to The Lord & ask for His help.  As well as keeping our mouths zipped, we also need to guard our thoughts and immediately get rid of any unwanted thoughts that come into our mind, again, hand these over to the Lord and if needs be ask for His forgiveness too.

Something else I am learning is that quite often we are prone to blaming our spouse for things that go wrong - I have done this so often.  This is where we need to turn around and take a good look at ourselves, we need to ask The Lord to show us the areas in which we need to be changed......................This is all still new and very much a learning process for not just me but for my DH too.  Even though I know to expect plenty of rough rides so to speak, I am also looking forward to the many joyful times and changes that the Lord is going to do not only for me but for DH too.

The next post will be about the vision that was given to me yesterday :)

Please note any comments to be left at Forward To The Past

A simple woman's day book

For Today... May 30th 2009

Outside my window, the sun is shining (already at 05:19) and I can tell it is going to be a gorgeous day :)

I am thinking about the meetings I have this morning and the one that DH & I will be attending this afternoon.

I am so thankful for Yeshua, for my wonderful DH, family and friends :)
In the kitchen, I will be making eggs on toast for breakfast. Later on today I will be making a cauliflower and chickpea curry and if I have time squash risotto - oh and dessert for the weekend :)

I am wearing a grey top and long black skirt

I am hoping that the therapy session this afternoon will be beneficial, helpful but most of all a move forward for DH & I.

I am hearing, birds twitterin, and water coming out of the drain pipe.

I am praying that my marriage can start to move forward from the events of this wek and that DH & can start drawing closer. I am also praying that DH will open his heart to the Lord - that would be so so wonderful and the icing on the cake!

Around the house, laundry, hoovering upstairs, sorting washing and cleaning the windows in the kitchen and the worktops thoroughly.

One of my favourite things is to sit outside on the sing seat with a book or listening to music on my iphone and just chilling.

Weekend plans, working tomorrow then perhaps a bbq in the evening. Sunday church plus gardening :)

Prayer for Marks Mom, she is in hospital getting blood again, she is dying of non alcholic Chirosis of the Liver. 2 weeks ago she needed 6 pts

There's a Give Away ...

for any fellow brits who may be reading ....

A beautiful evening with Coral Fellowes

Yesterday evening we had a ladies evening with speaker Coral Fellowes, her husband Noel Fellows is a pastor of a church up north. I almost didnt go as I was so tired from all the paper delivering over the last couple of days but I am so pleased I made the decision to attend.

I went with some friends from church and on arrival there were tables beautifully laid out with roses and beautiful floral napkins plus "The Fathers Love Letter" at each place setting as well as a bottle each of red and white wine, bottled water and Shloer.  There was also a table laid out with cheese, pate, bread as well as salads and fruit.

During the evening there was a music interlude and a couple of songs were sung by the daughter-in-law of a friend of Coral Fellowes, this girls voice was just amazing - wow. One of the two songs she sang was 'over the rainbow' and this was different from the original version and this was so beautifully sung.

Corral Fellows then spoke and shared her testimony.  This lady has been through so much but wow, she was awesome and so very down to earth.  Coral also has an amazing sense of humour and had just about all the ladies laughing throughout sharing her testimony. Praise the Lord that he has brought her through. Her husband has written a book entitled "Killing Time" sharing about being imprisoned for a crime he did not commit plus how he came through to giving his life to The Lord. At the end of the evening this lovely speaker was blessed with a beautiful bouquet of flowers :)

Coral also prayed with me in regards to Andrew giving his life To The Lord and she felt that there had been a disappointment at some point in his life to do with The Lord - I have no idea how or in what context but this is what she felt the Lord was saying to her.  Coral also suggested to me that I start praying in tongues over Andrew when he is sleeping each night so this is what I am going to do.

The whole evening was just so awesome plus I was also blessed in another way which was financially. Two ladies felt to bless me with their offering as there was not an offering being taken for Coral Fellowes last night and I was stunned and so blessed to receive this gift. I was quite choked to be honest, I had also been blessed in so many ways in these past two weeks and a dear friend of mine who organised last night also paid for my ticket for me to attend.  The Lord is so amazing and blesses us when we least expect him too - thank you Father so much for your never ending love :)

Finally a couple of photos of Coral Fellowes plus the beautiful flower display from last night :)

Happy 18th Birthday

Please join me in wishing Jocelyn over at A Pondering Heart a very special happy 18th Birthday.

This is an amazing and very gifted young lady. Have a super special birthday My Dear Friend, hugs and blessings to you :)

Ugly shirt transformation

It'd been a while since I'd even gone into my craft room folks, but I couldn't hold off any longer. I had some very stressful months where survival was the objective of each day, and I guess part of getting over or healing from that was the urge to create something. That's the way I roll, pretty much.

We were given some men's shirts and some of them were colors that I didn't really think any self-respecting man had any business wearing. :-P I put them through the stringent hubby approval system and ended up with a bright orange shirt to do with as I wished. I may go back to hubby's wardrobe in time, as his approval system was, in fact, less stringent than I thought it should be. :-P

I'd been wanting to try this tutorial for ages: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=170402.0
so it was obvious what I'd do with this shirt. The shirt used in the tutorial was much more interesting than my husband's kool-aid orange reject, but I thought it would turn out okay. Here's what I ended up with...



I think it turned out well. Grace was very happy with it (no seriously, she was!). It was a little plain in it's original state though, which is why I added the house to it in cross-stitch. I have no idea why I thought a house would be suitable, but it was. It just was. And I think it works because it makes us both smile when we look at it. :)

In the future, if I make another one of these (which I hope to, because it was fun, and easy, and...I just liked it) I will try to use a larger shirt so I can get as much width into the skirt as possible. And I will make sure the visible portion of my house appears to be clean when I take a photo. I mean, sheesh.