Tag: God

Winter, winter, winter, winter…

And it is pouring down today! It is boggy and muddy and squelchy and windy and alright, not officially winter, but it is starting to feel like it. So, I’ve done the outdoor stuff this morning, i.e. hens, ducks, getting wood in, chopping kindling and I got the remaining onions in from the greenhouse and plaited them up… and now, I’m sat here whilst the kids do exercises off YouTube. They were getting a bit rowdy earlier left to their own devices, so that’s what we decided on. I took some photo’s while I was outside this morning:

dirty ducks in the tunnel.
onions and duck eggs collected.
braiding the onions up
The hens are captive at the moment, seem ok though. they’re all having a laying break at the moment.
One reason why the chickens aren’t currently outside. The other is Bird flu.
View from the shed this morning.

I’ve had to do a makeshift enclosure within the tunnel, for the ducks. They just create mess everywhere. They’ve created stagnant ponds at two corners. So they’re enclosed within a run again. They seem happy with it, all three girls are laying almost daily. Also, with the run of the tunnel they were laying eggs all over the place, mainly in the mud, instead of their house, so all eggs were covered in a layer of mud. They’ve been using the house since I enclosed them, which is a massive bonus. You aren’t supposed to wash eggs unless you’re using them straight away or putting them straight into the fridge. I prefer keeping ours at room temperature, they last quite a while. So not being really muddy is a definite bonus.

I’d left some onions in the tunnel to dry and now it’s starting to get damp in there I thought it was time to bring them in. I’ve braided them together and they’re hung near the oil range, to help them dry out properly.

All the chickens are inside their shed, probably until the spring now. I’m doing what’s known as deep littering, which is just adding a layer of shavings regularly, rather than fully cleaning them out. And then, if it works out how I’m thinking, I’ll do a massive clean out in the spring. (if it works out). They got red mite this year, the first time I’ve ever had that problem, so when they were brought in, they were all powdered a couple of times and treated. Some are still looking a little pale though, so I’m wondering whether I need to do it again.

As you can see from the photo after the chickens, the ground really is wet. I’m glad the chickens are off it for a while. It’s quite slippy, I have to watch my step! 😀

So, in addition to all this, what have we done recently..? well, I’ve been in a lot with the kids, we haven’t had the car much, so we’ve mainly (not entirely) been at home, which is ok for a while but then I start to get a little stir crazy. There’s a lot to do and I very, very rarely, if ever, feel bored, but we will hopefully have the car a bit more soon. I’ve had a filling this week, when we first moved to Ireland, I had to have a root canal. The tooth on top had cracked and so I had to have it sorted and filled. I’m not used to having much dental stuff done, the dentist was lovely though. My emotions are all over the place sometimes, right in the middle when there was smoke coming out of my mouth and I was immobile in the chair I started thinking about how my mum always made sure we looked after our teeth and had milk regularly and all that, and to my surprise and horror and amusement (in a weird way), tears started rolling down my face. I recovered though fairly quickly. They didn’t have a bawling wreck on their hands anyway 🙂

Then, last night was apparently an Irish tradition, we did it for the first-time last year. The tradition is that you let your kids stay up to see the Late, Late, Toy Show on RTE dressed in pyjamas and give them copious amounts of sweets and anything else their little hearts desire whilst watching Ryan Tubridy interviewing children and singing and dancing and talking and promoting toys and all that. The kids lasted until 11 pm, then it was bed. It was really nice actually. Specially that they didn’t actually stay up until midnight or after. We also had a takeaway from a town near us, they call it ‘Asian Street Food’. So that was a real treat, it was gorgeous. The petrol stations and shops round here sell these big bags of mixed sweets, jellies, sour ones etc and so that’s what we got on the sweets front. I’m feeling it a bit today though, I ate a lot of junk food, I’m a light weight nowadays. Doesn’t stop me from eating junk though, I really need to get fit…! Looks like it’s YouTube exercises for me as well as the kids. They love them, mainly minecraft ones, zelda etc etc.

Church has been great, we haven’t been able to get for the last week or two, but in general it’s been lovely. I didn’t expect to like how it was originally, but I love it. I love the mass, I love the words, I love that God is there. I even loved that littlest has been playing up a bit and I’ve had to hang around the entrance sometimes for a while, waiting for him to be ready to go in. Because we’ve been at the entrance, it’s meant I’ve said hello to people coming in, which I wouldn’t have done, had I been sat inside. God is good.

On that note, I will say goodbye for now. Goodbye and God bless you. Oh, Oh, yes! One final thing, I’ve started reading a book called ‘All About Heaven’ by John Oliver. And I haven’t finished it yet, but I really do recommend it if anyone wants to know anything about ‘present heaven’, and where we go when we die now, rather than when Jesus returns. There’s some emotive stuff, mainly because the reason it was written was when his son died. But it’s also very reassuring and has a refreshing perspective about life in general.

See you!

Cathy.

It’s a beautiful day (again)

It is a beautiful day outside. Of course it doesn’t have to be a beautiful day, just because it is outside. It could be a horrible day, I could decide for it to be a horrible day, by my attitude (which I have done in the past and recent past and which we all sometimes do) or just by taking on things that just aren’t mine to take on. Worries, fears, anxieties…. of course I do have them, everyone does, but God specifically says to lay all our anxeties on Him because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7) and to not ‘let’ (emphasis mine) our hearts be troubled or afraid (John 14:1-3). So, as I go on with Him, I am learning to do this.

Not to sound too arty far.. But God is the reason it’s a beautiful day really. He made the day, He made us, He’s everywhere and he is obvious everywhere. Just look at this view out of the window:

Look at the sky!!!

I know it may sound a little up myself to talk like this and I do struggle a lot with worry sometimes (like most). I have a lot of time here to think. But more and more this enables me and pushes me to go to God, to trust myself and my family to Him and actually trust Him to do his stuff in life as well as learning to listen to Him, so we/I can do our/my bit in partnership with Him. In turn this also teaches me not to be a slave to my emotions and conform to Jesus not the world. I’m not saving the world, He is, through Jesus and through the Holy Spirit working both independently and with His people. If this sounds puzzling that’s because it is in a lot of ways. It’s not, but it also is. Let’s just trust Him and stop thinking we have to do things exactly like everyone else. He works in the most amazing ways and we sometimes just need to ask for and practice a little patience and then we see Him and hear Him.

Sorry if this sounds confusing, God is just so fascinating and wonderful and His ways sometimes seem both so obvious and mysterious. Thank you God for loving us.

Amen!

Cathy.

Hello my lovelies.

Hello my lovelies! Do you know, my dad used to call me that. When I saw him, he’d say ‘hello my lovely’. At the risk of sounding repetitive, it’s a really lovely thing to say and mean to someone. I miss my dad a lot.

Life here has been ongoing as usual, home ed’ing, `starting to finish up the gardening and tidying up a bit, attempting to sort the house out, baking, cooking, Chris working and making things of use as always, he’s very good at it and of course I’ve been sorting out the ducks and chickens.

Life seems to have gone really quickly this year, summer has flown, the growing is almost over, as in planting. We’ve got a few things to over winter – purple sprouting broccoli, cabbages, leeks, spring onions, but most things are at an end. I’ve just got rid of the last tomato plants out of the tunnel. The ducks are now in there for their winter home and were making a mess of the mats I have down to stop weeds, so everything is coming up and it’s being cleared. Since the ducks have been in the tunnel we’ve actually been having some eggs! The magpies and crows can’t get at them any more, so we have them. The chickens have stopped laying for the winter and the ducks have started! it’s only a couple a day, but they are so good for baking.

Isn’t grief weird? Going back to the comment about my dad. It comes and then it backs off and then flattens you again and then retreats and then punches you in the gut again and then ebbs again. It’s very strange and it’s very hard. It makes you (or me anyway) also think about different things in relation to that grief, such as the past/history, the future, how quickly life goes, how different it is from one decade to the other, or even from one day to another, how nothing is actually predictable and also about how much we value stuff and ways of being that actually mean nothing. You know, things that meant so much 10/20 years ago, opinions, feelings, things, actually mean so little now. People really do matter, God and then people.

I’m extremely grateful for my dad. I might not have always said that. In my younger days I could be extremely arrogant and extremely self centred and self pitying and there are times where I felt extreme resentment against my family for no good reason really, just for the fact that they were fallible and human. Just like all of us. I’m glad he saw what God did with me, that I was restored and made into a decent human being, that he saw me out of debt and married and with a larger family. That he saw me happy and in a better relationship with him and the rest of my family. I’m very grateful for that, and I am absolutely certain that I need to thank God for that. He is the one who redeems, no one and nothing else does.

So, I’m not sharing to facebook this time, I’m off it (and instagram) for November. I needed a break from all the information overload and I kept going on it repeatedly and just doing the scrolling thing. I have to say, life has been a lot better without it in most ways. I actually felt like I was withdrawing for a short time too! How bizarre is that?? Now I don’t, I feel quite ecstatic!

So goodbye! for now.

Cathy.

I’ve been thinking a lot..

I have been thinking a lot over the past couple of weeks, well, the past couple of years really. But a couple of things have happened recently that’s made me think again. I’ve been taking part in Church in the Peak online meetings since covid first arrived on the scene really, I briefly stopped when I came off facebook for Lent, but I rapidly decided to go back on, just on a Sunday for the meeting. It’s open to all, by the way, no matter where you are in the world physically or spiritually. The facebook page is here: https://www.facebook.com/ChurchInThePeak. But stemming from that and a conversation with one of the elders, I’ve started meeting up virtually with the small group we used to be part of (a smaller group that usually meets up in someone’s home during the week). I’ve only met up with them once so far, but it was lovely just to see them and hear them and actually talk about God with others. It was wonderful. It also broke my, ‘I’m not going on zoom or anything like it’ fear! It also broke my, I’ve left therefore I don’t belong thing…that’s rubbish, I do.

But anyway, stemming from this and talking to God, I just wanted to lay out part of what’s been on my heart for a long time. Just briefly. And share a word/brief picture that God gave me when we were first here. I don’t think I’ve ever said it, partly because I’ve been a little afraid to (who is she to say that sort of thing, which is not right).

Firstly, the word.

As anybody who’s looked at any of our posts knows, it is a beautiful place. Ireland is a very beautiful place. But in the first months we were here, I was driving back along the road to our house, I glanced briefly at the hills and fields and for a moment, they were black and almost burnt, it looked like a battlefield, it was barren and horrible and then it went back to normal. I felt God said in that moment that it may look lush and green but the picture He showed me was what it was really like underneath in so many ways. A broken place. He then said ‘but I can restore it and bring it to how it looks, I can make it green and lush’.

I’ve thought about this from time to time and prayed sometimes, but I’m going to make this a prayer now, because if he has said this, we need to partner with Him and do it His way. To do and be what he wants us to do and be.

My vision for people in this country is that people, no matter whether they’re Catholic or Protestant or anything else, I don’t care. They will know God, they will know His freedom and His love, they will know life through Jesus. Eternal life which starts now. A turning around of their lives and this country and the UK (I will always have a heart for the UK). More than anything they will be born again worshippers of Jesus and know the love of God and turn to Him and be changed. There will be forgiveness and freedom from sin and shame and both a turning back to Him and restoration and new life of people born again.

Have a good day!

Cathy.

Goodness

So I’m going to briefly mention the last few weeks. As I’ve mentioned, I was ill, some sort of viral thing that started as a cold, worsened until I felt like I could hardly move with big temperatures, then as that part improved, moved to my throat and chest. I’m still not quite there yet, my voice is still a little hoarse and I’m still coughing but I feel waaaay better than I did. I can actually do stuff now. With two little ones at home too, it was difficult.

I’m fed up with getting ill, since being here we’ve all been much worse than normal. I’m looking at our diets now and I’m taking supplements too. Exercise is next, once the chest has cleared. And of course, following God closely and perhaps with a little more discipline. Not that this is guaranteed to avoid ill health but it’s something that’s on my mind.

Speaking of which, there’s a song by Bethel called the goodness of God and I listened to it and worshipped to it right up until my dad died. Then I couldn’t, I couldn’t bear to play it. I have been able to play it and sing it today for the first time since. It talks about singing of the goodness of God. He is so patient and kind, I’ve also had some pretty good Godly friends to talk to over the last few weeks/months. Who’ve also spoken God’s words to me and looked after me by pointing me to him. You know who you are, Thankyou.

God always meets you where you are. There’s no need to work anything up, be anything you’re not, just come to him and trust He’s with you and for you even when you can’t feel it or hear Him. Just trust. If you have friends who know Him, try them too.

(that’s my advice anyway)

Cathy

Here lies the body of…

only joking! (As Chris would say).

It’s our outside fire that Chris has made for us. It’s great, the tombstone makes sure the smoke doesn’t go everywhere. Hoping to cook on it sometimes this summer.

New bed dug today, only a small one. J said he wanted to grow carrots, so I dug one and the seeds are in. I’m not sure whether they’ll work, the seeds are from last year and I’ve never had much success with carrots, but I guess we will soon see. The sticks mark the rows.

I gave J his own little bit of garden today (he chose it), mainly because he kept running on and digging in the bits I’ve planted. In the photo he is using my early birthday present. He’s really good with it too. It’s a Wolf Garten set, they have interchangeable heads and the ones I chose are a tiller and a weeder. J has also sown some sunflower seeds too today. He seems to really like gardening. Maybe we should start a family business 😆.

Empty houses

Along our road into the village there are quite a few empty cottages/buildings (and none of them seem to be for sale). I decided to take a picture of each one and actually add up how many there are on a relatively small stretch of road (about 2 miles I think). Starting from our end and working our way along the road.

Number 1.

An old school.

Number 2!

A 1960’s? Bungalow.

Number 3.

Number 4.

Number 5!

Number 6.

Number 7.

Number 8!

There IS a building behind there, a big old white schoolhouse.

Gatepost

the gate to get to the school is almost hidden in this undergrowth.

So! 8 in total along a small stretch of road. I hope nobody would mind me photographing their building. (let me know if you read this and do.) 8! Two school houses included, on that short stretch. They are owned and apparently some have land with them that is used for farming.

The older locals who can remember the schools being open say it used to be fairly busy round here and now it isn’t. Mind, apparently there were 9 children that lived in our cottage at one time, so that in itself is a lot of people I suppose. 11 people in one little house! My word, we really don’t know we’re born sometimes! It would have been very basic as well. It would be lovely to see the place becoming busier and more populated again though.

There is a fella who’s doing a place up further up the road in the other direction (when he’s in Ireland), who visited relatives in our cottage as a child and is hopefully going to bring some photos of the kitchen when it had an open fire that they cooked on. Really looking forward to seeing them.

Night!

Cathy

Ouch!

It’s funny but I was just sat here having a cup of tea and suddenly thought ‘my dad’s died’ and teared up. Isn’t it strange how losing someone effects you. Normal morning, normal conversation, feeling pretty ‘normal’ then ouch, pain. I suppose it makes me aware to the fact that there is a lot going on inside all of us though. Definitely more than meets the eye.

1 Samuel 16:7

But the Lord said to Samuel. “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

This is one of the many reasons I love God, he sees our hearts, not just our outward appearance. Thank you Lord.

School?

So today we nipped into a local pre school to have a look and see whether there are any places for J. J was very well behaved, it must be said, he looked round carefully, played with some play dough, pursed his lips and shook his head. We got outside and he said very calmly “I’m not going and I am NOT going to change my mind”.

We are currently in negotiations 😂

(Meanwhile littlest was yelling because he couldn’t go in with the little ones, he was raring to go)

This was yesterday in our little wooded area. I have to say I can see his point… I’ve never liked classrooms either. ( No detriment to the preschool, they were lovely and there was lots of activities and messy play).

Light

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:5)

This is another favourite verse of mine.

Tonight I’m thinking about Jesus being arrested and taken off to be hideously abused and then hung on a cross to die. I’m thinking about what it means and why He did it. Luke 22 is a good place to read.

I’m also thinking of the light he gives, Of the resurrection and celebration that is coming and that he gives us when we come to him. There is no situation he cannot shine his light on. There is always hope. Through Him, through Jesus.

He is real, He is alive, He is why we are here, He is who we need, He is Jesus.