A Little Joy Returns To The Household

 

 

Last night ended with a very sombre ceremony out in the garden.

We held a simple funeral for Shadow and thanked God for the joy His creatures bring to our lives.

I had hoped that today would be a fresh start, with the promise of a trip to the pet shop after school, Teen One went off fairly happy.

I received a phone call an hour later to say he had been spotted in the corridor weeping as he went to his second lesson....would I come and collect him please.

Once Teen One was home from college we went to the Pet shop and chose some new gerbils.

 

 

Sunny ( who is identical to a previous gerbil)

 

 

 

 

Snowy....

 

 

..and Sandy

 

They are siblings and seem so teeny tiny.

We have enjoyed their antics this afternoon, exploring their new habitat.

 

 

 

They have thoroughly exhausted themselves and are sleeping in a little heap in the corner of their gerbilarium.

 

A little joy has returned to the household, but hearts are still a little heavy remembering the loss of yesterday.

 

Great Joy Brings Great Sadness

 

This morning when I went to clean Shadow's cage as usual, I thought he was a little quieter than normal.

Not interested in the loo roll inner, or grape I offered him.

A few hours later I was disturbed to see him looking very unwell and unable to walk straight.

I took him out and after what appeared to be a fit, he curled up in my hand.

My heart sank....what on earth was I going to tell Teen Two?

It's exactly three months since we walked this path before and I knew the sadness that lay ahead.

Shadow however was still breathing, but very obviously seriously ill.

Teen One and our house guest were in the room so I discussed the possibilities...do we go straight to the vet and it all be fait accomplish when Teen Two came home, or do we leave Shadow, possibly in distress, for a few hours, until Teen Two came home and could  benefit from being involved in this sad process.

I didn't have to make any decision as within minutes the phone went...Teen Two had pulled a hamstring in PE and was in considerable pain...would I go and collect him!

Thank you Lord for overruling in such a way.

Needless to say, it was  a sad conversation I had to have with Teen Two on the journey home.

 

 

 

But he was able to feel thankful for the pain he was in, as it meant he could spend some time with Shadow for the last time.

We had a vet appointment for 4.30, the earliest they could fit us in.

Poor Teen Two had raging stomach pains for a couple of hours, the anticipation of what was ahead.

It was the same vet we saw for Cookie, she was very sympathetic and helped us feel better about the decision we had to make.

 

 

So for the second time in a few short months we have had to bring home a precious little parcel and prepare ourselves for a little funeral service.

Pets really do bring so much happiness to our lives, but with that great joy, comes great sadness at the parting.

 

 

Cuppa's and Good Company

 

If we rewind a couple of days you will remember I was making a white chocolate torte for dessert....here it is with some fresh berries piled on top.

 

 

 

 

Here is the cushion cover in its new home...am debating adding a border, initially I liked it plain, but am not sure now.

 

 

Rewind to yesterday and here we have Milly deciding to join in our game of Scrabble!

 

Having a house guest with us for a few days, means desserts every day!

Today was a quick and easy Bramble Flapjack.

I use my * basic flapjack* recipe, pile half into a dish, add whatever fruit you have in store, today was blackberries from the freezer...

 

... put the remaining flapjack mixture on top and bake in the normal way.

Delicious with ice cream, cream or custard...and even for breakfast!

 

 

I was delighted to see in Morrisons today they had pumpkins for 50p

This one will adorn our fireplace for a few weeks, and we will gradually add to our display as and when we discover them on our walks.

The pumpkin will then be made into a delicious soup.

 

Today has been one full of chat, plenty of cuppas and good company.

 

 

*Basic Flapjack Recipe

 

125g (4oz) marg

125g (4oz) soft brown sugar

75g (3oz) golden syrup

250g(8oz) rolled oats

dash of lemon juice

 

Melt the marg, sugar and syrup in a pan.

Add the lemon juice and oats

Stir well

Bake  180 f Gas 4

 25-30 mins

 

Defeated Again By A Teeny Card!

 

My posting today has once again been thwarted by a teeny card!

Yesterday  I forgot to remove it from the laptop and replace in the camera, so all the piccies I "took" actually weren't being taken at all!

Today, I appear to have selected the wrong option when trying to upload them and can't "go back" and use my usual method.

When Hubby comes back from the evening service and church I am hoping he can put it all right for me!

 

 

 

 

Today, being Sunday, was of course church in the morning, a time when we go to remember the Lord.

Our house guest is a Christian too and it was lovely to hear his contributions in prayer and a reading from the Bible.

He read from Psalm 137....I always find myself singing the Boney M song when that portion of Scripture is read...oops!

 

 

 

Now it would appear I am the first person in the world of google to have had this mishap today, as I couldn't find a picture to use!

I dished up a dinner of roast beef and all the trimmings for my neighbour, as usual, but as I went to put it on his table...it all slipped right off the plate and onto the floor, and my flip flop clad feet!

Ouch!! It was boiling hot and so painful! Aside from the pain, I felt dreadful that he had been looking forward to a hot meal and it was now all over his living room carpet!

"Just pick it up" he said "It will be fine."

I didn't really have any other option, but I felt truly embarrassed and mad with myself!

How it happened I have no idea... I wish I did then I could avoid doing it again!

 

 

Thankfully the rest of dinner went off ok, and very soon after, my neighbour came in to see if our visitor ( an ex Naval man) would like to see the medal he received the other week.

Teen Two hadn't seen it and was very impressed indeed, and Grandma also got to see it.

 

 

As is usual we gave Grandma a game of Scrabble...however when we were admiring the medal, one of the cats took a fancy to the board and sat in the middle, completely wrecking all the words we had built up!

 

 

 

The last few weeks really have been beautiful weather wise.

As we have driven around the countryside we have seen some beautiful leaves on the trees.

Our house guest is a weather man, and has warned me things are going to change this coming week.

Such a shame, but on the other hand, its always comforting putting the fire on and closing the curtains in the evening.

 

Remember To Load The Card!

 

Today we were in Oxford visiting Harcourt Hill uni Campus.

It was a lovely day, with barely a cloud in the sky and the campus is in a rather rural area, so lots of lovely views...what a shame I set out without putting the SD card in the camera!

 

 

I took a piccie of Teen One standing by this statue, which has the Bible Text "Train up a child in the way he should go and when his is old he will not depart from it."

Thankfully google has come to the rescue, so you can get a flavour of what we saw.

 

 

 

But what google couldn't replace....was the picture I took of Hubby with his cousin's son!

We had no idea he would be there, infact no idea what he was up to at all to be truthful.

It was only when we were on the campus tour that he saw a young man and thought "hmm...he looks just like my cousin!" He asked if his surname happened to be Powell...and yes it was!

His likeness to his dad was uncanny!

So, we were able to have a quick catch up, although of course the poor lad didn't really know who we were, he was however such a pleasant lad it was lovely to meet him.

He was able to update us on his mum who sadly has breast cancer, she is to start her chemo in a couple of weeks.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.

They have already experienced great sadness, we were expecting a baby at the same time, but due to placenta previa, her little boy died at birth and she only just survived.

Teen One was born the same week so I am forever thankful to the Lord for preserving us from such a sad experience.

 

 

 

We are now back home, and expecting the arrival of a friend who is coming to stay for a few days.

Teen Two has been at Grandma's for the day, they visited a local car boot sale and he bought a Wallace and Gromit DVD for £1.

We are huge W&G fans and are just enjoying the dvd now..although sadly it has some scratches so is a bit jumpy, but hopefully Hubby can clean it up a bit.

 

 

 

"To The Rescue!"

 

Before I get on with today's events, I need to wind the clock back to last night.

Hubby was catching up with the rugby, and feeling rather tired, I went upstairs to watch something else in bed.

Around 8.30pm I heard our front door being knocked in earnest.

It was a neighbour two doors away. She had heard banging on her kitchen wall, had realised it was our dear elderly neighbour trying to get attention.

We have a driveway between us, so there is no hope of us hearing him in an emergency sadly.

It appears he had fallen in his living room ( causing mayhem and breaking a side table!) He lay there for an hour or so, then realising he wouldn't be able to get himself up, crawled to the kitchen. He managed to open a cupboard and get a jar of coffee out, then used it to start banging on the wall!

It took a further three hours to be heard.

The sad thing is, I encouraged his son to get a panic button for his dad, which he did, but he had taken it off after having a shower earlier in the day! Had he kept it on, we would have been there in an instant.

When the dear lady the other side eventually heard him and discovered him lying on the floor, he asked her to come and get hubby.

So, we both went ( me complete in my onesie!) to investigate.

Having established he wasn't in pain, other than a sore behind from being on a hard floor for so long, we decided it was possible to help him up without calling for the Paramedics.

He was insistent we didn't call his son, as he had been sick all day.

Having got him safely to his chair, I  made him a cuppa, and stayed with him for an hour to make sure he was ok and then left when he was safe and sound in bed.

This morning I checked on him as usual and he was ok, other than a sore midriff  from trying to get himself up.

I also made sure, having learnt his son was feeling better, that he be told, just in case of repercussions, healthwise.

 

 

 

My day started with me feeling I wished I had someone I could call on to rescue me....when this huge spider came out from nowhere!

 

 

I tried to catch it in a tub...but with its long legs dangling over the edge of the unit, I wasn't confident I could catch it...

 

 

...so there was nothing for it but to use the suction method!

I wasn't convinced he wasn't going to escape, so stuffed a carrier in the tube to ensure he was contained.

I then deposited him out into the garden, mightily relieved he was out of the house!

 

 

I popped into Lidls for some weekend veg etc and was amazed to see their sugar down to 39p!

I had bought some in the summer at Farmfoods at this ridiculously cheap price and assumed it was a special offer...I have no idea why the price has been slashed from over £1 not so long ago, but am stocking up whilst I can!

 

 

I treated myself to these wellies. I have been needing a pair for a year or so, but wasn't prepared to pay the £15 average price I kept seeing.

These were £4.99 and also available in red...I nearly bought the red, but opted for this colour instead.

 

 

 

I also bought this little collection of goodies...which can only mean one thing...

 

 

White Chocolate Torte!!

I really must re-write this recipe onto one my proper recipe cards, instead of this scrappy piece of paper my friend gave it to me on.

 

 

 

The postman delivered a package today for Teen One.

It was this delightful note book!

 

 

 

It is lined inside, with a text at the bottom of each page.

 

 

There was also this lovely keyring.

 

 

 

Not to mention this lovely Orla Keily card!

 

It was from a couple on holiday from Northern Ireland who had visited our church the other week.

The lady took rather a shine to Teen One, and thought she might like these gifts from thei rdaughter's online shop BittyButtons.

They have lots of lovely Christian craft related gifts, worth a look if you are after something special with a Christian theme.

 

 

 

 This afternoon I busied myself with some baking, a simple sponge for the weekend, as well as some tuna fishcakes for dinner.

Tomorrow we have a friend coming for a few days, so I need to be super organised as we will be out until late tomorrow afternoon on a Uni trip.

The slow cooker is going to do all the work for me tomorrow, a quick chilli I think is on the menu, leaving a quick salad and some rice to be made when we get home.

 

3

Autumn...A Time To Give Thanks

 

Today started with a bit of a panic...I couldn't find my set of church keys!

Losing keys always worries me, and losing someone else's keys is even worse!

It always triggers a mini inner panic, which started many years ago, when as a youngster I was entrusted with the church key when staying with family in Maidstone.

One minute the key was in my pocket, the next minute it was nowhere to be seen.

Quite how it disappeared off the face of the earth, in a small back lane, I don't know, but I got into heaps of trouble and that "tummy tied in a knot" sensation comes back whenever I lose keys these days!

I searched everywhere I could think of today, and in the end had to borrow hubby's set...which really filled me with dread...what if I lost those as well!!

Thankfully, whilst at Mother and Toddlers, thinking of where I might have put them on Sunday, it came to me...in the pocket of the cool bag I had used to transport some of the food!

Phew, PTL for that crisis being over!

 

 

 

After doing next door's cleaning, I had a sit down with my knitting needles for half an hour.

I think I might regret picking a tea cosy to reboot my knitting life with. I had forgotten how fiddly it is carrying the yarn across at the back..and how tangled the yarn gets! Mind you, I am not making life easy for myself, choosing three colours instead of the stated two!

 

 

Teen One spent most of last night doing revision for a Maths test today and again this afternoon she has been at the dining room table doing more work.

It might seem like students have it easy...but the reality is very different!

 

 

A very big and heavy delivery came today....a table tennis table for the Friday Club kids.

Hubby has been struggling with a very old handmade one, with an innumerable amount of tressles to hold it up. Getting it set up takes two people and its very time consuming.

So he thought it would be worth investing in a proper foldaway one.

He bought a roof rack in the week, especially so he can transport it to church, but when he feels the weight of it he may think twice about putting it on the roof!

I really hope it's easy to put up and down each week!

 

 

Teen One's walk to college takes her round a pond and field.

When I came in from next door, I was delighted to see she had collected some conkers on her walk today!

I love them when they are shiny and new, like highly polished pieces of wood.

It has become a tradition in our house to decorate the fireplace, and one or two other areas, with seasonal decorations.

I started this when we came home from New England in 1996, where The Fall is of course the most beautiful place on earth to be.

We collect anything we can see to celebrate this lovely season, fir cones, beautiful coloured leaves, conkers, acorns,  and of course, I will be buying pumpkins.

Each year there is a Pumpkin festival nearby, where all things pumpkiny are sold.

Most of it is edible of course, and we particularly love the pumpkin soup.

There are also crafts and the like as well as local Scouts and Brownies running traditional stall games.

Its one of the highlights of our year and of course is the precursor to the "Big Event" in December!

 

 

I saw this in Lidls the other week for around £2 and can't wait to find somewhere to put it.

Of all the seasons in the year, Autumn is my favourite.

It's the time when we get crisp mornings, can light the fire and yet not be in the depths of winter, and years gone by it was a time to thank God for the harvest.

This is only given a nod to nowadays, and I am not sure any of my children's schools even had such a thing as a Harvest Festival, but we can all in our own way show our appreciation for the bountiful blessings we receive here in this part of the world.