A VERY BUSY WEEK!!!!

Life has been a bit hectic this week, and certainly was nothing like I planned, but such is life and I have to confirm that" Just where He needs me my God has placed me.

Last Sunday we held our Carol Service which included the Nativity which involved our Toddler group and some other children attached to the Church. It was lovely to see the hall full with people from the community attending. After refreshments a group of us made our way to the centre of Stanford and joined in with Carols on the Green. The weather was kind to us staying dry and pleasantly mild.

Monday saw an early start as I had to attend a budget meeting at DHQ at Chelmsford at 9am. After this meeting I managed to find an hour to try and finish my Christmas present shopping. I then went to Basildon Hospital to visit one of my folk who was taken ill on Saturday, little did I know on arriving at the Hospital that I would not leave until 17 hours later. I had the privilege of staying at the bedside of Dorothy, with her two daughters until she was Promoted to Glory at 5:10am on Tuesday. I have only known Dorothy for a couple of months but her faith shone from her and even though she struggled with Parkinson's disease she had a quiet and positive influence on every person she met.

After grabbing just over an hours sleep, I then went to the Toddlers Christmas Party, which was well attended and there was a visit from Father Christmas and presents, including some for myself and the Toddler leader, we were overwhelmed by the kindness of the parents. I managed to grab another hours rest over lunch time before a group from the Church visited Thameside Wildlife centre and we had the privilege of watching a submarine travel up the Thames towards London. Needless to say I needed to rest in the evening and have an early night.

Wednesday the leadership team and myself prepared for the Fellowship Christmas meal, wrapped lots of presents and welcomed church folk to the meal, this was followed by the Ladies meting Christmas Carol Service and worship was led to two singers belonging to a church in Grays Peter and Shirley Spreadborough. It really was a lovely afternoon.

Wednesday evening I travelled to Tring so that I would be able to attend my GP Alison Woodward's funeral. Needless to say the Crematorium was packed on Thursday morning. I am so grateful to her for the care she gave me during my cancer journey over the last 4 years, and am sad that she was taken from us at just 60 years of age, and therefore never got chance to enjoy retirement. The tributes by her brother, daughter, son and a Doctor from Rothschild House surgery were very moving, and I am glad I was able to attend and thank God for such a wonderful person who influenced so many people through her life.

After the service I travelled on to Croydon so that I could assist mum with her final preparations and shopping for Christmas, the family will be joining us on Boxing Day it will be good to see them all.

Friday was spent preparing three services, which took most of the day. I was grateful for time for myself on Saturday, however most of the day was spent doing housework, shopping and ironing.

Today (Sunday) has been a different type of day. People from the Church went out for a Christmas Dinner at the Treacle Mine at Grays, the meal was good and everyone enjoyed each others company. Then at 3pm we led Carol Singing at Chafford Gorge Wildlife Trust Visitor Centre, it was good to see so many children enjoying time with their parents making Marshmallow Snowmen and other crafts as they waited to see Father Christmas.

Tomorrow I shall be conducting Dorothy Downing's funeral service at 9:30am at the Salvation Army Stanford le Hope. I shall be praying for her daughters Elaine and Hilary and their families as they say good bye to a very special lady, I pray that God will surround them with His love and comfort and that they may be aware of His presence in a very real way.

Tuesday we will be celebrating the birth of Jesus at our Christmas Day service, then I shall be travelling to my mums for a few days holiday.

Let me take this opportunity of wishing each of you a very happy Christmas and a peaceful new year. I have attached some photos of some of the activities I have mentioned above.

Another week of R&R!!!!!

Well life has been anything but hectic over the last few weeks, as I take time out from work so that my arm has time to heal.

I had a lovely surprise on Monday when one of my friends in Stanford asked if I would like to visit the Thurrock Nature Reserve at Mucking. Having never been I jumped at the opportunity and went with her. The nature reserve has only been opened since the summer, there is a visitor centre and cafe, so naturally we had to have done refreshments. The reserve is situated near the Thames and it was lovely to just sit and watch life in the Thames. We returned on Wednesday for another visit and I managed to take a couple of photos which I have posted here.

The rest of my week has been mainly taken up with making a few things for the Christmas Fair at Stanford le Hope this Saturday. I have been quite restricted in what I have been able to do because of the damage to my arm but as you can see from the photos at least I managed a few things.

I am hoping that I might be able to return to work next week even though I am still not able to drive.

I shall be visiting the hospital on Monday for several blood tests, Friday I shall be visiting the Fracture Clinic and then on Monday 19 November I am to have a bone scan and see a specialist. Still at least it will keep me out of mischief!!!!!

A Break, a Swan and Father Christmas

Last Friday week 19 October I posted the following Bible verse on my Facebook page: People with their minds set on you, you keep completely whole, Steady on their feet, because they keep at it and don't quit.

I think at times God our Heavenly Father has a sense of humour. For this verse quite clearly states that if we set our minds on Him, He will keep us steady on our feet. As you read what happened on Saturday 20 October perhaps you will understand where I am coming from.

After doing some housework and watching a bit of TV I decided that I should go out for an hour and get some fresh air, and so I made my way to Pitsea Market to have a browse and the intention of doing some shopping at Tesco.

Everything was going to plan I had a look around the market and then made my way back to the car, although I eventually did get back to the car, before arriving there I managed to trip on a loose electrical cable, landing on all fours and hitting my elbow.

I decided to make my way home but did some shopping at Tesco first, the pain in my arm was getting worse and so I made my way to A&E at Basildon.
After examination I was informed that I had broken my left arm.

The last two weeks have been a difficult time for me as once again I have had to learn to let others help me and to take time to rest. My arm has been extremely painful and it has meant that I have been unable to make any cards.

However these two weeks may have been a time of rest, but I have managed to learn a new craft with the help of the Internet. I am now enjoying making 3d origami models, which has also proved to be good therapy for my hand and wrist and has allowed me to regain movement of my fingers and wrist, however the elbow movement still has a long way to go!!

I am posting some photos of a swan I have made also a Father Christmas.

I've Passed and More

It hardly seems possible that it is over 3 weeks since I last posted. A lot has happened since then. I have now completed my course for leading Chair Based Activities and I am happy to say that I passed. I believe God's timing is perfect, impasses my exam on Saturday and the on Monday an opening came for me to use this qualification in two residential homes in the area. Added to that I commenced a group at the gall on Friday seven people attended.

God never ceases to amaze me, on Wednesday night I ordered my new iPad, and I planned to sell my old one on EBay. But praise The Lord by Thursday afternoon I was the proud owner of a new iPad and the other one had already been bought and was on its way to its new owner. This meant that there were two happy people by Friday and all because of a comment that was passed to a friend. God certainly does move in mysterious ways.

I had my first day off in a month today it was lovely that I could please myself in what I did for a few hours. I visited In 2 Crafting shop in Wickford this afternoon and managed to book into 3 workshops at the end of this month when I have a few days holiday one worship is with Little Claire's and the other two are with Jenny Mayes and will involve rubber stamping and lots more.
I also had the opportunity to prepare for Wednesday's craft group, so I have posted photos of these and a few photos of other cards that I have made over recent weeks.

Well everything is getting back to normal after the summer break. All the programme at the corps has re-commenced, however there will be some fine tuning of this programe over the next few weeks.

I have started my training to be  tutor of chair based Activities and it is going quite well, although there is a lot to learn before my assessment on October 6, also I need to get my home work, lessons plans and risk assessments completed. I am off to Chatham again on Saturday for a full day of seminars.

I also start another course on September 29, this is for leading new types of ministry within the church and is called Fresh Expressions,the course last a year and is based at Bluewater in Kent.

Spetember in the Salvation Army, is the time for our door to door collecting, I am pleased to report that with my little band of helpers this task has been completed. However on the last evening I had a bad fall, spraining my left ankle, and damaging my right hand and arm, normally this would not be a problem but due to the surgery I have had on my right side, this meant that the would would not heal properly, so last Friday I made my way to the Doctors in Stanford for the first time since I arrived, and was prescribed some antibiotics to hel with the healing process. I was making good progress until last night when unfortunately I had another fall damaging the same ankle and hand. I am now wearing an ankle support to help my ankle heal and hopefully get stronger.

On the craft front I have not had a lot of spare time but I have managed to make 50 Christmas Tree decorations for our Christmas Fayre on Saturday November 10.

Holidays and more

Well, I am coming to the end of 10 days holiday which began on Bank Holiday Monday. This gave me the opportunity to go to a Boot Fair at Warlingham. I spent an hour and a half browsing the many stalls and picked up a few bargains including a brand new One for All digital tv aerial for £3.50 and a craft book for 50p. I spent the afternoon finishing off some cards (pictures are attached).

Tuesday I took mum to Hove for a few hours it was lovely and sunny but there was a strong breeze. Early Tuesday evening I travelled to Tring to watch the Paralympic Torch Relay, it was a great
Night with plenty of community spirit, even if the torch was nearly 2 hours late!! I finally got to bed at 2am.

Wednesday mum and I went to the Harvester at Addington Village the rest of the day I spent decorating some
Notebooks for the Christmas Fair at Stanford le Hope Salvation Army.

Thursday was a day of shopping with
Mum, also helping her with some cleaning that she needed doing, then in the evening I did some more crafting.

Friday was a mostly stop at home day, although we did go to Pizza Hut for lunch during the Happy Hour, there was so much food we bought some home for supper.

Saturday I had the opportunity to spend some time at on of my favourite craft shops-The Craft Barn at Lingfield I then went on to Edenbridge to yet another Boot Fair and a few more bargains including a machine that makes hot chocolate and delicious milk shakes for the costly price of £3 and it was brand new.

Saturday evening mum and I visited my cousin and her family, I took my makes with me and sold some of the items including cards and notebooks. I have to say the cakes we indulged in we're absolutely massive but most enjoyable.

Sunday I travelled
To Bournemouth to stop with a friend who has recently had major surgery and I have spent a few relaxing days there returning to Stanford tomorrow evening.

This Saturday I will be commencing training to be a Chair Based Exercise Leader, so there are a busy few weeks ahead, which will include the Salvation Army Big collection door to door appeal, Harvest Celebrations and planning activities for the forthcoming year. I also commence a Fresh Expressions of Church course later this month.

One more photo.

The photo shows me working on the Emergency Vehicle. It proves that I don't just work on a Sunday. Lol!!!!

Catch up, Emergency and Cards

Although not necessarily in that order!
Firstly although. I haven't had a lot of time to do much crafting, I was asked to make a special card for a Golden Wedding Anniversary, it ended up being a card with a box and a gift bag to put it in.

I have been getting a lot of things ready to sell on EBay, my intention was to start listing them over the weekend and early this week. But the plan didn't exactly pan out as I expected.

On Sunday a fire started in Dagenham one of the largest fires in the area for forty years. The Salvation Army was quick to respond and an Emergency Catering Vehicle on site in next to no time. I was privileged to serve on Vehicle for two shifts. The first been on Monday morning from 6-8:30am. I have added a picture of sunrise over Stanford at 5:30am also a few photos of the emergency vehicle.
I managed to grab a few hours sleep before getting on with other work that needed doing.

On Monday evening I received a phone call at 6 asking if I could help out during the night. I started my second shift at 11:30pm and got back home at 5am. I don't know how many cups of tea and coffee i have served over the last 24 hours but I do know the firefighters and other emergency personnel were very appreciative of all that was done for them. The rest of the day I have spent sleeping, getting some prep done and attending Corringham Park Fun Day. Nobody could say that I have a boring life can they?

Hello I'm Back

Thought it was about time I posted on my blog the first time since the end of June. There is no excuse for my absence apart from a l ack of motivation. Hopefully I have now got my mojo back and things will start moving again.
I was privileged to have ten days holiday in July, the first weekend I spent in Doncaster at the Racecourse. No I wasn't there for the racing, I attended the Summer Crafting event organised by Stephanie Weightman, it was an absolutely fantastic weekending the Friday I and three friends attended an all day craft workshop, then naturally Saturday was spent on retail therapy firstly at Lakeside Outlet Centre and craft shopping at the show and a visit to Whichcraft at Doncaster. Needless to say we all spent money but it was worth every penny!!!!!!
I spent 4 days with friends which gave me time to relax, this was followed on the Thursday with birthday celebrations for myself I had a great time meeting up with friends throughout the day.
The last few days of the holiday I spent with mum we even managed to have a couple of days in Hove in the sunshine
Well I think that's enough news for now. I have posted a few photos which might be of interest.

Time for a catch up!!!

I have at last found time to update my blog. The last two weeks have been pretty manic and a lot of travelling has been done.
Firstly I have spent 4 days at Willersley Castle in Matlock Derbyshire. The course I attended was arranged by the Salvation Army and entitled Live Laugh Love and was based around Women in Ministry. It was a really good course and it was good to catch up with folk I hadn't seen for a little while. On the Wednesday afternoon I had the opportunity to go abseiling, this was a new experience for me but what a sense of achievement when the abseil was complete. We began on a 20 foot rock and then moved on to a 70 foot drop. I admit I was a little apprehensive but it was a great experience. I now belong to the ' I can do it' club.
I returned home on Thursday evening managed to do some washing before travelling bak up the M1 on Friday morning this time to Swanwick in Derbyshire. This time I took 4 ladies from my Church, we were attending WOW Women of Worth Conference which was part of the Salvation Army United in Mission conference. It was an excellent weekend, the highlight being Abby Guiness performing her Word of the Wives show. If you would like to know more about Abby just google her name. We returned back to Stanford Sunday evening.
Monday saw me travelling to Welwyn Garden City for a day of training on Equality and Diversity. When the course finished I had the privilege of travelling to Stotfold and visited some very dear friends for the evening. It was good to spend time with Emma, Mandy and Tim Lockey.
Just for a change Tuesday was a fairly normal day. In many ways it was good to spend some time in and around Stanford.
Wednesday morning arrived and yet another journey on the M25 and M1, this time to Hothorpe Hall in Theddingworth, Leicestershire. I had the privilege of attending the NCD Natural Church Development. This was a really good course and helped me to see the way forward for my Church, there will be a lot of work involved but it will be worth it in the end. The course finished Friday after lunch, on my way back down the M1 I called in to see some friends in Tring, it was good to see Ted, Margaret, Paul and Hazel. Many thanks for the ice cream Paul.
Life is now returning to normal for a few days cleaning washing and ironing!!!
Tomorrow is the Stanford Festival so I'll try and show you some photos of the tomorrow.
I have included a few photos of the last couple of weeks I hope you enjoy them.