littlelaughalot
Friday, March 30, 2007
Great product!I'm the car washer in the family, and I've been getting really frustrated lately because of all the little black dots that just refuse to come off the car.
So I went and bought some of this...
...and it actually works. I just tried a bit of it on a section of my car, and those mean little stubborn black tar marks just melted away...wiped away by one swipe of my cloth. Fantastic.
Planning to clean the car tomorrow, so can't wait to get all of those little brutes off my paintwork.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Happy Birthday Elizabeth!
It's my mother-in-law's birthday today. Happy birthday Elizabeth.
Hope you have a lovely day...you deserve it! You are one of the most kind and thoughtful people I know...always near at hand and willing to get stuck in when help is required as seen in this photo of her painting Dayna & Miriam's room. Angus and Elizabeth were only supposed to be painting the ceiling, but had very kindly started on the walls to give me less painting to do.
So thank you Elizabeth for all that you mean to Thomas and I, and for the fantastic Gran you are to Dayna and Miriam. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Useless informationFor some bizarre reason I decided to put in a search for "useless information". This website came up [[link]].
I scrolled down and came across a story about a man called Jack Hall, who used burnt wooden matchsticks to build musical instruments.
Check it out...absolutely useless info, but still amazing!
For some more photos visit here.
Oh and here is another piece of useless information...this is my 100th blog. Not very much in comparison to the headphonaught's, but never the less is an achievement for me!
The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard
For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard.
He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the market-place doing nothing.
He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.'
So they went. He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing.
About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?'
'Because no-one has hired us,' they answered. He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.'
When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.'
The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius.
So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius.
When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.
These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'
But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius?
Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you.
Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'
So the last will be first, and the first will be last.
Matthew 20 verses 1-16 New International Version
I've been reading Philip Yancey's book "What's so amazing about grace? I'm just really taking my time to go through it because there is just so much to take in and learn. Yesterday I was really challenged by reading a part which refers to the scripture above...the parable of the workers in the vineyard.This story to most people as well as Philip Yancey would on face value seem to be extremely unfair. Why should someone get paid the same for an hours work as someone who has worked for a full day. That's unfair! Surely?
In today's society, people just wouldn't stand for such nonsense. After all this would be classed as ludicrous behaviour.
The thing is...the full-day workers did get what they were promised. They got their denarius.
"The employer in Jesus' story did not cheat the full-day workers by paying everyone for an hour's work instead of twelve. No, the full-day workers got what they were promised. Their discontent arose from the scandalous mathematics of grace. They could not accept that the employer had the right to do what he wanted with his money when it meant paying scoundrels twelve times what they deserved.
Significantly, many Christians who study this parable identify with the employees who put in a full day's work, rather than the add-ons at the end of the day. We like to think of ourselves as responsible workers and the employer's strange behaviour baffles us as it did the original hearers. We risk missing the point: that God dispenses gifts, not wages. None of us gets paid according to merit, for none of us come close to satisfying God's requirement for a perfect life. If paid on the basis of fairness, we would all end up in hell."
This really challenged me...I see this parable now in a whole new way and with a whole new sense of understanding.Philip Yancey
"In the bottom-line realm of ungrace, some workers deserve more than others; in the realm of grace the words "deserve" does not even apply."
And then further on he writes...
"I believe Jesus gave us these stories about grace in order to call us to step completely outside our tit-for-tat world of ungrace and enter into God's realm of infinite grace....../
/.......From nursery school onward we are taught how to succeed in the world of ungrace. The early bird gets the worm. No pain, no gain. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Demand your rights. Get what you pay for. I know these rules well because I live by them. I work for what I earn; I like to win; I insist on my rights. I want people to get what they deserve- nothing more, nothing less.
Yet if I care to listen, I hear a loud whisper from the gospel that I did not get what I deserved. I deserved punishment and got forgiveness. I deserved wrath and got love. I deserved debtor's prison and got instead a clean credit history."Philip Yancey
Looking forward to reading more of the book...there maybe some more quotes to blog some time in the future...it's one of those books you see that just may you go....."aha..I've never thought of that before!" So get a copy if you can.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
SongbirdEva Cassidy was an amazing singer, with "Over the rainbow" being a favourite amongst many. One of her other tracks, "Songbird" has been covered by a group of classical singers called "All Angels". My sister has the album and loves it. I have to confess I haven't heard it yet mainly due to the fact that I'm not overly keen on classical singing, but I have to say I was impressed by these four girls. The harmonies are beautiful. Enjoy!
Glenrothes Salvation Army are having an informal worship night on the Thursday before Easter which is the 5th April. For more info check out Dan's blog.
Monday, March 26, 2007
A warped sense of humour!!!Just had to do a quick post before I went to bed. I have been wanting a phone that warps pictures for ages and finally I have one that does. If you have this on your phone you will know that you need the person quite near and a straight on view of the face is essential for a good quality warp!
I get my kill at the effects...the laughs just keep rolling!
Well tonight our Songsters were doing a programme for the women's guild at Viewpark and at the end we shared in a lovely tea that the ladies had provided. Bobby, Diane, Helen and John had came along to support the Songsters which was really nice of them. Helen was sitting across from me when suddenly I remembered my phone's ability to warp! Helen was sitting a bit far away to get a good warp....or so I thought. Because she was further away it created an even more amazing effect. BIG BODY...wee heid! Hilarious...I mean really....tears rolling down my face funny! Bobby and Diane thought it was hilarious too, and I have to say, Helen, you are a good sport...she thought it was funny too and even gave me permission to put it on my blog. Cheers Helen!
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and sorry Trevor.....(our Songster Leader)..I just couldn't resist!
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"Late that day he said to them, "Let's go across to the other side." They took him in the boat as he was. Other boats came along. A huge storm came up. Waves poured into the boat, threatening to sink it. And Jesus was in the stern, head on a pillow, sleeping! They roused him, saying, "Teacher, is it nothing to you that we're going down?"Awake now, he told the wind to pipe down and said to the sea, "Quiet! Settle down!" The wind ran out of breath; the sea became smooth as glass. Jesus reprimanded the disciples: "Why are you such cowards? Don't you have any faith at all?"
They were in absolute awe, staggered. "Who is this, anyway?" they asked. "Wind and sea at his beck and call!"
Mark 4 verses 35-419 (The Message)
I don’t particularly like being on a boat. And so one of the first things I do when getting on board is to find out where the lifeboats are and I’ll pretty much take residence there for the remainder of the journey. Any chance of the boat sinking and you can forget all my manners....I’m on first!
But the boat that we are talking about in this story is no luxury cruise liner. It would have been a plain old fishing boat. And here we have a situation where Jesus has come on board.
Now there are two questions that I have when reading this passage of scripture.
Firstly, these fishermen, Jesus’ disciples would have seen many storms,I’m quite sure, in their many times out in their boat. So was this storm even more wild and dangerous than anything that they had ever experienced before?...or secondly, was it that by having Jesus on board, they just didn’t think that they would encounter such a storm, and such a threat to their very lives.
I really feel that the second one may be nearer to the truth...and this challenges me every time. Even with Jesus on board, this certainly doesn’t make the men exempt from the storm. It still happened.
I don’t know about you, and what you have experienced, but I think that a lot of people think that because you are a Christian, because you have asked Jesus into your life, they think that we have a pretty cushy time. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. Dare I even say that as Christians ourselves, sometimes we expect to have an easier ride...after all Jesus wouldn’t want to put us through such a stormy time?
But one other amazing thing happened through experiencing this storm for those disciples. They learned something about Jesus. They realise that he wasn’t just a prophet, a teacher, a friend and someone who performed amazing miracles...he indeed was the Son of God, so powerful that even the wind and the waves obeyed Him, and through this experience these men acknowledged Jesus for what He truly was.
So take comfort from this story, that even though you may be experiencing rough waters in your life, just remember that Jesus is on board,.....He hasn’t jumped overboard! He is simply waiting for you to ask Him to take over and to take control. And although you might find it hard to comprehend why you are being put through such a testing time, just remember how much more you will have learned about your Lord and Saviour, and how much closer you will be to Him through allowing him to take control.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Great dayOn Saturday it was lovely to wake up to some lovely sunshine. It's as if we have turned a corner with the weather. I had to pop up to the GLO centre (Gospel Literature Outreach) which is a Christian bookshop in Motherwell to buy a present for our neighbours who are having their baby girl Christened. Thomas caught the train to Glasgow to be part of the "stop human trafficking" prayer time held in George Square..(he'll blog about is soon), so the girls and I went shopping for some new shoes for them both and went back to the house, packed a flask and some juice, crisps and chocolate and water for the dog, and waited for Thomas to come home so that we could head off to Tinto, one of our favourite places to be, for a walk.
It was glorious. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and Pippin had a ball! We have taken the girls there a few times, and each time we are trying to encourage them to go a bit further. One day I'm sure we will make it to the top. But just being out together enjoying lovely sunshine, and breathtaking scenery, and just being together as a family can't be beaten!
There were quite a few paragliders venturing up with their massive bags on their backs. It's hard enough walking up, never mind a 20kg weight on your back. We saw one lady paraglider who was commenting on the fact that she weighs 60kg, and so she was carrying an extra third of her weight! We also met an elderly lady of 80 coming down when we were going up, and although I don't know how far she went up, I was still amazed at how she managed because she looked as if she had some disability with her back...she really inspired me and so I urged the girls on that bit more, after all they are young and should have loads more energy.
Dayna was jumping over muddy bits...fell and got a big slab of dirt on her knee which she wasn't too amused about. It's really funny because Miriam would just stand up, and get on with it. It wouldn't bother her. But Dayna is a bit of a clean freak. She hates the slightest bit of dirt on her, and with no sink nearby to run to wash up, she was not too amused. She eventually laughed about it, especially when we joked that she had landed in fox's poo!
We let Pippin off her lead and she was just in her element running free amongst the heather and the rocks, jumping and splashing through the muck and sniffing everywhere. When we got back down to the car we had our refreshments and I sat in the boot with Pippin with the door up, lapping up the sunshine and watched the paragliders descending graciously from the top of Tinto. Pippin just lay in a towel that I had wrapped her in to keep her cosy, and she was so content.
We then headed home, gave Pippin a shower.....
and just relaxed together...I did a bit of blogging and then had to make a Christening card for our neighbours baby, Hannah...
....so all in, a wonderful day and hopefully the start of many more lovely days to come.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Destiny
On Friday night we headed through to the Destiny Church in Edinburgh. They host a film night every fortnight, and Kirsty and Fraser are responsible for this venture.
Kirsty used to go to our corps at The Salvation Army in Bellshill..... (her mum, the wonderful Liz is part of B.L.O.C.) ....but then she went to uni and hooked up with the Destiny Church there, which has proven to be a really good choice for her and for her husband Fraser.
When they had been through at S.N.A.C. they had let us know about these film nights that they host....(full size cinema screen!!) ...and we just hadn't been able to fit it in our diary at the time, but we managed to have a free night on Friday and enjoyed our visit to "Destiny"The interior of the church is amazing. The architecture is gorgeous..right up my street...and they have just made an excellent job of making it so accessible to the community. They have a lovely welcoming entrance hallway with lots of good quality flyers for numerous events that are going on in and around Destiny, and then you walk through to a small cafe area which is great....good use of space...and the serving area for the cafe was well designed and just looked professional. They are doing what I believe to be really important....reaching out to the community and letting them know that the church today CAN be relevant and "with it"!
The film nights are free...refreshments are provided by "The Reel" cafe and they make amazing popcorn too...(Thomas will vouch for that)...tea, coffee, chocolate, crisps..etc and all at very reasonable prices. It was great to see so many non-churched people come in and just relax and not feel anxious about being in a church building. Other than announce the times of the meetings on a Sunday there was nothing else said of a religious nature, which I think was really important.The reason that I think that is important in this situation is that they have many other outreach activities on during the week and obviously on a Sunday when they have their 3 meetings, (their two morning services are the same, but at different times due to large numbers) but for this night, it is simply as case of letting people feel comfortable entering a church building, and of simply just meeting the people...start building up a rapport and possibly even a friendship....and to allow them to experience "church" through people like Kirsty and Fraser.
I'd ask you all to pray for Kirsty and Fraser and for the work that they do in Destiny. They put so much of themselves into God's work, and they do it not out of a sense of duty.....but out of a real desire to serve God and the community that they live in.
So thank you both for a great night...we all enjoyed watching "Return of the Jedi" and those really cute Ewoks that our two girls love so much.
So folks...the next showing is "The Miracle Maker" shown on Good Friday. The time as far as I know is 7.30pm, but that is when the film starts...doors open at 7pm...arrive then and grab and wee refreshment and a blether before the film commences.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Everybody loves Raymond
I absolutely love this sitcom. I have to confess I don't follow a lot of programmes, but everybody in our little family loves Everybody loves Raymond. There are 9 series in total, and I'm thinking about trying to collect the whole series. I love to have a good laugh and I always do when watching Raymond and the gang. If you haven't seen it, I think it comes on channel 4 in the mornings, but we watch it on the Paramount Comedy channel at dinner time.
Go on, check it out and have a laugh.
Been really enjoying the hamster game that Chris Hinton blogged about. It's addictive. Been looking at some other games on the same website as the hamster one and there is another one that is great fun too. Check this out...."bug on a wire". It gets a bit tricky. Let me know how you get on!
Our new mobiles arrived today. We both went for the lovely Sony Ericsson K800i...I went for the brown one and Thomas went for the black. I think he does like the brown one better, but in order for us to differentiate them he has been really nice about letting me have that one. Looking forward to playing around with it. It's quite a lot different from my Motorola Razor. At last I can get Cherry Blossom Girl by Air as a ringtone.
Many of you will know or be familiar with Ross aka Roscoe...well he has a lovely sister called Joanne. A few weeks ago my best friend Janey asked if I could use a corner unit because Joanne was looking to get rid of one that was in her room. Funnily enough Thomas and I had been looking at some in Ikea a wee while ago and thought it would be a really good thing to use as a crafting table and being able to shut all my bits and bobs away would be great as I hate a mess.
So Joanne let me see it and I say "yes please". On Wednesday Roscoe and his dad came over with the unit. They had to dismantle it all because of the size of it, and then reassemble it for me, which was really nice of them both. Thank you Jim and Roscoe.
I spent the rest of the afternoon just getting it into position and filling it. I was really looking forward to moving our G4 mac into the unit as I mainly use it, and Thomas mainly uses the laptop. I planned to move the printer as well so that everything would be at hand for my card making. I just unplugged the computer and lifted it onto my new unit...plugged it back in and it wouldn't work. Thomas said that it happened once to him but eventually it did come on. Unfortunately for me...no matter how long I tried, it wouldn't.I love my computer, and all of my card templates and worship band stuff is on it. I can't do without it. So today I took it to Scotsys to hopefully find out what is wrong with it. Poor wee thing! Hope she's okay!
So I can't fully enjoy my unit yet until all systems are go, but I am ever so chuffed with it....so thank you Joanne, and to Jim and Roscoe for being so kind to deliver and reassemble, and of course to Janey who let me know about it.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
All ipod lovers, look awayThis clip contains scenes that may disturb and upset any ipod lovers out there!
This guy blends all sorts of crazy stuff in his "blendtec", diamonds, golf clubs, plungers and who knows what else. CRAZY...but I wouldn't mind one of them...to do smoothies and soups with of course...I'm not into the hard stuff!
I have spent the last few days working away in my back garden. I needed to cut back a lot of dead growth in order for the new growth to come in. A whole lot of weed pulling and pruning back was certainly required, and after a really hard days work today I'm glad to say it's done!I never cut my grass until the end of March, but I had to cut mine today believe it or not. The grass was extremely long and with our little doggie going out to do her business, it was becoming increasingly difficult to firstly find those little parcels but secondly to doggie bag them with most of it going all over the long strands of grass....(I think you get the idea!). So it was really needed! The edges are all trimmed the way I like them done and I have already started on a few plans I have for extra plant bedding this summer. So all said...I'm aching, but very happy.
Last weekend was fantastic. My only complaint was that it passed by too quickly! Staying at the Point Hotel was a great experience, and we would definately go back. Being in Edinburgh and so close to the castle and the shops was also ideal. Our room was amazing, and the Jacuzzi even more so.We had a laugh when we arrived in our room. When I went into the bathroom to check out the double jacuzzi, I couldn't believe my eyes. The bath was huge about 2 and a half times the width of a usual bath...but at first I thought there were two of them...couldn't quite understand why and then as I went to investigate and nearly smacked into the wall of mirror, I realised that it was only a reflection and a pretty good illusion. Hopefully the photo reveals what I saw!
Spending time with Thomas with no distractions, or things to comsume our time was truly wonderful. I enjoyed every moment of it. Check out the pictures at flickr, and also check out Thomas' blog aka headphonaught for a more detailed recap of our time in the auld reekie!
Monday, March 05, 2007
Happy 40th Alastair!It's my oldest brother's birthday today...and he's now 40, much to his disliking... and so all the family have been out enjoying a meal together to celebrate his big day. I have another older brother Colin...then there is Caroline, and then little old me...the bairn!
So anyway Alastair...happy birthday...can't believe your 40!....SCARY. It will come to us all unfortunately. I have another eight and a half years to go..and that is one birthday I will not be looking forward to.
Labels: family
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Maggie's Monster Bike and Hike 2007
Ross...aka Roscoe, our good friend and fiance to Janey (as seen above), is taking part in a bike and hike, in aid of Maggie's cancer care centres. He's made up a wee webpage for online sponsorship. Here's a wee bit about the charity:"Maggie's Centres help people adjust to living with cancer. Its pioneering support programme has been developed for patients, their carers, family and friends. Each centre is located close to an NHS hospital and they have been designed carefully and imaginatively to make sure people feel at home."With the percentage of people nowadays being affected by cancer, I don't think that there are many of us who don't know of someone who has or has had cancer. Just last year alone, Thomas aka the headphonaught lost an uncle and an aunt to cancer.
Check out the link for Roscoe's webpage and read about what exactly he is going to be doing. So please, please sponsor and support him for this really worthwhile cause.
