Wednesday, October 28, 2009

A successful secret to growing plants.

There are some traits we would love to be able to claim from our grandparents. Both my grandmothers were wonderful gardeners that had gardens that your imagination could run wild with. Sadly that gene has missed me. I love plants, and I have no trouble buying them and planting them the problem is quite simply I forget that they are there.

Over the last couple of summers in Adelaide we have had some of our plants die due to water restrictions and hubby desire to see which plants will last in the climate we now face. Plants can be watered by rain water tank, so I have decided that with my kid’s love of salads I would again try to plant vegetables. Last year we grew a few zucchini and cucumbers with hubby and the kids watering my plants. This winter I tried growing beetroots, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce and carrots. Most survived thanks to the rain although I did forget to weed out the carrots and we did not get to eat any broccoli or cauliflower. Feeling proud of my winter gardening achievements we have now undertaking growing strawberries, sweet corn, tomatoes, eggplant and capsicum.

But now we are wiser and have a fence around our little veggie patch to keep out the pest. The reason we did not get to eat any cauliflower was that the dog decided that he really liked the taste of the leaves and had pulled up and ate the plants before we knew what was happening. Only one broccoli grew and as the kids informed me a week ago actually was ready to eat, that was until I was outside with the kids looking at the broccoli deciding its fate, when the dog joined us and after a glance at us walked over to the plant and took out a big chunk and walked off happy with his meal. Our new successful secret to growing plants - Keep the dog away from them.

Sometimes in life we will start things that other will be happy to assist us with to see the final product. I thank God for my kids and hubby.

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Posted by glitterfaith at 8:35 PM 1 comments
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Monday, October 26, 2009

Start Walking Again.

Yesterday I fell over. I seem to do this once a year. I guess it is part of my old co-ordination problem I had as a child. I knew I was about to fall, I registered in my brain that my feet were not walking right, and then I fell. I landed on my hands and knees. Annoyed with myself I got up, looked around and saw that I was by myself, now I had a problem – I was on my way to see the movie Julie & Julia with a friend, I could turn back and walk home, or I could continue walking and meet my friend at the cinema; I did not have time to change and start walking again. I decided to continue walking even thought I had nice green stains now on my knees.

Sometimes the hardest thing is to get up and keep going even as a Christian. The movie Julie & Julia show two women who in the end achieve more than they expected, even though along the way the both stumbled. Stumbling on our life journeys are just one of the hazards we face. For me personally understanding my importance to God and trying to keep my eyes focused on Jesus to get to where I am meant to be keeps me getting up and moving forwards again.

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Posted by glitterfaith at 6:28 PM 1 comments
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Thursday, October 22, 2009

Temptation - The Price to Pay

My husband was watching the movie ‘The price to pay’ or as it is known in France ‘Le Prix a Prayer’ the other night, he had not seen it before but I had, it is a movie which made me laugh. It is not a Christian movie, but it does demonstrate temptation in the movie. What I love about this movie is that the husband (Christian Clavier) has worked hard all his life so that his wife (Nathalie Baye) and his daughter (Anais Demoustier) can enjoy everything in life, until one day he has enough and realizes that his marriage is in bad shape turns to his chauffer (Gerard Lanvin) for advice. His chauffer has been living with his partner (Geraldine Pailhas) is tired of her wanting to spend time writing than spending time with him. The men devise a simple plan – cut off the money to the women and they will in turn come back to the men. What the men soon start to realize is that what sounds great in theory doesn’t always turn out the way we want it to.

With the money gone for the two women temptation comes as they struggle to deal with what the men are doing to them. The women react in different ways. The men so sure that the women will be back in there arms so quickly once the money is gone, go from one extreme to the other to prove their point.

Bottom line of this movie – Choose wisely who you get marriage advice from.

Proverbs 13:20 – He who walks with the wise grow wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.



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Posted by glitterfaith at 7:53 PM 0 comments
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Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Perfect

In my lead up to my wedding I wanted to look perfect. I wanted my hair perfect, my make up perfect, my dress perfect and even my hands perfect. Having organized and arranged everything I could do to get myself perfect for the big day, I felt secure in the knowledge that my wedding was going to be perfect. God had other ideas. Now I am not a perfectionist, it just that from a small age I had dreamed about this day. This was the day I would be a princess.

The day before the wedding my family and my future husband got into our cars and drove the thirty minutes to the church we had chosen to get married at – a simple thing or so I thought. Ten minute before we got to the church, my car had a flat tyre. In the car was my future husband, my sister and myself. We started to organize who would change the flat tyre, now my future husband was all set to change the tyre until he realized that he did not know how to work the jack. My sister just plainly refused on the grounds that she would get dirty; which left only me. I started getting the jack to work, when it happened, one of my false nails snapped off and flew into the surrounding country side. We fixed the tyre and meet everyone at the church for our wedding rehearsal.

At the wedding rehearsal I could not take my eyes off the one nail that was no longer perfect, at the end of the rehearsal as we went to leave; God whispered to me “Why do you have to be perfect?” The answer was easy – isn’t every bride on her day. God whispered again “I did not make you to be perfect. Do you think your future husband will love you less if you marry him without the false nail on your finger? Is this how you want to start your marriage? What happens after tomorrow; are you still going to be perfect?” I pulled my future husband aside and we talked for a little while and agree on one thing.

The next day I got married to my hubby and I was not perfect on that day, we had both agreed that I did not have to be perfect to marry my husband, and he thought that it kind of suited me. He loved the fact that neither of us had to bow to the pressure of having looking perfect on our wedding day. We enjoyed our wedding day and found ourselves going with the flow of the day.

Today having been married twelve years I am glad I chose not to be perfect on the day. God was right – You do not have to be perfect to get married.




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Sunday, October 18, 2009

A simple instruction.

It happens every time I wash the dishes. I just can’t help it. It enters my mind for only a fleeting of a second and then it is gone again. It happens just as I am about to start washing the dishes. I am suddenly in my grandparent’s kitchen (I call these grandparent’s Nana and Poppa) and I am about nine years old and it is my job to wash the dishes. The water is already in the sink and I have placed all the dishes near by into the water and my Poppa enters the room and a look of shock comes over his face. “You are not going to wash the dishes like that, are you?” I have no idea what I have done wrong as he starts to remove all the dirty dishes from the water. He empties the water out of the sink – not one dish has been washed. He quickly refills the sink with water and detergent and turns to me. “This is how you wash dishes. You first place in the glasses, because they are the least dirties out of all the dishes, and then you slowly place dirtier dishes in the sink after the glasses and mugs are done.” He stands by me as I follow his instructions. As quick as a blink of an eye the memory is gone and I am there in the present still following his simple instructions for washing dishes.

My poppa died when I was twelve and I have lots of memories of him, but this is the one memory that comes to mind the most. Over the years I have found that I agree with his simple instructions for washing the dishes. It is funny how today we still follow the simple instructions of the people God has placed in our lives as children. Memories of them can be found in the weirdest places and sometimes at the weirdest times. The bible states in Titus 2 about older people instructing younger people in life. My Poppa instructed me as a child in how to wash the dishes and it still has an effect on me 24 years later, image the effect we can have on our children today. When was the last time you instructed your children or grandchildren? Remember that sometimes the most simple of instructions can have a great impact.




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Posted by glitterfaith at 6:22 PM 0 comments
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Tuesday, October 13, 2009

What I thought of Faith like Potatoes

I watched a man on the screen who was trying to keep his family and lifestyle of being a farmer together, he did what a lot of farmers in Australia and particularly the area I grew up in are doing now, shifting farming locations to survive and have a future for their families. Angus Buchan went from a house to a caravan and felt like his whole world was falling apart, his loving wife followed him and was determined to make a home out of whatever situation they now faced. The hardest thing for Angus was that he was learning that he was not in control of the situation he was in, but he was determined to try and control it. Anger, frustration and the feeling of approaching failure turned Angus from a loving husband and father into a man his own wife no longer recognized. When Angus turned to God and this was not what Angus himself was any where near wanting to do, his whole life changed and so did his belief about the life circumstances he was facing. Angus began to inspire everyone he touched and the movie show his journey of how God made him into the man he is today and also how God used him.

In Australia many farmers are facing times like Angus, but it is not only farmers who are facing times of financial uncertainty. There is a lot that we need to be reminded about in Angus’ story. It is an important message that we all need to see at least once to make us think about the life circumstances we face now. Now I will admit I did enjoy watching the movie ‘Faith like Potatoes’. But I am too much of a thinker and it has raised some questions which I would like to ask you.


Is it possible for God to use you like he used Angus?

Should we expect that every circumstance God will use as a sign of his power and favor?

Should Angus have left his family so much to spread God’s word?

How important was Angus’ wife?

Should people be happy about the way Angus was changed?

How much impact were the churches having into the life circumstances of the communities in which they belonged?

What sort of people did Angus impact?

Here is a preview of Faith like Potatoes.




To purchase the faith like Potatoes books and dvd





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Posted by glitterfaith at 7:09 PM 1 comments
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Thursday, October 8, 2009

An easy and unique Christmas present.

We tend to have the same problem each year. My husband was at his wits end one year trying to think of what he could give his parents for Christmas. We had gone for a drive and I was trying to think up ideas that could help. The problem was that his parents have everything they could need, and even though you could buy something for their shack, they would tell you it was too good to use at the shack. We needed something for them and time was running out. It was a week before Christmas. I suddenly had an idea – I would do a scrapbook album for them of the kids. Hubby unsure but with no other idea agreed. I went out and brought and album, paper and crafty bits to place on the pages. I sat down and started to create a unique present – I had never scrapbooked before and was surprised at how easy it really was. I had a magazine to try to copy some of the ideas. I was there for about an hour when my eldest daughter, who was five at the time, came down and watched what I was doing; within five minutes she had put a page together with her photographs and wanted to do her own page, reluctantly I allowed her, only to watch her scrapbook half of the album with me. I now do scrapbooking at home with my two daughters. We finished the album and gave it to hubby’s parents for Christmas and they were thrilled and happy with their easy and unique homemade present.

Two nights ago I started to place this year’s scrapbooks together. I had spent Tuesday running around organizing my mother in laws photographs from her camera, when I realized it was time for me to also get my photographs organized for this year’s scrapbooking present. With the photographs now printed; my nine year old daughter and I have begun our scrapbook albums for this year. I make small scrapbooks so that they can be placed in a drawer, but I am no longer making one scrapbook but six. One for each family and Grandparents still alive including my own Grandmother. My family looks forward to their scrapbook presents, but I will admit I don’t go over board on making them as the children help me and I find they will use all the good stuff on one page if you don’t watch them. Most scrapbooking essentials can be found in a bargain (cheap) store and if children can put a page together anyone can.

HOW TO MAKE A CHEAP SCRAPBOOK.



You will need:
Photographs
Scissors
Brightly colored acid free paper
Double sided sticky tape
Lead pencil, pens and Texas
Eraser
Three paper sandwich bags
Stapler
Glue Stick

STEP 1
Take one of the paper sandwich bags and fold it so that the seal end nearly touches the open end of the bag and fold it. Get the next bag and place on the first bag. Move the sealed end two centimeters away from the other sealed end and fold, repeat with the last bag. Staple bags in place. You should end up with a book with defined pages that will give a hint of what is too come.
STEP 2

Cut and glue colored paper on to the pages. Cut and stick photographs on each page. Decorate around photographs. You can use store brought materials such as rub-on, or you can decorate your paper with different papers and draw designs on your paper – a novel idea could be to get your children to draw a small self portrait and put your favorite picture of them next to it. Remember to write down comments or describe what is happening on the scrapbook pages – spelling should not be an issue. Creativity is the key and neat writing in a straight line is not a rule when scrapbooking.

Most importantly have fun.



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Posted by glitterfaith at 11:19 PM 2 comments
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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Words people want to hear.

Sometimes in life we need to hear certain words, sometimes it can be a simple “I love you.” Or “I am sorry.” But sometimes we feel lost for words and I recently found myself in such a situation. I found myself looking into the tear stained eyes of my children as they try to understand why their beloved family member has died, and I hear the anger in their voices about the world around them and especially at God, because after all if God made the world and is so powerful then why did this family member have to die. It is at times like these that I found myself at a loss for words.

I found the words to answer my children and I told my children these words; and they were happy with my response; so happy in fact that my daughter read these words from the Bible at her beloved Opa’s funeral. I would love to share these words with you now. These words let my children know that there is a time and a season for everything.

A time for everything.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.

A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,

A time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,

A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

A time to scatter stones and time to gather them, at time to embrace and a time to refrain,

A time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,

A time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,

A time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

These words are from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 in the Bible.

If you are anything like me you will find yourself in one of these situations. God Bless you.



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Posted by glitterfaith at 4:51 AM 0 comments
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