My Friend.

I had such a busy, blessed week last week! 

I think I will have to do a couple of posts to cover everything.

On Tuesday I got to spend the day with my dear friend, Ciara. 

She is lovely and has such a big heart. 

Ciara is a few years younger than me, but she was always much older than her years. 

We went to the same School and Church Youth Group.

It has probably been a couple of years since we have had a chance to catch up properly.

We talked for hours, and hours. 

It was wonderful. 

I didn't realise how much I missed this girl until we spent time together. 

We talked about everything that is going on in our lives, which is why we were up until 3am!! 

But everyone stays up that late catching up with good friends, right? 

In between our talking we did have time to watch our movie, Love Actually. 

When this movie first came out we went to see it at the cinema with our mammas and it has now become "our" movie. 

We try to watch it together every Christmas. 

Last year I think we fell asleep during it! Actually, I know that we fell asleep. We must be getting old! 

But we managed to stay awake the whole way through it this year. 

I learn so much spending time with this girl. 

She challenges me to be a better person and to think differently. 

She is a wonderful, committed friend who gives you her full attention. 

She is a Godly woman who knows her Scripture. 

She is just such an encouragement to be around.

On Wednesday we went for a long walk. 

It was so nice to go on walks that I had gone on as a child. 

We both have a love for the area the we grew up in. 

It is pretty beautiful. (I didn't take many photos so I will have to take some another time and post them for you)

We walked around the estate at Taymouth Castle. 

It is pretty spectacular. 

We also did a bit of exploring around an old, beautiful house. 

I think I will have to go back on this walk and take some photos of all the beautiful places that I am talking about! You need to see what I am talking about. 

When we got back from our afternoon of walking we were a wee bit cold! 

So we spent the rest of the afternoon drinking tea and watching movies.

Perfect. 

Ciara is going to Holland in a week, actually it is probably sooner than that. 

She is going to study over there for 6 months. 

When I was with her before Christmas I had lots of questions for her. 

Her response went something like this.

I'm not really sure where I am staying yet, but I'm not at all worried about it. I really feel that the Lord wants me to be over there and know that He is going to work out all the details perfectly so I am not even going to think about it. 

I tell you, this girls faith would challenge you!

I can totally relate to that in that I feel exactly the same way about California. 

It is in the Lord's hands and He has a perfect plan.

Such a comfort knowing this. 

So through all my rambling I hope you know that I had a wonderful couple of days with my dear friend.

She is such a blessing to me.

Ciara, I will be praying for you as you set off on your little adventure. 

I know that you are going to do great things there and I am so excited for you. 

You are a beautiful, talented, faithful, thoughtful, Godly young lady.

Love you.

(this is the best photo that I got of sweet Ciara, and I think it's pretty cute!) 

Philippians 4:6

p.s. I will fill you in on the rest of my week later. 

Full heart.

I spent the day with the baby brother today.

I had such a great day.

We talked serious stuff, and laughed about some not-so-serious stuff.

We talked about our big sister, who is in Australia just now (we miss you Luce)

We had lunch.

We had a quick visit with Granny and Aunty (Granny's sister)

It was just a great day.

I did get a bit sad when I thought of him going back to Plymouth next week.

But I write this more thankful than sad.

At one point today he said to me

"I've spent more time with you since I've been back than anyone else, except Corrie"

(Corrie is the lovely girlfriend)

"No one else spends this much time with their siblings"

I said to him "You should be happy that we get along so well and that we are so close"

He told me he was.

Yup, my heart was pretty full today.

The Lord has absolutely blessed me with great relationships with my big sister and little brother.

We have so much fun together and I am truly thankful for that.

I love laughing with them.

I am missing my sister just now.

But we manage to speak often.

Skype is wonderful, when it works!

Even when it doesn't work it still makes us laugh.

I printed off a calander from Under the Sycamore

I wanted to look at each day differently this year.

It is easy to get caught up in "pity party" and feel sorry for youself.

There are so many ways that the Lord blesses us and I want to be thankful for those things everyday.

So I will not be sad that my brother leaves on Sunday but thankful that we have had 5 weeks together!

Today I am thankful for a great relationship with my brother, and getting to spend precious time with him before he goes back to sea.

Sick of being sick.

I have not been feeling well since December 9th.

That's right, one whole month.

I am soo done with feeling crummy.

It started off as a cold- sore throat, running nose, sore chest, ear-ache..the works.

I had this when I was flying back from California.

Yup, I was that person on the plane that everyone hates.

That you hear coughing and think "you'd better not come anywhere near me with those germs"

(Em, sorry bout that folks)

Sometimes I feel a bit better but most of the time I still feel terrible, like every morning when I wake up.

So today I had a lazy day by the fire watching movies

(and maybe feeling a bit sorry for myself!)

Chariots of Fire was on TV - gets me everytime! Great movie.

Then I watched the Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Enjoyed that too. (bit freaky though)

And now I have just finished watching The Curious Case on Benjamin Button. I have mixed feelings about that. I laughed at first at the weird-looking-alien baby. Then I felt a bit sorry for him. Then it was a bit weird. Then I didn't relaly understand it. Then I wondered if it was a true story. So I still haven't made up my mind about that one.

Best part of the day though.

Getting me some snuggle time with Brindle (our cat)

I never let Brindle sit with me and snuggle. She can get quite vicious (well, only when I push her off me - her claws come out)

But today it was just nice.

We'll see if I let her do that tomorrow.

I am thinking that I probably need to go to the Docs on Monday and ask them to make me better.

Well, ask them if they can give me some drugs so that this lovely cold/flu/horribleness can leave my body.

I think it has had it's fun now.

I thought I would share this with you today.

You're welcome.

At least I didn't tell you how many times I sneazed today..and it wasn't pretty, let me tell you! ;)

Here's hoping tomorrow is a snot free day for everyone.

(Sorry for getting grose. I am delusional. I have watched a mix of movies today and I need some sleep)

Little brother.

If you have read my previous post you will know that my baby brother is home.

When I say baby, I mean 18 year old.

Not sure when he grew up!

Sorry Fin, but you will always be called baby brother, get used to it.

I wanted to get some photos of us together while he is home.

I will now show you the photos I got.

Try not to laugh.

Now let me explain how difficult it is to take photos with this kid.

All posed and ready for the perfect photo and just before I take it he says something to make me laugh.

Great.

Hello 4 chins and winking action.

When I first saw this I thought it was horrible.

I think it is slowly becoming one of my favourite photos.

I have a feeling that I will look at this when he is miles away from me and really cherish it.

And probably laugh a little bit!

I tried to get another photo...and this is what I got.

Nice face Fin!

It makes me laugh too.

I'm linking up with the lovely Emily today.

You should too.

Have a wee read at why it is so important to take photos with your loved ones.

It doesn't really matter what they look like, they will be treasured.



2012 (resolutions).

Already?

Ok, so I feel like I need to say something about the last post.

I guess when you read the title you would think that there would be a list of all the best parts of my year.

And I really should have said that the singing and dancing with my brother was one of my favourite moments of the year.

The Lord blessed me greatly last year.

He blessed me with more friendships,

deeper friendships with old friends,

 time with my American family,

precious time with my sister and brother,

allowed my "spiritual batteries" to be recharged,

and many more blessings.

Glad I cleared that up. Phew.

Anyhoo, onto this year.

I am excited for this year.

I have no idea what it will hold but I do know who holds it!

Of course, just like last year, I have a page full of New Year Resolutions.

Why do we do this? I don't even know where my list is from last year let alone the goals that I wrote down - woops!

This year my list looks a little different (I think, from what I can remember of my list last year)

I wrote on New Year's Eve (you know if you don't write it before the 1st of Jan you have to wait until the next year do make resolutions. Yup, there are rules.)

Some of them would make you laugh, like my mother did when she glanced at it and read the first few.

Ok- I will share that with you.

Lose weight.

Eat healthier.

Exercise.

You're not laughing too much I hope.

I am sure that these appear on nearly every list of resolutions.

Thankfully there is more to my list than these 3.

Here are a few of them.

I have a list of books that I plan to read this year (2 of which I have already started reading - I get points for that right?)

I am excited to get into these books. They are all Christian books and my hope is that they will challenge me in new ways.

Watch less TV. - I don't really watch an awful lot now but it is so easy just to turn the TV on and watch whatever nonsense is on. (annnd..I won't have time to watch TV with all these resolutions I have set!)

Write letters. - I used to write letters all the time. I love receiving letters. Something about someone taking the time to write to you is so special.

Be a better friend, sister, daughter, cousin. - It is so easy to get caught up in everything and forget the people that are so important to you, and who you are important to. I want to be intentional with my relationships.

Work on my attitude towards others. - There are some specific "others" that I am talking about here. It is my prayer that the Lord would on my attitude towards these people, that I might be the person that He uses to speak to them.

Buy less - It is so easy to buy things now that we hardly give it a thought. You can go online and buy everything you want. You end up buying things that you don't need, material things. I want to change that this year.

Be intentional about prayer - I already pray for friends, family and others. But I want to make a point of asking these people I pray for, exactly what they need me to pray for.

And that's all. Yikes.

Not unachievable at all.

I can do this, and I want to do this.

I plan to e-mail this list to a few friends so that they can hold be accountable.

Even with all these resolutions there is one the comes above all of these.

That is that the Lord's will be done in my life.

Praying that your 2012 will be greatly blessed!



The Best of 2011

I can't believe that a whole year has passed.

Seriously, that went quickly, right?

I have been thinking about all that 2011 held.

It got me thinking about the best bits.

I could list all of these things..but I'm not going to (not today anyway)

But I think the best part of the year was probably a couple of days ago for me.

My brother is home for Christmas.

He is in the Royal Navy and has been away since July.

As you can imagine I was pretty excited to see him.

I have so enjoyed spending time with him.

Anyhoo, back to my favourite moment.

We were on our way to town the other day and Fin let me pick the music.

FYI - in my family this never happens because I will either put music from musicals, soppy romantic songs..etc. They don't go down well (secretly I am sure that they enjoy this!)

SO...I had picked a few wonderful songs.

Dancing Queen, by Abba, came on.

I was sure that he would as me to change it, but he didn't.

He joined in with my and sang his little heart out.

Ok, he might have been taking the mic a little bit but it was hilarious.

I had a huge smile on my face, and sometimes I couldn't help but laugh.

I thought to myself

" right now, this is the best moment of my year"

There was no time to think about everything else that was going on, no stress, no worry.

Just fun times with my little brother.

I am going to leave you with the music video for Dancing Queen.

Don't try and resist dancing. I think it is impossible.

So dance along and smile as you think about all the wonderful blessings of 2011.

On purpose, with purpose.

I am really going to try and work on being more consistent with my posts.

I think one a month is a little bit pathetic!

 I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and took some time to reflect on the real reason for the occasion. I have to admit that Christmas became a whole lot more special when I really appreciated all that the birth of Jesus meant for me.

He is really the greatest gift we could ever ask for.

I am back in Scotland for a little bit.

Hopefully, I will be back in California soon.

(please pray for me)

I am enjoying spending time with my family and especially the little brother.

He is a such a blessing to me.

I do have some fun photos from Christmas day, but I need to get them from  brother first.

We had a some what eventful day.

My brother, Dad and I headed to Bridge of Earn for Christmas day to spend it with our Granny and Great-Aunt.

They were very excited to have us spend the day with them, as were we!

We arrived, and I put the pavlova safely in the kitchen.

(I don't know how you are supposed to travel with a pavlova but I was holding the plate, the pavlova was sliding all over the place so I had to hold it with both my hands. I had 2 fingers on one side of the pavlova and 2 on the other and still had to have hold of the plate. I don't know how it made it there in once piece because I dosing in and out of consciousness.)

Annnnnyhoo.

We said "Merry Christmas" to the girls (the old girls) and started unpacking all the presents from the car.

As I was coming back in Aunty was on the floor in the house.

She had tripped and must have hit her head off the cabinet.

She had a cut just above her eye.

She sure gave us all a freight.

Thankfully she was alright.

It was crazy because on the way there I had been thinking about how old they are getting (Aunty will turn the big 9-0 next year)

For the most part she is doing great. But she has had a few little bumps now.

I do worry about her.

But honestly, I think (ok I know) that I fall over more often than her.

I was putting up Christmas decorations last week and stepped back, lost my balance and took a heavy step back and smashed a glass bauble. Great.

No glass in my foot though! Phew.

I am enjoying relaxing these holidays.

It is horrible outside. Really it is.

I think I could quite easily go into hibernation right now.

I have no desire to go outside. The wind is crazy, and throw rain in there and it is just nasty.

There is no fear of me blowing away though, I have not stopped eating since Christmas Day.

Why does that happen around this time of year?

You just see food and think that you need to eat it or something terrible is going to happen.

I just want to eat all the food so it is gone.

I've not just been eating.

What I've been enjoying more than eating is reading.

I am finding it hard to put down a book just now.

I am readying a book called The Power of a Praying Woman by Stormie Omartian.

It is very challenging, and encouraging.

I started reading it a while ago, I may have spoken about it here before.

But I haven't read it for a good few months.

It is actually a 3 in 1 book and it also have The Power of a Praying Wife and The Power of a Praying Parent.

I have been reading parts of all 3.

Now is hasn't been that long since I have posted.

I am neither married, or had a baby.

But I still find it relevant.

As I read through the different chapters and sections I find myself agreeing with what the writer is saying.

It is very real, very honest and I can relate to what she is talking about.

I find myself reading it and saying "YES" in my head.

Yesterday I read this.

" We have to put our expectations in the Lord and not in other things or people."

Emm, yes.

How often do we forget this? I know I do.

As I wait  and pray for my visa sometimes my prayers are not focused on the Lord and His plan but focused on the outcome I want.

That is not to say that I don't believe that the Lord wants me to be in California.

I do.

But my prayer should be, and is, that the Lord's will be done in my life.

His plan is far more perfect than any plan I have for my life.

"We want to live life on purpose and with purpose"

It is so easy to get caught up in the things of this world.

I want to be part of something greater.

My prayer is that I will live my life on purpose and with purpose.

Ladies, I would definitely encourage you to get this book if you haven't already done so.

My dear friend, Juliet, gave me this book for my Birthday 3 years ago.

I have picked up it a few times in these 3 years but I am feel challenged to study it more closely.

I'll leave you with a photo of my in my new Christmas Pjs!

Yes, they are covered in robins and holly.

And yes, they are beautiful.

Praying that you have time reflect on the things/people that really matter this holiday season.