Scribbles & Tea

This really is a Scribbles & Tea moment. I’m tucked up in bed ready for an early night with a huge cuppa warming my funny tummy. I think I’ve got a case of the midweek blues, am feeling a little off sorts. I really must be feeling unwell if I am not able to eat one of my awesome (if I do say so myself!) white chocolate Rocky Roads. Yes, I successfully completed my first official cooking/baking new recipe and I am proud as champ! I came across this recipe while visiting my nanny in hospital last week and immediately ripped it straight from the magazine as it looked so yummy. Unfortunately I’ll not be able to treat my nanny to one as her sugar levels are too high…

This recipe was so simple I feel I must share it with you.

White Chocolate Rocky Roads

Ingredients

600g White Chocolate, broken into squares

(I used baking chocolate trying to save money but next time will definitely indulge in some proper white chocolate!)

120g Cookies, broken into small pieces

40g mixed dried strawberries, cherries etc

40g toffee popcorn

40g glace cherries, halved

40g mini marshmallows

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1. Line a 20cm square tin with cling film and set aside

2. Melt 400g of the white chocolate in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water (don’t let the bowl touch the water)

3. Pour the melted chocolate into a separate bowl and add the rest of the ingredients, stirring until everything is well coated with chocolate. Transfer the mixture into the square tin and level with a palette knife

4. Melt the rest of the white chocolate and pour onto the top of the tin to make everything neat

5. Put in the fridge to set (approx 30 mins)

Easy peazy! I’ll definitely be making these again. But watch out, it is far too tempting to eat the ingredients along the way because they are so delicious! Especially the melted chocolate with marshmallows…

   

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Before I nod off, I wonder what everyone has given up for Lent? My husband and I have given up bread which will certainly be a real challenge as it is a staple part of our daily diet.

Also I will be creating a new blog for our Everest Base Camp Trek as we need a separate space to track our progress and a new blog name for the advertising and promoting materials. Will keep you informed.

Stewardship

Happy Pancake Tuesday everyone!

I hope you all enjoyed some delicious pancakes. I know in my last blog I promised to make more of an effort with my cooking but old faithful Betty Crocker came to my rescue tonight on the pancake front! It’s ok though, tomorrow night I have the most delicious baking recipe to try … but all will remain a secret until I make it tomorrow or Thursday. Watch this space…

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In tonight’s blog I want to explore something that has been on my mind since it was spoken in Church on Sunday – the concept of Stewardship. For me, stewardship begins and ends with the understanding that God has ownership of all things.

“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”

(Psalm 24:1)

Flowing from this knowledge that everything belongs to Him, I am to be a good steward of what He has given me. It is an honour to be given the responsibility of stewardship (something it is all too easy to forget). Stewardship requires entrustment and this scares me. When I really think of all the blessings God has given me and how often I am provided for – how many times have I abused or rejected them?  Too many times. It is my aim to begin to live out good stewardship of the gospel, of my call and purpose, of my time, my relationships and my finances and possessions. We need to get rid of our ownership mentality about this world and everything in it.

Matthew 6 v 19-34 (AMP)

In this passage God bestows us with some principles of stewardship which are also reiterated in the very opening book of the Bible (Genesis). I want to focus on just one of the key principles that I discovered here.

1. Is my eye sound?

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is sound, your entire body will be full of light. But if your eye is unsound, your body will be full of darkness. If then the very light in you (your conscience) is darkened, how dense is that darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by and be devoted to the one and despise and be against the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (deceitful riches, money, possessions, or whatever is trusted in). v22-24

 In opthalmic terms there is a condition known as adumbration where the eye sight becomes partially blurred and obscure, where a foreshadow may appear or some darkness. This is particularly interesting when thinking about having an unsound eye. An unsound eye holds jealousy, can appear shady and leaves room for error in both judgement and appearance. If I let myself have an unsound eye it is far too easy for darkness to seep in and cloud my blessings. This ultimately can lead to dissatisfaction with what I have been blessed with, deception and possibly even resulting in despising the blessings I have in my life.  We always want more, always want what we can’t have and always look to see what others have that we don’t. Don’t let your eye become unsound.

Count your blessings, look after them and be a good steward!

Can cook, won’t cook

Typical Friday night for my husband and I, we ate Chinese and watched a movie. Tonight’s film ‘Julie & Julia’ was a wonderfully inspiring tale of  two women who followed their dreams and their hearts by learning how to cook really good food.

Cooking is something I can and enjoy doing but have yet to find a real passion for it. Maybe this is because I don’t make enough time to cook or sometimes I simply just don’t want to. Since moving up to school my cooking has really suffered, and up until very recently, was virtually non-existent as we ate at school. It also doesn’t help that the kitchen I currently have is so small you couldn’t even swing my cat Meg in it! I did enjoy cooking and baking when I lived in the cottage with my lovely big kitchen and Stanley oven.

Yet watching this movie tonight, I have to say, has inspired me to reignite my cooking flame and step out of my comfort zone. I think I’ll have to buy the book! Perhaps it will help ease the pain of my cleaning calamities! I will try and add some of my cooking / baking experiences and disasters (no doubt!) to this blog in a bid to ensure I actually do carry this out! So heres to it … time to get the Le Creuset out!

A Cleaning Indisposition

In a bid to try and blog on a much more regular basis I have resolved to avoiding cleaning the house by writing this blog.

As a wife, and a relatively newly married one at that, I wonder if cleaning will be something that will loom over my life for ever like some sort of dark, low hanging cloud. I don’t know about you (all those wives out there please tell me if I’m crazy) but I feel like cleaning is always on my mind (forget about the husband!) I clean and clean and clean and suddenly, in a blink of an eye, the house is a mess! It baffles me no end and I don’t want to spend the rest of my life having some sort of imaginary battle with cleaning the house!

Maybe I have a problem, maybe I need to keep the house ‘too’ tidy? But I promise you, my house is most definitely not spick and span – I can assure you of that! Am I being pedantic, moaning or venting – yes. However I feel like surely there must be others out there who feel the same way. Others who let cleaning get in the way of their time and their life? I really do feel like I’m being inane but it’s something that I deal with every day and although I don’t want to admit this, and my husband will deny, deny, deny, but some men/husbands just don’t seem to ‘get it’. Cleanliness I mean. Why as a wife do I feel like it is my responsibility and I just can’t get cleaning to escape my brain? And the worst part is … I hate it, I detest any form of cleaning, tidying or sorting!!

I’m searching for the elusive remedy to cure my cleaning affliction.

If you feel like you can be of any help or offer any advice for my crazed disease, drop me a line. I’d love to hear from you.

All my crazy cleaning love,
Steph

Only when the clock stops does time come to life

I feel quite ashamed that I haven’t written a blog in some time now. Apologies! I would assume that my get out clause is that I was ‘too busy’ and I just ‘couldn’t find the time.’ However, what I will proceed to ramble in this post deems this assumption void, as time is mine.

Yes indeed, time is ours to do with it what we choose. 

I choose to allow time to fritter away…

I choose to allow time to defeat me and my plans…

I choose to allow so little time in to my day…

I choose to give and take time away…

I choose to accuse time of stealing from me…

I choose to forget time…

I choose to allow for time…

I choose me time …

I choose time for others… (for God, for family, for friends)

I choose to blame time …

I choose to make time …

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I choose and use the time that has been given to me.

The concept of time is simply too huge for me to really mull over in this post but I wanted to tease out something that I’ve been thinking about recently. I’m almost 24 and am still newly married, still in the very early stages of my career and would still consider myself to have most of my life left to live. To do all those things that I’ve dreamed of doing. Now don’t get me wrong – I have fulfilled several dreams already those including getting married, getting a dog, travelling and becoming a teacher. However, it worries me that I still take time for granted and assume I will have all the time in the world to accomplish these dreams.

My Christian faith has helped me to take comfort in knowing when I am following the path God has chosen for me that time is moving the way that it should. Yet I still yearn to be able to take time, put it in a box and tell it to slow down or to hurry up when I feel like it. I am terrified that I misuse time and will look back on my life and wish I had made the best use of my time. I hate days where I fritter time away doing useless and meaningless things and realise in the evening that I wasted a day, wasted my time, time that I can never get back.

I spent the weekend in Sligo with some great friends, friends who are laid back about time and who understand that there is no time better than the present. Of course you have to be sensible with time but sometimes I think you need to forget about time, take away the clocks, phones, TV’s, watches and internet and spend time your own way.

Take time, make time and enjoy time over the next few days, without thinking about time…

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Some lovely timely quotes

By the time we’ve made it, we’ve had it.
Malcolm Forbes

Clocks slay time… time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life.
William Faulkner

Know how to live the time that is given you.
Dario Fo

There’s time enough, but none to spare.
Charles W. Chesnutt

Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.
William Penn

Sleepless in Seahill

Update 1: Mount Everest Base Camp Trek 2012

Everest Base Camp

 

After officially embarking upon this adventure it came as no surprise that I had a rather sleepless night. Nothing is booked or confirmed yet and already I was tossing and turning thinking of travelling to Nepal, experiencing altitude sickness and flying in to the worlds shortest and most dangerous airport on what can only be described as a child’s toy plane! Already I began to doubt myself, questioning ‘Am I mad?’ ‘Will I get time off school?’ ‘What will our parents think?!’ However, I quickly reminded myself of the reason that we are even contemplating this journey … faith and love.

We hold faith in a creator God. A God who made the very mountain we are afraid to set foot on! We feel love – compassion for those who don’t feel loved yet deserve to be loved. I was reminded of a verse that holds a dear place in my heart as it was the first verse used for Xpression (Christian Outreach Initiative).

“The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” ~ Galations 5:6

Yes, I’m young … but I don’t want to reach the end of my time and wish I had made a mark on this planet. The time is now.

I am Esther living “for such a time as this.”

Exciting times are ahead. Already we have made contact with a possible North Face link and are excited to see where it leads! We are currently setting up online donations so we can begin to make a step towards our £10,000 target!

If you are tuning in, thank you! It’s lovely to share this experience with you and I’ll be keeping you posted!

Love,

Steph

Changing Lives … Including my own

Hello!

This is officially my first ever blog. WOW!

I have been thinking about writing a blog for quite some time now, but just never seemed to get round to it. However now seems like an apt time to begin, seeing as I am about to embark upon an adventure that could quite possibly change my life…

In the summer of 2o11 I visited Uganda, Africa with Changing Lives Projects. This local charity was immediately close to my heart as my parent-in-laws are the founders! They have been working with Discipleship Missions in Uganda for 15 years and have built a number of schools there during this time. During my visit I was blown away by the difference getting an education makes for the children there, so I am dedicating the next 8 months (along with my wonderful husband) to raising £10,000 to help one particular school in Magada.

This little school is set in a picturesque rural community but it is simply too small. On my visit there I was heartbroken to find orphaned children wandering towards the school timidly to see our programme for the children who went to the school. These children deserve and have a right to education so that is why I am dragging my poor husband to Base Camp Mount Everest in October! I am hoping and praying that by challenging and changing ourselves, we can truly change lives forever.