Parable of the Talents

Today concluded our Church's series on Time.  At the start of each year, the church does a series on the 5 rocks of the church: Trinity-centred, Bible Based, Gospel Absorbed, Growth Focused, and Mission Minded; as I said, the overarching topic this year was about Time.  Every week, there has been this quote from Matt Fuller's Book Time for Everything: "You don't have time to do everything you want to do, but you do have time to do everything God wants you to do".

Admittedly, I haven't read the book myself (it is on my WishList!), so this is not a review of the book, and I may have even mis-remembered the exact wording of the quote, however, there is a great truth there - I don't have time to do everything I want to do.  Every minute of the day, I confront that truth.  It is amazing and refreshing to see that there is time to do everything God wants me to do.

The sermon today was on The Parable of the Talents from Matthew 25.  I have linked to the full quote, but the story is a familiar one: a Master gives his Servants talents to look after in his absence.

When he returns, the servants who have doubled their money are praised, and the servant who returns the initial money is chastised.

I have always found this difficult to comprehend - why is the servant who returns the money chastised?  He hadn't lost it, he kept it safe, what is wrong with that?  Sermons in the past have likened the money in the parable, to spiritual gifts or talents, that we should use for God.  You may remember my previous blog post about Spiritual Gifts, and I have been helping more within the church.  However, it has always seemed harsh to me, that if you don't have many gifts, then the little you do have will be taken away.

Well, Sunday's sermon separated the use of the word 'talent' (which incidentally is a measure of weight, approximately 35kg - in which case I am over 2 talents, lol) from our modern understand of talents, being skills or achievements.  It talked about how everything we have is from God, and we should use it all wisely for His glory.

When listening to the sermon it occurred to me, that my trouble with this was the use of the words Master and Servants.  A more relevant analogy (to me, anyway) is that of a business man and his employees:

A business man was very generous, giving his employees a good salary and bonus. He delegates managing his finances to his employees before he departs for a while according to their ability.  One has £5M, one has £2M and one has £1M.   When he returns, he asks his employees to come to account.  The one who was trusted with £5M, worked hard and was able to return it with interest.  Similarly the one who was trusted with £2M worked hard and was able to return it with interest.  The one who only had £1M, didn't work hard at all.  He used his time for himself, and though he was able to return the initial £1M, the business man chastised him for being lazy and wicked.

The sermon from Sunday didn't use the business man analogy, but did explain why the Master was angry with the third servant.  God gives each of us His Blessings and time within which to do good for His Kingdom.  Sometimes this may require us to take a risk, and sometimes that risk may not appear to pay off.  It is up to us, however, to work hard and use our time wisely and faithfully, rather than spending time on selfish pursuits.

Weekly Update No4

This week I aimed to lose 0.5kg.

I haven't managed it.  It was my own fault, not only because I'm the one who controls what I put into my mouth or how much I move, but also because I hadn't done the shopping this week.  Usually, I meal plan, then buy what is needed so that I can prepare healthy, satisfying meals.  This week, however, I couldn't be bothered.  The mental load was too much for me, and I simply didn't want the responsibility.
So, I didn't.

And neither did anyone else.  Cue a week of spending too much money because we had to buy convenience food for every meal, plus a week of very unhealthy food because a lot of it was fast food, or takeaways, or generally prepackaged food with too much salt or sugar.

So, yesterday I spent a couple of hours planning what we're going to eat - determining whether I have time cook in the evening, or if I need to use the slow cooker because I'm chauffeuring the girls around (and whether I have time in the morning to put it on in amongst our home ed commitments), or whether the girls need a packed tea because they're out or evening, or whether we need something that I can simply empty out of packaging and reheat, or whether I have time to prep food in advance, to make meal times easier.  And after all that, I then spent another hour ordering food online to be delivered this morning.

And this morning, the food will arrive. As there is no Science Club today, I will hopefully have time to prep the meals that I need to; prep salads so I can have healthy lunches or snacks.
With a kitchen full of healthy foods, I know I will do better.

Love Me, Sweetie by Laura Burton

Nearly 2 months ago Laura's Beautiful World asked me to review her first novel, Love Me, Crazy.
Now, she has finished the sequel - Love Me, Sweetie - and has asked me to write another review!

Love Me, Sweetie follows new characters, so although it is a sequel to the first book, it can be read as a standalone book.
Ada inherited a sweet shop following the death of her father.  As the months roll by, the sweet shop is losing money and Ada, nor her cousin Lucas are taking a wage; when in walks a stranger, Daniel, who offers to buy the shop and turn it into a Gluten Free Cafe.

The blurb says:

Ada is a 24 year old woman living in Swindon, who has bright-coloured hair and a daring fashion sense. Her world was pretty sweet until it all came crashing down one fateful day. Totally unprepared for what's to come, Ada inherits a struggling sweet shop that has been in her family for generations. Meanwhile, cross-fit loving, business man Daniel comes into the picture and has his eyes on Ada's shop, keen to buy it out and turn it into a gluten-free cafe. Can Ada resist Daniel's charm and save the shop? Or will Daniel end up with more than he bargained for? 

This is a much more typical love story, and I enjoyed it more than the first book.  I found it easy to relate to the characters, and get invested in their lives.  As in all good stories, it is not a straight road.  There are twists and turns, happiness and sadness, between the covers of this book, and the ending is well worth waiting for.
And you will have to wait, as the book is only available for pre-order at the moment (due mid-February 2019).  But when you do get a copy, prepare yourself with a good cuppa and a packet of tissues; put your feet up and delve right in.

The KonMari Method of Tidying

A few years ago, after being prompted by a friend, I read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo.  There were parts of the book that really struck a chord with me (such as only keeping items that you feel good about - or "Spark Joy" as Marie Kondo terms it - and making sure everything has its own place) but other parts didn't feel right to me, so I skimmed past those as a bit weird or odd.

Now, here we are 3.5years since I read the book, and my friend is now the First KonMari Consultant in my county.  My house, however, hasn't changed that much, but I am much more discerning about what I bring into the house in the first place - it's a start!  DD1, otoh, loves to have a tidy bedroom but has a lot of stuff.  I often find her watching YouTube clips about various "life hacks" in order to tidy and organise her belongings.  She is naturally a bit of a hoarder - in the past she cried because DD2 was happy to recycle one of her own pictures, and ended up taking it out of the bin and kept it herself!  Given there is the new Netflix series, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, I thought this might be more accessible for my daughter than reading the book.

On a humorous note, when about to start watching a new episode we noticed the Netflix glitch was still there.  Not quite as funny as the machine gun one, but still made DD1 chuckle at the image.

I am please that DD1 is enjoying the series and it is inspiring her to sort through her belongings, and she is even considering donating some things (a HUGE thing!!).

For me, however, something was still niggling me, and I finally found out what it was: the practice of Shintoism as part of the tidying methodology, which conflicts with my Christianity.
For example, when entering a house, Marie Kondo will find a space, and then take a moment to introduce herself and greet the house, and thank it for being a shelter.  This is a bit weird to me, because the house is an inanimate object so didn't choose to be a shelter or not.  As a Christian, however, we should be thanking God for the provision of shelter and refuge.  So, it is possible to adapt some of the practices and meditate on the Word of God, instead.

Psalm 91:1,2

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
    my God, in whom I trust.”

Similarly, in order to identify whether an item sparks joy you are meant to hold every item individually, and if it doesn't you still need to thank the object.  Animism is antithetical to Christianity, which holds that there is One God.  He, alone, is to be worshipped and all other idols are to be put away.

 Deuteronomy 6:4 

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 

Exodus 20:3

You shall have no other gods before me. 

That said, with awareness and spiritual discernment, it is possible to follow the KonMari method without practising any of the Shinto elements.  Indeed, Matthew 6 mentions giving to the poor (which is a great thing to do with the items you no longer want in your home, rather than binning them to landfill) and emphasising that Christians should not be storing up personal possessions unnecessarily.

Matthew 6:19-21

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The KonMari method separates everything into 5 categories, which should be sorted through in order:

1. Clothes
2. Books
3. Papers
4. Miscellaneous
5. Sentimental Items

Anything that does not spark joy, you should discard - anything that doesn't fit, is broken, or just doesn't get used anymore.  Each category should be sorted in one go, so rather than doing 5 or 10 minutes here and there, get all your clothes, for example and sort through them, making sure each item that remains has a home before you move to the next category.

For me, though, the biggest thing I have gained from reading and watching Marie Kondo, is learning how to fold clothes and store objects.  The biggest difference, to how I used to do it, is storing as many things as possible vertically in drawers.  This means that, in one glance, you can see everything you own, rather than having to rummage through drawers, messing up what was once folded.

One last thing, there are a lot of memes around at the moment, regarding Marie Kondo saying that you should own less than 30 books.  As a self-confessed bibliophile, that's not a pleasant thought. What she actually said was: "I now keep my collection of books to about thirty volumes at any one time." Thirty books work for her - but she doesn't say that everybody should only have 30 books.  It's about what sparks joy for you.  I do have some books that I possibly could get rid of now; I have many more books that I want to keep until my girls have left home as I think they'll be useful for their home education; and I have a fair few hundreds books that I will keep, possibly forever.  If you do keep a lot of books, make sure they are stored correctly and cared for. Simple.

Dreams or Nightmares?

I often have weird dreams, and sometimes other people have referred to them as nightmares, but they're not.  Even if I wake up in a sweat, I think of them as dreams because I have them so often.  Nightmares, to me, are the more emotional dreams - where not only has something 'bad' happened, but it happens to someone close to me.  Maybe I've had a huge argument with my husband, or a parent has died, or I've had to take one of my children into hiding, and I'm worrying about the other?  These are nightmares.  Dreams, otoh, I generally wake up and shrug off.

The past few nights, I've not been sleeping well. My husband still has a bad back, and slept on the sofa-bed, because it is more firm than our mattress.  I thought this might give me the opportunity for undisturbed sleep, but no.  Firstly, DD1 came into my room at 2:30am crying because of growing pains.  I suffered with growing pains when I was young, so I fully sympathise.  Then I had 2 very vivid dreams.

For the first one, I have to explain a bit of background, and it may be wise to not be eating if you
have a sensitive stomach.  Not many creepy crawlies scare me.  I don't want them crawling on me, but I can rescue worms in the garden, move a spider outside etc.  Ants, however, I hate.  I know exactly when it started - when I was 11yo I started needing to wear glasses, but could get by (I thought) not needing to wear them all the time.  The world was a bit blurry and fuzzy, but I could live with that.  That summer, on a hot day, I went into my kitchen to cut myself some chocolate cake.  Things were fuzzy as usual, however it wasn't until I was really close that I realised the chocolate cake was not moving because of my bad eyes, but because it was absolutely smothered with ants. Yuck. (Even typing this now, I'm pulling a 'yuck' face!)  So, no. I don't like ants.

It's a couple of hours after I woke up, so I cannot remember the dreams exactly, but I can remember the bits that woke me up.

In the first dream, we were afflicted by a sort of plague - ants crawling all over us and our things. 

The room had a few beds in, and mine was by the window.  I had discovered that if you managed to brush all the ants off your leg, for example, you could apply a cream which would discourage them from returning for a while.  I managed to get to the point where I had no ants on me, or my bed - until someone who was covered with them, came and sat on my bed, and they returned on me.  So I had to start scraping the ants off my legs again, and simultaneously had to convince the others in the room to do the same.  It would only be when the whole room was free of ants, could be we sure that they wouldn't return.

In the second dream, there were two of us who were some kind of time travellers.  We had a mission
to do, and we'd return to the present either through some technological way, or by us both being asleep at the same time, when we'd be teleported to the spot from which we left to go to the past.  So, in my dream, I couldn't find the other person, so decided to come home to he present.  Hours later, I

woke up freezing cold, to discover I was no longer in bed, but had woken up from the teleportation point.  The other person had clearly just fallen asleep, and our automatic return had kicked in.  It turned out that he was being chased, as somebody had found out we were from the future, but that person was also from the future and wanted to stop our mission.  He had forced himself to stay awake and in hiding, to prevent that other person from following and finding out where we lived. We walked back home, and were staying in halls of residence or an old building.  As we got there, a mysterious man with a moustache started cleaning and vacuuming.  That seemed a bit odd, but since it was early morning, I informed him of the rules regarding noise, and unplugged the vacuum.  Moustache Man didn't seem too happy about it, but we left and continued walking to our rooms.  It was then, that my partner remember he had seem Moustache Man before - in the past.  So we tried to walk/run as fast as we could to our rooms, making sure we weren't being followed, and double locked the doors.  We heard Moustache Man approach the door, and he started fiddling with the lock, presumably to pick it from the outside.  We hid ourselves in the apartment as best we could, waiting.
And then I woke up.

Weekly update No3

I lost a kilo!  I said last week, I wanted to lose a kilogram, and I have. Phew!


It hasn't been easy. I haven't managed to up my vegetable intake as much as I wanted, and my weight went up significantly after a night of liquid carbs... ahem!  Not helped by my feeling ill the next day, and only being able to stomach bread, ahem ahem...


I also have not managed to fit in any Body Groove.  On the rare days when I know in advance that I have time (like this morning), something always seems to get in the way.  For example, this past week, my husband is really suffering with back pain.  He's maxed out the painkillers, but keeps waking up in pain.  This in turn wakes me up, causing me to then oversleep.  Which I did, and only woke up just before lunchtime.

I need to reset my body clock. The best way to do that, for me, is to go camping - going to bed in the dark and waking up at dawn is brilliant.  But it's winter, so I don't want to be outside in zero degree weather.  Instead, I'm inside in the warm, with artificial lights on most of the day and night.

Moving on to next week, I would like to lose at least 0.5kg.  Being realistic that I'm not eating or exercising well atm, but still giving myself an achievable goal.
Positive thinking means positive weightloss.

Slow Cooker Bread Recipe

One of the pages I follow on FB is the Bootstrap Cook, and recently she has posted her slow cooker bread recipe.  Again, this is something that I hadn't considered using my slow cooker for, so I thought I would give it a go, to go with the Chicken and Basil Stew I'm making for dinner tonight.

The recipe can be found in full on Jack Monroe's blog so I won't create it here, but it took less than 15min prep, before being in the slow cooker for 1.5hrs, and then a further 40min to cook the underside.  I didn't follow the recipe exactly - I used 360g of flour (because the packet was nearly finished so I chucked the rest in) which probably resulted in a bit more water being used, but I didn't measure it out properly.  I also didn't leave the bread to rest for 20min before putting in the slow cooker -I just put it straight in on top of some mixed seeds, and sprinkled more on the top of the bread too.  (Reading through the recipe, I couldn't work out which side of the bread is going to be the top or not.)  After the suggested time, the bread didn't sound quite hollow (I'm guessing because there was more flour) and it didn't rise as much as expected, so maybe next time I will leave it to rise before I start cooking it.

The bread was really tasty, but a bit dense, so for me and my slow cooker, there's definitely need to let it rise. Not bad for a first try.
I can imagine that if it was cut thinly, then toasted lightly with a smothering of butter - Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm!