WOYWW

Wow, it's Wednesday again! Where did that last week go?? I had been intending to post loads and get back into the swing of blogging again but then life happened and all my best intentions shacked up with my will power and they both fled the country. Consequently, not only am I blog-postless but I'm also feeling fat. Oh, and I'm also waaaaay behind on the things I need to do.

All this has not been helped by Herself who decided on Monday that it would be a good idea to trip over her own feet and break her fall with her face. This resulted in the school phoning me at 9.20am to come fetch her. When I got there she was covered in blood and not in a happy frame of mind. Once we'd cleaned her up a bit more it turned out she'd grazed her forehead, cheek and nose; bitten her tongue and top lip and also dislodged three teeth. They're not completely out, thank goodness, but they're more than a little wobbly! Luckily they're still her baby teeth so it's not a complete disaster but still not what I (or her) needed on a Monday morning. After the emergency dental appointment we came home and she suddenly decided she was fine. And then she decided she was bored. And then she whinged..... the whole day! So consequently, I spent all day entertaining her and got nothing done. Remind me again, why I volunteered to become a parent??

Anyway, so here I am on Wednesday posting a photo of my Workdesk. Several of you have told me that this is not a mess... but when you consider how small my space is it definitely feels messy. I've had to clear some of the things away that I was working on as they're a secret until the new Stampin' Up European Mini Catalogue is launched on Friday. After that date I'll be able to share again. The other thing that I'm working on is all preparation for a workshop on Friday night. The hostess wants ideas for wedding invites and her colours are Purple and Silver... hence all the purple cardstock and inkpads on my desk!!

If you'd like to join in with the WOYWW meme then head over to Julia's blog for more details! Thanks for popping by and all your wonderful comments. I really appreciate them!

Now, I'm off back to my desk to see if I can come up with some more Purple and Silver ideas! Wish me luck!!

WOYWW

Here's the mess!! I've been in full flow designing my new classes and this little box is part of it all. As you can see I used pretty much every punch that I own, which means it was all loads of fun!

I'll be posting the details of the class on my business blog later this week. Whoohoo!

Anyway, now I'm offski as my Mum is here and we're off to the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery.

If you've just randomly dropped in on my blog and you're wondering what on earth WOYWW means then head to Julie's blog to get the low down.

On Earthquakes, Tsunamis and other such disasters

Just over a week ago I woke up to news reports that Japan had suffered an earthquake. Not so good, but it is not unsurprising considering that it's on the Pacific Ring of Fire and all. It was only as I sat eating my breakfast (after dropping the eldest one at school) that I heard about the magnitude of the quake and the resulting Tsunami. Definitely not good! I gobbled down the remainder of my breakfast and herded the younger one to the living room to switch on the telly. Despite having planned lots of things to do that day I sat absorbed in events on the far side of the world with a somewhat morbid fascination. As more and more images, videos and interviews were shown my morbid fascination lessened and my prayer burden increased. To the extent that at 3pm when I had to set off to the bus stop to pick up the eldest one I could barely move with the weight of it all on my shoulders. I didn't feel responsible. How could one feel responsible for a natural disaster? But I felt strongly the call to pray. I felt like crying for all those poor people who were having to live through it all, but most of all I felt the need to pray. For the survivors, for the dead, for the missing, for families torn apart, for the grief, for those in fear, for those who would lose hope. I never really knew what the Bible meant when it said 'Pray without ceasing'.... but on that day I came closer to understanding because, without realising it, I found myself praying. Not on my knees. Not with my hands clasped before my like a 'good little girl'. Not repeating rote responses to ritual prayers. Not even the loud, hands-in-the-air prayers of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. But the quiet weeping prayers of a burdened soul. I cried for those people that I can never reach or see, simply because I knew that God was crying for them too.

The news reports started showing footage taken from YouTube and a few days later I found myself on that site looking at that huge wall of water throwing cars about and sweeping houses off their foundations. I kept thinking "that car has it's rear windscreen wiper on! Is there someone in there? Are they screaming in fear?". I had to stop watching. I read comments instead. On several of them I saw people mentioning Matthew 24. I looked it up and found this:

Matthew 24 v 6 .... And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.

Wars and rumours of wars. How many are being fought all over the world right now? Just off the top of my head I can count, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen.... granted some of these are 'rumours'. Trouble in the making, not yet fully formed. And yet today French fighter jets are flying over Libya.... just in case. While British and American forces muster to support them.... just in case. Are we coming to the 'beginning of the birth pains'? I feel we are. It is a sobering thought.

As if to confirm my feelings I found this on YouTube...



And yet, we are told not to be alarmed, for these things must happen but it is not yet the end. I will admit I have been struggling with that bit this week. Until I realised that the answer to my fears was to 'pray without ceasing'.

There is absolutely NOTHING that I can do to solve the world's problems, calm unrest, keep the peace, rebuild lives, restore health and happiness to those who are dispossessed. However, I CAN pray. Because if I pray then God can move in Power to bring about His plan for this world. It is scary to be living in these uncertain times, but the Bible tells me that God is my refuge, my shelter and my rock. He is my ever-present help in times of trouble.

So I will continue to pray, and I hope that some of you out there will join me in praying "Your Will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven", because that is the only way that we will keep our sanity and find peace in our time.

Amen.

WOYWW

Oops! This is a little late to post but I have a good excuse, honest! LOL.

First though, have a look at my desk...

So on this picture are two clues. One is a clue about why this blog post is so late today and the other one is a clue as to what the result of the late blog post is! LOL.

Firstly, I didn't get to posting earlier today because I.... (have you spotted the clue yet?).... made a trip to IKEA today! I had to return something and get something else instead. Hence the returns voucher on the desk with the yellow and blue arrows on.

Secondly, not a lot of crafting has been happening today because .... (spotted this one yet? Come on, it's right in front of you! LOL)..... hubby has been crawling around on the floor putting together an item of flat pack furniture... or two.... for my craft room...er.. SPARE room. He decided that my desk was a good place to dump his hammer and screw driver so I grabbed my camera and took a photo before he did his neat freak thing and tidied it all away like he normally does!

Now, silly me didn't pick up an extra pack of....*mumble, mumbles*.... so I can't show you what it is yet. So I'll have to take a photo of the completed project once I've gone back to IKEA again, put it all together and then put all my stuff back where it should be. Hubby thinks that I may have forgotten the extra pack just so I have an excuse to go back again! He might be right... but don't tell him so!

Now, if you haven't a clue what WOYWW is all about then pop over to Julia's Blog for a full explanation and a whole load of other blogs to hop around!!

WOYWW

Wow, a whole week has come and gone! I can't believe it's been that quick!

Well, last week I wondered if I would manage to keep up with WOYWW and yes, I'm back again. I should be heading out the door to Herself's school to do PTA stuff but instead I'm sat here posting pictures of my desk. So please forgive me for this quick, short post! Well, short for me at any rate!!

Last week I also said to come back and see if my desk was tidy. Well.... have a look for yourself.....

..... nope not really! Mind you, I did tidy it completely over the weekend but then I got stuck straight back into another project so it got all messy again. Oops!

Now I have purposefully covered my project there on my desk. It's not quite finished and I'd like to show you all the finished article soon. So, here's a sneaky peek to keep you going until I'm done and ready to show you all!

All I will say is that it's shaping up nicely!!

Now, if you want to join in with WOYWW or you want to check out some other people's desks then head over to Julia's Stamping Ground for a gander!

Sausage, Apple & Lentil Casserole

Welcome to Tasty Tuesday! This is a regular feature hosted by the For the Love of Blogs community. I figured I would jump in and add my tuppence worth and show you a dish that we had on Saturday. It was simply gorgeous and will definitely become one of our firm family favourites. The best thing is that it's a Weight Watchers recipe! This is great because it means I can keep on track with the weight loss which you guys have been so great about encouraging me to do. The results have been well worth it and I'm happy that I'm finally back on track again.

Each week Weight Watchers releases a small publication called 'Your Week' containing tips, advice, inspiration and recipes for the week. I find it useful to read in about 5 seconds flat and then I don't look at it again for the rest of the week. Bad, bad dieter!! LOL. I really should pay it more attention as there are always some really gorgeous looking recipes included. Some weeks more than others. Last week when I headed back to the meeting for the first time in aaaaaaages I picked up the 'Your Week' and gave it the usual cursory glance before shoving it in my bag alongside several boxes of WW Chocolate or Cereal bars and a couple of packets of WW crisps. I thought that would be 'it' as per usual, however, our wonderful leader Mandy pointed out a couple of interesting tips to us during the meeting and that made me dig it out again and have a really good read. I'm so glad she did because this recipe caught my eye and I took it straight home and made Himself look at it. It was good timing really as he was just preparing the weekly menu and shopping list!

Of course, the 'Your Week' had a photograph of this recipe piled up high with lashings of onions and sausages draped artistically in the food equivalent of the girl-on-the-car-bonnet photo. Mine, however, looked somewhat plainer.... but I still took a photo because a photo is always good on a blog post, right?

Ok, ignore the photo then.... and trust me, this dish is delicious!! (and my photography skills are not)

Sausage, Apple & Lentil Casserole

Mist a large casserole dish with calorie controlled cooking spray and add 6 Weight Watchers Premium Pork Sausages, halved. Fry, turning, for 5 minutes until starting to brown. Add 2 onions, sliced into thin wedges, with a splash of water and fry, stirring, for a further 10 minutes. Stir in ½ tbsp plain flour to coat, then add 1 x 410g can green lentils, drained, 600ml hot chicken stock and 1tbsp fresh sage leaves, chopped. Bring to a simmer, then cover and cook for 20 minutes until thickened. Add 300g apples, peeled cored and sliced into thick wedges, and simmer for a further 10 minutes, until the apple wedges are tender. Divide between 4 bowls. Serve with 50g crusty bread each.

All this for only 8 ProPoints, including the bread!! Bargain.

I know that my daughters both pulled their noses up at it, but they missed out. Unfortunately both my kids are at that stage where if it's not coated in batter and deep fried they won't touch it. More's the pity!

I'm off to print the recipe off so that I can put it in my stack of trusty recipes. Will it join your regular repetoire? Let me know once you've tried it!

PS. If you're not overly worried about watching your waistline then you can use non-diet sausages and lashings of butter on the crusty bread.... oh and you'll want to cook up a double batch because I guarantee you'll want a second helping!

I'm a loser baby!

3lbs off at the scales yesterday!! Happy! Happy! Happy! I wonder how much my hair weighed?? LOL. Probably not 3lbs. Certainly I feel lighter than I did and actually felt like glamming it up for church this morning. Not often I do that, but it seemed a good time to do it.

This evening I'm on a mission to update my Weightloss page with my figures from last year. I can't promise any real commentary though as it all seems so long ago and I've slept since.

I'm loving the comments I've had on the blog lately. Keep 'em coming cause they make me H-A-P-P-Y!

Oh, and come back on Tuesday morning. I'm joining in with the For The Love Of Blogs 'Tasty Tuesday' feature and I've got a cracking Weight Watchers recipe to share with you!

See you soon!

Getting back on Track

I posted here about losing my way with the whole Weight Watchers thing. I am soooo grateful for the encouragement you guys gave me both on the comments and via email. It really picked me up, so thanks. You can come again!! LOL. It still took me a while to get myself back on track though. I was hoping that it would be an instant thing, cause I'm definitely an instant kinda gal, and that I would wake up the next day and just be fine with it again; have my weight loss head on straight and get right back into it again. Strangely enough that didn't happen. It took me a while.... and then I fell ill. Yes, properly ill with a stomach bug that didn't seem like it was ever going to go away. In the end I had to take extreme measures to stop it. It's amazing how medicinal Brandy can be especially when combined with Cayenne Pepper!

However, now that I'm over that episode I can safely say that I'm back on track. I went to my WW meeting on Saturday morning and found that I have gained 4lbs. Not too bad considering that I haven't been to a meeting since early January! But I'm also wondering how much having that bug must have helped me lose prior to the weigh in? A fair bit I'd say, but I'm not going to concentrate on that. 4lbs is what I need to shift to get back to where I was early January and then a further 3lbs to get back to where I was before Christmas. Not an impossible task really. I've been tracking my food again and following a meal plan this week so I know I've been good in that respect as usually my one huge weakness is not planning ahead and then just grabbing something from a shop somewhere. Which usually means it's really high in points as they don't tend to use low fat anything do they? So, planning ahead this week has been a big deal. Also, I've cut down on my snacking this week too. Hopefully between these two things I will see a result on the scales on Saturday.

The gym thing hasn't happened this week though. Only for one reason though.... I decided to use my child-free time yesterday morning to take a visit to the hairdressers. I haven't had my hair cut (or even trimmed) in about 4 or 5 years which has meant that 1. It was quite long (most the way down my back) and 2. It was in horrible condition. It had gone all whispy and had horrible split ends, PLUS the lack of care for it (other than wash and condition) has meant that it was falling out by the handful. So, it had to go!! Tell me what you think?

Sorry about the picture quality! I was trying to take a photo in the mirror without the flash and was struggling to hold the camera still enough. I think the style looks good and I'm really happy with how easy it was to get it looking good again this morning!!

So, while I was taking those pics I also decided to take some pictures for my monthly photographic record. I'm intending that at the end of each month I'll post a picture or two of myself here on the blog as a visual record of how I'm doing with the weight loss. So here are February's photo's....

Hmmm, I've just noticed that the mirror has some mucky fingerprints on which has made my jumper?(waistcoat? gilet? what *is* that thing?!!) look mucky too. Great!

I think I will add a page onto this blog for weekly weigh in updates and then do a monthly blog post with pictures and a review. Hopefully that way I'll keep motivated! So, tell me what you think of the new 'do'!

Thanks for dropping by and leaving me a comment!

(Wow, 2 posts in one day!! Wonders will never cease!!)

Blog Features and Introducting WOYWW

I read a lot of blogs. Lots and lots of blogs. The best thing I found since I got my lovely HTC Hero mobile phone last year is that I now have an app that connects with my Google Reader account and sends all those lovely blogs straight to my phone! Which means that I can keep up on my blog reading while I'm waiting for Herself at the bus stop, or at the dance class, or at swimming lessons. I can read blog posts while I'm eating my breakfast! With an app this handy I have discovered that reading blogs is about the *only* thing I actually manage to keep up with in my life right now. Everything else is behind and running late..... sometimes by several months!

One thing I've noticed is that a lot of these blogs that I read, follow and subscribe to have regular features. For example I've just started participating at For the Love of Blogs (see sidebar button) and one of their many features is Tasty Tuesday which considering how yummy our dinner was last night I'm really considering joining in on.

The other blog I follow is Stamping Ground with Julia Dunnit. She started a feature nearly two years ago called WOYWW or What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. It's become hugely popular with loads of people joining in and sharing the scary mess or freaky tidyness that is their workdesk on a Wednesday. I figure after nearly two years of reading and hopping around other people's blogs to check out their desks I might finally make the leap and join in. The sad thing is that, in this, I am yet again late to the party! Some things never change do they??

So, here's my workdesk this morning....

Basically, it's a mess! I don't have a large space to work on so I really should keep it a bit tidier. However, this is how I left it after I had to run out the door on my way to an appointment I was late for. As usual! So, today I shall be picking up this project and hopefully get it finished. Or else it might join all the other projects I've got waiting in the wings or half done... mostly they live UNDER the desk and as you can see...

..... that's not any better either!! I have spared you the horror of seeing the rest of the room. It's not untidy (anymore) but it is a bit crowded.  I think that I need to stop buying stash and start using it all. Ha! I think it will take me at least 8 years to use up the stuff I've collected in the past 5 years.

Shall I continue with WOYWW? Make it a regular feature? (or about as regular as I can be considering my lack of organisation!) Would you come back? I dare you! It will be interesting to see if my desk ever improves or if it stays this messy.

I did promise you some news on my One Little Word didn't I? Let me finish the project on the desk and then I'll get my pages finished and photographed and then I'll show you! Please don't hold your breath as it might be a while and I wouldn't want you to pass out! One thing you *can* come back for later today is an update on the Weightloss issue and a little change I've made to my person. 

Thanks for dropping by and leaving me a comment! Even in my disorganised state reading the comments you leave for me is definitely one thing I keep up with!