He's behind you!

Well I can't believe it is Sunday evening again already!  We have had a very busy week and having been to church and shared tea, it is nice to sit down with a cup of tea and reflect on the week that has flown by.

We started the week with church children's work preparation, getting ready for an event next weekend.  Then we had panto rehersals, we have been providing the backstage team.  Josh is in his element (no pun intended) working the lighting and Jacob is operating the sound system.  They had great fun after finding an app for the IPod with sound effects on.  Andy was scene shifing and stage light operator and I was the prompt.  We had a great time with a Friday evening performance, Saturday matinee and Saturday evening.

We also found time to fit in dentist appointments, orthodntist assessment for Josh to have braces, parents evening to discuss GCSEs, a gym session, babysitting, tennis, guitar and piano lessons.

With all that going on I did what I do best when it came to crafting this week, fitted it in somewhere!!!  With four birthdays this week I made some cards to get ahead and then I put my mind to some planning.  Taking inspiration from the Christmas planner I made (details on shabbyartboutique.blogspot.com) I have pulled together a set of lists into one place to record all the craft, cards and blogs I intend to make this year.  Not only does it allow me to plan ahead (I am a list girl at heart, like to have it written down and planned out, it's one of the ways I make it all fit!) but it will give me a way to look back over everything at the end of the year.

Craft organiser

I've made calendar and dates to remember pages, list of present ideas as thoughts come to me for people through the year, a section to keep templates, pictures and instructions as I collect them and one to record everything that I make this year.  It has given me time to reflect on last week's bible verse and I have been resting in the Lord while making plans.  I often find that my best plans come together when I am not actually thinking about or undertaking a particular task but in the quiet moments in between (this week that has been while folding the laundry to put it all away - why does that task never seem to end, one pile gets put away and another seems to take its place!)

After a late night at the panto yesterday clearing everything away after the final performance Andy spent some time in the garden today.  It seems that the local fox population like my new veggie patch but we aren't too keen on their contribution.  So a multi purpose fence has been constructed.  At the moment we hope it is enough to keep the foxes out and then once we start planting we can add a lid to it and keep the birds out as well.

Anti-fox pen

Not sure the detail come out in the photo but the canes are supporting the mesh.  Having been reading up on veg growing, one thing we want to try is having a compost trench to plant the beans into. So Andy has dug two trenches and the wheel barrow carries the contents of last year's compost bin as a start so we can add to it on the coming weeks.

Another thing I wanted to share on my blog was the cooking I get upto.  This week while babysitting for my youngest God-daughter and her big sister we made cakes.  Having two boys, pink doesn't feature much in anything we do so having the girls was a good excuse to go all out on the pink (Andy wasn't too impressed).  However we made fairy cakes and decorated them, and here are the results:

The bible verse for this week is from Psalms chapter 23 verse 24 (I am using Daily Bible guide to chose the bible verse and I am thinking it might have been easier to chose my own to try and link to a craft, but God and his mysteries ways has this word for me to work with this week):

Even though I walk
   through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
   for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
   they comfort me.

Our prayer this week is with Josh and all those taking exams, that God will guide them through their revision and be with them in the exams (Josh has his Physics paper on Friday), so maybe this week's verse is for Josh (craft thoughts are starting to form already).

With God's blessing from my family to yours,

Jo