Not the love bug!!

Having looked around a lot of other blogs this week everyone seems to be getting ready for Valentine's day, but while they all seem to have been bitten by the love bug, we have had a different sort of bug in our house.

Jacob was sent home from school on Tuesday feeling unwell and only went back on Friday.  Then over the weekend we have all had the same bug (upset tummies to be polite!!).  It did mean that I had some unexpected holiday time off work and got some crafting done.  I made these gorgeous fimo heart buttons to add to my advent bunting and the larger heart for a card.  I had been reading about adding texture to fimo shapes and remembered I had some heart stamps I had never used and thought I would try them out on this craft.  I am not sure that the detail comes out but all the hearts have the word "Love" printed all over them.

Heart buttons ready for sewing

We had planned to do some "window" shopping ready for the home improvements this weekend (before the bug hit!) and to help I made some planner pages to add to the spreadsheet lists.  Having had lots of information to hand over Christmas in my Christmas planner I know how good it is to have everything in one place that also has room for adding notes.  I don't have any images on the pages yet as I may well use them as moodboards as I gather ideas (also I am not that arty!) or I may just stamp some images on them.

measurement planners

So while we all felt sorry for ourselves Andy tried to stay out of the way of the bug (except it found him as well on Sunday) and spent most of Saturday in the garden finishing off "Pruning" the apple tree.  There are often reports about how neighbours don't talk to one another these days, but not round here.  While Andy was attacking the final branch with his new bow saw, our neighbour saw his struggle and lent him a trusted log saw.  This help and encouragement to get the job done really helped and the final branch was removed.  Our neighbour is also arranging for a friend to come round with a chain saw and cut the branch up into logs for us.

The finished job

So with not feeling too well, I didn't get a craft done based on last week's Bible passage but I did get to spend time with Jacob. 

The bible verse we are studying this week is Isaiah 53:5, which really seems to lend itself towards some Easter cards:

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
   he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
   and by his wounds we are healed.

I read an interesting article on the Creative Girl blog this week, which was inspired by Hands Free Mama, about ensuring we are switched off from technology when the children are around rather than being switched off from them!  This has formed our prayer for this week, that as we all feel better we will be able to spend some good time together, rather than just cuddled up under a duvet.  

With God's blessings from my family to yours.