Just like Great Grandpa

My mother cleared out all her bags of wool a few years ago now.
She used to buy a whole bag of unopened wool and knit, especially woollen jumpers for my Dad. (see in the pic in the post below). But as the years have gone by she has stopped knitting but still had  bags of wool. My mum is not one to walk past a "bargain". So when she was ready to give them away I asked if I could have them.
So I now have bags of unopened balls of wool but with grandchildren now I have plenty of projects to knit.
 
This is the latest. A little V necked jumper with a cable pattern up each side. Just like Great Grandpa wears. Even the pattern I used was old
- Fontana Raglan Pullovers No.344
3ply, 4ply and 6ply for 45-55cm.
However like a lot of things I do I have changed it slightly. I shifted the cables over by putting a panel of stocking stitch up the middle to separate the cables a bit.
The colour hasn't come out very well either as it is a lovely almost teal blue.

Honour Thy Father and Mother

Our Vicar preached from Galatians 4:1-7 in particular verse 6 how that we can not call God the Father “Abba” or “Daddy” unless the Spirit enables us.

Galatians 4:6 6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father."

We also had a member of our parish, a lady whose husband and she help run the Fatherheart Ministries also speak from the same piece of scripture but from Galatians 3:26 – 4:7 . She talked about being Son’s of God and so when we call God the King of Kings then that makes us Princes and Princess’s. She recalled us to the garden of Eden where God first placed Adam and Eve and how they were free there and walked and talked with God their Father. Are we free to do this too? She challenged us to get rid of “the fig leaves” we now wear to hide from who we really are.

But a man in the congregation also bought a vision of the cross and our earthly father standing behind it wearing a crown. He is the king/lord of our families and we are to honour and reconnect with them.

On Thursday evening I had been to a Workshop at our church put on by Presbyterian Support Northern presented by Jude Simpson who had been a victim but it was not her father. She now has an amazing testimony and one of the things she shares is her quiet loving relationship with her father who died when she was quite young. It was part of that relationship that gave her a glimpse of Abba Father.



I was reminded of the blessing of the relationship I have with my parents especially my father and how I need to honour them more.





Here he is at Sarah’s wedding in 2006

 

And at his 80th in 2009











And with my Mum.









My father loves me almost the same as Abba Father. He has always been there and does not hold past wrongs against me. In fact he forgives with out even questioning and loves us in away that is like God. I know I am extremely fortunate to have an earthly Father like him as I have over the years discovered it is extremely rare. The way he loves me has been a gift that helped me to see how much God loves me he and I have both said we love each other, face to face and I know that is very precious.

Posting this here is to tell the world how much I honour him and my mother as God tells us to.

Deuteronomy 5:16
16 "Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

All scripture is from (New International Version)

Friendships

There is something special about friendships, especially those that are distant and take keeping up with communication, to keep the bond strong. Those around you in the neighbourhood where you work, socialise or meet for exercise, community events or at church, don't require a lot of effort as you see them regularly and can chat or have a cuppa while doing other things.
But long distant whether at different ends of the country or over the seas are special as they are really only there if you work at keeping in touch.
I meet Wendy on a forum in early 2006 and we communicated off the forum too. We had things in common and were a support to each other.

In January 2008 I was very fortunate to meet Wendy in person when she came to New Zealand for a holiday with her husband and spent a day with hubby and me.
Our photo was actually used in the Notebook: magazine for a few months to promote the forum and how friendships can be made there.
The forum changed to a new link and over the years we had lost some of the regulars but Wendy and I were still there for each other.

Today I was blessed again with a visit from Wendy as she and some of her family are holidaying over here again. It was like only yesterday that we had last been together and there was so much to talk about but the time soon ran out. Three hours was not long enough but the time we spent together was as special as before and the memory will be part of our continued deep friendship.Our friendship is more special in that we both share our faith in God and this indeed is a gift.

A friend loves at all times Proverbs 17:17

A friend is someone we turn to when our spirits need a lift.
A friend is someone we treasure for our friendship is a gift.
A friend is someone who fills our lives with beauty, joy and grace.
And makes the whole world we live in a better and happier place.
-Jean Kyler McManus

Mumsey’s Munch Bar

Looking for something like a muesli bar and filling I found a few recipes that I experimented with and came up with this one.
I have also used mixed fruit instead of the sultanas and almonds instead of peanuts.
It is one of those quick easy recipes to make in the evening if you need something for school lunches, you really can't be bothered and the oven is still hot from something else.

1 cup flour
1 cup sultanas
1 cup coconut
½ cup peanuts
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 cup crushed Weetbix (good for those crumbs at the end of a box)
¾ cup rolled oats
125 grams butter
1 cup sugar
1 ½ Tbsp golden syrup
1 egg

Mix the first seven (dry) ingredients in a bowl.
In a pot or in the microwave, melt the butter and golden syrup. Stir in the sugar and then beat in the egg with a fork
Add to dry ingredients and stir well.
Press mixture into a sponge roll tin (20 x 30 cms) and bake at 180ºC for 20 minutes.
Cut while hot.

Anxiety Adjustment Disorder

A friend who is a young mother has recently experienced extreme anxiety with panic attacks. I could relate to her completely as I suffered from Anxiety Adjustment Disorder a few years ago.
Each person who suffers from anxiety may be hit by it for a different reason but the reality of panic attacks is just as real and frightening.

For me it was a build up of issues with my husband.
March 1984 -  Brain Hemorrhage (Aneurism) - Surgery/recovery
1984-1987 -    Night Epilepsy (put down to recovery from the above)
1985 -             Periods of lowness/undiagnosed
Feb1991 -       First suicide attempt - overdose
April?1995 -    Second attempt of suicide. - gassing in car/ first admittance to Mental Hospital/Diagnosis of Depression
2001 -             Acute depression/thoughts of suicide
June 2004 -     Accident with Disc Grinder/ shredding wrist tendons and part of bone - Surgery and intensive Hand Therapy over 6 months
Oct 2004 -      Acute depression/thoughts of suicide/second admittance to Mental Health Hospital

In November 2004 when the reality of hubby's mental health really hit home for me I was stressed. We were living on a reduced income and there was no longer a job for hubby to go back to. I had been to the doctor and was put on antidepressants.

However at this time I was:
-  Looking after 3 children at home and my husband
-  I was the only one bringing in an income
-  Hubby had no job and other jobs were not working out
-  I was in charge of all finances (Hubby didn't want to do them)
-  I had other children not coping with their fathers illness/living away from home/needing constant contact and support with how they were coping
-  Mental Health system did not offer a lot of help

-  Extended family (my husbands)did not understand and they disowned us.

To top this off I developed a bladder infection and didn't even realise it.
One morning I woke late for work and answered a phone call from a friend encouraging me to get the children into counseling. I started to cry and could not stop and My body started to shut down. I could not walk, kept dropping off to sleep, curling up and crying.
I vaguely remember people coming and going and asking questions. My husband was near me crying at one stage saying he was so sorry. I was being carried to the toilet, dressed and put in a car and taken to the Mental Health Hospital.
This was frightening in itself as I had seen my husband admitted there and some of the patients but it was also a place where there was safety and people to help.
I was put on sleeping tablets, tranquilizers, antibiotics, pain relief as well as the antidepressants and a heart tablet.
I was really fortunate that while I was in there I was allowed to choose where I wanted to stay and stayed with close friends who were a minister and his wife who was a counselor.
I was away from home for 2 1/2 weeks recovering.
It took about 6 months to fully recover and 18 months to come off the last tablets which were the antidepressants.
The wife of the minister showed me I had Anxiety Adjustment disorder due to Hubby's illness and injury.
 
At times I found I did not know what to pray for any more. I knew God was there right beside me but even my thoughts were 'scrambled" as to what I needed. I even thought I had let God down by not coping as I was a Christian. I mean where was God in all this!
On the second day as I sat in the locked fenced courtyard waiting to see if I was allowed to stay with my friends I watched some sparrows having a dust bath and scratching in the grass for bugs. I thought I wish I was a sparrow, free to fly away and with no worries.
As plain as can be God told me to look up in Matthew 6:25 onwards.

Do Not Worry

 ²⁵"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

 ²⁸"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

the scripture of how He cares for the sparrow and how I was not to worry about a thing and how I was so valuable to Him. I was so happy and relaxed in just that short time I knew I was in God's hands even then and that my faith could never be taken away from me.

But for me through it all I had my faith and Jesus to keep me from "falling" completely and I never thought of killing myself or of leaving but I have learnt so much because of it.

I hope this explains things to some and perhaps encourages others to seek help.
Medications all have their purpose and with depression there becomes a time when you can not get better on your own so don't be afraid of the stigma and seek medial help.

To help with the recovery, I had counseling and also worked on understanding my illness and how to come through it, with an occupational nurse on the ward.
• I accepted my illness and that I was not superwoman.
• I accepted the need for medication and that it has its place in healing.
• I learnt about self-esteem and how the “external and internal messages interact to give an outcome of positive or negative self-esteem”. These messages are picked up all through life from family, parents, school, our religion and others views within this, TV, magazines etc, and peoples views and attitudes about themselves and others.
• I learnt that because of these messages I was placing my own expectations and others on myself to feel “complete”. Because of the added stress (Hubby's illness and injury) I was not keeping up with what I ‘believed’ needed doing so I forgot about myself.
• We are of no earthly good to anyone if we loose sight of reality and don’t look after ourselves first.
• I seriously looked at my needs and wants and set up a plan (see below) – with help of others to aid my recovery.
• I asked two friends to be accountable for me and who I could go to for help
• I also had to learn to breathe and relax.
Yes we take it for granted but when we are stressed things react in our body and don’t work so well. While in the ward I went to relaxation classes. At first I was a bit skeptical as I thought it all a bit ‘new agey’ but then I realized I wasn’t breathing right. The first day after half an hour of learning to relax and breathe I feel asleep – my body was so longing for this.
The symptoms of this are tension across the upper back, shoulders, neck and down the arms, pains in the chest especially when trying to take breaths; classic signs of a heart attack. Learning to relax all these areas and muscles, and taking long deep breaths was healing to my body. I was lucky to already have at home a CD of Celtic hymns with out words that I could play while I did this at home.
On my road of recovery (once back home again some days I could only be out of bed for an hour at a time) I read some books in particular to my illness.

Some examples of ‘plans’ I started for me:
* Spending ‘me’ time with God by reading my Bible, praying and listening to Christian music
* I discovered long hot baths and lavender; soap, oil, bubble bath, sachets in the pillow, fresh bunches in my room.
* Lady Grey tea and a ginger nut biscuit first thing in the morning before I got up
* A treat hidden away i.e. “Bounty Chocolate”
* I decluttered my house of magazines etc, ‘to be read’, stored cloths, broken/chipped kitchen things.
* Walking – just 5 minutes down the road and back to start with and built up to 30 – 45 minutes.
I hope that if someone reading this is struggling, that this will be of some help and I encourage you to seek help.

Books of interest:
Don’t Panic: Anxiety, Phobias and Tension – Your Four Step Program to Control Anxiety Disorder. by Andrew Page, 2004, Random House Australia.

Living With It. by Bev Aisbett, 1993, Harper Collins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd (this book is extremely easy to read with lots of cartoon pictures and captions)

Sharing the Load – What to do when someone you love is depressed. by Gwendoline Smith 1997 Hale & Iremonger Pty Ltd Australia.

Feijoa Loaf

1 cup sugar
50gr butter
2 cups peeled and sliced feijoas
2 Tbsp golden syrup
1 cup water
2 tsp ginger

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla essence

In a large pan combine first six ingredients.
Bring to the boil, stirring continuously.
Boil for 5 minutes then remove from the heat and cool.
Add the dry ingredients to cooled mixture with the vanilla.
Pour into a greased and lined 20 x10 cm loaf tin.
Bake at 180°C for 50-60 minutes until skewer comes out clean when tested.
Stand for 15 minutes before turning out.
This keeps well in an air tight container, and can also be served warm as a dessert with custard, cream or yogurt.

Feijoa Relish

1 ¼ cps (310ml/10fl oz) cider vinegar (or malt)
1 large onion
1 large apple
8 large feijoas
1 ½ cups sugar
1 Tbsp mixed spice
{1 ½ tsp salt }
{¼ tsp celery seed }
OR 1 ½ tsp celery salt (instead of the above two)
¼ tsp cayenne pepper

In a large pot put the vinegar, and add each item to the pot as it is prepared.
Chop the onion and unpeeled apple finely.
Peel and cube the feijoas
Stir in the remaining ingredients as given.
Simmer all on low heat for about an hour, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.
When fairly thick, ladle into sterilized jars.
Top with boiled metal lids or leave until cool, then top with screw on plastic lids and store in the fridge.

Pickles, chutneys and relishes are best left for a few weeks before tasting as the flavour improves with time. I use jars from other things like jams, pickles etc I have bought from the supper market and remove the labels. To sterilize the jars I wash them thoroughly and then warm them in the oven at about 120°C for half an hour.