flower art

Our 'normal' flower arranger at church was away this week so i volunteered to help fill in. So did Clebber our friendly Brazilian. How hard can flower arranging be? not that hard, you literally have to out some flowers in a vase. But will it look good. In the end i was so embarrassed of my creations that i denied they were mine. I'm interested in who makes up the rules for what does or doesn't make a good creation? Judge for yourself. 

I think this is good. It's Clebbers.

Good. Also Clebbers.

Mine. And i feel like I'm reading an intimate self-written poem out loud........ naff

mine. a little better perhaps? but why?

I don't even really care about flowers that much, but are there universal opinions about such things?

The Cafe Blues x 2

On my maternity leave I've been spending sometime visiting a friend who lives near The Blue in Bermondsey. I know, as a globally conscious consumer, i should be frequenting independent coffee shops, and supporting local businesses. Buy local and all that, so i've been trying. Here are my first two reviews:

Starburger (**) - who doesn't like chips
This american style cafe's main merits lie in its 1980's style sign. An extensive breakfast menu, the healthiest of which is chips, is complemented by chips and burgers for lunch, and it seems likely that a chip butty would not be out of the question for dinner either, if you come early enough. They do, surprisingly, a cappuccino, which i would rate as drinkable for a bargain £1.50. Tip for the wise, get a table with a view looking out over the market square not the cafe, so as to avoid the visual advert of your future should you commence a weekly visit to Starburger; overweight people regularly dotting their cheeks and lips with red sauce as they miss their mouths whilst dwarfing their mobility scooters.

Rose's Cafe () - yes no stars
Although i did see a tomato inside this clean cafe, and the lady agreed after only a little negotiation to bring my coffee out to me when it was ready, the cappuccino here was missing the frothy milk and was pre-sweetened. I regret the 50p tip i dropped in the pot before receiving my coffee, as i feel the effort it took the waitress to open the cappuccino sachet from Poundland and mix it with post boiled water was not worth this much. I also ordered carrot cake which, not only tasted like sawdust with added burnt (yes really) walnuts, topped with marshmallow icing, due to weird social rules that dictate our existence, meant that after my companion had felt obliged to declare it 'nice' (i had paid), it therefore bound me from making any contrary judgement and forced me to eat much more than the teaspoon amount that helped me make an accurate judgement of its finesse.

I'll keep looking for a nice cafe in the Blue, but i do love a Starbucks.

Chubby is CUTE!

Cookie is getting big!

Someone recently said that babies learn to smile just at the point when you want to give them back (6 weeks ish). In the same vein of thought, it's possible that Cookie has become incredibly cute just to get me over this latest hump.

Psalm 46:10 again. When will i learn.

im obsessed with wanting to know i am doing well. Of making lists and ticking things off, of trying to find a way to gauge progress, or some route through life that shows i am a good person, or at least someone improving.

I am tempted daily to make quantifiable lists of targets so that i can tell i am doing ok.

I am a good mother if:
My children eat a variety of foods each week
Do not eat sweets everyday
The girls make something with me every week
I keep to a rough routine
We have dinner together every night at roughly 6ish
The girls have homemade duvet covers and sheets
I don't swear in front of the children

I am a good wife if:
I do the ironing often so that Xss always has a clean ironed shirt to wear to work
I have sex once a week (oh controversial)
I do the cooking AND the washing up at dinner time as often as possible.
I do the mending
I buy Xss a Chocolate Orange twice a year
I buy presents for Xss's relatives with the knowledge that the day before the occasion he will ask me for help to find them something.
etc

The lists go on, I am a good sister, friend, version of myself, Christian, woman, global resident.

However the truth is much more messy. None of this matters, its hard for me to accept, but none of these scales matter, i could be crap at all of it, but it will still be ok. Life continues. God loves me. That is all that matters

I am a good child if:


Be still and know that i am God Psalm 46:10