Yesterday (weds) was very busy at work, seemed like we were shortstaffed all round-- so I did loads of running all over the place, and didn't get a morning coffee break until 11:30 (normal time for coffee break is either 10:30 or 10:45!!)! Story time was strange as well-- we've moved the time from 11 up to 10, in the hopes that more mums would be able to come then, but yesterday at 10:05, still no sign of any mums & kids. So we decided to go back and do other jobs, and if any mums arrived after that, we'd scurry over and do a quick shorter story time. Our founding member, a gorgeous lil 1 year old baby girl, Eleanor and her mum Kim arrived not long after that so we had a brilliant time with them-- because Eleanor likes the board books, especially the ones with touchy-feel bits or flaps to peek under, we stuck with one or two of those (I was mainly there for support, Sarah did a fab job of the entertaining of Eleanor!). Then we'd come up with this craft of decorating a picture of balloons, and Eleanor really is getting good at putting crayon to paper-- it's been neat to see her develop her skills, when she first came to the very first one, she wasn't walking yet or talking and now she's doing both! I love her sweet grin.
After a frantic time at work, I got to go and meet up with Rachel! I love Rach-- she's fab. It was a really encouraging time for both of us-- to just be able to sit there over a cuppa and a coke and just chat and catch up. I even "interviewed" her for our monthly Messenger (newsletter for church that I'm in charge of) so that the members at church can catch up with her too, knowing what good things to thank God for, and what things are coming up that Rach needs prayers for-- very helpful! Then after a scrummy bargain of a lunch, we strolled around and did a bit of shopping! I got a really nice tablecloth, with plastic covering to protect it, and hopefully the cats won't ruin this one. I think this one is probably washable. I'll have to check. But the pattern is beautiful and classy (the last one the pattern wasn't that pretty, but it was on major sale and we needed one desperately, so I didn't have much choice really).
Then I spent a while starting the tidy-up for this evening, when John & Janet will be coming over for tea-- I'm really excited about that, they've never been round our house and we're looking forward to getting to know them better. It's part of how Ione's encouraged me without knowing it-- she's really determined to speak to everyone at church, and to invite as many people that she doesn't know well around for a meal. And now I'm going to try and do the same, even though it is a bit scary, because at church it's hard to talk to folks you have seen nearly every Sunday but not really spoken to, and also I'm kind of embarrassed about our house being small and full of clutter-- I'm rubbish at cleaning. So I'm resolving to be better at cleaning, and to invite more folks round-- which is actually an upward spiral, because the more folks I invite, the more I'll need to tidy the house more often, which means I'll be more likely to keep it tidy in between people, rather than let it go and get messy and do another major clean just before the next set of people come round. But the biggest reason is so we can get to know people more. We've been at the church for over four years now, and feel like we know some folks really well, but when we think about it, we hardly know them at all apart from brief chats before/after church on a Sunday. So we're really trying to get to know them better.
This morning I'm off with Kath & Shirley (stitching buddies!!) to Bakewell for a nice girly day out-- we'll go to Wye Needlecraft, very nice place that I could spend LOTS of money and time in, and also a really great quilt shop but I can't remember what it's called!! They also have really scrummy stitching goodies. I'm going to buy some really nice scissors for Kathryn A. -- right now she's using nail scissors *insert major gasp here* for her stitching!!!!! Appalling. So I'm going to remedy that and get her a nice pair of sharp ones. The nail scissors were not cutting as much as gnawing the threads for her. ouch.
Then after Bakewell, more tidying and some cooking-- yummy!
Posted by kristen at January 15, 2004 8:21 AM