Heading back home........ (oh yes, its my birthday as well!)

I'm heading back to Northamptonshire today after an incredible week in Crewe with Anne's New Generation exhibition.  I should be putting some pictures and blog post on the website (www.mt4life.org) over the next few days so you can check out how it all went on there.

It's been fantastic but tiring so once we're packed up I'll be hitting the road to get home.  I think tomorrow may well be a 'duvet day'......... :-)

As I was laying here early this morning and just running through things in my head there was a niggle I'd forgotten something.  Then I remembered it was my birthday! You'd have thought after all these years 1 - I'd remember more readily and 2 - I'd be thinking about slowing down a bit. 
Well, failed (and failing) miserably on both counts I'm pleased to say.

For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while you may recall I was recovering from a serious illness when I turned 50 and as I realised it's now 5 years on from that I remember getting up at my birthday party and saying I had this incredible sense the 'best was yet to come'.  Well, I can honestly say I think that's starting to come to pass.

I love every day of my new life.  I get to spend so much time with amazing people. I've been staying with the most wonderful lady called Susan, Socks the dog and Jinx & Maggie the cats.  There's also a few chickens living in the back garden but I haven't been sitting on the sofa having a cuddle with them in the evenings! We've enjoyed great conversations, good food (you should taste her homemade quiche.........), few glasses of wine but more than anything we have laughed so much.  I will miss my evening ritual of coming in, getting straight into my 'jimjams' and joining Susan in front of the wood burning stove to wind down and chat about the day.  But I have a sneaky suspicion I'll be invited back and I hope to be able to reciprocate the hospitaity when she comes to visit me.

As I say, life is so good. I get to choose where I go, when, for how long and despite working harder than I think I have ever done I am so glad, and grateful, to the prompting of God to have made the decision I did last year. 
The best birthday present I could get is the assurance I'll never have to go back to that 'safe' 9-5 office job existence ever again.
With all the things that are happening I have a sneaky suspicion that's not going to happen.  As I said to my surgeon when we were discussing my knee op last year 'God has a lot of work for me to do over the next 25-30 years so these knees have got to be able to carry me around!'

Thankfully this week they've not only held up really well as I've been on my feet 7-8 hours a day but also as I've climbed ladders, lugged frames around and stacked boxes.  Today they need to keep me going as we try to figure out how to pack 34 massive silk panels, metal frames, numerous boxes of stock, 1 suitcase, 1 bag of shoes and various random bags + me into my car!  This should be interesting...........

Need to get up and get going.  It's a short few days turn around before the exhibition goes up in Bedfordshire from the Easter weekend.  Check out the website for details under Events.

Next post will have pictures, I promise.

Have an especially blessed time this Easter as we remember what Jesus did for every single one of us at Calvary. (and if you don't know what that was...........I'm always happy to share the story with you)
God bless
Jules xx

Some pictures at last!......

I've managed to get the dongle thingy working on my laptop (it is soooooo slow though........makes me appreciate my wireless broadband at home!)  so thought I'd upload a few recent photos while I've got the chance.  Still haven't managed to work out how to transfer my pictures from my phone to my iPad  - think I need an iPhone then it'll do the work for me!  I'm all for the easy option when it comes to technology.

Second attempt at uploading these pictures.....
They could do with a little cropping but I've decided to just get them posted while I stand a chance it will work!



Singin' Harmony in concert last Saturday.
This is the choir my brother joined last year who are using their talents and time to
perform and raise money for charity. Some, like Kev have never sung in a choir before.
If they're performing near you anytime I'd encourage you to go and hear them - they're good!
 

These are some felt Christmas decorations I made this year.
You could either hang them up or some had brooch backs sown on so they could be worn.
They looked very effective and were popular a the craft fayre I did with my daughter (see picture below)

My daughter Amy sitting behind our joint craft stall last December. 
She had the whole family 'crafting' including my grandsons.  They made some beautiful items including hand made leather notebooks, tree decorations and lovely Christmas aprons - something every man should wear on Christmas day! We had a great day together and managed to sell quite a few things as well.



I asked my brother to make me the word FAITH in wood to go on my bedroom wall which he did last year. For Christmas he made HOPE and LOVE to finish the set. They're from 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 which is often used in the marriage ceremony. Verse 4 starts 'Love is patient, love is kind .....' and goes on to list many more attributes of love. The last verse (13) says 'and now these three remain; faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love'.

 I find waking up to see these words at the end of my bed inspires me to act with love, towards whoever the Lord puts across my path that day. I know I'm not always lovable and I don't always show as much love (and all its attributes like patience...) as much as I should but it doesn't hurt to be reminded in such a beautiful way.

Thanks bruv.


 

I seem to have managed to get these on OK ad write the captions so before I completely lose the will to live with the speed (or should I say lack of ...) of this technology I'm going to publish this.  Hopefully it will work!

Blessings
Luv Jules x

 

Hello from up north

I've just spent the last hour or so composing a post and managed to delete it!

Anyway, I'm on my travels - the first of many I hope of 2013. I'm combining work and pleasure this week currently visiting family near Hull, Nth Humberside then on to Crewe later in the week.

I'm having a day out and about (one of my favourite occupations), chatting to people I meet along the way. It's amazing the topics of conversation you have with people in the changing room when trying on a tunic top you found in the sale!

I've also spent a pleasant couple of hours in the Casa Bar and Kitchen in Beverley. I came in for a coffee and to use the free wi-fi then ended up staying for lunch! The food is homemade on the premises, delicious and the staff very friendly. I had a chicken parfait and there was no hesitation in bringing me more toast when I asked for it. If you find yourselves in this lovely market town then pop in - you'll get a warm welcome.

Off to Crewe on Thursday to finalise the arrangements for the New Generation exhibition which will be hosted by Wells Green Methodist Church along with 3 other churches. It will be staged from Monday 18th March to the following Monday. They've also asked if I would be their guest preacher for the Sunday morning service (24 March). I did check and say do you know what you're letting yourselves in for but despite that they still said they'd like me to preach! ....... Just hope I can see over the lectern OK.

Then back to Northamptonshire Friday only to be up at the crack of dawn to catch the train into London Saturday. It's the first of my modules at Spurgeons bible college. I'm very excited about starting the course, it's just so long since I had to do anything vaguely resembling homework. And before anyone comments, no we didn't use clay tablets when I was at school......... We had progressed to paper and pens by then. Computers however were still an alien concept when I last took an exam!

Anyway, time to hit the road again - especially as this is my second attempt to get this posted!

Be back soon
God bless as always
Luv Jules x

(Very) belated Happy New Year!

It's Monday morning and already half way through January which I still can't quite get my head around.

Life is busy but good busy if you know what I mean. I had an unusually stress free slow paced Christmas which was a very welcome change. My brother came to stay and it was just the two of us for Christmas day. We broke with tradition and decided to spread our present opening out over the day.  We're both fairly early risers so started with a cuppa around 6.30am and opened a couple each, finally opened our last present about 11.00pm.  My daughter and son-in-law got the opportunity to go to friends for Christmas which was such a nice change for them, then they hosted a family day on  News Years eve with turkey and all the trimmings so Christmas was a lovely long holiday for me spent with lots of my wonderful family. 

And here we are as I said already half way through the first month of 2013.

Now because I am so conscious I didn't get to blog as often as I wanted to in 2012 I'm determined to do better this year.  So I've taken advantage again of my iPad to write this morning before I really get stuck into the business of the day.  The more eagle eyed of you may have noticed however my last post did not contain any photos.  Well - neither does this.  It won't surprise you to hear that's because I haven't figured out yet how to download photos from my phone to my iPad! Unfortunately I don't have an iPhone otherwise I know it would sync automatically ( I am working on getting one.....) and I know everyone says the iPad  is so easy to use - intuitive is the word my Apple guru calls it that I should be able to work it out quite easily but no.  The sentence 'you can download your photos via iTunes' hasn't been overly helpful in my case. ...........

I have however just found out how to highlight this text and change the colour so whoo hoo - something else new I've learnt! 

As I said this year has got off to a busy start.  I've been spending a lot of time catching up with data inputting for the church finances and thank the Lord feel as if I've broken the back of it.  A wonderful lady called Louise has also come to my rescue and offered her time and expertise to take on some of the work.  A real answer to prayer. 

Work is progressing on setting up 'more time 4 life' ministries and the launch of the website which hopefully will be towards the end of this month. Fortunately that isn't down to my expertise otherwise  we could all be waiting years rather than weeks for it to happen! 

The diary is starting to get more appointments in for me to promote the Anne House exhibitions but we want many more enquiries. If you're involved in any organisation or group who you think might be interested in hosting an exhibition of Anne's art please email me at jmk@mt4life.co.uk or check out the link on the right hand side to her website which will give you a taster of what we can offer. 

Well it's 09.00 and emails, website plans etc beckon so I'm going to sign off now.  You'll be pleased to hear I'm meeting with James (the guy who's building the website and my IT expert) this weds evening so hopefully he'll be able to show me how to upload my photos so my next post can have some piccies.  That's of course once he's stopped laughing and explaining how even his 5 year old daughter knows how to do it...........

May  2013 be filled with God's blessings for you and your loved ones.
Bye for now
Jules x

Less than 3 weeks to Christmas!

Hi everyone.
Well, I thought life was already fairly manic but as the saying goes I have a feeling 'I 'ain't seen nothing yet' !

I was desperately trying to get this post on before the end of last month in between practising for a gig last Sunday afternoon, making lots of Christmas craft items for a fair I'm doing next weekend, making Christmas presents for people and planning Christmas now I've invited family and friends to share the day with me  -oh, and making sure I'm doing my daily exercises for my knee.  Phew! - I feel like a sit down and a coffee just writing it all down.
As you can see I didn't succeed.

But it is so nice to be back to my old self again ( not sure everyone would agree with that..... :-).  Since my knee op I am sleeping so much better, the pain in my other knee is so much improved because I'm walking properly for the first time for a few years and I just feel my general health is so much better. 

Which is just as well, because plans are moving on now for 'more time 4 life' ministries.
I've added a page to this blog just giving an idea of what the organisation is about and progress on getting the website up and running (see tab at the top for more info and track progress with the website)

It's more than a month since my last post and as I've said I've made great progress with my recovery. 
I've added a bit of video footage below - as you can see I'm a huge Strictly fan and can't wait to get back on the dance floor. My surgeon says I can even wear heels!! (but I have promised my daughter to be sensible - well, most of the time......)

I haven't needed sticks for a few weeks and can now walk up and down the stairs to my flat with no problems. Also I'm back driving (whoohoooo!!), which is wonderful.  I was very fortunate to have so many friends and family who (literally) went out of their way to pick me up and drop me home so I was able to go to church most Sunday's and other meetings etc.  I also had lots of visitors and invitations out to lunch, dinner, coffee  - the whole experience was made so much easier by some wonderful people.  So for anyone reading this a huge, big thank you from me both for all the practical help ad your prayers. xx



As I said this Sunday (09 December 2012) I'm at a craft fair with my daughter - you can find out more at http://www.facebook.com/#!/BromhamShow 

Here are some photos of some of my efforts so far!

There'll also be decorated wooden hearts, handmade leather bound notebooks, Christmas aprons and lovely little chocolate filled stockings to hang on the tree.

There'll be 32 other stalls all selling lots of handmade goodies for Christmas so come along and get stocked up if you're in the Bedford area on Sunday.

 

I need to crack on with my sewing and crochet so am posting this now.

Hope you're not experiencing too much snow - not yet anyway otherwise it's going to be along winter!

God bless
Jules xx






 

Normal service will be resumed shortly...

Hi everyone.

If you're wondering what has happened to me in the last few weeks I've had a slight interruption to my normal routine (I know, what routine??....).  I was a guest of the good 'ole NHS for 3 days while they replaced the painful arthritic bone in my right knee with an 'Oxford' right medial unicompartmental knee replacement joint.  Just call me the bionic woman!

As you know I've mentioned my dodgy knees a few times on this blog but it was getting to the point where they were really beginning to slow me down.  Not something I'm too used. After 2 different specialists gave me the brush off, saying I was too young for any surgical intervention (how lovely to be too young for something!), I finally saw a Mr Simon West who specialises in knee and hip joints.  A very tall and charming man who I have to say was excellent.  As I said to him 'God has a lot of work for me over the next 25-30 years and these knees have to carry me around'.  To which he replied 'Well, we'd do something about them then hadn't we'.  (I do like a man of action........)

Op Weds, Up Thurs!
 Bit blurred - my daughter couldn't stop laughing...

Less than 12 weeks later I found myself lying in the operating theatre, having had a spinal block anaesthetic (yes, I was awake throughout the op - or should I say DIY considering the drilling and hammering!).  It's a really funny sensation when you suddenly see your leg in the air and have no idea how it got there!  The whole experience was incredible and every single member of the hospital staff, from the porters to my surgeon were superb.  Nothing was too much trouble and I was relaxed and calm throughout which I put down to a combination of prayer and professionalism.



If you're wondering what my 'jammies say it's 'Feisty but Fabulous' - didn't really expect sensible did you...? 



Me -2 sticks, 1 knee replacement, 4 days after op. 
My friend -1 crutch, 1 hip replacment, 4 weeks after his op



Anyway, it will be 3 weeks tomorrow since the op, I'm back living in my flat (and successfully negotiating the 46 stairs!) and experiencing less pain already.  The benefits are more than just the alleviation of the pain in my right knee.  Because I've been a good girl (I can do as I'm told sometimes....OK, occasionally......Oh OK - on very rare occasions) and listened to my physio, I'm really conscious of my posture so am walking correctly which has meant the pain in my left knee is so much better already. 

A very kind friend offered to have me at her house for the first couple of weeks as the stairs would have been a bit much straight away.  The photo on the right was taken on the first Sunday after my op on the Weds.  I'm amazed how much mobility I have so quickly and am so grateful to all my friends who have been praying for me.  As you can see I'm not the only one who has had replacment parts recently and I'm pleased to say Roy is making excellent progress as well. We'll soon be able to give the youngsters a real run for their money!

Anyway, I'll sign off for now but will be back soon. 

God bless as always

Jules xx

Cracking the technology!

Well, September seems to have come and gone before I could get to grips with the technology for uploading some videos.  But a very kind and patient friend of mine has persevered and hopefully you'll be able to view some of the things I've been up to recently.  I'll try and get at least 3 posts on in October to make up for it.

I mentioned in my last post I went dancing with my Mum and Dad so here's a little clip of them taking their customary Friday afternoon exercise.  I love dancing but have to confess ballroom isn't always the easiest to master but Dad did manage to steer me round the floor without us ending up in a heap.  My parents have always been an inspiration throughout my life and as you can see, they have no intention of stopping any time soon!

I was reminded this weekend of my day out in London for the Olympics as a group of us went to Wembley Stadium on Saturday
and walked up the Olympic Way.  Unfortunately due to being, what's the expression? - vertically challenged, I didn't really see much at all of the men's triathlon except the tops of cycling helmets as they whizzed past in one direction, then back again in the other.  But the atmosphere was amazing and I'm so glad I went....apart from it resulting on me taking part in The Audience! (and no, if you've been watching you haven't missed the episode I am in.  I think it should be screened sometime later this month)

Anyway, I shot some footage of the triathlon so here's a little reminder of the amazing atmosphere we've enjoyed in this country over the summer....

I'm down in Southampton for a few days with friends and I have to say the weather is certainly starting to feel rather wintry.  The sun was lovely earlier today but it's rather cold and wet now so I'm looking forward to curling up under the duvet this evening with a good book.

As you know I normally write this in the morning but I was keen to see if I had indeed managed to upload the video footage and so far so good.  I'm going to close now and get this posted - then we'll see if it really works!

I hope tomorrow you're able to enjoy at least a little sunshine along with the rain and like me tonight you will have somewhere warm and cosy to sleep. 

God bless
Jules xx