Your excuse is invalid!

My trainings plan and motivational photo.

I love Chocolate!

Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent, a time in the Christian calendar for fasting. As I was thinking about this on Monday and deciding whether to take part in this symbolic fast this year I got in a bit of a panic. Only 40 days til Easter and after Easter, May is only a couple of weeks away so I really, really, SERIOUSLY have to start training for the Aschaffenburg Citylauf on 11^th May.

I registered Matt and myself back in January for our city’s yearly fun run thinking it was a 5k run (goal N° 3), yeah yeah I know, I should have read it properly as it is actually a 7.9K run!!!!!!  Call me crazy but I didn’t cancel, however I did put off starting to train. Minus temperatures and 16 weeks stretching out in front of me gave me a couple of good excuses, but the time for excuses is no more. It’s do or die, sink or swim time.

As for a training plan, I’ve found a few online but have put together my own starting with a 5k and adding on some of a 10k plan to reach the 8k mark. Couch to 5k is a good one to start with, especially if, like us, you’re a couch potato. This week it’s brisk walking every day and next week I start on 1 min walk 1 min jog rotation. With just 11.5 weeks to Race Day I’m sure there’ll be a tantrum or two before the finish line is reached.  

So if you’re anywhere near Aschaffenburg on 11^th May come and watch, better yet join me! I’m trying to get a team together to run as an advertisement for our Church’s youth “Extreme Day” on 16^th June. Get in touch if you’re interested.

Anyhow, back to Lent. What am I going to give up? Well, chocolate, yes really! For those who know me well, you’ll know this will be a tough one. I don’t just like chocolate, I love chocolate, LOVE LOVE LOVE chocolate. In fact, given the choice between chocolate and oxygen, I’d have to think about it.

I have actually done this before, gone 40 days without chocolate, so it’s not totally unprecedented, but it’s still going to be a test of my willpower and that’s the point. Fasting for Lent isn’t a biblical mandate, it’s a Catholic and High Anglican tradition linked with the 40 days and nights that Jesus spent in the wilderness fasting. Also (unfortunately) quite a lot of mythical and manipulative traditions have got mixed in over the centuries. In the western world it’s too easy to lose sight of what is luxury and what is necessity so it’s time for me to face the ugly true, chocolate ISN’T essential for sustaining life.

PS: If you see me looking like this, I'd recommend giving me a wide berth. LOL

If only it was that easy!

"I just decided that I wasn't going to get any older! Aging wasn't for me" - you've got to love Miss Piggy.

Families work together.

I’m sitting here with my feet up after a long, busy day. Today was Linda’s moving day and, although I couldn’t do any heavy lifting I spend my day organizing, directing the carrying (what/where/which room etc), “taxi” driving and making coffee, lots and lots of coffee! All in all there were 18 people involved today getting Linda and all her worldly processions out of a 3^rd floor apartment and into a lovely ground floor apartment. And that’s not counting the people who help pack boxes and paint beforehand.

As one man commented when he arrived “Wow, it feels like the whole family’s here!”. He was meaning the BGAB Church family, and it was wonderful. It reminded me of something I’d watched recently in the TV series “Living with the Amish”. 

Six teenagers from London spent 5 weeks living with 5 different Amish families and joining in their day-to-day lives, including a barn-raising. On this particular day what seemed to astound the teens most was the teamwork within the Amish community and the fact that people came from miles around, worked the whole day and gave their time for free! A type of family-community they had never experienced before and the feeling of accomplishment and being part of something bigger than themselves, they couldn’t really articulate.

As for myself, I’m blessed to have been part of many such days. Sure, it would have been easier to stay in bed this morning, I would have saved myself some stress and been able to spend the whole day with my husband BUT I would have missed out on soo much. We’re not related my blood but today I spent time working with some of my family and I love that!

A New Year - A New Start.

I don’t know about you, but New Year’s Eve is often a time of reflections and goal setting. What have I / we achieved in the last year, what was good, what was bad, what can I change and where would I like to be this time next year?

My “Thought for the Day” email of the 29^th take it one step further and encourages us to examine the motives behind our goals.

VERSE

For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.     -- James 3:16

THOUGHT:

 So, what are your goals and plans for the New Year? Do you have great dreams and laudable goals? I hope so. But, please join me as I seriously look at why I set the goals I do and make the plans I make. In the afterglow of Christmas, that great season of giving, let's make sure our plans for the future are not selfish or based on envy, lust, or greed. Instead, let's set our hearts to reach great heights for God's glory and to do great things to be a blessing to others. Otherwise, all our attempts to reach great things ultimately will end in chaos, heartbreak, and destruction.

As we’re currently visiting friends in Bristol, I’ll write more in a few days’ time. I’m still working on my 10 goals, rather too slowly, but better slow than not at all.

“What’s wrong with your wife? She’s always smiling!”

I've just got back from a trip to Bristol, where Matt and I stayed with our good friends Andrew & Rebecca and their 4 kids. Mungo, their oldest is my Godson and just turned 9. It was great to see how he, his brothers and sister are growing and developing.

Returning home to Old Blighty is always fun and this time was no different. We had some beautiful weather, stayed just a few short steps away from Clifton Downs in one of the many beautiful houses there, got to rest up as well as spending time with each of the kids and even managed to pop over to Wales to visit other friends there.

Apart from family and friends, one of the things I love about Britain is the friendliness of strangers. Just walking around people will smile and greet you, it’s all too easy to have a short conversation with a shop assistant and I always stop to chat with the Big Issues sellers when I buy one. Don’t get me wrong, I love living in Germany but I do wonder it the Germans don't know what they’re missing in their shyness to engage in little interpersonal exchanges throughout the day. Not long after we moved to Germany, one of Matt’s colleagues asked him “What’s wrong with your wife? She’s always smiling!”  !!!!  Also, both times that Kate has been over to visit she’s commented on the lack of smiles when out and about. You’ll be lucky to get a passerby to catch your eye, let alone smile.

Another thing I love is the numerous bookshops, new but most especially secondhand. As I mentioned before, reading is as essential as breathing to me and I wanted to seriously stock up on this trip. If I’m going to read 40 books, then I need 40 books to read, simple! So between raiding my friends’ bookshelves, charity shops and Wesley Owen, I returned with 22 books! 

The visit to Wesley Owen was a joy, not least because I got to take Mungo, he is a young man after my own heart when it comes to reading. After telling me he had either read or been read all the children’s books in the house, I promised to buy him a new book and gave him a budget of £10. He chose 2 books totaling £9.98 (he endeavoured to assure me) and then found another in the reduced section for just £3. “Please Aunty Kathy!” Well how could I refuse? After all, I had 7 books in my hand.

Here he is, pleased as punch with one of his new books.

Anyhow, my challenge for you today; smile at a stranger and get your nose in a book.

"Resolve to edge in a little reading every day, if it is but a single sentence." - Horace Mann

Surely it’s not Christmas-time already?

September heralds the end of summer, apple harvest, shorter evenings, golden leaves and Christmas. Yes, Christmas! The first leaves have only just started to fall and already the shops are putting out displays of Christmas biscuits. It just seems so wrong when it’s still 24°C (75°F) outside.

Although I’m not ready to pack away my sandals and sunglasses quite yet, there are 2 presents I need to prepare long before December, the first for my friends in Mexico (snail-mail takes FOREVER to get there) and the second for an unknown child via Samaritan’s Purse “Christmas Child” action. With only 2 months before the deadline on 15^th November when these shoebox presents have to be at your local collection point, it’s definitely time to get started.

The last couple of years I’ve started buying things throughout the year, partially to spread the cost but mainly to snap up bargains and make my money go further. Spending around about 10€ a month I can keep a look out in the sales etc, for example, last month I picked up 7 cute T-shirts for just 12€! I’ve now got a whole Curver© box full of cloths, toys and school supplies ready to be sorted and packed. I’m going to make up 2 shoe boxes this year and all the “left-overs” from my collecting goes to the main collection point where the volunteers make up Christmas Boxes from all the different donations that come in, from companies and private people as well as checking all the boxes that come in already packed.

So I’d like to encourage you to make your own shoe-box present, or if you can’t afford to pack a whole box for a child, then think about adding just 1 extra thing to your basket each time you shop, some soap, toothpaste or a colouring book, over the next 8 weeks and help bring a smile to a child’s face this Christmas.