Taking the Plunge

I have just started my new blog This Little War and am delighted to invite you all to come and have a look, and tell me what you think.
I will be staying on here at HWFD because it's my personal place, where I meet with friends, and talk through all the muddle. TLW is a more public place, where I hope to build a more professional presence online.
Tell me what you think.

Strange Carry On

Today, I applied for a job. No really. I have been either self employed or keeping home for the last 15 years at least, but for a couple of spells of part time teaching (riding).
I'm not sure where I'm going with it - I don't really even expect to get an interview - but I was getting grizzly about how (seemingly) easily a couple of friends had been shortlisted for, and obtained, respectively, new jobs which seemed just perfect for them. I looked in the local paper just to prove to myself that never in a million years would there be a job I could apply for - I need flexible hours, I have school runs to do, I have school holidays to contend with, and a puppy to cart round with me - and there it was. A job which just might fit the bill, requiring some skills I learned long ago, and perhaps even some age and experience. So I was excited, and I applied for it. We'll see.
In the meantime, in talking it over with the family, I was so animated, so convinced that we'd all just have to wake up and smell the coffee and put a bit more va-voom into life, get the chores done, and crack on with saving up for our dream home/farm/life. We came here for a reason. God intended for us to build on what we have here, and job or no job (and no job = no money) we can do it, not in our own strength, but in His.
So today, when the girs were at school and the envelope posted, it struck me that even if I don't get the job, or so much as an interview, that still stands.
I feel like we waste a lot of time. Down time when we just feel tired and pessimistic. Instead of using every minute to further our cause. So it's down to menu plans, frugal tricks and tips, budgeting, and making every penny count, and remaining cheerful and fired up.
What are your top energy tips? I need loads more. I know my sugar cravings cause me problems, and I know I stay up too late.

What other energising tips do you have for me?

In other news, as our church seems to have hit a major bump in the road - and may possibly, just possibly cease to exist quite soon, we are still looking to move. While we are intrigued by the possibility of the anabaptist assembly which meets at West Drayton, the reality is more likely to be, that we accept the 40 minute drive we've been fighting these 8 years, and head for the nearest 'big' (by our standards) evangelical church, which probably means Chippenham.

Those of you who are christians, how far do you consider is feasible to travel to church?

Christmas has come and gone

the decorated corners have been dusted and the greenery burned gratefully,

the gingerbread house admired and applauded, though not exactly eaten, by those of us with multiple fillings.

The radiant sunrise inhales through bare, stoical boughs,

and snow is here.

and the veg garden, though in need of much work, likes beneath its wintry cover

there is still much to be done

but nevertheless, we

... we are going toboganning...

Pale Blue Sky

The sky is pale blue. It is just gone 4pm, it is so cold, that as we rode along the roads (inadvisable in the extreme, I was talked into it, and Archie, who is no relation whatsoever to Christopher Dean, had a terrifying time of it) I noticed every ditch, filled with solid, glittering, Snow Queen worthy, Ice. But the joy of it is, the sky is pale blue, it is not dark.
When the days start to stretch out, the precious seconds are so much more important than the extravagance of the lengthening evenings after the equinox. It isn't dark! My little bantams are still scratching around in frozen straw! The sky is pale blue!

And I must introduce you to our newest team member. I will tell you his story another day, but for now, in a really Christmassy sort of way, he just arrived:



This is Morse. The sky is pale blue, and Morse is here. Life is funny, isn't it?