Tuesday 22 May 2012

Tuesday's Time To (22nd May)



This week in Tuesday's Time To ...

A time to plant ...
Today I walked with Papa Bear through the park to the main road where his work colleague stops by to give him a lift in the pick-up. It was beautiful walking through there today - the sun was already shining, the air was sweet and all around was green and white with the leaves and blossoms. We saw so many different birds - greattits, bluetits, a robin, magpies, collared doves, starlings, blackbirds, dunnocks and even a jay. It was very hard when we reached the road, to say goodbye and leave Papa Bear, but then I remembered that I would get to walk home through the park again! Lovely!

A time to heal ...
I don't know whether there's any truth in this but for me (and Grandmama Bear) at least, the warmer weather does mean that our arthritis pains are not so bad. Today I have had no pain at all, which has made such a difference to how quickly I got my chores done!  

A time to laugh ...
We had a funny mishap one evening last week. The cubs were on their way out to their usual fellowship evening at our Church, and they decided they wanted to take some chocolate brownies to share at the meeting. Cubby Bear offered to get all the ingredients ready while Little Bear finished something upstairs. While he did this, Papa Bear and I were sitting in the living room reading and enjoying a rest after a busy day - and I remembered that in the fridge there were two different cartons of spreadable butter - one for eating and one for cooking. Since the eating one wasn't suitable for cooking with, I called through to Cubby to make sure that he used the "cooking butter" and not the eating one.  "OK!" he shouted back.  A little while later, after Little Bear had joined him, I got a call from the kitchen. Little Bear said there was a problem! I got up and went through to find her puzzling over the large mixing bowl. "Mum, I can't get this butter to go soft!" she exclaimed. I thought maybe it was just that becuase the room was quite cool it was taking a while to loosen up, so I took the bowl and spoon to gave it a stir and hasten it along - but it was so stiff you could barely move the spoon! I asked Cubby what he had used for the mixture. "The block of cooking butter, like you said" he answered. Oh no! He had misheard me - and used the "Cookeen" (white vegetable fat that I use for pastry making - the English version of Crisco) and not butter at all! Not wanting to waste the ingredients, the cubs insisted on carrying on, but oh dear me - they were one very greasy pan of brownies! We all laughed together about it later, and decided that next time perhaps it would be better if Little Bear got the ingredients ready, and Cubby did the mixing!

A time to embrace ...
The event above has shown me yet again, how much we must embrace our cubs' growing independence. It won't be long before they have left our nest and set up homes of their own - so it's important to keep giving them opportunities like this one to try things out for themselves - and make mistakes. One thing they'll never do again after this is use the Cookeen for baking!

A time to keep ...
Little Bear had a big "sort out" and declutter of her bedroom at the weekend. Although she had lots of odds and ends that she wanted to donate to charity, she also had a bag of things she thought I might like - hair decorations, jewellery, scarves and gloves and such. I had a look through and found some real treasures, including a pretty pink mother-of-pearl necklace that I am wearing now, as I write! I was delighted with my "new" finds, and Little Bear was pleased that they had gone to a good home!

A time to sew ...
I've been focussing mainly on knitting again in my free time this week, but I have also been spending some time looking through my 3 precious vintage Laura Ashley decorating books. There are some wonderful tips and techniques for creating your own home furnishings in them, including ideas for making your home look more co-ordinated, without having to spend lots of money, and for making use of thrift store bargains (of which we have quite a few, in our modest home) to design a home which is pretty and unique. I am feeling very inspired at the moment to try some of these out!  The books are from the 1980's/early 1990's when the fashion was for a pretty, very feminine and flouncy, country-cottage decorative style, which I adore, although many people would probably say it was too dated for their tastes.  In our home, Papa Bear chooses the decor - except for our bedroom, where he gives me free reign!  Hopefully over the next few weeks and months I might get a chance to give our bedroom a "mini makeover" and use some of the ideas from the books!

A time to speak ...
We've been having some interesting talks at the table when we have our evening meal recently, some of which I hope to use as the theme for some future posts on the blog. For instance only today Papa Bear commented how odd it seemed that these days, the media appears to make much more of an issue over teenagers who marry, than it does over unwed teenagers who have babies. It seems as if it is considered by many to be quite acceptable nowadays for a 17 or 18 year old to have a baby, even if there is no father to support them, but a couple of a similar age who wish to marry, seem to be frowned upon, as if they are making a terrible mistake they will regret forever. As parents who were married and had 2 children well before we reached our twenties, we find this attitude very odd - but not at all surprising!  For our own children, we would be perfectly happy for them to marry while they are still teenagers, as we did - but if they don't, that's fine too.  What does matter is that they understand the gravity of the commitment that the marriage covenant represents - and see it for what it is in God's eyes, rather than that of the media and the secular world around us.

A time to love ...
This leads me to add that of course, at the heart of what makes a marriage union work - at any age - is love - true love, not infatuation. It doesn't matter if you're 16 or 60 when you marry, unless you're doing it for the right reasons, and with the right attitude, then your marriage is going to be hard work. I'm so glad that Papa Bear and I knew this - innocent and young as we were - when we were joined together as husband and wife! Of course, a marriage always has to be worked at, but if real, heartfelt, selfless love is at the foundation of that marriage, it will always be one that is "made in Heaven". That's what our's feels like to us, every single day.  It doesn't matter whether we're having a wonderful time - or a difficult one.  Our marriage is precious and wondeful, and we cherish every day that we have together, the good days, and the not-so-great.

A time of peace ...
It was so peaceful, walking through the park today! All we could hear was birdsong - and another noise, which we hadn't heard for a while - the gentle rustle of the leaves in the trees, as the wind moved them! It was a lovely sound - a sort of soft swishing, like waves crashing on a distant seashore. It made us feel very hopeful that  summer is just around the corner!