lund, early morning skypes, and Jude.

Looking back on this weekend, I can't help but smile.

Friday...so I was at work the whole day, which was ok I guess, but at night I went to my youth group, and it was testimony night. I LOVE LOVE LOVE, testimony nights. Hearing how God is at work in other peoples lives. Gosh, I just came away with my heart full of joy after I'd heard everyone get up and share snippets of the faith. It's so encouraging.

Saturday...my phone goes off at 7am with a text. I kind of roll over in bed and ignore it. It goes off again a couple of minutes later. I grumble again, thinking 'it's like 7am..shhhh'. And it goes off one more time. I think, OK, lets take a look and see which crazy friend of mine is up at silly o'clock on a Saturday morning. Turns out my friends aren't up at 7am on a Saturday morning, but still up at like midnight Friday night...IN CANADA! So I jumped out of bed, made myself a cup of tea, and skyped them for 2 hours solid. Best spontaneous early morning skype ever.

The rest of my Saturday was kind of chilled. I went to a coffee morning and ate some cake and drank some tea. I came home a painted a little. And then in the evening I went to work.

Sunday...this week at chapel was our chapel anniversary, and our speaker, Ruth Dent, spoke on the book of Jude. And it was just so good. The theme was a call to persevere, such an appropriate topic for an anniversary service. I've never really read Jude before, I mean, it's tucked right at the back of the bible before revelation, and its only like 25 verses long...it's easy to miss right?! But there are some great verses in there. '

But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear – hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and for evermore! (Jude 20-25)

All in all, it was a top weekend.

friends & food

I've said it once, and I'll say it again....I have some amazing friends. Friends that live close to me, friends that I see every week, friends that I have lived with, friends that live thousands of miles away across the pond...ahh I love them all.

Yesterday I got a lovely Christmas card from one of beautiful friends who lives in Canada and it made my day. Today I'm posting all my Christmas cards and letter to America/Canada (...I know, they are totally going to be a bit late in getting to them seeing as Christmas is next week, my bad!).

I'm so excited to hang out with my friends over the next two weeks during the Christmas/New Year season...OK, so I don't actually know just how much time I'll actually get to see them, Christmas is a pretty busy time of year...but it also a very food filled time of year...and friends + food = good combination, hahah!

And I'm blessed to have a job which always guarantees me Christmas day and boxing day off...perfect. Better than that in fact, I have the next 6 days off....SIX DAYS! And I only had to use 6 hours of my annual leave to get this....yesssssss :) Very excited for the next two weeks. Bring on the food and banter. 

annual leave

Today is the last day of my annual leave off work...and its been bliss!

What have I done with all my time off I hear you ask?! ...To be honest, not all that much! I've caught up with sleep and life. My room was cleaned, and then re-cleaned, and then tidied once more (turns out I cant keep my room tidy anymore, I'm turning into a slightly messy person!). I did a little bit of Christmas shopping, little being the operative word there as I came home with more for myself then for other people, whoops. Myself and 2 of my close friends went on a girly date, heading out for a meal then catch up with Mr Bond. And we also went to pack some shoeboxes for the Operation Christmas Shoebox appeal. Possibly THE most addictive charity activity ever. Defo going to do that again next year. And thats about it. That's a weeks worth of activities right there.

But tomorrow I'm back to it again, back to early mornings and the long commute to work. But I feel like the next few weeks are going to go by pretty fast...the run up to Christmas always does go kinda fast right!? It'll be here before we know it! And I have a few exciting things coming up too! Next weekend I'm going away to Liverpool to see Michael McIntyre which should be hilarious...not just his show, but the general banter of the group I'm going with. Christmas shopping and crafty-ness...kinda already started making some presents this week! I LOVE being crafty....thank you pintrest for all the inspirational ideas, I've never been so excited to get making things. Christmas youth group socials/games nights...these are always SO much fun.

Even though work starts again for me, and I don't know when my next bit of time off will be, I'm kinda looking forward to the coming few weeks.

Wait...as I type this the Coke-a-Cola Christmas advert has just come on TV...Yep, Christmas is DEFIANTLY on its way now. 

not so white

OK, so agggges ago when I got home from Germany I remember writing here how I had literally nothing planned in front of me. My life was a blank page ahead of me...I had no clue what step to make in terms on my career, I had zero summer plans, I didn't know which church to go to... I had no clue which direction I was heading, or what was around the corner.

And now, almost a good 6 months later, I can say that my white sheet of paper isn't so plain anymore.

Thinking back over the last 5 months is kind of odd. At the time, I felt as though I was going nowhere and seeming to gain nothing. But now, when I look back, actually a ton of stuff happened...

- I slotted right back into my old waitressing job which I LOVE.
- I went to Ambleside with my girl friends, and while we were there got asked to be maid of honor for my best friend.
- I started going to the church in the village next to me.
- I played in the Sportsreach annual netball tournament, the first time I'd played in a year pretty much. I was a tad stiff the next day!
- I went to Keswick Christian Convention...such a great week.
- Myself and the other bridesmaids went on two, slightly jam packed, dress shopping days before finally deciding on the perfect bridesmaid dress. So flipping stoked to wear this dress, it's stunning.
- We surprised my best friend by taking her to Northern Ireland for 4 days... possibly the highlight of the summer for me so far.
- I applied for numerous nursing and non nursing jobs. After turning down a job I just didn't feel right, I then had as string of nursing interviews, all of which I got turned down by until after the final interview I had lined up offered me a job. And out of all of the interviews I had, that one one of the top ones I wanted.

When I look forwards and backwards in my life I can totally see God hand at work.

Looking back I can see how He has been faithful to me these past few months. Life post Bible school had at times been pretty tough going, and I have often had the 'post bible school blues'. Sometimes I felt as though I was doing nothing, going nowhere...but actually God had it all in hand. He provided me with a very flexible part time job which I love until He blessed me with this nursing job. He has provided me with awesome friends to support and love me, and to keep me company as I waited for God to tell me what to do next!!

And when I look forward I'm starting to get hints of the plans He has for me. OK, so most of them I still have zero clue about, but I know He will give me directions where to turn as and when I need them.

All in all, life is good. I'm totally papping myself about starting this new job next week, but I know He is with me, so I'll be fine...right!? Still pretty nervous though :/

yummy, chocolaty, goodness

You know that feeling when you just what to bake. Create something yummy and then enjoy eating it. Well the other day I had that exact feeling. 


A friend made these flipping gorgeous brownies for me and my housemates a few years back when we were at university, and I remember asking for the recipe. She'd emailed it to us, but until 2 days ago this recipe had been sitting in the documents of my laptop, not being anything more than a typed page. 


And so when I got this desire just to bake something, I decided to root out this brownie recipe and give it a go. And not to big myself up or anything, but my end product was pretty darn good! ...and that's even after I forgot to put in the extra chocolate drops and nuts (whoops!). The tin is pretty much empty now...or at least it will be as soon as I finish this post because I'm going to go and eat the last piece!

For those of you who love to bake I thought I'd pop the recipe on here for you...enjoy :)


Stuff you'll need:

90g (3oz) plain chocolate (I used normal milk chocolate)
150g (5oz) butter & extra for greasing
125g (4oz) plain flour
15g (1/2oz) coco powder
300g (10oz) soft light brown sugar (I just used granulated because we had no soft brown sugar in the house!)
1 pinch of salt
2 eggs
1 tea sp of vanilla extract/ essence
½ table sp baking powder
100g Chocolate chips (you could use nuts instead of choc chips if you prefer)


What you need to do:
1. Preheat oven to 180oc (350 F/ Gas mark 4). Grease & line baking tine with grease proof paper 
2. Break chocolate into a bowl & add the butter, Melt the butter & chocolate over a sauce pan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally.
3. Remove and allow chocolate to cool slightly. Sieve the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt into a separate bowl. 4. In a third bowl beat the eggs, then add sugar and vanilla extract. Stir the ingredients until just combined.
5. Fold the beaten chocolate into the beaten egg mixture. Then fold the flour mixture in, there should be no lumps. Fold in the extra chocolate chips or nuts at this point too.
6. Put the mixture into the tin, smooth top & bake for 25minutes. It sometimes takes longer so check using a knife and make sure it comes out clean.
7. Allow to cool before cutting into squares.
8. Make a brew. Grab some brownie. Sit down, relax, and enjoy.

simple fun

Yesterday was simply a great day. A day filled with some much needed laughter.

I met up with some of my friends and helped out looking after a little boy that one of my friends babysits for a day every two weeks. This little bot is the funniest 3 year old I have ever met. He just comes out with some classic lines that have us all in stitches.

So anyways, the day started playing 'total wipe out' in my friends front room on a course that they had designed (and I'd like to say at this point that I did in fact complete the course, the first adult to do so might I add!!). We then went swimming, took him out for some lunch, went to the park, played cards, ate ice cream...ahhh, simply a fun day.

In the evening we met up with some more cool people and went bowling. A few strikes (...and a few missed shots) we went for some food at McDonald's, and then headed into town for a drink and a game of pool.

I love these kind of days. Where you do nothing particular special, but where the people that you are with make it special.Yesterday I did nothing new. I mean, I've been bowling and swimming a ton of times. And Asda cafe and McDonald's aren't the classiest of places to eat. But who cares?! It's not the places that you go to, its the people who you are with.

I love how you don't have to spend a ton of money to have a good time. You don't need to do something out of the ordinary to enjoy your day. You can have good, honest, simple fun if you are with the right people. 

This post in a nutshell?...

I have GREAT friends. 

empty days

Remember a while back I blogged saying that my life seemed to be just too busy, that I was ready to just chill out for a day or too, have time to read, to blog, to go for a walk, to see my friends... well those days have now become far too frequent.

I'm finding myself home most days with little to do but sit and think about how I don't really have a job. OK, so I do have a part time job, but I'm not getting a ton of shifts, and they are all evening shifts, so therefore I'm home most days. And in all honesty, I'm bored of my Steph days.

I feel like all my time off is just wasted wallowing in boredom; flicking through tv channels not really watching anything, browsing though pintrest, or just reading away. My days feel very, well, empty. And because I'm not doing much I have less energy and motivation to do anything compared with when I was super busy. I'm craving busyness, but its just not coming. I feel really lazy, and I hate that.

C'mon job, I'm ready for you now...

hello sunshine

Sunglasses, shades, iced drinks, salads, books, flip flops, shorts, strappy tops, suncream, BBQs, sun kissed skin....

I can smell summer in the air. Finally.

Thank You Mr Postman

I swear I used to be a tidy person. But now, look at my room. It's an absolute pig-sty. And I've taken my 'to-do list' obsession to the next level and created myself a 'cleaning room plan of action' haha. As you can tell, I've got a long way so far. Not. But now I'm caffeinated, have Colbie Caillat in the background, and by the end of the day, this room WILL be clean. 

On another note, this morning I received not one, not two but three pieces of mail. One was a birthday card off the people who have their holiday house opposite us which was really sweet of them. One was off one of my amazing house mates from uni. She sent me a package of goodies for my birthday, bless her. And the final was an international letter from Canada which included a photograph of our fondue club. I miss these guys...

today.

Today.

Today was my day off. It's been a while since I've had a day where I'm free do do as I wish. No shift at work at all, no solid plans that I had to stick to. I was free to just have a day for me.
And so I slept in, I read my book (The Lucky One, by Nicholas Sparks. It's getting pretty good, the characters are currently falling in love pretty much. VERY excited for the film to come out soon!) in bed for a long time. I got up, had some breakfast whilst still reading my book. I played the piano for some time. I met us with my best friend and started clearing out her future house. I emailed some friends from bible school. I cleaned the kitchen. And I made my friends birthday prezzie, something that I saw on pintrest a while back.

All in all, it was a great day.
And its not over yet. Technically I still have just under 2 hours left of the day. I plan to continue sipping on my Belgium hot chocolate, read a few more chapters of my book, and then snuggle up in bed and catch up on the latest episode of my favorite numbers, 90210.