Not a 10 - more of a 3 - Dolly's Dreamings

January 24, 2012

Not a 10 - more of a 3

Some days are 10s. You bounce along - well not literally but metaphorically speaking - and life is good. You feel a picture of health ... well apart from the arthritic knees, the duff ankle and the short and long sightedness ... and life is good. Other day .... mmmm, not so much. Some days are just plain poorly days and much as you try to pretend they are not, it sort of catches up on you and you end up just having to give in.
Thankfully they are not the norm. Thankfully they are few and far between. Thankfully it is a very minor blip compared to the awful stuff some people have to cope with. And actually, they serve to remind you not of your own fragility, but rather of how lucky you are that the poorly days stand out as odd rather than the good days being the unusual ones.

Plus, along the way there is ually a very very kind hubby who, as luck would have it, was working in a chemist today, and so was able to shop for what you needed. See, every cloud has a silver lining.

I will get better which is more than I can say for our fridge.

It was just two weeks ago I posted that we were a little disappointed that having steeled ourselves that we would need a new fridge and picking one out, the fridge was mended after all. Mmmm .... seems not actually. It is back to not working againa nd the next stage would be to replace a fairly major part and we'd be looking at over £200 and still having a fridge that, to be honest, we didn't entirely trust. I am bored with throwing chicken away now and so last night, terrifying as it might be, we ordered a new fridge that arrives tomorrow. Bang goes any dreams of saving for an iPad!

However, we did manage to find it at Boots, £150 cheaper than the next cheapest, which was also a sale price at £200 less than usual, so a saving of £350 plus extra Virgin miles for shopping through their gateway plus air miles for using the Virgin card plus Boots advantage points - heck, it is almost like they are paying us to have the thing!

I guess it may - fingers crossed - be the picture of the day tomorrow.

I have a page to share today which was made for the weekly challenge on UKS.

It is very much a hybrid page as I made the butterflies digitally then printed and coloured, I made the word art digitally and printed.

The word art was fun to do and I had forgotten how much I like making those little title blocks up

The challenge included using butterflies and I do love butterflies. Not only are they pretty but they are also so symbollic.

Today I am thankful for

giving in and being gentle with myself
General good health ... too easy to take for granted.
Nigel getting to do something he enjoyed today

My one minute devotional calendar page today was lovely and reminded me very very much of a trip we made to Big Pit in wales 25 years ago. It was the darkest blackest thing ever and I still can't beleive I managed it. My claustrophobia is worse now and I don't think I could do it now ... but I am glad I did it and could experience total blackness.

TOUR A COAL MINE! The billboard fairly shouted as we drove along Canada’s east coast. “Can we, Mom? Can we?” The two youngest kids, ages nine and ten at the time, were game to do anything that held even a hint of adventure.

“Oh, I suppose we could,” I replied without really thinking about it.

The grizzled old coal miner who acted as our guide handed each tourist a waterproof cape and helped us adjust the lights on our miners’ helmets. As we rattled down underground in the steel cage of an elevator, the guide proceeded to fill us in on the gory details of every disaster that had ever occurred in this particular mine. The elevator cage jolted to a stop at the bottom of the shaft. “Okay, everybody, turn the lights out on your helmets, so you can experience how dark a coal mine really is!”

The darkness was impenetrable. “Gee, Mom, I can’t even tell if my eyes are open or not!” our son exclaimed. Nor could I. We stood for a moment, experiencing the absolute absence of all light: pitch blackness. Scary, real scary. And cold, clammy cold.

“Okay, you can turn your lights on now and come this way.” The beam of light from my miner’s helmet caught the fluorescent heels of the running shoes worn by the tall tourist ahead of me. By bending my head just so, I could follow in his steps, while he, in turn, focused on the guide. Playing “follow the leader” spared me from succumbing to my absolute worst fear—being left alone in the twists and turns of that pitch-dark mine shaft.

The tour over, we squeezed back into the elevator cage. I held my breath as it creaked and groaned its way to the surface.

“That was neat, huh, Mom?” exclaimed our son. “What did you like best?”

“The fellow’s shoes who walked ahead of me,” I replied.

Father God, thank You for those whose lives are so focused on You that I can safely follow in their steps. And thank You for offering to be the guiding light to us all.