Day 61 - Great Planning Meeting & Red Nail Polish

Dan had organised a planning day with other youth leaders from our region.  The purpose of the day was to develop a plan of activities that will strengthen the youth groups.  It was a great meeting, with a good turn out.  We were blessed with scrumptious cupcakes with cream topped with strawberries and rice bubble slices courtesy of Mrs Tofae's little helpers :).  The meeting started off with a quick ice breaker playing "Bop It".  If you haven't played this game yet, then you should run down to your local Warehouse and get it.  It's great fun. My girls love playing it.  A really good way to exercise your left and right brain :)  The rest of the meeting went really well and we came up with some short, medium and long-term activities for our Unified youth groups.  Really encouraged by all who attended.  I have had in my heart to use my skills and knowledge in Human Resources in particular the area of development, in my service for God and thankfully the opportunity has come along.  I put my hand up to design various workshops that will run in the next year or so that will cover a number of areas that the group agreed is a need for our youth.  It's such a great feeling to be surrounded by people who support each other and encourage each other to step up to the mark.  I really enjoyed today's meeting and truly believe that God will move in our plans.

We then spent a couple of hours with our girls.  Dan and I always find it important that as much as we serve in our ministry we always let our girls know what's going.  Today they understood that we were in a meeting today for a period of time and that we needed them to be on their best behaviour and then following the meeting we will spend some time together.  By letting our girls know what's going on they don't feel any resentment towards us.  We show them how we must fulfil our commitments.  We always ensure that in our busy day of meetings, we make time with our girls.  We have always made the effort to do the best that we can to commit to what we say to our girls and in return they have done the same thing to us.

I spent some time thinking about the relationships I have with my family and friends in my life.  I am very fortunate at this age that I have the relationships that I have.  I have decided this year to let people know what I think/feel about things but in a way that my message will be received and in an appropriate time.  Often we say things at the wrong time and we never achieve what we set out to do.  But this year, I have decided that I am not going to withhold my feelings and let it boil inside me to the point where I begin to think the worst of the situation.  And to be honest, it is a great feeling to get things off my chest.  My relationships with people are a lot better because I have not allowed my feelings to stir within me.  I like to check in with people about our relationship and make sure that everything is okay.  I don't think this is about worrying too much, I think it's more about caring enough to change my attitude to improve the relationship and if things are still the same then I know that it isn't me that needed to change but at least I have done what I can.  I know that I am not perfect but I'd like to think that I am doing my best to improve things that matter to me in my life.

Later in the evening, my in-laws came over to watch some rugby game that was on :).  My sister and I were catching up in the kitchen.  With my family coming down in these past 3 weeks I haven't had a lot of time with her whereas normally we see each other almost everyday.  I love being in the kitchen.  Not because I like to cook or bake but I have the fondest memories in the kitchen. During family gatherings and church events I would be in the kitchen helping out which I didn't enjoy but it's the conversations that I had with family and friends that I always remember.  We would laugh and joke about things that have happened in our day, share personal secrets, sing random songs and just have fun.  So when my sister and I are in the kitchen we talk and laugh about a lot of things.  I always say what's said in the kitchen, stays in the kitchen :) A good snap with the towel was always fun too :)  When my sister used to complain about doing chores in the kitchen I would tell her about how I felt the same way but then enjoyed it because I had fun being with my cousins and just laughing and sharing things.  It definitely made our time in the kitchen go by a lot faster.  And now my sister smiles more than she frowns in the kitchen :).

My parents arrive tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to having them here and spending time with my girls.  I'm going to pitch my idea to my dad about building steps on the margin of our steep driveway.  If he agrees, he'll have to work pretty fast 'cause he's not here for very long :)  I received a text from my cousin who will be flying down to help out in a couple of weeks.  I laughed when she asked in her text whether she had to cook because now she thinks she can't after reading all the good things that I've written about others who have cooked for us.  Ha!

I'm looking forward to church service tomorrow.  I have ironed my girls clothes and mine.  Dan irons his own clothes :)  It's going to be a good day tomorrow.  I really believe that I am a lot better now, and nothing like I was 60 days ago :)  Thank you so much for your prayers and support during this time.    I have received a lot of feedback about this blog and am so blessed to hear what people have thought about it and the things that really touched them.  I met one of Dan's friends at the mall today who told me that she had just finished ready this blog and she felt inspired.  I have had family who I didn't think would be reading this blog that are following this also and just feel really humbled by their comments.  To God be all the Glory for the goodness that He has done in my life.  Without Him I cannot do anything in my life.  I am a living testimony that with Jesus as my Saviour all things are good in my life.

So with preparing my clothes for church tomorrow I have splashed a dark shade of red on my nails for an inexpensive pamper and look forward to the new day that awaits me when the sun rises!!