Willow’s 8th birthday was approaching. I offered to take her shopping so she could choose some clothes and shoes for her present. She was very excited and kept checking the whole week about the day and time that I would pick her up. It was a lovely late night shopping experience. She selected some lovely t-shirts, shorts, skirt and track top. A few days later her Mum bought her some sneakers. The next day, as she was putting on her shoes, she turned to her Mum and stated, “I think you’ve bought me the wrong size – I can’t feel my toes touching the top of the shoes…” For a…

Turning on the news this morning to see what the main headlines were, I was late. The journalist had already announced those and was talking about how close we were to spring in the Southern Hemisphere right now. They then proceeded to invite an expert guest on to discuss how to spring clean your house. I groaned. I am still recovering from two bouts of influenza with asthma and have no headspace or energy right now to clean for Spring. Where I live it had just recorded one of the wettest months on record and the coldest day in 50 years. We were all still shivering and there had also…

There are many days when you feel like you are of no importance. You have not achieved much in life. There is nothing really of significance that you can refer to as having occurred. Of what worth is the life you have lived so far been? Let me introduce to you a man called Jim. The story is about him, but this story is more significantly about the other people in his life. Jim had been a football coach. He loved the game and even upon retirement kept up with the latest news, players, and achievements of his old team. Every morning Jim would go down to the local coffee…

I read something the other day, and my mind went Huh? I really needed an explanation of what I had just read. There are so many times in life where a particular generic question pops up into our head. We hear a scripture from the Bible, a story and don’t understand what it means. We want to know what it means. How can it help us maybe in our life situation right now? What was Jesus trying to say? The question can pop into our mind when circumstances occur in our lives that can be confusing. When we want to know why such and such is occurring or has occurred…

A few of my daughters are very good cooks. They did not learn it from me. I can cook to feed people and keep them alive but not like the meals these daughters make. I’m not too bad at deserts and cakes but only average in making those too. It so happened that they married men who were good cooks also. I have noticed over the years that they teach their children (my grandchildren) how to cook different dishes depending upon their abilities which is dependent upon their age and maturity. Aubrey, from the age of 8, and Willow, from the age of 5, have made some of the following…