catching up

so i've been a little quiet as of late. could tell you all about the last couple of months, but instead of filling your head with things i've been up to i'll re-enter my own conversation by telling you some things that God has been up to instead.

* helped us to get through this past month when our income was cut by just under 30% and considering we're usually tight, this is a lot to us! so we've managed to just about survive on the same amount of money that we usually spend on food alone, for food, petrol, bus fare, the odd night out etc etc.

* had a fantastically full weekend, with paid for meals out every day, including dinner at cafe rouge on friday night ( i really love it there, great atmosphere and food) and lunch at blue moon cafe in city centre yesterday with ben's mum and gran, and lunch today in vittles in broomhill (which was also unexpected time with Ben, which has been in short supply), and a great home cooked dinner last night. also a trip to the peaks and a walk in the cold wind by a river yesteday.

* £100 from ben's mum for an outfit for his brother's wedding in december - am going shopping with emma tomorrow after work as also need an outfit for jude and dan's wedding this coming saturday and was wondering what i was going to pay for it with.

* some money from ben's gran to buy a new toaster. ours works but is a old and small, and becuase we want to look cool we've wanted to replace our dirty yellow kettle and horrible white toaster with stainless steel lovely ones for a while. will let you know when you can all come round for toast!

* more hours at work. i have a new job at work. i'm now paul's pa and still doing conference administration stuff too. this does mean that i lose my thursdays off so i'm in every day, but i do have friday afternoons off which will mean going places at the weekend will be a little easier, but most specially it means that we will have more money! it's the 3rd job change in as many weeks but it's great cos that means october's pay packet which arrives this week will not only be octobers wages at increased hours but also backpay for the extra hours i did in september!! hoorah.

*inspiration from alan hirsch and michael frost at shaping of things to come tour. loved hearing them, enjoyed (most) of the book (some of it was using long words too much for me, i just like stories, but good for the more theologically minded). but great to hear that other people on the other side of the world are also trying to figure out some of the same things as us.

* free travel! only had enough money on friday to get the tram one way to work or back. figured i'd walk, then get the tram to walk, preparing to walk all the way home if necessary. as it turned out i wasn't charged on the tram on the way there and got a lift back home with helen, peterson and craig. so i still have my 90p for tomorrows tram fare!

so there's a few things from the last week that i'd like to give god the credit for and say thanks for giving me a full life.