red runs my heart

Firstly the crocko potting evening was fabulous. Alyson Gofton did a splendid job of entertaining whilst taking us through a history of NZ electrical appliances and how the crack-pot has revolutionalised the working mothers life!

A few tips – put your chicken in breast side down, upside down to the normal way you prob do. The breasts are the leanest and therefore have all the moisture sucked out of them the other way. If you put it upside down, the juice from the bird falls downwards towards the breast and makes them a-lah-perfect and not dry! Also she encouraged you to rest your meat out of the crockpot for ten or so minutes with tinfoil (or newspaper?) on top of it. Interesting. Not many recipes were given as you really needed to buy her book but it was a fun outing with the girls.

I had a marvelous (slightly crazy idea yesterday) and began to execute last night and today. A beautiful friend had shared a new sticky-date-self-saucing-toffee pudding recipe (from Nigella’s Bite) with me so I went with that as a start. I wanted to celebrate Mothers day with my girls in a special way, that would provide an opportunity to bless them on my day.

The day started with a lovely family at church saying they were going to pay for my piano to be tuned! Cool. A very good start.

I had lunch out and then scrambled to do some prep before the girls got home from staying with the dad. They were pretty excited to see me and when we were home I asked them to get dressed into something pretty (I mustn’t have stipulated ‘frock’ as liv came out as a lady bird and kaiya as agypsy from Ireland). They wore make-up and had done their hair, so cute.

Next they entered the lounge,

Had starters while we all wrote kind things about one another on our placemats.

Next was the main course followed by a speech of love thanking the girls for making me a better person.

There was dancing to Abba and finally the sticky date yum yum. I was too full to eat it after nacho’s but the sighs of delight after worry about ‘dates’, was too good to be true. “good”, “oh gooooood”, “emmmm”, “tastes like porridge but better” (thank goodness). “can I have some more?”. No.

The menus, the candles, the themed table, added to the heart-felt message I wanted to stamp again: You are precious to me. I love being your mum.

Later in bed with the younger of my two, we talked about how to pray for people who were unkind. I talked a little about how hard it had been to pray for d when he left. The little ones eyes welled up, “I just feel so sad mummy, I miss daddy.” Talk of why ……..? Why ……? Why ……?

And then this great question too: “How many people in the world are separated?” Now she’s thinking of others as well as her own pain. I gave her some stats (great to know useless bits of info sometimes!) and suggested when we pray, that she prays for all the children in the world who live in this situation.

Oh she prayed good, with her merciful heart. God I pray you would bless her and k, that you would help their hearts to be real and to heal and to be stitched up where they are broken. Those were some of my words and i will have to keep praying that over them as they grow and grow……… And that’ s OK. I have to remind myself too, of this truth – that He is a good God and no matter what dumb or crazy things people do, He has goodness plans, as we allow our gaze to fall on Him and our arms to reach out, or I guess to simply fall into His arms.

'We live under the mercy. God does not treat us as alien others, lining us up so [as to] evaluate our competence or our usefulness or our worth. God rules, guides, commands, loves us as children whose destinies God carries in God's heart. The word mercy means that the upward look to God in the heavens does not expect God to stay in the heavens, but to come down, to enter our condition, to accomplish the vast enterprise of redemption, to fashion, in us, God's eternal salvation'. Eugene Peterson.

I hope that wherever you are at, God can be part of it as you allow Him.

Love to my friends, some of who are not mothers but who all carry a beautiful heart for others. You are amazing and you always encourage me in my walk in this world. Thank you.

(Our placetag holders above, sticky pudding recipe tomorrow, possible crock pot one!)