Wet Wednesday...

It has been an interesting week,
one where nothing seems to happen but when you look back, the days seem to have shot through!!!
Last Thursday, Pete decided to tidy up some loose ends in the kitchen... this involved a brick wall and a circular saw. What was meant to be a study morning turned out very different
... NO, there was no accident involved
... relax.

In true 'male fashion', he decided on a job then "went for it!!!"
he put a sheet around the workarea to act as a dust sheet, then fired up the saw. The whirring blade caused a super draught which straight away blew away the 'dust sheet'... ah well, he thought, probably was a bit excessive (read useless)
He has thought ahead (really????) and got the vacuum ready to suck up the dust as he works, he commissioned me to hold the nozzle of the hoover under the saw...
And we're off... the saw touches the concrete and brick at a phenomenal r.p.m... grey cement dust and red brick dust goes flying all directions except up the hoover nozzle, within seconds the wall was out of sight, Pete can see the wall because 1. he was wearing goggles, 2. The whirring saw was blowing all the dust out of the way and 3. He was reasonably close to the work project...
On the other hand, I had disappeared in a cloud of dust as had the house!!!

I would have taken a picture to post if I could have found the camera... We literally couldn't see one end of the house to the other :-(

To say I was not happy that day was bit of an understatement. Once the sawing had finished and he had moved onto plastering and painting, I ditched all hopes of my projects for the day, and began systematically cleaning ALL the ground floor rooms. I began at 10.00 and kept going throughout the day, we had a dusty lunch and gritty cups of tea!!!

Once I had finished cleaning and dusting, it was time for round 2, every day so far it has needed doing, and 6 days later another dust layer is visible!!!!

I know sometimes we need to disrupt in order to progress, but why then? We were expecting house guests for a week from Sunday, and I hate beginning with an apology. Apart from that, I already had cleaning and preparations for their arrival on my agenda!!!

I am now pleased it was done, if not then, it would have been sometime. and the kitchen is getting better each time.


It's the half wall to the right of Carey as you look at the picture that was modified.

Moving on...

Tonight we have our ladies meeting, I am meant to be sorting out some songs to take and play on the guitar, as someone who has been self taught at the age of around 15, and NEVER played outside the confines of the house when empty, this evening should be a challenge (not to mention the songs are all in French...)I know God loves to hear us worshipping Him, he made us to worship Him, if He had wanted perfection in that, He would have left it to the angels and not the mortals!!! So with that in mind, I will sign off and pick up the guitar, the song book and a French/English dictionary, so I know roughly what I am singing. LOL

Have a great week.
Don't forget, once the dust settles on the rough spots of our Christian lives, we will see the work that God has been doing on us through the disruptions.

The latest news...

Where did summer go?
One minute I was sitting in the garden with a cup of tea and reading my book through my purple tinted sunglasses, the next minute I'm frantically trying to get the washing in and wringing out my book!!! is that the total of the summer?
To be fair, we have had some good days, been able to get most of the washing dry on the line!!! We spent the summer in Belgium... would sound like a long holiday if we didn't actually live here! We had quite a string of house guests over that time, some family, some new friends from uk, Ireland, Australia, America... had a few of the girls school friend and church friends over... Lost Elsie to 'Les Alpes' with a school friend and her family for 2 weeks, throw in 3 trips to Holland for Pete with various attending parties and you have the sum of our summer!
I am currently putting together our latest newsletter and as many of our friends are in other countries with poor internet conections, they cannot get the photos... so had had a MASSIVE brainwave, and thought I could use my blog site as a communications place.... good one eh?

So the purpose now is to update regularly so that tout le monde can read/seewhat is going on here.
The family
We have enjoyed several family trips With our visitors and some as just us.This was on a trip to Brugges with Madeleine and my parents.

The kitchen has reached its final phase... the tiles are up and cupboards in place, just one more part of worktop to go in then we should be done. Mum helped construct the cupboards which was a 1st for her, it was me that needed the help from Dad having put in a piece upsidedown!!! doh! Here I am demonstating the base unit. It's so nice having such a HUGE kitchen now, it really it the focal point of the house.

Church.
A family (Dad, Mum &daughter 8) at the church opened their butchers shop last Friday for the 1st time. It has taken the months to wade through the mountains of paperwork in France, but finally they achieved what they felt is their dream AND their vocation. They want it to be used as an evangelical outreach tool. Isn't God good, the first day he was open, he was 1 1/2 hours late closing because the customers kept coming. When we chose to follow God's will there will be mountains to climb, but the blessings will be there, the view is always best from the top. This is the new boucherie where we are now regulars also. Please keep them in your prayers. He and his brother work in the shop, his wife does the admin.

Another church thing, please pray for a building that we have found to be our new meeting place, it is expensive by our budget standards, but we as a church feel it is a good place. Please remember us in your prayers, that the money will be found and that we get through the mountain of paperwork that the French love!
Home

When the house was at its fullest 5 family plus 5 extras staying, we had a couscous evening, 4 more came over to teach us how to prepare a proper couscous meal from scratch.

I hope we were good students... We did show our appreciation by eating it all! This is the meat and vegetables cooking in my, what I thought was massive but turned out to be not quite big enough, biggest pan called a couscoussiere.
We have had many a meal cooked in our new kitchen, but this machine taked the 1st prize...

Madeleine bought it for us and you can do anything in it, so far, that I can recall, we have done pizza, toasties, waffles, heated pitta bread... Madeleine has a longer list, she does ALL her cooking in theirs!

Thank you Madeleine, looking foward to you coming back again to use it together again.

I hope this brief update finds you all well. The goal is to update it weekly, well see.

Meanwhile, I need to continue with my French studied, although I am not progressing as much as I had hoped or wanted, I am still going in the right direction, my goal is to find a teacher who can teach me on a 1 to 1 basis, a good prayer request.

On Wednesday I am singing with the BIGC (Belgian International Gospel Choir) at a football match in a Brussels stadium, I think it's Anderlecht will let you know next time!

The girls started back at school wit no problems, they continue with their music studies twice a week after school. They continue also in their various church activities and it is encouraging to see them so happy there.

Pete is having a short time out to catch up with home developments and plan the next step, which is too develop some discipling courses to be used in small groups or on home visits. He wants to study and teach the bible to encourage personal growth and development in the new Christians coming to our church.

I will catch up with you all soon

Be blessed

Zanne