October

Happy birthday to my dear nephew Benjamin who turns 2! I know I can't believe it either! Time sure flies huh! Its crazy. So last weekend my brother and co came to our house for a lovely birthday party! :D It was fantastic! The amount of calories we consumed..not so great I'll admit.



Doesnt that all look soooo good! Those cupcakes in the background are a work of art, arnt they? My youngest brother Michael, is quite the wee baker. Must take after his awesome older sis :p (I wish!). He loves making muffins, cupcakes, biscuits, and cakes. Pretty much anything sweet. We make quite the team sometimes..sometimes we argue...but even so its great living with foodies.

Anyway the weekend went so quick. I just loved seeing my family. It'd been like 3 whole months! Which is crazy long for us seeing as they used to live only an hour away and we were used to seeing them on a weekly basis. Was great having the house full agin too. Our house is small so growing up with five brothers means I was used to noise and having people around all the time. I just love hearing soo many voices and going from room to room, knowing there was gonna be someone in it.

Btw its almost 12am so forgive me for my grammar, punctuation etc. Though I'm sure your used to my randomness by now :P

Now below is a photo of Benji's cake. Its a dinousaur. Just in case you didn't get that ;). My mother is an amazing cook and loved making cakes like this growing up. Unfortunately as we got older, she felt cakes like this would be a bit too much. (Wouldnt it have been funny if my brothers 16th birthday featured a teddy bear cake?! Don't think he'd like that too much ;). So of course having the opportunity to make cakes like this for her beloved grandson is any grandmothers dream. FYI I did actually do the icing. I do work in a bakery remember :)
Ps That red dot is his eye..bit of a fail I know.



Overall the birthday was amazing. On top of that my oldest nephew stayed the following week (as it was school holidays). That was a real treat. He is a feisty wee thing that knows what he wants but he is adorable and I wouldn't trade him for the world. One of the days he stayed, a new ice-cream shop opened. I would lie if I didn't say we made sure we had a wee treat of ice cream :)

The week went uber quick. Always happens eh. But oh well life goes on. I'm planning on taking a holiday soon, and will mayb (fingers crossed, or in Christian terms God willing ;) I'll head up there way and stay with them for a few days. Am praying about it..really do need a break to be honest. We'll see what happens.



Now you're probably wondering what a photo of tulips is doing in this post. Well my dear friends, that is simply just one of the new gems I've planted lately. I've officially started gardening. And I'm not just talking about pansy flowers (see what I did there? Play-on words with the 'pansy', as its also a flower but I was using it as a way to say that I'm not just settling on flowers..ya get what I mean ;) I have also got a vegie garden. Yes vegetables. Toldya that Daniel Fast did me good :).
In my garden so far, yes I even dug my own patch, I have spinach, curly kale, lettuce, an assortment of herbs, and strawberries. I plan on adding a few more things as we get further into the season but will see. I am honestly excited about it. Lately we have had massive amounts of rain and I was concerned that it would affect my plants as apparently your not supposed to plant anything until Labor Weekend (last weekend). I sowed mid September if I recall. Thankfully however, these babies of mine are tough and are standing strong. Cannot wait til harvest time :D

Hmm now onto important things :) God. He's great isnt He? His grace. His mercy. Don't get me wrong I have days where I'm not very happy and sometimes I gotta go and make myself spend time in His word and talk to Him. But I think it's in those times when it's really worth. When we're broken. When we need comfort. When we're lonely. Even when we're bored. I get bored. I won't lie. Being in my position isn't easy. Waiting for something so spetacular, it's so easy to fall into the busyness of life and take myfocus of Him and His plans. Thats when I gotta summon up the courage to go to Him and humble myself before Him.
I want share a few amazing verses with you that have touched me lately. Both are from the book of Psalms. Isnt that such a great book. Pretty much every human state of mind is covered in that book. God thank you ! :)
Anyway so verse Number One is in Psalm 118 and it reads

"The Lord is on my side;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me? "

Check out that first line. The Lord is on my side. He is on my side. He is on your side dear friends. He is on your side. He, God of the universe, is on YOUR side. Isnt that crazy cool! I don't know about you but that hit me. Like to think He is for me. Like He's working on my behalf. He's cheering me on. I'm not sure why I didn't get that. Like why is that so hard for my mind to comprehend. It is crazy.

Verse Number Two is in Psalm 126.

"Those who sow in tears
Shall reap in joy. "

Isn't that verse quite a wee gem. I found such encouragement in that truth. It really hit home for me. Every tear shed will eventually reap in joy. I think that there, is simply hope. For the struggles we face now only last a moment but what we'll have later is everlasting joy.

Rejoice my dear friends, the pain you may be experiencing wont last forever. God is a comforter. He is on your side. He is for you, not against you.

Anyway friends. Thats it from me. Not super long. But I will post on the weekend. I have three days. Tomorrow is a God day and then Sat or Sun you'll see some lovely cupcke pics ;)

Bless you. H x