Search Results for: blog my favorite things1

Parents and the Academy Awards

You know you are a parent when… you haven’t seen a single one of the movies nominated for an Academy Award. And I am not just referring to the Best Picture nominees; I’m talking about any movie in any category. You, you, you, and me. Can you imagine taking a young child to see the mostly silent, black-and-white best flick nominee, “The Artist”? My kid would have gotten us thrown out of the theater within the first four minutes, or after the first 50 times of her asking: “Mommy, why does this movie have no sound?”–whichever came first. Last year, … Continue reading →

Favorite Phases

When daughter was a toddler she absolutely adored watching Blues Clues. However, most of her viewing came courtesy of DVDs which I would have to set-up for her. By the time she was three, my daughter knew that it required a few button presses by mom before Blue and crew would show up on our television screen. While I adjusted settings, my daughter would grab her stuffed Elmo chair and settle in the middle of the living room smack in front of the TV. She would wait anxiously as I powered up the TV and DVD, made some menu selections … Continue reading →

Favorite Romance Movies

While talking to Mick the other day about my blog on romance novels, he suggested another topic could be romantic movies. So, I’ve decided to compile a few of my favorite romantic movies. A couple you might find on other lists. Some, I’m sure, you will not. And maybe that’s because I define romantic a little differently to popular opinion. Here’s my short list. They are in no particular order, but as they occurred to me. All of them are films that Mick and I watched together, which tells you that he’s a romantic at heart too – though he … Continue reading →

Bigger Blooms for Your Orchids

Gardening is one of those hobbies where people love to share what they have learned. Friends of ours recently bought an orchid at a local gardening fair. As you know, I love orchids but our association with them is very much a hit and miss affair. Neither Mick nor I really know all that much about growing them. We just know we like them. Friends told us that the orchid experts claim that if you cut the spike of flowers off while they are still flowering and put them in a vase that the flower blooms will be better on … Continue reading →

The Right Place for Romance

Last weekend in Sydney one man was in the right place looking for romance, or was he? The man among 250 women was Daniel Scarparolo, who was attending the Romance Writers of Australia Conference. From Perth this young man is writing a romance novel – his first. In a time when some publishers have gone to the wall or merged and sales are reputedly down, romance novels are flourishing. In USA sales of romance fiction were $1.37 billion in 2008. In England and Australia sales are also high. This is despite a gloomy economy. What is the big attraction? Is … Continue reading →

Growing Orchids

Orchids are one of my favorite flowers. They are great to grow for several reasons. Firstly, they come in a huge range of colors from white through beige and pinks and greens to deep maroons and purples. Last weekend my husband and I went to a local wholesale nursery and of course we came away with three new orchids, two are green. I love green flowers nearly as much as I love blue ones. The third is a rich pinky red. We already have several orchids. Throughout the year they grow outside in pots in a spot where they will … Continue reading →

Words That Stay with You

Never underestimate the power of music in your Christian life. I find it is a great help in reinforcing Christian truths. Last week, as our music group practiced the songs for Sunday, one of them was The Potter’s Hand. It was one I hadn’t been familiar with until I came to my current church after we moved house but the words of the song have stayed with me throughout the week like a daily prayer. Have a look at the words here and see if maybe you might want to adopt them as a daily prayer perhaps to start the … Continue reading →

10 Tips to Break out of the Marriage Rut

Sometimes we in our marriages we can become stuck in a rut. Everyday goes by exactly the same , we do everything exactly the same , we might have meals at the same times, go to work at the same time, go to bed at the same time, even make love at the same times. Marriage can, if we’re not a careful, become ho hum – stuck in a groove and boring. So what can you do about to? Read on and find out. The last couple of days I’ve had a song stuck in my head that won’t go … Continue reading →

Dare to Dream

Do you know your spouse’s dream? Have you ever bothered to find out what they’d really like to do if they had the chance? If you do know are you supporting them and helping them to realize that dream? When Mick and I went and saw ‘The Bucket List’ one of the things that struck me was how Carter Chambers ended up having a list of things he dreamt of achieving before he died – a list his wife neither knew about nor understood. He’d been married to the same woman for many years and she apparently had no idea … Continue reading →

More Wisdom From Proverbs

Yesterday we looked at Proverbs 30:5-6. Today we’ll look at Proverbs 30:7-9, where the writer asks two things of God. The first is: ‘Keep falsehood and lies far from me.’ This could be read as keep me from telling lies to others. We often want to grade lies. It’s easy to slip into what we term ‘white lies,’ so as not to hurt another person’s feelings, or because we want to please them or make ourselves look good but God makes no distinction. Lies are lies. Proverbs 19:5 says ,’he who pours out lies will not go free.’ The idea … Continue reading →