Blue Eggs and Painted Tunnels

I am two posts behind with my Pearly Delights but I am going to make up for it this week. I meant to post updates last week but I could not seem to find the time. The good news though, is that I still managed to take a picture for each day. Here goes the 1st post.

Tuesday March 8 - Monday  March 14

It is amazing how much can be observed and seen if one makes an effort to be more aware of surroundings. I have lived in the city I live in for a year now and it was just the other day that I saw this written on one of the side walks in the Town Center. How could I have walked by it over a hundred times and never noticed?

I enjoy taking nice long walks admiring nature. This was one particularly lovely day and the weather was just perfect.

Art in the tunnel. It was refreshing to walk through this tunnel and see brightly colored art. A good sight for sore eyes.  Even makes one feel a lot better especially on a cold and rainy day.

This is one of the best films I have seen in awhile. It was romantic, funny and the acting was brilliant especially the character of Mr Darcy. Well done Mr Firth! Now I am inspired to read the book.

Thank God for caring friends who call up and suggest coming over to stay at their house while they are away because they think a change of environment will do me good. Not only that but that meant more room and peace for me - even if it was for a couple a days, it still did me good.

My friend brought over some blue eggs - fascinating. Unfortunately my camera failed to capture their true blueness, this is the best shot I got. I however could not help wondering if they had been colored or if they were originally blue.

I thought this was a beautiful painting. I am not sure what the painter had in mind when he painted it. I thought probably it was an impression of a possible scene after Jesus rose from the dead. Could it be? Would have loved to meet the painter and asked numerous questions.

Shona of Love Lane

This is week 3 of my Pearly Delights posts and if I must say it is going quite well with me managing to capture something I delight in or would have delighted in each day. Initially I was not sure I would be able keep up but my enthusiasm is still there and my camera has become like a second skin, always at hand to capture a delight. Some days are easier than others to find something to delight in but I am very glad to have the Pearly Delights 'project' to help me appreciate at least one thing I am blessed with each day out of the thousands of blessings I have. I'm going to keep counting those blessings - God is Good.

TUESDAY 1 MARCH - MONDAY 7 MARCH

Having a 24 hour supermarket 5 minutes from where I live is definitely a delight. On many nights I have made my way there to indulge some instant craving that would have snuck up on me. Yeah, this was one such night.

 Something New! My friends and I had a Shooting and Games night. It was my first time to try shooting. The noise from the shooting was not as loud as I thought it would be. It was good fun. I would do it again.

It was another bitterly cold day and I was making my way to the bus stop when the name of this lane caught my attention. For a moment I forgot the cold and felt like dancing. Who wouldn't with a name like Swing Swang Lane?

I smell Spring one of my favorite seasons. Here is evidence of how close we are to beholding more of the beauty of the season.

Another catchy road name? Only this one is romantic. I would not mind living in this road. Imagine a letter addressed : Shona James, 4 Love Lane. I would then be Shona of Love Lane lol!!!

Introducing the Huggie. My friends tell me it looks soft and flurry and makes one want to hug me. I wore it today and even baby E, my friend's son seemed to love it. He kept burying his face in it and playing with it. I can confidently say this one is a keeper.

In this post I talked about how I need to improve on my cooking skills, well I am trying to do something about it. This a chicken casserole that I attempted. Not really the best looking casserole in the world but is it not said that practice makes perfect and I thought it tasted quite good when it was fully cooked. 

"Who's that tripping over my bridge?"

Firstly before I go into my Pearly Delights post for today I would like to say Happy Birthday to my mum who turned something something today. She is an amazing woman and I am blessed to have her as a mother. May God bless her with many many more years to come. Love you mum!!!!

MONDAY 21 FEBRUARY - MONDAY 28 FEBRUARY

I love me some Ready brek oats in the morning. They are quick and easy to make too.

Time for a hair do. Talk about the thorough shampooing, treatment, oiling and not to mention the actual braiding. But the end result is always worth it. By the way I am a braids babe. I will have braids in my hair anytime.

Thank God for friends who invite me over for tea when they have baked delicacies like these.

When I say I love these shoes (trainers) I mean I really love them. I have had them for years and years and  can never get myself to do away with them. Many a shoe have come and gone but these have remained.

I enjoy joyous events. The Joy 2011 Concert was one such joyous event.

Saturday morning was beautiful and sunny. Although the weather turned out nasty later, the beautiful morning had already set the pace for my day.

This is a warehouse but this is no ordinary warehouse.

This is a picture of a bridge I walk over almost on a daily basis. I used to trip trap over it ever in a hurry until one day I noticed the writing on one of the sides "Who's that tripping over my bridge?" roared the troll. I saw the bridge in a new light from then on. Ever heard of the tale of the Troll and the 3 Billy Goats Gruff. It is one of  the stories I read as a child and enjoyed dramatizing. It was a pleasant surprise which brought back old memories.

More Than Moss Growing on a Pavement

This my first post under Pearly Delights. So far so good. Enjoy!

MONDAY 14 FEBRUARY - SUNDAY 20 FEBRUARY

Mooch.....this is one of my favorite  shops in the town where I live. It sells all sorts of great stuff from jewelery, unique and fabulous clothes, home decorations including wall hangings with beautiful  and sweet messages like 'Look towards the sun and the shadows will fall behind', 'Make tea and not war', 'Joy is in the little things' and for the romantics 'Kiss me quick' :)

I received a box of Tablerone chocolates and I thought the words written on the box were so sweet. The saving bit was hard to do though.

I am blessed with nieces and nephews from friends and family who have children. This is one of my nieces whom I think is gorgeous.

I was going to see someone when I got lost, thanks to the bus driver who assured me he knew where I was going and dropped me off at the wrong place. After calling the person  I was going to see and they said they were coming to pick me up I noticed some moss growing on the pavement where I was standing. I had a revelation - there is always hope. Moss still manages to grow on pavements although it is not the most conducive of places.  Likewise in life, sometimes great and beautiful  things can be birthed in situations were it seems like nothing good will come out of them.We always have hope in life, it never dies.

I love my Bible. It is my treasure. One of my favorite places in the Bible is Psalm 91. I think it is one of the most wonderful psalms. When I read it I personalize it and it is one of my daily reads.

  

View from my place. I am thankful for the house I live in because it is less than 5 minutes from town and I walk everywhere I go. I know that sometimes I complain about the people who live across the road because they hold loud and noisy late night parties (at least nowadays they seem to have calmed down), but  I am still grateful. Sometimes I watch from my room cars passing by and people crossing the zebra crossing and I have a view of our garden too.

Uummmm tea/coffee, one of my delights at church every Sunday. I remember the first time I went to my church thinking 'Gosh, these people are so much into eating and socializing' because there are snacks and drinks 30 minutes before church, a coffee/tea break after praise and worship and more drinks and snacks after the service. Now I understand why it is like that and I actually love it.This a good incentive for people to mix and mingle and get to know one another and not be strangers in our Father's house.

Introducing Pearly Delights

I had a meeting with my self the other day and I must say, that meeting was long overdue. I listened to my self having a conversation with a friend last week and I was shocked at the amount of negativity I was oozing out. 'That's it' I said to myself, 'Something has got to be done about this'.

This negativity thing is something which has been going on for some time now. Generally, I am a positive person and try to see something good in everything but lately it seems I have been slipping away and becoming something I thought I was not and do not want to be - a pessimist.

When I had this meeting with myself I made a list of my blessings and the things I think are are not blessings. Surprise! Surprise for me, the blessings list totally out weighed the list of those other things. What to do? What to do? Was the next thing  I had to discuss with myself. I got inspiration from one of the songs I am currently absolutely loving - City on its Knees by Tobymac. Here are the lines from the song that inspired me.

If you gotta start somewhere why not here
If you gotta start sometime why not now
If we gotta start somewhere I say here
If we gotta start sometime I say now

I decided that I needed to motivate myself and to appreciate the big things and the small things that I am blessed with in my life. If I am to be honest, on a daily basis even on what could be called a bad day, I always have something to appreciate. Hence, I have decided to introduce what I will call Pearly Delights to my blog. These will be posts where I will be sharing mostly in picture form something I delighted in or something that I appreciate in my life. The idea is that I will have something for everyday and hopefully post weekly. I have to start somewhere and this sounds like a good idea. There are a lot of positives to this idea too. For instance, I get the opportunity to update my blog more often, I can get to use my camera more and learn about how to use some of the features it has that I rarely use because I have never ventured to learn  and I can get to record special pieces of my life. I know for sure one day I will re- read, smile and re-appreciate all the good things I am blessed with.

I do realize that this will require a lot of effort on my part but I am going to try and give it my best. I am looking forward to doing this and I know it will be worth it.

7 Things About Me

I was pleasantly surprised to get tagged for the Stylish and Versatile Blogger Award. Thank you LDP.

Now I am going to tell you 7 things about me. Now let me think...

1. I am blessed with the most amazing friendships. I am friends with people I never dreamed I could have such an amazing connection with.

2. I love cartoons. At the moment I am crazy about Phineas and Ferb. Anybody seen this cartoon ??? I love love the character of Perry the platypus.

3. I am a very shy person and always find it difficult to fit in when it comes to large groups but I am very comfortable in one on one conversations.

4. I like iced tea a lot.

5. I am currently reading a book called Anne of Avonlea.It is the second book in a series of books about a girl called Anne.I just cannot figure out how I managed to miss reading these books as a child because apparently the books are very popular chidrens' books.

6. I seriously need to work on my cooking skills.

7. I can not swim but would love to learn.

I would love to tag 15 other bloggers but it seems that most I know have already been tagged but here are the ones I will tag anyway Margaret , Wylie , NatashaMD , Joe , Rita , Maid of Heart , koinonia , NBB. 

Cheers!!!!

Sabbatical, Good People Gone Bad and Other Stuff

Happy New Year to you my blog friends! I know 2011 is no longer so new but since I never got the chance to say that to you before I thought I could be excused for saying so now.

So what have I been up to? I have not posted anything in over a month and a half and not visited blogs I follow in weeks. Well, I was on a self given sabbatical from the blog world, face book and a number of other things. I needed time out to clear my head and think without my everyday distractions. I have to admit, I missed reading my favorite blogs occasionally. I have a lot of catching up to do. I am happy to say that my sabbatical was fruitful and worth it but oh my oh my I am glad to be back. A special thanks to LDP who left me a lovely message, I appreciated the message very much and was touched beyond measure.

Lately, I have been impressed by my young sister. She is growing to be such a wise young woman. I was talking to her the other time and she said something that made me say 'Wow! Young sis you are so right'. For a long time my sister went through a very challenging time. 

She graduated from university and searched and searched for a job to no avail. Sometimes she would be called for interviews, some which she was told she had done well but still was never called back again. One time she went to register with an employment agency and when they saw long she had been without a job they laughed in her face and told her it was going to be difficult to find her anything because employers would question her long period of unemployment. At the time we had the conversation I am about to tell you about she was at her wits end. She had tried everything she could think of  - praying, fasting, sending out her CV to as many companies and agencies as she could and yet her situation remained the same. She often exclaimed how painful it was for her to see her friends and college mates doing well whilst she seemed to be stuck in one place. 

'Shona!' she said to me 'Now I know better than to judge anybody. Now if I see or hear that somebody who used to be good is now involved in illegal or bad things I will not be so quick to judge them. Maybe, they would have tried to wait and do things the right way with no results and in the end they just gave up'. I could not agree more with her and a part of me actually  felt ashamed of myself when I thought of the number of times I had irrationally judged people without even considering the fact that probably there was more to their story than I knew or could see.

I believe that my sister was going through a refining period. The Bible in several passage for instance Zechariah 13:9 talks about God refining His people like silver and testing them like gold. I know, believe me I know the seasons of refining are hard and not for the fainted hearted  because it is so tempting to just give up and sat 'whatever'. I developed a new respect for my sister as I saw how she went through this season. She clung to God. Sometimes she would would fall and be so disheartened but she always got back up and continued trusting God with a new determination. Right before my eyes I saw her relationship with God growing in an amazing way, I saw her growing in wisdom and knowledge. She changed. I cannot put it exactly into words but she has become a different person in a positive way. God recently blessed her with a very good job, not only that but with a whole lot of other things. I strongly believe  that God was preparing her for another stage of her life and I cannot wait to see what He has in store for her.

Trusting God is not always easy. It is one of the hardest things to open the Bible and read passages that proclaim that we are over comers and victors when the circumstances in our lives do not point that way and even the future doesn't seem to look any better. It just doesn't make sense but let us not forget that the Word of God is living and active (Hebrews 4:12) and it stands forever (Isaiah 39: 8). Thank you young sister for standing up and out and showing me by example that God always comes through for those  who completely trust Him and cling onto Him especially when those strong winds are blowing hardest.