Do you Pinterest?

Pinterest is something that I have avoided for months and months ... in spite of many friends who have suggested that I might enjoy 'pinning'! Believe it or not I was the same with Facebook, until I succumbed and now love being able to keep in touch with my family and friends who are literally dispersed across the whole world. When phone calls aren't always as straight forward over the different time zones etc and being a mum of little ones can often mean fitting in your catch up time with everyone else's news in little chunks when you have free hands, Facebook is perfect.

A few months ago, I found myself having a quick look at exactly what Pinterest was ... and trying to understand this strange world of 'boards', 'pinning' and 'repinning'. I figured it wouldn't hurt to try it out and then dismiss it, moving on to something new. Of course there was always the possibility that I would get well and truly sucked in as well. Guess what? ... SUCKED IN!

It did seem all a bit weird to begin with but didn't take that long at all to get totally carried away. Basically if you see something great on a website/blog you can 'pin' an image (which is linked to the original site) and then always have it there to refer back to, you can categorize them as well if you want on different 'boards'. There are millions of other people doing the same thing and you can see what other great finds everyone else has pinned and 'repin' them if they take your fancy. I guess it's the internet version of seeing something in a magazine and taking a clipping, so you can remember it at a later date ... without having to have a pile of clippings stuffed in a drawer somewhere.

I now have boards of recipes I want to try, craft ideas for me and the girls, cake decorating ideas for birthdays, my bucket list (things I would love to do before I 'kick the bucket') amongst other things. And one day, when we get our Forever House, I now have loads of ideas of how I may or may not decorate it, on a board of it's own! As a missionary moving all over the world, I am very grateful that storage of ideas for all these things and much more is now in a central place and doesn't involve me having to tote it all over the world with us! I can just log on have a look at all these great images that I have found over time (love the visual part of it!) to find a new recipe to try or ideas for parties and inspiration for so much more.

Recently I found a photo of a cute old pine cabinet that had been restored, in a magazine a friend gave me, Country Living. I went to their website and found that image (see below) and pinned it on my Forever House board as an idea for twenty years time when we finally have our own house and furniture. It seems that I struck Pinterest gold, within 12 hours it had been repinned 100+ times by people all over the world and has been pinned hundreds more times since. I guess everyone has their own taste but you really can find anything on there.

I try and only spend a little bit of time on Pinterest, sometimes when Naomi is having her milk before bed on one arm and my other hand can quickly scan anything new. I can see how it could become totally addictive and become a total time waster. So I warn you, if it's something you haven't tried and are considering ... beware! If you're already there, you can follow me by clicking on the 'Follow me on Pinterest' button I have included on the left side of my blog page.

We have found some fun ideas of things to try over the summer so I'll report back on those ... and for those of you already sucked in ... Happy Pinning!

Cheese-Less Lemon Cheesecake

The missionary lifestyle involves lots of comings and goings. For your own family and for those around you. I remember when I was in Tanzania, there were some people who had been serving with various organisations for 10+ years, some almost 20. There were also those who were just there for as little as 6 months. Or those that you just overlapped with for only a month or two.

Friendships you make can last a lifetime. Although I was only there for two years, I am still in touch with people I worked with, 13 years ago. In the last year or so the few remaining ex-pats I knew have moved on and are now dotted all over the place but my local friends are mostly still there. As a result of that and studying at All Nations, I now have really good friends literally all over the world. 

Friendships in that environment can seem like an effort though and sometimes not even worth it. Imagine, you constantly get close to someone or a family, only for them to move on a short while later, leaving a gap. Then you get to know someone else and it happens all over again. That is part of living in a missionary community and can be perceived as a downside especially when you have little ones who don't understand when their buddies are moving, not to come back again.

But when I consider the friends I am still in touch with from my time back in Tanzania, many of them are ones I only overlapped with for just a short time and I wouldn't trade those friendships for anything. In most cases we've travelled across the world to catch up or travel a bit together during the years that followed or to be guests at each other's weddings. So even though the short term investment didn't necessarily make sense ... the pay off has definitely been worth it!

Today we spent the afternoon and evening with a family that are staying in Coshocton for just a short while. It is a Bank Holiday and so they came over, the kids played well together in the garden and we enjoyed a meal this evening. They will only be here for a few more months and we will only be here til the end of the year but just for this short time we overlap and had a chance to build new friendships and learn a little from one another.

One piece of deliciousness that we shared today was a cheesecake recipe that one of our All Nations buddies, who is now living in North Africa, introduced us to. It's really easy, so yummy and contains absolutely no cheese whatsoever! The recipe is below.

• 6oz crushed ginger snaps
• 3oz butter melted
• small can condensed milk
• 1/4 pint double/whipping cream
• 2 lemons - finely grate rind, then squeeze

1. Mix ginger snaps and butter
2. Press into pie dish and chill
3. Beat condensed milk & cream in bowl
4. Add half lemon juice - mix some more
5. Add remaining lemon juice - mix
6. Pour over base & sprinkle with rind
7. Chill (& final set) in refrigerator

A word of warning ... one slice might not be enough!!

Nuns in the Turret

14 years ago, once I'd finished university (WOW, that makes me feel really old!), I worked as a lay assistant for a year at St Aldates Church in Oxford, England. They used to have just a couple of lay assistants each year but when we started, for the first time they took on 8 of us and since then it has always been a bigger 'team'. Nowadays they are referred to as Interns and the programme is a lot more refined, although I've no doubt it's just as beneficial for the individuals involved.

With such a big team, the accommodation provided required some of us to share bedrooms ... something I've never had to do in my whole life (apart from now I'm married!). It was the one part of my year that I was dreading the most and yet I made such a great lifelong friend in Jo, that I wouldn't have traded the experience for the world! It was often a stressful time but we had a lot of fun ... laughing and crying together depending on the situation. In the years that followed we visited each other all over the world and believe me we've both lived all over the place. In fact we've only lived in the same country for one year since we left Oxford in 1999.

Our room was at the top of a four story town house and we often referred to ourselves as the 'nun's in the turret'! On one particular occasion I can remember us jumping up and down chanting 'we hate boys' ... yes, very grown up of us! We are now both happily married (being bridesmaids for each other) with children but that day 'boy's weren't our main priority! 

In the years that followed and as a result of our little nickname for each other, it wasn't unusual for both of us to write cards to the other with photo's or cartoon's of nun's on them. For one of the first Christmases I was married to Mark, he gave me two racing nuns as a stocking stuffer ... in honour of my friendship with Jo!

Years later, I still have my racing nuns. They even followed us across the pond when we moved to the States. Yesterday, I was watching two more little munchkins for a friend. Four children aged 3 and under, could have been hard work but they all behaved like a dream. It made me chuckle that for a good proportion of the time, the five of us were laying on the kitchen floor cheering on these racing nuns. It seems that they were a big hit ... forget the standard kids toys, they just didn't compare. While the kids were all giggling away yesterday, I was remembering my year with Jo and all the giggling (& chanting) we used to do in our little turret all those years ago!