Sunday 21 August 2016

Sunday This and That . . .

 

We watched the most charming film last night.  Saturday night is becoming movie night in the Rayner household.  We use to go out to watch films, but more and  more we are just waiting until they come out on DVD or onto Netflix and we watch them at home.  Last night we watched "Brooklyn" on Netflix.   I had been waiting for a long time for this to come out where we could watch it and I have to say it was worth the wait!

This is the story of a young girl who leaves a town Ireland in the early 1950's to move to New York City, Brooklyn to be exact.  Its a fabulous film which even Todd enjoyed.  The era is captured brilliantly.  The acting in it is superb.  The characters are loveable and believable.  So very well done.  I would watch this again, actually and am pondering buying the DVD when I can.  I think you would all love it.  No swearing.  No violence.  One sort of sex scene, but very tastefully done.  No nudity.  Just a sweet, sweet movie.

 

The day started off with a Baptism in the  morning.    It began with somewhat of a comedy of errors really . . . with all sorts of things going a bit wrong, but ended up being one of the most spiritual and beautiful Baptisms we have been to in a while.  I love it when that happens.  We got to meet the three new  missionaries in our Ward, which was nice. We have two more from Brazil (making three now) and a lovely new Sister from Utah.  This is her first area.   All fabulous young adults and I just know we are going to enjoy working with them.  The Mission President and his wife also happened to be there, which I just  know we were all going in our heads at first, Oh no  . . .  everything it going wrong and they are here to see it, but at the end it was the best thing ever that they were there, because they got to see us all pulling together to make things come right and I know they helped to create the beautiful spirit that was in attendance that everyone felt.  We even had a woman show up who was not a member, but who felt so much of the spirit and the love of the members that I think she is interested in learning more.  Always a good thing.  I love it when that happens.  ☺

 

In the afternoon, we had planned to work on our acquarium.  It is only a small ten gallon one and a work in progress as we are learning new things all the time.   When we were setting it up we put in sand instead of gravel.  A huge mistake actually as we learned the first time we went to try to clean it.  So yesterday we bought new "gravel" for the bottom and set out to replace the sand.  This was a huge undertaking as we knew we would have to completely empty the tank to do it.   I wanted to do that anyways as I wanted to clean the walls.   We went to the Pets R Us to get the new gravel and I purchased a bucket only to be used with the fish, as well as a special side scrubbing tool.  We also got two brine shrimp to help with tank cleaning.   We have six fish in it now, our two platy's we started off with and four other ones. I forget what they are called, but they are silvery, two with blue strips and two with leapord spots, and they are like lightening, they flit about so quickly.  We had gotten some fresh water ready the day before to replace some of the water, as we knew we would have to.   It wasn't easy getting the fish all out of the tank and into the bucket.  We drained most of the water into the bucket until there was only a few inches left in the tank.  Getting them out was really hard, but we managed to finally.  As predicted the silvery ones were the hardest to catch.   We then drained out the rest of the water only leaving a bit and we were then able to get rid of the sand, clean the acquarium, dry it and then replace the sand with the gravel.  I took the opporunity to clean the filter as well.  We put it all back together and started putting the water back in and then the fish and then finally we  introduced our two new brine shrimp to the tank. They immediately went to work cleaning the water plant thingies we have in it and everyone has settled into a compatible companionship.  All is well.  We learned a few things also, so it was  a great experience all round.

We think in time we may move to a larger tank. We will see.  For now we are enjoying this small one and one of the platy's looks pregnant so that will present another challenge.  Watch this space!

 

My afternoon ended with a lovely facetime call with my dear friend Lura, all the way from California.  We have vowed to do this every Saturday if we can.  It was just wonderful to spend this time together with each other.  She is recovering from her latest gall stone surgery.  She doesn't even have a gall bladder, but her liver produces gall stones!  She is truly one in a million!  She is such an example to me of how to remain positive in the face of adversity.    I love her so very much.   What a blessing she has been and continues to be in my life.    Yesterday we were talking about how wonderful it would be if she and John were to come over to England for a visit, or vice versa if Todd and I were able to go to California.  For now these things remain dreams, but as we all know, you have to have a dream in order to make a dream come true!

Which brings me back to Ireland as I was telling her that it was much cheaper to fly from America to Ireland than to the UK.   We talked about how wonderful it would be for us to meet there and then tour Ireland together and had a good laugh thinking about us both kissing the blarney stone!

And with that I am going to leave you with a thought for the day . . . .

 

A picture one for today  . . .

Spiritual Enlightenment

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Baking in The English Kitchen today  . . .  Chunky Peanut Butter Shortbreads!  Delish.  Oh by the way the Great British Bakeoff begins again this coming week!  Yay!

May your Sabbath be truly the delight it is meant to be.  I hope you all know and can feel that  . . .


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And I do too!


10 comments:

  1. Good morning Marie. Love that you spoke with Lura. The baptism sounds a challenge. I remember that you told me when I elected to be fully immersed you told be that the devil would try. I had a horrible afternoon leading up to the event. It sounds like he was hard at work yesterday. I happy that everything worked out in the end.

    I made some biscuits this afternoon and thought about using peanut butter. It seems my sizeable stash has been well and truly raided. So we have chocolate chip instead.

    God bless your day and have lots of fun this Sunday.

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  2. Someone had forgotten to fill the font, which is not good. We had to wait until it was filled. It also needed to be cleaned, so we have a project for the Youth to clean it regularly. Half the speakers never showed up, so there was a lot of scrambling at the last minute to fill their places and some impromptu talks, etc. Alls well that ends well however! Whew! Chocolate chips cookies are good! god bless your evening. xoxo

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  3. Oh I imagine it takes quite a while to fill a font.

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  4. Needless to say we were a bit late in getting started! xo

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  5. Such a lovely face that Lura of yours:)
    Saw Brooklyn:)I already forget bits..
    I am looking forward to a few to come..One I will wait a while..the new one w/ Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant:) and the one about bad moms..? Title not sure..just in case it makes me laugh:)
    We ever go to the movies..Jacques has ever been keen.Like restos..

    I saw Brooklyn on the plane.
    I have been craving a PB cookie..your timing is perfecto:)

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  6. Lura is just lovely Monique. She used to write a blog, but hasn't done so in a very long time now. I will have to keep an eye out for the one with Meryl Streep and Hugh, and the bad mom one. It is so expensive to go to movies these days. I would rather wait and watch them on Netflix or Prime in the comfort of my home. Hope you are having a great Sunday. xoxo

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  7. Today I have had two days to read ! Yesterday I was so busy trying to clean up my lap top it practically took all afternoon and evening. My printer went wrong weeks ago ...just after I had bought new inks, typical....Lyn tried to get it going, as did Val and even Sheila my friend when she was down from Edinburgh.all to no avail..anyway Lyn had one she no longer uses ..so it was brought along and Lyn proceeded to instal it and that took an age. Val came in later and took away the canon to see if she could work anything out.....she did late last night....now I'm not sure whether to have it back and reinstall it or keep Lyns...anyway today I have continued to empty loads and loads of ...stuff...indeed it's still working right now defraying I think it's called ....Anyway thank you for all these great Xmas reminders Pam my friend is well into making all these sort of things but as you say it's the costs ..people will just not pay even for the materials used, we love making things just for the joy of doing them but if people won't pay the basic costs ...well....I'm so pleased you had the Batista even though things didn't always go quite the way expect d. That is such a lovely photo of our dear Lura, we have been saying much the same about visiting or meeting up like you it's a dream...but maybe one day the dream will come true...night night God Bless. Hope your Sunday has been as nice as ours has been..Peter cooked today so that was extra good Xx

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  8. Where on Earth did the word....batista ?? Come from......it should have read. Baptism

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  9. Oh, I did enjoy this one. The movie looked like an interesting one. Your baptism sounded like a sweet experience. I can just imagine how the missionaries were stressed when the President and his wife came. I would say it was one of those tender mercy moments too when it all works out and the blessings are multiplied. I think that baptisms are one of the most spiritual meetings in the church.
    We are having a lot of changes in our District and Zone due to new Elders coming in. Both our District and Zone Leaders changed. It is fun to watch how they take over and lead; I love it.
    I can understand all about the struggle with the fish tank. We had a fish tank years ago and it was fun. I know that it is relaxing to watch the fish.
    Oh, our dear Lura, I have been so worried about her. I am so happy she is talking with you every week. I know how much she loves you.
    I wouldn't know her if it wasn't for you and she is a treasured friend. I continue to hope someday I get to meet you too. Perhaps, if you could come to the US we could make that happen. We can dream can't we.
    Sending lots of love and hugs your way. Have a blessed week~

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  10. Oh dear Sybil, there is nothing worse than computer woes! They are s frustrating and time consuming! I gave up a long time ago on selling much in the way of crafts. You are right people don't really want to pay for what they are worth, the time involved and materials, not to mention skill. They are too used to buying cheap Chinese Tat at the dollar/pound shops! Me, I would rather have something someone has made and pay a bit more for it. But that is me and probably only because I understand and appreciate the value of time spent and materials! Lura and I spoke of you Sybil. Your ears must have been burning. We really must make a meeting happen! Love you to bits! xoxo

    Thanks LeAnn! I learned one thing through the experience, I need to always have some talks prepared! I need to be ready to step in. I do so hope that we will have an opportunity to meet in person one day. It is on my bucket list to come over to America and if I do, you are one of the people I want to meet in person, finally! What a dream! Love and hugs, xoxo

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