The patriotic bunting has been placed in our bay window! Scones (with chocolate chips mixed in!) have been made with my son. Even special ice cream cone cakes were lovingly baked by my daughter in anticipation. Lots of dirty dishes were created too, but it was worthwhile smelling the sweet aroma of baking throughout the house! There’s something wonderfully exciting when a celebration is nationwide. … Continue reading A Time To Pause & Celebrate – Part 1
My lovely friend Charlene is an encourager. She is a seeker of God’s heart and humbly listens to the Holy Spirit working in her life and in others. We’ve had great conversations and there is an openness and freedom being sisters in Christ together. We were recently at her youngest daughter’s birthday party (before lockdown!) and to my surprise, Charlene’s eldest, Charlotte had made me … Continue reading Charlotte The Encourager
How are you keeping my friends? I’m vividly aware that our hearts, minds and spirits have been taking a battering with fear and negativity lately. On some levels, how can we not get sucked into the fear and worry for what is to become of our societies? Media reminds us daily of the overwhelming amount of Covid-19 cases and increased deaths across Europe and America … Continue reading The Reset Button
I’ve started a colouring page with Anna lately, as a small project we can work on together. With all the markers lined up in the middle of the table, we just colour bits at random. We can more clearly see where warm or cold hues should go, as the blank sections are completed. Doing a detailed page like this requires a bit of time, patience, … Continue reading Circles
Reflecting on one of our wedding photos, I am shocked how fast ten years have gone by just like that! My parents and lots of older friends and family really were trying to give me good advice for all the times they’d say, “Enjoy the moment, time goes by quickly. You’ll blink and years will literally fly by!” This was our “first” photo together taken … Continue reading What Love Looks Like
Looking through some of my old writings this week, I came across this little article from July 2007 that made me smile. Even being twelve and a half years later, the words below still have truth and relevance for my life today. Growing up and finding purpose as a young adult can be difficult. I remember opening up my heart to God in a season … Continue reading If Only
As a reader of Rest & Chaos Blog, I was honoured to be nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award, a blogger-to-blogger award. Visit Collene’s lovely blog for Christian encouragement and inspiration! She is a wonderfully, thoughtful writer who shares from her heart. I decided to participate because it is great to learn more about the people behind the blogs that I read. And this one … Continue reading Learning To Be Versatile
The presents have been opened, carol services attended, and probably far too much food has been consumed in many households. Christmas Day has been and passed for this year, but I’m deliberately lingering in the beautiful wonder of the best gift ever. Since childhood, the Nativity scene has intrigued me. I would annually take time to set up my parents Nativity set and think about … Continue reading Best Gift Ever
It’s not always easy to live up to a name but especially when yours is Joy. The inspiration of my name came from my godmother, also named Joy, as well as the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc. (Galatians 5:22) I was one of the only Joy’s I knew growing up and sometimes I didn’t always want to have my name. … Continue reading Living Up To My Name
It was a routinely normal day as I got the children ready for school and headed off. Once parked up, we had our usual chat and prayed together before going to the school gate. There were hugs and then both Anna and Luke walked in with smiles and confidence into school. But they carried with themselves something else that is often unspoken of and yet … Continue reading Remembering The Cost Of Freedom
Joy A. Mead 