Sorry for the silence

There's been a bit going on. That's an understatement really. I'm currently enjoying a couple of quieter weeks on the work front so that is good. I even managed to take myself off for a lovely pot of tea in a cafe this morning. All by myself. Sitting in the front window seat gazing out at the beautiful river flowing past. No one else in the cafe except the two women who run it. Bliss.

I did get a call from my Uni teaching colleague while I was there. But somehow, even talking about work seems like fun when you are in such a peaceful environment.

I should have resisted the call of the cake cabinet though. I haven't been eating much sweet stuff lately, so the coconut lemon meringue slice (I did have it without cream and ice cream) tasted a bit too sugary for my liking.  Had a tiny lunch to make up for it.

Teaching has been going okay this year. My tutorial group is much smaller and most of them seem reasonably switched on. Although teaching them from four until six p.m. can be a bit of a challenge when they've all been there since the eight a.m. lecture in the morning.

I'm thankful to God for providing me with some more work for the next couple of months. I didn't get the permanent position I applied for but there is a short term job I can do at the local hospital until the next student education contract comes up. This also solves a transport problem. We are still without a second car but for the next little while I can go to work with my husband and we actually don't need the second car as desperately as we did a few weeks ago. Of course, Murphy's law (or God's sovereign plan) says that this is probably when we will find another one. Chris is off to check one out tomorrow afternoon. I hope it's good. It's a blue one, my favourite colour, so I'd be happy to take it on that basis alone. But I suppose the mechanical condition is also important.

And somehow in the middle of all the craziness, being sick, being buried under a rather large workload and dealing with all the usual family dramas, I've managed to continue my morning walks. Not every day, but at least three times a week. I'm even doing a bit of jogging for part of the way sometimes. And I have lost five kilos in the process. And about five centimetres off my waist measurement. My original aim was to lose five kilos but I'm feeling so good, I'm going to try and lose a few more.

The C.B.R.P. went off track for a little while. Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy were hard going. I just started Joshua last week. But I'm still trying to read along as much as I can before I forget what I've read before.

So that's me for the past few months. Just popping up for some air before it all starts again next week. Hopefully the blog will get a bit more attention now that I'm back into the groove of going to work.

C.B.R.P. update

I fell off doing the daily readings for a week or two when I went back to work but I'm trying to get back on the wagon. I'm into Numbers now. I have ground my way through the first ten chapters about the census and the Levites and a particularly difficult chapter about a whole bunch of offerings.

And today I've moved onto some more exciting action in the story, the bit where the Israelites send out the advance party to scope out the Promised Land and they come back freaked out about all the tall and strong people there. I always have a bit of a giggle at them being scared off by the tall people. Maybe it's because I have a tall husband.

The Bible Society daily email verses at the moment are also from Numbers so they are lining up nicely with what I'm reading.

Here's the last couple of verses from Numbers 13 (the above image is from here):

³² So ^(AB)they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and ^(AC)all the people that we saw in it are of great height. ³³ And there we saw the ^(AD)Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the^(AE)Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves ^(AF)like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

C.B.R.P. update

Still hanging in there on the Chronological Bible Reading Plan. Only just. I've missed a few days. I have been getting caught up in some of my other books (and Mad Men DVDs and televised tennis matches). I need to remind myself which book is the most important one.

Anyway, I just finished Exodus a couple of days ago. They've just finished building the Tabernacle. I have to be honest and say I did just skip over a lot of the finer details in those passages. But what I found amazing considering that whole bit about building the Tabernacle is how much detail God gave the Israelites about how he wanted things set up. So much order and detail in all of it. I guess from that we take it that God really does care about the finest details of our lives and the way in which we worship him.

So now it's onward into Leviticus I go. I'm trying not to think that it's going to be a hard slog.

Christmas and other stuff

Deb posted this on her blog. I think it's from a couple of years back, but it's still pretty cool, so I'm stealing her idea and posting it here as well.

Have had a few other things occupying my thinking space lately so I've been finding it hard to blog at the same time. Will enlighten you further a little bit later when I have some more time to spare.

On the good news front, I am still going okay on the chronological Bible reading plan. I've only missed a couple of days. I'm back in Genesis now, working my way through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at the moment. Lots of action going on there. Interesting to read.

Chronological Bible reading continued

I'm almost at the end of Job now. What a fantastic finish. I love how the young turk Elihu speaks up, seemingly out of nowhere, and tells them all off for not acknowledging that God is gracious and just and that he can do whatever he likes.

I'm about to read Chapters 38 and 39 where God speaks. I actually read ahead a little bit into those chapters because they look so good. I might put up a few of my favourite quotes from them tomorrow.