King's Daughters

Raindrops on roses & whiskers on kittens Bright copper kettles & warm woolen mittens Brown paper packages tied up with strings These are a few of my favorite things... are you singing along yet? Here are a few of my favourite things : Smell of fresh laundry dried in the sunlight Giggling babies & toddlers with delight Playing piano & loudly I sing These are a few of my favourite things Warm roaring fires on cold winter nights Beech sand, umbrellas, buckets & kites Autumns bright colours & flowers in spring These are a few of my favourite things Your turn, you write a verse or two for the song :) It's a great way to feel happy, just ponder on the simple things in life that bring you joy.

"If we see prayer as a means to getting what we want, we have misunderstood it's purpose. It is all about aligning our wills with God's will & has more to discovering what He wants than getting what we want." A quote by Ian Coffey from his book What you always wanted to know about prayer . This sentence has changed my prayer life, my views on faith & a quite a few other things. I am committed to using my prayers to find out what He wants & then to use my faith to make it happen.

This is one of my absolute favourite books! It lives on my bedside table & has taken me a year to read through it just once. I am not a slow reader at all, it's just that this book is so meaty that if you read it too quickly you will miss out on so much. So I take one bite every so often & allow it to sink in before I move on. Since I am so passionate about the subject of identity I thought I would share an extract of one of the final chapters with you. This chapter is entitled "The Importance of Confidence" & I really hope this bit helps you realise how important it is to be you . Feast on this then buy the book please, it will change your life. " As we have studied the detailed & particular preparation that God moulded into David's life, we have seen how it enabled him to defeat Goliath... We see from 1 Sam 17:45-47 that he was obviously incredibly confident in his God, but just as importantly, he was confident in his own unique preparati...

More from Jordan... After a few months I moved back with my mum, I saw my dad every weekend, then every second weekend...then one day he didn't show up, my mum sat me down and explained "Jordan, your daddy isn't going to pick you up for a while". "Oh, is he coming next weekend instead?" "He's not coming at all..." I locked myself in the bathroom for a good while crying, I've always been SO attached to my father, and now suddenly he didn't want to see me, I was so confused. Right through all of this, my mother had to watch me hurt, she had to watch me beat myself up about it, thinking that I was the reason he didn't want to pick us up, nothing she could say would convince me otherwise. Being left by your father is a hard thing to go through, even harder if you don't know why; I think my father couldn't pick us up because of money problems, but that's not good enough, a daddy just cant leave his girls! He has to stick...

Not Easily Broken is a very moving film, I have watched it twice & have really enjoyed it. Based on the novel by TD Jakes you get a good balance of Hollywoodness (if you know what I mean) & Godly principles. I highly recommend this movie because it is a good story & very real. Some Christian based movies are so neatly packaged that most people in the world can't relate to them. Not Easily Broken covers some real difficulties that we can face in life & in marriage. It does not get the Dove Family Approved Seal but I still feel confident in recommending it to you as it is good clean entertainment compared to some of the movies that are out there. Have you watched any good movies lately?

While Amy got stuck into one of our kitchen cupboards today, Daniel & I had great fun making play dough. He absolutely loves play dough & it keeps him busy for hours, so well worth the time it takes to make it. Here is the recipe. Ingredients 1 cup flour 1/2 cup salt 2 tsp cream of tartar 1 cup water 1 tsp cooking oil liquid food coloring Directions 1. In a heavy sauce pan, combine flour, salt, and cream of tartar. Pour the water and oil into the dry mixture and stir well. 2. Cook over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until dough forms (will pull away from the sides of the pot) 3. Let it cool in a bowl covered with a wet cloth for a minute. Add food coloring (or ready mixed paint) and knead until smooth and blended. 4. Store in an air tight container.

Today is our 5th wedding anniversary! I am so happy to have had these wonderful 5 years with Eric & even more happy that we still have so many more years ahead to enjoy our life together. I don't like assuming how long our life will be so I like to treasure each & every memory that we make together. Here are some of the highlights of the past 5 years: 2004 Eric proposed to me & the girls - how sweet is that! Went to USA to visit my mom. Got married in a beautiful park in London. We had a wonderful honeymoon in Sardinia, Italy. I bought Eric his first pair of roller blades for his birthday & he roller bladed for the first time. We made our first snowman together. 2005 Went on a paddle boat in Hyde Park together. Moved from London to Cheltenham - that was an adventure. We climbed an indoor wall for the first time, I was a bit frightened but Eric went up & down in a matter of seconds. Bought our first car. We went camping in Oxwich, Eric's first time camp...

I have had so much fun planning our King's Daughters Tea Party ! Check out the cute little bags I made for us yesterday :) If you haven't got a ticket but still want to come please let me know today so I can get one to you. See you on Thursday for a fun girlie time. xxx

I really enjoyed Eric's message yesterday, it is essential that we understand the basics of our identity isn't it. We were made male & female - this is as basic as it gets & if we remain confused about what that means then I don't see how we can get any other identity issues sorted out. As a woman we not only need to support who God made men to be but we also need to know how to support them. It's easy to say yes I agree a man should be a warrior, but what are you doing to support him in being a warrior? How easy do we find it to criticise men for all their failings? Think about it. As women we are very guilty of taming our men, undermining our men & domesticating our men. This is not just wives I am talking about, all women come into contact with men every day, how we treat them, speak to them & feel about them has a huge impact on them. I have learned over the past few years how important it is to be try be a Godly woman by respecting the men in m...

... to join me for a tea party. We will be meeting at The Place in the Gloucester Guildhall at 11am on Thursday 17th September. Tickets are £5 & there are only 10 places available so please book yours soon. Also if you are able to sponsor or part sponsor one of our homeless ladies so they can join us too that would be great! It promises to be a lovely morning with tea, cake, connecting & a little surprise from me. Love Angela xxx

' Less is More ' is going extremely well. I am finding the balance in my life & really enjoying life a lot more now. I have successfully decluttered many areas of my life including my schedule, my home & my soul! I have also put some good habits into place (like exercising) & got rid of some bad habits (like too much computer). My latest challenge is organising the hours in my day. For many people days run 9-5 for work then home for weekends. Leading a church is a totally different ball game. There are no working hours or weekends! It's full on & all the time - day, nights & weekends. We have decided that this is not good & can't possibly please God so we have added some structure to our daily life to allow for all sorts of things other than work. One lovely key that we have come up with is a lunch break. We have committed to stop for a proper lunch break during the day & have lunch together with Daniel & Amy. It's been such...

Last week was an intense one, whew! I loved it but am glad it's over & I can be writing all about it now. My baby turned 18!!! That was a biggie. I had no idea how much this would affect me, it's quite a huge step with all sorts of emotional stuff attached to it. Have any of you experienced a huge reaction to your child growing up? I don't know how Lorah has put up with me lately, I have not been myself around her & have not been the most stable mommy. Anyway, it's a done deal now, I think I have navigated my way through the 5 stages of grieving ha ha & have come to accept that she is grown up now & there is nothing I can do about it. Saying all that, I am a very proud mother, I have never met such an amazing teenager & can't find any fault with the way she has done her teenage years. Well done Lorah you are truly an amazing women & an inspiration to more people than you realise. Here is a photo of her cutting her cake at her birthday...

As promised we will be hearing from Jordan from time to time! Jordan is not only my lovely 14 year old daughter but is also is a very talented writer. I am Jordan's biggest fan, hopefully she will pen some poems for us too! Sadly Jordan has gone through some tough times in her life and I have asked her to write about her journey. I hope it inspires you & helps anyone out there who has experienced pain in the area of their father's love. So without further ado her is Jordan's first post. Hi :) My name is Jordan, as you might have guessed by the title of this post I'm going to be writing about dads and fathers . Not only will I be talking about my biological father, but I'll be talking about my spiritual Father : Daddy in heaven, my step father and other father figures who I look up to. I'm going to spread this journey out over a few weeks to give you time to take it all in ( it's a long but AMAZING journey of healing and forgiveness). So,...