Bath pictures

Here are a few more pictures to enjoy!



We drove up this road to find ourselves pulling over and looking at this next view....



The beautiful city of Bath!






An ice cream boat! Can you believe it? I want some!!!





A picture of the lovely countryside. Look at how they sectioned the fields!






Our last view of the outlying fields. Oh, what a gorgeous sky!

Bath,The Final Frontier!

Okay, this mess about Bath is really dragging on.
Let me just tell you that we had a great time at camp. The food was regional,(hmmm, that's a new word for me- where else would you have mackerel for BREAKFAST?????), the people were all so diverse, the surroundings were spectacular and the children really had a good time in nature. Even though one of them is allergic to the outdoors!
I'll just post some pictures to end this all.

I have my blanket now mom, so let's ride!






One of many houseboats on the river nearby.







The gorgeous green tennis courts bordering the cricket field.








A tree lined road on the way to the river.











A beautiful view below!

Camp Bath- Part 2

Okay, where were we?? Hmmm, I lost my train of thought.
Oh, okay. So we get to Bath and hit this horrendous stop and go traffic. So we text our pastor who encouraged us to come and tell him that we are in town. He texts back and says he will be waiting outside near the chapel and help us with our luggage and parking when we pull up. "See you in a few minutes-he texts!" 20 minutes later, we had only driven a mile farther than where we were in the first place, we receive a text from the pastor saying "How far now? I'm getting sunburn!" Oh, we had a good laugh at that and texted back telling him we were still 4 miles away and creeping at a turtles pace. We'd call him when we got closer. 20 minutes later, we finally break free of the holiday traffic and are cruising away on a beautiful road on the side of a mountain overlooking a winding tree lined river on the left and expensive cliff hanging houses on the right. The sun was out, cool wind blowing through the windows of the van and oomph!, I take the wrong turn and here we go, barrelling downhill, over the river and dow a narrow lane, looking for somewhere to turn around. I had to do one of my world famous U-turns, but we did it, drove back uphill in 3rd gear (that's for you-hubby), and took a left turn down a brick walled lane into a wider lane and there he was! Our red-glowing pastor and his beautiful, welcoming smile!
We made it, squeezed our big American van in a parking place and had a tour of this remarkable school campus. There were people here and there, enjoying the weather and each others company. And so here we were, finally at church camp.

http://www.monktoncombeschool.com/
Check out the pictures at the school website!

Now off to the dentist with my son!
I PROMISE to finish this today.

Off to camp Bath!

Whew! It's been a while since I've sat down and had two hands to type. I kept thinking that I REALLY needed to blog and since my memory isn't as good as it used to be, I kept forgettin'. Hmm, so for the last day or two, I got smart and decided to jot down what I was supposed to blog about and now I'm finally getting to it.
So-oooo let me tell you about camp. (I only have 15 minutes to do this before I have to wake up the masses to get them to VBS on time.)

We have been attending a sweet little church in Ely for over a year now and they are just like family to us. I had heard of their family camp back then, but not knowing any of the other members from the other churches, I was hesitant to go. besides, we were going to California and Texas and the thought of paying out anymore money made me feel nauseas. Ha! So we decided to go this year since we couldn't make our yearly pilgrimage to Texas in the scorching summer to melt and burn. Mr couldn't come because he works for dictators. (I know that dosen't sound nice, but it's the truth! I pray for them because they have nothing but work to live for and use their rank to make others do the same. Did I tell you about when I had Joy? Mr had to go back to work after only 10 days! I had a c-section and couldn't even drive yet, but that's another story.............)
Ahem, cough, now back to camp. So, I made arrangements for us to go to camp sans Mr. I really wanted him to go because I had two little ones, but so be it. There was one problem with it all. I had to do all the driving-across country. As you might know, we live on the East side of England, just less than an hour away from the North Sea and to get to Bath, we had to go to the other side. Through and around London. LONDON, ENGLAND. Major city of nightmarish traffic.
Hmmm, is there any other way around? NO, MAAM, unless you want to add another hour to the trip. So, off we went! It should have taken us 4 hours to get there and I tried to feed everyone before we left and make make them go water to avoid any disgusting toilet stops. Praise God, we got there in 3 hours, only slowed down a little bit in traffic and made it there in 3 hours. Yes, you heard it right. 3 hours. The only traffic we hit was in Bath. We were
less than 5 miles from our destination and we hit jaw dropping, stop and go traffic.

To be continued- after VBS!

Tortilla recipe

My son made these for breakfast yesterday morning. I can't post a personal picture of them because they were gobbled up in their Frankesteinian state, but they were so much better than store bought. Here in England, we get ours from Germany or frozen from the US. I usually have Masa Harina on hand, but have been extremely forgetful when writing my grocery list lately. Chalk that up to age, I guess.
The commissary ones make do in a pinch, but fresh ones, ahhhh!
Enjoy.
Homemade Tortillas

8 Servings Prep/Total Time: 30 min.
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup water
3 tablespoons olive oil
Directions
In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Stir in water and oil. Turn onto a floured surface; knead 10-12 times, adding a little flour or water if needed to achieve a smooth dough. Divide dough into eight portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion into a 7-in. circle.
In a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray, cook tortillas over medium heat for 1 minute on each side or until lightly browned. Keep warm. Yield: 8 tortillas.

Recipe and picture from TasteofHome.com

Up too late?

Lately Chloe has been going to bed late (around 10ish) and Joy has been getting up to nurse at 1. Shamefully, I've been staying up late, doing absolutely nothing productive. Well, I've been reading back issues of "Keepers at Home" and "Home Horizons". One, no three, of my dear children are challenging me in the listening department and I needed some Biblical parental inspiration in dealing with this problem. Frankly, I needed some backup! A couple of the articles that I read were written by people I have met, so I have seen what became of using these methods. I am reminded, "Line by line, precept by precept" is the right way of doing things. I want them to listen and do things the FIRST time I ask them, not the third time. This calls for me to get off my fanny and be on them if they do not obey. I have been inspired to pray for someone or some situation when I'm awake at night. I'm feeling closer to the Lord and my mind is at peace more. This is the beginning of a strength building habit and I usually sleep like a baby shortly thereafter. :-))

Lately I've been resting a lot because I'm in pain and moving hurts. Today I will see the midwife and get an opinion on my one-sided abdominal pain. Maybe after it is resolved, I can be back to my "Jump up mommy" self.

Do you find things to worry about when you stay up late? Are you wasting time or doing something productive?
Find something good to do and don't get tied up in it and not get your beauty sleep!

A Joy picture

Here's Joy again!