Hello 👋 It feels like a total age since I (Janet) wrote anything on here!! (Neil did an amazing job keeping everything going on his own – including spending a lot of time helping Caleb get ready for his school exams ❤️) I caught some nasty virus -type thing, and even though I was feeling so much better last week I still wasn’t fully up to speed and Neil was a bit pooped after a big week of doing everything, so we took a bit of a slow one! So, after a couple of weeks of being a bit out of the way of things, it’s good to be back 🥳❤️🙌 I think I’ll write today’s post with a wee round up of our more chilled time last week 😃

I say last week was more chilled than normal, and it was for us, but at the same time our Caleb was sitting his summer exams for school – so poor kid, he was not having a chilled time at all!! He worked so hard, and we were all delighted to get to the end of the week and the finish of exams for this year 🥳 We love and highly value celebration in our house, and so we had a really fun weekend! Mostly around food – surprise, surprise 😂 We ordered in a wee takeaway on Thursday night, and then on Friday night we met up with some of our closest friends, whose kids have also just finished exams, for celebratory ice-creams 🍦🥳 Sat night was a family cinema trip, and on Sunday Caleb had a trial at a football club which was very exciting!! (He played so great and loved it 😃👍)

Also on Sunday, all 3 of us were involved in leading different parts of our church service. Neil was hosting, and Caleb & I were on worship with a couple of other friends! It was a really special morning! Throughout the whole time God was working so beautifully 🙌 What God had spoken to Neil about sharing, tied in so much with how He had led us with song choices for worship, and then the guy speaking carried on with what God was doing! It was so good, and so wonderful to see people meeting with Jesus and finding freedom! Isn’t He so kind!!

I’m just going to jump a bit out of order now…sorry if you’re more organised than me in your thoughts 😬👍 At the start of last week I was beginning to feel a bit better so I was very excited when we got to go out to meet our friend for a wee cuppa on Monday morning 😃 It was so good! She, and her family, are more like family to us than just friends, and time together is always so life-giving ❤️😃 It was such a great start to our week!! At the same time we have had some friends who were over visiting from California. Monday was their last night here so we headed out for a wee dinner together with them and my parents ❤️ It was such a wonderful wee time 😃❤️

Wednesday nights we have our church small group in our house. The week before last, Neil had met the group out for a walk while I stayed at home, I definitely get FOMO 😂 so it was sooooo good to have everyone back in our house again this week! They’re such a great group, and already so up for sharing openly together even though we’ve only been running for 3 weeks!! We had fun 😃

On Thursday last week I got an amazing invitation to go to our favourite Spa hotel with a bunch of amazing girlies, to celebrate a friend’s birthday 🥳 We had the best day! There was a lot of laughing and the best chats. I just LOVED it ❤️🥳 While I was off spa-ing, Neil had a day at home by himself – which for him is one of his favourite kind of days, especially after such a full-on week the week before😃

Then on Friday, Neil & I had an appointment in a shop in Belfast, and so we turned it into a wee date day – it was so lovely to spend that time walking around together – and of course eating good food 😂 While we were just starting to leave, we got a call from some of our good friends who are going through some painful stuff at the minute. The timing of their call was so perfect, because while we were on the phone we realised we were close to their house, so we got to call in and spend some time together on our way home 😃❤️ We all felt encouraged by God’s timing in the whole thing, and it turned out to be a really special time in all of our days. I love how God lines things up like that, He is so beautiful in the ways He loves us!

The final wee wrap up from this last week, (which is actually this week – welcome to my brain 😂) is that my boys headed off to France early doors yesterday morning to watch NI vs France in a World Cup friendly match. When the tickets became available we just had to go for it!! It was too good an opportunity for them to make some amazing memories together, and they’ve had the best time!! It was a whistle stop tour, and they’re actually on a plane on their way home again right now – just about 36 hours after they left 😃 I can’t wait to pick them up later tonight 🥳❤️

While they were away yesterday I met up with a friend for a big walk which was soooo good!! We’ve known each other for most of our lives, but we hadn’t seen each other properly for ages, until a few months ago when they decided to come to the church we’ve become a part of 😃 It’s so wonderful to be back in contact and we had a fab time on our walk ❤️😃

Then this morning we started our newest prayer walk with theonehundredyearsproject – but I’ll write about that in a separate blog or we might never get to the end of this post 😂😃