I’ve moved

Will you please, please, pretty please come and join me at

www.vicarswifeintraining.blogspot.com ?

Don’t forget to change your bookmarks and feeds!
Check it out and let me know what you think!

Hope you’re having a lovely Sunday.

I’ve been chosen as a finalist for Little Something’s photo competition for my photo of a lizard . Please take a moment to head over to her website and vote for the photo you think is best.

{Me! Pick me!}

Yeeeaaah! That’s our patch! So excited!
I’m totally going to end up stalking the presenters around Aberystwyth like a FREAK!

Anyway …the real reason for this post is our Aberystwyth Bucket List.

Strata Florida Abbey was originally founded in 1164 and was a pretty influential place for hundreds of years. Nowa days it’s just a ruin but I’ve wanted to go and visit for a while now and last week we managed to make it out there.

It’s such a beautiful spot and if you ever get the chance to visit, go! It was so quiet and there were birds everywhere. We got great views of Redstarts as there must have been about 8 individuals flitting about.

There is also a grave-yard there which I was pretty excited about visiting. Dafydd ap Gwilym is buried there BUT I was more interested in…

The leg grave. Duh duh duuuuhhhh…
{Can you tell how thrilled Josh was at me making him pose? haha}

Apparently some guy had to had his leg amputated in the 1800s and so he had it buried here with a stone, inscription and picture of his leg. Amused me greatly.

We then headed up into the mountains to walk to the Teifi Pools.
On the way we met this little guy.

I haven’t had such good views of a stoat before so this was very exciting.

It was SUCH a beautiful day and we had a lovely time walking up the valley to the pools. Definitely worth being on the bucket list.
One down…nine to go;

Josh and Rachel’s Aberystwyth Bucket List

1. Watch the sun rise from Pendinas {the hill above the town}
2. See the submerged forest in Borth
3. Visit Soar y Mynydd
4. Buy a love spoon
5. Walk from Llanfair Clydogau to Tregaron
6. Have a bonfire and BBQ on the beach
7. Have a meal at the Harbour Master
8. Go dancing with all the gang
9. Visit Strata Florida
10. See Aberystwyth from the sea

I’ll leave you with this sheep. Notice anything weird?!

Except this time the title was ‘animals’.

How on earth am I meant to choose between the many wonderful wildlife moments I have had the pleasure of capturing? Killer Whales, Puffins or Bonxies in Shetland or Dolphins in Pembokeshire or butterflies in flower meadows…so much to choose from!

In the end I chose this photo because it was one of the first I ever took with my SLR. We saw this lizard on a fence post and so I ever-so-carefully scrambled up the bank, extended my arm and stood on one leg to get within shooting distance and clicked. A split second after the shutter went off this little guy darted off into the undergrowth so I couldn’t quite believe I’d got a decent in-focus shot.

Ohh…how I love taking photos!

Chapter 13, “A Heart That Makes A House A Home.”

I loved this week’s chapter. I’ve always loved making my home welcoming for visitors, but more recently I’ve been focussing more on making it a home for Josh and me. I especially love the idea of making the home a haven for my husband…somewhere he’ll look forward to coming home to. This chapter made me think again what that means, and reminded me that it’s not all about the house being tidy and welcoming; It’s all about me too. If he comes home and has me nagging in his ear straight away, that’s not going to make a very welcome haven is it?!

The Business of Building — To gain a better understanding of what it means to make a house a home, write out Proverbs 14:1 :

 The wise woman builds, But the foolish pulls it down with her hands

Creating the atmosphere. As we start, take the temperature of your own home. Share a few words that describe typical daily life under your roof:

Normally I’m up and out before Josh is awake as I work days and he works nights. I’ll nip back home at lunch and normally straighten out the house a little if I have time.
Josh will do the dishes in the afternoon before I get back from work. If Josh isn’t working we’ll spend the evening together. If he is working, and I haven’t got other things on, I’ll spend the evening cooking and clearing up the house.

Now look up the scriptures and check the ones that you most need to apply in order to build your home into all that you and God want it to be….

• Proverbs 15:1 : A soft answer turns away wrath but a harsh word stirs up anger
• Proverbs 15:13:: A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken
• Proverbs 16:24 :: Pleasant words are like honeycomb sweetness to the soul and health to the bones
• Proverbs 31:26 :: She opens her mouth with wisdom and on her tongue is the law of kindness

These four verses stuck out at me especially. As I mentioned before I feel like I need to remind myself {daily} that to make our house a home for Josh I need to NOT be a crazy nagging housewife. It really means a lot to me that our house is tidy and in order, or I just feel a bit stressed. If I come home and the house is mess I have a tendency to snap and complain at Josh straight away. I need to stop and ask God to help me have a cheerful countenance; normally the house isn’t too bad anyway!

A Heartfelt Prayer – Lord, just for today, help me make my house a home by…..having a cheerful attitude while making my house more of a haven for my husband and for others who visit.

I have loved this chapter girls! Can’t wait to see what you thought…

Then it was back to work on Tuesday to a HUUUGEE to-do list and overflowing in-tray. It’s my day off today though so it’ll all have to wait for tomorrow!

What did you do for the Royal Wedding? We watched it with lots of our friends, and then went to a tea party in the afternoon. I’m not that bothered by the royal family {am I allowed to say that?!} but I’m glad we shared this momentous day with our friends doing something fun. I’ll be able to remember it for years to come.

Also…it’s my friend Naomi’s birthday today. Why not stop over at her blog and say hello?

I watched it last night and thought it was great. I know lots of people have an issue with Mark Driscoll, but you can’t deny that God is working through their ministry in Seattle.
They had over 18000 people packed into a stadium and had over 700 baptisms at the end of the service for anyone who wanted to become Christians. So exciting!

The baptisms start at about 1hr 3mins on the video. I especially love the guy at 1hr 18 mins when the dad gets in the pool to baptise his son. He looks so happy and it made me completely tear up!

Please watch it if you want some encouragement and JOY!

With that in mind Josh and I have been compiling a list of things that we want to do before we leave Aber. Some are things that we haven’t done before and some are things we love and want to do again.

We’ve laid down the challenge to ourselves to achieve each one of these things before we move, and to blog about them too…

Josh and Rachel’s Aberystwyth Bucket List

1. Watch the sun rise from Pendinas {the hill above the town}
2. See the submerged forest in Borth
3. Visit Soar y Mynydd
4. Buy a love spoon
5. Walk from Llanfair Clydogau to Tregaron
6. Have a bonfire and BBQ on the beach
7. Have a meal at the Harbour Master
8. Go dancing with all the gang
9. Visit Strata Florida
10. See Aberystwyth from the sea

We’ve actually already achieved one of these things today…so stay tuned for a post about that tomorrow.

In other news – I’m on a winning roll! I won a photo competition over at Little Somethings today. Horray!

Hope you’re having a great Thursday people. Are you celebrating the Royal Wedding tomorrow?

Do you like?

I’m not very good at buying new clothes but I’ve needed to buy some new pumps for about a year and a half now. My feet get wet whenever it rains at the moment!

However, I’m a bit attached to my old brown pumps. The first time I ever wore them was on one of my first dates with Josh. We were going to the cinema and they rubbed my feet so much that it made them bleed and I could hardly walk on the way home…so Josh carried me :) Happy memories!
Once I broke them in they were super comfy and I wear them most days in the summer.

I hope this pair will be as well used and as well loved.

What about you? Whatcha wearing this Wednesday? Head over to Chloe’s to link up.

So far we’ve been having a great time. Josh’s parents and sister were visiting over the weekend and yesterday we went out for lunch with some friends.

Today Josh has been working so I’ve had a deliciously selfish day and have read in bed and gone shopping {shhh…don’t mention the New Years Resolution} and pottered round the house. It has been looovveely.

I’m also happy because I got more exciting post today…and it included CHOCOLATE.

The lovely Erin sent me some sweet Easter treats all the way from Canada.

…including some mini eggs {my absolute fav!}.

I have eaten FAR too much chocolate this afternoon – but that’s what holidays are for? Right?

Thanks for my great Easter package Erin. I loved it!

Happy Wednesday