Skip to main content

Into my thirties

I've been thirty for nearly a month now, so I thought it was about time to admit it to the world! Or that small portion of it which reads this blog, at least. Also to brag about my husband, who organised a surprise birthday party for the occasion. At least, it was a surprise until three days beforehand when he said, "I might need your help making your birthday cake."

I said, "OK".

He said, "This is probably a good time to mention that we need to be in on Sunday afternoon."

"Oh yes?"

"And the cake needs to feed at least 30 people."

"Oh-kaaaayyy!"

I went off to dig out my wedding cake tins from their box in the garage.

I decided on a lemon cake and we got busy zesting and juicing nine lemons. We both mixed the cake, I iced it and Graham wrote on top. I think I might have a rival in cake decorating if he can do such a good job on his first attempt!




On Sunday morning, believe it or not, it started snowing and in an hour or so the garden looked like this.
We wondered if we should call the whole thing off, but the idea of eating 6 plates of sandwiches and an enormous cake all by ourselves deterred us - and in fact the roads weren't too bad, and most people were able to come. In fact exactly 30 people were here - very neat! It was lovely to see everybody and the time went way too quickly. Toby got passed around like a box of chocolates, and I accumulated a small mountain of actual chocolate and many other very generous gifts. Thank you everyone!



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Models of Contextual Theology: Spiritual Formation Book 7

"A theology that neither issues forth in action nor takes account of the way one lives one's life can hardly be theology that is worth very much." Models of Contextual Theology looks like the most boring book in the world. Dry academic title, weird geometric cover design - you'd definitely only pick this up if you were required to write an essay on it, wouldn't you? Well, I wish the outside did it justice, because the contents are much more exciting than the cover. It asks some very interesting and important questions about how our faith relates to the world around us. Is culture mostly good or bad? Is there such a thing as the "naked gospel", free of context? Do you have to be a trained academic to theologize, or can anyone do it? How much does theology from one culture transfer to a different culture? Bevans describes six models of theology which offer different answers to these questions. All are valid, he says, but they all understand the gospel an

A birthday weekend in York

We were surprised to discover that York is only a 90 minute drive from our house. It's somewhere we'd been thinking of going for a few years, but I'd assumed it was much further away. So when we wanted to go away for the weekend to celebrate my birthday in January, York was the obvious choice. The city did not disappoint us. I'd been to York years ago, and my only clear memory was of a tower on top of a grassy mound. That was Clifford's Tower, owned by English Heritage, and recently updated with a rather snazzy series of platforms and staircases inside. We saw a 13th century toilet which had been inaccessible for 400 years (I think I was more excited about this than the boys) and got a great view of York from the rooftop viewing platform. View from the top of Clifford's Tower Most people's memories of York probably involve the Shambles - an ancient street of shops - and York Minster. Apparently there isn't a clear difference between a minster and a cathe

Unto us a son is given...

Did I mention something about life getting back to normal in October? Oh yes, I was just finishing work and looking forward to at least two weeks off to organise the house, stock up the freezer and buy baby stuff. Then little Toby threw a spanner in the works by turning up five weeks early! Which would put his birthday in... let's see... October. So much for normal! For those who would like the gory details, here goes. If you are a mother who had a long and protracted labour, I advise you to skip the next bit - or if you don't, please don't start sending me hate mail. You have been warned. You see, we'd been to all the childbirth classes (yes, just about managed to finish them) and learned all about the different stages of labour, and how many hours each lasted. We learned some relaxation techniques and various things Graham could do to help coach me through long periods of contractions. And then we turned out not to need any of them, because the entire thing