Its oh so quiet

Day 1 (well first full day) without my kids. They come back on August 10th.
I miss them sooooo much.
Don't get me wrong. It is better for them to go away while Phil and I are still working.
Otherwise there would be far too much vegging and tv watching and staying in pyjamas all day.
And I thank God that they have such a close relationship with their grandparents and still enjoy spending time with them (they could have chosen to stay home this year)
But it doesn't get any easier this end.
This is the 10th year it has happened
and I'm still not used to it.
And they are not cute little babies any more
- they are surly greasy teenagers
but I want them here being rude to me.
Sob.

Right pity party over. Stuff to do, people to see, layout to share.
It is Salt day today.
Nikki has posed a really great challenge. Sadly her life means that she can't participate any longer. We will miss you Nikki - go well.
The challenge is this

According to his purpose

"All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)
We all have those "all things"... whether moving, money, health, relationships, or any other challenge. It's not always easy (or possible at all!) to see how they will "work together for good." And we may never see the "good" that God works in the lives of others through the "things" we are facing. But by our faithful listening to God's call, and by our faithful commitment to His purpose, we can be assured that He will work His goodness in our world.

I spent ages trawling through my photos for inspiration. In the end I chose this one. It is a cut down photo of me and little Angel at her baptism. The colourful patterns either side of us are her parents in wonderful Nigerian clothes. Angel has some wonderful Nigerian names too!
I wanted to reflect that we are to tell her that all things work together for good, that we made promises at her baptism to tell her of God's love.
I used my fabby Gotta craft kit again. I love kraft and white so I made the most of it on this layout. I added another sheet of kraft cardstock and cut it out around the bracket. I added lots of white pen patterns and stuck white card behind the punched border to make it stand out. a strip of paper frill, some pearl and black sticky gems, flowers from the kit (I cut one in half) and some Jenni Bowlin letter stickers and that's about it. Oh and I finally used one of my Maya Road sheers. I love 'em but just found them unusable. What helped was that I backed it with cardstock so you can see the writing better. Only another 20 or so to go...

The Salt layouts and cards are wonderful this week. Do go and have a look. And remember that
All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

Even being apart from your children for 3 weeks I suppose!