Bits and bobs

 

This is actually a real representation of our current washing basket. I should do it, or ask Phil to do it, but I just can’t be bothered. Not that there are that many other interesting things to do, but just because I should. Sometimes I think that I would work better on a rota system – Mondays and Fridays – do washing, Wednesdays – hoover, Thursdays – clean the bathroom, Tuesdays – dust. (NB. Dusting = pointless) But it never seems to work out like that. I tidy, it gets messy about a day later… it continues to get messier until I can’t take it any longer, then Phil and I argue about the mess and how we should try to be tidier, we tidy… and the whole cycle starts again..! And we don’t even have any children yet to make even more mess!! (And we only have a pretty small one-bedroom apartment!) *sigh*

Anyway, the ’summer holidays’ (which Phil and I were basically working through anyway, except for a ten-day break) have come to an end, and normal seminary life will begin tomorrow with avengence! Phil is starting a part-time Masters in Contextual Missiology, and the teaching happens in intensive teaching blocks through the year. The August-September one is the busiest and craziest… with all the new part-time students arriving, as well as our new Certificate in Applied Theology students (CATs) (who are here for a year) starting. So, the fun starts tomorrow! Its really strange for me not to be a student, I feel quite strange to be out of all the fun and student-dom… and instead of being ‘one of them’ I will be a normal working person, as well as being Course Leader (with Phil) of the CAT students. Hard to imagine! Our little CATs start arriving this week, and they usually look a bit shell-shocked for the first month or so..! For many of them, it might be the first time that they have left their own countries for any length of time, and the totally English-speaking environnment can be quite confusing for many of the students. Our CATs range from 18 – 31 years old, which is a good range. They come from a variety of backgrounds and countries too, although the Russian-speaking countries make up the majority of the group. I’m getting quite excited about meeting them and getting to know them – the two previous CAT groups have been great and we’ve really enjoyed having them as part of the seminary community. It will also be much more lively around here when the CATs arrive, it has been waaaaay too quiet over the summer, as many of the permanent community go home, or on holiday, and the students leave. So, a new academic year begins..!

Another exciting development in the Alexander family is that we are going to be changing from two to three… Yup, Phil and I are going to have a baby, I am about 3 and a half months pregnant. We went for a scan a couple of weeks ago and everything looks fine, we heard the baby’s heart-beat and saw all his/her limbs, body, head and everything..! No bits missing, which is good to know. I am due at the end of February. We are pretty excited, and I am pretty nervous about all the different things that can go wrong. I don’t really have a ‘bump’ yet… just look a bit chubbier on the lower half of my belly..! And its still a while til I might feel any movement or anything, so it sort of doesn’t feel really really ‘real’ yet. Although I have had quite alot of nausea and a bit of sickness too. My mom sent me some ‘Sea Bands’ which work by acupressure on points on your wrists, which are really helping, especially when I wake up in the morning. So all this adds up to me worrying quite a bit about things going wrong without me knowing… and perhaps only finding out at our next scan. But I’m trying to take a friends advice, which was just relax and try to place all my worries and concerns in God’s hands, because me worrying about everything is not going to help my mental health! But it can be harder said than done, of course.

Well, I’m going to shower… its been a lazy morning so far! Enjoy your Sunday afternoons!

p.s. Is it breaking the Sabbath for me to do the washing?! It just that I might run out of clothes soon!

The long lost blogisphere…

Too much has happened for me to cover it all… apologies friends, for lack of bloggage. I start to feel guilty about returning to the blog after about 3 weeks or so… so then it just keeps getting worse as more time goes by! Anyway, news… I graduated in May:

 

All the M-levels graduands

The lovely graduating ladies - Helle, Vee, me...

Fellow graduand – Helle, with Tony Peck and I

Anna, me and Olesia

Most importantly: sponsors and supporters!

So, studies over for now..! My mom and dad came over for my graduation weekend, and we had a great time. We drove down to Cesky Krumlov for one night, which was absolutely beautiful too. In June we went on holiday to Slovenia, which was a great time for the whole family: Mom and Dad, Matt and Bethan, and Phil and I. It was just gorgeous. July was crazily busy with loads of things going on at the Seminary – a number of conferences, Gatherings and meetings. And now its August, amazingly! August is really quiet here, most people go home, or travel somewhere. Phil and I were going to go to the UK, but it didn’t work out to be the best time, unfortunately. So we’re here as well as a few other people. Its quiet, but good.

So, I hope to be better at keeping up with the old bloggy blog… apologies again! Love from Prague!