Lessons Learned - fireworks, cycling, car boot sales and New Horizons!

How has life been treating you this week?

With friends and internet friends suffering with their own health or the health of their kids, in a way I feel guilty that our holiday continues unabated.

So what have we been up to, and what have I learned?

This last week was New Horizon – a huge christian conference, with kids program too. I learned lots about self-worth, christian parenting, and there were some great speakers (some flown in from US!). Apoligies for the photo – not my usual standard, but quickly snapped this before the meeting started. The marquee was packed to capacity both morning and evening.

The praise was led by Keith and Kristen Getty, and we have their new cd playing in the car. If you are not familiar with their music, do check out their site.

There was even a seminar on social networking in a christian context. The speaker declared that blogging was “sooooo 2004”, and that twitter was the way forward, but I beg to differ.

I may be “twittering” more than I used to (and feel free to follow me – janmary3) but I believe the sense and spirit of community that blogging enables, could never be acheived by micro-blogging? Agree or disagree?….Discuss!

Car boot sales (probably the nearest equivalent to a yard sale, but held in a communal place, such as a church car park, not at individaul homes) can be great fun, especially if you spend 10 pence on a toy for your son at the beginning, and he happily plays with it for the entire time!

We took the kids for another bike ride along the coastal path between Bushmills and the Giants Causeway and I learned 2 things from this

1. We can no longer keep up on foot with our 4 year old on his bike – the time has come for us ALL to “get on our bikes”!

2. There were an amazing number of bugs along the way. Thanks to an irish moth expert (did you know such a thing exists! – thank you Google), these were identified by him as

“Six-spot Burnet Moths. The 2 spots nearest the head are often joined together giving the appearance of one spot.

In addition I can see black and orange caterpillars in 2 of the photos. This is the caterpillar of the Cinnabar Moth, Ragwort being the foodplant.”

Thanks Angus.

I was reminded this weekend that watching a local firework display can be just as enjoyable as any display Disney can put on. All you need are friends, a mild and dry evening, hot chocolate in a flask, a great vantage point, a castle (ok – a convent!) as a backdrop, and we were just as impressed!

Finally, here are my latest weekly digital scrapbooking summaries of my daily photos for 2009.
So, have you learned anything this week? Do share. For more lessons, be sure to visit Musings of a Housewife

Remember, if you are taking part in the BlogHop 09, then visit my giveaway to win a unique mobile phone charm / bag charm / zip pull – made by me 🙂