MOTHER'S DAY.

Happy Mother's Day!

I'm so happy that today I get to be back at my parent's house paying a visit, it's been too long. In my last post, I shared my guest post over at we resolve and today I have a few more things about my mum to share. I asked her 10 questions, to learn a bit more about her and here's what I found out...

1. Outside family members, who inspires you the most?

Corrie Ten Boom for being an ordinary woman who was prepared to put herself out there for God and trust Him in all the little things

Jane Kopsch for being down to earth and a woman of great integrity

Jackson Pollock for expressing such vibrancy and freedom in his paintings

Claudia Winkleman for being so much fun ( and having great hair!)

Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep for being so true to character in every role they take

2. How would your childhood friends describe you?
Loyal, funny, knobbly kneed!

3. What is better about the world today than when you were growing up?

Advances in medical science and the gospel is more widely spread.

4. What's the best gift you've ever recieved?
Salvation of course! But after that my children.

5. If you could instantly have a new skill, what would it be?
To speak fluent Italian.

6. When did you know you wanted to be a mum?
When I was a young teenager and babysat for lots of people.

7. Where in the world would you most like to travel that you haven't been to yet?
South America.

8. What is the hardest and the most rewarding thing about being a mother?

The hardest is when I let my children down and when I see them struggle and in pain. Also knackeredness! The most rewarding...there are too many to list them all but

• seeing my children come to accept Jesus
• seeing them grow into the people they are with all the different character traits and skills
• seeing them become independent and socially minded
• seeing them learn to overcome difficulties
• seeing them be kind to other people
• Hanging out and chatting together
• when they say I love you - will stop now as I will start to cry!

9. If you could go back in time to any period in history, where would you go and why?
When space travel emerged, in particular 1969 and first moon landing, how absolutely exciting that must have been. I still think it's amazing what was achieved and that we can travel into space and see so much beauty...Dad has pointed out I was alive in 1969 but I don't remember the moon landing so please can it still count?!

10. Pick and favourite song and why or what it reminds you of...
You're the Tops by Cole Porter because it's so happy and upbeat; the lyrics are really clever and it's just a celebration of recognising how great the person you love is so obviously it always reminds me of Dad and that makes me happy.

Thank you so much for sharing mum, I love you! 

X

THANKFUL THURSDAY/ MARCH.

I have been posting Thankful Thursday for 6months now! I thought about stopping but it feels really important to be actively thankful and to keep reminding myself of good things from the past month. 

one. Lighter mornings, making getting up for work a lot easier

two. Learning, mistakes and forgiveness

three. Celebrations big and small

four. Reading

five. Eating out, yum!

six. A holiday that's just around the corner...

seven. Honesty

eight. Enjoying my job

nine. Laughter

PS. As it's Mother's Day on Sunday, my best friends Lucy and Nate asked me to guest post over on their blog a few days ago. Just a little bit about my incredible Mum and what she has taught me if you fancy checking it out! I'll be sharing more on Sunday.

Happy Thursday!
xx

OXFORD.

Last weekend was spent in Oxford. A perfect mini road trip complete with a walk around the city, great food, a cheesy chick-flick and homemade hot chocolates in pjs. We planned to have a picnic, hoping the weather would be warm and sunny enough to sit out in the park and we were not disappointed! It nearly felt like summer and was an excellent first picnic of the year. I love spending time with these two, just missing my two other sisters!

This is a very quick film of our Saturday.

Saturday. from indiacarolinajoy on Vimeo.
Music - Here Comes the Sun, The Beatles.

TRAVEL DREAMS.

Every now and then I get restless and want to go out into the world and explore. There are so many incredible places to see and I've often been surprised at how much I love somewhere new and the unexpected things I've seen. I thought I'd share a few pictures of places I've been to in the past and places I hope to visit in the future....

 Prague, Edinburgh, Paris

 New Zealand

 Bangladesh

Italy 

If you missed them, I posted about my travels round Italy this summer.

Not too distant future dreams and almost plans include....

 - Bath

 - Amsterdam

 - America!

TODAY.

Today involved an impromptu walk followed by coffee and cake.

It was a really beautiful day,  perfect for being outdoors and spending some quality time with an ace friend (and avid reader!). I also got to practice using my new camera which was so fun!

SUNSHINE!

THE BEAUTIFUL KATE, SO HAPPY TO KNOW HER.

STILL DREAMING OF PICNICS AND SUMMERTIME.

CLIMBING THIS WAS WAY HARDER THAN IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN!

HILLSIDE CAFE TO SPLIT THE LAST PIECE OF CARROT CAKE... ALSO JUST ANOTHER EXCUSE TO TAKE A PICTURE OF A PRETTY BUILDING.

Thanks for a fun afternoon Kate and for snapping a few pictures of me!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend

x

BLUEBERRY POLENTA BUTTER CAKE.

When I first moved into my current house the oven was pretty bad. With no way of knowing what temperature it was set at, anything I attempted to cook ended up slightly burnt on the outside and not quite done on the inside. This meant that baking took a back seat. Thankfully, I hit the landlord jackpot and within two hours of visit to check how we were settling in, a brand new shiny spotless oven was fitted in the kitchen....so I made a cake to celebrate.

This recipe is from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook which I've been working my way through recently. This particular cake was perfect because I already had almost all the ingredients in my cupboard and it made a nice change from my usual vanilla or chocolate sponge. New recipes don't always work perfectly first time and yes all my blueberries sank to the bottom, yes I underestimated how much it would rise and had more cake than space in the tin (and half-cooked batter on the bottom of my new oven) but it turned out deliciously in the end, even if it wasn't half as pretty as in the book. 

Fruit, not-too-sweet cake and a crunchy top layer worked so well together and have made snack time (and breakfasts) a lot brighter this past week!

 THIS WOULD BE THE OVERFLOWING CAKE BATTER..