Recently PJ read a story about shrinking clothes in the machine.  We got talking about it and I thought it would be a good life lesson to see for real what happens when you wash at 90°C.

It took us a few weeks to find enough things to wash because I wasn't willing to actually ruin anything that wasn't already ruined in some way, and therefore no use even to a charity shop.

We got together a shirt, two jumpers, a pair of gloves, a woollen scarf and a white flannel.  That was thrown in to collect any colour runs.

We cut some bits off the shirt and the scarf and only washed one glove so we could visually compare the difference at the end.  We measured the other items.  LJ then commented that surely it would cost a lot of money to run the machine on a long 90° wash.  He was right, of course, but I told him that if it saved him ever doing it for real, it would pay for itself several times over.  I have ruined several things over the years, haven't you?

As predicted some things shrank.

The dark threads in the scarf shrank more than the white threads, so it ended up wavy and a LOT shorter than before.

Amazingly the shirt did nothing.  I think it was because it was already ruined and had no more colour to lose.  The white flannel came out just as it went in.

One of the jumpers shrank round the neck and by 8 cm across the chest, but one of the reasons I had thrown it in was because of the tomato stains which I had failed to get rid off.  The near-boil wash got rid of them!

The other jumper went baggy and grew a fair bit.  I had forgotten that could happen.  The applique designs ended up rather crinkled though.

They were quite impressed by the results.  I just hope it was a lesson well learned!

I found the following quotation by Charles Spurgeon over at Life at Oak Grove and I wanted to share it here too.  Having learnt the hard way that not all quotations are genuine, even when they are much quoted, I decided to try and get 'chapter and verse' on this.  I found it quoted in many places, but not one had a back reference until I went to the Spurgeon Quote Archive.  There I finally found where this quotation comes from.  It's in his 63 volume sermon set:  1214.53.  I'm not sure I'm any the wiser!!

"You are as much serving God in looking after your own children, and training them up in God's fear, and minding the house, and making your household a church for God, as you would be if you had been called to lead an army to battle for the Lord of hosts."  

Isn't that amazing?  It really is food for thought.

Whilst I was in the archive I found some other very interesting quotations.  Here are a few of them which are all from his book Come ye children.  There were so many more.  If you have a moment you might enjoy a little browse through their archives.

Be sure, whatever you leave out, that you teach the children the three R’s,—Ruin, Redemption, and Regeneration.  p.90

Do not hesitate to tell the child his ruin; he will not else desire the remedy. Tell him also of the punishment for sin, and warn him of its terror. Be tender, but true. p.71

Before you can teach children, you must get the silver key of kindness to unlock their hearts, and so secure their attention. p.84

An ounce of obedience is better than a ton of learning. p.78 

 

This year we decided to join in with Operation Christmas Child.  

Operation Christmas Child is the UK's largest children's Christmas appeal and has been running for over 19 years. They deliver gift-filled shoeboxes to children in Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Whilst I am aware of one missionary working in Eastern Europe who ended up with so many shoe boxes one year he had nowhere to store them, and not enough children to give them to; (a problem which was solved); the majority of these boxes do go every year to very needy children, much to their absolute delight.

I wanted the boys to begin to understand in a practical way that others do not have the blessings they have and that they can do something about it.  They agreed to each give a pound towards filling their boxes.  This wasn't easy as they are both saving up for some Lego and they realised it would mean at least an extra week's wait before they would get their new toy.  It's so little in comparison with what many live with, but it's a start.

I already had many bits and pieces in my cupboard which we looked through and chose from and then I went to buy sweets with a long enough sell-by date on them to get through customs.  I chose to do a box for an older girl, mainly becasue I found a lovely sewing kit which I thought would be a real blessing to a teenager in Africa.  It could help her bring in money for the family.  Then I realised that I wasn't allowed to put ANYthing sharp into the box, so no scissors and no pins or needles.  Agh!  I settled on several reels of cotton as well as a host of other little fun gifts.Packing.  The bit I found the hardest was wrapping the box lid and bottom seperately.  Took me ages!Filled boxes.  The idea is to put things in from 4 different categories, so toys, but also stationery, personal hygiene items like toothbrushes and perhaps an accessory like a cap or scarf.

Our main reason for our trip into town last week was to hand over our boxes to the local collection point.  There are several around here, but I chose the one in the Christian Book Shop.  My regular readers are smiling.  Of course I chose the one in a BOOK shop!

I had a lot to say about this special day last year.  My posts were about Remembrance day in terms of the country remembering and then it's personal significance. 

I need to keep busy today so we're off into our nearest big town and I'll let you know about it soon!

I got my hair cut today.  My appointment was supposed to be last week, but when I got there the place was crowded.  I had never seen so many people at my hairdressers!  I sat down to wait, confident that 'I had something to do'.

I got out my pen and notebook to jot down ideas for my blog.  Actually I can do endless things with a notebook and a pen(cil).  I like lists and can happily while away many minutes on various lists from the practical 'things I need to do today' list to the dreaming ' things I'd like to do before I die'.

On an aside, I made a list of '50 things to do before I die' when I was about 32 but only got to number 22.  Oops.  When I found the list a few months ago I was pleased to discover I had actually managed to accomplish 8 of those things - not bad.

Back to the hairdressers; after a few brief sentences my pen ran out.  It ran out.  My pens almost never run out.  I'm one of those people who buys pens in 50's.  I have a couple of 'posh' pens which do run out and I can get refills, but other pens I have in every room of the house and usually at least 2 in any bag.  They tend to get lost before they run out.  My pen ran out - argh!

For a good 15 minutes I people-watched - which I do like to do, but that day I wasn't in the mood.  Besides anything else I was the only person in there who actually looked like they needed a haircut!  I got so stressed I went to my stylist and asked him howlate he thought he was running and would he prefer me to come another day.  He is always booked up 6 weeks in advance - my first appointment with him I had to book over 2 months in advance!  I wasn't hopeful.

He, on the other hand, was delighted and couldn't quite believe I'd give up my slot.  He booked me for today, his day off.  So now I'm feeling grateful/guilty!  (When I got there today I discovered he'd booked a few other appointments for today so not too much guilt!)

Today I had the salon to myself (well, almost) and was done in less than an hour.  No time to even look for my pen..... 

Do you always take something with you 'to do'?