Life in Lockdown Part 2

Well, at this point I'm just doing things to distract myself rather than entertain myself. The things that used to entertain me now bore me because I either do them too much or I'm just doing them to waste time, not because I actually want to be doing it. It's just things like painting my nails, I can't be bothered to do it because I do it too much now. Even Youtube, playing games, exercise, and I hate to say it but reading my bible. It's all just to waste time until isolation is over. I don't really know what to do, but I'm just stuck in this circle of 'I'm going to be motivated and get stuff done today' and then actually just sit on my butt all day doing nothing. I can't get out of this 'I can't be bothered' attitude, but I really want to.

I'm writing my blog today, in hopes that I'll just be able to clear my head out a little bit, just outlay my thoughts and talk about what I've done, what I want to do and in the hopes of it helping me get off my butt, get off screens and do more productive stuff, so lets put some pictures out there of some of the things that have kept me occupied recently.

Well to start with, I've been on many a walk around the park, whether that be by myself, with one sibling or with the whole family. I even jogged around the park last Saturday with my eldest brother.

    

I've also done many a painting. Painting is another thing I want to start enjoying again. I haven't done any for a couple weeks, but I do want to do some again.

  

 

  

I've done other various things throughout the last month. We took a stroll around Crosby beach at one point. I've been painting my nails a lot, doing my henna; every other week I am recording worship for our streamed church services. My mum also got my sisters and I a cactus or succulent each.

    

And then, we've had my eldest brother's birthday last Saturday. We spent the day, mostly, down at the church playing games like human basketball. These are games we don't have room to play in the house, but the church has a lot of space we can play energetic games in, so that's what we did. My brother also spent some of the time making cheesecakes, below is his [very messy] Eaten mess cheesecake. It tasted delicious!

I think that's all the stuff I've done, apart from all that I've been watching stuff. I've just finished a magnificent series called Medici. It's based on the true events of the Medici family and the bank in Florence. Its a brilliantly well written and directed show and I sobbed at the end. I miss the show already. Another thing I've been 'rewatching' is Once Upon A Time. This show, although some of the storylines are very repetitive and the show can be stupid sometimes, I still love it. My younger sister has just started watching New Girl, which is also a great show if you want a good laugh. My older sister and I watched it ages ago and we still love it and laugh at the jokes every time.

Over the next few days, I'm going to try and stay off Netflix and Youtube as much as possible because I want to be doing other things. I have actually also got a little bit of college work to do, so that needs to get done, but also I just want to get off my butt and do something other than stare at a screen, otherwise, I might be addicted to my phone at the end of this isolation and that is not something I want.

Well, this is the end of... Whatever this post was supposed to be. I hope you liked it, or if you didn't then, whatever. I'll probs just keep doing these monthly updates. I mean, hopefully, we'll be out of quarantine by next month, but until then...

BeeBee

xxx

Life in Lockdown

It's finally April!! Is it just me or did March take too long to be over?

As there is nothing else to talk about, let me just talk about quarantine.

For the first couple of weeks, I finished off assignments and since then I've been doing various things. Art, exercise, watching Disney+, reading my bible, praying, online shopping, getting bored, decluttering, and probably more that I can't think of.

Quarantine has been... okay I guess. I can feel myself slowly going mad. Every time I think about the fact that I haven't seen anyone except my family in almost 3 weeks I literally just start screaming internally. Apart from internally screaming every now and then, I'm trying to stay positive.

From a Christian point of view, I believe that the coronavirus is part of something bigger. No, the coronavirus is not a good thing and is affecting a lot of people, but I believe God is using it to start a revival that has been a long time coming and that a lot of people in churches all around the world have been praying for. For me, the whole quarantine side of it has been a really good time to just see the things that are truly important and appreciate the little things. But not only that, it's been really good for my relationship with Christ.

My favourite verse in the bible is Psalm 46:10 - "Be still and know that I am God". It is my favourite verse because it applies to every season and is always reminding to just stop, even for 30 seconds, and remember God and who he is. Through quarantine, there is basically nothing left to do except to be still and know that He is God. I am powerless in this situation, the only thing I can do is stay home to keep others safe, it is only God who can heal the earth of this virus. These past weeks I have felt God in such a new way. I've been more devoted to prayer, to reading my bible and the Lord has blessed me with his presence. Not only this but each morning as I am about to start my day off with social media, God finds a way to use social media to remind me that He is the one I should be starting my day with. For example, last week I woke up, went on social media and the first thing I saw was a post from Steffany Gretzinger saying she had released a new album. This album called Forever Amen is so special. I listened to it straight away and it made me cry and smile and lead me into the presence of Jesus from the first song. I have listened to this album almost every single day and each day it is so fresh. The whole album is about communion with Jesus. Having this connection, breaking bread and drinking wine with the Lord Jesus our Christ. One of the lines in the first song, Remember, says he took the alter and made it a table. This is such a beautiful picture. I love the closeness to Jesus that this picture and the whole album takes us to.
Anyway, enough about the album. It wasn't only that album that God has used to bring me to his presence in the mornings. He has also used things like simple verses people have posted or live streams of people worshipping and talking about new music they've brought out. One morning I even woke up praying. My favourite morning so far since quarantine was the first Sunday of quarantine when I woke up at 6:00am. To start with I was really annoyed, like just why. But then I looked outside my window and saw that it was the beginning of sunrise. So, I decided to get up, get dressed and take a walk around the park at sunrise. I listened to some worship music and really felt that God had just woken me up to see His beauty that he has created. One of the songs I was listening to was Bitter/Sweet by Amanda Lindsey Cook. The lyrics talk about how he makes all things new, he makes winter into spring, He makes the bitter into Sweet. As these lyrics were playing I was just praising God for making the bitterness of a 6am wake up into a sweet moment of beauty and stillness with Jesus.

I am still working out how to spend each morning with God and starting my days right. There are some days where I still get it wrong, a bit like today, but in the end, its always God I come to and he always shows me grace and love. One of the things I've been doing to help myself connect with God in the mornings is devotionals on the YouVersion app. One of the devotionals I've done was about creating 7 healthy habits to help develop spiritual growth. I love the habits and they've really helped me, so I thought I'd share them:

• Keep the vision - This is about reminding yourself of the vision that was first set. It talked about when we make new year resolutions we often don't complete them or we forget about them. Keeping the vision is about setting those goals, seeing God's purpose for your life - loving others and spreading the good news - and to just keep going back and reminding yourself about the vision.
• Relearn How to listen - This is about taking that short amount of time to just listen to God, to sit in his presence and wait for him to speak. 
• Persevere in Prayer - This is pretty self-explanatory. Just keep on praying.
• Read the Word every Day - Again, self - explanatory. 
• Praise God for His daily Gifts - Just praise him for the breath, for the sun, for the warmth, for the activities he gives you, for the gifts you have that he gives you every day.
• Listen to God's voice - In everything, hear God, he is always wanting to speak to us.
• Persevere until you see the fruit - Keep on trying to create these habits, make them Habits and you will see the fruit.

I'm still working on making all of these actual habits, but since reading my bible every day and persevering in prayer and seeking him first every day, I feel at peace and calm. I may be getting easily annoyed and I may be becoming very annoying, but I am trying my hardest to not be annoying and angry and irritable. It's just so hard when you're stuck in the same place for so long.

Anyway, after this long ramble about all sorts of stuff, I hope you found some encouragement or a distraction or just something to do in these days of boredom. I will leave you with these pictures I took when I went for a walk at 6am.

 

 

 

BeeBee

xxx

Cats and my 18th

Well, I think it's about time I talked a bit about February and the fact that I turned 18.
But first, here are some pictures of cute cats that I became obsessed with during my work experience

CoCo

I can't remember his name, but he had 3 legs and was so adorable.

Bubby

Pastels

I can't remember the name, but still so cute and I stroked this cat while it fell asleep for like half an hour.

Right, let's talk about my birthday. Can I just say, that it was honestly, probably one of the best days of 2020 and I felt so blessed because of everything that happened. Also, I don't know why, but in January I was scared of being 18, but when it came to the day before and the day of turning 18, all the fear had gone and it was just excitement left. 

The first and only present I opened on my actual birthday, was the hoodie in the picture below. I had a baileys hot chocolate for my birthday drink and the rest of the morning was spent on a train down to London.

 Once we got into London, we went to a cupcake shop where Joel and his girlfriend surprised us. We then got some sandwiches from Pret a Manger and headed towards the theater. 

Prince of Egypt as a theater show was incredible. The production of it was beautiful. Although there were some aspects of it that really frustrated me, like the way they changed the ending, I would definitely go see it again if I could because it was really beautiful to watch and also I just love the Prince of Egypt. 

After the theater show, we quickly went over to accessorize, where I bought some cute earrings, and then we tried to find somewhere to eat. 

Finding a place to eat at around 5-7pm in central London is impossible. We went into so many places, but all of them were packed with people. If we were ever to do it again, I think we would book somewhere in advance. We eventually, after being quite stressed about not being able to find a place to eat, settled down for cheesy chips and milkshakes at Shake Shack. It wasn't the birthday meal I'd planned, but it was still good.

Sadly, after food, it was farewells and a 3-hour train ride home.

My 18th birthday is definitely one I'm not forgetting any time soon, despite the London chaos, it was so much fun.

Because I was in London all day with just my sisters and Mother, most of my family didn't get to see me on my birthday, so on the 28th, we opened my presents and cards and had birthday cake. And, I dyed my hair red on the 29th.

Well, that's basically it for my birthday. So far March has been okay I guess. I took my last exam the other day, which I don't think went as well as I'd liked, but I leave it in God's hands and if I have to do the retake then you know, whatever. College is actually pretty boring, all we are doing is aquatics, which no one really wanted to learn and a specialist project, in which no one really knows what they're doing. This year of college is not what I signed up for and I'm just so ready for summer and for education to be over for at least a year. I'm so excited about my gap year where I'm free to not have to revise or do work and just do stuff I want. 

That's basically all for now, 2020 is a good year so far, apart from all the end of the world stuff going on - massive forest fires in Australia and the Coronavirus - 2020 seems to be going okay. 

Be back soon,

BeeBee

xxx