An unusual weekend

I've spent a lot of time over the past couple of months preparing for the Devonport Ethical Christmas Market, where Just Kai was to have a stand.  In the end I wasn't able to be there: I spent Friday afternoon caring for a friend's toddler and caught a tummy bug off her, meaning I was much too sick to go anywhere all day yesterday.  Still, Anna and Martin were able to go, and it sounds like things went well with lots of interest.  We were promoting Christmas foods with verified slave- and child-labour free supply chains, both chocolatey gifts and food for your main Christmas meal.

A cycling cap for me!

Over the years I've made several cycle caps for Martin, as well as one for Sarah.  Now there's one for me, too!

front view - and yes, that is violin music in the background :-)

Sabbath-keeping and care-casting

Life has been feeling very relentless recently: I'm pressured by lots of Just Kai possibilities, there's various complicated people things going on, and I'm still learning to manage my different (and much less predictable) energy levels.  But I wanted to share something I started doing about two months ago that's made a huge difference: Sabbath keeping.

A birthday, family, sadness and spring growth

Last Sunday was my birthday.  I had some friends over for afternoon tea, but didn't take any photos of that - instead, here's the living room decorated before they came :-)

My Aunty Elspeth and cousin Karlene were also visiting Auckland that weekend.  Here they are with Martin at the Oakley Creek waterfall (although they're looking at the waterfall, so it's not visible in the photos).  It was neat to share something so special to me with people who appreciated it so much :-)

Then on Monday morning a friend from university, Rachel, who'd been ill with a heart condition for some time (she'd been ill with it her whole life, in a way, but much worse recently) died in her sleep. Here's Rachel (at the front - it's Jo at the back) at our place for my birthday a few years back.  She was a kind person who was good at noticing people and watching out for them - I will very much miss her and I expect many others will, too.

And spring has come.  Here's the view in our street, plus a few close ups of one particularly impressive blossom tree that I was savouring a day or two ago.

When life sends you lemons ;-)

A bit over a week ago we were in Te Aroha, on holiday with Martin's aunty and uncle.  Their lemon tree was hugely laden with fruit and they sent us home with a big bag :-)  I already had plenty of lemon juice and zest in the freezer, so wasn't initially sure what to do with them.  In the end I made a few jars of Moroccan preserved lemons and a batch of lemon and grapefruit sauce - some for me and some of which will be Christmas presents.

I love the vibrant yellow in the jars :-)

Things I'm learning as life gets rather busy

I've become really busy with Just Kai stuff in the last wee while.  In particular, I recently spoke at two events two weeks apart, followed by speaking with my local MP a few days after the second speaking engagement.  I also managed to get quite a bad cold over that busy period and am now on prednisone to try and clear my lungs and antibiotics to kill the bugs from a secondary bacterial infection.  Life's feeling exciting, but also not hugely sustainable.

I've been thinking a lot about how to respond to all this.  On the one hand, I firmly believe that God healed me so that I can do this work.  So just ditching it doesn't feel like a good option.  But it also all feels like a bit much and I don't believe God wants me to burn out, either.

What to do?

Speaking about Just Kai at Ponsonby Baptist

Sunday nearly two weeks ago I spoke about my Just Kai research at Ponsonby Baptist.  I've written that up on the Just Kai blog here - click through for a few photos as well as a video of the actual presentation kindly compiled by Tim Bulkeley.