Last Saturday marked our fifth year of marriage. I'm very happy to have been blessed to find someone to spend my life with...blah blah blah. I love him, the end. As always, we give each other gifts related to the traditional marriage gifts. Year five meant we had to give each other wooden gifts. Jake got me a bread bin, while I gave Jake barbeque skewers with wooden handles. Nice practical gifts, just how I like them!

I had always said when we first were married that by the time we had children or were married five years, I wanted our house to be chemical/toxin free in terms of cleaning and personal hygenie products. I'm happy to say that we were doing really well in Florida, but then moved to England and it went downhill. That being said, because I made a promise to myself, I've jumped back on the wagon and am/will be testing out various homemade products. My first item being tested is homemade facewash. I'll keep you posted.

But in addition to making my own cleaning products, I'm trying to make a more concious effort to clean on a regular basis. I mean, if you look at the job description for a stay-at-home-wife, cleaning is a major task. One of my first tasks was to clean out our bedroom closet. It took me a few hours, but I got 'er done.

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If only my cooking skills would improve. :)

Lastly, I recently aqcuired a vanity that was to be tossed out. The only problem with it was a few broken/missing handles. Our new house has absolutely no bathroom storage, so I was quick to inquire about the vanity and was lucky enough to be given it for free. Match that up with a little soap and water and some free wardrobe knobs I received from Freegle, and that vanity was looking quite snazzy, or at least usable for the purpose I will need it for. I might paint it some day, but I've got bigger fish to fry first.

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"I found my April dream in Portugal with you,
When we discovered romance, like we never knew.
My head was in the clouds. My heart went crazy too.
And madly I said, I love you."

I'll cut it off there, because then the song gets a bit sad, which was not like our April in Portugal trip.

Jake and I spent seven nights at a resort near Albufeira. We had a fun time exploring the beaches, rocky cliffs, and town. Here are some photos from our trip:

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We flew in to Faro and took a shuttle to our resort, Clube Praia de Oura. Luckily, we landed a room facing east looking out onto the coastline and nature.

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As for the trip into Albuferia, we could either take the bus (no!), walk via the road (so-so), or hike along the rocky coastline (fun!).

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The town of Albufeira was nice. I liked the buildings and narrow roads, but it was definitely very touristy. If we go back again, I'd like to explore some of the outlying towns to see get a taste of the real culture. The most popular dishes for this area are Chicken Piri-Piri and Grilled Sardines. We tried the former and it was very delicious.

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I know this shouldn't be a highlight, but I found watching TV very entertaining as well. We don't have a TV license at home so we can't watch anything live. But it was fun to explore the channels and popular shows like Come Dine with Me, Pointless, The Chase, Not Going Out, and Would I Lie to You. I learned who Lee Mack was too; very funny guy.

A few little things have been occuring lately so here's a quick overview:

Jake had an article featured in Comment magazine on 'forgotten places' – small towns, rural areas, and occasionally cities that lie beyond our periphery. He focuses particularly on why we need to be equipping Christians to live faithfully in these contexts as well, and why this focus should not be reserved only for influential urban centres. I might be biased, but I thought it was a well-written article and not boring like some of the stuff he writes on this blog. Kidding! But not really.

For the past few month I've been learning to knit. And finally, I have a completed project: a blue baby's hat. At church they are knitting for Hats 4 the Homeless. I think their name pretty much sums up with they do. I'm happy to know that I can learn a useful skill and other people can benefit from it. Next up: another baby's hat! Hey, repetition is key to learning! Here's Stigger modeling my masterpiece.

Things are moving along with the house buying, albeit slowly. I'm busy gathering ideas on upgrades we can do to the house to make it more homey and practical. You know, when moving to England, I never expected to be buying a two story, three bedroom house. I thought I'd end up in a 500 sq. ft. Ikea flat.

I finished two books that I had been dreading reading: 1984 and Lord of the Flies. A co-worker in Florida gave me a real fright about 1984 saying he had nightmares from it. I didn't find it bad at all; our world is not like that described in the book, it was just an interesting story. But I did breakout crying in Lord of the Flies because the situation was just so potentially realistic and horrible it was sad. Overall, both were great books and I'll read them again.

And finally, Jake and I spent one lovely week in Portugal. We stayed near Albufeira on the southern coast looking out over the Atlantic Ocean. More on this to come. This is a photo of us on the beach in town.

A few months ago a posted a few of the different words used here for various items. I thought for fun, I'd post some more.

American/British

eggplant = aubergine

zucchini = courgette

scotch tape = sellotape

pants = trousers

underwear = pants

a long time = donkey's years

two weeks = fortnight

making out = snogging (at first I thought it was a full home run, but then that didn't make sense in all the contexts its used)

chips = crisps

french fries = chips

"ground" meat = "mince" meat

high class = posh

pound sign (#) = hash

truck = lorry

cookie = biscuit

cotton candy = candy

candy = sweets (note that sweets is only for candy, not for other "sweet" food items - I learned this the hard way while playing Mall Madness and I elimniated a whole pile of guys simply because I was told he didn't like sweets. Jake won that game by the way.)

For the past two weeks, I've been thinking a lot about Christianity and the perception of it in our modern culture. I read an article recently which talked about the resurrection. The common presupposition today rules out the resurrection from the start simply because miracles do not happen because they cannot happen. There is the idea that Christians must believe by faith as opposed to reason. I disagree; I believe a healthy dose of both is required.

Few will dispute Jesus' life and death anymore because there is ample amount of evidence in history of these. However, what of the historical evidence pointing to the resurrection?

The New Testament references hundreds of people who saw Jesus (alive) after his death. I know that we no longer live in the first century, but if we did, we could simply call up one of those people referenced in Scripture and ask what they saw. If it was a lie, the cover would have been blown immediately on the story. The fact that the disciples give the specific names of those who saw Jesus tells us that he really did appear and that these folks really did see him because he really was resurrected from the grave.

Another easy way to dispel the "myth" that Jesus had risen Christians were spreading would have simply been to produce Jesus' body. Despite the fact that a giant stone was placed in front of the entrance and a Roman centurion stood guard outside the tomb to prevent anyone from stealing Jesus' body, this never happened. Why? Because the tomb he was buried in was empty. As much as someone would hate to admit it, the empty tomb is a historical fact. The most logical explanation here is that a miracle occurred. Any other explanations simply fall short.

So what are the implications of this? The resurrection means that Jesus' claims concerning himself must be true. Repeatedly, Jesus claimed to be God. The resurrection also means that Jesus' view of Scripture must be our view the Scripture. The Bible states that everyone of us is sinful. Our sin deserves the ultimate punishment: death and separation from God. But the good news of the Bible is that Jesus being fully God and fully man came into the world, led a perfect life (which none of us could do), but then died the death of a sinful human and received the punishment intended for us. Having conquered death, three days later Jesus rose from the dead. Now, for those who believe in Jesus' loving act, we can live for eternity with God because Jesus' righteousness was imparted to us because of what he did some 2,000 years ago in history.