Six Things - Carrie Mann

Carrie Mann is a one woman encouragement machine!
Always impeccably (if not glamorously) dressed and with more matching reading glasses than you can shake a stick at!

Carrie loves children, and even has five of her own with grandchildren being added now too! She enjoys dancing, singing and acting, and has enjoyed singing "Oom Pa Pa" to much aplomb. Carrie loves spending time with people and making people laugh. She tries to spend time cooking for the whole family (all 13 of them) usually a Sunday roast as she believes "a family that eats together stays together".


One thing that's always worth getting out of bed for
A cup of tea. I really can't function without one in the mornings. White and sweet!!

One thing about yourself that often obstructs you
Doubting my ability. I do have to remind myself that God does not make mistakes when designing people and I am exactly the person He intended me to be.

One thing I've learned the hard way
Gossip will always find you out, by that I mean people will find out if you have been gossipping, not a nice place to be.

One thing that gets under my skin
Poor time keeping. My Father bought me up to always be early, and so when people turn up late I find it irritating.

One thing I'd love to change
People making judgements on others. We should try to be accepting of others as we don't know what has gone before.

One thing I hope for
A cottage over looking the sea, it makes me feel peaceful and very relaxed.

Six Things is a series of micro-interviews with interesting and creative people
in which they’re asked to respond to a standard set of six prompts.

Serendipity Saturday - 21/04/12

So you need to cut down that tree in the garden, what are you going to do with the stump? Here's an idea that I  came across in a local garden.

As I walk around in the world (and cyberspace) I try to keep my eyes really open. Open to noticing new things, strange things, things that make me stop and think. I am sharing some of these serendipitous finds with you. Serendipity means a "happy accident" or "pleasant surprise"; specifically, the accident of finding something good or useful without looking for it. (and its one of my favourite words!)

Four tricky questions - an olympic interview

Back in February I had my Gamesmaker interview, this was part of the selection process that whittled down the 250,000 people who applied to be a volunteer at the London 2012 Olympics. 100,000 people were being interviewed over 12 months with around 70,000 being needed to run the games.

I was delighted to be offered a place to serve at the Paralympics and I attend my first training session next week.

What stood out at the Gamesmaker interview was the four questions they asked:
1. What have you accomplished that you are proud of?
2. Describe a situation where you had to work together in a team situation?
3. What is your favourite Olympic sport and why?
4. Can you tell me about a time you have gone the extra mile?

Apart from olympic themed question 3, my answer to this is below, I think these are great questions that we should ask of ourselves every so often. So I'm asking you, what would your answers be?

My favourite Olympic sport is the middle to long distance and the greatest Olympian in my opinion is Emil Zátopek who at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, won gold in the 5 km, 10 km, and the marathon breaking the Olympic record in each of the three events! His final medal came when he decided at the last minute to compete in the marathon for the first time in his life, and won!

Habits of a lifetime can be changed

Do you have bad habits, recurring failures, addictions? If not you are one in a million (or fooling yourself!).

The rest of us know we have stuff that keeps tripping us up again and again.

If you're like me this stuff has become almost second nature, part of who I am. Therefore, if I want to change any of these behaviours and actions it is actually painful because in a perverse way they have become a comfort blanket.

I am trying to change a couple of my worst traits and recently I was listening to a couple of preaches from Mars Hill that I found helpful.

Shane Hipps spoke about the hundreds and thousands of choices that lead to situations of personal pain, bad habits or even addictions. We have to admit that we did make those choices, albeit they became more and more automatic responses the more we let the bad habit form. It was one of those sermons when it seemed the preacher was talking just to me. He went on to say there is hope as we come to God and make the right choices. These boulders of bad behaviour/habits will be worn down by the constant flow of God's healing water. (click here to go and listen)

Kent Dobson talked from the story of Ruth of hopeless circumstances. Ruth did all she could in her situation of just taking one step at a time to walk towards hope. (click here to go and listen)

I am trying to take one step towards hope each day and I am thankful for the lovely people I have around me who guide me, encourage me and pull me up when I stumble and fall.

If you are stuck in whatever way I would recommend listening to one or both of these messages, I believe they may just speak to and encourage you where you are at.