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Archive for July, 2013

Books for Kids: The Story of Creation Bath Book

Posted in Church, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on 12 July, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I was recently sent a pile of books by 10ofthose.com for review. As I’m letting myself slowly back into blogging, I thought I’d review the shortest one first.

10ofthose have produced a lovely bath book telling the story of creation. There’s a smiley picture of Adam and Eve on the front cover and then the seven days of creation are pictured. The words and illustrations are taken from the popular Beginner’s Bible. It’s a standard bath book with squidgy plastic pages. I’m going to give it to our youngest congregation member to try out on his holiday and will report back on robustness at a later date, but it feels good quality – the edges are soft and the pages are bound together securely.

A fun gift for small children – only £4.99 for one, but prices down to £3.24 if you order in bulk. Why not club together with other church members and take advantage of the discounts available?

I gave our copy to a lovely baby at our church. Here he is reading it with his mum on holiday a couple of weeks ago:

P1010088 P1010091

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Twenty Minutes Close to Teatime

Posted in Church, tagged , , , , , , on 9 July, 2013| 2 Comments »

It was too hot to wear hats at our door yesterday

It was too hot to wear hats at our door yesterday

Things always get busier in the Vicarage when the sun is out. We get a lot more callers. So yesterday, just before teatime, we had four rings at the doorbell in the space of about twenty minutes. It was busy but fun and I enjoyed interspersing the construction of last night’s mango and rice noodle salad to chat with people visiting at random:

1. Charming called round with her brother and another boy who’d been playing with him to collect the water pistol that had been left in our garden on Saturday. And to ask for an orange for a cake they were about to bake at home. We had no oranges but I gave her a lemon as a substitute.

2. Lovely had a pair of summer shoes she’d bought in a cheap deal at the market and didn’t need, so she brought them to us. They fit the Queen, who was delighted to have a new pair of mucking about pumps.

3. Then a gaggle of half a dozen lads in their early teens called. They had in tow a shirtless chap in his twenties who looked a bit befuddled. The boys explained that the chap needed a taxi to the next town. I explained that we didn’t give money at the door, but if he came back later, the Vicar (who was out) would help him catch a bus. The chap didn’t seem to speak much English. He didn’t return, so I assume he made it home under his own steam.

4. Wildchild rang the bell continuously until I opened the door. She was with two of her friends and they wanted forms for the youth trip to a laser game tomorrow. I redirected her to Dreamer’s house, where the forms were to be found, and gave the girls a few pointers on doorbell and asking-for-forms etiquette (one ring is enough, it’s ‘please may I have’ not ‘I want’).

I do love the unpredictability of Vicarage life. You never know who God is going to send to your doorstep.

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My Book! Being (Pre-)Sold!

Posted in Books, tagged , , , , , , , , on 5 July, 2013| 7 Comments »

I came back from a day off trip to look at pianos to a bit of a surprise today. Our ancient piano was condemned by the tuner the other week because a bunch of keys have stopped playing and are only fixable at the cost of more than a replacement instrument. And the Engineer is just starting some new pieces and is finding the absence of random notes rather tiresome. So off we went to inexpertly chose one.

When we got home there were a few posts on my social media to tell me that the ever-enterprising Jonathan Carswell at 10ofthose has started to offer my book on pre-order. And my publisher IVP, are also offering it from their bookshop. I’m still needing to finish my approval of copy edits but there it is, on proper websites, with Ian Mitchell’s great illustration on the front. Ian’s never seen my kitchen but seems to know it surprisingly well, including the design of the chairs, the countless piles of clutter (tax files this week) and the iron left out optimistically in case I am suddenly overcome with a spurt of domesticity.

When I saw this I wondered if IVP had organised it to give me the jolt I need to finish the editing tasks that are waiting in my email inbox. Since I finished all the tax forms this morning, I really have no excuse now. Apart from the lovely sunshine. Have you seen how gorgeous it is out there? I promise I’ll do those edits next week. Honest.

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