Posted in Family, tagged dressing up, Fun, Kids, Summer holidays, Superman on 10 September, 2010| 3 Comments »
This summer the kids enjoyed all their usual home activities – playing on their bikes, arguing over the PS2, making a mess and dressing up. The Engineer was particularly keen on his (very nearly too small) Superman costume. Since we didn’t have a haircut until the day before they went back to school, he was also able to work on his Superman hair. Can you see his kiss curl?
You look JUST LIKE Superman, darling.
Posted in Faith, Family, tagged 1000 Years of Annoying the French, A Shelter in the Time of Storm, Amanda Craig, Armadillo, Barbara Pym, Books, C J Sansom, Christian, Ed Moll, God and Trouble, Hearts and Minds, Holidays, Ian Sansom, Jane and Prudence, meditations, Mobile Library series, Nancy Mitford, novels, Paul Tripp, Psalm 27, reading, recommendations, reviews, Stephen Clarke, The Bad Book Affair, The Gospel-centred Family, The Pursuit of Love, Tim Chester, William Boyd on 7 September, 2010| 2 Comments »
I know, I know, we’ve all finished our holidays and everyone’s gone back to school and work. But I’ll forget this if I leave it till the right sort of time next year. And this year I really enjoyed my holiday reading, so here they are – maybe you could stick them on your Christmas list or something. Or even do some reading out of holiday time… So, in no particular order…
Posted in Church, Family, tagged admin, Church, computers, cozi.com, diary management, Family, mobile phones, organisation, parish, synchronizing diaries on 6 September, 2010| 12 Comments »
I would really really really like to be better at organising our family life. The Vicar has a real problem with organisation. In fact, he always prays for the spiritual gift of administration, valuing it very highly, but so far the Lord has not blessed him in that department. And he has just appointed an administrator, but she’s not fulltime. Yet. And I’m not sure it’s her job to organise the family as well as the parish.
One of the things I have been looking for is a calendar system that both the Vicar and I could access from our individual (but networked) computers and also (in the future, when we upgrade our rather primitive devices) mobile phones. The Vicar currently has a Palm Pilot, but obviously this technology is now rather retro.
One friend has recently recommended cozi.com to us, which looks fantastic. However, I notice that it’s only really good with the iPhone, (that’s the only one where you’re able to edit as well as read the calendar) not other smartphones, and she uses it with Outlook and we use Mozilla Firefox. So I’m not sure about it, tho’ her local computer expert tells us it should be fine. How do you organise your family/parish lives? What is the solution, and if there isn’t one, can someone please design it? Thanking you all for your kind attention in this matter…
Posted in Church, Fun, Kids, tagged Bible, Christianity, CPAS, Devon, Edgehill, faith, Family, Fun, holiday, Pathfinder, summer, Teenagers, venture on 12 August, 2010| 4 Comments »
Last week we got back from the Edgehill Pathfinder venture. We’d stayed in a boarding school in Devon with our kids, a brilliant bunch of leaders and 65 11-14 year olds. We had loads of fun (3 wonderful beach trips, fantastic crafts, excellent games and some lively humour, which included the consumption of delights such as oven-baked tarantula). We made lots of friends (even us mummies who were caring for kids whilst the dads led activities). And we heard the gospel told afresh. The Queen, the Joker and the Engineer were old enough to attend the sessions alongside the Pathfinders for the first time this year and they (aswell as their teenage friends) were gripped by the lively and faithful teaching.
The head honcho, Tim Ambrose posted this thanksgiving prayer letter on his blog last week:
Posted in Family, Fun, Kids, Parenting, Polls, tagged boredom, children in church, Church, church services, distraction, faith, families, Family, Fun, God, Kids, poll, survey, techniques, worship, young on 9 August, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Sorry not to have posted these results before. Somehow it’s harder to find time to do things in the holidays… Anyway, here they are:
| Technique | Votes | Percentage |
| Colouring/quizzes | 23 | 21% |
| Books | 21 | 19% |
| Other (see below) | 15 | 14% |
| Extensive pre-service briefing on loving ones neighbour by not distracting them | 13 | 12% |
| Breadsticks or other healthy snack | 12 | 11% |
| Threats | 8 | 7% |
| Cuddly toys | 8 | 7% |
| Sweeties or similar | 7 | 6% |
| My kids always sit nicely, I don’t know what you’re talking about | 1 | 1% |
Other Answers (all 1 vote each)
Participation
Training
Extreme
Distraction/other
So the recommended techniques seem to be a combination of activities (including participating in the service), food and working on expectations (both children’s, parents’ and congregation’s – the latter was mentioned more in the comments).
It’s a tricky area for us all I suspect and I guess we need to encourage one another to persevere. We want those kids to be real church family members now as they will be the core church family of the future, God willing.
This subject is ripe for future polls, so watch out for more once the summer hols are over and my thinking head is less distracted by screaming kids beating each other up. We like to set a good model of Christian family life here in the Vicarage.
Posted in Family, Fun, tagged bling, Fatface, Fun, necklace, reception, School on 3 August, 2010| Leave a Comment »
One of the things I’ve loved about taking the Engineer to school this year is that in the Reception class you get to walk in with your child, help them locate their coathook and get their lunchbox in the trolley. And then you get to hang out with them and their friends for a bit. I used to wait whilst the Engineer wrote his name in marker pen on the big piece of paper on the easel, and then nose around a little to see if there was anything new on the wall…
In April I went away with some girlfriends (to listen to some edifying talks on the Trinity, natch) and happened to buy a FatFace necklace (can’t think how that occurred). I love my new necklace (and the Trinity, of course). And it is also loved by three of the Engineer’s classmates. Every time I wore it into school (quite frequently – it goes with many outfits) they would gather around me. Then they would grab onto the necklace, fascinated by the surprisingly heavy beads. Then they would hang onto me and my necklace until I managed to disentangle myself. I called them the Bling Bling Girls.
Their teacher says this is why she never wears necklaces to school.
Blingy, eh?
In other news I was very proud of myself when I successfully mended the necklace this evening after a thread snapped and one of the steel beads fell off.
Posted in Family, Fun, tagged blether, bling, Fun, jewellery, MuchTooFun, necklace, peely wally, Scotland, Scots, Scottish on 9 June, 2010| 2 Comments »
I saw this today and thought it perfect for some of the paler skinned inhabitants of the Vicarage, given their Scots heritage.
It’s actually a necklace available from MuchTooFun. They also do other Scottish bling:
I think this one would suit me
[HT India Knight]
Posted in Family, Inner city, tagged chaotic families, Children, friendship, Inner city, Kids, loss, School on 8 June, 2010| 5 Comments »
My five year old son, the Engineer, is very good at making friends. So when he started telling me about his new friend Cap a few weeks ago, I didn’t think much of it. Then we found out that Cap was living with his mum and her partner, and another couple, just over the road. And the Engineer started talking about wanting Cap to come over to play.
So Cap came to visit us one afternoon after school. The two of them had a very happy time, playing out in our roomy garden. Cap’s house doesn’t really have a garden to speak of, and the small yard there is home to two Staffies. The two boys got on so well. The Engineer started talking about Cap as his ‘best friend’.
Lots of fun with Cap and his family ensued over the following weeks – a trip to the park, a big Sunday barbecue and happy school runs back and forth with chasing and squealing, as little boys love so much. Cap’s mum and her other half joined us at my school parent’s coffee morning. All seemed happy and stable. Cap’s mum told me how contented he was and how he was benefitting from going to school and how much he was loving it.
Then, just before half term, I heard that there were some housing problems and that Cap and his family were having to move out. Some parishioners started looking for suitable housing for them. I spoke to Cap’s mum in the street early in half term week – she looked sad and worried but said they were looking for somewhere new to live. ‘You can always stop with us for a bit if you need to’ I told her, but she said they had some new friends down the road who’d said they could stay with them.
That was the last time I saw her. Her housemate came over to the Vicarage on Thursday and asked if we’d seen her. She, Cap and her partner had disappeared. And hadn’t paid the rent. And now someone else has told us that they’ve moved to Wales.
I’m glad I knew before school started back. I was able to tell the Engineer. He was amazingly philosophical about it:
Cap is still my friend. And I have lots of other friends.
But still I’m sad for my son, losing a friend he was getting on with so well. But I’m more sad for Cap, who’s moved away from a school where he was happy and beginning to feel settled. I’m sad for his mum & her partner, both barely out of their teens, and both carrying a whole lot of baggage that can’t simply be shed by moving towns.
Posted in Faith, Family, Kids, tagged aid, Barnabas Fund, Books, Children, community action, education, Family, fundraising, Kids, Poverty, regeneration, relief, The Back Leg of a Goat on 17 May, 2010| 2 Comments »
As regular readers will know, on this blog I refer to my 8 year old daughter as the Queen. This originated when she played the Red Queen in a school performance of Alice in Wonderland. She was particularly good at shouting:
Off with her head!
She also has bossy tendencies. Can’t think where she got those from.
Anyway, the Queen’s organising and enterprising streak appeared in force a couple of weekends ago when she and four friends appeared in a ‘fashion show’ at the end of our monthly church coffee morning. The Queen and her pals have spent the last few months dressing up every time they get together.
The Queen, the Joker and friends looking fashionable
After reading a Christian kids’ book called ‘The Back Leg of a Goat‘ by Penny Reeve, where the heroine puts on a fashion show to raise money to buy a goat for a family in Africa, the Queen decided that she and her friends would do the same. So they put together their dressing clothes and also an old duvet and some other old outfits, liberally snipped about. The Joker was recruited to play some ‘jazz’ (actually some mellow acid jazz cds from the Vicarage collection).
They recruited kind neighbour Beauty, who knows everything about makeup and nails. Beauty came and preened them all up and the event was ready. We arranged for them to put on the show at the end of the monthly church coffee morning, so they had a captive audience. The Queen had worked hard at getting her Kids Klub leaders and other adult friends to come along. They’d made posters and flyers which they’d handed out.
The Queen and her friends enjoyed themselves enormously as they paraded around the hall, although I don’t think I’d say that the fashion was ready for showing alongside the next Valentino collection. And with the help of the coffee morning bric-a-brac stall they cajoled over £60 from their audience. We are going to send off the money to the Barnabas Fund, for their education fund. The Queen and her friends wanted the money to go towards educating ‘poor children’.
I just hope that I can now throw out all the snipped up clothing and retrieve a small part of our very messy Vicarage…
Posted in Family, Fun, tagged camera, cheeky, Family, Fun, Kids, photography, smug on 5 May, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Sorry about the lack of posting of late. Today I thought I’d check through my recent photos to prompt some of the creativity that’s been lacking. And I found all sorts of alien shots which indicate that persons other than myself have been out and about with my Fuji FinePix.
So I offer you one of them today, cleverly taken in the mirror in the hall:
Smug or cheeky… or both?
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