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A few things I saw on my trip to the local shops just now, 4pm on a sunny Thursday afternoon:

  • The white lady behind me in the Asian supermarket bought a four pack of Scrumpy Jack cider, a bottle of wine, a small bottle of vodka and some mouthwash. I worried about her liver.
  • The kids from a family from school all dressed up in their best Asian clothes were trooping off to mosque. ‘Hello miss’ they called to me. I count as a teacher because I read with a couple of them in school.
  • A black lady in her dressing gown and what looked like her daughter, sitting on plastic chairs right by the pavement in their tiny front garden, enjoying a glass of orange juice.
  • My kids and a whole multi-cultural group of local friends all mucking about on the church’s playground,  squealing happily. Beautiful.

How are you enjoying the sunshine?

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Just remembered: here’s a page with the verses for the Resurrection eggs, so you don’t have to retype. Just print out and cut them up. We Vicar’s wives need all the time-saving help we can get.

Resurrection Eggs Verses

We’ll be getting our older two to find the verses in the bible – it’s good practice!

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My Resurrection Egg outers arrived from Baker Ross yesterday. So whilst the Vicar took the kids swimming, I assembled the egg box with bible verses and visual aids. I also managed to fit three mini-eggs into each egg which I thought might encourage the kids as they go through the box. Not in the last one, though, as it’s meant to be empty, like the tomb. I plan to have other treats on hand to celebrate the last Resurrection Egg when we get that far.

So here’s a couple of rather poor photos, taken on my phone cos I couldn’t locate my camera, so you can see what they look like. In the end, we didn’t open the first one after swimming, because the Queen stayed so long gassing in the ladies’ changing room (and the Vicar couldn’t go and fetch her, obviously) that they were very late home. She had to run straight out to the Kids’ Club Easter Party as soon as she’d eaten her tea, so the Resurrection Eggs will be a holiday activity – term finishes today – hooray!

I numbered the eggs using sticky foam pieces and a marker pen

A close up of the egg ‘fillings’

The fillings were quite straightforward – it took me about an hour to assemble the whole kit. Here’s what I actually did in the end:

Day 1: Cottonwool ball soaked in perfume (not sure how authentic Elizabeth Arden Green Tea is as a fragrance)
Day 2: 5p pieces for the silver – thankfully I had some in my purse.
Day 3: Matthew 21:1-11. Donkey or palm leaf – Playmobil pot plant pieces.
Day 4: Matthew 26:26-29. Cup or bread – a Playmobil wine glass and a piece of bread.
Day 5: Luke 22:39-46, 54a. Praying hands or pipecleaner man – I stuck together some pink foam which I cut into the shape of praying hands. A little lurid in colour.
Day 6: John 19:1-7. Purple cloth. Well the cloth is maroon, but it was the best I could find.
Day 7: John 19:16-17. Cross. I made this by snipping off the bottom of one of the kids’ palm crosses and sticking it together. Shhhh – don’t tell them.
Day 8: John 19:18. Nails. Sourced from the Vicar’s tool cupboard.
Day 9: John 19:33-35. Toothpick (for the spear). Actually I used  half a cocktail stick (no toothpicks in the Vicarage), covered in silver foil.
Day 10: Matthew 27: 57-60. Rock. Some gravel from the drive. Washed.
Day 11: Mark 16:1-3. Cinnamon/cloves/spices. Had plenty of these in the cupboard.
Day 12: John 20:1-8. And nothing in the egg! This was easy.

I’m looking forward so much to starting this tonight.

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I get the Seeds Family Worship newsletter and they linked me to this month’s free download. It’s from my favourite Seeds cd, Seeds of Courage. Go listen and then badger your local Christian music shop to start stocking the cds. In the meantime, Tim V-B (see his comment at the bottom of the page) has a box of the cds available.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

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Inspired by Happy, the Vicar’s Apprentice, whose mother has an Easter tree, and Nicole at 168hrs, I have sent off to Baker Ross for plastic eggs and am planning a burst of Easter celebration in the Vicarage over the next few days.

The idea of Resurrection Eggs is a little like the Jesse Tree we have during Advent. A dozen plastic eggs each contain a small item to remind us of different stages in the Easter story. The plan is to read the bible verses and remember the Easter story together each day. I’ll take a photo once I have it all assembled.

Below are the passages and items I’m planning on using. I suspect our various Playmobil sets will be a good source for some of the pieces…

Day 1: Matthew 26:6-13. Jesus anointed at Bethany.
Cottonwool ball soaked in perfume.
Day 2: Matthew 26: 14-16. Judas agrees to betray Jesus.
5p pieces for the silver.
Day 3: Matthew 21:1-11. The triumphal entry.
Donkey or palm leaf.
Day 4: Matthew 26:26-29. The last supper.
Cup or bread.
Day 5: Luke 22:39-46, 54a. Gethsemane.
Praying hands or pipecleaner man.
Day 6: John 19:1-7. Jesus sentenced to death.
Purple cloth.
Day 7: John 19:16-17. Jesus carries his cross.
Cross.
Day 8: John 19:18. The crucifixion.
Nails.
Day 9: John 19:33-35. Jesus dies.
Toothpick (for the spear).
Day 10: Matthew 27: 57-60. Jesus placed in the tomb.
Rock.
Day 11: Mark 16:1-3. The women go to anoint the body.
Cinnamon/cloves/spices.
Day 12: John 20:1-8. The empty tomb.
And nothing in the egg!

I’m going to put together a pdf file of the references to pop in the eggs and the bible readings and I’ll blog those later in the week.

We’ll obviously be starting a bit later than we should if we want to open the empty egg on Easter Day, but as a two week Easter holiday is looming, I’m happy to be telling the story both before and after the big weekend. Now I just need to track down an empty egg carton and those Playmobil pieces.

Do you have any good Easter traditions?

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I was in Sainsbury’s earlier today, stocking up on Vicarage essentials (own-brand weetabix, apples, Cif spray, pinot grigio etc). As I was queuing to pay out the surprisingly vast quantity of money, I heard two check-out assistants asking elderly couples if they were collecting schools vouchers. The vouchers are collected by schools, scout and guide groups and kids’ sports clubs and can be used to buy sports, cooking, gardening and play equipment.

Neither couple wanted them. And I was a bit far away to shout out ‘No, no, keep them for me!’ It made me sad, though – these people didn’t know anyone they could give the vouchers to. They are part of a society where the old and the young don’t know one another.

This is one thing the church does well and I am grateful that we have church family where my children know folk in their 70s and 80s. Church is where older folk come and make cups of tea for mums at the toddler group and help out in the creche and where society’s trend towards isolation and individualism is rejected.

I shouldn’t have shouted out ‘Give me the vouchers’, I should have said ‘ Get yourselves to church’ instead.

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This weekend we went to see our family favourite, Colin Buchanan (not the bishop), in concert in Birmingham as a part of the Passion for Life mission that is taking place round the country over the next few weeks.

Colin with the Vicarage kids and their friend Wondergirl

The Birmingham concert was a typical Colin session – full of high energy, hilarity and gospel truths. The Queen was particularly pleased to be selected to wave a flag. It was great fun to be there and I’m already planning to ensure that the next time he’s in the Midlands we arrange a Sunday School outing to his show. It was just as entertaining for the grown-ups.

When I mentioned that I’d been to see Colin on Facebook and Twitter, two separate people quoted the first line of this Colin song to me. It’s from his grown-up album, Real Hope. His style was categorised as ‘country rock’ on one website I looked at – I love it, but wouldn’t class myself as a fan of country or rock!

Press on Mums
In all the chaos
Look to Jesus through the tears
Press on, Mums
God will guide you
Through those precious, tender years

Chorus:
And in all you do, do it for Jesus
Who won you life and free forgiveness
Yesterday, today
He is the same
All you do
Do it in Jesus’ name

Press on, Dads
Love your wife
Serve your children
Set the pace
Press on, Dads
Seize the moment
Show them Jesus
Run the race

Press on, kids
God adores you
He will hear you when you pray
Press on, kids
Love your family
Honour, serve
Forgive, obey

. . . and when all your human energy is gone
Look towards your Jesus and press on.

I’ve been singing it to myself all week. And now I’m going to see if I can locate the album, underneath the chaos somewhere.

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Reading Rules

I am currently spending two mornings a week in our church school, reading with some children who need a bit of extra help. I’m having lots of fun with youngsters who are keen to learn and love to read stories.  This Jessica Hagy card from her wonderful website sums up what I’m seeing in practice:

I wish I could spend more time reading with them

I had a chat with a dad recently who was asking about tutors for his young son, who’s in Reception with the Engineer. I was surprised that he thought he needed a tutor. But it was because dad works long hours, and mum (who also works long hours) doesn’t speak English and Granny, who does after-school care, speaks limited English and cannot read or write in any language.

I was impressed with dad’s determination, but so sad that noone who could read simple English was available to spend just ten minutes a day reading with the child. I can’t read with all the children in the parish!

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Those talented folk at Seeds Family Worship have got together with some other creative types to produce a dvd of seven of their bible memory verses. I can’t embed it into my blog, but I am going to get the Vicar to fund the $49.95 to order it. The seven memory verses on the dvd are as follows:

  1. “Cast Your Cares” Psalm 55v22
  2. “Go” Matthew 28v19
  3. “Servant of All” Mark 9v35
  4. “Take Heart” John 16v33
  5. “The Secret” Philippians 4v12-13
  6. “Think About It” Philippians 4v8
  7. “Wonderfully Made” Psalm 139v14

If you’ve not heard their stuff before, you need to know that they are fun, catchy and grown-up friendly. You can also download the videos individually for $14.98. I’m not sure if you can download the whole dvd though. Seeds do a monthly free download of their songs so you can listen to another sample.

A couple of the songs above are already available on YouTube as kinetic typography videos, but this dvd looks like an excellent resource. In the meantime, enjoy a video of the Seeds team singing “The Secret” live:

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It's amazing how much fun an underground train journey can be

That’s how we spent our half term holiday: learning to use the Tube. Well, we did a few other things as well, but when the Joker told people about what we’d been up to, the Tube featured rather heavily in his report.

My mother is a Super-Organised Nanna and we’d agreed to go and stay with her and Grumpy Grandpa in London for a few days. The Vicar managed to break away from his sermon prep long enough to spend some of the time with us aswell.

S-O Nanna had comprehensively surfed the net to work out the best things to do with an 8 year old, a 7 year old and a 5 year old in London during half term. So we had a trip to the Science Museum, a visit to the Tower of London and finally an activity morning at the Museum of Childhood.

Of course we visited all these places by tube, which, when you’re under ten and don’t have to do it all the time, is a wonderful treat. This is the first year we’ve been able to do this sort of visit because the Engineer is only just out of the buggy and not whining all the time he has to walk.

The Science Museum trip was the least successful, even though the Vicar was able to come on that one. Even though we were at South Kensington tube station by about 10.45am, there was already a queue to get in. And after we’d had our picnic lunch by the interactive section we would have had to queue again for around 45 minutes to get into the part with all the buttons. The children enjoyed it, but it was really too busy. I think we’d only return there on a school Inset day, when not quite the whole world is trying to visit. Apparently the Natural History museum is similarly heaving during half term. But it is free.

Our favourite part of the Science Museum was probably a story time session, where one of the staff told an interactive story about a visit to Iceland. Her story taught the children about snow, ice and volcanoes, using actions and a white parachute. It was most suitable for younger children although I think the Queen probably enjoyed it the most – she loves drama. Ooh – and we bumped into some old pals from Vicar college. We’d not seen them for nearly five years. London’s a small place. Or Vicars and their families like to do free things in half term.

More on the Tower and the Museum of Childhood another day. Wish we had similar stuff on in our town tho’. I’m thinking The Public could learn a thing or two…

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