2 October, 2016 by thevicarswife
Recently I have started combining two tech blessings – the YouBible app and my mobile phone’s camera, using YouBible’s nifty ‘image’ menu that appears if you underline a verse.
I’ve enjoyed some great views of late – tropical islands, misty autumn mornings and some spectacular West Brom sunsets. And so I’ve used these backgrounds when God’s word has spoken to me. Creating the image – choosing and sizing a font, selecting a crop of a photo – has enabled me to meditate as I create.
And now my blogging software is enabling me to share these Bible pictures with you, and put them up here on the internet in a rather beautiful tableau. Sometimes technology makes me smile.
Posted in Church, Faith | Tagged Beauty, images, photos, pictures, tech, YouBible | Leave a Comment »
28 September, 2016 by thevicarswife
It’s been too long since I’ve blogged and too much has happened to write about: much joy, much sadness and many glimpses of beauty. Last night I drove home under a dramatically heavy sky, colours turning from ochre to pink to a luminous purple. I pulled up at the Vicarage just in time to run out and take these photos.
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Psalm 19:1
Posted in Church | 4 Comments »
24 February, 2016 by thevicarswife
It can be hard to imagine what a Vicar does all day, particularly if you watch Midsomer Murders, where the clergy mainly seem to skulk about looking sinister and then getting murdered. Or doing something nefarious.
So to give you a glimpse of what the Vicar does in our parish, here’s a set of pictures from a couple of days ago, showing you what the Vicar does on a Monday after leading a school assembly and meeting with church staff to plan the week ahead.
Set up
Using a handy tub
Clearing the pump
He’s got the pump that we’re using temporarily to drain down the basement where the boilers for the church heating are located. The old pump has been broken for a while and this is actually the one from the birthing pool we used to use for baptisms (we now have a shallower, wider heated paddling pool). The old pump worked automatically, but this one has to be switched on when the basement gets flooded. And it can get a bit clogged and mucky. So after draining the basement down following some recent heavy rain, it was brought into our back yard for cleaning, and for making an amusing fountain.
They don’t give you lectures on drain pump maintenance at theological college. Or on boilers for that matter. But they probably should.
Posted in Church | Tagged assembly, birthing pool, boiler, Church, Church of England, day, drain, flood, meeting, paddling pool, pump, vicar, water | 2 Comments »
13 February, 2016 by thevicarswife
On Wednesday mornings I meet with our Families and Community Worker, Dreamer, to pray. We often start our time together by walking Freddie the dog – we get a lot of pre-prayer chatting done, and a bit of healthy exercise into the bargain.
This week Dreamer had a parcel to collect from our local sorting office, so instead of our usual round of the local park, we walked along the Metro line and up to the industrial estate where the Royal Mail are based. We rather enjoyed this bit of graffiti on a unit on the estate. Freddie was not so amused.
Posted in Fun | Tagged dog, graffiti, no barking, no parking, walk | Leave a Comment »
10 February, 2016 by thevicarswife
So today we launch into Lent. I already have a couple of disciplines on the go this year – Doing the Next Thing and the February declutter (just about up to date, I’m pleased to say, mainly children’s books that my kids have now grown out of).
So my main focus this Lent is going to be something partly inspired by the 40acts initiative – we have the family wallchart up in the kitchen. And it’s partly inspired by the door to door visiting that Dreamer and I did in the new estate in the parish. Before Christmas, we went to every house with a paper lunch bag containing a home made Christmas decoration, a bag of chocolate coins, details about regular church activities and invitations to our Christmas events. People were surprised and pleased to be given something with no strings attached. We called them Bags of Blessing.
So this Lent my plan is to take 40 Bags of Blessing round to people in the parish – houses and shops and other places. I began today with a family who live opposite us. I often talk to the mum and admire her as she shepherds four lively boys down to the school gate every day. So today I knocked on her door and handed over the bag, which was almost immediately ripped open by the 3 year old, who identified it as containing goodies. Tomorrow I’m going to visit the pharmacy on the High Street with a bag. I’m enjoying planning who I could visit. The next few will contain a few sweeties, a bargain Lidl daffodil plant, a homemade heart decoration and few leaflets about church activities that might be useful. I’m going to adapt them as Lent progresses and depending on who I’m visiting.
What are you up to for Lent?
Posted in Church | Tagged 40acts, Bag of Blessing, blessing, Church, Church of England, community, daffodils, door to door, Lent, neighbours, parish, sweets, Vicarage, visiting | 2 Comments »
4 February, 2016 by thevicarswife
Wednesday was quite a cluttered day here in the Vicarage. Jolly left for a new safe home, and the Vicar spent the morning with him, the Hope for Justice team, and CID. As you do. Meanwhile, I was with the team running our monthly soup lunch. For a chilly February day we served Melrose lentil soup and an approximation of Spiced Root Soup. There were also whole orange cakes for afters. And then our dear friend Song came to spend her day off with us and so Wednesday disappeared with rather a lack of attention to the mess.
Pleasingly, today’s rummage in the boys’ bedroom meant I could knock out 3+4 items easily. Look! Lots of picture books that haven’t been read for quite some time. And I’m not even going to hold some of them back for later in the month – I’ve barely started with the book shelves in there.
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Posted in Church, Doing the Next Thing | Tagged Books, Children, decluttering, Do the next thing, Doing the Next Thing, DTNT, Hope for Justice, Kids, lentil soup, mess, spiced root soup, Vicarage, whole orange cake | 5 Comments »
2 February, 2016 by thevicarswife
Today has been pretty busy in the Vicarage. The Vicar spent most of the day helping Jolly, who’s been staying in our shed. He’s been at the police station about it and has met the team from Hope For Justice, who have been brilliant. With their help, we expect Jolly’s story to improve immensely from now on. He ate supper with us this evening and he told us some of his story, which has had some amazing twists and turns along the way. We are glad to have been a part of it.
I’ve been cooking for our community soup lunch tomorrow. But I’m not sure that the mountains of vegetable peelings properly count as decluttered objects, alas. But when I was in the bathroom this morning I realised that a couple of bath lilies were really quite scraggy. So they’ve gone out. And I’m going to chuck some more bathroom debris as I go to bed tonight. I need to get some control over that collection of almost empty shampoo bottles…
Posted in Doing the Next Thing | Tagged decluttering, Doing the Next Thing, DTNT, game, Hope for Justice, Shed, soup lunch, trafficking, Vicarage | 1 Comment »
1 February, 2016 by thevicarswife
I am terrible at throwing stuff away. I can always see a use for it (the curse of creativity) and so the clutter slowly covers all surfaces and occupies all cupboards. So when a vicar’s wife friend started a declutter “game” on Facebook last February I joined it. The idea is to declutter on each day of February, starting with chucking one thing on 1st February, two on 2nd February and working up to 28 (29 this year!) things on the last day of the month. In a non leap year, that gives you a grand total of 406 items disposed of, and 435 this year, if you keep going to the end.
There are no formal rules, so today I chucked a load of out-of-date pulses out, and I’m counting that as one item. Later in the month I might have counted each individual extra wizened chick pea to make the total for the day (sometimes I found myself needing to stretch the numbers last year).
No counting rules!
Last year I managed about half the month, and it was definitely worthwhile. Obviously you get most done in the second half of the month, but I still managed some fairly effective clearing out. I found the focus of getting rid of something every day very helpful. Counting is a good way to Do the Next Thing. This February I’m giving it another shot, and if you’d like to join me, I shall be posting progress on here.
Posted in Church, Vicarage | Tagged counting, decluttering, Do the next thing, DTNT, February declutter game, game, mess, throwing, Vicarage | 7 Comments »
31 January, 2016 by thevicarswife
My distractibility and butterfly mind can be a creative strength. What they are not, however, is an aid to focussed prayer.
Reading my bible and devotional material is one thing, but a concentrated session of prayer often seems too much to tackle. It has recently, at least.
A prayer meeting is fine, getting together with my prayer partner is great, but me, praying on my own, that’s too big. So in this year of Doing the Next Thing, I need to learn to commit to doing prayer as the Next Thing.
And so last week I was prompted to return to the best aid I’ve found for reducing distraction in prayer – the most excellent PrayerMate App (also available for Apple products). I have my PrayerMate sorted out so that I start with reading things – a psalm, the Lord’s Prayer, the Church of England Collect for the day. Then I pray for family, friends and further afield. I’d forgotten I’d set my prayers up like that, it had been so long. It wasn’t as scary as I remembered, nor as difficult to do.
I was gently eased into prayer, and I was reminded of the Puritan injunction to ‘pray until you pray‘, which I first read about in Don Carson’s terrific book, A Call to Spiritual Reformation. I’ve found this to be wise advice. Prayer takes work and it takes time to find the focus required. So beginning my prayer time using written prayers I don’t have to think about too much helps me to start praying. And once I start praying, finding my own words to keep praying seems easier.
PrayerMate got a shiny new update just a few days ago, making it even better to use and prettier to look at. One of the lovely teenagers from my dorm at our summer holiday venture bounced up to me on Saturday to tell me that she’d downloaded the app. And she’d even used it a bit too. So if a distracted 13 year old can use it, so can I. And maybe you too? Do the Next Thing – Do It with Prayer.
Posted in Church | Tagged A Call to Spiritual Reformation, app, Apple, Church of England, collect, distraction, Do the next thing, Don Carson, DTNT, focus, Googleplay, Lord's Prayer, pray until you pray, prayer, PrayerMate, psalm | Leave a Comment »
26 January, 2016 by thevicarswife
I started so well. I expect you did too. January I mean. The new term. Full of cheese, chocolate and sleep, we launch into the new year forgetting that the lethargy we felt before Christmas will return.
But then term really gets going, a couple of weeks in, and going for a run becomes the last thing I want to do. A bad night’s sleep and my bible reading seems to need too much energy and motivation to tackle. My plans to blog every night disappear as ideas are squeezed out of my head by family admin.
So tonight is a good night to remember to Do the Next Thing. The next blog post, the next bit of exercise, the next load of laundry, the next bible reading. I need to remember that the two week pause doesn’t mean that I can’t do the Next Thing today. I can read my bible again today, even if there’s been a hiatus. I can write something again, even if it’s just writing about not writing.
And, remembering the God of grace who knows my failures and struggles, and the forgiveness that he offers for those who make a mess of life, and especially of resolutions, tomorrow I’ll set my mind on Doing the Next Thing.
Posted in Church | Tagged Do the next thing, Doing the Next Thing, DTNT, God, grace, mess, resolutions | 5 Comments »
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The Vicar's Wife 