Happy Newish Year! From a land of snow and ice! This has been the first time my feet feel like they have touched down so far this month, with travels to London and France then back into the rush of our usual life. The weather this week has been dramatic - wet, wild, windy, freezing and snowing by turn. However, today gave the gift of time to enjoy the beauty and magic of snowy woods. My resolution is to get into them as often as I can.

 

Yes, it's been a loooong time since I was in this space, but I notice that many of my favourite bloggers have also had their quiet seasons, so that frees me up to come and go too. And after so much time, what to say? We are still part of L'Arche, enjoying a peaceful and happy time in the Community with a renewed sense of calling. But the professional side also has its demands, lately some studies to be fitted in somewhere, somehow. Personally I'm not very motivated by them, but they need to happen so...deep breath and get stuck in.

 

 

Our lovely chaps are growing and J is moving towards High School this year, he's probably more ready than I am! He is getting ready to spead his wings a little, and seems to be responsible when he does. For us, it is harder to know when the time is right but we are thankful for good friends who tread that path ahead of us.

Our younger son is continuing to be the creative, artistic inventor. Years ago, I had a feeling school would cramp his style a little. I'm happy to say that his school is great and his teachers have been really lovely. However, for a while we were noticing that he was losing confidence and interest. We considered a number of options. Home education wasn't possible for a number of reasons - and he does actually enjoy school most of the time. Then we came across 'flexischooling' and this was a lightbulb moment for us. So, we took the decision to try keeping him at home one day a week, to spend time with him on the things he struggled with and to focus on the things he is interested in. He loved it! And I do too, it's been wonderful to spend this time together. And his big brother has been fantastically supportive, not envious in any way.  And it turned out that this was just the right thing to do, as earlier this year he was diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum. The one day at home just gives him enough breathing space and time to be himself, to manage really well the rest of the week. How long we'll continue, I don't know, but I think that's probably up to him. For now, I'm grateful to have this time together and to enjoy the moments of grace.

 

Other parts of life sqeeze in here and there too. Still loving being part of our wee church community locally. Godly Play hasn't had the attention I would like to give it, but the stories sit on the shelf and when I pass them, they give me a sense of promise. Advent gave some beautiful moments for revisiting the story. On the crafting front, there were a few projects finished for Christmas, and for now, just a little bit of simple knitting, warm and uncomplicated. That's probably going to be the way ahead for 2015, trying to keep things warm and uncomplicated! And you? How's it going so far this year?

The Art of Easter

For this Easter...something different. My husband and I were invited to offer some work to an art exhibition held at our church over these days of Holy Week. The whole building has been turned into a gallery, and the collection has been put together beautifully, with the theme 'Love.Loss.Hope: The Art of Easter'. You can see a little more here. If you are in the Highlands, do visit! My piece is a photograph entitled 'Cross Light'.

For me, it represents my walk with Christ. He calls me to 'take up my cross' which has something to do with surrendering myself and sometimes walking a hard path in trying to follow Him. However, the reality is, wherever I go, His light and presence is there. On the cross, He has already been to the darkest place imaginable for a human, and whatever I experience in life, He walks with me through it, giving me light and love all the way.

Purim

How time flies! Life continues to be full-on for the Featherglen family, but I thought I'd pop up to say a wee hello. There hasn't been time or energy to do an Easter Club, which I'm a bit sad about, but some other good things have been happening instead. Lent is being lived here in a very simple and low-key way, so I'm grateful to have L'Arche as a place to live it out in Community.  I'm still doing Godly Play here and there, and managed to get the stories of Jacob and Joseph made.

I also made these little characters, with inspiration from this lovely book. I made them as a gift for some very kind friends, who enjoy celebrating the Jewish festival of Purim each year. Like us, they are not Jewish, but as I have discovered this year, it is a wonderful way to spend an evening. We were invited to dress up in fancy dress, the children were given craft activities, including mask making, while the adults read aloud the whole story of Esther, a fantastic biblical story of courage. It is the only story in the Bible where God is not overtly mentioned, so you might say he is hidden, despite being present in the life of Esther, hence the dressing up to celebrate! We went on to share lots of good food and to relax with friends. You might enjoy this song about Purim - and some other brilliant covers by the same group, The Maccabeats. Emily also shares her experience of celebrating of Purim here.

The peg dolls were a very enjoyable project, and I found a nice box to put them, so they could be used to retell the story or just have as decorations.

In the meantime, happy springtime! We've had the mildest winter for years here in the Scottish Highlands, but ha, ha, today it snowed! They call it the 'lambing snow' here, and it can hit us any time over the next two months. However, the garden has resolutely decided it is time to flower, and I'm loving making new discoveries each day,

Happy New Year! Happy Epiphany!

After a lovely Christmas, holidays and many visitors, it's time to settle back into our usual pattern of life. However, one lovely tradition my husband brought into our family is the French way of celebrating of Epiphany, and this is a wonderful way to round off the holidays - the final feast and gathering before easing back into school and work.

 

Epiphany marks the later arrival of the wise men to visit Jesus. Having packed away the other Christmas decorations, it's nice to have something to cheer up an empty looking house. I also like to have a flowering bulb to put on our table after Christmas - just to help point us toward spring and to take the place of the Advent wreath.

The little boxes contain Frankincense and Myrrh . I used them in our final Advent Club. I think the children enjoyed discovering their scents. You can hold the grains in the flame of a candle and they release a scented smoke. I love the smell of Frankincense, it is so rich and beautiful.
 

This year I remembered a story for Epiphany. As a child we welcomed a young woman from the Bruderhof Community into our home for a while. She gave me a copy of this book 'Behold that Star' which is a Christmas anthology of stories. Most of the stories are folk tales but with Christ at the centre. Lovely black and white illustrations accompany the text. I lost it during a move so I was thrilled to discover it still in print a few years back. One of the stories, 'The Three Gifts' explores what might have happened to the gifts the wide men brought.

Along with some simple decorations and a story, the thing we enjoy most is a 'Galette des Rois'. This is a truly scrumptious French concoction that my husband makes for us each year. A recipe can be found here but we usually omit the rum. It is topped with a gold crown and a bean or little clay model of the baby Jesus is hidden inside. We always invite a few friends or neighbours to share it with us. The youngest sits under the table and calls out everyone's names as the cake is served. This ensures total fairness! The person who finds baby Jesus in their slice is the wise man - or woman.  

That person can either keep the crown for themselves or give it to someone else to be their king or queen. One of our neighbours found Jesus, and with the wisdom of Solomon offered the crown to my two sons, to have for six months each!

 

I must confess that I'm not really one for New Year resolutions, as I'm dreadful at keeping them. But this year I have decided to get more into the Gospel of John, and I've already bought 'Water into Wine' by Stephen Verney which was recommended to me. Ann Voskamp has produced some lovely printables to help memorise some chunks of John, so I will be heading over to her blog often this year. And you? Any hopes or plans for this coming year?

 

Advent Club - The Names of God

For the second week of Advent I tried out another new story on the children. As we don't have liturgical church I can play hard and fast with what we do in Advent!  This story is based on the book 'In God's Name' by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso. It explores the different names for God and how each person has their own special name for God. At the end, the people of the world come together around a mirror-like lake, they see themselves and others reflected in the mirror. Their voices join together as they discover that God can have many names and yet be the One God.It's a beautiful book with wonderful artwork.

The story has been put together by some of the Godly Play trainers in the UK and I have it on loan for a while. It is still in development. It has the usual wondering questions but then I asked the group to bring something to place in the centre that expresses who God is for them.

As part of our activities we try to have an outward looking focus. This year we decided to make a banner to decorate the local community hall where we meet for worship. We'll be inviting guests for a couple of events this coming week, so we decided to make something that communicates who God is for us. So, building on the children's ideas, we took a long length of paper, sponged it with red, yellow and gold. As it dried, each child took a letter, spelling out JESUS, and then collaged it in the way they wished to. I provided a pile of different materials and glue and let them get on with it...Everyone was very engrossed.

Finally, when the letters were dried, they were cut out and glued on the background. I waited a week to do this, and the children had put a good coat of PVA over each letter, so they dried really securely.

This week - just yesterday, the group started the Club by writing on many names of God - the ones they chose - around the big letters. It was a good way to get ready. The banner looks superb! There is a lot of sparkly material used which doesn't show up in these photos - the light is so poor at the moment.I'll tell you more about  Week Three in my next posting...

Back at last..in time for Advent

 Hi folks...oh my goodness it has been a long time. Our computer died and we've been limping along with a variety of solutions, we're not all sorted yet, but hopefully soon! And we have had a lot going on. We are all well but life has been very full. Hopefully more of that soon. In the meantime we find ourselves back at Advent! When did that happen? But, no matter how busy, it's always a special time of the year. We started with a celebration at L'Arche, and then my lovely local children asked if we could do Advent Club again. So, here we are. At a recent Godly Play training day, Alex our trainer showed an alternative way of telling the Advent story. I called it The Story of the Advent Wreath.

Afterwards we all made Advent wreaths using oasis rings, loads of greenery and candles. here. Some of the girls work really fast so I have learned to always a few extra choices! I forgot to take photos of their wreaths but they were much like the one we made last year:

The children did really well, especially at helping one another. Two of the wreaths were given away to older people in our village, which really touched me. I also gave the option of making a nativity set using some beautiful Holy Family Cutouts from Good Ground Press. As usual Sheila has lots of lovely inspiration here. I'm sure I'll be using some of her ideas. Hopefully I'll be back again soon. For now, it's time to snuggle in with knitting by the fire this evening. We had plenty of snow today - winter has begun!

Easter Garden

 It's become a family tradition to make an Easter Garden, usually on Easter Saturday. We take the Lent Garden and transform it with from sand and rock to plant and seed filled soil. One of my sons came around the woods to gather some of the natural elements and the other helped sow grass seeds. Little jars are tucked in place to hold flowers and candles. For the Saturday we put a big stone across the moss-covered 'tomb'.

On Easter Sunday the garden comes alive with added flowers, figures, candles and Easter decorations suspended from budding branches. The boys wooden eggs from Easter Club take pride of place.

What I love seeing is how the garden changes over the weeks that we will have it. Already a few little chicks and some eggs have crept in, thanks to my younger sons. I know there will be a variety of visitors to the garden! But somehow it brings the story of Easter into our everyday, announcing good news to all! The grass has sprouted, and now ten days later, it has had it's first haircut, with the trimmings going to our real chickens, happy for some spring greens. If we remember to water the garden, it should be with us for the whole six weeks of Easter, reminding us of new life daily.

Back to the 80s!

Some good friends turned 50 recently and threw an 80s party in our village hall. As we were teenagers then it wasn't hard to come up with costumes. I was very happy to spend the night dancing with one of my teenage crushes, Robert Smith of The Cure! And doing his makeup, no less (his and hers black eyeliner, yikes!). The boys went as Luke Skywalker and a Teenage Mutant Hero Turtle. I just went as my younger backcombed self, a look that can only be described as Oxfam chic. It is amazing what still lurks in old jewellry boxes. Thomas wore my Dad's old dinner jacket, which I used to wear myself in the 80s. The other costumes were brilliant too, ranging from Margaret Thatcher to Wonder Woman. There was a mixture of wonderful and truly awful music - which surely sums up that decade, it was all so over the top and theatrical. And no longer being angst-ridden teenagers, we enjoyed it all so much more.

Easter Club Week Six

Happy Easter! Last weekend was so full of celebration that we needed a day or two to recover! Now is the school holidays so between time with the family I am slowly catching up. Our final Easter Club was on Easter Saturday, not quite the end of Lent, but I wanted us to enjoy the celebration of Easter together, so it had a festive feel.

I told a Godly Play story about real Easter Eggs, using the psanky that I had made. I also made lots of flat egg shapes with many of the traditional Ukranian designs, colours and their meanings. The children each designed their own, on paper, then on flat wooden egg shapes. They worked so hard! They finished them with ribbons to hang as Easter decorations. 

I had also found these lovely card baskets to make. They were perfect for their eggs and some Easter candles.

And the sun shone! So we were able to head out to the garden to hunt for chocolate eggs - an essential way to finish! It was a lovely end to a lovely few weeks. I shall be happy to have my Saturday morning lie-in again, but the children have asked to get together for a Pentecost Club...of course! But I'm not quite sure what you do at one of those...I'll have to have a think about it. 

Easter Club Week Five - Brunch Club

For our fifth week, we decided to do something different.  We invited parents and neighbours to join us for a fundraising brunch for Blythswood Care, which is administered locally. My boys have enjoyed helping out at their annual shoe boxes event, where thousands of boxes, filled with practical presents, are checked and packed into lorries before being sent off to countries acroos Eastern Europe and even India. Blythswood help support many small Christain run projects, and we had heard that they were looking to raise money for nutrious breakfasts for an orphanage in Romania. It seems like a little money can go a long way.

The children all brought along their home baking - as you can see from a the impressive array above! Everyone worked hard setting up the kitchen, decorating menus, a moneybox and cakes. We buttered lots of rolls - bacon rolls are very popular around here.

It was really lovely having all our guests, including Danny from Blythswood who shared some photos of the place where our money was going - we raised enough to give a child a good breakfast for a year!

We did also have time to finish the Faces of Easter and to marvel at how fast our rye grass cross has grown this week...oh and to try out some those wonderful cakes!

Proud - Fier

This one is for Granny Poppy in France! C'est pour toi, Granny Poppy,  il etait si fier d'etre dans l'equipe! Regarde comme il est beau dans ses vetements sportifs. Il a beaucoup aime le concours, malgre la neige! Bisous x

Pysanky Making

Although I would love to get out to the garden and start clearing the way for spring growth, the weather has been pretty horrible recently, so at weekends I have spent some happy times playing around with eggs. Pysanky Eggs are a Ukranian folk tradition. Eggs are decorated using a batik style, with wax and layers of dyes. A finished egg can be kept for many years.

The hardest part is controlling the flow of wax. Traditionally the tool used is a kistka, and these are readily available on the internet. However, what I have to hand is a batik pen, given to me a long time ago. It is similar - a wooden handle with a metal nib and reservoir. Some beeswax pellets are put into the pen, which is held over a candle flame until melted. Then you draw the pen over the egg, in whatever design you like.

 I found this helpful book at a jumble sale just before Christmas. It has lots of helpful tips and wonderful drawings of traditional motifs, as well as descriptions of Ukranian Eater customs. I also found this site very helpful - a great introduction to Pysanky. There are some some good colouring pages too.

It is lovely seeing the pattern and layers of colour build up. The instructions help you to build up to complex geometric patterns but there are also many traditional folkloric motifs which draw from nature, and are more freeflowing.

Finally you melt off all the wax and get the big reveal! This is the exciting part! And addictive too...

A friend recently challenged me about the pagan origins of egg painting, but as I thought about it, not only are these eggs lovely objects in their own right, they are, in the words of Jerome Berryman 'real Easter eggs...the eggs were trying to say with colours and words what had happened that day'. If Christ is in the business of making all things new, then I think that can apply to our art and celebrations as Christians too.

Easter Club Week Four

Another lovely week with our group. The children really got the idea of finding something in the room to tell a little more of the ongoing story The Faces of Easter, as you can see from the picture above. I was pleased that they are starting to feel comfortable with going to my story shelf and pulling things out from other stories. They also picked up some everyday objects, including toys and were keen to explain the connection with the story - a lego Samurai reminded us of the Roman occupation of Israel, for example. My husband was really intrigued by some of the observations they made. It kept us thinking long afterwards.

I offered a few choices this week for our response time - we are fortunate to have plenty of time and it is so lovely not to rush anything. We marked out the shape of a cross with pebbles in a box of compost, then sowed some rye grass seeds. Already some little sprouts of growth are showing. We will use it for our church service on Easter Sunday then give it as a present.

I have been trying to share something about different ways of praying, and this week talked about praying when we don't have any words...a very common experience isn't it? Sometimes when I struggle to find words but still want to intentionally pray, I just sit with a wee wooden cross in my hand. I just wanted the children to know it's OK to pray like that, and sometimes very powerful! So I offered them some wooden crosses to sand and wax, to use like that if they wish. We had a short practice at the end - cue some giggles, of course!

A friend who does Messy Church kindly gave me a big bag of leftover Easter crafts - Easter week bracelets, cards, bookmarks and so on. Although these types of crafts are very structured, they seemed very popular and engrossing. Yet again, I am struck by the importance of the process, rather than the product. My boys really enjoyed the beading - but show little interest in what they have made! A couple of the older girls (in their early teens) remarked how relaxing colouring in is. I guess that they probably don't have much chance to do it now, but this simple activity is indeed very satisfying. I am going to keep my eyes out for colouring which might prove attractive to older children. 

Next week (Saturday 23rd March) our Easter Club is planning to have a brunch for friends and neighbours, in aid of Blythswood Christian Care. If you live in the neighbourhood and want to join us for coffee, cake, bacon rolls etc, you would be very welcome to come along at 11am to our house.