Just in time for Advent!

The last time I took any photos was back in early September - a glorious day spent on a local beach - the pictures tell of swimming, rock-pooling, kite flying, beach combing and frying up bacon and mushrooms for sandwiches. What the pictures don't say is that there was a very strong wind that day or that sand got into my camera lens. The poor thing was understandably rather unhappy and made ominous crunching sounds. Oh dear....Three months later and one (almost) new lens later and I'm reunited with my precious camera again, feeling wiser and poorer!

So in the record of our family life we go straight from sand to snow, and right into Advent. The autumn has been a strange one anyway, and I have a lot to ponder this season. My husband was diagnosed with a form of epilepsy, which causes him to have a type of 'absence' for a couple of minutes at a time. We had seen the symptoms building up for a while, with no conclusive diagnosis last year, but with time it became obvious. Actually having this diagnosis gives us a lot of peace, because it could be a lot worse, and the medication he is able to take is working brilliantly well. The only downside really is that he is unable to drive this year, which sometimes requires a bit of planning, but we have been so grateful for assistance from friends, who have also been praying deeply with us. Thom has had to make various adjustments to his life, especially to have more rest, but in some ways it feels like a season of growth for him.

For me, Advent is very welcome, reminding me to wait and welcome the ways of God in our lives. I have felt very run down and especially tired this year, and it causes me to wonder about the one life I have to live. How I can live it as well as possible, in step with God's Spirit and the yearnings of my heart?

However, a particular source of joy has been the continuing discovery of Godly Play, and the possibility of doing small things well. I'm always so inspired by the Godly Play community, and especially by Sheila over at Explore and Express . As our church situations are very similar - just small seeds beginning to grow - we don't have weekly services, so often we do Godly Play at home as a family. However, Sheila's Advent Clubs seemed to be something we could offer to a few other children.

So today, and for the next three Saturday mornings of Advent, we are meeting in our home with five or six children. I can't tell you how nice it is to get to know these children better! Today, as it was our first time together, and we come from a totally non-liturgical church, I took the time to explain what Advent is, using the Godly Play story of the Circle of the Church Year and the Advent wreath - they were fascinated!

I also told the Parable of the Mustard Seed, which does feel very appropriate for Advent, all that waiting and growing...

In stead of an open response time, we were working on making some table decorations for the local Seniors Christmas Lunch, and for some house-bound folk in our church. The group responded really well to the idea of giving in this way. Today we took some rounds of a log, which the older ones drilled holes in, then 'planted' some twiggy stems. We all spent a very happy time painting, gluing and (lavishly!) glittering the branches, as well as some pine cones to hang on them. The photos don't do these wonderful looking trees justice! They really echo the icy ones outdoors.  Next week we'll make some more decorations

Another possibility for the children was to make a gift for the birds - which they had loved and wonderfully named in the Parable. We used more pine cones dipped in soft vegetable fat and then rolled in bird seed. You can find a simple tutorial here. We enjoyed a well-earned feast together, but it was just wonderful watching the crowds of different birds coming to enjoy their feast.

Wishing you a very joyful Advent!

Easter Crafts

Happy, happy Easter! I love Easter days! There's always such a sense of anticipation - spiritually, obviously for me, but also perhaps that sense of spring, that the year has turned, of being the right time sow seeds, enjoy a few days of holiday...it's all about being re-created and re-creating.

On Saturday after the all-too-necessary evils of a bit of housework, and with my husband away for the day, the boys and I had a very creative day. We started with some wonderfully smelling beeswax candles, made in eggshells (following inspiration from Explore and Express and a tutorial from Magic Onions). The boys cut the wicks and J tied them onto bamboo sticks. T poured the wax pellets into an old baked bean tin (impromptu bain marie) and inspected their melting progress in a slightly overfull steamer.

Then we moved from melting wax to melting chocolate - a rather more popular choice - to make some little nests on a spoon - simple and fun - and with lots of tasting and chocolaty fingers along the way! We popped them in the fridge, while I told the boys the final part of the Faces of Easter Story.

 We headed out to the garden and woods to get all we needed for our Easter garden, which turned out to be quite an installation on our kitchen table! I was surprised but pleased that they enjoyed arranging the flowers, which J especially did very well. he also found the big rock to close the tomb. T put his clay bird in pride of place. Our wheatgrass has grown very well!

Finally, it was time to eat the wee nests, which were a big hit. It was a great afternoon, after all the activity of the last few days.

Images of Holy Week

Getting ready for Holy Week

The week ahead is usually one of the busiest - and best - of the year for me as I prepare for Easter with my family and also in our L'Arche community.

 Today the boys and I started on our Easter garden. We have been adding a stone each day of Lent to a big plate of 'wilderness' that also contains a wooden figure of Jesus and a bare twig. We used the plate again, with a layer of compost in it and placed the stones neatly to make a path to the 'tree'. There is golden star on it - my youngest put it there earlier in Lent - today he reminded me, saying it was there because God is watching - oh how his words touched me...

We sprinkled on some wheatgrass seeds, watered them and then covered them with the bare dust - hopefully we'll get some green shoots for Easter! We also used some airdrying clay to model a tomb, using a big jar to hold the shape We'll remove it when the clay is dry. T had the idea to beat the clay with the back of a teaspoon to make a rocky texture - it looks good. We'll add that in to the garden on Friday. Then on Saturday we'll take time to add flowers and other plants, and who knows what else might be suggested. T has already made a bird from clay.

The little bean we planted  - that reminded us of a curled up baby - has sprouted and shot right up. I love how the green growth has pushed it's way straight out of the dried out dead looking husk.A little resurrection right in front of our eyes - from the baby bean.

In L'Arche this week, we meet for one of the most important events of our year. We very rarely celebrate Communion or Eucharist in our community, as we are so very ecumenical and it has never been easy to find a way through the questions surrounding different interpretations of Communion. However, what we can do, as most L'Arche communities in the UK do - is celebrate a simple form of the Passover meal, miming the story (if anyone is interested I can email a simple script)and sharing the basic elements of the liturgy and meal. It is a quiet meal, set to the background of music. Afterwards it is followed by footwashing, a sign of mutual care and love. My boys have been able to participate since they were young, and will do so again this year. It is a beautiful  moment in the life of our community.

On Good Friday we will walk together around our garden at L'Arche, miming a simple Stations of the Cross. You can read about it here.   The words and prayers are based on the book The Story of the Cross, The Stations of the Cross for Children by Mary Joslin. I was given this book and it's a good one in opening up this practice to non-Catholics, in a simple, helpful and well-illustrated way. We will finish with Taizé prayer around the cross. The children enjoy the walking with others, the mimes - especially the soldiers - usually their Dad is one of them! Many others join in as the other people on the route, with simple costumes. Various people will be asked to say the prayers, so in this way, there is a part for everyone, to draw us all in together. In past years this has been very profound.

Other books I like for this week are the fabulously illustrated The Easter Story by Brian Wildsmith and The Tale of Three Trees by Angela Elwell Hunt. I'm looking forward other ideas for marking this week here.

Good Green Days

 We've had some busy days here recently. I've managed to get back to work after a couple of weeks off with a dodgy back and various things hit the calendar over the last week - notably telling a story to no less than 70 children - all of whom seemed to want to get as close as possible to me and the things I was using to tell the story! But it was a good experience anyway. I also preached for the first time in a long while. So, after these full days and with the ongoing need to pace myself, I was so grateful for the arrival of a weekend full of sunlight and distinctly unseasonal/unScottish warmth. We have all relished being outdoors, revisiting all our favourite haunts and soaking up God's green goodness.

I realised that the last time I posted a photo of myself in a hammock there was snow on the ground! And it was April! Yesterday was warmer than it sometimes gets in summer.

We managed to cram in two beaches in one day...serious relaxation eh?

 
Happy, happy on the shores of Loch Ness...Nessie must be off sunbathing elsewhere...

A Day of Gifts

In the UK we celebrated Mother's Day on Sunday, a bit earlier than the rest of the world, I believe. My lovely boys organised a splendid breakfast in bed, flowers and handmade cards. Lunch and dinner was cooked for me and it was a lovely gentle day.

We're still a bit behind with our Faces of Easter stories, but some things can't hurried...and now that we are getting the hang of finding things to help tell the story, we had a rush of ideas! Our box of nativity figures got raided, not only for Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, but also for a little pot of  scrolls (Isaiah's prophecies) for the story of Jesus in the temple, Zechariah and Elizabeth got connected to John the Baptist, as well as water and the dove. I like the way Godly Play helps connect Scripture together as a whole, not just the Bible as a collection of separate stories, which I remember being my perception as a child. I'm still making connections!

The rest of the day passed sweetly, watching the boys baby videos - oh so many memories! Enjoying the sun, a wee stroll and observing the signs of spring.

Meanwhile, my youngest dozed the day away, feeling poorly, on the sofa. He moves so much usually, that I can't resist taking pictures of him sleeping. I love those feet...

The day finished with another gift, a beautiful rainbow right in front of our house. Thank you.