We are just at the end of a very English weekend. It has been our church flower festival based on the theme of the hymn "All things bright and beautiful," (not one of my favourites I have to confess...).
However, moving on...the church looked incredibly beautiful. Many people have spent hours putting together amazing flower arrangements and displaying very lovely works of art.
I am always in awe of people who can do wonderful artistic things. I received an "F" for art at school and can clearly remember the art teacher, when I moved on to college shouting at me across the art room," What the b....h... have you painted that cheese board .....brown for??" It is a phrase that still haunts my dreams!!!!!
What makes these occasions very English, of course, is the fact that we are so stoic. We are totally at the mercy of the weather and yet we carry on barbecuing vast quantities of sausages and burgers in a howling gale, brewing up more tea than you would believe possible and parachuting much loved teddies off the church tower. That's why I love being English!
It has been a great weekend. The Bishop came yesterday and I lead a "Songs of Praise" service in the evening with testimonies and some fabulous traditional hymns.
So now the big clear-up begins and by 7pm this evening you would never know it had happened. I am hoping that the Vicar who lives here will take a couple of days off as he has worked non-stop and hasn't had a day off for several weeks and he is knackered. As it is half term here it would be good to have some family time.
Well, this vicar's wife and mother of twins plus 2 must go and put her head around feeding everyone.
Much love,
Rachel.
Monday 26 May 2008
Wednesday 7 May 2008
A whole jumble of thoughts.
Hi lovely people!! Where have the last few weeks gone?? They seem to have passed me by in a blur of chicken pox, the usual round of mundane household chores, which frankly are boring the pants off me and an increasing number of senior moments.
It's these senior moments that trouble me most. In the past few weeks I have forgotten to cook for my family. It is most disconcerting to be leading worship and just as I was about to announce the creed to suddenly have flash through my mind that I had forgotten to put the lunch in before leaving for church. My beloved family were less than impressed.
I lost a child...or rather I didn't. A friend asked me if I could look after her son after school one day. He didn't show up. I panicked. I spent 30 minutes looking the streets for him. It felt like eternity. I went to the school. Everyone was concerned. I finally caught up with him in the park. He told me that he was coming the following week. He was right. I was wrong. I was also embarrassed and had to inform the school. I felt a right twit. The school laughed at me. Hardly surprising.
My girls have started Brownies. They love it and I love the fact that they belong to something that I belonged to when I was a child. The first week they came home full of excitement. "Did you dance round the toadstool?" I asked. They looked at me with the withering look that only seven year olds can give. "NO!" was the reply. "Oh we used to dance round a toadstool when I was a Brownie." "Well," said one of my little angels, "I think things have moved on a bit since your day mummy!!!" Words failed me....
Chicken pox is not pleasant. The twins have just come through it. The first one to get it wasn't really ill...just spotty. The second one was so ill. Really nasty. Today they are both back at school. The sun shone all day so I changed the beds and washed the revolting scabs away down the drain. How satisfying...I am a cheap round.
I have a lovely new mobile phone. It's a very long story as to why and how and if i wrote it all down it would take so long I would get arthritis so I shan't bother. What I will say, however, is that I hope one day I shall actually be able to work out how to use it. Thank goodness I have a 13 year old daughter to show me how.
I am so grateful to God for his strength these last few weeks. There never seems to be a minute to call my own and tiredness is constant. But there is much to be thankful for, especially for his love for me even when my behaviour is that of a dotty old lady. Wonder what I will be like when I really am old....
With love,
It's these senior moments that trouble me most. In the past few weeks I have forgotten to cook for my family. It is most disconcerting to be leading worship and just as I was about to announce the creed to suddenly have flash through my mind that I had forgotten to put the lunch in before leaving for church. My beloved family were less than impressed.
I lost a child...or rather I didn't. A friend asked me if I could look after her son after school one day. He didn't show up. I panicked. I spent 30 minutes looking the streets for him. It felt like eternity. I went to the school. Everyone was concerned. I finally caught up with him in the park. He told me that he was coming the following week. He was right. I was wrong. I was also embarrassed and had to inform the school. I felt a right twit. The school laughed at me. Hardly surprising.
My girls have started Brownies. They love it and I love the fact that they belong to something that I belonged to when I was a child. The first week they came home full of excitement. "Did you dance round the toadstool?" I asked. They looked at me with the withering look that only seven year olds can give. "NO!" was the reply. "Oh we used to dance round a toadstool when I was a Brownie." "Well," said one of my little angels, "I think things have moved on a bit since your day mummy!!!" Words failed me....
Chicken pox is not pleasant. The twins have just come through it. The first one to get it wasn't really ill...just spotty. The second one was so ill. Really nasty. Today they are both back at school. The sun shone all day so I changed the beds and washed the revolting scabs away down the drain. How satisfying...I am a cheap round.
I have a lovely new mobile phone. It's a very long story as to why and how and if i wrote it all down it would take so long I would get arthritis so I shan't bother. What I will say, however, is that I hope one day I shall actually be able to work out how to use it. Thank goodness I have a 13 year old daughter to show me how.
I am so grateful to God for his strength these last few weeks. There never seems to be a minute to call my own and tiredness is constant. But there is much to be thankful for, especially for his love for me even when my behaviour is that of a dotty old lady. Wonder what I will be like when I really am old....
With love,
Rachel
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