Cooking with the children

Today the children have been making their Christmas presents for the family - except Joe who has all of his done.

Ashleigh has made chocolate orange cookies and bags to put them all in, Hana has made Rocky Road cakes and decorated boards for them to go on, Katie has made vanilla fudge - milk and dairy free, which needs wrapping tomorrow. Needless to say this has required some supervision, some help, a large amount of clearing up and has taken all of my day.

This evening we had pizza, and watched the final Santa Claus.

It has been great to spend the whole day with my children, having fun. The hymn numbers and readings are done for Sunday and this evening I finished the last of the wrapping ( I know I have claimed that before, but there were some last minute bits still to do)

My advent reflection today is about seeing things from someone else's point of view, which is just what I am planning on talking about Sunday morning - It was enough to help me believe that I'm going the right way with Sunday's service - a kind of God confirmation, and we can all do with plenty of those.

Being listened to

A bit late for a Tuesday blog, but my blogs often look like they are on a different day than I say they are because it's past midnight. After 20 minutes trying to find a parking space at Holmbush, I had a lovely meeting with my Mentor Ian - he always helps to put things back into perspective and focus back on the bigger issues - I'm don't know if he realises just how useful our chats are to me. It's great to have someone to listen and help sort things out in my head - someone who understands the way things are for me right now.

The afternoon was a bit of a mix up - some crossed wires I think!! It did however give me a bit of time to get on with some stuff for Sunday's service. The Hymn numbers and readings are due in Wednesday so I need to be at least that far.

The evening was the second part of the traditional Santa film watching in our house. Things have calmed down considerably, and if I could just shift this cold, that I have been avoiding all month, and have finally gone down with since I slowed down, Christmas is looking good.

missed two

Haven't written for two nights - not much has happened really, Saturday shopping then home with the family. Sunday church then Christmas dinner with Keith's Mum. All very nice but nothing to really write about and today was much the same, Beryl's hair, shopping, helping Joe and Kate with their presents then the annual Chinese and Santa Claus with the whole family.

You see, just calm normal life - so very nice.

I still have a service to prepare for Sunday, a meeting with my mentor, two funerals and a 3000 word essay for January on my "to-do" list but I can see then end of it for once. I don't like to speak too soon but after the January essay deadline the rest of the month looks quite quiet.

Swan Lake, funerals and Christmas TV

Today I woke to a bunch of excited children as there was a good covering of snow outside and the schools were shut. Kate and Joe went off into the garden for the first snowball fight of the day.

This afternoon I met with Tricia to have a lesson in funerals - we've got two in the next two weeks, it was great I learned loads and am very grateful to her - these are the bits of training that I think the Methodist Church is very bad at. SEITE is quite good at the funeral stuff and our next Module is on Occasional offices, but some of the Methodist bits are different and that never gets tackled at college, so I am grateful for Methodist friends who give up their time to help.

This evening I went to Eastbourne to see Swan Lake which was great - it is one of my favourites and so beautiful.

Now I have discovered that sky have a channel called Christmas 24 which is one Christmas film after another, and am currently watching a musical version of A Christmas carol. My Advent reflection today was about being confident that God is with us when we struggle, and backing us up even when we are not conscious of it.

My final thought this morning as it is now twenty to two is this:

Your Time: Look for ways to help those who cannot help themselves
Your Love: Give love freely to those who need it most and deserve it least
Your Life: Your life was a gift to you from God; make it a gift from God to others
Your Lord: Jesus is the greatest gift of all. Introduce him to a friend.

(from A Stocking full of Christmas compiled by Mark Stibbe)

Knees

Today I went to London to visit my knee specialist - I had to wait ages because I always have to see the boss because the ACI operation was his invention - it was weird a bit like catching up with a friend I haven't seen for 5 years, he even asked how the children were and if I had qualified as a Minister yet!

The news on my knee wasn't quite so great though, I have to go up to Stanmore and have some specialised tests and then go back to London to see Mr Briggs in February, more waiting, more patience and more pain.

I managed to get to Regent Street on the way and stopped at the Apple store to get my Birthday Present from my Mum - a very nice red, phone cover which is really an external battery it's pretty and serves a useful purpose too - thanks Mum.

My Advent reflection today was about accepting people even if they are different from us, just as Jesus did.

Silver bands and curly hair

I have spent much of today setting my essay into some sort of reasonable order and it now seems to have a firm structure, about half of it is now actually written and the other half is well on the way. It has been a productive day's writing and although the deadline isn't till the twelfth of January, it would be really nice to at least get a first draft of the whole thing done before Christmas.

I did stop for long enough this morning to have my hair permed - in a desperate attempt to make it a bit easier to manage everyday. It seems to be ok so far and hopefully it will be easier longterm.

This evening I went with Joe to the Community Silver Band Carol service, one of my favourites - so there have been many reflections on the reason for the season at that. My advent study today was about remembering to lean on God. About reflecting on the strength and vulnerability of God incarnate. All of this fits well with my essay which is on the Doctrine of the Incarnation and leads me full circle to where I started.

Cyril v Nestorius

Wow what a day - I went to college early to take part in a Fourth century debate, which was part of this modules assignment, it was my job to sum up it's relevance to 21st century theology - I think it went ok, it felt like it did. And because my group had gone in early, I was home from college by 7 which felt like I had been given an extra evening.

Inspired by the extra time, my study skills lesson tomorrow and by the fact that the debate is over, I carried on working (well it is college night!) and have now set out the first 600 words of my next assignment, about the Doctrine of the Incarnation and written my blog before midnight!!

In the morning I am having my hair done, then I must get the next few words done before my lesson (hopefully another 1000 or so) - the more I have done, the more productive the lesson is.

From a reflecting point of view today's Advent reading was also about God becoming incarnate - God loves us enough to come and share in the struggles and joys of being human. And maybe more importantly we don't need to change to be loved.

We are encouraged to:

Rejoice in the encouragement God give us to accept ourselves just as we are, and

Remember to remind ourselves regularly that GOD LOVES ME!!