Some Monday Morning Stuff

Still bogged down in book writing, so just a few things that have been on my mind this week:

1. It’s about time to fetch the Resurrection eggs out. Don’t worry about doing the dozen. If you manage half of that you’ll doubtless do better than the Vicarage. Do some – it’s fun, a great way to prepare for Easter and an excuse for early Easter chocolate, unless you’re Lentenly fasting, of course.
2. I’m loving the music from Ordinary Time – folky acoustic adaptions of traditional hymns. Mellow and lovely.
3. I ordered a bunch of copies of The Mystery of the Empty Tomb for our toddler group for Easter – it has lovely pics and a really clear story. 10ofthose do very fast delivery if you want some too. And give you a one hour delivery time slot. Magic. I clubbed together with some other clergy wives on the conference to get a good price. on a bulk order. Perhaps you could do a joint order with other local churches. You could make a couple of calls and save everyone money.
4. I have about 3 weeks to finish 2 chapters, edit everything to some sort of coherence, write a final chapter and send to my editor. Messy Meals and Messy Celebrations are next week’s challenge. Am currently wondering how many easy peasy meals I can plan for the coming weeks to allow more writing time. Macaroni cheese again anyone?

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Hallelujah

A new song (to me) for Easter from Emu Music – from the only album of theirs we don’t have in the Vicarage. Yet.

 

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Good Friday Kinetic Typography: Christ Lives in Me

Matt Chandler on Galatians 2v20:

Jesus would say ‘No. I paid for that.’

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The Passover in Sand

This lovely animation of Luke 22 comes from Sand Bible – they have sand animations for Easter and Christmas which are worth checking out. You can buy a set without the narration if you want to use a different bible version.

We’ll not be watching this at our Passover supper, as we already have plenty to watch and do. Will be showing it to the kids beforehand though.

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Excellent Easter Art

In my search for help on the Passover meal I’m catering for church this Thursday evening (over 40 folk signed up – eeek!), I visited Ann Voscamp’s beautiful blog the other day. Through her I was pointed to Willow of Wonder, another artistic blog where there are free Easter poster downloads available at the moment. I’ve printed one out for our kitchen noticeboard this week – there is a selection of colours available. Willow has an Etsy shop with some great scripture prints for kids which can be shipped to the UK (and some can be downloaded).

I shall be looking at this regularly to help me keep my catering panic in perspective.

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An Informal Easter

Bee has been here over the last couple of days, helping out with Messy Church last night and with the school Easter service this morning. She and I got together this afternoon to talk about next Thursday, when Cake & Chat becomes DIY Holiday Club. She had some lovely Easter craft ideas and we sourced some others online. We’re going to be making:

• 3D crosses
• 3D Hanging Easter Eggs 
• Mobi Yolk Folk (I had to pay for this printable – but only £3)

I was going to get hold of Baker Ross colour-in cards too, but looking at the list above, I think we’ll have plenty to do.

The crafts will give us good opportunities to chat about Easter with those who attend. Some will be joining us at the Maundy Thursday meal that evening and will be in church on Easter Sunday, but others won’t be at anything official. So we’re very much looking forward to our informal Easter service over cake and crafts.

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The Vicarage Gears Up for Easter

Tonight I’ll be preparing some crafts for this Sunday’s Junior Church, which will be on the crucifixion. I know it’s not Good Friday yet, but Palm Sunday is an All Age service and there’s no service suitable for kids on Good Friday. So this week it is. This is helping me get started on thinking how best to prepare for Easter in the Vicarage this year:

1. I shall be fetching our Resurrection Eggs from their storage cubby hole in the cellar. I *think* they are buried with the Christmas decorations. You could also do something similar with a toddler group or even a holiday club. There’s still time to sort yourself a set out and get in a dozen or so readings.
2. We’re still listening to the NIV Audio Bible at teatime – heading for Jerusalem in John’s gospel. Lazurus was raised this evening and the Queen remarked ‘Every chapter it talks about people who believe‘. I think our time listening to the bible being read has been worth it just for this.
3. I am in charge of the catering for our first ever Passover Supper at church on Maundy Thursday. I have a great recipe for slow cooked shoulder of lamb but will also have to source matzos and parsley in appropriate quantities. I anticipate long lists and negotiations with our high street butcher.
4. I have booked the lovely Bee to help out with an Easter Cake and Chat in the morning of Maundy Thursday. A sort of DIY Easter Holiday Club – she has lots of lovely Easter crafts up her sleeve.

How are you preparing to celebrate the death and resurrection of the Lord?

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Happy Easter – He is Risen!

Hallelujah!

Sandbox animation from Sandbible.com – I love this way of telling bible stories, so I’m looking forward to them expanding their collection.

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Holy Week Timeline

I’m sure a bunch of you have already seen this around the blogosphere, but I only spotted it yesterday. It’s a really cool picture of where everyone was in Holy Week – Jesus, the disciples, the Jewish leaders, the crowds, the guards etc. Am wondering how to get this printed out much bigger – A0 would be cool.

BibleGateway, who published it, have more details, as do openbible, who designed it.

[HT Abraham Piper, as usual]

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Hosanna for Palm Sunday

Regular readers know that I’m a big fan of Andrew Peterson’s Christmas album, Behold the Lamb. This week I came across his Palm Sunday song ‘Hosanna’ from his 2008 album Resurrection Letters Vol II (Vol I is apparently still in the pipeline). Enjoy.

You have crushed beneath your heel the vile serpent.

You have carried to the grave the black stain.

You have torn apart the temple’s curtain.

You have beaten death at death’s own game.

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