Clothing Bravery

This trailer for the new Pixar movie Brave caught my eye. I think you’ll guess why…

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Advice on Hands in Church

The brilliant Tim Hawkins has some advice for those who are unused to the more exuberant type of contemporary worship. I confess that I don’t get much further than ‘Carrying the TV’ myself. I am Anglican, after all…

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Whether you’re German or French or Dutch…

It’s a lovely sunny morning in the parish today. Just the sort of day to learn to pronounce Pentateuch properly ie not to rhyme with Dutch. The complete pronounciation guide is in this smile-inducing song that my kids have been humming from What’s in the Bible 3. The What’s in the Bible series is produced [...]

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Bishops Got Talent: Selecting the Next Archbishop?

Since Rowan Williams stepped down this afternoon from the hardest job in the Church of England (or maybe not, parish life is just a microcosm of the Anglican Communion tbh), Twitter has been awash with suggestions of who will succeed him. It was suggested that rather than the Crown Nominations Commission we could have a [...]

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Easy Chopstix

At Christmas, my sister bought some great easy-use chopsticks for the kids. They are joined together at the top so are a good way for kids to learn to eat Chinese food in a fun way and not starve. It’s an excellent way to learn not to drop food on yourself. And you can always [...]

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Possible Solution for Musicianless Churches?

A friend recently linked to this excellent video on Facebook and suggested it might be the solution in small churches where musicians are thin on the ground. We’ve been blessed recently by musicians playing in our services and replacing the cds and midi files, but one (Rocky, our Ministry Trainee) is leaving in the summer, [...]

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Wriggly Reading Kids

Kids find it hard to sit still at the best of times, but as I read with children at our church school I’ve noticed a few who just can’t keep themselves in a single place when they’re reading aloud, let alone doing it whilst listening to others read or reading to themselves. I liked this [...]

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Vicarage Top Tips: How to Cope on Sundays

Sundays in the Vicarage can be rather busy and stressful. This Sunday was no exception, as you’ll know if you follow me on Twitter. I thought I’d share a picture of the Vicar helping me (and some lovely visitors) to cope before we ate lunch.

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A Formula for Trouble?

As we nibbled our rhubarb crumble cake and gingerbread loaf at Cake and Chat this morning, we were discussing (as usual) the state of the neighbourhood. Our local PCSO was visiting to eat cake catch up on intelligence and he and I were talking about the broken Vicarage windows and the local children who play [...]

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Books for Busy Mums (and Dads) Part 2

Last week I blogged about some poetry books that I like to read with my own kids, and with the schoolchildren that I spend time reading with each week. The other resource that I use every week at school and that my gang at home have loved are a series of short stories, two in [...]

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