just another morning here

This post links with one of the journals that we’re doing in our church life group; finding God in the things we do every day. I have written something there as well and I *was* going to include an iPod with these tracks on in my journal entry, but someone has used my shuffle and now it seems to be lost. Anyway that’s beside the point.

I consider myself so lucky that the regular (not quite daily, but almost!) ‘school run’ that I do is to collect boys from evensong – and if I can make it there in time, I attend the service – I actually love evensong. The ritual, the ceremony, the music, the space, the time for contemplative thought and prayer – it is easy to find God in the words of psalms, anthems, and the readings too.

Anyway. Last night was a mayoral service and Josiah was honoured to be chosen to sing a solo in the first performance of the Magnificat by Jonathan Lee. Definitely a proud parent moment.

Magnificat Sancti Petri Exoniensis by Jonathan Lee by tworedboots

Other clips from the service are here too …

Our church family bible week changed name and venue this year; from Springboard to Transform, and instead of being at Ashburnham as in previous years, this year we were at Lenchwood.

Steve had to work and race, so he didn’t stay with us, although he did take us there (in a lovely K-reg Rover which only just made it – it was the only car that we had with a towbar!) and help us set up (how kind of him! it was payback for the day’s cover I did at the garage ). Unfortunately this also meant we had to wait for him to collect us at the end, which did entail a long wait and a late night! I managed to disassemble the trailer tent singlehandedly (though I’m still not entirely sure I could put it up on my own), which may have been shooting myself in the foot for any future occasions, but we’ll see.

Still, we had a great time, caught up with lots of friends and family, etc. I helped with the 3-4 year olds group in the mornings, but still got to the evening meetings which were excellent. Even did 5 caches on foot from the campsite, bonus!

The children spent the vast majority of their time playing games; Set, Uno, and Jungle Speed. I may finally have to give in and buy our own set of Jungle Speed …

Spring (no snow here), hope, new life, the celebration of the crux of my faith, time with family and usually plenty of food and chocolate, makes for a good Easter!

We had a lovely day, from the hot cross buns and Grand Prix start to the morning, through church where Josiah did a short drama with his friend Billy as part of the service, and then a pleasant afternoon spent at Grandma & Grandpa’s house along with Steve’s sister and her family.

And home in time to watch the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, which I’m really enjoying; it is totally doing justice to the book, in my opinion

It was Steve’s turn to work a couple of Bank Holidays so he’s been mainly at work this weekend, leaving the rest of us to enjoy ourselves, and we have

Yesterday we spent the day in town. Firstly we tried to take back a cello string that had snapped after a week. I was incredulous that the one music shop in town was closed, I mean, I know it’s a bank holiday but if it were my shop, I’d have kept it open. Anyway.

We wandered down through town, doing a bit of shopping in various places, and ended up at the Cathedral Green in time for a re-enactment of the Crucifixion. We hadn’t quite been spiritual enough to follow the whole Easter story as it had been acted out in various locations in town but it was good to be part of the finale. It was absolutely freezing; Anna commented that the guys up on the crosses next to Jesus really didn’t have to act much to look like they were in pain, and she was right!

After that we ended up in McDs for lunch , we met some friends there so that made it bearable. A bit more shopping afterwards and then I took the kids down to MakeArt and treated them to a session there – definitely lovely but definitely a bit on the pricey side too. They had a great time though, decorating some small animals with decoupage – and I had a nice cup of tea while they were doing it.

From there we went down to Ivonne‘s birthday party where we had some delicious cake and a Wii bowling game to celebrate. The kids were starting to get a bit hyper and annoying by this point, Steve was selling cars so he was late arriving and we left pretty much as soon as he got there!

Invited more friends over for a roast dinner and a showing of La Vie en Rose in the evening, and that was great – the food and the film, not to mention the company

Today has been fairly boring really; we went into town and got a new cello string, popped in to Sainsbury’s, did some music practices, some jobs around the house, Anna went to play with a friend who lives a half hour drive away so that took an hour out of the morning, the other two made a nice looking Easter cake, and they all did some Easter crafty stuff.

Joe had a friend to play in the afternoon, supposedly to practice a short drama they are doing at church tomorrow, but also just to play. Billy came bearing tadpoles for us which was very exciting (for me!). Sorted out guinea pigs both here and at friends’ while they’re away, dropped Billy off, picked Steve up, came home and cooked some dinner. Anna was dropped home and they all got into pyjamas to snuggle in front of Saturday night tv, which is nice, even if we have ended up in front of 2 different programmes!