Heavy eyelids

I'm shattered! It's been a tiring week including Bilbo refusing to go to school, Freddie starting speech therapy, and me needing to treat everyone for worms! I don't ever remember anyone having worms when I was growing up but they seem to be fairly commonplace now, though thankfully this is only the second time we've had to deal with them and the last time was 4 years ago. For 6 weeks everyone has to have a bath before anything else every morning and I'm meant to damp dust the bedrooms and dust and hoover the whole house daily (I'm not). I'm doing even more washing than usual. Beds are wet every night. I need more sleep. 

One day I should prob think about getting a job but how I'd deal with little setbacks like this I don't know! I don't stress too much about being on time for school because I have enough to think about (I don't mean I don't care I just mean I'm kind to myself) but if I had a work deadline that would be added stress I could do without! Hmmm. With Freddie starting school (part time initially) in Sept, this is something on my mind but I don't want to rush into anything, especially after this last week! 

Just a short one today as I have a big family party to plan for Sat!

Cliff

Hey :) It's the school holidays! We've kicked them off by going to a local festival in the Peak District and we'll be ending them by going to an even more local festival down the road from me :) I guess I'll write about the one we have just been to rather than the one we're yet to go to though eh..!

So the one in the Peaks is called Cliff Fest. It's hosted by a bible college (Cliff College) where I recently did a course in children's ministry. I really like the children's work (run by Scripture Union) they do at the festival so one of the main reasons I wanted to go was so I could sit in on that and observe what they do and how they do it and how my boys respond to it. 

They use a similar approach to something I developed at my church by applying play therapy principles to children's ministry. I've been on quite a journey with children's ministry since my eldest was a babe in arms ten years ago when I googled something along the lines of 'child led  Sunday school'* because I felt there was a chasm in church resources and approaches in this area, and I discovered 'Godly Play' which, while imperfect as with all things (but adaptable), is exactly that philosophy. Around the same time I became aware of Forest Schools which have that same approach only outdoors and without the Christian bit. I've since trained both as a Godly Play practitioner and a Forest Schools assistant. The way SU run the kids work at Cliff Fest (and at Minehead's Spring Harvest) is this sort of approach. Though there are hundreds of kids there, having lots of fun, it has the most gentle, pastoral environment I've seen in such large scale kids work. It's quite an achievement. Every child is known.

My particular interest in children's work is boys and special needs - especially invisible ones (special needs not boys!) - because I find that if these needs are met everyone's a winner , and I also feel that behaviour is often a symptom of an unmet need and that the onus is on us as adults to cater for these children - the right provision = happy children :) At Awesome (the name of the Cliff Fest kids work) there is lots of slap stick (leaders being slimed, children throwing shaving foam pies in leaders faces etc), audience participation, whole-group games, small group outdoor games using loads of gross motor skills, hands-on freeflow activities such as Lego, play dough, etc, workshops such as puppetry...and, interestingly, my boys' favourite part was the bedtime story :) 

In addition, there's not too much singing, and much of the singing that does happen is reflective with everyone sitting down, perhaps with the sign language to watch on the screens. There's creative story telling based on a bible passage, small group discussion (for literally 5 mins, and more like optional show and tell) and a special time of whole-group feedback where random children that want to can share in a roving mic something they've made or done or written etc and what they were thinking about while they were doing it. They all really listened during this time because it was kept moving and it was children speaking to children about what they felt God was saying to them. This helps give a sense of anything God may have been doing corporately, e.g. a lot of children were worried about the Manchester attacks so the leader was able to pick up on this and help affirm the concern and also touch on what the bible says about fear and worry and how we can turn that into action e.g. give our worries to God. 

Anyone who didn't know what God was saying and had done something random was encouraged that sometimes God doesn't answer straight away - many adults also have things they've been waiting even for years to hear God on - his timing is different to ours and we just need to keep hanging out with him in the meantime so don't be discouraged if you haven't felt God speak yet. This was really helpful for me to hear because I've been acutely aware of that issue with children, not wanting them to feel silence = rejection or anything else negative, but unsure of how to approach it. I also encourage them that God loves us just spending time with him whether there are words spoken or not - like a mummy cuddling her baby. There's also a short prayer time where children can share prayer needs in their small groups.

As you will have gathered, the masses are divided into small groups (of about 8) so get to know each other and their group leaders, and those leaders are given free time to go with the flow of their group for most activities (labyrinth prayers, acts of service, craft etc) so if their group is loving the outdoor games there's no pressure for them to move onto something else. Forest school would call this going with the flow of your group. So if there is an energy lull, or things are getting too hyped, that can be a prompt for the group leader to redirect. I love this affirmation of community-building and of valuing people as they are - I believe it's how church should be (and often is) :) 

This post hasn't been written in running order format but as a splurge that gives the general idea! The approach is all very well thought through and I remember finding it so encouraging (through originally learning of Godly Play to doing the more wide-reaching training with Cliff College) to discover that what I was doing on a small scale in my little Sunday school, actually has credibility! It just felt right and made sense to me but it turns out there are books about child led children's ministry, with theological reasoning and everything! Hopefully it's becoming more mainstream :) I wasn't going to write about this but it is what has come out and I don't want the post to be any longer so I'll leave it there for now!

*It goes without saying that when I say 'child led' I don't mean 'not God led' - what I mean is the adults are tuned-in facilitators/mentors rather than directive downloaders

I have to think of a title every time??!?

Quick check-in! Helped run play group at our church this morning as I do every Thursday :) Freddie was in good spirits most of the time so I was able to man the craft table and have a good chin wag while he clambered about on the soft play and played with the cars and Lego :) I was leading the singing time but have lost my voice a bit (as I discovered yesterday when I attempted to lead a song with foundation at school..!) so I experimented with parachute games instead :) Well, I say 'games'. I tried a really simple one - run under to a space on the other side if you're a girl, then same for boys, repeat. Mayhem! Simplified it with help of a couple of fun grandmas :) Played peekaboo with them all underneath, sang the wheels on the bus while holding edge and walking round, and threw ball pool balls on as popcorn. Experiment complete and perfected for next time!! Lovely participants :) 

We then all stayed for a relaxed and therefore extended bring and share lunch and then Freddie and I came home and he played really nicely with toy cars and balloons on the pavement while I cleared the crazy-messy car out. How do other people manage to have their cars so clutter-free? I don't understand!!

It's boiling. Think I'll take kids for a paddle in the Peak District after school :)

Peace out 

Not coffee

I just facilitated an RE afternoon with foundation 2 (aka reception) and am sitting in Starbucks round the corner til pick-up :) Thought I'd share a bible exert that I find encouraging with the tenses changed from past to present :)  "Instead, God chooses things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chooses things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chooses things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and uses them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God." (1 Corinthians 1:27-29)

The Weekend

Thought I'd give a post title that sounds like it could be a film :) Wasn't sure where to pick up from but as it's Monday the weekend seems to make sense - like 'show and tell' that I used to facilitate in our little family school :) I loved hearing about what they'd been up to :)

So on Saturday I had a day of 'inner healing' at church while my mum had the kids! I got them all up, dressed and fed, and took Eddie to his swimming lesson and my mum took over from there :) 

We were really well looked after at church - croissants etc for breakfast, lunch laid on for us :) The team made us feel really loved, wanted, valued and welcome :) The theme of the day was 'blessing' :) We looked at what the bible says about how powerful our words can be to bless and to curse. We received individual prayer and we had a lovely, peaceful day :)

I returned to my blessed brood just as Bilbo was beginning to teeter on the edge of freneticisn, not knowing what to do with himself. My parents were brilliant with them. I'm so thankful for them :) They had obviously been having fun - there was evidence everywhere: paint, balloons, junk modelling, bikes :) It was what some call 'the grot slot' though so good timing for an extra pair of hands I think :) I ran a bath for Freddie and suggested putting the telly on for the other two but they went loopy in the garden instead and the swing frame ended up horizontal but I think that was due to the mud as much as anything :) We got some food in them then I took them to feed their dad's cat (he's away) and then proceeded with bedtime at home.

Yesterday we went to church where Freddie bounded up to his god father who scooped him up in his arms and Freddie gave him a big squeeze cuddle and stayed with him during sung worship as he often does :) It has been so immensely helpful for me since he's been doing that because it means I only have two to keep track of :) -At the inner healing day one of the people who prayed for me referred to the boys' "super-human energy"!! They do charge about a lot! I think in church it's partly nervous energy because it's a big space and sometimes Bilbo just doesn't know where to put himself. Things are getting easier lately with there being more things to focus on such as a giant white board to write/draw on (there's  just the challenge of keeping contributions appropriate sometimes!) :)

After church I took the boys into the Peak District. They complained to high heaven in the car but I knew I just needed to grit my teeth and they'd be happy as soon as we were there, and they were :) We had a lovely time :) Sunday afternoons can sometimes be a bit lonely if I haven't arranged in advance to meet up with another family but it is nice to just be us sometimes too, if tiring. I do like adult company though. Another lady at church was saying she finds Sunday afternoons lonely. It's something I have to really be proactive about. The kids like us to hang out with other people too.

We went and fed the cat again, then to my relief, came home - I was so tired! For a few hours they had been scaling cliff-faces, climbing trees, clambering on boulders, scrambling up craggy hill-sides, plus throwing themselves around at church before that. I was ready for bed. It was 7pm so only half an hour to go til Freddie's bedtime. The first thing they said when we got in? "Can we go out on the bikes??!" We had a snack and were straight back out the front door, scooting up and and down the pavement (Bilbo on his BMX with a pet rat on his shoulder to boot)! Then we finally came in and while I was getting sorted for bedtime, I discovered them rigging up a makeshift tightrope in the bedroom!! Safe to say it is never, ever boring in my house!!!!

Life :)

I'm going to start writing some general musings on here again :) It might just be little insights into my life, there may be moments of inspiration - we'll see where it goes! I hope it will be a blessing somehow as life unfolds before us!

So just to get me started I'll think of it as a diary I guess - share what I've been up to and include any contemplations along the way if there are any! There may not be today!

So we had a fun day on Sunday :) We all enjoyed church. Included in the movement props during sung worship we had crash mats to see how far we could leap (we have had taped-out race tracks the last few weeks too - love a bit of boisterous-movement affirmation! [and, as an interesting side note: parkour is a category of contemporary dance :)]), then the older two were outdoors reenacting the ascension of Jesus (as you do) with the aid of a helium balloon :) I do not know if it had a face on it ;) Freddie was in the soft play as is his usual Sunday 'school' venue at our church :) Love it - church should be fun, and it is :) ❤️ I was actually in the service which is fairly unusual for me as I coordinate the 5-7s team, which is such a privilege and joy :)

 I made the mistake of throwing the afternoon open to the kids, and they wanted to go swimming - desperately and unanimously... I was sooo tired! But I made myself go :) We had loads of fun! (I'll leave out the bit on the way where we deliberated for half an hour at the McDonalds drive thru only to realise I'd forgotten my purse so cancelled the order with the non-plussed staff member, went all the way home for said purse with at least one child in meltdown, and then discovered I hadn't forgotten it after all...) 

Eddie can now swim unaccompanied so for the first time the older two were totally free to go off on the slides and really enjoy each other's company (and torment a few others'...) while I was only tethered to one non swimmer!! 

Yesterday (Monday) our school coffee morning's kettle set on fire and the whole school was evacuated - two fire engines etc, so that was a fun way to start the day! Bilbo was frustrated to see his prayers almost answered but not quite!! Freddie and I still got our cake for breakfast so we were happy... Then we went to Aldi followed by nursery for him while I spent the afternoon being productive - yay! -filling in forms - at least it's getting done... 

After having a school friend for a play and feeding a cat, and playing with our own animals, we managed despite/because of the cocopops and sweets we had just injested (which I let them have on my shopping days), to sit at the table to eat together (three of us anyway; I call that a win)! Chicken korma - which no one complained about!! -and wrote some things we're thankful for to put in our gratitude jar which lives on the table (and is labelled 'Yrattitude Jar' by my 7 year old) :) Then, because the kids found the buggy which has been unearthed to go on eBay, I ended up racing my oversized children up and down the street in that, to their squeals of glee, in the rain, til bedtime!! 

This morning Freddie and I went to Small Voices Big Noises at Walkley Library which is our highlight of the week :) The guy is brilliant with his guitar, violin, charisma, dancing and brilliant children's songs from around the world, my personal favourite today being Mr Kippety-Kay, an Australian offering :)

Til next time!

Christianity is simple ;)

C/o Rolland Baker (a paraphrased flavour of what he said last night) 

What is Christianity anyway? Is it a way to live? The Christian life comes in many guises. Is it about health and prosperity? Is it about the simple life? Is it a political thing - trying to convince everyone to agree with your theology? Is it about reversing climate change and taking care of the earth? Is it about how to be the best you you can be? Is it bringing heaven to earth? Is it a code of ethics? Is it a set of doctrines? Is it about strategies? Is it about saving the world? ...Or could it be to do with your private life with your Lover?

-It's a person! 

What is revival? It's a person - showing up - the reviver. What are the keys to revival? How do we 'save the world', feed the starving masses, end wars, bring world peace? Answer: no idea! Nobody knows! We're all just people! God's the one in control! Just show up!

The outworkings of our faith are neither here nor there in a sense - Christianity can be lived-out in countless legitimate ways and otherwise, but loving God isn't so much about our public lives as it is about our private lives, and it's about being in love rather doing things to try and get closer to Him. Jeremiah 29:13 "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."   Seeking Him with all your heart isn't easy - love isn't always easy - but it's possible and it's worth it. Alternatively, you too can just sit there (and not find Him)! John 3:30 "He must increase but I must decrease". Matthew 22:37 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind".

Do we really have free will or control over what happens in the world anyway? Did you choose to be British? Did you choose to be male or female? Did you choose what family to be born into, what background you'd have, what colour your hair would be? God's in control, not us! "Oh but we need to pray. Maybe we're not praying *hard* enough. ...We need to learn *how* to pray. We need strategies. We need training in mission. We need professional missionaries!"... What is prayer? It's a person. Do we pray to change God's mind? To convince him of something? To remind him about something? He does what he likes - we pray because we love the person we're praying to. 

Is Christianity all about strategies and hard slog and doing and trying and suffering and being somber all the time? Was Jesus always like that? What have we got to be joyful about anyway? Maybe eternal life? That we have nothing to worry about? Forgiveness of all our sins? That we have the perfect Lover? Direct access to the creator of the universe? ...You know the reason most people don't go to church? Coz they've been in one once ;) It used to be a requirement that we feast and be merry and party, now it's optional so... 

We need to stop taking ourselves so seriously! Nehemiah 8:10 "Go and celebrate with a feast of rich foods and sweet drinks, and share gifts of food with people who have nothing prepared. This is a sacred day before our Lord. Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!” Psalm 16:11 "You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore." Alternatively, you too can be miserable! ;) We can have suffering contests til the cows come home but if we want strength we need joy and to get joy we need to be seeking his presence.