Operation Clean Up

Wasn't sure how the kids would feel about today's task but it turned into a little adventure.
In an effort to clean up our local area we were challenged to fill a bag with litter. Mike and I weren't sure where to take them- in all fairness we wanted to avoid parks as the kids finish school later on a Thursday and they needed to be fed before Jacob's guitar lesson.
We started picking up rubbish in the school grounds, then wandered down the passage towards church, picking up all the rubbish we found on our way. Sadly, bearing in mind we were merely walking between school and church, this consisted mainly of beer cans, cigarette packets and discarded lighters. Moving towards the lay by and grassy verge outside St Michaels church we found a lovely stash of baby wipes, more fag packets and a broken phone charger.
We'd filled our bag by the time we reached the millennium path so rewarded ourselves with a walk through the churchyard in the lovely late afternoon sunshine.
Jacob remarked that everyone should have a copy of our LLLL book, because if everyone filled a bag with litter everywhere would look much nicer.

Genesis 2:15
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

Be More Generous

I was very excited about today's task as it involved giving someone we know a small gift. It's actually quite difficult to pick out one person in our lives to give a gift to. Should it be one of our parents who do so much for us? A supportive friend? Someone who's going through a tough time? Someone who serves our community?
Then when you've chosen a person what do you give? Wine? Flowers? Chocolate?
We decided to give our gift to someone in need of a pick-me-up and a reminder that they are appreciated. Our lovely priest, Vicky, has been rather under the weather recently and has now come down with laryngitis- not great for a vicar to have no voice! To help cheer her up we gave her a bottle of real ale- which she's particularly fond of.
It feels lovely to be more generous- I would urge everyone to give an unexpected gift. The joy you get from giving is so unique and delightful.

Acts 20:35
It is more blessed to give than to receive

Be More Friendly

Today we had to be friendly to someone new- not the easiest task on a day when what I do and who I see is so structured.
To start with I was very friendly to the slightly abrupt lady at the garden centre where we went for breakfast (breakfast date!) At work I tried to make a special effort to be friendly to everyone but especially the students, new doctor and new patient. I managed to talk to a consultant without using even veiled sarcasm- quite a feat!
The kids made an effort to play with someone who maybe they wouldn't usually.
I'm a bit excited about tomorrow's task, but that's for tomorrow's blog.

Leviticus 19:18
Love your neighbour as yourself

God bless our bellies

Very quick blog today- working night shifts over the weekend has taken its toll. Usually after my final night shift I'd go to bed for three to four hours, get up around one and then go back to bed at the usual hour. Due the my inability to join the dots I ended up meeting an examining chaplain this morning, a very delightful gentleman, which was the next step in the Anglican discernment process for ordained ministry. The short version is the meeting was kind of a big deal. It went ok in the circumstances.
Our Lent task for the day was to thank God for our food. I thanked him for my cereal bar when I got in from work, the sandwich Mike got me on return from the meeting and the biryani I had this evening.
Faith and Jacob thanked God for their school dinner. Jacob was thankful with his best friend Freddie. Faith was grateful even though she thought the pasta was rubbish, because someone still took the trouble to make it and some people in the world didn't have any dinner today. I love my kids.

What a wonderful world

Today was the first day I found it difficult to fit in the LLLL task. The instruction was to take a walk and notice the world around you. Doesn't sound like too big a deal but there was shopping to do, household tasks, an afternoon nap to fit in before my night shift and a degu to bury.
I think the closest I came to noticing the world around me was when we held Tod's funeral early in the afternoon.
I love the peace of my garden- there's something very calm about our little corner of Flixton. You can hear the distant rumble of traffic on the m60 and Liverpool Rd but mostly it's quiet with gentle bursts of bird song, and later in the day you might hear the foxes in the field.
We laid Tod to rest under a small willow tree. Faith read her tribute and prayer, then we all said our goodbyes by placing an orange roses on his grave. The air was cool and dry with very little breeze. Shortly after everyone had returned inside a few wispy snowflakes started to fall, before thinking better of it.

Psalm 92.4
For you make me glad by your deeds, O Lord; I sing for joy at the work of your hands.

Thank God

Today I had everything planned. We were asked to say thank you to someone and I had decided that we would make thank you cards for my mum who does so much for the kids and myself. That was the plan until something very unexpected happened.Tod, our four year old degu died very unexpectedly in the night.
We were up a bit late this morning and some friends were coming round so I hadn't really been in the conservatory where Tod lived, with his brother Smiley. The kids had mentioned that Tod was still in bed but no one thought anything of it until my husband looked a little closer.
There had been no warning signs- he'd been as chipper as ever last night and Mike had left the two boys snuggled up together and squeaking when he'd come up to bed.
Both children were very tearful but Faith especially was hit hard- Tod was hers (and Smiley is Jacob's)- telling me she just wants him to be alive again and how she doesn't feel like herself anymore. All I can do is hold her and tell her that one day it won't hurt quite so much, but I can't take away her tears today.
So we decided to say thank you to Tod, for being part of our lives and bringing us so much joy. We've written a short tribute to him and have a prayer ready for his funeral tomorrow in our back garden.

Romans 8:38-39
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord

Proverbs 12:10
The righteous know the needs of their animals

Curiouser and Curiouser

Interesting discussions were had as a result of today's task to be more curious.
The children's copy of LLLL suggested they find out the answer to a question they had. Turns out my children only have big questions.  Faith wanted to know why we're alive and who/what caused the big bang. Jacob wanted to know why we live again and why there are so many countries and languages.
My encouragement to google it fell on stony faces- they wanted answers from mummy! I got away with a couple of "because God wants it that way" answers, and they seemed reasonably happy with my explanation of nomadic tribes discovering farming then getting cross with each other and finding their own bit of land. There was also a curious discussion about language and slang.
For my own curiosity I brought together a few thoughts I'd been having recently and looked into the history of deaconesses and notable Victorian feminists. Really.

Luke 11:9

Seek and you will find

(Obvious- I know!)

Be more loving

Another very simple instruction today- tell someone that you love them. We decided that as we tell each other everyday that we love each other we would tell the people we don't remember to tell. We endeavoured to tell everyone we bumped into and care about that we love them- potentially a lot of folks on a Wednesday in half term as it's Peewits (mums & tots worship).
So we went to church and told Jenni, Evie, Alexander, Sally, Isaac, Isobel, Rachel, Holly, Max, Julie, Emma, Alex and Bev that we loved then.
After church we went shopping and bumped into more friends- so we told Danny, Natalie and Gina that we loved them. And do you know what? Everyone we told we loved them told us that they loved us too, and we all felt marvellous!

John 13:34-35

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another

Care For The World

Today we were thinking about caring for this awesome world we've been given. The task seemed a bit too easy- to turn off the lights in a room you weren't in. We're pretty good at that so we tried to think of other ways we could save energy or care for the environment.
We made sure we put the recycling out but sadly had to use the car as our half term excursion this morning took us a few miles away. One thing we did do was keep the thermostat a little lower- once we'd warmed the place up after waking up to temperatures of -4!
We recently had a new thermostat fitted which we're hoping will help with our energy conservation. I have to say that with the house being a wee bit cooler than I'd like it may be an early night tonight!

Genesis 2:15

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it

Be More Creative

I'd really been looking forward to today's task- creating something.  We're good at that.
Well the sunshine meant the kids had little interest in sitting down and making things but they did gather together some bits and bobs they've been hoarding to make some interesting robot thingies (I think), and interestingly some plasticine fruit. Well why on earth not!
For my own creation I did flirt with the idea of an ink drawing, or crochet, or fimo model but amongst the LLLL book suggestions was "bake a cake" and they definitely had me at "cake" (this is cake or death after all!).

Thinking about God's creation, and his creation in us, today I'm not quoting the Bible but the greatest of all Mancunion songwriters Johnny Bramwell:

"I believe that we are forever something which is incomplete"

Enjoy The World

A much lovelier day today! All family members well and, as we're instructed to do today by LLLL, up for enjoying the world.
Today was definitely a day of enjoyment; a bit of a lie-in, visiting friends and meeting their ten week old baby, taking lunch and cakes to share with our friends, and this evening we'll see some more friends to celebrate a new house and a birthday.
The LLLL activity today is planting seeds. I have a large stash of seeds for various edible plants and I let the children choose what they wanted to grow. Faith went for basil and Jacob tomatos, in the hope we might get some soup as an end result!
Such a contrast between our days yesterday and today helps to put things into perspective. I've enjoyed wordly things today, but mostly I've enjoyed friendship and family. With my shift patterns we just get one day a week together as a foursome and it's utterly delightful when we feel the day has been used well.

Genesis 1:31
God saw all that He had made, and indeed it was very good

Care For Those In Need

So the task of the day was to watch the news and pray for someone or something on it. The kids and I had it all planned- we would watch the news when they finished school. That was until I spent nine hours (from 12.15 until 21.30) in A&E with my husband,  who had a possible G.I bleed.
We were tired, frustrated and bored. After a while I started to take in what was going on around us- the department was exceptionally busy, worse than we've experienced before. The staff were trying so hard to be positive and reassure us when they were obviously tired and stressed. There was a diverse group of patients passing through- some lingering a long time like us but others, obviously very sick, moving through a lot quicker.
I began to pray for all these strangers- staff, patients and relatives using the words from the Healing and Wholeness liturgy:
"May God bring you wholeness of body, mind and spirit"

Micah 6:8
What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Be More Giving

My mum (who lives with us) has just popped through and presented me with the notes I asked the kids to write yesterday to say sorry to each other. Jacob is sorry he hit Faith and Faith is sorry she stood on Jacob's lego box. I pray that this spirit of forgiveness lingers a bit longer!
Today's LLLL task is lovely and simple- save up your loose change and give it to charity at the end of Lent. When the small people come home we'll discuss who we want to donate it to. Faith has already suggested Water Aid but my choice will be The Booth Centre- a Christian charity helping the homeless, based here in Manchester, which just happens to share my maiden name.
The LLLL book has kindly reminded me today of Jesus' miracle at Cana, turning water into wine. This is a timely reminder of my abstinence from alcohol during Lent- something I've only managed before during pregnancy.  As it's Valentine's Day today I've extended my "be more giving" instruction to my husband, Mike, who often feels (and often is) a bit low on the list when it comes to demands upon my time. I've made a gluten free tiramisu, something we used to eat a lot in his gluten-filled days, and there's a bottle of the finest alcohol free cherry cordial to wash it down with. I may even let him watch Notting Hill for the 57th time without groaning.

http://www.boothcentre.org.uk

Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.

I'm sorry!

So after the marvellous pancake parties yesterday (the Jenklets celebrated at home with Nana) we are brought down to more solemn activities today as we are asked to "say sorry".
For the kids I've given them each a post-it note and told them to write down something they're sorry they did to each other recently. For myself attending the Ash Wednesday communion service with Ashing gives the opportunity to focus on the ways in which I feel I can be a better person, the things I've done that I wish I hadn't and to say sorry.
Writing this blog also gives me a chance to say sorry- being to caught up in daily life, work, kids and church there rarely seems to be an opportunity to stop, to spend time with friends, to truly listen to them and realise the ways in which they may be hurting, broken or in need.
So to my friends- I love you and I wish I saw you more. Maybe this year I'll be a bit less rubbish!

Psalm 51:10
Create in me a clean heart O God

www.livelent.net

Love Life Live Lent

After my initial post the tumbleweeds have been a-tumbling through Cake or Death. With Lent approaching it seemed an appropriate time to get blogging- not sure I can manage 40 days and 40 nights but I'm certainly going to give it my best.

I find that fasting in some way as part of my Lent journey is quite an important thing for me. To be disciplined enough to deny my self something is pretty damn hard, but an incredibly tiny thing compared to what Jesus has done for me.
I'm also a big believer in taking something up for Lent- again it's all about the discipline. This year I'm using Paula Gooder & Peter Babington's Love Life Live Lent (available at St Deny's, Amazon, or direct from Chuch House Publishing).
We start today, on Shrove Tuesday, with our first task of celebrating more, with the suggestion of throwing a pancake party. Not easy on a 10 hour shift. But I'll start as I mean to continue- armed with a pack of ready made pancakes to share with my HTU colleagues.  It's a start.

Luke 15.6
And when he comes home,  he calls together his friends and neighbours,  saying to them,  "rejoice with me,  for I have found my sheep that was lost"

www.livelent.net