Make your local area cleaner

The execution of today's task was my favourite LLLL moment so far because it involved a real sense of community.
It was litter pick day, which felt like the perfect way to get together with some of the other St Michaels team members. We sent the word round to meet outside church after the school pick up at 3.30 and clean up the lay by outside church.
You may have noticed that today's weather was at times a bit biblical and I have to say that as I drove to school I was not relishing the prospect of foraging in nettles in the cold and wet. My kids didn't look overly impressed when I picked them up and reminded them of our task but as we all met outside church- five adults and 13 children- within half an our we'd filled a wheelie bin from litter found on this short stretch of road! We were also really rather soggy.
I think the kids really rather enjoyed it in the end and with very little effort really we've made a difference to our environment- a chap parking up in the lay by even joined us for a moment! I feel really strongly about us being stewards of the earth- we should take that responsibility seriously and take care of this beautiful gift of creation.

Genesis 2.15: The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.

Tomorrow is the biggie- screen free day! That means no social media and no blog until Saturday morning. As I'm going on retreat it probably won't be so bad- I just really hope I have a signal to blog on Saturday!!

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.