A Chocolate Teapot

It’s almost the end of a long and busy day. I feel uncharacteristically deflated. I have just come home from a long church meeting. I could say it was boring, but it wasn’t. I had hoped for more from it, but I was disappointed and I’m left feeling about as useful as a chocolate teapot! A member of my family, one of the readers of this blog will perhaps be somewhat smug about my comments. He has made no secret of his opinion of the way churches organise themselves, despite it being suggested in the past that he might join the leadership team and change things from the inside. When I accepted the invitation to serve the church and my Lord, it was in no small measure due to that same person encouraging me to seek God’s guidance in reaching my decision. I am hoping a good nights sleep will enable me to see the evening in a more positive light.

Domestic goddess? Probably not…

I am not a tidy person although I do like tidiness. Does that make sense? I make no apology in saying I have a lady who comes to clean for me once a week, as I like cleanliness too. She does some of the jobs I don’t have time to do myself. I have indulged myself this luxury for a number of years now and it is wonderful to come home to a freshly cleaned house and although I can wield duster and vacuum cleaner when the need arises, I have to say, my cleaner is much better at it than I am!

Having said all that, yesterday I had a productive day of domestic chores. Laundry, food shopping, defrosting the fridge, sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor and tidying some kitchen cupboards all got done. Following a text message that commented on the chances of my kitchen still being tidy 24 hours later, I started to think about whether it was more important to me to have a ‘show home’ to live in, or a place where my nearest and dearest are relaxed and comfortable, even though it is sometimes rather cluttered. For me there is no contest. I would rather our home was lived in and happy, littered as it is with the ephemera of family life. As our boys are now 20 and 17 I’m sure this will, at least change as they eventually create their own homes whether close by or elsewhere. I do hope however that home will always be a place they can be comfortable.

…And yes, the kitchen is still tidy!

The Shack

As promised here is my review of The Shack by William P. Young. First of all I should point out that I don’t really write book reviews but I do love to read. I’m one of those people who is happy to re-read favourite books over and over again. This is a book I intend to read again when I’ve lent it to as many people as possible! If you haven’t read it, I’ll try not to spoil the story. It centres around ‘Mack’, Mackenzie Allen Phillips and an incident that affects him following the abduction and murder of his youngest daughter Missy. Some time later a note arrives inviting him back to a shack where critical evidence was found, the note is signed ‘Papa’, his wife’s name for God. Mack doubts the note is really from God, but finds himself drawn to make plans to go. What he finds there changes his life forever.

I’d never heard of this book until I saw a comment about it on a blog. It is a blog written by a fellow Christian who remarked how much it had affected her, so I decided to buy it and see for myself. I laughed and cried much, and prayed more, as I read. After reading it I am filled with a longing to get closer to God through Jesus. The book has an indefinable quality which comes only from personal experience and I wonder if the author has experienced a similar loss and resolution to the one recounted in the book.

One reviewer says the book reads like a prayer and he is right. It left me filled with feelings I can’t describe, full of hope that I too can experience the love and tender mercy of a loving God in a more intimate way than I could ever have imagined.

However hard I try…

… I never seem to get around to updating the chronicles of the Croft family as often as I would like. If there are enough hours in the day, there is nothing to write about and when there is stuff to share there is never time to do it! By the time I get around to it I’ve forgotten what I wanted to say. Argh!!

We are kind of back into a routine (for a week). Matthew is back to school following AS exams, Simon is still away – more on that later. The uncertainty about Martin’s job seems to have receeded for the moment at least and for once I have nothing planned for this evening, hence the time to update. Martin and Matthew have been watching all the Euro 2008 matches on tv. Simon is there! He is traveling in Switzerland with four friends they have been camping in the Fan Camps in Berne, Zurich and Basel so far and travel to Geneva tomorrow before arriving back in the UK late on Thursday. From the occasional text and Facebook update he seems to be having a great time. In the absence of England taking part they having been following the fortunes of Holland as one of their group is Dutch. It seems to have been a good choice so far. Of course when Simon arrives home the routine goes out the window, not just for his arrival but because Matthew heads of to France on a school trip on Sunday. A small group of sixth formers are heading to Valdeblore. It sounds as if they are in for an interesting week in a bit of France that seldom sees foreign visitors.

Before I stop I want to mention a book I’ve just read, it’s called The Shack by William P. Young. It’s an amazing book. I’ll try and update again soon and tell you more about it.

Driving us…

We are now an all driver family as Matthew passed his driving test today. Obviously he and we (we think) are delighted. He successfully negotiated a short drive round the village soon after arriving home with the good news and then offered to drive Simon to the station this afternoon.  He has now gone off to a meeting at church. Of course the capability to practice his new skill relies on the beneficent nature of his ever fragrant mother, ie me, to allow use of her car until such time as Matthew decides he want to buy (and insure) one of his own. If Simon is anything to go by, it won’t be a priority yet.

Simon has taken my tent back with him to Leeds as possible accommodation for his trip to Switzerland with uni friends in ten days time. It seems an exciting adventure. He does have one more exam, hopefully it will go well. I think he finds some of his economics tedious at times and I know he is looking forward to his year abroad from October not least for the absence of economics work and lectures.

Just off to admire my new oven now, daren’t use it, might get dirty!

Ahead of the day

I’ve just waved off the resident nearest and dearest to school and work and am thinking of the non resident ones. Martin has a normal working day, whatever that means in work-speak. As does Justin in his latest new job, which incidently he LOVES, (Yippee!). Simon and Matthew both have exams today. Simon is in Leeds of course doing end of second year uni exams and Matthew has two AS exams today which should be both at the same time, so he and friend Tom are spending lunchtime isolated from everyone so that they can do one in the morning and one after lunch. I know Simon is not looking forward to his exam, how much his opinion of them has changed in the last few years. Matthew seems fairly relaxed, I hope he remains so. I have the benefits of twenty plus years of post exam experience now and realise how insignificant they all are in the general scheme of things but accept they are partof the process and often a means to an end.

My day will be a rather non routine one. I am starting out as usual by going off to play, but cutting short my morning with the pre-schoolers to attend the funeral of a cousin who died aged 98. I hope it will be a celebration of his long life rather than a lament of his passing. I remember as a child being taken to visit him. He and his wife ran a small shop and it was always an excitement for a little girl. Later I’m involved in a sunday evening Service which starts 48 hours late, on purpose! In our church we find it very difficult to get the Brownies and Guides to Church so once a year, we bring church to them and have a service on a Tuesday evening. We rtry to make it fun and relevant to young people and our regular congregation support us well, so if you have a few minutes later, please pray for us.

The Ultimate Event 2008

As promised here’s my very personal account of last Saturday’s Ultimate Event at Alton Towers.

First a bit of history. At this time every year Alton Towers in Staffordshire, England hosts a Christian concert. Alton Towers is the UK’s biggest theme park & it attracts 1000′s of visitors every day. I’m not really a theme park person so I restrict my excitement to the evening concert which has top Christian musicians headlining, in recent years Delirious?, Matt Redman & The Newsboys among them. My experience only extends back five years & each has been memorable.

On to this year. Saturday was a beautiful day, warm, sunny & still. We left about 4pm for the 20 mile drive with Martin, Matthew (who has missed a couple of years) and Clare, our niece looking forward to her first UE. We arrived about 4.40pm, 20 minutes before start time. Matthew found a football cage to play in, 2 on 2, 3 minute games, winner stays on. Matthew found a partner and played 4 games. He was happy! The bandwithnoname opened the concert with the first of two sets at 5pm and Chip K acted as MC for the evening. He was very good & made the purpose of the evening clear, to praise the Lord in every way. We explored the various marquees resisting the temptation to spend money, we listened to RPM & This Beautiful Republic , we ate excellent burgers as we watched the Top Dog break dancers, we enjoyed Sanctus Real on their first UK visit but it all felt like a warm up for Delirious? who were again the headline act. We waited with palpable excitement to see if they could possibly be better than last year. They released a new album three weeks ago, how much new stuff would they play, would they stick to the old faves? The opener ‘God is smiling’ set the tone, it was as excellent as ever. The sound quality was great and 10 000ish people celebrated. They are such consumate professionals with a mix of old & new. Whenever I see Delirious? I feel as if I’m involved in worship, at times everything and everyone else just fades away and there I am, just me and my Lord & 9 999 other people. You may not associate clapping & jumping up & down as worship but it was happening all around me & I am very thankful to have been part of it.

Failed again.

I’m sorry to say that my best intentions to write regularly have again slipped, not because I don’t have things to say, more because I run out of time, or wonder if you’re interested in the trivia of our everyday lives.

We are under exam conditions at present. Simon in Leeds has exams at Uni and Matthew has AS exams, both have begun in earnest this week. I am always relieved when they are over and everyone relaxes again. The uncertainty surrounding Martin’s job seems mostly resolved now with a take-over planned for 1 June. I am currently feeling quite frustrated about lack of progress in some of the things I am involved in, I am filled with a sense that we are simply paying ‘lip-service’ to requirements, but unable or unwilling to progress the issues. Either that or it’s my age!!

The weather has been lovely recently and the garden has blossomed beautifully. We still have much work to do to reclaim it after the enforced neglect of caring for my Dad, but the bluebells and blossom make all the difference. Last weekend we had a fantastic weekend. On Saturday we went to the Ultimate Event at Alton Towers. I want to tell you all about it, but intend to devote a whole post to it. Plan to do that tomorrow as the pictures are already here.

A lovely weekend

I am almost at the end of a lovely weekend. It started on Friday evening with a fun night out with the ‘girls’, much enjoyed by all five of us and set to be repeated again soon. Saturday dawned bright and sunny. I was awake early and Martin and I made an early morning foray to the supermarket and the bank. The bank were having a computer ‘glitch’ so were having to enter transactions by hand. By the time we got home Matthew was up. Martin had a quick clear out in the garage as we had the refuse freighter in the village. We got rid of some garden rubbish, an old bike and a couple of doors, which we replaced four years ago, but which he insisted we kept ‘in case they were useful’. We were a little concerned to find a blackbirds nest, complete with four eggs in the foliage we wanted to throw away. We are afraid that the birds won’t return to it as although we haven’t touched the nest, it was disturbed before we saw it. Matthew did don his mp3 player to cut the grass and his dulcet tones could be heard floating across the garden from time to time as he sang along!

We spent tea time with Martin’s mum and sisters and family. It is great to catch up when we can and it’s usually a lovely family time. In the evening we went to listen to Newmount Brass play. Matthew played the solo ‘The Holy City’, whenever he plays a solo I come over all emotional, as I guess every mother does, so I have to pretend to focus very hard on something else nearby!

Today at church we had a baby baptism. The church was full and the baby smiled at the critical moment which provoked a huge Awww! This evening we had one of our cafe style events.The theme was Hope, with a mix of music, pictures and poetry not to mention chocolate cake and coffee, they are always thought provoking and attract visitors who perhaps would not otherwise come to church in an evening.

I already know it will be a trying week ahead, so it has been an especially lovely weekend.

Busy Day

I have had a normal quiet working day and am completely in awe of Matthew who must have had the busiest day in the family. He left for school today at 8am prepared for AS/PE moderation day. It was raining! He has spent the day with his fellow PE students being moderated to ensure their teachers have marked fairly and consistently. I know he has played football and rugby not to mention having completed his own Personal Exercise Plan. Following this he spent three hours until 6pm, still at school finishing off an Entry Level Rugby Referees Course which should have been completed weeks ago except for an incompetent external tutor. Then it was home for a quick tea before band practice for a concert coming up at the weekend. No wonder he was tired