New Kid on the Blog

As regular visitors will know, Friday is normally the day I blog least, as it is my day off. Well, I seem to have given up time off for Lent (don't worry, I have been making time for family and getting some rest, it just hasn't been a whole day off for a few weeks). So here I am having spent the day in schools (both schools had 'end of term services' today) or in the car or visiting or -as I am doing now - preparing for Palm Sunday and Holy Week. My greatest disappointment this year with all of our palm Sunday services is that there are no Donkeys! Usually we have little processions in our villages with slightly temperamental beast of burden to add a little excitement, colour and odour to the proceedings. these days there are fewer people, even in the countryside, who own animals and those who do are not willing to take the risk of having them take part in a public event, mainly because our society is getting more litigious and insurance for such events has skyroc...

An opportunity to let my grumbly side out... Had a very heavy day yesterday, with a really important pastoral event which saw me putting lots of time and a huge amount of energy into a situation which has been going on for a couple of weeks now. It was worth the energy, but left me yesterday feeling very drained - tired out physically, emotionally and spiritually too. I then called someone to talk about one of our Children's services on Sunday, a Christingle, and cheerily said 'i've got everything sorted, collected the collection boxes for charity from the local school, sorted out music & service sheets' and then asked 'do you have any idea who I could ask to do a short reading - i've got the main reader sorted out, but thought a child or two might want to read a short prayer' i was then moaned at for not having done this two weeks ago (co-incidentally when the pastoral event began, as the speaker knew) and despite my protestations that i didn't ...