Challenge Update #2

So here are this week's updates for the Dottie Angel and Creative Every Day Challenges:

I love candles and candlelight so am always looking for new ways to safely have them around. I've seen pictures of punched tin holders so Nifty Thrifty here thought she'd try making one.

Firstly I removed the label, washed off the glue and scrubbed the tin well- I certainly didn't want 'eau de chilli bean parfum' wafting about later!

I used a nail to hammer a pattern of holes, but I think if I'd used a thinner nail I could have made more holes and a more intricate pattern.

I might add to it again but it was quite tricky stopping the tin from escaping, I should have used the vice, but the shed is too darn cold at the moment.
Apparently if you freeze the tin full of water it makes it less likely to bend, but I saw that in a magazine too late for my enterprise. Anyhow, its kinda fun.

Now my Creativity on the 'Body' theme for which I'm using the five senses:

Sight: my sister gave me a Tiffany Calendar for Christmas as I love stained glass windows. The pictures are beautiful and it made me look more carefully than usual at the windows in Church yesterday. I don't know the date of this window as it is in the side entryway, and rarely viewed. It depicts the story of Mary and Martha, one of my favourites. Since folks have been knocking our Church building around since the 1260's it's a bit difficult to find out the history- but I know this window is in a different style to the ones in the nave. Its beautiful.
Hearing: You know the way one can hear things over and over and then once in a blue moon the truth or beauty or irrelevance of the words suddenly hits one afresh? Well it was like that yesterday- suddenly the beauty of the words in Morning Prayer hit me as though I was hearing them for the first time (which I wasn't!).

'Beloved in Christ,

we come together to offer to Almighty God

our worship and praise and thanksgiving,

to confess our sins and to receive God's forgiveness,

to hear his holy word proclaimed,

to bring before him our needs and the needs of the world,

and to pray that in the power of his spirit

we may serve him and know the greatness of his love.'

Such a wealth of imagery and words!

Touch: On Friday I waxed part of the old wooden dresser, which is a very tactile job, and satisfying.

Smell: When it is frosty have you noticed how the air is just searingly cold and pure? And then there is a puff of turf or wood smoke from the chimney and it is startling in its intensity after the nothingness of the frosty air? Taste: A hot cup of rooibos tea after a couple of hours of hard housekeeping work!
After visiting some of the other 'Creative Challenge' people last week I think I'm on totally the wrong track. You should have a look (follow the links from the sidebar logo), there is some amazing artwork and esoteric writing happening out there. Obviously there are some very talented artists involved, not just silly people like me drifting along trying to add meaning to the everyday mundane stuff.

Ah well, c'est la vie en pays!

Waahay! Post!

Look what arrived in the post this morning:-
Colletta emailed me before Christmas to say I had won one of her book giveaways. I was delighted, and then the bad weather arrived which resulted in no post for nearly a fortnight. However this morning there was a clunk on the doormat and THERE it was!

I tell you, I was so pleased that I made myself a big cuppa tea, stretched out on the sofa and began reading! Thank you Colletta, I am so enjoying 'Jingle Bell Babies'!

And a day on the sofa has done me good too as I am still far from well, but with the house full of family have been dashing round like a mad thing keeping up with laundry, meals, cleaning, airing the dogs, mopping up snow puddles, etc etc- just usual mother things. So I guess I'm twice grateful!

My favourite mug with Winnie-the-Pooh came to grief this evening, boo hoo. B was very sorry too as she broke it.

The wind has been howling since yesterday afternoon, now with sleet and snow added. It is wearing listening to it but I'm thankful for a warm, snug house (which hasn't always been the case). Sos and B made supper this evening, when I said salads I meant various dishes, but they misunderstood and put everything together in one big bowl, including all the Christmas leftovers!!!

A Campfire and James' Letter cont'd

On Saturday evening after devouring six pizzas, a pot of tea and a whole cake (in reverse order!), the young'uns decided to have a campfire. I gave them matches, showed them the paper re-cycling and the wood pile, and let them get on with it. I reckoned the ground around the fire-pit was still so damp they couldn't do any damage, and though they mightn't succeed in getting a fire going they would enjoy the trying. Well they did, and spent the next hour and a half enjoying it and star-gazing. Honestly that lot could talk for Ireland, I don't think they stopped all day!
Yesterday morning was so sunny that the stained glass windows in Church were a blaze of colour. I tried to take some photos but they don't really capture the beauty of them.

The Rector preached on James Ch3 v1:'Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.'

He made three points regarding this verse: firstly in order to teach it is necessary to be dedicated, and even to have a vocation for it, that the most effective teachers don't stumble into it by chance. Secondly that an effective teacher needs training and, possibly, experience of what they are teaching- we can't teach unless first taught. And thirdly that in order for teachers to prevail in their work they need to practise what is in their hearts, communicating through their living.

I remember studying this passage when I was at College doing my teacher training and wondering how I could possibly live up to all that God requires, as well as the human responsibility of being a teacher. It seemed such an enormous undertaking, with so many years of life before me to get it terribly wrong! Well, there are less years before me now, but I still have to trust that God knows what He's doing sending me into classrooms, because the whole 'thing' of teaching still overwhelms me, and that's just on one day a week!!!

Its another beautiful day today, so after the school run I went outside and took some garden photos. Sos begins College today, and is very excited. B forgot her games kit in the car and came dashing back as I was pulling out into the traffic, and I noticed the student in the car behind did exactly the same thing! Traffic block! The borrowed car from the garage is fine, and I managed not to crunch anything in the traffic this morning!

I think I'm waffling just to put off getting on with the Monday chores...