Stitches and Craft show

I went to this show yesterday with Prue and her twin Yvette - she talks about it here. We had a wonderful time without our kids and we all spent more money than intended.

I bought some hand printed red birch fabric from Ink and Spindle. I've taken a photo of it and will put it up soon. I'm thinking of making something Christmassy - perhaps as a motif fabric on stockings?

I also bought something from Prints Charming - it is hush hush though because I am making a gift. Last year I made their Christmas decorations - a lovely scando Noel. As per usual, I didn't put a photo up on my blog - so Prue has made me promise to do so soon.

I bought a couple other gifts from various other places, and envied Prue the wonderful fabric she bought from Ink and Spindle and from Cloth. I'm sure she will share it on her blog! Edit: she has

Psalms - singing faith in the midst of it all - sermon series

I'm in the middle of planning my next sermon series. Our church theme this year is on having hope through faith. I've just finished a series on Romans and just about to do one on Psalms. Any suggestions on which Psalms I should preach on? I'm trying to get a good representative sample both of the content o the book and the reality of human experience

womanhood and drop dead diva

We have just started a study series looking at womanhood with the 16-21 year old women at church. We had a fantastic discussion in our first one, particularly about the conflicting messages society sends women - for instance that you should be loved for who you are (as long as you are underweight, under 30 and constantly well groomed). That motherhood is very important - but that you are a nobody without a flourishing career.

I found at the ancient age of 35 I could contribute a lot to the discussion of what it is like to be a woman. For instance, I know at that age I was full of self righteous assertions that I would grow old gracefully. Now, as the first wrinkles and grey hairs appear, I have started to understand the measures many women take to keep a semblance of youth.

Then last night I watched the new TV show Drop Dead Diva. Having read the promo material I expected to see a fat woman as the star - in fact she was an attractive woman in her early 30s who was somewhat overweight, and looked like many women do at her age (that's her in the picture above, Brooke Elliot) - except in TVland, of course. I enjoyed the show and think on the whole it might be good as a corrective on this sort of thing - well except that almost every other woman on the pilot show was skinny. Still Tvland...

Well, I better stop gazing anxiously in the mirror at the obviously Botox free forehead I am developing and go back to looking at my Bible, which declares me to be of a great worth not dependent on my outward appearance. Hang on, is that a grey hair in my eyebrow....

one of the most difficult tasks of parenting

Today Sparky got a bad splinter. He made a great commotion over getting it out. Bhaer was meant to do it, cause his eyesight is better, but he was too tenderhearted and was taking too long with no success so I had to step in, hold Sparky down and quickly though I'm sure painfully scratch it out. Sparky thanked me immediately though when he realised that I had got it out in a couple of seconds, which was good after all the screaming.

I felt terrible. But it had to be done. And done quickly. I also felt bad because I lost my temper in the middle of it all and told my frightened child off.

What a terrible tightrope we walk as parents, doing things for a child's good that are painful at the time (shades of Hebrews 12:11) and having to work out when that discipline is warranted and when not, and how we should go about it. Sometimes we will make good decisions (like getting the splinter out) and sometimes bad(like losing my temper). Sometimes we will fail our children by being too indulgent or inconsistent, and at other times we will fail them by being overly rigid or unfair. Parenting requires the patience of Job and the wisdom of Solomon. Though I do recall that Job did do some complaining and Solomon did some foolish things.

And all I can do is keep trying to love as much as I can, apologise whenever I need to, and pray. hard.

the lazy crafter strikes again

I hardly ever get around to doing craft and even less often do I get around to showing it to you. I would call myself the armchair crafter except that indeed thats where you usually do do craft. Maybe I'm an internet crafter!

Anyway for those of you who do actually do it rather than sigh over how lovely other people's craft is, I just discovered another fabric deisgner I love (see previous post on amy butler).

Anna Maria Horner. She has 6 kids too. And is about my age I think. Wow.

Party Planning

I have to admit that the thought of planning kid's parties really doesn't thrill me. So far for Sparky and Scout I haven't really planned a proper one at home. For Sparky last year we went with what in our house is called the Scottish Place (because of Sparky's ability to spell - can you guess which fast food chain?).

But this year I feel it is about time I made an effort. Sparky's 5th birthday is in about 2 months. I'm thinking a cooking party - making mini pizzas and cookies. Any ideas or suggestions on where to get supplies will be welcome!

It's kids' prerogative to change their minds, right?

After explaining we weren't going to see Ice Age 3, we ended up going as we got an invitation, and suddenly when asked by a friend, it became a lot more attractive to Sparky!

It was on the scary end for a preschooler though - lots of bad stuff that almost happens. Everything turns out Ok of course.

Trailer below.