It has been a very busy, and quite challenging/demanding week, full of variety and with lots of moments that were joyful, privileged, grace-filled or all three.

So, here's a kind of a thank you prayer as it splurges out of my brain onto the computer...

Thank you God

For fried-egg butties, and HLT (grilled hallumi, grilled tomato, and lettuce) rolls...

For mugs of tea and bottles of fizzy water

For ideas to stretch my mind - which confirm your Spirit's leading in the sermon I'd already written

For buses and trains - and for people who offer lifts

For 'cool water' coloured paint that splodges, and needs many layers to cover the kitchen walls

For the need to re-embroider dates on towels

For vets and pet insurance, for the NHS in all its forms

For sunny afternoons when we could sit outside

For phone calls and emails; for real life encounters

For admin and study, for reflection and creativity

For the fact that when I can't sleep you are with me

For weaving life's challenges into a more beautiful whole

For life in its fulness, messy, complicated, and charged with joy, privilege and grace.

For these - and for those I can't even recall -

Thank you, loving God.

I am very much looking forward to listening to this lecture later on today. The speaker has visited our church, along with her family, whilst on holiday in Scotland last year.

Will report back later on how it went!

When the heavy snow meant we had to postpone our Baptism service, there were some unusual implications.

The photo shows one of them - and the flaw in my cunning plan... Unpicking and re-rembroidering isn't practical, so I need to 'cover up'.  When buying the ribbon I failed to note that a letter y' has a tail... oops. The upshot is that I will have to stitch the ribbon over the old date before I can do the tail of the 'y'.

There's probably a moral in there somewhere, but I'm not sure what it is!!

Sasha contemplating a (random) passage from Isaiah!

Sophie with holding cross... Beyond cute!