Mothering Sunday

The middle of March has rolled around a little too quickly, but it's here and we're celebrating Mothering Sunday in our (un)usual ways.

For christ Church, it was a chance to try something new... we spent half an hour before the service started in seperate parts of the building, mothers and those without young children, chatting and having coffee and delicious cakes in the hall, and everyone else in the main church building, at various tables, making things for their mum.

Second Sunday for Christ Church is a communion service, so we thought of a creative way to allow families to come to communion together. We had four stations at four distinct points of the church and invited people to take communion in their own time.

It's an unusual way of doing things for us as a church, we normally have rows and more singing, but this time we had card making, pot painting and poem wirting, plus some sentence finishing. We had the normal things, like a talk and a welcome, but we praised God with everything we did and supported all of the families that joined us.

Yesterday was full of fun things for me personally - I got to see Alice, Andy, Alex, Stephen and Matilda, we were pre-planning Falcon Afloat, which included remembering last year and gathering thoughts for this year... some very exciting ideas and some increasingly funny memories, that always get better with time. I'm really looking forward to Falcon this year... I went with mild intrepidation last year (and I'd already been away for the weekend) but this year I'm going with a clearer idea of what to expect (at least from living on a boat for a couple of days) and how things work. However, God works in mysterious ways and I know that this year is going to be totally different from last year.

I finished the day with cooking dinner for 7 people, something that I am fully capable of, but I'm still learning about portions and how to make decent gravy! With help from Karen and Dominic (boyfriend of sister!) we put together a pretty decent roast dinner, with yorkshires and all the trimmings (no stuffing though - I really don't think we needed it) and finished with the giantic chocolate gateaux that my Nan brought. We needed more veg, but ate on time. I've realised that gravy takes it's own sweet time, there's no rushing it! Conversations after dinner were full of passion for things we love and things we hate, telling stories and humiliating each other in the only way we know how - when a family has been complete for 20 years getting together is easy and wonderful! Happy 79th birthday to my Nan - still going strong and not looking a day over 6o!!

Happy Mothering Sunday... here's to restful weeks and wonderful weekends.