wattshappening

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - smoothies

2011-07-27T22:54:00.005+01:00

Wordless Wednesday treacle tart

2011-07-16T07:53:00.003+01:00

Nearly wordless: but for 30yrs I've adored treacle tart treats. Now I know how easy they are I'm never buying one again.

Upcycled Bottles

2011-07-08T21:18:00.002+01:00

In a moment of weakness i somehow agreed to buy very sugary drinks for my son. Determined to prove to me it was a good idea he suggested we stored something in them when they are empty aka upcycle them.

But have you seen the tiny hole in the top????

Not to be outdone we together thought how we could cut, fold, stick, staple, attach - and so on to make these into something stunning.

Then we realised - just as they are -they are stunning so we popped a flower in and love them.

(though now son is saying - we should get other colour drinks to have rainbow vases!)

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

2011-07-06T22:14:00.001+01:00

Treasure Soap for school funds

2011-07-01T23:38:00.003+01:00

RD made a batch of treasure soap this week. Some blue bubblegum scent and some red rose scent. He sold all 21 at his school fair, priced £1 each. The treasure inside was a marble or dice.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

2011-06-29T20:19:00.004+01:00

JP's idea and creation of a road layout.

It's been a while

2011-06-28T14:21:00.003+01:00

It's been a while since I

watched my choices from the recorder box during the day

reclaimed the back yard from the weeds

ordered a book from Waterstones (have book vouchers you see)

phoned my sister during the day mid term mid week

left the breakfast and lunch things out and unwashed up

hung washing on the line

wrote on this blog.

I'm planning on coming back to this place more often, to record 'wattshappening' from thought processes, to children's activities, from searching blogs for ideas to wordless wednesdays where they'll hopefully just be a photo that says it all.

Prefixes

2009-11-02T20:52:00.002Z

I've been reading a book about increasing one's vocabulary.

We're getting quite accustomed to the notion of recycling.

I'd like to be better at UPcycling - that is to acquire something that is being recycled and adapt it to suit your own needs, through DIY/sewing/ painting/ changing etc

And today I read an article about PREcycling - which means to get beyond the shops and grow your own.

Its what you do before you do anything else, like prayer - I continually recycle prayers but now I'm on a mission to UPcycle the tired ones and PREcycle my own more often.

Plug Ins

2009-11-01T20:56:00.002Z

I've created a plug in charger for drained parents.

Its called prayer.

Why is it I often think of it as a last resort when really it should the sustaining plug in of my life? Instant connectivity to the creator and sustainer I serve and worship. Let me be plugged in more.

We sang in our worship event today 'Hungry I come to you, I am weak but I know your love does not run dry' thats me, weak and in need of more connectivity.

Pedalling

2009-10-30T13:55:00.003Z

'Pedal you've got to pedal up that hill'

As Reuben David has been learning how to use pedals on a bike I've noticed how my life is fairly similar. Its so much easier to pedal backwards and get nowhere and do nothing other than accumulate frustration.

But when one puts effort into the action and pedals forward you get results, even if that means pedalling uphill through a barrier of tiredness, pain, disappointment or failure etc

Today I'm putting a whole lot of effort into pedalling.

Swans Reflecting Elephants

2009-10-19T12:48:00.003+01:00

It seems to me that blogging is a good way for people to quietly muse their thoughts in a sort of out loud fashion.

So I'm coming back to a place that allows me to ponder life and celebrates-seemingly-disjointed-yet-connected-random-thoughts.

My thoughts today are very much random and hardly connected: community, ordination, teeth, and surrealism.

Thank you Salvador Dali for 'Swans Reflecting Elephants'.

Green Fingered?

2008-11-07T20:58:00.004Z

Together with other locals, at our community allotment planning meeting, I carefully considered my answer to the chairperson's skills matrix question 'what do you bring to this project?' I listened as people offered their suggestions; key holder, logo designer, treasurer, children's craft co-ordinator. I offered 'motivation and encourager' for my input. Graciously the chairperson welcomed each offer, then asked - 'do we have anyone who can actually dig?'!!!!!!

Life on demand

2008-11-02T19:47:00.002Z

Current baby feeding advice is 'feed your baby when they ask for it, ie on demand'.
Without live TV we can watch any of our prerecorded dvd's whenever we like 'on demand'.
You can now buy seasonal fruits and vegetables all year round 'on demand'.
If you want to purchase something - anything - online auctions are available 24/7 'on demand'.
We know we live in a consumers society but the danger is we might end up treating God the same way.

A moment of silence

2008-10-21T22:17:00.002+01:00

I feel compelled to suggest that anyone who reads this blog takes a moment to acknowledge the safety they have been granted today and to pray or offer thoughts for the extended family of David & Michelle and their four children Reece, Jay, Mason & Elouise who tragically died on the M6 on Monday night. The pain must be unbearable.

Colour: Why church should be green

2008-10-21T12:52:00.004+01:00

During modernity some people viewed God as Transcendent: we'll assign them the colour YELLOW. These people were soaked in the creator God.

During modernity some people viewed God as Immanent: we'll assign them the colour BLUE. These people were soaked in creation.

In post modernity and Rachel's gloop church there is a recognition that Jesus draws together the creator and creation and in so doing mixes the colours equally.

(Taken from ReIMAGINE community of artists in San Francisco and from Emerging Churches by Eddie Gibbs & Ryan K Bolger)

Gloop Church

2008-10-21T06:11:00.003+01:00

My emerging church would be called 'Gloop Church', a multisensory experience of fun, colour, and experiment. Different styles of church doesn't change the message or impact. God spreads out like cornflour in water, allowing for experiences of solid and liquid forms. Goop can be any colour but its often GREEN, my emerging church would certainly aim to be the ethical shade of green.

What would your emerging church be?

Fabulous Cornflour

2008-10-19T15:25:00.005+01:00

Once upon a time cornflour was used only for making sauces like gravy thicker but I have discovered it as a fabulous ingredient for making craft activity things; so i take time out to share with parents and childcare workers (though i accept i may actual be behind on this discovery!)

You've probably all made goop before: 2 cups cornflour, 1 cup water, few drops food colouring, mix together and play. It goes solid when you touch it and runny when you don't.

But i've discovered if you add salt you get a dough that dries hard in a few days but is different from salt dough.

However if you add sugar instead you get a mixture that remains gooey like paint.

Cornflour is made up of lots of long, stringy particles that don't dissolve in water. However, they do spread themselves out, which allows the goo to act as both a solid and a liquid.

FABULOUS CORNFLOUR!

M,T,W,Th,F,S,S,M,T,W,Th,F,S,S,M,T,W,?

2008-10-14T19:40:00.002+01:00

A bizarre new language or cryptic code to be cracked? Neither just the initials of the days of the weeks as they go rolling by, now we've entered a new routine in the land of Spenceshire:

Jacob's response has been to activate the crawling mode on his launchpad as if to find the old routine just round the corner. He's learning movement, speech, cause and effect, signing, active play and how to get the response 'touch no'! Reuben's response has been more subtle; a kind of new found independence mixed with a dollop of insecurity an increase of affirmation soon sorts that out though. He's learning shapes, sets, numbers, alphabet, phonics and crafts, much of which takes place with his imaginary friends Leo & Jane.

Meanwhile Rachel leapt into 'hyper organised mode' for September and was worn out by October! Some of her plans remain in tact whilst others have proved to be one thing too many for the tribe to fit in. The best idea of all time has to be a 4 week rotating plan which tells me what to buy, cook, eat and wash without me having to remember what we've done recently. Brilliant!

We like to analyse and consider the 'what if's' of lifes circumstances, this has brought us into bloggingland, a place where we can ask, consider, mull over and generally assess the goings on of both our lives and the global society in which we are residents.

To find out how Ian is surviving this new routine check out his own blog via spenceshire.net.

I conclude these ramblings for now in the words of Reuben 'oh no mummy what happened?'