A little story from when my children were a bit younger “What’s pancake day all about?” I ask my 7 and 8 year olds over breakfast. “Pancakes!” my 7 year old replies gleefully. O-Oh. I have work to do here! “What else?” I ask. No response. “It begins with L and rhymes with Bent.”“Lent!” *phew! … Read more
Lent can be intimidating. What can I do? Where do I start? Some people seem to get it together and use it as a time to grow in their faith. But if you’re more like me, excited by all the lovely ideas, but aware I may not get past day 2 on any of them, … Read more
I love this book! It’s the Christmas and Easter stories told by the eloquent Madeleine L’Engle illustrated with frescoes from the Scrovegni Chapel by Giotto. You can see my review of the book here, but this post is about how I’ve used the pictures and story in this book to meditate on the Christmas story … Read more
I find it interesting to look at the Christmas story and see what messages from God to the people back then are also relevant for us. It’s a little risky, as it’s possible to take Bible verses out of context when applying them to ourselves, but there are definitely some messages in the Christmas story … Read more
Title: The Christmas Mystery Written by: Jostein Gaarder (author of Sophie’s World) Published by: Orion Children’s Books Useful for: parents of children aged 7–11 years old Best bit: The story is clever and beautiful, mysterious and fascinating, a treat for adults and children alike, with 24 chapters exploring the birth of Jesus, making it perfect … Read more
If like me you love candles, but struggle to find a safe-ish way to use them during Advent and other seasons, you will like this genius idea from my friend, Flora. She just fills a lovely ceramic flower pot with sand then pushes the candles into it! Da-dah! Candles are ready! I realise for some … Read more
A few years ago my children were really into Lego, so I planned some ways to explore the Christmas story using Lego. You can buy a set online but, like these ones, they’re not cheap and only feature a small number of the characters actually mentioned in the Bible story, so here are a few … Read more
I know lots of people do things as a family to celebrate Jesus at Christmas, but what about Easter? In some ways, Christmas is harder as there’s so much else going on, but Easter is trickier to tell, especially to younger children. Here are some ideas to help you: Looking for more ideas? Here’s 36 … Read more
We’ve celebrated Passover in our home for a number of years now, and each year it’s different, as we adapt it around who will be there. We tend to have a big feast-like meal interspersed with parts of the service (seder). We include elements which we use each week in our Shabbat meal, for example … Read more
It’s December, the last month in what has been a pretty dreadful year in many ways. How do we celebrate Christmas? In order to work out our answer to that question, I’ve got three questions (I’ve put each in three different ways – make your choice!): What is your family like? / What do you … Read more
#Thanktober is a simple idea: Let’s be thankful for something every day and grow our ‘thanks muscles’. I started it a few years ago, and each year I share a thanks prompt each day on Facebook and Instagram, so do pop over and say hi, like a few and comment on a few posts to … Read more
Here’s a simple version of an ancient practise: Use a breathing prayer to ‘chew over’ a Bible verse. This is less of an understanding exercise and more of a feeling, meditative one. If you’ve found a verse that jumps out at you or is particularly meaningful to you at the moment, this might be something … Read more