Blogging through the alphabet {Family, Friends, Fellowship, Faithfulness and Fires}

This week has been, and will be, a full one. (Hence the quietness on the bloggy front....)

We have done school work, been to our homeschool co-op, and had my parents for a visit.

Or, as Abi said "When will Grandpa and Grandma be here for the sleepover"!!

I love it when they come to see us. They live about an hour and 45 minutes away, so not close enough for very frequent visits in either direction. We hadn't seen them since the New Year, so it was a joy to have them here. I had a couple of shopping trips out with my Mum, which was lovely. I was able to leave some children at home with Grandpa, AND I had Grandma to help ME! If you don't have children, you won't quite understand why that is meaningful. If you have lots of children, you WILL! Having lots of children is wonderful, but it does rather restrict you from having "normal" shopping trips.

Today, we had co-op.  The children learnt about different elements relating to the Great Fire of London. It's a fascinating event, and I learnt many new things in our lessons yesterday.

We had older children writing diary entries, like Samuel Pepys, we had everyone baking apple cakes, as a nod to the fire starting in a bakery, on Pudding Lane, and we had arts and crafts relating to period costume, and about the fire of London.

That was too fun NOT to share with you, so here it is..

Abi's

Elijah's

Simeon's

Susie's

My lovely SIL, Anna, led the activity, and the children had a lot of fun - and I spent a lot of time telling Simeon not to wear the paint! You begin by painting the paper like fire, then you cut out an outline of a skyline, on the black paper, and stick it over the painted page. Simple, but very effective!  I have to say, Anna also did a good job of teaching the children about the fire, because my 7 year old was busily telling me all about it on the way home!

I was responsible for teaching some scripture to the children, so I will share it with you, as it was interesting to make a connection between the Fire of London, and a Proverb!

I will begin by telling you how they managed to extinguish the Fire of London.  Due to the wooden houses being so close together, the fire had been spreading uncontrollably for 4 days. It was devised that if they set explosives and blew up a whole section of houses, the fire would lose its fuel source - the wooden houses, and could be stopped from progressing, before it got to the stockpile of explosives stored at at the tower of London. SO, that's what they did, and it worked! I didn't know that until the other night.  Then, I tried to finalise which verse to teach, searching the word "fire" and found THIS.

 "Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth."

Proverbs 26:20 

Now, how perfect is THAT verse?? Did you even know it was in the Bible?  I didn't!

It illustrated an important truth, PERFECTLY.

I talked to the children about talebearing, and what it is. Not telling lies, as my children keep thinking it means, but spreading things about others, just to cause trouble. Telling me what another sibling has done, just knowing it will get them in trouble, and make themselves look better. It can also be further applied to spreading gossip, or telling people things it's not your place to tell them. Bearing a "tale".  We ALL fall prey to being unwise about how we use our words.  Just like the fire of London, if we are mean, and talebear about others - spreading word of another's failings or sins - telling people things it's not our place to tell them - spreading information for the wrong motives - it causes strife. We cause problems, feelings of sadness and contention, by unwisely passing word around that we have no place to share.

As I told the children, there ARE times when it's important to share information - if a child is doing something dangerous, hurtful, or damaging, I NEED to know about it, to deal with it. That's different. Also, similarly, as Christian adults, it's important to pass on certain information, if needed.  Calling out false teaching, speaking to another parent about a child who is being hurtful, or speaking privately to a person in authority about sinful practice you have found.

So many other things, however, are just people not thinking, before they speak. As James says, the tongue is like a little spark of fire, that can spread and cause a LOT of damage, if used unwisely.  I truly felt my own heart needed the teaching, as much as the children's did!

This weekend heralds my "friends and fellowship" part of "F".

It's our Annual Service of Thanksgiving, in our Church.  Rather than having a "Pastor's Anniversary", we turn the emphasis upon the Lord, and what He has done for us - giving Him thanks for another year of blessing and encouragement. God is good, and we have much to be thankful for in our small fellowship. We have people who work together, and who love the Lord.  They are such an encouragement, so often, to us.  We have seen growth and change, including a youth meeting which has been really well attended (in our small Church regard!).  God has kept us and blessed us as a family - we have had a new baby, and our children are all healthy and well.  We have an amazing home, and wonderful family and friends.

People will join together tomorrow, to thank the Lord for His goodness, and hear God's Word being preached. Our good friend, Oliver Baker, will be preaching Saturday, and Sunday. The bonus is that Robert is blessed, as he gets a Sunday with a break from preaching, and is taught, instead. Extra bonus - he often sits beside me, in the "pews", which is rare!

We have many friends coming and going through our home, over the weekend, which is also a joy. I will have 31 for lunch on Saturday! Fun times!

Now, I must go - I have baking to do for after tomorrow's service - hey, that's FOOD! Another "F"! Maybe I should get around to sharing some of my favourite recipes at some point?

I trust you all have a blessed weekend, and I will try and get some more posts out next week, subject to how busy I am having fellowship with visiting friends!