Today Tom is 16.
Where has the time gone?
It seems only yesterday that we sat in the delivery suite together
that I held you for the first time
(now you’d crush me!!!)
Today it’s difficult to be here.
Today I’d like to be at home.
Hope you’ve had a great day Tom.
On New Years Eve 10 of us went down to the beach at Porth to mark the start of the new year by launching sky lanterns.
The night was amazingly still with a near full moon. The sea was flat and calm. We found a small cove and cave which gave us shlter as we lit the lanterns. They looked amazing as they floated off.
As the lanterns floated people either made wishes, resolutions or prayed. I thanked God for the past year, thanked him for the people I was with and ‘wondered with God’ what 2010 will bring.
Christmas is close and today, after I did a little bit of study on my study day (come on … cut me some slack!!!) we went to the dreaded Bluewater. This has become an annual custom of the Ryans. Gone are the days when Sarah and I bought the presents from our children to each other and to us. Now we seem to have developed our little tradition of going to Bluewater, giving each child and equal amount of money after discussing possible presents for each other and letting them go.
Our eldest, Tom, goes off on his own and sorts things and today I wandered with Beth first, we then met for coffee so that Beth and Joe can swap parents and but the last one without us knowing what it is. We then go somewhere fro dinner and come home. It’s very civilised and gives the children some early budgeting experience. It’s also quite fun to see them making decisions such as ‘If I but this for x then I only have this much money left for y’ … and so on. As I said it’s quite a bit of fun.
That tradition has developed and happened today which must mean that Chrstmas is very close. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve when we follow another long held family tradition which is an early evening party with cake to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. We shall be doing this tomorrow with good friends and family members. It started when our children were very little and we have tried to stop it a few times – but our children will not let us!
It’s funny how traditions can get a hold of us and become difficult to let go! Not that, in these two cases, I am wanting to!
It’s been a bit of a busy weekend. I don’t often regret my move from Dorset to Kent (or even the one from Bristol back to Kent) but this weekend I did. Medway is one of the few ares that still has grammar schools and along with that goes the 11+ / selection test. We have given all our children the choice and Joe decided he would like to take it despite it meaning being under ‘exam conditions’ from 8.30 until 1.15 on a Saturday morning in a large conference centre with around 300 other children.
Talking earlier in the day with friends, we realised that even when we took our degrees we were never under so much pressure for such a long amount of time. Yesterday children were queuing outside these centres across Medway for up to 30 minutes as they waited for the centre to open and be registered. I don’t like the system and it seems to be parallel to sacrificing our children. It seems to me this is a system to make it all easier for the local authority with no thought to the welfare of the child.
I don’t want to get into all the politics of grammar schools – those of you that know me are aware of my thoughts and I am not knocking them here. The system, however, must be wrong. When I did the test years over 30 years ago I never realised what was happening. There was no stress, it was one in our class with our teacher sitting in our normal places amongst our friends. I have to ask why we can’t do that today – the stress we put children under through this system is madness!
Children are adaptable and he returned home fine enough – but just because children are adaptable and do it does not make it right!
It’s been a pretty amazing weekend with quite a lot packed in.
Saw Beth dance at the Hazlitt theatre and I was amazed, as were her brothers, with how excellent a dancer she has become. She was obviously thoroughly enjoying herself and we were all so proud to be part of this.
Sunday I preached and presided at the communion service at St. Mark’s in Gillingham. It was nice to be back and be in the very informal setting of St Mark’s with friends that I have known for years. It was an interesting time – I never thought I’d see the day when St mark’s used wafers in communion, and nor did I ever think I would be the person consecrating and administering them! There’s always surprises to be had.
The weekend had a sad tinge to it in that we visited Ben (cool photo of Ben the BBQ-er don’t you think!!) and Zoe for a BBQ and said goodbye as Ben is leaving to head up what seems an incredibly exciting project in Norfolk. He will be youth working and setting up a fresh expression of church – a job I’d love to be involved with and I look forward to hearing how this pans out in the future. But, I guess all good weekends need to have a sad tinge – so bye B,Z and E – lots of us are going to miss you!
Today was a bit more of a traditional vicar type day today where I joined with Rochester Grammar School for their Founders day Service. It was a real privilege to be part of this and see the many gifts and enthusiasm on display from these students. I also had a proud uncle moment when Rachael, who is Head Girl, read the first reading.
Later in the evening I had another privilege of eating curry and watching Monsoon Wedding as part of a fundraiser for the cathedral’s project in Chennai in the Madras region of India. It was a good time to meet new people and the film itself was an excellent film – a film about how the mixing the new and the traditional was affecting this one particular family. It’s probably best described as a comedy drama which chooses to deal with tragedy, but preferring to concentrate on the joy of love and the wedding occasion.
AS well as being an excellent idea for a fundraiser, Bev is an amazing cook so the food was simply amazing too – I just wish I could have eaten a lot more of it (but I ate a fair bit!!)
I’m back from retreat, I am a priest and I have presided at my first Eucharist and I will write more about that in the week.
Today though is a very special day in the Ryan household as ….
Beth becomes a teenager.
Happy 13th birthday Beth – I love you loads!
When we returned to Gillingham in 1996 Beth was just a bump – and now she is a beautiful and talented 13 year old. I can’t believe how much we are all proud of her and love her.
Have a fantastic day!
Yesterday we had a great extended family day as we descended upon Bagshot to celebrate the baptism of Matthew with Chris, Juliette and Lucy.
This was a truly special day as Juliette and Chris, along with Maria and Andrew as god parents, and all of us present really, made some great promises about bringine Matthew ‘up in the faith’.
I always find baptism an amazing event and an exciting time. It is one of those great occasions where people say some great thing and believe they are making promises to God and indeed they are.
Chatting to my very learned mother and father in law afterward, we agreed that sometimes it is easy to forget the mystery of baptism. We forget, and neither do we fully understand, what God does at baptism.
God acts in some way, and in a way that is not obvious to us, but we know God acts. That is part of baptism as well.
Today was a great day – thanks Chris and Juliette for allowing us all to be part of it.
http://www.youtube.com/get_player
I had a great day in London with Joe today. We visited the Science Museum, had lunch in a coffee bar and then ‘did’ the dinosaur gallery at the Natural History Museum. It’s great to see all these museums still being free – I hope they continue to be so!
There is a lot of ‘hands on’ stuff at the Science Museum which Joe totally loves. One activity in the Launch pad which was fun is Social Light by Scott Snibbe, being called an interactive artwork. Snibbe using ligh in various ways, and in this in particular art piece (or is it science?), he uses shadows. The idea is to play with your shadow in front of a screen which is continually being videoed. The cool thing is that then you can ask for your pesonal piece of art to be emailed to you. I’ve posted Joe’s here for all to see. I think it displays well the joker character of my youngest son!
Days out with just one of my children are quite rare and I find them pretty unique experiences. It’s unusual to be with just one alone and have the chance to interact and learn new stuff about them. I’m not sure that today I learnt anything new about Joe … we just had a great time1 Thanks Joe for a cool day!
it’s someone’s birthday today
she’s quite special to me
Happy Birthday
The Shiny Headed Prophet 