WOYWW 569

Well here we are again, ready to share some gentle crafting fun courtesy of Julia and What's on Your Workdesk.  Sorry I am running a little late today - work and home schooling have taken over and I had too many zoom meetings last night to prep my post in advance.

This is my desk as it was on Monday evening - in the midst of doing some crafting in my journal, with everything everywhere!  The rest of the time my desk is either very neat and tidy and empty or c covered with my computer and work papers as it is where I have to set up my laptop for the on-line teaching/meetings for work.  I promise I will eventually show my recent journal pages, but I haven't managed to photograph them yet!

This week has mostly been spent trying to keep Alex on task with his school work while I work - I'm not sure how successful we have been - and making sure that we take some exercise each day.  This is more successful with alternating between a walk (minimum of 2 miles) and a cycle ride (minimum of 4.5 miles) per day.

Here are a few photos from our explorations over the past week for you to enjoy!

I'm afraid I have to keep it short and sweet today so I will just leave you with a daft picture of googly eyes on a wall - we had a fun walk sticking these everywhere and taking photos.
Finally, a thank you to all of you who watched my sermon last week and gave me such kind and encouraging feedback. Take care of yourselves and stay safe,
with love & God Bless
Caro
xxx

WOYWW568

For some reason blogger is having a hissy fit so I don't know if you will be able to see my photos today for Julia's wonderful blog hop - What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday.  In the hopes that you can I will continue...

This is my desk last night in the midst of creative chaos as I was messing around with doing abstract painting.  you can see paints, paintbrushes, my journal and my trusty mug of tea, which was almost empty.

This is the final abstract painting - to be honest I'm not sure I like it!  I am not very good at being free and easy with paint and it tends to end up too segmented. Anyway, I tried, and it was something new.

This is another page in my art journal - this time using some layering of scrapbook papers, tissue paper, inks and paints. Again, very different in style and just an experiment.

Alex and I are settling into some sort of routine but it is hard when he is only supposed to do three hours of school work and I am supposed to do at least 7 of work. Some days are better than others in terms of stress and arguments, but we are getting there.

The poor lad spends more time than he should on a screen, but I do drag him out on walks or he drags me on bike rides. 

We try and alternate because I much prefer walking and he much prefers biking (there are far too many hills for my liking for biking!).

We have been enjoying our little garden - it sounds very grand when we talk of the lower and upper patios but it really isn't.  The main garden is just a green patch which we mow (it is mostly weeds!), a patio and the trampoline, whereas the lower part is another patio and a raised flower bed. I am intending to plant some pretty pots this year so when I sit and read I have a nicer view - at the moment I am just looking at the house. 

This is my reading patch - it catches the sun in the afternoon and evening after work. In addition to work I have been busy contributing to our on-line church services and this coming Sunday is my time to give the talk, which rather fittingly is on 'Living with Anxiety'. I hate watching myself on video, and you would have laughed at my attempts to get the camera in the right position so that it wasn't pointing up my nostrils or down my cleavage!   I really hope that the talk is helpful and blesses people - if you are interested you can watch it on YouTube.

I will leave you with these photos of some of our local walks - I am really very blessed to live where we do, with so much lovely countryside nearby.  Take care of yourselves and stay safe,
With love and God bless,
Caro

WOYWW567

Well another week of lockdown later and here we are again, sharing our desks via the wonderful Julia as part of the nicest and one of the longest running blog hops in the world.

This is my desk on Tuesday evening - lots of pens, a few stamps and an ink pad, a mug of tea and my journal as I have a little bit of 'me' time while Alex is on his screen.

I have done a little crafting this week.  I did another painting in the style of the previous one, this time for Good Friday - there is actually a figure on the cross although it is a little hard to see.

And I made some bright coloured cards for delivering to members of my church family who are struggling at this time.  It was good exercise for Alex and me to deliver them by bike as one of our daily trips out.

I have been blessed with six days off work this Easter weekend so Alex and I have made the most of it with gardening, playing daft games, crafting

walks round our local area (much complaining from Alex!) and cycle rides, including to the reservoirs (much complaining about my thighs from me - those hills are steep!).

We have enjoyed the signs of spring everywhere including the lambs, daffodils and blossoms.

Easter was strange this year but we celebrated as best we could by joining in with an on-line communion service from our church, making a cross and then tying prayer ribbons to it, and an Easter egg hunt. 

We are still joining in with the Taskmaster hometasking challenges so I thought I would share this video - the challenge was to turn a bed into something that was not a bed.  This was Alex's idea!

I will leave you with my favourite quote from Aslan in CS Lewis' Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Have courage everyone.
Take care and stay safe everyone,
With love & God Bless,
Caro
xxx

WOYWW566

Another Wednesday in lockdown and another time for a bit of fun and interaction with other crafters courtesy of Julia and WOYWW.

Here is my desk as it was late last night with my various journals – the larger red one is my spiritual/prayer journal, the open journal is my weekly diary and the tiny red one is a new journal filled with prayer requests.  I am part of the prayer ministry team at church and the prayer requests are coming so thick and fast it is easier to write them down so I don’t forget to pray for anyone.  To the right is my paper pad usually used for writing work notes, but covered in doodles drawn during my Bible study meeting last night (held via zoom).

Apart from the doodling I haven’t done a huge amount of crafting this week, although I did manage to paint this picture by following instructions in a You Tube video by a Christian artist who I really like, called Oliver Pengilley.

It has been another week of juggling work and family, with at least a couple of days holiday which was nice - yes, I am soaked - I always lose water fights with Alex! 

We celebrated Alex’s 13^th birthday with a film, take away pizza, a water fight and a family party via zoom.

This week Alex is on ‘lockdown scout camp at home’ and they are being set tasks each day – yesterday was to build their camp site, which he did in our little garden, complete with a camp fire. They were not expected to sleep out which was good!

We are managing to get out for our daily local walks most days, which is nice.  It appears, contrary to what I was first told, that my heart condition doesn’t make me especially vulnerable to Covid-19 which is a good as it means I can go on shopping for my elderly neighbours and giving Alex much needed exercise.

I hope that you are all staying well and keeping safe. I know it is hard but we have hope that we will come through this.

With love and God Bless,
Caro

xxx

WOYWW565

Well another week on and another week on lockdown so although I am running a little late here is my entry to the nicest bloghop in the world - Julia's WOYWW.

Here is my desk as it was late last night with my computer packed away and a little bit of crafting underway. I had nearly finished my mug of tea by this time and nearly completed a drawing of a lion.  I can't draw at all so was following an instruction video on You Tube by the incredible Oliver Pengilley. 

Here is the end result.

The other crafting from this week has been zentangling in my art journal - it takes ages but is quite therapeutic in this crazy world of ours.

Alex on the other hand has been crafting on a while different scale - he has made a LARP axe from a stick and rubber and foam and duct tape - a LOT of duct tape! It is officially the school holidays now so I am always happy when he has a project to keep him engaged so I can work. I tend to feel very guilty that I can't play with him and do all the cool things that non working parents are doing with their children at the moment.

We did get out for some decent walks at the weekend. 

From our house you can walk across the estate, then across the golf course and down into some lovely woods.  This little stream flows over a waterfall not far from where you enter the woods.

We have a fantastic neighbourhood scheme going on, partly through church and partly just local people, called The Lodgemoor Mutual Aid group where 'street heroes' look after all the houses on their streets, providing everyone with their phone numbers so that people have someone to call on if they get ill.  I am one of the street heroes for my street of 91 houses and yesterday went shopping for an elderly neighbour who lives alone, and spent a happy hour chatting to her from the other side of the garden.  It was so nice to actually have an interaction with someone in person rather than on a screen for a change.

All this makes me realise how truly blessed I am with my family and our neighbourhood and church. Hence another encouraging verse from Isaiah 41.

I will leave you with this daft video of me dressed as a dancing elephant! Alex and I are intermittently joining in with the Taskmaster 'Hometasking' challenges and this was one of them.
Take care of yourselves, my friends,  You are all in my thoughts and prayers at this time,
With love & God Bless,
Caro
xxx