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

WOYWW564

It is Wednesday and time for What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday, the nicest blog hop in the world (See Julia's blog for details).  It is a little bit of colour, love and support in a crazy world.

Sadly my desk isn't colourful because I am working from home and my desk is where I can have my meetings with work colleagues and students because I can shut the door.  This isn't the only desk I have been working at this week.

I have also been working at the dining room table to try and help Alex with his school work.  Marking student literature reviews while trying to keep my ADHD son on track is a challenge, but we are making it work with giving him regular exercise breaks.  

We start the day with 30 minutes exercise (PE or the cross trainer), 4 lessons with breaks in between (bouncing on the trampoline to get fresh air and get rid of the fidgets), 

then helping in the house (gardening, tidying, hoovering etc) or going out cycling round our block. I am so glad that the weather has been so good so far. The evening is his time to do what he wants (usually screen time). 

My evenings have been spent having regular chats with family via zoom and google meet, and a little crafting.  This is my latest journal page - thinking about isolation and the self-distancing we need to do at the moment. The journaling on the page reads 'Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, the Lord will be with you'.

For Mothering Sunday we got out into the peak district and enjoyed scrambling round the rocks 

making sure to avoid other people (everyone else was on the paths!).  

I will leave you with another encouraging verse from the Bible. Let me know if I can do anything to help, or any prayer requests that you have. Stay safe everyone.

With love and God Bless,

Caro

xxx

WOYWW563

It is Wednesday and after missing one week I couldn't bear to miss joining in with WOYWW...it is a bright spot in an otherwise challenging world. I am so grateful to Julia for hosting this wonderful blog hop.

This is my desk (photo taken on Tuesday evening) which is in a very unusual state - I am actually sewing!  I hate sewing with a passion as no matter what I do I always seem to get the thread tangled and knotted and it never looks neat, but anyway, greater love has no Mum than she sews on her sons endless Scouts badges.  To be fair it is about time I got on with it, as I haven't sewn on a single one since he joined Scouts two years ago! So there you have it, a large scouts shirt, hundreds of badges, my ipad for something to listen to/semi-watch while I sew and a much needed large mug of tea.

I have managed a little crafting amidst the chaos of trying to sort out MSc students who are supposed to be doing laboratory projects in labs that we have had to shut - redesigning lots of projects is time consuming and stressful. In addition to that I am having to learn on-line teaching software (I am in the vulnerable group so am working from home where I can). Playing with colour has been a bit of a therapy - no plan in mind, just colour on the background of some pages. It will be interesting to see how they turn out in the end.

Last weekend saw Alex having fun with 100 other Scouts outside getting filthy while competing in the Hallam Trophy. He was the muddiest Scout in the place and had a fantastic time.  While he was doing that I was busy prepping for the services on Sunday - I led both the Morning worship and the evening Encounter service this weekend as part of my training.  They are sadly the last services we are able to hold for a while due to the coronavirus shut down so I am glad that they were uplifting ones.

I wanted to leave you with this Bible verse which I personally find very comforting.  It is hard in the current climate not to feel anxious, but I know when I give my anxiety to God I am definitely more at peace. Take care of yourselves and stay safe.
With love and God Bless,
Caro
xxx

WOYWW 561

Firstly an apology, last week ran away with me and I didn't manage to join in at all with the lovely blog hop that is What's on your Workdesk Wednesday (check out Head Desker Julia's blog for details).

Here is my desk as it was late last night, and almost empty mug of tea, my journal and some stickers everywhere.  There hasn't been huge amounts of crafting, but I have got my journal nearly up to date. 

This is the February monthly page all decorated and finished at the end of the month.

Since last updating my blog we went down to stay with my brother for half-term where we were joined by Mum and went for lots of walks.

And this last weekend Alex went to Freezer camp with scouts (this is the before shot)

where the wind threatened to blow their tents down, they got hailed and rained on, but also had sunshine and a lot of fun - this is the state he was in when he came back - exhausted, grubby but having had a fantastic time!
That's all from me for now, keeping it short and sweet the way Julia likes it!  Have a great week everyone,
With love and God Bless,
Caro
xxx