Back to teaching

Several mums are keen for their kids to do more conversational English outside school hours, so I took over what Claire (English friend who has gone back to England, leaving us their house to buy as a new manse!) had been doing over a year ago.

4th October - first day back at work

My first meeting after my return from Australia was to finish preparing our Combined Women's groups day 6th October.

 "Welcome Eternity in our lives" was the theme chosen for the day.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

My pastor-husband was named 'honorary member of the Women's Group of our Church' and had taken over coordinating the organisation whilst I was away. All I had to do was take over preparing the songs, introduce the speaker, make cakes for morning and afternoon tea and direct the proceedings during the day(!!)

Our symbolic action was to take a stone from the bowl and place it at the foot of the cross to reinforce the commitment we made to God to act on our understanding of how being already part of eternity will affect our way of living out our faith. The stones would then form an altar, a bit like the Israelites did in the Old Testament stories, when they made or renewed an alliance with God.

The painting reminds us that Christ is the light at the centre of all creation and each branch represents a season.

22 women came to this day - a first for our ladies' group. We had stimulating discussions, felt at ease to share, enjoyed a simple meal, time out from busy lives and this special moment when we sang a blessing to each other.

Thank the Lord for a great day!

Following on ...

I couldn't seem to edit the previous item as I wished, so I'm starting a new post, which is a continuation of the previous one!

This mommy-like form is my husband ! He has spent the month getting up at 6am to see Number 2 son off to Senior High School (he catches a school bus at 7am), then checking Number 3 daughter is ready for her Junior High day, but since I was around again, he made the most of my presence to sleep on and to catch up. We don't actually have much to do for our kids in the morning, but it's wise to be there to sign notes in diaries, check on any change of programme, to make sure they know what we are up to and that they have their keys.

So I want to salute the magnificent way in which my husband kept things going while I was away. He is one of quite a few examples of men today sharing 100% in home organisation. He continued to work (which is why he is so tired - supplementary hours) and when I'm there, we share all responsibilities, which makes it easier for me as I work as well.

Return to France

Heyho! Here we go!

Well, I've actually been back for nearly 3 weeks, but I hit the road running on Oct 1st and haven't had the energy to get back up to date with the blog.

It was a very smooth flight and I arrived in reasonable form, but it took a couple of weeks catching up with who is doing what where and when! They had all been back at work and school for the month of September. I felt I was living in a parallel world for a while - nothing seemed quite real after the intense Australian experience I'd had. However, getting the house back in order and taking over daily organisation, plus slipping back into church worker mode has helped me get back to normal.

Lollipop the Rabbit

Claire lost her summer time compagnon after a viral illness.

RIP Lollipop