Life of Wiley

was all I could last when I practised the trumpet last night for the first time since before Christmas! I hope I do better tonight as I have a rehearsal with my friends at the brass ensemble. At least I’ll be able to give my new mouthpiece a proper work out.

Also on a band related note, I got turned away from the JSU Volunteer Band on Monday because they wouldn’t let me through the gate unescorted. It seems I now have to sign the official secrets act to play in the band!

On Sunday I was preaching at Abbots Langley Methodist Church. This Sunday, the first after Epiphany, is usually set up to talk about the baptism of Christ and this was indeed one of the set lessons for the day. However, when I looked at all the lectionary readings together the one characteristic that came through for me and that I chose to preach on was the use of voices. You can read my sermon here (PDF).

Abbots Langley have a different way of having children in the service in that they only come in at the end having spent the rest of the time in their Junior Church classes. They’d only the two children on Sunday and they’d been talking about resolutions in their class and had produced three differently coloured heart shapes on which to write resolutions. On the pink heart they had to write a resolution that they wanted to make for themselves. On the blue heart they had to think of a resolution that they wanted someone else to make that would make their lives better. On the yellow heart they had to make a resolution that they would make that would make the life of someone else better. I thought this was a great take on making resolutions and perhaps it’s something that should be encouraged more often, not just thinking about what we want for ourselves but what others want from us and what we want from others.

Got kids? Here’s a site that may help with some of life’s little bumps when dealing with the little ones.

Happy New Year dear readers!

I hope you all had a good holiday.

Christmas for the Wiley household was had in Watford this year. Although Louise was a bit apprehensive about my volunteering to cook the Christmas dinner in the end it all passed off really well.

We had Louise’s parents down for Christmas itself and on Christmas Eve we all went to St. Luke’s, our local parish church for their Christingle service. The place was packed, Louise and her dad had to stand, but it was really nice and a great way to start the celebration. Euan was even brave enough to go and collect his own Christingle and all the children stood around the church with the candles lit as the rest of the congregation sang a carol.

We spent the rest of the afternoon tracking Santa’s progress across the globe using Norad’s excellent SantaTrack website. Eaun was in charge in our “command and control centre” as he called out the place names that appeared on the website and then I used an atlas and pawn from my chess set to indicate the location. We let Euan track him as far as Casablanca before sending him off to bed, but not before providing Santa with his traditional mince pie and glass of brandy.

Amazingly Euan got up at his usual time and didn’t rush straight downstairs as he’d told his Nan and Granddad, instead he went into their room and lay with them for a bit before we all got up and went to see what Santa had left. You can see all the pictures in the gallery section.

Christmas Dinner went off without too much problem, except Louise set fire to the oven gloves (I think it was my fault, as I’d left a ring on by mistake) and then Louise’s mum set fire to her paper napkin! The only casualty was a tea towel I used to put out the oven gloves!

My Mum came down on the Wednesday after Christmas with my brother and his three kids following the day after. Euan and Eva had a riot with their cousins, it was a shame the weather wasn’t so good (or so bad that we’d got loads of snow) as it was a challenge to keep their enthusiasm contained within the house. I’m not sure how much they all slept the first night they were all together.

New Year was a relatively quiet affair. The family members had all gone home and we’d got our own bed back. Some friends came round but most had left before the New Year kicked in, either to get kids to bed or to attend a midnight service. Still it was a nice, relaxed way to bring in the New Year with friends.

Now it’s back to work for me today, with Euan, Eva and Louise back in to their respective routines tomorrow.