Will Dig Life

It's been two busy, amazing, wonderful weeks. First, Spring Harvest; which led straight into Holy Week. A huge contrast as we went from the loud concert atmosphere with strobe lights at Spring Harvest to the silence, reverence, bells and smells of the Cathedral... here are some photos. Holy Week kicks off with the Chrism Mass on Wednesday. This is where the oils for the coming year for use within the entire Diocese are consecrated - oils for healing / anointing the sick and for anointing at Confirmation. Every priest, deacon, and seminarian of the entire Diocese is there too to officially renew their vows, and it had such an impact on me seeing these men, who have given up so much and are literally living their lives in sacrifice and service... true, everyday heroes. D(8) got to serve too, he was in charge of the Bishop's Mitre. D(8) passing the Mitre to a Deacon *All* the priests On Thursday, D served at the altar again and Mr. got his feet washed by the Bishop at the Maundy T...

After last year's hiatus to Minehead, we returned to our 'home' Spring Harvest at Skegness. It's a long way away - five hours' drive - but for years it's been the site that Spring Harvest wanted me to go because there's already a captioner at Minehead who's been covering that site for over twenty years. The kids had the best time, as usual, they loved the kids sessions. N(10) particularly really gets it now, and even decided to begin sponsoring a 10 year old girl from Uganda through Compassion . She'll give up half her pocket money and write to Jenipher regularly, and pray for her. This was N's choice and I'm really proud of her. Hooray for Spring Harvest! It was such fun for us all! I've written about what Spring Harvest is like previously - see here - so I'll just put the photos of this year on this post, with some comments... We stay the night at about halfway - Leicester - because we're supposed to arrive  in Skegness by midd...

N(10) has been learning to play the guitar for a little while, but she's only just started creating her own songs. This just blew me away - I was able to type along as she sang this - a spontaneous song of her heart... I have nothing to add, just leaving these words here for a permanent record. I will love God always And you should love God too I really think Everyone should follow him Even though you might not want to I’d advise you that you should do I want you to be a Christian If you don’t then I’ll pray for you I just want to be with people who will understand I know how to be with others, and go to church with others too You might not want to be a Christian But I am, so that you can’t question I love God, no one is like him Though I love other people too But I quite like people who love God If you don’t, then I’ll debate you Hopefully you will one day be one I want you to please do I love God and won’t worship others Only God is my best friend Jesus came down to forgive us Al...

This is the yearly roundup post - as I've done almost every year for 2023 ,  2022 ,  2021 ,  2020 ,  2019 ,  2018 ,  2017  (2016 seems to have been skipped as I got to grips with mothering two little ones), and  2015 . Family photo in Austria This year brought a few tweaks and changes, and growth of course, but it was a much more settled year than previous ones. A lot of travel though! Let's start with that... Travel We kicked the year off with our usual short sun-seeking week in Spain - Benalmadena for the third time, although I think we've had enough of that place now and may look elsewhere in future! Unfortunately, D(7) was ill some of that time (very rare for him, and impeccable timing!) so he missed out on some of the fun. The Butterfly Sanctuary Both in March and at the end of August, we visited Norway for my work with Churchear (posts: March and August ). I was involved with Churchear for several years quite intensely, putting together a ...