Mike Rutter’s Weblog…….

Thought this was a good picture of Matt – along with the 3 other people in his class!

Joel and Matthew had a ‘Dare to wear Pink’ day at school, raising money for cancer research. They entered into the spirit of the day in a big way

Its Sunday and we are having a lazy morning… Matt is playing Toontown and Joel is playing Donkey Kong on the Wii. Beth is watching Cbeebies whilst Uncle Dan snores on the sofa next to her. Pip is just about to go for a run and I am listening to the new Kings of Leon album whilst writing this. The house needs tidying, but it can wait for a few more minutes……

Last week we had an inspection at school. We did well and have come through it with a good report. The problem now will be how to maintain momentum for the rest of the term, it feels as though we should be on holiday now! Its harvest next week and then it won’t be long before we start thinking about Christmas…good grief!

The kids are growing up (it happens). Joel is loving football now – he goes every Saturday to training in his Hull City strip (Matthew has one now as well). Its funny to see Joel so into it now as he wasn’t at all interested when he was younger. We’re looking forward to today’s game against Spurs – could be a London double Matt is enjoying school – he was ‘Star of the Week’ last week and his certificate is blu tacked in pride of place in the kitchen. Bethany continues to enjoy nursery. She loves our new hamster called Snowy and insists on saying good night to her every bedtime. This routine finishes with her hugging the cage and blowing Snowy a kiss.

I have started back on my course. It is no longer called NOC, it is now the Yorkshire Ministry Course or YMC. They have just appointed a new principal, Christine Gore, she seems really good and I am optimistic about the next two years on the course. I’ve got to sort out another placement pretty soon and am looking at spending time with a few examples of Pioneering Church (new expressions of church for those that don’t fit into the traditional model of doing church). I particularly like the look of what Ben Norton is doing out in Bridlington, with his group that meets in the pub to discuss current issues in the context of the Christian faith. He calls it ‘Man church for unchurched men’. It has been receiving some good publicity recently and is worth checking out.

Well – need to get dressed – will post again soon…..

Our good friends Tom & Naomi Brewer have ‘very kindly’ bought their god-daughter (Bethany) a new present. Its a Liverpool football strip! Now we are going to be a divided family – Joel has a Hull City strip and now Bethany is being disgracefully indoctrinated by those who are meant to guide her through life….., into supporting Liverpool FC….

The thing is, Bethany loves it. SHe went out in the garden straight away for a kick around and she was very proud to let her big brother see her wearing it. And if truth be known, although I’d rather you didn’t tell anyone else, I quite like Liverpool as well.

 

I’ve uploaded a few new photos. Some are of family and some are from a recent trip I had with my friend Carl. We had a go at taking some arty photos – needless to say his are the best!

Photos Page

It’s 7am on Saturday morning, the kids are watching tv or playing on the Wii and here I am finally writing a post! I seem to go through stages of writing regularly and then having long periods of absence. To be fair to me I have been very busy, but the probable truth is just that I couldn’t be bothered……….

This week I head off to Paris with our Year 6. Its a trip I have been running for 4 years now to a Chateau run by a group called PGL. It is a great place to visit for both the kids and the staff as it is so well run and it actually feels like a bit of a break when we are there. Obviously we don’t tell the rest of the staff that, they think we are working hard   The only down side is that it means leaving Pippa and the kids for a week which on top of all my vicar training weekends is a bit much. Still, when I get back I’ve only got 1 week left untl my summer holidays…the perks of a private school job!

We had a great time last week for our half term. We started it off by going to my parents’ static caravan in Scarborough for a weekend with our friends Luke & Hannah. The kids stayed in York with some other friends, Kate & Simon, who are real saints considering that they already have 3 kids of their own and they looked after ours at the same time. They hired a bouncy castle for the weekend which was a stroke of genius…. Of course that first weekend was the one when Hull City became a Premiership club. I watched the game with Luke in a hotel in Scarborough…..good times! On the Sunday we went for a walk on the beach and threw a frisby around. I got so involved in chasing after the frisby that I totally missied the fact that there was a great ‘lake’ left on the beach in front of me and ended up crashing into it, submerged, fully clothed, successfully ruining my mobile phone, my watch and the contents of my wallet. Still you had to laugh……. well Luke did anyway.  Fortunately it was a nice day and I dried off after a couple of hours.

We then spent another few days at the carcvan with the kids and Mum & Dad which was noiser but still great fun. Dan came over as well and we had a good day explring the Sea Life Centre together.

Towards the end of the week we pulled our tourer caravan to a site near Harrogate to camp with some other friends. It was only our second time camping and it was a lot beter experience that our first. Being with other people and having nicer weather makes a big difference.

Well, I’ve got to get up now – I have a school open day today – one of the down sides of working in a private school

We were up early today to go sledging. Don’t think I’ve ever done that on an Easter Sunday before! Great fun though

Matt wrote a story today on the computer. You won’t get a better insight into the mind of a 4 year old than this! I love the ending. I’m sure he knew what he meant……..

Matt’s Story

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We’ve just had a great weekend in Oundle with Pip’s parents. We don’t get opportunity to go down there that often but when we do we always have a good time. There are so many people that we care about a lot there that a visit is always an emotional time (in a good way). The service at Oundle Baptist Church was really good. The church meets in the local secondary school and is always a joy to visit. There is always a real sense of God there.

On the Sunday we went to visit a farm that were in the process of lambing 1600 sheep. The shepherdess who goes to the church said we could come over and watch and help a bit. It was quite daunting to be standing amongst all those sheep who just stood there and stared at you. In large numbers they can be a little daunting. I think watching the film Babe hasn’t helped! Anyway – the really cool thing was that Joel decided he wanted to help deliver a lamb which he did. I was really proud of how he was up for doing it. He says he wants to be a vet and I suppose this is as good a start as any. The video shows him delivering the lamb. Its a bit ropey in quality as it was taken on my phone but hopefully you can make out what’s happening.

I’ve added some new photos of this February half term. Click here to go to the photo page.