A whole month on

I can't believe its a whole month since I last posted. It's not that there hasn't been plenty to blog about- but time has simply sped by. In the last month I have continued with the daily life of a curate- To give and idea of what a 'normal' week entails here is an extract from my diary for the last week. Monday- 9am lead Morning Prayer 10am- 3.30pm Team development day 12-1.15pm leave meeting to take a funral and burial 3.30pm -4pm Admin with Rector 4-5pm Tel calls Tuesday- 9am Morning Prayer 9.30am Market day so wander round town meeting people 10.15am Coffe at the baptist Church- the place to meet everyone else! 11am Home visit 12.15pm Admin and emails 1.30pm Lunch 2.15pm Home Communion 3.30pm Hospital visit in the next town 4.45pm meeting to learn more about Kidzone and my involvement Wendesday 8.30am Set up for Eucharist 9am School assembly 9.30am Morning Prayer 10am Eucharist 11am Admin in church office 12 emails at home 7.30pm PCC meeting Thursday 9am School Assembly and meet with Head teacher 10am Work in church office 10.40am Deanery Chapter ( with lunch) 1.30pm Secondary school visit to church 2.15pm Supervision 3.15pm Visit to school where I am to be a governor 4.15pm Home visit 6.45pm Wedding rehearsal Friday day off Saturday 9am Morning Prayer 10am Sermon prep. 11.30am Wedding 2-4pm Finish sermon and sort out intercessions etc. Sunday 9.30am Deacon and Preach at Eucharist 11am Deacon and Preach at Eucharist 6.30pm Lead and preach at Evensong Then I shall be on holiday until 1st October. The bare outlines of my diary don't include of course telephone calls, conversations as I've walked around the streets and the thinking involved in prepariong for the sermon- I have been mulling over the text for a good 10 days before I sat down to write it yesterday. I had hoped to get it written on Tuesday but the home visits etc suddenly fell into the diary. With schools returning and now I am getting to know and be know in the churches the work load is increasing- but at the same time I am finding I can get through some of the prep much quicker than I used to do. As we go on holiday tomorrow my highlights of the last 10 weeks are: 1. The funerals I have taken and the speed with which relationships are built at the time of grief. I couldn't believe how God enabled me to absorb and then write about the life of the people for whom I was taking the funeral. It was a great joy yesterday when the widow from Mondays funeral rang to ask the time of the service this evening as she wished to coem to church. My only regret is that I shall be at a differnt church and therefore unable to greet her myself. However I have forwarned a church warden so hopefully she will still be made to feel welcome. 2. Becoming involved in the local schools and building relationships there. The only low of the last 10 weeks is the slowness in which I am getting around the villages and getting to know people. With 10 churches its difficult to begin to really build strong links- but I am sure they will come in time. Now I am looking forward to a couple of weeks in the lake District with my lovely husband who has thrown himself wholeheartedly into being a curates husband and is now finding himslef with tasks such as being Crucifer for the main church ! Hope to blog more regularly after the holiday.