Author: Vicki Butchers

This week we had some good friends over for supper.  Although we have known each other for several years we had never really told them much about our lives before coming to Beeding.  As a part of the conversation, we

For Christmas this year we were given an unusual gift – an adopted cherry tree. We love cherries in our house but I was a little surprised to receive an adoption certificate for a fruit tree! However we have had

This week I’ve enjoyed some welcome respite from anticipating and thinking about what is to come, and focusing on celebrating what is. Our family have celebrated three birthdays and a wedding anniversary in 5 days! Lock-down style celebrations may not

Is anyone else really tired?! I don’t just mean been going to bed a bit late, not sleeping brilliantly so could do with a decent lie-in kind of tired. Or even tired of home school, tired of laundry, tired of

I wonder how many times we have told our children (or even ourselves!) to just ‘be brave – it’s only a little spider,’ or ‘be brave, you can do it, just keep pedalling!’ when we teach them to ride a

This week I’ve actually carved out space to go for a proper walk! Such  a simple pleasure –so why did I take so long to make such a simple thing that I really enjoy a priority? That’s not to say

This week I’ve had a bit of an ‘aha’ moment. 12 weeks in and counting and life doesn’t feel like it’s getting any easier to adjust to! Lock-down rules might be easing, practically speaking the new recommendations don’t really change

Our need for some sort of faithful presence has perhaps never be as great as during these locked-down months. Even as some parts of our daily life are beginning to unlock, the continued uncertainty is tiring and the desire for

The idea of ‘Spirit’ conjures up all sorts of images for us. Perhaps a special feeling of connection with nature, or a stirring inside when we listen to a certain piece of music.  Maybe an overwhelming awe when we walk

I find myself often quoting this lovely African proverb when trying to encourage families who struggle occasionally with the many demands and frustrations of bringing up children. We were never meant to try and do it on our own! The

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and reflecting trying to make sense of the crazy times we find ourselves in. I don’t mean sitting quietly for hours on end – life seems to have been busier than ever –

Acknowledging our feelings can be a challenge sometimes. Good, positive feelings are easy – we enjoy those and love sharing them with others. Facebook posts are testament to this; if we only looked there we could be lulled into thinking

The feelings of fear can be so irrational and yet so real! I can cope with spiders in my house, but ‘daddy long legs’…….! They are so small, they don’t bite, don’t make a noise, in fact they can’t do

This week has been hard! I don’t know why particularly this week, but the pressure to do more, be more, help more, change more, relax more, read more has been a bit overwhelming at times! Where has that pressure come

There seems to be two groups of people surviving lock-down in different ways. There are those spending lots of time being still reflecting, planning and even getting quite bored. Then there are those running around madly trying to balance the

My husband has a friendly nickname – Peter Plan! He like’s to be organised, and be ready for what’s happening next. And if I’m honest so do I – I’m just not always very good at it! This weekend coming

How are you doing? How are those hands? Twenty seconds of hand-washing is longer than you think isn’t it?! Just for a minute let’s think about other ways we can use some twenty second moments that may just help you

We’ve survived a week! We all deserve a massive Hug! Do you know, I think one of the hardest things I have found this week is not being able to hug people. So consider yourself virtually hugged! These next words

We spend so much of our time connecting together as families, encouraging times to meet and share together. But right now we find ourselves having to behave counter-intuitively! However, it needn’t be a disaster – we just need to be a