Anybody want a caravan?

http://tinyurl.com/abirallymanforsale

Anybody want a caravan?

http://tinyurl.com/abirallymanforsale

vegetables

I've been growing some and it's a lot of fun. Even better is eating them :-)

Give by Gift Aid and get more Tax Credit

Not a lot of people know this, as I didn't until I was informed by my Tax Advisor on Thursday.

If you give money to charity, by Gift Aid, you can subtract it from the income that you report for Tax Credit purposes.   Because Tax Credits are very income sensitive at certain levels, depending on your income and how much you give by Gift Aid, this could have a big impact on how much Tax Credit you receive.

Here are the official websites that give me some reassurance that this is correct.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/tc825.pdf

http://www.taxaid.org.uk/uploadedfiles/document/1_261_Tax_Credits_and_GiftAid_v1.pdf

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/ManagingMoney/GivingMoneyToCharity/DG_078490

World Book Day, 2009

Tabitha and Nathaniel went to school today as Pippi Longstocking and Diego the Animal Rescuer. Can you spot the real one? :)






Tabitha or Pippi?


















Nathaniel or Diego?

And here they are together all ready.

Selfishness

I've read two books today, addressing very different issues in our culture today, but identifying a common root cause of those issues.

"A Good Childhood" looks at the lives of children in the UK today, discusses the difficulties our children face and makes suggestions for how these might be overcome.  One of its key conclusions is that many of the problems faced by children stem largely from an over individualised society that encourages selfishness.

"Planetwise" explores Christian responses to the environmental challenges facing the world today.  It also sees selfishness as a fundamental root cause of the exploitation of natural resources and lack of care for creation.  

So, if we are to allow our children grow up healthily and if we are to leave a planet for them to live on we need to stop putting ourselves first.  

Will we do it?

Mummy - Animal Rescuer ( a true story recounted by Tabitha)

One morning mum was walking by the canal when she saw a cat trying to get across but when she tried to do it, the ice broke and she went down .  Mum felt terrified then she said, "come here kittey kittey" and she came.  Mum tried to put her arm in but the cat went down again but when she went up mum leaned harder in and caught her and read the label and took her home to its owner.  The End.

(Diego's got nothing on my missus)

Support your local library.

This morning I was in Stoke On Trent's City Library.  Just for somewhere quiet and warm to do a bit of reading and thinking.  I also thought that I would have  a quick look at the "Religion" section to see what it was like.  I wasn't really surprised to see that it was a bit sparse.  

But, we could change that.  Public libraries are there for the whole public, and if they don't hold the books that we might want to use then we only have ourselves to blame.  So,  I requested that the library get in a few books that I want to read for some thinking I'm doing on how men and boys engage (or don't engage) with church.  Next time you want to get hold of a book, or recommend one in church, why not see if the local library has it or if it could get hold of it for you.

There's even the possibility of going a bit further, you could give some good quality Christian books to your local library.  Speaking Volumes is a charity that specialises in enabling individuals and churches to give packs of a books on a variety of subjects, from a Christian perspective, to libraries and schools.  

Might make a novel Christmas gift project - see what I did there :-)