This morning I went to my third and final Harvest Festival of the year. Once your children get to school, you don't do these things once - oh no... once is for wimps!
The first of these was Joel's. Years one and two in school trek off to the local parish church; sing some songs, and listen to a chat from the vicar there. All good fun. I particularly enjoyed not having a squirming toddler on my knee. In years gone by, I have been the parent chasing a wiggly and noisy toddler about whilst everyone else is trying to hear their pride and joy say their one line in the school production. It was nice to not have to think about taking enough toys / snacks / nappies to get through thirty minutes, plus the always-longer-than-you-think waiting for something to actually happen time. I also particularly enjoyed the kids singing 'Cauliflowers fluffy'; with additional dance moves. Marvellous.
The second Harvest Festival was actually a harvest / thanksgiving / 1st birthday service at our church (how's that for multi-tasking?!) Our congregation have been meeting in the local primary school for a year now. It was a good chance to celebrate all that has happened over the last year; and to thank God for all He has given us individually and corporately. We did this through the medium of huge ice-cream Sundaes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, singing, bacon sandwiches and prayers of thanks chalked on the playground. We have learnt a lot over the past year, and look forward to what God has for us in the years to come. I'm sure God would have us dream big dreams for our future together; after all, as Bill Hybels would say: "The local church is the hope of the world".
My third and final part of my Harvest Festival trilogy was this morning. The Nursery and Reception age children aren't traipsed down to the church - they do their celebrating in the school Hall. They all came in wearing headbands with certain vegetable pictures attached; Nathan was a cabbage... They told us the story of Oliver's Vegetables; where a small boy searches his Grandad's vegetable patch in the hope of finding some potatoes to make some chips; in the process, he finds lots of other vegetables, which of course turn out to be very tasty... My favourite part of the proceedings had to be the rousing rendition of 'Big Red Combine-Harvester'. They were brilliant.
So what have I learnt from my Harvest Trilogy? Well, I've certainly learnt that it's hard to pick songs that are perky tunes, fun for the kids and that actually thank God for the amazing things he gives us. What's your favourite harvest song? My personal favourite is probably 'Blackberries in the Hedges', but no-one around here seems to know that one...
Also, and I know this makes me sound old, but there is always something to be thankful for. I think whether it's the joy on a child's face as he sings, the fact that you don't have to worry about wiggly toddlers, or something bigger like the sun and the rain that help things grow. God has given us so many things, and I think it does our perspective and mental health endless good to be grateful. Life might not always be easy (I know, no surprises there) and I'm not advocating pretending life is all shiny when it isn't; however, I know I'm more likely to be content if I focus on the multiple blessings from my heavenly Father than on the things that bug me, or that I don't have.
Today, try to cultivate (ooh, appropriate gardening term alert... pleasing!) an Attitude of Gratitude. What are you thankful for?
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
School runs, 'the wall' and Jimi Hendrix
This Sunday one of my friends from church ran the Berlin Marathon. I know, crazy chap. Aaron ran the Marathon, because he wanted to - but also to raise money to support Christians Against Poverty; a marvellous charity helping people out of poverty - but also helping people avoid getting into debt in the first place. There's still time to sponsor him if you like; just go to his Just Giving page.
I haven't seen Aaron yet since Sunday, so I don't know how it all went. I was thinking about him this morning, and wondering if he had hit 'the wall'. The metaphorical wall (after all, I'm hoping he managed not to run into any real ones...) when your legs turn to jelly, and you just feel like you can't go on...
I wondered this, because this morning - Nathan hit 'the wall'...
I kind of expected that this would happen at some point. The novelty of going to school has worn off now; but it hasn't quite yet been replaced by the stamina required to make it through without tears. He was properly tired this morning, and sad.
"Can I stay at home with you, Mummy?" "The day is too long..." "Will you come in with me?" *generalised sobs*
He even tried to bargain with me, and ask if I would pick him up at lunch time. If he can negotiate like that whilst crying and only four - hopefully he'll have the Middle East peace process all sorted by the time he is ten.
I gently cajoled him through the process of getting ready for school. Breakfasted, dressed, clean(ish) and ready, he sat in the car - still crying - until the radio came on. Thank heaven for Jimi Hendrix...
After a couple of bars of the opening guitar riff, the tears were forgotten. Well - at least till we got to school. Bless him; nothing soothes the pain of school like a bit of awesome guitar.
He went into school, a bit sad again - but not as sad as he could have been. I've promised him fish fingers for tea, in honour of his perseverance. I think I might be cooking favourite teas all week actually.
So - what do you do when you hit the wall? Just keep running. That and listening to some Hendrix anyway.
I haven't seen Aaron yet since Sunday, so I don't know how it all went. I was thinking about him this morning, and wondering if he had hit 'the wall'. The metaphorical wall (after all, I'm hoping he managed not to run into any real ones...) when your legs turn to jelly, and you just feel like you can't go on...
I wondered this, because this morning - Nathan hit 'the wall'...
I kind of expected that this would happen at some point. The novelty of going to school has worn off now; but it hasn't quite yet been replaced by the stamina required to make it through without tears. He was properly tired this morning, and sad.
"Can I stay at home with you, Mummy?" "The day is too long..." "Will you come in with me?" *generalised sobs*
He even tried to bargain with me, and ask if I would pick him up at lunch time. If he can negotiate like that whilst crying and only four - hopefully he'll have the Middle East peace process all sorted by the time he is ten.
I gently cajoled him through the process of getting ready for school. Breakfasted, dressed, clean(ish) and ready, he sat in the car - still crying - until the radio came on. Thank heaven for Jimi Hendrix...
After a couple of bars of the opening guitar riff, the tears were forgotten. Well - at least till we got to school. Bless him; nothing soothes the pain of school like a bit of awesome guitar.
He went into school, a bit sad again - but not as sad as he could have been. I've promised him fish fingers for tea, in honour of his perseverance. I think I might be cooking favourite teas all week actually.
So - what do you do when you hit the wall? Just keep running. That and listening to some Hendrix anyway.
Thursday, 22 September 2011
School days
So it finally happened...
I remember, back in the haze of exhaustion of looking after a toddler and a baby, I foolishly calculated how long it would be before my boys were both at school. It was a long time away; I must have been crazy to even think about it at the time. I think sleep deprivation makes you go a bit bonkers. Don't get me wrong, I love both my kids very much; but during the relentlessness that is parenthood with tiny ones, I briefly looked forward to the halcyon day when someone else would be responsible for them - if only for a portion of the time...
We're now over half way through Nathan's second week at school. How did that happen? The baby mentioned above is now a truly handsome four year old. Astounding.
I remember, back in the haze of exhaustion of looking after a toddler and a baby, I foolishly calculated how long it would be before my boys were both at school. It was a long time away; I must have been crazy to even think about it at the time. I think sleep deprivation makes you go a bit bonkers. Don't get me wrong, I love both my kids very much; but during the relentlessness that is parenthood with tiny ones, I briefly looked forward to the halcyon day when someone else would be responsible for them - if only for a portion of the time...
We're now over half way through Nathan's second week at school. How did that happen? The baby mentioned above is now a truly handsome four year old. Astounding.
He's enjoying school. I know it helps that he's been going to the school each day with Joel for longer than he can remember - in fact when Joel was in Reception, Nathan used to cry each morning because he wasn't allowed in! Nathan also did his Pre-school year at the School's Nursery; so he's feeling pretty at home. He knows about half of his class already; so I guess it's just like he moved room for him really.
It's going to take a while to build up the stamina for school though. They're all a bit tired out by doing five full days. According to their super-TA, one of them fell asleep yesterday afternoon during their story time. Ah well, I can think of afternoons when I would happily do the same.
So, to my lovely friends still battling the baby / toddler phase. It really does go faster than you think. Enjoy your little ones. Nathan's still little really; in comparison to Joel (he's 6 going on 36) - who's coming home full of details of the scientific experiments they've been doing, and asking me ever more difficult questions such as "why can't you see gravity?"...
Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think...
Monday, 8 August 2011
Anniversaries
Last month Paul and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary. I know - doesn't time fly... We celebrated the day with a number of friends and family. Here we are cutting a cake that I made:
It's amazing to think that we've been married for a decade. Apart from the fact that we obviously don't look old enough (well - in our heads anyway... ) it just seems like a decade would feel longer somehow.
Not that we've been idle in the last ten years. Anything but... In the decade we have got married, bought our first house, finished my degree, got my first proper job, got pregnant (twice!), given birth (twice!!), bought a bigger house (necessitated by previous activities in list...), given up job... and that's just the big things. I think it's the little things that really pass the time. Somewhere between your first child's first tooth appearing, and it falling out you've passed through five years - but been too busy to notice really.
Still, surely the next decade can't be so eventful... But who knows? In my head though - I have entitled the next decade "carry on!" By that I mean that it probably won't be filled with so many new things (or children!), but it will be carrying on with the ones I have...
Another anniversary crept by without me even noticing. My one year blogging anniversary passed me by at the start of this month - probably as I've been a bit tardy on the old blogging front recently... I'm grateful to all of you who have read and commented on my blog over the past year (after all - nobody likes the thought they that are just wittering on to themselves!...) I was wondering if you had a favourite post over the last year? Or maybe a type of post you'd like me to write more of... more Ikea-related poetry perhaps... I hope the blog will continue to be of interest, maybe funny at times, encouraging etc...
Anyway...
Carry on!
This cake is a copy of the middle tier of our chocolate wedding cake, although the flowers are a slightly less demure colour than they were on the original...
It's amazing to think that we've been married for a decade. Apart from the fact that we obviously don't look old enough (well - in our heads anyway... ) it just seems like a decade would feel longer somehow.
Not that we've been idle in the last ten years. Anything but... In the decade we have got married, bought our first house, finished my degree, got my first proper job, got pregnant (twice!), given birth (twice!!), bought a bigger house (necessitated by previous activities in list...), given up job... and that's just the big things. I think it's the little things that really pass the time. Somewhere between your first child's first tooth appearing, and it falling out you've passed through five years - but been too busy to notice really.
Still, surely the next decade can't be so eventful... But who knows? In my head though - I have entitled the next decade "carry on!" By that I mean that it probably won't be filled with so many new things (or children!), but it will be carrying on with the ones I have...
Another anniversary crept by without me even noticing. My one year blogging anniversary passed me by at the start of this month - probably as I've been a bit tardy on the old blogging front recently... I'm grateful to all of you who have read and commented on my blog over the past year (after all - nobody likes the thought they that are just wittering on to themselves!...) I was wondering if you had a favourite post over the last year? Or maybe a type of post you'd like me to write more of... more Ikea-related poetry perhaps... I hope the blog will continue to be of interest, maybe funny at times, encouraging etc...
Anyway...
Carry on!
Monday, 4 July 2011
Precious
I've recently bought a limited edition (ooh-er) shower gel (not so ooh-er) that calls itself "Precious". It's supposedly made with Jasmin and Cotton Milk... I'm not sure it makes me feel more precious, but it smells nice, and it is a girly pink shade - so it can't be all bad.
It did prompt me to remember a song I know by a singer songwriter called Martyn Joseph:
This song always makes me realise that ache that we all have inside to feel precious; to be valued; to be cherished...
The pearl in someone's hand.
I think many of us struggle to feel like that.
We doubt our own value, often linking it to our achievements. I have many young friends who have just finished exams, and the pressure to achieve has been immense. Don't get me wrong. I know studying is important; but the moment the results you get seem to explicitly affect your value as a person - things have gone badly wrong.
There are many other things that we rely on to boost our self image. Things like how attractive we are, how popular we are, or how influential we think we are. These things are so precarious. Relying on any of these sorts of things is fraught with uncertainty. Unless we find something or someone entirely trustworthy and unchanging, we are destined to never be secure in our value or anything else.
Thankfully, we don't have to waste our time and energy worrying about these things. In fact, if we take the Bible at it's word (something I'm trying to do a lot more...), we don't have to worry at all. In Matthew 6 it says:
It did prompt me to remember a song I know by a singer songwriter called Martyn Joseph:
This song always makes me realise that ache that we all have inside to feel precious; to be valued; to be cherished...
The pearl in someone's hand.
I think many of us struggle to feel like that.
We doubt our own value, often linking it to our achievements. I have many young friends who have just finished exams, and the pressure to achieve has been immense. Don't get me wrong. I know studying is important; but the moment the results you get seem to explicitly affect your value as a person - things have gone badly wrong.
There are many other things that we rely on to boost our self image. Things like how attractive we are, how popular we are, or how influential we think we are. These things are so precarious. Relying on any of these sorts of things is fraught with uncertainty. Unless we find something or someone entirely trustworthy and unchanging, we are destined to never be secure in our value or anything else.
Thankfully, we don't have to waste our time and energy worrying about these things. In fact, if we take the Bible at it's word (something I'm trying to do a lot more...), we don't have to worry at all. In Matthew 6 it says:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?So today - even if you don't know anything else - know that you're precious to a God who made you just the way you are, and who is capable of meeting any need you might have. And that can do more for you than Jasmin and cotton milk ever could.
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
Anyone for tennis?
This weekend I had the chance to go and see the semi-finals of the tennis at the Queen's club. My friend Clare - a school friend I hadn't seen in years - is properly into tennis, and she enters the ballot for tickets for Wimbledon and Queen's every year. It was my good fortune that she'd got tickets for this year, and that she was looking for someone to go with her. Hoorah! :o) Here we are, enjoying the sunshine...:
We travelled down as a family, as the boys thought it would be a good opportunity to go and do some London things... They dropped me off, and went to visit the Monument, Tower Bridge and have a general wander about. This obviously had to involve going on a tube train. Small boy heaven...
I met up with Clare, and we had the chance to catch a little bit of the Doubles Quarter-finals, before heading into Centre Court for the main event...:
Andy Murray was in impressive form. A bit too impressive for us actually, as we would have liked the match to go on a bit longer. Still, it's great to think that Andy is in this sort of form before Wimbledon, and he showed he can battle through a longer, grittier match by beating Jo Wilfred Tsonga in the final yesterday...
After Andy Murray had finished his demolition of Andy Roddick, we got to see James Ward have a good tustle with Tsonga. I was chuffed that I'd got to see two Brits on my first ever trip to a tennis tournament. James did very well. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of him. I'm glad his run at Queen's has got him a wild-card for Wimbledon; he certainly deserves it.
A lot of spectators left at this point, but for those of us who stayed - there was a feast of Doubles. We even saw arguably the best doubles exponents of all time - the Bryan twins. If you want to be good at doubles, play with your twin - one right-handed, one left-handed - start practicing when you're tiny, and basically read each other's minds... Amazing to watch...
The end of the day came, and the rest of my family snuck in to find me... Even being given some souvenir tennis balls on the way:
We travelled down as a family, as the boys thought it would be a good opportunity to go and do some London things... They dropped me off, and went to visit the Monument, Tower Bridge and have a general wander about. This obviously had to involve going on a tube train. Small boy heaven...
I met up with Clare, and we had the chance to catch a little bit of the Doubles Quarter-finals, before heading into Centre Court for the main event...:
Andy Murray was in impressive form. A bit too impressive for us actually, as we would have liked the match to go on a bit longer. Still, it's great to think that Andy is in this sort of form before Wimbledon, and he showed he can battle through a longer, grittier match by beating Jo Wilfred Tsonga in the final yesterday...
After Andy Murray had finished his demolition of Andy Roddick, we got to see James Ward have a good tustle with Tsonga. I was chuffed that I'd got to see two Brits on my first ever trip to a tennis tournament. James did very well. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of him. I'm glad his run at Queen's has got him a wild-card for Wimbledon; he certainly deserves it.
A lot of spectators left at this point, but for those of us who stayed - there was a feast of Doubles. We even saw arguably the best doubles exponents of all time - the Bryan twins. If you want to be good at doubles, play with your twin - one right-handed, one left-handed - start practicing when you're tiny, and basically read each other's minds... Amazing to watch...
The end of the day came, and the rest of my family snuck in to find me... Even being given some souvenir tennis balls on the way:
So now we are playing tennis in the garden even more than we were before. Joel likes to pretend he's Andy Murray or Rafael Nadal... Good choices, I'm sure you'll agree. At the moment, Nathan just wants to be the ball boy :o)
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Let's look at the map
Last week, as it was half term, it seemed like a good idea to let Joel (and thus, all of us...) have a go at orienteering...
Paul (aka Daddy), really enjoyed orienteering at school, and at university - as it combines two of his great loves; running and maps. Recently, Paul has done a few orienteering events with a local club - The Octavian Droobers - and having talked to Joel about it, he was really keen to have a go.
So, on Wednesday afternoon, we packed a picnic, put on our sporty clothes(!), and set off for some woods near Harbury.
I have to confess to being slightly dubious. After all, I am really not built for running; I'm pretty terrible at it. I'm also prone to turning the map round when navigating, much to the amusement of my husband... Also, the event started at 6pm - which is always tea-time in our house... I wondered if the changes to the usual routine and general exhaustion might be a recipe for disaster. Not to mention wondering what would happen if the smallest boy just decided he couldn't go any further...
We got there early, and thanks to some spectacular organisation (by the organisers...) we were actually able to start at 5:30pm... Marvellous.
They gave us a map (see below...), and an electronic gizmo, and then we had to start at the triangle, and navigate ourselves round the course - using our clever gizmo to show we'd found all the control points. (NB - for the uninitiated - these are red and white flags, with numbers to search for... A genius plan if you're trying to get children like mine to find anything: 'Come on, who can find number 118??' Very clever...)
My cunning plan was to all stay together, but let Paul and Joel run ahead a bit - which allowed Nathan and me the chance to catch up whilst they were navigating where we were going next. Amazingly, this pretty much worked... Although it required running - it was short sharp bursts of running, whilst encouraging Nathan along - the best sort of running. Nathan did also require the occasional piggy back - whilst also had the additional feature of slowing Paul down. Very useful.
We made it round in the respectable time of 30:36, which wasn't bad considering three out the four of us had never done anything like this before... We were also pretty chuffed when we discovered our Result! (click on the link and find us if you can...)
We all felt we'd very much earned our picnic afterwards; although (naturally) Paul didn't eat anything until he'd gone out and completed a much longer and more difficult course...
So - all in all, we had a good time together out in the sunshine, with exercise, and maps, and a crash course in how to use a compass, and a picnic tea. Can't be bad. Worth trying if you fancy doing some running, but don't want to be bored...
Paul (aka Daddy), really enjoyed orienteering at school, and at university - as it combines two of his great loves; running and maps. Recently, Paul has done a few orienteering events with a local club - The Octavian Droobers - and having talked to Joel about it, he was really keen to have a go.
So, on Wednesday afternoon, we packed a picnic, put on our sporty clothes(!), and set off for some woods near Harbury.
I have to confess to being slightly dubious. After all, I am really not built for running; I'm pretty terrible at it. I'm also prone to turning the map round when navigating, much to the amusement of my husband... Also, the event started at 6pm - which is always tea-time in our house... I wondered if the changes to the usual routine and general exhaustion might be a recipe for disaster. Not to mention wondering what would happen if the smallest boy just decided he couldn't go any further...
We got there early, and thanks to some spectacular organisation (by the organisers...) we were actually able to start at 5:30pm... Marvellous.
They gave us a map (see below...), and an electronic gizmo, and then we had to start at the triangle, and navigate ourselves round the course - using our clever gizmo to show we'd found all the control points. (NB - for the uninitiated - these are red and white flags, with numbers to search for... A genius plan if you're trying to get children like mine to find anything: 'Come on, who can find number 118??' Very clever...)
My cunning plan was to all stay together, but let Paul and Joel run ahead a bit - which allowed Nathan and me the chance to catch up whilst they were navigating where we were going next. Amazingly, this pretty much worked... Although it required running - it was short sharp bursts of running, whilst encouraging Nathan along - the best sort of running. Nathan did also require the occasional piggy back - whilst also had the additional feature of slowing Paul down. Very useful.
We made it round in the respectable time of 30:36, which wasn't bad considering three out the four of us had never done anything like this before... We were also pretty chuffed when we discovered our Result! (click on the link and find us if you can...)
We all felt we'd very much earned our picnic afterwards; although (naturally) Paul didn't eat anything until he'd gone out and completed a much longer and more difficult course...
So - all in all, we had a good time together out in the sunshine, with exercise, and maps, and a crash course in how to use a compass, and a picnic tea. Can't be bad. Worth trying if you fancy doing some running, but don't want to be bored...
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