Enforced Stopping

It's been a while...

We've been really fortunate with the absence of illness recently.  I'm hoping it's a benefit of having had every known bug known to man in the first few years of my parenthood.  Maybe, now we're not so sleep deprived, we don't have to incubate every illness we come across.  That's an encouraging thought.

It couldn't last forever though.  The night before last, I awoke to a vague whimpering sound.  As I came to - it was apparent that Nathan had also recently woken up.  Poor chap had woken up lying in his own vomit.  His main concern was being so cold.

So - saving you any more unpleasant details - the rest of the night was no fun.  Suffice to say - little sleep was had, and much laundry was created.

Nathan's school has a policy that following this sort of bug, you can't go back until you've been vomit free for 48 hours.  All fair enough.  Yesterday Nathan was not too bad, but today he's pretty much back to normal.  He's downstairs playing with some toys as I type.

And actually I'm grateful.  Here I am - having to be at home - doing enforced stopping.  (I'm also grateful that my children are now old enough to at least attempt aiming their vomit into an appropriate receptacle - although I did promise no more unpleasant details...)

Don't get me wrong, I've spent a lot of time doing housework, and other jobs.  However, I've also been building marble runs, playing dominoes, driving cars, being read stories (Nathan very rarely lets anyone read to him at the moment, but he does like an audience for his reading...) and sitting with him on the sofa.  Nathan is a very companionable chap.

So I'm not rushing off to do x, y and z today.  I'm off to chill out with the boy xx

Christmas Message

To all our friends and family both near and far

A bit of Christmas joy:

We wish you all a blessed Christmas, and a very Happy New Year

Gill, Paul, Joel and Nathan xxxx



Broadening your Education

On the way to school each morning we tend to listen to Radio 2.  One of the reasons for this is that it coincides with when Chris Evans plays his 'Super 70s Smasher'; a tune (unsurprisingly) from the 1970s.  This morning it was the Rolling Stones.  A crucial part of this feature - at least as far as my kids are concerned - is the competitive element: you have to try and name the year when the song was released.  Every day we guess - after all, these songs came out before I was born, let alone the boys - and we've been keeping a tally for weeks now of how many each of us have got right.  Joel is thrilled that he has been right more times than I have...  It's always a trauma if Chris forgets to tell us the year though; I have to go home and ask Mr Google...

It got me thinking again about how important it is to teach your children things they may well never learn about in school.  I've mentioned before how Jimi Hendrix has saved our school run.  I'm disproportionately proud when Joel can name the band he's listening to...  I mean - I know it's not going to save any lives or anything - but it pleases me that he can recognise Stevie Wonder or the Jackson Five.

I'm thinking about making the boys an album of seminal tracks.  Music that all kids everywhere should grow up with as part of their DNA.  But where to begin...  I know I could make an epically long play list - but I don't want to do that.  If you were making a CD, and had maybe 15 tracks as your limit - what would you put on it?  What song is so important that you would put it on there?

Thinking back to my own childhood music recipe; I mostly remember Eric Clapton, Abba, Simon & Garfunkel, The Beatles and Carole King. My Dad used to pilfer guitar riffs from all over the place though when he led worship at our church. It was only relatively recently that I discovered the opening chord sequence he used for a song called 'Rejoice, Rejoice' was actually from 'Substitute'by The Who...   I suppose it was one way of broadening our musical education!

So what would be on your list?  The Beatles?  The Rolling Stones?  U2?  Mozart??? 

I may be some time...

The Questions people ask...

When you enter the 'both children at school' phase of life, people ask you some marvellous questions... 

"What do you do all day?" (Probably the most common - I'm not going to rant - but it's safe to say; I'm not just sat on my rear watching Daytime TV...)

"When are you going back to work?"  Because combining shift work with the school run is just so much fun...

But my personal favourite:

"Are you going to have another baby?"

Seriously?

I have to get over my initial urge to just laugh maniacally.  No, I'm not.  If I was going to do that - I would have done it already; not waited until I had a bit of spare time - and then filled it with morning sickness, more stretch marks and additional sleep deprivation... 

Any of you who have ever read my blog know that I love my children a lot; after all - I talk about them enough.  They are marvellous, brilliant, funny, bright, insightful, *insert additional superlatives here* But I still don't want another one.

One of my good friends is pregnant at the moment with her second baby, and she's really struggling with her pelvis.  I had some pelvic problems; particularly in my second pregnancy; so empathy is not a problem.  Watching her struggle to move around, I can almost feel that pain again.  I know that, even amidst her pain, she is not regretting being pregnant.  I'm glad that I'm a bit more available to help; having kids at school does release you a bit to do other things - even if that is to help others with their babies...

So, dear reader - I am quitting whilst I'm ahead.
And if I ever feel the need to cuddle a baby - I'm sure I'll be able to find one...

Harvest Festivals - the Trilogy

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?

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.

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.

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...

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:

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!

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:

“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.

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:

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)

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...

Cupcakes

I know I am not the most gifted cake baker in the world.  I have friends who are far better at it than I am; especially the part that involves making them look pretty.  I guess that's the bit where it moves from cookery (where I'm not bad) to art (where I'm a bit ropey to be honest...). 

Still, there's something really great about baking things with and for your kids.  It's Nathan's 4th birthday tomorrow (I know, where does the time go? My baby starts school in September... A post for another day...). He asked if we could take some cakes into nursery, and we did it today - as he won't be there tomorrow.

So here they are:



I know they could be neater, more glamorous and generally more artistic, but I think they're great.  Behold the glorious Rainbow Buttons, marvel at the little marshmallows, but above all - salute the Dolly Mixtures.  King of sweets.  Glorious variety in one little bag.  Marvellous.

You could understandably look at these and see blobs of cholesterol... 

But I see time spent with my kids, where we weighed stuff out (their favourite bit of the process...); where they cracked eggs without me freaking out about the shells going in (this has been a learning curve for me - I did fish a couple of little bits out...); Lots of stirring - without me having to hassle them to keep it in the bowl (a minor miracle! Tip - use a BIG bowl...), Blobbing of cake mixture (into the cases - I know, another miracle...), and counting down the minutes till the cakes were ready.  Not to mention, decorating the cakes without eating all the sweets at the same time. 

Miracles really do happen every day.

Meet the veggies!

Since my last blog and strawberry related discussion, I can report that our new strawberry plants in the garden are doing well, and actually now have something resembling strawberries on them.  Nathan is, of course, very suspicious of them - as they are tiny and not even red.  Ah well, at least I know he won't try and pick them before they're ready.

In other garden related news (I know, scintilating stuff this gardening!), the great tits in the bird box definitely have some babies.  You can hear them tweeting away (yes, real tweeting - not social networking...) just by standing in the garden.  I'm hoping to catch sight of them at some point...

And finally for this little blog post, something (also garden related - I know - it's seemless isn't it?!) to hopefully make you smile.  Any of you who have to spend a certain amount of time each day with CBeebies will hopefully recognise this...

Toxic Strawberries

Before getting down to the point of this blog...  Does anyone think 'The Toxic Strawberries' would be a good band name?  I just wrote it down, and immediately thought it sounded like a rock band.  Ah well, I digress, and before I've even started...  Could be an ominous sign...

Anyway, carry on!...

Yesterday, Nathan and I bought some new strawberry plants, along with a few others, and planted them out in our garden.  We've been attempting to grow our own fruit and vegetables with limited success over the last few years.  Last year we managed lots of potatoes, a heap of green (should have been red) tomatoes which ended up as chutney, a few dodgy looking carrots and parsnips, and three baby corn-on-the-cob...  We did also grow some impressive looking courgette plants, without courgettes on... Oh well, never mind.

My motivation for trying again, was Nathan's appalled reaction to the shop bought strawberries we had recently.  Although Nathan happily eats other strawberry (OK...  jam) based products, he obviously hadn't eaten an actual strawberry for a while; and thus had decided that they were not just unpleasant, but down right dangerous.

Of course, the fact that the rest of the family were happily tucking into the strawberries didn't seem to help.  You would have thought I was trying to make him eat a raw oyster, or some sort of creepy-crawly from a bush-tucker trial.  The strawberries were, in fact, toxic - and no amount of cajoling was going to convince him otherwise.

In the end, I did what a lot of parents do.  I told him he couldn't get down until he'd eaten the strawberry; and in the end he did eat it.  I think, despite all the angst, he did actually like it in the end. 

Thinking back on Strawberry-gate; I am thankful that we have incidents like that relatively rarely now.  Nathan had a very difficult food phase (by phase, I mean year...) after being ill for a month with a bug, and then an ear infection when he was 18 months old...  He hardly ate any normal food for a month, and afterwards, he seemed to have forgotten how.  Out of nowhere, almost all foods had moved from the 'OK' category in his head to the 'probably toxic - avoid at all costs' area.  We spent the next year slowly re-introducing foods, until he was finally eating something resembling a normal diet.  It was a very difficult and stressful time, and I'm so thankful that we are basically over that now.

And so, we will grow our own strawberries.  Water them.  Talk to them.  Give them straw beds to sleep on, etc. etc.  And hope that by the time they are ready to eat, a certain person will have decided they are not toxic after-all...

In the mean time, I might buy some more from the supermarket.  Let the desensitization commence!

I was made for this

What do Bruce Springsteen, Steppenwolf and Vin Diesel's character xXx have in common?

*Obscure connection alert*

They all know what they were born to do. 

They were born to run, be wild, and 'for this ****' (ie jumping off tall buildings whilst shooting at random bad guys etc...) respectively.

I know it's sometimes difficult to know what you were made to do.  Sometimes it's difficult to know what to do from one day (or hour) to the next.  I know that life with small children can make it very difficult to see beyond the end of your own nose, and that actually - just keeping everybody fed and clean, and not so sleep deprived that they are constantly crying (this applies to both big and small people) is enough to be managing, without thinking about anything more long term.

I know young people (I know this makes me sound like an old bag, but bear with me...) find this whole thing particularly stressful.  From early on at secondary school they are expected to be making choices with an eye on their future career path.  Just studying History because you like History isn't seen as good motivation... You have to know where you are going with everything.  It's easy to feel completely at sea.  Like you're drifting aimlessly with no real purpose.

It's at times like this when I cling onto the promises I find in the Bible.  Things like:

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you."  Jeremiah 29:11-12

I find it amazing that God has even given me a single thought.  After all, He does have quite a lot to be getting on with.  But there it is in black and white; He doesn't just think about me - He has plans and purposes for me and my little life.  Amazing.

In his time on earth, Jesus was passionate in his desire to help people become all they were created to be.  He claimed:

"I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." John 10:10

It's reasonable to state that this is still what Jesus longs to do for every person.  I'm sure that it is. However, sometimes I wonder if I would recognise 'life to the full' if it jumped up and bit me...  I can be so preoccupied with other things.  So easily distracted.

And yet, sometimes I catch a glimpse - a tantalizing taste - of what life can be like. 

I had one of those moments on Sunday evening at church when I was leading the worship.  All the elements of the service had come together as if we'd spent hours planning it (which we hadn't!), and we were singing a song that I just knew was going to be right for that moment.  The band and the congregation were altogether as one unit, singing about the amazing God who we have come to know and love, because He first loved us - and gave everything for us. 

And I just felt like God whispered in my ear...  "I made you for this".  In that instant, I knew there was nowhere in the world I'd rather be, and nothing I'd rather be doing.  I was 100% me, living life to the full, and loving every second.

I felt humbled and yet so joyful that - for that moment in time at least - I was doing exactly what I was created for. 

I guess that's maybe how it works.  We don't always see the big picture, or where it is we're heading.  All we can do is try to offer up each moment to the God who has the plans, and do our best to walk where He's leading.

Good things, Bad things...

Life is a never ending cycle of good things and bad things...

Sometimes these can be one and the same thing - just viewed a different way...

Take the Easter Holidays for example:

Good Things:

• No school run (Hooray!)
• Sunshine
• Less plans
• Less rushing
• Time with family
• Easter itself

Bad Things:    

• Less time to myself
• Less time for blogging (apologies - I know it's been ages)
• Hay fever
• Suncream wars (the familiar sequel to the Sunhat wars...)
• Endless Creepy-crawly evictions due to warm weather, and newly phobic small boy...

I'm sure you could add more to your list...

Maybe life is a lesson in learning to focus on the positive, rather than the negative.

After all, who wants to be miserable?
                     
                     

Simply take...

Simply take, a tired and slightly worn out person - a mother of small children is best

Sprinkle with sunshine...

Remind said person that it isn't actually winter anymore.

Exercise.  I find a bike ride is best.  This encourages wakefulness, and also feelings of post-exercising virtuous-ness.

Plunge in shower.
Rinse off dirt, snot, grime, and any other debris. 
Complete ablutions until satisfactorily clean and smooth.

Dry.

Moisturise.

Steer towards wardrobe. 
Remind subject that clothes other than jeans exist.
Dress according to taste.

Provide cup of tea to get over the shock of wearing skirt.

Consider painting toe-nails.
Decide not to get carried away.  It is only April after all.

Straighten hair.
Add necessary accompaniment to face; in this case - a smile.

And now you're done.
You're not just a mummy.  You're a nearly ready for summer, even if it's gone a bit cloudy mummy.

Momentum

I am not a physicist.  (That sounded like some sort of confession, didn't it...  Hello, my name's Gill, and I am not a physicist.)  However, I do still understand a little of the physics I learnt at school.  I feel I should apologise to Mrs Johnston; possibly the best physics teacher in the world, for not understanding more - but it has been a while...  I'm sure she would forgive me.

Whilst cycling with Nathan today, I felt I had a lesson-worthy demonstration of momentum...  As we cycled together, it was a lot of effort to get moving - after all, moving myself, Nathan, my bike and our tag along bike 'Caroline' is a lot of weight, and thus a great deal of inertia to overcome.  Actually, maybe the greatest inertia was getting myself off the sofa...  Still, we got moving.

What surprised me though, was how much less effort it was to keep going at a steady pace.  Whilst we were cycling a long at an even pace (not fast you understand... I wasn't built for speed!) we could pootle along quite happily.  If however, we slowed down for some reason, it was so much more effort getting back up to speed.  On the way home, when I was getting a bit tired, I found myself not wanting to slow down - as I knew I would just have to use more energy to get up to speed again.  When we were up to speed, we were benefiting from momentum.

Whilst cycling, I realised that inertia and momentum are not just physical phenomena; they can be emotional and spiritual too.

Did you give up anything for lent?  I didn't actually; mainly because I didn't want to give myself more hoops to jump through. I just wanted to concentrate on doing the things I was already trying to do.  One of the things I am doing is trying to read through the Bible in a year.  This is something I started half-way through January.  It took a bit of motivation to overcome my inertia, but now I'm reading it each day - it has become a good habit, and thus I have some momentum.

I guess this thought could apply to anything where you get in the groove of doing something, so it just gets that little bit easier.  Giving up smoking / going to an exercise class / speaking to new people when you're a bit shy / playing a piece of music you find challenging...  The list is huge when you start to think about it.

I guess it's also worth remembering that negative things can have a way of gaining momentum too...  Once you're in a group of people gossipping and saying negative things about someone, it's a whole lot harder to back out of the conversation.  Your mouth can gain momentum much more quickly than your brain I think...  The best example of this however, is probably how hard it is to stop eating Maltesers when there's a pack of them open, and you've already eaten three...  I guess Einstein never worried too much about the addictive powers of confectionary.

Here's hoping we can gain momentum with all things good.

I laughed until I cried

Chris Evans (he of Radio 2 Breakfast Show fame - amongst other things...) earlier said that children on average laugh over 60 times a day, where as us adults only manage a measly 14. 

And so today, to help your laughter count,I give you MercyMe, and their 'Cover Tune Grab Bag'...  MercyMe are a 'proper' band, with some really good tunes, however - this is them, letting their hair down a bit.  Make sure you watch till at least 2:06...  So funny...

Thank you so much to Anna at lifeinthelittletreehouse for putting me on to this x

Spring. a bird-house in your soul... and skipping!

As Ogden Nash would say:

"Spring has sprung
The grass is riz
I wonder where the boidys is...
The boid is on the wing
But that's absurd
I always thought the wing was on the boid"

Actually - the boid - OK, have to change to 'bird' now - the bird isn't on the wing anymore, it's in the bird-house (apologies - couldn't resist a They Might Be Giants link - such a good song...) in my garden.

I'm disproportionately excited that there are now a pair of Great Tits nesting in the bird-house on the ash tree in our back garden.  We put up the bird-house three Springs ago, and although a few birds have popped in to have a look since then, we've never had any-birdy decide to stay.  Will have to keep a look out for any babies now...  Will keep you posted.

I love Spring.  Especially Spring like today, which is blue-skyed, warm - but not boiling, and (for me) before the evilness that is hay fever.  Spring is so full of hope and joy and all things seem new. 

Have you seen any lambs yet?  I haven't.  Still, I have got my own little skipping chap to fulfill the cuteness quotient...  Nathan has obviously been practising skipping at nursery, and his deliberate, slightly wobbly but very committed skip is one of the cutest things I have ever seen... See for yourself:

Nathan skipped into nursery this morning, holding my hand and saying: "Come on Mummy!" Well, there was nothing for it, I had to skip too.  It made him happy, but it actually made me happy too; even when I got a couple of funny looks.  I did also get a couple of compliments on my skipping too though - from Mums who understood...

Michael McIntyre is a skipping fan too as you can see here...  So there you go.  This truly is public service blogging today; covering both the cutest and the funniest things you'll see all week - or possibly even all year!

Enjoy the sunshine x