3 June 2017

Half term last week whizzed by like a ride on a helter skelter, with the balance of busyness and down time firmly on the busyness side.

This is a photo of the girls and two of their Boy Cousins who stayed for a couple of days (my sister then has our kids, so we each get child free time away).

I took them down to a concert being held in our local church; one of the boys was entranced….it was lovely just to watch him being fascinated. Girls and younger boy were kept quiet with sandwiches until the interval when there was more food.

It was raining so heavily, that despite waterproofs we were soaked by the time we got home. So, we walked down to the woods and some very muddy puddles and jumped and jumped! Back home, they and their clothes all went in the bath!

We had the funeral of our much-loved Grandad. It was very moving. All his three children took the service between them, and four of his grandchildren also took part. I was reminded of a verse in the psalms which talks about handing on our faith to the next generation. What greater legacy could he have had?

With a general election coming up, some of our teens from youth club put together an interactive prayer evening. I did some organising and ground work, but they really did well, researching and presenting their ideas in very creative ways. I was proud of them.

Myself and the children had our annual day out at our regional agricultural show. I look forward to it each year. There’s something for all of us to enjoy. The boys like all the machinery, girls and I like the horticultural and family farming tents. Lanky Dude and I had fun looking at the great array of chickens, deciding which variety we would like next. I love looking around the bee tent, and Dancing Toes rolled a wax candle; I have a collection of these from over the years, made by various children. We all had fun honey tasting and drinking apple juice we had just pressed. We had ice creams while watching some demonstrations of working dogs, wild game hunting and heavy horses. We watched show jumping and were impressed at the sheer size and power of some of the prize bulls. We bought pasties and fudge for supper, and ate them sitting round the main arena, together with some squashed strawberries left over from our picnic lunch. Each child chose a ride and I enjoyed some live music in the background. We returned home tired, grubby and happy!