Hello, loyal email and WordPress followers! Thank you for still being here. I have much to report, as you can probably imagine, but for now I thought it was time for a little life update. Five weeks ago, after nine years at home with bumps, babies and preschoolers; I graduated. By which I mean that…
Tag: parenting
Child Prodigy
We have a framed quotation in our kitchen, hidden amongst the past projects, unidentifiable clay models and paintbrushes. We even made and decorated it ourselves, for good measure. I love it and almost certainly ascribe to the message. Lately, however, I have also found myself thinking that, whilst every child is an artist, some are…
Our Latest House Guest
I never thought we’d be an “Alexa!” kind of family. In fact, after hearing our previous neighbours’ children repeatedly squawk her name from the garden, I had sworn that Alexa would never set her submissive digital foot inside our home. Still. As is often the case with early parental swears, here we are. A previous…
The Availability Factor
Those who followed the Lockdown Diaries may remember a whole series of events through which God challenged my felt uselessness with an instruction to ‘be available.’ As a project-driven extrovert, I found many of our bubble-restricted days in limited locations difficult, and thought ‘availability’, aka loitering without intent, a sorry excuse for a vocation! Then…
A Brief History of Summer
Dear regulars, I’m sorry it’s been so long. Truth is, there’s been far too much to say and far too little time in which to process and then say it. Which is a bit of a novelty now, post lockdown, isn’t it? Anyway, rather than just reappear after a few months and dump the heavy…
“Very Nice Shoes”
Short and sweet one over here- much like me, according to the lamp post I sat next to at dinner yesterday. “You can’t possibly have eaten enough,” he says, passing the tray of fancy food over my plate again. “You’re about the size of a hamster!” Of course, when he eventually stood up and made…
The Sweet Spot
A couple of years ago I was at a church community meal that Husband was unable to attend. Breastfeeding a young baby in one arm, cutting up food for my two year old with the other and keeping half an eye on my four year old from across the room, I noticed another lone mother…
Life as we Know it (May 21)
Yesterday, my parents travelled home after a 7 day sleepover at our house. The UK rules changed on the 17th of May and that was the day they arrived; not only viewing our “new” home for the first time (we moved in last August!), but also staying with us overnight for the first time in…
Shout to the Lord
I don’t have much to say this week, except that we spent a few hours cleaning out the toy cupboard ready to reopen Toddler Group; during which the Youngest became quite attached to a stuffed nativity prop of the Baby Jesus. She took Baby Jesus home, where he enjoyed scrambled eggs for lunch and then…
Diary of ANOTHER Lockdown: #10
Saturday It’s a Bubble-free day and the last weekend before the kids go back to school. They request a ‘lazy day’ and, as we have nowhere to go and no one to see, I am more than happy to oblige. So much so, in fact, that I see absolutely no reason to get dressed. We’ll…
Diary of ANOTHER Lockdown: #8
Saturday Husband is still off work and thankfully manages to sleep well today. It always takes him a while to switch off. We don’t do much to be honest. I think there’s a walk and a game and a movie – but I didn’t take any photographs and so I have no markers to jog…
Diary of ANOTHER Lockdown: Week 7
Thursday On Thursday morning I published a now-deleted post about the first 5 days of this half term week. It was a post I desperately needed to write, for those five days had been a fairly intense emotional and spiritual journey in themselves: raising questions about both ministry and marriage within ministry, as well as…
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