What have I done?

Yesterday evening I was sat on the wall in our front drive chatting to my next door neighbour as she was stringing up some Union Jack bunting in honour of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee this weekend.  We were both saying it was a pity that no-one in our street had arranged a street party and before I knew it, I had suggested that we host a little BBQ and get together outside the front of our house.  Next, I discovered myself and my neighbour knocking on the doors of our neighbours houses, introducing ourselves and checking whether they would be free to join us on Saturday evening.

We have lived in our road for nearly five years and my next door neighbours have lived in their house for twenty years.  Previously I had only ever met or spoken to the neighbours as far as two houses up and two houses down from us and that's quite good going for a typical English homeowner.  I know several people who only know the people in the houses immediately next to them.

Anyway once we had started I quite enjoyed getting to meet some of my neighbours for the first time.  I even met one couple who have a two week old baby - he was adorable and we were asked inside to look at their new extension. 

We haven't invited the whole street as our driveway is not that huge and we have to keep out of the road as we haven't had permission to close it.  Hopefully there should be enough of us to make it a fun evening!  Unfortunately the weather has cooled off a little though so it might not be the warm sultry evening we had perhaps envisaged!

The bunting that I carefully strung up along the front of our house is now hidden inside our guttering where it blew and got stuck out of my reach.

I have a feeling tomorrow could be quite busy organising everything and sorting out all the food etc.

David being his usual supportive self, reminded me that I had made my bed and now I have to lie in it!

Annihilating Ants

Yesterday I was up at 5.30am as I had to travel to get to a work conference meeting at Bramshill which is a Police Training Facility. The journey up was quite interesting as I was travelling with work colleagues and as we were driving quite slowly through traffic on the M25 we passed another motorist reading a novel as he was driving.  He was so oblivious to his surroundings that we pulled up alongside him and I was able to film him for quite some time before he realised we were there and then he had quite shock!   

The conference was a really interesting and useful day.  The building we were in is an old mansion based in 50 acres of land with wild deer and several old ghost stories. It is supposed to be the third most haunted house in the UK. In the main hall downstairs is an old chest which apparently has quite a sad story attached to it.  On Christmas Eve in 1747 a young bride and her wedding party decided to play hide and seek.  The bride hid inside the chest but the lid was spring loaded and she could not get it open again.  She was not discovered until several months later after she suffocated still holding her wedding bouquet complete with sprigs of mistletoe.  I am not sure that I believe in ghosts but the story was still quite heart-rending.

On the way back home we passed a police crime scene by the side of the road where some human bones have been discovered which was a little gruesome.

It had been quite a long day and David had just returned from a two day business trip so we were both glad to get home and have an early night.

However, I arrived home to discover a trail of industrious ants marching through the hallway, up the side of my kitchen cabinets and into the cupboard where I store my baking ingredients. It seems I have at some time inadvertently spilled some sugar.  It is unbelievable that the ants have managed to organise themselves to trek the distance from their nest in our driveway, through my house, climbing up to the top shelf of my top cabinets to discover this gold mine of sugar! 

Anyway I soon set to pulling everything out of the cupboard giving all the shelves a good scrub and ensuring everything is well sealed before returning it to its rightful place.  

I had already traced the ants back to the hole where I believe they had their nest and I boiled the kettle in readiness.  I suddenly had an attack of conscience as you cannot help but admire the industrious nature of an ant and I felt quite sad that the poor little creatures had spent the best part of the day carrying back little grains of sugar just for their lives to be ended before they had probably had chance to enjoy it.  Anyway, as much as I felt awful about it, I really don't want to share my kitchen surfaces with a colony of ants so I reluctantly poured a kettle full of hot water down the hole.  Rest in Peace my little friends.

 This morning as Seb was getting himself ready for school I asked him if he had packed his lunch.  David had made him a sandwich and Seb assured me he had put his lunch in his school bag.  I had filled a bottle of water for him and as I put it in his bag I checked his lunch box and found only a packet of crisps and a chocolate bar.  "Seb - where is your sandwich?" I asked.  Turns out he had thrown it in the bin because a small piece of cucumber had looked to him like mould.  I was not very happy that he had not told me the truth.  In addition while checking his bag I came accross a sheet of paper detailing a project that Seb has to do.  Again, I was none to impressed as he had promised me that he didn't have any homework. I told him that because he had lied, there would be no playing on the computer that afternoon. Anyway not wanting to make him late for school I decided to deal with the matter later when we had more time to discuss it.

I then baked a couple of batches of chocolate and banana muffins with vanilla frosting for the mums at my mums prayer group and a few extra for David and the boys.  I was experimenting again so was quite pleased that they turned out quite well and the mums all seemed to like them.

The topic today was our responsibility as parents to train and discipline our children.
This is a constant learning curve for all of us mums as we seek to raise our children and to train them and to use and draw upon the gospel to guide us.

After Mum's group I was trying to catch up with some housework but Nat was being a bit of a pickle.  Firstly he was playing in his sandpit and threw most of his sand pit implements (spade, rake etc) over the garden wall onto the neighbours patio.

Then as I was clearing up the mess, I caught him about to throw a brick into the pond.  I thought he was being helpful when he handed me an item out of my washing basket as I was hanging out the clothes to dry but then realised that he was just trying to empty the basket so he could use it as a pretend boat.  As I didn't hang the clothes out fast enough he decided to tip them all out in a big pile so he could climb aboard!

Having finished hanging out the washing I walked into the lounge to find Nat had filled a bucket with sand and had tipped it all over the living room carpet.  That was the final straw and he soon found himself being bundled off to bed for his afternoon nap.

Fortunately Nat was still sweetly slumbering when Seb got home from school so we were able to sit down and have a calm quiet chat about what had happened this morning.  Seb apologised for lying and I explained that it was really important that he is always truthful with me so that I know that he can be trusted and that he always tells me the truth.  Seb explained that he had simply forgotten about his project homework and that that was not a lie.  I had already believed this to be the case but I used it as an example to illustrate that because of the other lie it was hard for me to know whether to believe him or not.  We also talked about God being omnipresent and always knowing when he is lying and the fact that more often than not his lies will be found out anyway and will have consequences or punishment attached to them.

I fetched Seb a glass of milk and a muffin and gave him a few bible verses to look up that all deal with the subject of honesty including:

Psalm 120:2 "Save me O Lord from lying lips and deceitful tongues"

Proverbs 12:22 The Lord detests lying lips but he delights in men who are truthful"

Matthew 5:37 "simply let your 'yes' be 'yes' and your 'no' be 'no', anything beyond this comes from the evil one"

1 Corinthians 13:6  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

Afterwards we talked about how I had told him that morning that he would not have any computer time because of the lie he had told.  Seb agreed that it was a just and deserved punishment.  However, I chose to use this as an opportunity to learn from the example of my friend Emma (author of the Blog One Pink Toothbrush) and to speak to Seb about how we all derserve to die and be separated from God because of all our sins but that God has shown us his Grace by instead sending his son Jesus to die in our place.  Jesus died for all of us even though we did not deserve it and therefore although Seb does not deserve to have computer time, I was going to demonstrate that same Grace and allow him to play.
So Seb now has a project on Surrealist Art to complete.  I have never been particularly artistic or knowledgeable about art but I have a feeling I am going to become quite an expert on Salvador Dali over the next few weeks!

Oh that reminds me - Seb recently painted this lovely pen and ink drawing with help and guidance from my Dad Phil. Seb wants to take it to school to have it added to the school's virtual art gallery but then we shall get it framed and we will hang it somewhere prominent in our house.

The Long Song

Sunday was a busy day.  We were up early as we had to be in Church early as the BBC was filming a special Live Pentecost service in our Church.  It was quite strange having cameras panning around the room.  We are used to having a couple of static cameras as our church is multi site and the service from our site (the New England Quarter) is televised and often transmitted to our two other sites at the Race-course in Brighton and in Shoreham Community Centre.  But the BBC had loads of cameras and microphones and they seemed to keep coming up very close (although of course most of the time they weren't actually televising what they were filiming).  Anyway the service was fantastic and once I managed to tune out the cameras and not get too distracted by them it was an amazing service.  David was featured at the beginning of the programme as he was on the team welcoming people into church but thankfully although the camera did capture David, Seb and I a couple of times in the congregation it was so fleeting that unless you knew where we were sitting and what to look for you wouldn't have noticed us!  I was quite surprised to hear that my Aunty Margaret had been watching the programme up in Coventry and had been looking out for us.  I had not told her we were being filmed so she must watch the programme regularly.  We have taken her to church with us when she visited my parents so I think it was probably quite nice for her to recognise the church.

Anyway after church we called around to see David's brother to give him his birthday present and we sat out in the sun chatting with him and his wife who has been very unwell and spent most of last week in hospital.  Unfortunately we couldn't stay long as Seb had to get home for a lesson with his tutor.

David took Nat out to a Massed Brass Youth Band event that our friend Sandra was involved with conducting. Meanwhile it was that time when I have to undertake my Road Representative duties and both deliver the monthly monthly newsletters and try and collect the annual subscriptions for our local Residents Association.  I can't really complain though as it is so much nicer traipsing up and down in the sunshine rather than the rain.  The weather still has not broken and it was even warmer today than yesterday.

When I returned home David was back and he went out to mow the lawn as it had grown really long again.  I set to work stenciling my coffee table (remember the one I painted the other day that got covered in flies?) Well anyway, I had rubbed the flies off and given it a second coat of paint earlier in the week so I was able to start the decorating stage of my project. 

Our Coffee Table before being painted

To say that I have never done any stenciling before (and that I also didn't heed the advice to practice first!), I was quite pleased with my effort.  Although I did soon realise that it was best to keep the stencil in place until the paint had dried. . . . So there are a few tiny smudges - you probably wouldn't notice if you were not looking too closely!

A lick of Paint

Anyway I am very pleased with the end result.  OK it might not be to everyone's taste and the paint will no doubt flake off in no time at all but it has been very pleasurable transforming the table and it still looks better than it did before.

The Finished Article!

This evening I went to Book Group where finally after 45 minutes of discussing everyone's various medical conditions and ailments (I am the youngest member of the group by about 25 years!) we finally moved on to discussing our book which was the Long Song by Andrea Levy.  It was a very good choice, set in Jamaica and focusing on the life of a sugar plantation slave called July.  The book is a fictional novel but makes a very interesting read as it is set in a historical context.  It isn't an easy book to read as the use of colloquial language means that at times you have to concentrate quite hard but I would definitely recommend it.

David and I have got a busy couple of days coming up at work but I am trying to keep in mind that we are both on leave next week so we just have to get through the next few days and then we can relax and enjoy ourselves. Let's hope the good weather stays with us!

A Day at the Seaside

Yesterday as the weather was still glorious we decided to make the most of it and take the boys to the beach.  As Brighton has a pebble beach we thought it would be nicer to drive along the coast to West Wittering where there is a beautiful sandy beach.  It was quite a long drive in the end as clearly quite a few people had had the same idea but it was worth the wait as it was such a lovely sunny day.

When we arrived we decided to picnic by the car rather than carry the cool bag down onto the beach.  You wouldn't think you would need that much for a trip to the beach would you?

Well we had three beach chairs, a pop up tent, a skim board, a kite, two frisbees, two buckets, a spade, a rake and a giant spade, other sand castle building implements, five towels, a ground sheet, change of clothes for Nat, spare swim nappies and baby wipes, books, sunglasses, suncream, camera, drinks etc (as you can imagine we were quite laden down without the cool bag as well) 

Of course we arrived while the tide was out and plonked ourselves right at the front of the beach near the waters edge so every hour we had to decamp a little further back as the tide caught up with us.

Nathaniel had a great time building sandcastles and was particular enchanted with some little flags that my Dad had given him to put on the top of his sand castles, from all different countries.  He spent a long time carefully inserting flags into each sandcastle but not wanting the effort of having to build a castle for each flag he ingeniously came up with the idea of sticking more than one flag in each castle. 

I found it quite hard to overcome my OCD tendancies and had to stop myself from replacing each flag in the centre of each sandcastle when I observed Nat sticking them in at the edge!

While the day was beautifully warm the sea was still quite chilly but I was not deterred and went right in.  It was not quite like being in Spain though as although I sumerged myself up to my neck I was gasping from the cold and I could not just lie back and float like you can when you are in Costa Blanca.  Meanwhile Nat thought it was highly amusing to be buried in the sand by Seb.

It was a very relaxing day though, Seb and I both read for a little while David took Nat for a walk along the beach.  Then Nat and I splashed in the sea while David and Seb went to get us all icecreams.

 









When we finally packed up the car we drove the short distance to East Wittering where we purchased Fish and Chips and went down to the beach to eat them before driving home.

 

It is always a shame that a lovely day out inevitably ends with the arduous task of unloading the car and unpacking everything but so far it has been a very enjoyable and memorable weekend and Nat should sleep really well tonight!

A Perfect Day for a Wedding

Yesterday David and I spent the most glorious and heavenly day at the wedding of Alison - a girl I went to school with and her husband Chris.  The Wedding was held at Buxted Park Hotel which is a beautiful Country House Hotel set in Acres of idylic countryside.  The weather was wonderful at 29 degrees, the Sun shone all day long but there was a lovely cool breeze so it was not too uncomfortable.

When we arrived we enjoyed a drink in the bar and soaked up our lovely surroundings.  The bridesmaids were in dusky pink and the Groom and groomsmen had brown suits with pink ties and button holes.  The Bride wore a stunning and very elegant dress in cream and she looked amazing.  The wedding itself was held in the Orangery a fantastic glass roofed room looking over the lawn with wonderful views behind. The chairs had all been covered in White with Pink Bows and there was a string quartet playing in the background. It was very elegant and sophisticated.

 Although it was a very formal wedding it was also really relaxed and there was a lot of humour in the ceremony.  As the bride was announced the string quartet struck up the Darth Vader theme music from Starwars which made everyone laugh,

It was a civil ceremony so there were no hymns but there were two readings, one from Pooh Bear and another read by Ali's sister about Dinosaurs which was very amusing but also quite emotional and touching.  After the ceremony the guests drank Sparkling wine and Pimms while being offered canapes on the lawn before the photos were taken.

Next a surprisingly loud and very funny Toastmaster called us into the Ballroom for the speeches.  Ali's Dad gave a very sweet speech, the best man's speech was really good too but the groom's speech was particularly funny and I had tears rolling down my face at one point.

The tables in the ballroom were beautifully decorated with really tall vases filled with flowers as centre pieces and hearts and crystals decorating the tables (so very me!) lovely favour bags filled with heart shaped chocolates and love heart sweets.  Little bottles of bubbles and the name cards were butterflies attached to our champagne glasses.

The meal was delicious and unusually I liked and could eat everything on the menu.  The first course was a very tasty fishcake followed by a lime sorbet which was wonderfully refreshing.  The main course was lamb on a bed of sweet potato mash.

For Desert we were served with slices of the magnificent Raspberry and White Chocolate Wedding Cake with cream - very yummy!  Followed by coffee and chocolate truffles.

After dinner we had chance to wander the grounds before the evening kicked off.  It was really enjoyable to stroll around the beautiful gardens with David, chatting to other guests and we even wandered down to the lake to have a little paddle!

 

We were called back by the sound of bagpipes playing and the evening entertainment started shortly after that with a fantastic live band, dancing, a buffet and a canvas on which the wedding guests were invited to paint a heart.  By the end of the night I was exhausted, my feet were aching but it had been one of the most enjoyable weddings I have ever been to and I felt so blessed to have been invited to share in Ali and Chris' special day.  I hope their marriage is as pleasurable and as successful as their wedding day!