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.