Monday 13 April 2009

A special day in the Forest

What a wonderful day today the sun shone and it was beautiful and warm. We took a lovely jaunt out in our new car to the New Forest, it's a really smooth drive with the added fun of music on demand we had a great time playing some of the kids worship songs and a few other things even when we hit traffic which I suppose was inevitable on a bank holiday it was still alot of fun! Millie didn't even complain and felt fine the whole time.

We fuelled up at the tesco one stop and headed off to find our usual picnic spot, unfortunately it seemed that everyone else had the same thought and got to it earlier than us so we had to keep going til we found a new spot which worked just as well, lots of trees and the usual forest stuff. Later we had trouble again trying to park at Aldridge Hill but as it turned out it was a bonus because we discovered a lovely spot on our walk from where we had to park in the end. The kids had their wellies so they had a great time running in and out of the stream and getting stuck in the mud at one point Luke lost both his wellies in the mud and Millie had to rescue them, I think the socks are beyond rescue unfortunately though! Sammy had great fun sitting on the side throwing in stones he missed most of the time but that didn't seem to dampen his enthusiasm. Millie and Luke were kept busy supplying more stones for him to throw sometimes a hazardous business as he didn't want to stop for them to get out of the way!

We finished off the day with fish and chips at Lymington, the seagulls there are way to adventurous one nearly landed on my head the kids thought they were great fun and would have preferred to feed them all their dinner but they had to settle for a few tit bits in the end, we probably shouldn't have given them any but it was so tempting. It was a lovely day in the end I hadn't been keen to start with as I was tired from Sammy being up in the night and having a horrid cold but I'm so glad that Rob was insistent about it. It was worth it and the fresh air and sun were a real tonic.

Oh yes I nearly forgot it was also a special day because we are eighteen years married today what better way to celebrate! Still loving you Rob!

Sunday 12 April 2009

Easter

Today we made this lovely collage at church, I've been trying to make church more accessible to the children so while the service was going on this morning I had the children colour in a mixture of trophies, rosettes, medals, number ones and stars. They all wrote their names on them to show that although Jesus was the one who won the victory he did it to save them. I painted the background in a black and white check to symbolise the winning flag, it all looked really effective and the children really seemed to enjoy it.

I love the creativity of God it's one of my favorite characteristics probably because it's one of the things that make me feel most alive I get so much enjoyment out of creating something new or finding some way to express myself creatively. I really feel that it's a good way to learn about who God is by looking at His creation and that the act of creativity also teaches us so much about Him, His patience, attention to detail, His love for us, His extravagance, His joy and many more things.

I have been so moved today because life can be so hard sometimes and trying to live it the way we should seems impossible but today I am reminded that in Him all things are possible and also that it's not me but Christ that sets me free it is such a relief! I hope that I will remember everyday and not just at Easter.

Happy Easter!

Wednesday 1 April 2009

First Steps Almost

What an exciting day, I was amazed that Sammy just got up this morning and decided to that he could walk with the push along walker. Up to now he has always refused on the grounds that it moves way to fast and is obviously a health hazard but for some reason this morning it was suddenly easy. It is a wonderful step literally in the right direction I'm hopeful that we may have him walking by his second birthday that would be way ahead of where I thought it would be.

Also this week he's using his signing more and more and obviously understanding so much of what is said to him and around him. He really seems to like squirrels after seeing one on 'Something Special' so we took him, Millie and Luke for a walk on Sunday afternoon to see if we could find one in the woods. Typically when you want to see one there were none in sight but he did get very good at the tree sign, two days later I was telling a friend about this and when I looked at him he was watching me and signing tree. He is even signing a couple of signs together now if you count signing to songs it's so sweet to see him but unfortunately I can't sing, sign and film all at once so you will have to take my word for it.

I'm really encouraged at the moment he seems to be coming on so well the fact that he doesn't speak isn't so worrying because I'm sure he will get round to it and it's obvious that he wants to communicate. If every journey starts with one small step then today I think we started on our way to somewhere wonderful!