Precious Moments

We’ve kind of just plodded along this week. It’s been relaxed, calm and ploddy. I like ploddy. It suits me nicely. The week began with Mother’s Day on Sunday. I was very spoilt by everyone. Gary brought me a double latte from my favourite shop, which I enjoyed in bed, as the littles and Lil began cooking brunch (our usual waffles, fruit, maple syrup and crepe fraiche). At my place was a pile of letters. Letters are what I ask for each year. I treasure the words, and the letters give me something to remember these wonderful years with, something I can reread when I’m old and grey! I spent the day snuggled on the sofa with all my favourite people in the world watching ‘The Good Life’ and munching on popcorn. Ads and Charlotte then cooked roast gammon for dinner. It was a lovely lovely day in which I did absolutely nothing ❤️

Each day I take one of my children out to lunch. We grab a meal deal at Tescos and we go to the park to sit and chat. If it’s sunny, there may be a walk involved as well. I love these times spent one to one with my kiddlywinks and look forward to them each day.

This week we finished ‘In the Trenches’ book, watched some fantastic videos on the First World War and analysed chapter three of Peter Pan (such a great book!). We also finished our formal analysis of Anthem of a Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen. I have a few extra activities to do alongside this with regards to some of the art that has been created inspired by this poem.

In our World War One learning, the girls completed a fun trench activity:

We did some more work on the beginning of World War One, learning about the Schlieffen Plan and the Siege of Liege:

Abigail has been in the kitchen again, making another trench cake, and some gooey chocolate cookies:

And Becca has almost finished her World War One soldier’s trousers:

Abs is a breed all unto her own!! She is standing in her granny’s slippers, holding up unfinished home made ww1 army trousers, wearing an Edwardian hat and saluting to goodness only knows who! Home schooling is definitely the breeding ground for some very peculiar individualities…I have five children who are all so very very different from each other. I love it!!

Thursday brought about a very different and difficult day. Chronic illness either breaks one or makes one. And in general, I think it has brought out the incredible strength in Charlotte. But there are days when she gets inside her own head and focuses on one thing. Often this one thing is something she can not do anything about (in this case her GP surgery not including ME as a reason for early immunisation for Covid). She fought so hard. She wrote to the local MP, who wrote back immediately and advised her to call 119 (the Covid helpline). She did, and they agreed that she should be in priority group six. She wrote another letter to the GP quoting 119, and WHO, asking once more to be considered for early immunisation. On and off all day she was in tears, until eventually she and Becca snuggled up together to look at stationary and art supplies:

Whilst they were buying out Amazon, I tidied the twins’ bedroom within an inch of its life! Charlotte had sobbed that nothing felt in her control anymore and that she totally felt overwhelmed by life. And she mentioned her bedroom (I mean, she listed off many, many things with which she felt overwhelmed, of which one was the state of her bedroom). Most of the things I could do nothing about. But her bedroom I could. So I did. I washed the girls bedding, cleaned under their beds, washed their windows and organised all their bits and bobs. Even if I do say it myself, it looked gorgeous!

Unfortunately, the GP service got back to Charlotte explaining why they had made the decision not to put her (or anyone else with ME) on priority group 6. She had a few more tears, and Gary needed to have a gentle chat about focusing on the things she could change rather than those she couldn’t. You can’t keep a good (wo)man down, and sure enough, by the end of the day, Charlotte had turned her focus to applying to the Open University to study for a degree in Criminology and Law. She found out this morning that she has been accepted.

We’ve been going for a walk at Gary’s work whenever I have needed to pick him up. The surroundings are so beautiful, and quiet:

Next year, I will have all three of my adult children at home. Thomas is hoping to be working part time as an assistant worship pastor and studying part time for a degree in Theology; Lillie will be at the same university she is at now, living at home, studying for a degree in Graphic Design, and Charlotte will be studying from home for a degree in Criminology and Law. Whilst I am, of course, sad for Charlotte that she is not able to enjoy an experience at uni away from home because of her ill health, and also for Lillie, who has decided to stay at home to be near to Charlotte, I still feel very thankful to have my babies close by for another wee while. Time passes too quickly, and I will make sure that our last few months or years together are as special as possible.

Right, I have decided to take the rest of the day completely off. The littles have their best friend round for the afternoon and the older girls are making sushi for dinner tonight.

Have a great weekend everybody!