A Quick Catch Up

I literally have no idea if this will post under the blog section or not… I have been a tampering all week and now I am not really sure what works and what doesn’t! Seriously. I should never start fiddling. Especially with things I don’t understand. Like, anything computer related, for instance 😬

So much has happened over the past few months that I don’t really know where to start. Thomas is coming to the end of his contract as junior worship leader at the church. They have asked his to stay another year, which is really nice for him, but he is still praying about it. His year lease has also come up on his flat. His flat mate is moving back to Coventry, so he is exploring all the options. He’d like to live by himself, rather than flat share, so is hoping something comes up in his price range over the next couple of months. Thomas also had his passing out for the reserve army and is now a (reserve) soldier. He really enjoys everything about being in the army, especially the different opportunities now available to him. For example, he just came back from a week of sailing.

Lillie has had a rather interesting few months. Both Lillie and Charlotte volunteer as youth leaders at our church. They both love it, but Lillie particularly enjoys her time in anything youth related. An opportunity to spend a discipleship year learning and working alongside the full-time youth leader, as well as doing a course in youth leading, has come up, and she was put forward as a possible candidate. Having thought long and hard, and prayed about it, she has decided to take a year out of university in order to do this discipleship year. This was not a decision to be taken lightly, as the campus she attends will not be continuing with Graphic Design as a degree option next year (Lil’s was the last cohort). Basically, she has finished year one, and she has a place secured in year two at the same university but a different campus (which does the Graphic Design) should she want to return in a year’s time.

At the same time as all this was going on, Lillie has also been getting ready to spend three months in America. She applied to Camp America to work on a camp for children or adults with learning difficulties. A week or so later, she was contacted by the camp that Gary and I had met at! They asked her to go for an interview and she was accepted on the spot. So last Friday, we dropped her off at Heathrow to fly out to New York.

There were many tears, after a very long week building up to her actual departure. Charlotte has been amazing since Lil has left. Abigail is currently sleeping in Lillie’s bed, whilst Becca has put up the camp bed in between Charlotte’s and Lillie’s beds. The three of them sleep in a line together so that if any of them need Charlotte they can simply snuggle in with her. Charlotte has also begun a new routine of reading her book (which I will write about in a bit) to the girls just before tucking in. I love that they are so close. Seriously, the best thing about homeschooling are the relationships ❤️

Lil threw a good bye party a couple of weeks before she left, which was great way to gather friends together and have a bit of fun:

Before she left, we all gave Gary a hand to build the pond. Or rebuild the pond may be more accurate. Actually, we did very little. Gary had a design in his head and he did the lion’s share of the work:

And look at the result! Didn’t he do a good job?

The littles, who are really not little anymore, have been busy beavering away at their school work. I will be writing a post on that later, but suffice it to say, they have had a great month and finished one or two things early. We have one month more to go until they break for the summer, and it will be a month of finishing up all the various courses they began at the beginning of this academic year.

Charlotte has done so well this year. Somehow, even whilst being ill, she has managed to finish year one of her part time degree, as well as publish her first novel. Well, actually it’s not her first novel per se as she has written many manuscripts before, but it is her first published one, and it seems to have been received well. Again, I shall write another post about her writing exploits in the future. Health-wise, she is doing exceptionally well. She only has major symptoms once a month which seem to be set off by her hormones. Apart from that she is living life normally and to the fullest.

I am also doing well. I managed to get in my final assignment for the first year of my master’s degree. I have so enjoyed being back studying again! The master’s is in Youth and Childhood studies and my focus has been learning about children in care and education. A couple of readers have asked me to write about what I have been studying, so I may do that in the future.

I want to get back into writing my blog. Right now, I don’t have any studying to do for another four months, so I’m going to try to write a bit more whilst I have some time on my hands.

Last but not least, I wanted to share about an incredibly special day I spent with my youngest child. She bought the two of us tickets to go and see the musical Wicked up in London. Becs was SO excited! I added to the day by surprising her with a trip to the National Art Gallery. I have probably said this a lot on my blog, but Becs was literally born with a pen in her hand. She drew before she talked, walked or any other milestone. Art runs through her veins, probably more so than Lillie. Lillie and I have frequented the London art galleries on many an occasion, and we have always enjoyed ourselves, and spending time with each other. But taking Becca to the art gallery was something quite different. It was as if I didn’t exist. She was enthralled right from the start, looking not just at the art hanging on the walls but gazing up at the ceiling and exclaiming in utter delight at all the carvings and design. She was completely in awe, and sharing those moments with her was a such privilege. It made me look at things anew. For me, it was a complete joy and really rather special to watch her, slowly twirling around, her eyes transfixed.

We ate lunch there before catching a cab to the theatre showing Wicked.

Again, she had never been to the theatre before and was mesmerised by it all. We had such a special mummy and daughter time together.

Happy happy sigh ❤️