Precious Moments

I’m not sure why, but I was particularly looking forward to Mother’s Day this year.  Whether it was my littlest’s sudden understanding of what Mother’s Day is, and her interest of when Daughter’s Day is (and could she please have some candy floss bought in for her special day 😉  ), or the fact that there was much secretive discussion going on behind my back.  B5 especially was counting down the days, showing me various pictures and colouring-ins she had made just for me and then immediately asking me to forget that she had showed me them, and constantly asking me to buy her ’embelopes’ to put her home made cards in.

Sure enough, Sunday morning arrived with everyone making very loud ‘hush’ sounds, ‘so as not to wake ‘mummy’.  Mummy, of course, was already awake but was told sharply by lovely husband to go back to sleep else I would ruin the surprise.  I lay in bed, kind of hoping they wouldn’t bring me breakfast in bed (I am really not hungry in the morning, and an Ulster fry would have been difficult for me to push down).  I needn’t have worried.  They know me of old and Gary went to the local Costa Coffee with the little ones and bought me back three lattes!  Ah, the way to my heart…….I was very content indeed!

Then came present opening time.  B5 and A7 had used up almost an entire pack of 20 ’embelopes’, which I had bought on instruction, to hold the various treasures.  I love being a mummy all of the time, but I especially love these moments when the children’s faces are just shining with love and anticipation of their Mummy’s joy as she opens their gifts.  I had to laugh inside because B5 had obviously been rummaging through everybody’s bedrooms to try to find items she thought I might enjoy.  I had shells from the bathroom, jewellery which belonged to her older sister and toys which belonged to A7.  Everyone gave up their beloved possessions in the moment, knowing I would return them at a later date 😉  A7 had spent a long time creating a necklace I wouldn’t be allergic to, made from all non-metalics.  It was just gorgeous, and I wore it all day long 🙂

Gary had joined in and sold some of his golfing equipment and bought me a huge bath towel (two meters long) hoping it would go around me!!  I had particularly asked for a big towel because I am the last to bath at night (everyone having their showers or bath in the evening) and am always left with soaking wet towels (teen girls always need to make two sopping wet on account of their hair).  I now own a beautiful large towel which usefully has my name on it (to deter those who may be tempted to steal it) and I am happy to announce that two meters does indeed wrap around me 🙂

T14 had already bought me a perennial plant the week before which he will plant and I will hopefully watch bloom every year, whilst L made a beautiful card which I honestly thought was shop bought (it was so well done) and gave me her Be-You-Tiful artwork, which I have since found out she had made with me in mind <3

Words of affirmation is one of my love languages, so I really appreciated C13’s present.  She had given me a beautiful leather bound book in which she had written a heap of reasons why she loved me so much.  I had to laugh at some of them, and others brought tears to my eyes.

The one about me selling a kidney made me chuckle:

And her mention of the fact that every February I want to send them to school seemed a particularly strange thing to appreciate in a mother:

But it was her mention of loving me to the moon and back, which is ‘our little thing’ that made me well up:

The necklace at the bottom I had bought C13 a few weeks ago, when she was going through a tricky emotional patch due to her twin’s acquisition of a boy friend.  The necklace says those words we have been saying to each other all our lives:

I thought she could wear it and remember that no matter where she is in the world, and no matter what was happening in her life, there was someone out there who loved her all the way to the moon and back.  She hasn’t taken it off since (apart from when I asked her to so I could photograph it!).

Everyone went off to church and I decided to take the opportunity to take my own mum out to the local garden center for breakfast and (another) coffee.  We are incredibly close and always thoroughly enjoy each other’s company, so it was a lovely way to spend the morning.

When the children came home from church, they came bearing lots of bunches of flowers (our church kindly gives out flowers for every mother):

And as if ALL that wasn’t enough, we had been invited to our Reverend’s house for lunch, so I didn’t even have to cook!  How blessed was I?  Happy, happy sigh.

Monday we took the day off.  Gary has changed his work times so that he will now get two days off each week, although they are unlikely to fall at the weekend.  This means our weekend, and our days off, will fall on whatever days he has off.  I think he is aiming to have Sunday and Monday off each week, meaning we will work on a Saturday in lieu of having Monday off.  The children weren’t over the moon about this but have agreed.  So Monday we spent doing absolutely nothing, which was very gratifying 🙂

Tuesday was less gratifying.  Because the girls help out at the local school assembly, they are out for most of Tuesday.  It tends to be our least productive school day but usually that is fine as we have worked really hard the day before.  Only this week we hadn’t so I was definitely left wondering how on earth we would meet our goals this week….

I shouldn’t have worried though because by Thursday we were well on track to finish up early!

This week T14 has been focused on his Chemistry GCSE and has sent off another piece of work to be marked.  He will begin Module Three next week.  He had attempted to do some of his project but the required website was down and so apart from planning very little was done.  The plus side of this was that T had more time to devote to his maths which he is finding a little harder this week.  He may not agree that was a plus point, though 😉

L13 has been writing her post for me on what she will be covering in her African project.  Her bust came through (for displaying her jewellery) and the littles were very curious, asking if it was the head of a real person!!  I kid you not.  What kind of children am I bringing up and what on earth type of mother do they think I am that I would buy the white head of a dead woman?!  For those of you who are wondering what the answer is – I’m not that type of mother.  The head is polystyrene and not mummified in any way.

L has also finished her next mixed media project of a blue bird:

She thoroughly enjoyed painting this with her new watercolours!  Here is the end picture:

She has also been spending some of her time learning to ‘Draw with Realism’, with this week’s project being an avocado which she hasn’t finished and which I shall put in next week’s post.  Hicks is her artist of the week, but she was a little uninspired by his paintings.  I suggested she focus on just one part of a painting and she agreed and chose a leopard.  She is yet to finish this and so I will post on it sometime next week.

C13 has been finishing up her Apologetic’s course for teens, which she has thoroughly enjoyed.  Here to Help Learning has introduced her to the idea of a story board and, as big is always best as far as C goes, she chose three huge pieces of card and attached them together to create a monster story board!  Here she is working on just one of those pieces of card:

It seems to be doing the trick though as she has been leaping through the house declaring to all how cool her story board is and how much she is enjoying creating it 🙂

Last week we surprised her with some Bongos for her African project and she has enjoyed familiarising herself with them and learning a bit more about their history.  She found her first lesson very easy and seems to be a bit of a natural:

The littles have been finishing off learning about the water cycle, and learning lots about dinosaur tracks:

And we have had fun just hanging out together, finishing off our study of Japan by painting some wooden dolls:

I loved the bobbles they glued in for the hair buns 🙂

T practiced his guitar at every opportunity:

as well as teasing his littlest sister:

Whilst C and L were being particularly unsociable on their computers whilst using each other as leaning posts.  They are such twins sometimes 🙂

Thursday finally came for L13, who was seeing B14 for the first time in almost two weeks in addition to it being her trampolining competition (B was coming along with Lorna and K12 to support L).  She had been nervous all week, but honestly she was so beautiful and we were all so proud:

Our family (the whole family plus Granny) and Lorna’s family took up almost half of the spectator area and were definitely the loudest, although we made sure to clap for everyone (we were just a tinsy bit over the top when it was L’s turn to go!):

Thank you so much Lorna for coming and for snapping her mid flight!  At the end, all the girls were given certificates and L won first place in her group:

Not bad, given she has only been trampolining for a year.  Her twin was almost beside herself with excitement and it really warmed my heart to see just how pleased all L’s siblings were for her 🙂

We celebrated by squeezing in some chocolate chip muffins before our youth group arrived!

Life feels very good and very settled at the moment, which is a gift given I have three teens in the house.  I’m certain it won’t last for long, but I sure am enjoying the peace whilst it’s here…..