It's such a grey, wet, blustery day outside. The sort of weather that gets inside your coat, even if you wrap it tight around you. Having done several taxi runs with various children already this morning, I am now sitting in the warm with Reu beside me happily playing with cars and wishing I didn't have to do yet more taxi runs later today. It would be so much nicer to cosy up on the sofa with a cup of tea and my colourful yarn....sigh...
So, I thought I'd bring a bit of cheery colour to the blog today to remind myself that spring is on the way! Here you go....
Some lovely hyacinths that I am so glad I treated myself to a couple of weeks ago, because they are now blooming and filling the room with that amazing scent.
My growing stack of crocheted squares. I confess I am slightly addicted to this now - I can whip up a square without having to consult the pattern now - which gives me such a sense of simple achievement every time I do it....simple things please simple minds, eh?! There's something about the happy mix of colours that just happens of its own accord.
The daffodils my boys decorated for St David's day. I know the actual bulbs didn't come to much (a bad batch apparently), but it makes me go a bit squidgy every time I look at the pots themselves and remember B's determination to finish his despite his tiredeness after a long day.
He won the best decorated pot too. Sometimes I find it difficult to keep up with the demands of school extra curricula activities and dressing up (the same week we also had World Book Day dressing up). With five children, there seems to always be something that needs making or preparing for. The day they had to decorate these pots was also Cubs and Beavers day, so I had prepared the dining table with everything they would need before they came home from school and we decorated in shifts between various sittings of dinner and runs to and from the Scout Hut.
I've also had the pleasure of introducing little Reu to the joys of glue this week.....
and paint....
Lots of fun!
I know that many of you reading this will either be in the same full swing of this kind of busy parenting, or will have "been there, done that". All these things go into the great mixing pot of family, and although it can be busy and tiring at the time, these memories are a cushion for old age, so they say. When I think of my busyness this week, I remember my good friend Esther who arrives home today after a week away from her family - and all the preparations that went into freezer meals, costumes, school run organisation and the like before she went.
That's another thing that's both challenging me and making me smile this week.....she's been in Haiti with a charity called Children on the Edge, helping an amazing man called Patrice (pictured above) with his football project for young people. I am feeling so inspired by this brilliant project - so if you get time, pop on over to their website to read about what they've been doing. If you are feeling under the weather (literally) today, the smiling faces of these children, who live with so little and endure so much will change your heart. The picture below stopped me in my tracks.
There are seven of us in this three bedroom house. Seven people live in the room above too. May I never forget how utterly blessed we are to have this splendid place to shelter us from the cold and wet. To get personal for a minute too - this Charity, which is by no means one of the biggest, but has a profound effect every where it reaches, challenges me.
Where is there a need that I can help fill? I can't respond to eveything...but I can respond to something. I can't do what my friend is doing, (because I don't have those skills), but I can use whatever I have been given to make a difference. Hmmmm.....
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