Friday 28 November 2008

Busy, busy, busy

Things have been a little on the hectic side recently. I have had some coffee mornings to do, which whilst poorly attended, did generate quite a bit of trade, so there'll be a few more Fairtrade Christmas presents being given out this year, which can't be bad.

I have lots of crafting ahead of me, which I would normally enjoy, but Sophie seems to be sleeping far less now, so it's late at night I am trying to get things done, and I keep going cross-eyed with tiredness! I will have to reign in my ideas a bit and try to be a bit more realistic as to what I can achieve with four children!

We are all getting excited about spending some time in Wales with family over the Christmas period, it really will feel very Christmassy.

An unusual thing happened the other day. Luke came home from school and said that the deputy head had read out in assembly a poem by "Lily Usher" from Wales. And promptly read out a poem she had written about a Tsunami. Luke told his teacher that this was his cousin! What are the chances of that, Lily will be chuffed when we tell her.

The poem is this:

There came a wave like a great hand,
Grabbing everything on the land,
Its fingers of foam, circling round,
Uprooting trees, raising homes to the ground,
It aimed its fist at everything in sight,
Nothing could survive this dreadful might,
People ran in and out in time with the tide,
Nowhere to go and nowhere to hide,
The hand was born in the belly of the ocean,
Fed by plates creating the potion,
It grew in fury, it grew in power,
The anger to be unleashed within the hour,
No one new what was on the way,
People were working, children at play,
A shriek of surprise as somebody saw,
A huge wall of white horses galloping ashore,
The beasts dissolved under the heat,
Sweeping hundreds of thousands off their feet,
There was crashing and crunching and tearing apart,
Seeping its way into everyone’s heart,
Lives were lost, bodies found,
Brutally killed by a hungry hound,
When the punch came with the force of an army,
The few that survived understood the meaning of ‘Tsunami’

Well, Sophie is asleep, so I'd best get going and do some more "stuff"

Saturday 8 November 2008

Sad times and a little chaos!

I was not looking forward to 5th November. Why? Because it was a year since we lost our dear cat Hobbes. He was such a special little creature, who was so loving. There is a little ditto somewhere that says something along the lines of cats leaving paw prints on your heart forever. That certainly was Hobbes.

Another reason for not looking forward to the 5th was the date some dear friends were finding out if their unborn baby was indeed suffering with the fatal Edwards Syndrome. Unfortunately they had bad news. Such difficult decisions to make, and a life, not yet known, to mourn. It has generated so many mixed feelings, but the overwhelming one is of stunned sorrow, which no words can describe.

Turning back to the lives of the little ones. Luke had his long-awaited sleepover last night. Four of his mates from school, supposedly sleeping in his room. One lad managed to grab 4 hours (I think he must have brought sedatives with him :D The rest had no sleep!!! At 5am they were playing hide and seek, which sounded like a herd of elephants. I really don't know how they kept going, although Luke didn't quite, he is now soundly asleep on the sofa having fallen asleep in Sophie's playnest!!

Earlier this week I was supposed to be meeting with some e-friends from GP forum. But unfortunately Luke and Alec were both ill. I hope it all went well for those who were able to make it, and I will have to try and keep the boys healthy for the next meet-up. Their illness also scuppered my plans for getting some craft stuff together following the aborted attempt at the garden centre the other week. I guess that will now be a job for next week.

Having the boys at home was nice though, as I was able to spend a bit more time with them. Luke and I made some honeycomb (courtesy of Howie on GP forum), which is so easy, and delicious too. Luke and Alec were able to spend some time together too, which they don't tend to do normally, as Alec and Ethan are usually playmates.

Pretty much sums up this week, but one I would rather not repeat if it can be at all helped.