Spiritual Sunday - For the Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

As a mother I can imagine nothing worse than sending my children to battle, knowing the chance was they would never return. 

Whilst we are thinking about the dead, I would also like to point you to a very moving, but amazing post by an inspirational lady over at Brighton Mum Teenage Angst.  Karen's beloved husband and partner died in October and this post is all about quality of death.  She is so, so right, how can you have a quality of life without a quality of death.  Please do you and read it, but have your hanky at the ready.

Me and the boys had no luck with paper poppies this year, they kept losing them, so I decided to make a couple of felt ones with them.  They cut the felt out and then I sewed on a button and a broach fitting on the back, which made them much more secure.  We still donated for more poppies too.  I was also amazed at Maxi telling me why we did the 2 minutes silence on Thursday (both boys were home ill).

 

Spiritual Sunday - Grateful

I am so grateful to Interflora who sent be a bouquet of flowers just because they like my blog.  They even matched them to the blog colours too.

I am grateful that it is my mums 67th Birthday today, after her hospitalisation and all that came with it earlier in the year, I didn't think we would get this far and we have and she is doing really well.  

I am grateful that she got on to a special COPD trial at the local hospital, even though it makes me taking her twice a week.

I am grateful that we have had a week of Mini going to school without any tears and tantrums.

I am grateful for heating on a cold Sunday morning.

I am grateful for the wonderful friends I have made blogging and on twitter for the support I have been given with Mini starting school.

I am grateful that my Brothers MIL may be released from hospital next week, she has made a miraculous recovery. 

What are you grateful for this week?

Spiritual Sunday - Grateful

I am grateful for my wonderful boys, who came with me to the car boot sale and really behaved in this heat (yes I really am that pale).

We are grateful for cool paddling pools in hot weather.

We are grateful for plentiful elderflowers and have made yummy cordial.

My beautiful rambling rose, which is full of buds and flowers, the whole of the bottom of our garden (and next doors) is filled with wonderful scent.

The fragrant honeysuckle which has cover the boys playhouse from next doors garden.

What are you grateful for this Sunday?

Spiritual Sunday - Nourishment

What feeds your soul?

What to you need to enable you to live everyday?

For me my family, my faith and my spirituality help me get through everyday, they help me find make some sense of the day to day struggles that we all call life.

For me affirmations play a big role in helping me find calm and serenity during the day. They help keep me focused, balanced and calm.  They also help me in exploring my thinking and expanding the way in which I approach issues that I have in my life.  They help nourish me both mentally and spiritually.

I am also trying to bring affirmations in the boys life.  Nothing scary, but basic affirmations, introducing confidence.

I am smart, I can do this

I am beautiful

I am a good reader

I am great at Maths

I am always doing the best I can

I am loved

I am unique

I am helpful

In helping them chose the affirmations for them, we have been working on keeping them concise, focusing on "I am" and making them positive.  They are really starting to work, it is wonderful listening to Mini tell me what a great reader he is or Maxi telling me how he is quiet in the line for lunch.

As the boys are now able to read we have printed these and others on to business cards and keep them in a small box.  When we hear the I cant word, then we tend to jump in with the affirmations, rather than the standard cant means wont.

What so you do to help your children believe in themselves and develop confidence?

How do you nourish your soul?

Spiritual Sunday - Kindness

I talked earlier in the week about the values I am trying to instill in to my children and this week we have been discussing kindness.

Fellow Blogger Suzie at New Day New Lesson has a kindness club, so we have been talking about her weekly initiatives.

What is kindness and why it is important? this is one of the things we have been discussing this week

• the quality of being warmhearted, sympathetic, considerate, charitable, pleasant and humane
• To be able to forgive

The boys have been actively working on their acts of kindness this week and we had a great example by Mini at our community coffee morning yesterday.  It has been very hot and they were serving ice pops for the children and Mini had consumed so many he was facing turning in to one and they were running out.  He took his 10p and and went to ask for another and was told it was the last one, when one of his friends from school came and wanted it, as he hadn't had one, mini gave him his.  I didn't prompt this, he just did it.

I am trying to explain to the boys that they should treat others, as they would wish to be treated and slowing I do believe it is going in.

How to you introduce Christianity or spiritualism in to your children's lives?  I found MadDad chatting away to our local Jehovah's Witness this morning, now MadDad is an atheist through and through, but he was discussing with them the importance to him in bring up his children with christian values and beliefs until they were old enough to make their own decisions.

It really made me smile, he was stood on the drive with the boys (waiting for me as usually to go off to the coffee morning) and they actually waved us goodbye, he might not have agreed with their methods or branch of religion, but he listened and chatted to them and this made me proud to be with this great man.

Spiritual Sunday - Grateful

I spent a wonderful day yesterday with my Mum.  For the first time since she was in hospital in March we spend the morning  pottering round our local shops (yes I took and she filled my shopping trolley).  We then came back to themadhouse and spent an afternoon as a family.  So I thought a gratitude post was due.

Things I am grateful for

Sunshine - this makes such a difference to life, we shopped in town, hung washing on the line, went to the park and sat in the garden .

Mum feeling happier - even though mum is not physically any better, she is mentally on the mend, she was able to spend an hour at the park with the boys on her own and texted to say she had really enjoyed her day.

Mini in the Kitchen - I am grateful that my children enjoy helping me cook and bake, mini and I made garlic bread and pizza for dinner and had so much fun.

Painkillers - corny, but they really did save the day, making it much more tolerable for me.

Good neighbours - We found out that one of our neighbours are expecting their 5th child in October, how wonderful is that?  Plus they have a new greenhouse and offered us some space in it if we wish.

Mr Smudge - There is nothing like curling up and stroking him when the boys have gone to bed.

So my friends, what is making you grateful this beautiful Sunday?

Spiritual Sunday - Happiness

Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.

Guillaume Apollinaire

This kind of hits it on the head for me at the moment.  I need to stop all the hustle and bustle, all the pushing and pulling and just be.  

So this morning I am thankful for the boys returning from the shop with some lovely flowers and I bit my tongue about not having enough money.

Spiritual Sunday - Grateful

This morning is such a contrast to yesterday morning.  Yesterday the sun was beaming in the windows, we had the doors all wide open and spent the day in the garden, but this morning it is grey, dull and RAINING, but in some ways this only makes me feel so grateful that we made the most of yesterday and really enjoyed it.

So some other things I am grateful for this Sunday.

The Rain... yes the rain.  We planted some vegetables and seeds yesterday and this rain is doing a pretty good job of watering in the raised beds.

Warm porridge with maple syrup, our breakfast of choice at the moment.

Mint leaves from the garden to make fresh mint tea with.  The docs asked me to try giving up tea for a while as it inhibits the absorption of iron, this is hard for me being a tea monster.

I am also so grateful that the boys really do seem to be really enjoying each others company and play well together at the moment.

I am also ever so grateful for whoever has nominated me in the MAD's, Mummy and Daddy (MAD) Blog Awards, celebrating the utter brilliance of British parent blogs.

Today is the last day of open nominations for the first stage of the awards, so if you haven't voted yet, then please follow this link to give your opinions and make your votes.

Spiritual Sunday - A pause in Lent week 5

Firstly an update on the shouting.  We have had a few relapses, but it is actually getting easier.  I have noticed a real difference, it is not my first reaction a situation.

Also the fact that I have been unwell has meant that the volume button has had to be turned down with the boys too.  This is good news, no actually this is great.  On the few occasions I have had to raise my voice the impact has been immediate and it feels good not to be all fishwife.

I have been discussing Jesus with the boys and they are both finding it hard to comprehend about the resurrection, so I have bi passed this for now and we have been discussing the fact that Jesus was aware that his death was near.  This seems to sit fine with the boys, infact death is not a thing to be feared in their eyes.  It is a natural progression in their eyes.

Part of it is down to their Grandpa being a farmer, so everything is black and white with no in between, part of it is down to their innocence and their trusting in what Mad Dad and I say, which is fine, but it does make it hard to sometimes deal with the bible.

So peeps, I need some help here, we need some help.  How would you discuss Easter with a 3 and a 5 year old, they are both bright and love to learn.  I would like some ideas on way to explain this to them.

MadDad is a very lapsed catholic and Easter doesn't hold any pleasure for him at all and that is not what I want for the boys, so friends I am all ears.

A Pause in Lent - Tempation

As I write this I am tired, not just physically, but also mentally too.  My mum is home, well at my home at the moment and visiting, arranging and organising has really tested me this last couple of weeks and will continue to do so I imagine.

Firstly mum is going to be staying in TheMadHouse until we can arrange for stair lifts, which should have been done by the hospitals in-house social care and social work team, but the lady responsible for mum was off sick, so it was either stay in hospital (which she really didn't want) or come home to me.  The only other alternative was to move a bed downstairs to her dining room and that wasn't going to happen as that was were my paternal grandfather died.

So here she is, which is such a relief, we have the oxygen machine and she is sleeping in the conservatory.  At least this way I can keep an eye on her and she can join us for all our meals too.

My giving up shouting for lent has been better this week too, as I have been far too tired to shout, no really, the fact is the boys have enjoyed the change in the weather and going to the park after school is back on the daily agenda, as it lots of time outside on scooters and running around.

All of these experiences has really got me thinking about temptations and trying to put yourself in someone else's shoes.  I am so aware that my mum is desperate not to lose her independence, so I have been trying to approach things from a different angle with her.  to not make her feel any worse about her situation.

Temptations

The worst thing for me is that this illness is preventable, this illness is all caused by smoking.  My mum has been a lifelong smoker and this is why she is now on oxygen 15 hours a day and can not get up the stairs on her own.  

She shouldn't be like this, in fact no one should have to be like this.  As an ex-smoker (I stopped as soon as I was pregnant with Maxi) this makes me incredibly angry.  

Cigarettes are killers and shouldn't be available.  I can not believe that once my children turn 16 they will be able to walk in to a shop and buy something that can kill them.  It just seems so unnecessary to me, how in this day and age can we allow this to go on.

Anyway I will jump down from my high horse and try and be more understanding and try and get through the next weeks and months with as much grace as I can.

Spiritual Sunday - A pause in Lent week 2

 

First an update on my giving up shouting.  I am trying and trying I am, I have not yet succeeded, but I am more aware of it, as are the boys.  If I do shout they tell me off, but they also react.  So I am still trying to give up shouting, just as the boys are trying to give up fighting!

What is lent and what should it mean to me as a modern reluctant worshiper?

I find this very hard to fathom, yes I know that it is a time of reflection and preparation for Easter.  A time to consider Jesus sacrifices and also his time spent in the desert.  A time to consider Judas' betrayal.  But how does that correspond to my life as a modern day mum of two boys and how do I mark this event?

I said last week that I didn't want to forsake something like chocolate, as I wanted the boys to understand that giving up something didn't mean taking from or self deprivation and that in choosing to try and give up shouting it was of benefit to us all.

But even then that just doesn't feel to represent enough what lent should mean.  I am finding it hard to navigate this journey through lent, it is without many of the familiar sights and sounds of other times of the Christian calender.

MadDad and I were married during Lent, the vicar thought it was a great idea and we were allowed to remove the purple cloths and to also bring in to the church flowers for the service.  In our local church they never had flowers during lent and also covered the crosses with purple cloths.  In doing this we upset a number of the older congregation, but still to this day I do not understand why it should not be as acceptable to be married during lent.

Out vicar told me I should look upon lent as a time when Jesus put others before himself and that for a good and strong marriage we should always consider the other person, that we should love one another as Jesus would have loved us.  

So for me Lent has become a time where I tend to take stock and concentrate on my marriage, to try not to put the children and others first all the time, but to try and concentrate on MadDad, to not expect everything to just work, every good machine needs a little oil at some time.

Spiritual Sunday - A pause in Lent

 

I am taking part in Floss at Troc, Broc and Recup's pause in lent.  we took part in the advent one and it was great fun and very informative for me and the boys.  This is going to be more of a challenge for me, as there is less we can do to reinforce the message.

So what is Lent, I have explained to the boys that lent is one of the most important times in the Christian calendar and is the 6 weeks build up to Easter.  To keep things basic we explained that it is 40 days and nights, excluding Sundays, which represents the time Jesus spent fasting in the desert.

We don't want to go down the giving something physical up for Lent yet, as the boys are too young yet, but we have discussed how my giving up shouting can be positive for all the family.  We have asked them to give up something too and they have agreed to give up fighting!

I am going to use the time to talk about why Jesus had to die in a very basic form and also about repentance.

Also we will be doing Easter crafts too, like painting eggs, making palm leaves, crosses etc.

Floss has a list of all the people participating on her blog, I am really looking forward to reading all their blogs over the next six weeks and am so excited about what I can learn and share with the boys.

Spiritual Sunday - Grateful

 

Maxi getting excited over playing with his Fun Domino's (a christmas present)

I am grateful:

• My wonderful Saturday lie ins and being woken by my boys with a cup of tea.
• Living nearby the sea, I love the ever changing landscape the sea brings.
• The crocus' just poking out their green tips in next doors garden
• Family dinners.
• That my mums hand has healed well and that they have popped a fibre glass pop on which is much lighter for her.
• That we have packed mums case and she is all set to go on holiday tomorrow
• That the boys adore their cousins and spent a lovely afternoon with my Brother, SIL and Niece and us yesterday.
• That my Farther In Law dropped off a sack of potatoes from the farm.
• For my early morning Sunday cuddles with the mini's whilst letting MadDad have a reciprocal lie in.
• Music, my home is filled with all sorts of music at the moment the mini's are singing Monkey Man and it is wonderful.
• Baking.  The smell of food we have made cooking is just divine.

What are you grateful for this Sunday?

Mini chilling with music on my ipod!

Spiritual Sunday - The Power of Tea

 

There is no trouble so great or grave that is can not be diminished by a nice cup of tea 

Bernard-Paul Heroux

Sometimes there is no words or actions that can make a week any better than it was, this week just gone was one of them.  Mum broke her arm and mini mad has discovered a rage inside, which has started to cause issues at preschool.  I have felt pulled in every which way.

My mum is OK, sore and in a pot from fingertips to elbow and a sling, but she can still go on holiday to Florida with my brother next week and once she was all cleaned up and deal t with by the NHS all she wanted was a cup of tea.

Mini, well that it a different matter, his newly discovered temper is getting the better of him and has shown an appearance twice at Preschool this week.  Myself and the preschool staff are working on mini's issue, but a nice pot of tea did help to put things in perspective for me.

I think a lot of it is in the act of making a pot of tea for me, the warming of the pot, the spooning of the leaves, the allowing to brew, the anticipation and then the 10 minutes alone in the kitchen to drink it.  Both the boys know that if I ask for a cup of tea in peace that I mean it now.  It gives me time to breath, to reflect and to put things in to perspective.

We have a Sunday of visiting today, I hope you have a good Sunday too.

Spiritual Sunday

All Change

This is a new day

One I have never lived before

I stay in the now and enjoy each and every moment

Sometimes I think that the New Year brings the need for change, for people to embrace the new, the shiny and look to the future.  This is not a bad thing, goals, plans and aims are great things to strive towards, as long as we do it whilst living for the day.

This is something that I have reminded myself of over the last year and I want to do so again, yes I am busy making plans for the year ahead, but I am also busy playing, watching and enjoying each precious day with my family.  How about you?

Spiritual Sunday

Today is traditionally also know as "Stir it up" Sunday

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people;

That they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded;

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

So as you stir three times each (east to west to represent the three wise men) say the prayer and make a wish.

My Christmas Pudding recipe can be found here

Spiritual Sunday

Practice rather than Preach

Now I know that this seems such as easy thing to type, but it is not an easy thing to do.  We have decided that we need to be examples for our children, we need to be their mentors and motivator, so in doing this MadDad and I need to be proactive in practicing what we preach, or rather not say and just do!

This is an on-going project for MadDad and me and oh so much easier said than it is to do, so I am having to really focus and set the right example for my children.

Spiritual Sunday

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.

Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
Lest we forget .

Spiritual Sunday

The Past is Over

This is a new day
one that I have never lived before
I stay in the now and enjoy each and every moment

Now that Autumn is here it is far too easy to get wrapped up in all the upcoming events, Halloween, Bonfire Night, Christmas and sometimes I am guilty of focusing on them, rather than just enjoying being where I am.

I am measuring time by the number of sleeps before I go into hospital, rather than enjoying each day as it come, so this week we I am going to try and forget about hospital and live in the now, rather than worry about the future.

Spiritual Sunday

Being broke is different to being poor

Yep we have no money, but we are not poor.  We have each other, we have our health, we have hearts filled with love.  We live in a first world country with free health care and benefits.  If everything went belly up, we could survive. 

We will have food on the table and love in our hearts.  we dont need Sky TV, mobile phones (but as I am in contract they wont take it back) and other things.  I will not let this beat us.