Internet break

Rather than just disappear and you worry if I'm OK this is just a quick post to say I'm taking an internet break for a while.

See you soon!

I'm a total basket case

Hubs has been off work for the past week. So here's some of what we've been up to.

I love baskets. So, having some birthday money to spend (I'm now the grand old age of 37) I spent it on baskets. Aren't they pretty? *sigh* Oh, on the left you can just see the flowers hubs bought me on my birthday.


We are starting to build a dolls house. Here's what we did so far.

The girls chose a pattern from the internet, this one is pink hearts, and we printed off and glued to cardboard to fit into the bottom of a box.

I cut up some suede effect fabric for a carpet and we've cut out a window. We're planning many levels, some stairs, curtains, pictures, etc.


We also visited a local bird sanctuary. I particularly loved the cranes, but the girls loved the flamingos.

This crane (above) was so friendly

Here's a fancy looking crane (above).

We had a trip to the cinema too and watched Toy Story 3, it was hilarious, particularly Spanish Buzz.

We hired some videos: Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, Alvin and the Chipmunks - the Squeakquel, and Sherlock. Nanny McPhee was favourite with the girls and hubs and I loved Sherlock.

So how was your week?

Counting between lightning and thunder

Flickr

It's true, you can count between lightning and thunder. However, as you can see below it's 5 seconds for every mile - I was counting 1 second per mile.

From the BBC Weather Centre:

"Air around the discharge channel is heated to about 30,000 C (55,000 F). The sound of thunder is made by heated air expanding very rapidly and causing soundwaves. Thunder rumbles because you get soundwaves coming from different parts of the storm. The speed of sound (760 mph, 1224 km/h) is very much less than the speed of light (186,000 mp/s, 300,000 km/s). So you see a lightning flash almost immediately it happens while the sound can take several seconds to reach an observer. If you count the gap between the lightning and the thunder, you can tell how far away the storm is. For every kilometre count 3 seconds, for every mile count 5 seconds. So if you count 15 seconds, the storm is 5 km or 3 m away from where you are."

Thunderstorm

Flickr

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26:3

My little brown-eyed girl and I sat up, later than is sensible for an eight year old to be awake, reading, 'Just another chapter', of The Island of Adventure. Immediately as we finished reading and I was about to settle her down it thundered. She was frightened. My other tiny girl was fast asleep in the next bedroom oblivious to the noise.

So we sat at the window of her bedroom and watched a spectacular storm. The lightening flashed pink in the sky, the thunder rumbled. We counted down from the lightening flash to the thunder to determine how far away the storm was (is that actually an accurate measure of storm distance?). We had a fun time.

When the storm had passed I snuggled her down in bed. "Mummy I'm scared, will you pray?" So we prayed. I told her how safe she was in God's hand and I quoted Isaiah 26:3. I sat on her bed for a while until she was convinced the storm had passed. Finally, after a big hug, she let me come downstairs.

It's times like this that I love about motherhood. To be there for my children. To love and comfort them; to know that they feel safe in my arms. It's an indescribable feeling that wells up inside - pure joy and love.

It made me think about God. He is our Father, He longs that we reach out to Him for comfort, to receive His love, to know that His all-powerful hand is upon us. He is our Rock and our Refuge. Our Salvation.

Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;

Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Work-Life Balance

Flickr

I came across this post: To Stay at Home Wives and Mothers at a blog called Lady in the Making. It really touched me. It makes me realise how blessed I am.

Before I got married I worked a very busy job in our local city. When I got married my husband and I agreed that I'd cut my hours down to part-time hours so that I could concentrate more on everything that needed to be done at home. My boss (a staunch career woman) was so wonderful and understanding.

I stopped working 2 months before my first little girl was born. When she was around 1 1/2 I started working 10 hours a week in a local office and my Mum cared for her whilst I worked. I worked right up to the day before my second little girl was born and then stopped working altogether.

I was a happy stay at home mother and wife until last year (my girls are now 6 and 8) when I took up a job working 20 hours a week in a small office. I was OK when the girls were in school, but when it got to half-term and my Mum was looking after them my heart ached. Lol, every time someone walked past with a child I could have cried.

Now, I reckon some readers may be thinking I'm too soft, perhaps I am, but it was so hard! Goodness knows what I'd be like if I had to work full-time! :)

So, now I work term-time only at my girls' school. I work 2 hours a day, I get to see my girls and ask them how they are whilst they're at school. I am also at home throughout the school holidays. It's wonderful. To be honest, I'd rather not work at all and my husband also would prefer that I didn't work. But needs must at the moment.

Family and home are such a blessing from God.

This is like totally the last time I'll mention comments...probably :)

Blogger seems to have fixed whatever technical problem was causing issues with comments. I've switched comment moderation back on. Thank you for your patience, have a nice day.

I sound like one of those automated voices when you're on hold on the 'phone, "Please hold, your call is important to us. You are number 4586 in the queue, thank you for your patience."

Comments Again

Lol now Joyce's comment reappeared in my comment moderation box then disappeared again. Bookworm, I got your second comment through on email but it refused to publish and disappeared from the moderation box!

I'm turning off moderation now...*sheesh*

Edit: It's an ongoing thing: see Help forum