It’s 8:30 and the small 3 are asleep. Half an hour ago we opened the window and joined in claps and cheers with people all over the country to say thank you to our NHS. I have so many family and friends who are working hard, risking their own health, tirelessly to help us all. But this isn’t new, they didn’t just start in these last two weeks. They do it day in, day out, night in, night out, on bank holidays, at Christmas, in the snow. They go to work when they are ill. They go to work when they are going through personal crisis. They go to work when they are afraid of what they’ll face when they get there. I hope and pray that after the Covid crisis is over, the government and the country will not forget who we were cheering tonight.

In other news, we had a slow start today, and I thought I would be alone with Joe Wicks. But by 9:10 the troops had joined us, except for Theo and Micah, who hid in what Theo informed us was called the ‘Fairy Love House’. He never fails to entertain.

Next up whilst the older ones worked was ‘washing the car’ using a water pistol. You can imagine how long we lasted before he turned the gun on the rest of us.

Micah staged a protest in his car, on the road to nowhere, when he learned once again that we weren’t going to Grandma’s house. We made do with sending a video, but he really does blame me for all of this. (I blame Grandma, who confessed that she’d always prayed that her children would home educate. Powerful prayers from that lady.)

We decided we needed to get out, and bravely stepped beyond our four walls. We did encounter people. These are the scariest of species right now. Suddenly it feels like you should dive sideways into a hedge, turning away and avoiding sharing the same air or making eye contact at all costs, when faced with an oncoming homo sapien. That aside, it was so lovely to get out. To feel space and freedom and climb logs and throw stones and pretend we were in the Lake District.

There are so many small moments in each day that I’m thankful for. It doesn’t stop the scary moments, the frustrating moments, the ‘why do my kids still whinge when we actually leave the house after nearly 2 weeks moments’, but it helps to look at the good stuff. And the funny stuff. Like Maddie blurting out at the dinner table, ‘Megan, what does pregnant mean?’ Cue one embarrassed nearly 14 year old, who we left to it as she embarked on a biology lesson with an extremely inquisitive 5 year old. ‘I don’t understand the holes’, being my particular favourite moment.

On that high point I’ll leave it there for tonight. I hope your Friday brings equally comical or beautiful moments amongst the weirdness of our lives right now.

1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever. – Psalms 23