It’s the last day before half term, so it felt like we should give a final push on the schoolwork. The truth is we’ve had some resistance to certain aspects from certain pupils. But on Fridays we send the teachers pictures of the work we’ve been doing, so this was a helpful incentive to get some actual writing done today.

One of the suggested tasks was to do a litter pick, which didn’t seem the wisest move given a) the virus, and b) lack of people out/lack of fast food restaurant = lack of litter. So we dug out the recycling box again and sorted our own litter. It’s a good job we didn’t try and do this on Monday, there would have been very little in there. You’ll be surprised but reassured to know that glass bottles were actually significantly low on the bar chart. The alcohol intake has not overtaken the cardboard boxes from my online shopping. It’s still May, which means I can still claim every delivery as ‘birthday presents’. That reasoning gets tricky from June as other than my own, there’s actually no birthdays until November. Maybe I’ll be doing lots of ‘buying ahead’.

Last week I accidentally ordered a parcel with the delivery address down as my sister’s house, so, as it was her birthday today, Maddie and I went to do a socially distanced present delivery and parcel collection. Maddie hasn’t been in the car since lockdown began, and by the time we were coming off the motorway on the other side of town to get to Esther’s house, Maddie said she felt we were too far away and she was home sick.

It was so nice to see Esther in real life, and Maddie was so good at keeping the two metre distance. I think we brightened up the whole street by singing happy birthday. Unfortunately by the time we got home, all of a few miles on straight roads, Maddie was green and felt travel sick. Goodness knows how we’re going to get out of our county when we’re allowed!!!

It was tricky to get the kids outside today as it was so windy. But once they got to the point where they were running in circles around the lounge, and they’d been in the garden but stood at the door begging to come back in, I figured we’d have to be more inventive in entertainment. So we made cookies. Theo was reluctant to put all of the smarties in, but I think the majority of them made it into the mixture, and they went down well for pudding. The last thing he said before bed was to tell me not to eat all of the cookies tonight. I’m trying hard.

Liam ordered him and I a take away as a treat tonight, so I sat as an observer at the kids dinner time. It was highly entertaining, beginning with a musical rendition of Hakuna Matata. A conversation then began about wanting to go to a water park, but Theo said we couldn’t because of Coronavirus. ‘Go-ronavirus?’ asked Micah. ‘Is Coronavirus Welsh?’ Theo asked, to which the older kids laughed, and Toby said ‘no, it was in China. They ate…’

He was rapidly shushed by Megan and Maisie, ‘You can’t tell him! Theo loves bats!’

‘They ate cows’, Toby finished.

‘Why did the cow cross the road?’ asked Theo. ‘To get to the moooovies.’

They really are bonkers.

And then after dinner I caught Micah telling his cars, ‘I’m sorry, you can’t go to the water park because of the germs.’

It feels so surreal and poignant to listen to those kind of conversations, and the strange world we’ve been thrown in to, where pandemic causing viruses are discussed at kids dinner time, casually thrown in between Disney songs and cheesy jokes, and turn up in a 3 year old’s imaginative games.

Earlier I was thinking about yesterday, and why my mind was all over the place. Some days I can remain calm and other days something I hear will trigger all kinds of spiralling thoughts, fears, frustrations.

And I remembered these verses from Philippians, where Paul is talking about peace. And in between his words on not being anxious, and his confidence that he can be content in any situation, he says,

8 ‘Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me-practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.’ – Philippians 4:8-9

There is another verse that talks about ‘taking every thought captive’ (2 Cor 10:5). I have a choice whether to let my mind run away with me, the fears and anxieties overwhelming me, or whether to pause, to be still, and to take my thoughts captive, turning them to choosing to think on the good, the lovely, the things to be grateful for. It’s not denial of the hard things, they need acknowledging too. But for me it’s a choice between allowing them to take over and affect how patient I am with the kids, how kind I am to Liam, how frustrated I am at the situation; or to choose to keep hoping, keep trusting, keep being grateful, keep looking to love. And to keep turning to the One who holds it all, and offers me His presence and His peace.