This week’s felt incredibly long and yet I’m still surprised it’s Friday. I felt like we were running low on school work this morning. We managed some worm number lines, and Liam set up a map for them to follow to find their snacks, which was very popular until they realised the snacks wouldn’t be replenished no matter how many times they completed the course.

I feel I need to make an honest confession here. I haven’t been teaching Welsh very well. Or frequently. Or much at all. Despite living here for 17 years my Welsh is still limited to numbers, colours, and useful things like coffee, toilet, hospitals, and the police, and whatever basic nursery level songs I’ve picked up along the way. Learning to speak it is on my to do list for when I have free time. Which, it has turned out, is not this year.

Anyway I felt confident enough in my pronunciation of ‘Ble mae?’ (Where is?) to play a game with Woody. The only problem being that all the answers had to be in English because I’m not that advanced yet. In hindsight I should probably get Megan to teach Welsh lessons. Still, the little ones didn’t seem to mind.

Today was a milestone celebration where I took my coffee mug and finally sat in a friend’s garden for a cuppa and a catch up. It was so good. When the lockdown rules were adjusted I wasn’t really sure how I felt about the idea of seeing people with all the restrictions in place, and whether it would feel too uncomfortable, but meeting up with someone helped me realise just how much I’ve missed that connection and community. And an hour away from the house and the oh-so-cuddly people who I love but needed a break from too, well, that was very pleasant.

It turns out I didn’t achieve a great deal today. But I spent time with people. I FaceTimed my family. I pottered around whilst they kids watched tv/napped on the sofa. And then I went to collect Friday night takeaway treats.

And there were six very happy children when I returned from the drive-thru experience. If there was one way to buy their affection on a Friday afternoon, this was definitely it.

Liam and I went a little more classy for ours. He even wore a shirt for our date night in the dining room. The ambience was lovely, good food, candle, Prosecco bubbling…the only downside being the glass doors between the lounge and the dining room. Trying to eat a grown up meal for two with a child making faces at you from the other side of the glass is about the best you can hope for in lockdown fine dining.

And once we’d eaten we concluded the date night by joining them to watch the end of Cool Runnings. Who said romance was dead?!

It’s been a good day at the end of a weary week, and for that I’m very grateful. Tonight I read the Creation story to Theo and Micah, and we got to day 7, where God rested. And Theo was surprised about that. ‘God? Had a rest?!’

And it made me think. About the pressure I put on myself to keep going even when I should stop. Even in these enforced weeks of slowing down, I can still choose to busy myself with housework, school work, any work, as if that somehow earns me points or validates my role. Even on days where I feel exhausted and weary, I stubbornly don’t want to stop, as if it’s a sign of weakness. I’m still on a journey of learning to accept rest, enjoy rest, and humbly acknowledge my need for rest.

‘It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.'” – Exodus 31:17

The God who gave a day for rest is the One who never slumbers or sleeps. He doesn’t need me to keep the world turning. In fact, He gives rest because He loves me and knows I need it.

‘It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.’ – Psalm 127:2

So here we are at another weekend, and I want to stop, to pause in the busyness, to notice the world around me, to be grateful, and to find rest.