A change of weather...

Well this week has certainly seen a drop in temperature with a Northerly bitter wind cutting through our lightweight coats and bitting our fingers grasping handlebars as we cycled to school...
However Saturday dawned bright and sunny and despite a lunchtime shower, we made it to the Family Walk. Somewhat depleted in numbers, those who attended made the most of the forest's shelter to run about in the sunshine, finding new paths,undiscovered dens, dead ends, scrambling adventures before returning to our old faithful bouncing log!!!
The weather was kind to us this weekend, but no matter, we all benefit from the fellowship and fresh air of a brisk walk whatever the elements.
So why not join us next time, with wellies and caggies if needs be, or gloves and scarfs! Keep on checking the Billinghay Connect Blog for dates of the next Family walk....

A lovely day

Following the Family Service on Sunday and a congregation sung Happy Birthday to a shy and hiding Isaac, we set off with a picnic for some family fun.
Rutland Water was our destination, a blustery picnic on the beach followed by a long walk (for adults) and bike ride for children to the dam.
Ice creams and a play in the adventure playground rounded off the afternoon nicely.
Sometimes simple days make the best memories...

Birthday Boy

Well here he is!


And here is the family rendition... or the cat's chorus!

A school united in grief.

Our school held a quiet, informal service yesterday at the end of the day to give parents and pupils an opportunity to come together to pray, light candles and sign the condolence book.
In a rather emotional voice I read the following out:

The following poem was written by a member of an online community of large families, which the Gresham family were part of.
We felt it summed up what we felt we wanted to say to Nigel, Sara, Star, Liam and Amber at this time.


The Gresham Family Angels

Heaven has new helpers now, four children from ‘Down here’,
We don’t know what the reasons are…one day it may be clear

Willow, Angel, Keavy, Thor, together now ‘up there’
Other Angels will watch over you and tend your every care

The lovely Gresham family is now smaller than should be,
The hand of fate that alters lives changed seven into three

Only three on Earth that is, four spirits still live on,
They’re still a part of family life, only their bodies gone

Those four are in the sunshine, and in the sea and sky,
They will be thought of often, and sometimes you will cry

But your thoughts will not be morbid, nor miserable or grey,
Because these lives brought so much love, and still will every day

We hope that in the coming months, you find a kind of peace
And smile with your three Earthly babes when you expect it least

We cannot soothe your aching heart; we can only send our love
We all struggle to make sense of this decision ‘from above’

God Bless you Gresham family, you are in our hearts to stay
Whatever help you want from us will always come your way

Devastatingly, both Thor and Angel were pronounced dead earlier today.
Nigel and Sara have lost their four youngest children, Amber is still in hospital.Star and Liam the older two must be suffering just as badly....
Please remember them all in your prayers and thoughts...

The boys knew the family as they had various members in their classes.... They are very cut up about it...

Prayers for a family in need.

BBC news link
The Sad sad news of a local family.... Please join us in praying for them during this time of suffering and grief....
Sarah was expecting Willow at the same time I was pregnant with Benjamin... Angel (4yr)is in Isaac's class, Keavy(8) was in Joseph's class and Amber(9) is in Matthew's....
All the more pertinent when the ages relate directly to you own.... I don't know how they are coping/dealing with it... it is barely comprehendable...
You can light a virtual candle here I have found it a good way to focus in prayer as well as being a comforting thing to do...

A lovely weekend

A beautiful weekend (despite the chilly nights)saw us enjoying the company of Derek and Anne when they brought David to us for lunch on Saturday bringing us a most delicious home made chocolate gooey cake (Thank you to the "other" Ann!!). It is so enjoyable to see them, we must come down to Milton Keynes again soon...
Sunday was a "double whammy"! our normal 0930 service at St Michael's immediately followed by the Methodist's chapel Harvest service, M&J were in Cub uniform to join with the other Beavers, Cubs , Brownies and Rainbows in bringing harvest produce to the chapel. A lively service with mummy temporarily adopting Peter the cabbage rabbit puppet as all his bug friends sat the service on "Rainbows'" knees and M&J acting out being Epimetheus and Prometheus in a telling of Pandora's box. A good lesson was learnt about the devastation of the world and it's resources but that of hope that we may help to save it....
We joined the Harvest lunch afterwards which was plentiful and delicious. the children were well behaved (as commented on by various members of the congragation)as they busied themselves tucking in to the meal...
We had some extra pudding as we were lucky to be offered a left over trifle! as well as a few other bits of lunch!! The Stainsbys NEVER say NO to gifts of food!!!!!

Grapevine was special this year because we truly felt that God spoke to us through the various speakers about the reasons we came to Billinghay.....
We had reinforcing messages of why it was important to stay within our church at St Michael's and to "speak" to families, to bring them to Christ.
The village is growing and lots of young couples and families are joining in our village life... some are Christians but not necessarily choosing to stay within the village to worship and some not going to church at all... Now, it is so important to have diversity in churches and worship as long as they are constant in one thing... their grounding in the Bible and Christ's teachings. We all have differing tastes.... different methods of self expression.... but we CANNOT use these differences against each other! USE them to welcome new members into the church family.... making them comfortable in knowing that it is OK to think and feel differently whilst still accepting Jesus as our Saviour.
We would like to formulate an opportunity for ecumenical worship, strengthening the village by Faith.... Bringing together those who know Christ whilst welcoming ANYONE who comes knocking at the door... We need to know there are other Christian families... our children need to know that it's OK to be Christian.... we need to SUPPORT one another to grow in Faith, spread the Good News and save in Christ as many as we can..

Last day at the pool.

Well that's it for the season. The Billinghay pool has now closed.
The afternoon was glorious and so Tom and I took all the children up (including Charlotte).
Tom got in for a splash and Leah even went in the big pool, kicking away in her floating ring. She was having great fun with all the big girls coming to play with her.
From 2o'clock it was a fun swim, so they cordoned off the deep end and chucked in as many floats, lylos, rings etc and under the watchful lifeguards gaze the fun began.
The little ones stayed in the shallow end or the paddling pool having their own fun with balls and sinking rings...
I was able (with permission) to take some "farewell until next year" photos, for the pool's blog and managed to get a few of my own brood in... and one of Charlotte who spent most of the afternoon with her head under water!

Saddle sore?

Well we did it!
Ready for the off all bikes safety checked, visibility jackets ready......


Cycled in to Billinghay to check off St Michael's and the Methodist chapel then back past the house to cycle in to Walcott for biscuits and juice at St Oswald's.

The children kept on the pavement in Walcott as the road is busy and we would need to cross on a corner to get onto the cut through footpath....


It's a fast road to Timberland so we chose to use the path instead... nice and quiet with only bemused cows as bystanders!
Besides you can't get this lovely view to Timberland from the main road!










Timed to perfection we visited Timberland's Methodist chapel where Tom was judging ( for the 2nd year) vegetables and cut flowers for their 2nd Annual harvest produce show!





Mmmmmmmmm

We were rewarded with delicious scones and tea before heading on to our final destination.









The wind was blowing in our hair on the way out of Timberland but the hill into Martin was too much for me and my "no gear" bike pulling the trailer!! I finally conceded defeat and handed Benjamin and Leah to Tom who then finished the hill and would have them for the return journey. I felt like I could've flown when I cycled off!!!!
I've got so used to pulling them that I no longer realised how heavy the trailer is!







A straight run home other than a fairly serious puncture to the trailer .... we had brought a pump.... but no puncture repair kit.Duh!
A lovely lady came to our rescue and we were on our way again.






Home safe and sound to a waiting Uncle Mark and cousin Charlotte who we hadn't seen for 4mnths. A lazy afternoon was had by all to recover from the day's exertions!

I would like to say a BIG well done to all three boys who pedalled their way to Martin and back, but an especially tremendous pat on the back for Isaac who despite being 2wks shy of his 5th birthday pedalled all the way under his own steam without a single grumble but a continuous grin throughout the whole 8 mile cross country ride!

We love school!

Well that's the general consensus from the children! Missing the lazy days but happy to be back in lessons and reunited with friends....
Benjamin was most indignant when told he wasn't going to school again today! "Why NOT?"
"Because other children need to go in and get used to the classroom, you can only go on Tues and Thurs for now" "BUT THAT'S NOT FAIR....HMPFFFFF" and off he went with a stomp and arms crossed!!!!

1st day of school...

All boys excited and ready to go... a quiet morning in for Mummy and Leah.


Benjamin ready to go... "Stop taking photos mummy, I want to go to school!"

edit to add: quiet? Leah decided to shove a chopstick in her ear!!!!! Lucky she only scratched the skin off the ear canal and no damage to the eardrum! First time she was in obvious pain.... it was horrible!ll

I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

Sunrise in Billinghay

Cycle ride

The time of year has come by again! it's time for the Church Sponsored Bike ride
A fun family day out we will attempt 4 and possibly 5 churches!
Sorry it's short notice but we only picked up the application form this morning at the end of the service.
Anyone wanting to Sponsor us is more than welcome!! You can sponsor us pre church visited or as set total.
There are two churches in Billinghay, one in Walcott, one in Timberland and if we feel energetic enough..... one in Martin!
Have a look at the map of our locality to see where we will be going.

Glad to see Bumpa again, what with our visitors at home and our weekend away... we haven't seen him for three weeks! He joined us for the service at St Michael's and a relaxed lunch.... well as relaxed as they ever get around Four Acres! We then went to Walcott and joined in a very sweet Animal Service with pets being blessed.... with none of our own, Matthew collected some bugs (spider, woodlice and worms)in a pot and the little ones took some stuffed animals!
Back home for a lazy late afternoon play and tonight Isaac has decided to brave the elements and go out to the tent with Matthew and Joseph.... Will report back tomorrow.

Behind on everything...

Haven't kept up with the blog... which is here primarily to enable me to remember events, and when they happened... so I'm goinf to write up some of the past days and edit them as I remember what happened when! So if you looked back and saw bank posts with simply a date.... now you know why!!
All four boys are starting school on Thursday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yikes, I haven't checked uniforms ect.