A sunny bank holiday Monday.

As the snow prevented us from collecting David for Easter, we got together today instead and went out for a meal! Thank you David, it was lovely.

And His sacrifice cleansed us.... as white as snow.

Mummy it IS snowing outside!
And yes what an Easter! His love floated down this morning and covered us all with the pure whiteness of snow!

Good Friday's Walk of Witness.

A cold day dawned,a determined group of Christians of all denominations gathered to share the pain of the passion reading and singing hymns as we walked around the village... a visible affirmation of our faith within our community.

Reflection for Holy week.

This post, borrowed from my "point of focus" from the last Vision meeting has been on my heart all through Lent.... so much so that I felt compelled to write it out for Vision... and now to share it more openly. May it speak to you as it has to me, and may the power of God work in your heart as you reflect with me...

Peter said to him, "Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death." Jesus said, "I tell you, Peter, the cock will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me."…
…And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, "This man also was with him." But he denied it, saying, "Woman, I do not know him." And a little later someone else saw him and said, "You also are one of them." But Peter said, "Man, I am not." And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, "Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean." But Peter said, "Man, I do not know what you are talking about." And immediately, while he was still speaking, the cock crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, "Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times." And he went out and wept bitterly.
Luke 22 v33-34 &55-62

My thoughts on reading that passage were
What would I do if we were in Peter’s position?
How strong are my convictions?
How faithful am I to God?
Peter fervently proclaimed his unwavering love for Jesus and yet denial came down like a solid brick wall of a barrier to his faith…
How do we deny Christ? It needn’t be an outright negative statement, it can be more subtle, by omission, conveniently not telling friends and acquaintances we go to church, it can be by ignoring that nagging conscience, pricked by a decision we know wasn’t the Godly choice. We deny Him with our unkind words and selfish thoughts. We deny Him when we don’t allow him access to our hearts.
These are all everyday choices, they don’t appear to change the course of the world but they do change the course of our individual life and journey, those choices build up and they taint us. And yet He knew Peter would deny Him and He knew that we would too… “Jesus looked at Peter and Peter wept”… In Jesus’ eyes, Peter must have seen disappointment but also love, love and determination for what was about to happen, He knew He had to be a sacrifice to save us all. But before we can be forgiven before we can be saved, we must acknowledge our sin, our denials; we must look inwards and search through the rooms of our soul.

We are in the Lenten season, we think of Jesus in the desert, perfect and yet still subjected to temptation which He overcomes…


I can so relate to this painting by Briton Rivière, it has always spoken to me…but most particularly this Lent…
Alone in thought, searching my soul, and unlike Jesus my soul is in need of a spring clean. Tainted by a year of doubtful choices, denials and selfishness, I need to think on my Spiritual life before I can be ready to celebrate in the elation of Easter’s promise.
Right now I feel like Peter, and Jesus is looking straight at me and I feel ashamed under his love filled and yet disappointed gaze.
Lent a time for cutting back… on chocolate, beer?… a time for asserting ones self control… cutting back… That’s what Tom was doing a few weeks back, quite literally! ruthless with his chainsaw, what had looked like a postcard pretty weeping willow was cleared (some may say rather brutally) of unwanted growth, keeping it in check and under control… but fear not the new growth will be healthy, fresh and vigorous.
Do we need a serious prune?
Let us brutally discard all those unwanted burdens of guilt, bad habits, denials … we will grow back refreshed and more vigorous in our re-burgeoning faith, as an affirmation of what Jesus did for us.
He knew we would be tainted, He knew we would deny Him, and yet by His sacrifice on the cross, he allowed us to wash that tainted soul to allow us to come before our Father in the purest cleanliness.
Let us today look forward to the hope He gave us, baring our souls now before Him and saying sorry for all our wrongdoings. Let Him be with us as we attempt a pruning session, a Spring clean in the rooms of our soul, that we may be ready to welcome Him in at Easter, with no hidden shame as we celebrate His Resurrection and our promise of eternal life.

Dear father, I look at Peter and I see myself.
I have failed you, I have disappointed you, I have grieved you,
You can see into my heart and know my wrongdoings, but I must admit them to you, so that I cannot hide them from myself!
Thank you for the cross. Thank you for your patience.
Thank you for your love for me and for the whole world.
Thank you for Jesus. In his precious name I pray. Amen


(I must make reference to this online bible study and especially the prayer I adapted to my own, whilst thinking on this passage and writting my talk)

Happy Birthday Papytail!

We love you my dearest Daddy! Have a lovely day...

Milton Keynes.

Having been unable to get down to MK for the twins to celebrate their birthday together back in January we finally managed to arrange a visit! We picked up David at 8am from the Home and set off on a misty and wet journey down.
Arriving mid morning it was Lovely to catch up with "Uncle Ann and Auntie Dick" (as the children have managed to misname them!!) We hadn't been since before Christmas...
After a simple lunch which had travelled down with us to be heated up on arrival, we crossed the road to Tom's cousin Phillip's house... or more precisely to his garden, and his pool. What fun.... what cold!!!!Maybe we should have just had fun walking on water without bothering to open it up and swim!! But we ALL got in; don't believe the photos! I was the only one brave enough to get out whilst wet in the driving rain and cold to take some photos!!! Thanks Vikky for a lovely warming Hot Chocolate afterwards!
Unfortunately the card was full on the camera so I wasn't able to take photos of the lovely spread D&A had prepared for Tea. Or one of the brothers... oops sorry David will get one of you with Derek next time.
A late return saw the children finding their beds after 9pm! a long day but so nice to see family and catch up!

Belated photo...

Photo from the 2nd March :)Happy Birthday/Mothering Sunday!!
What better birthday than celebrating the joys of motherhood with my family!

After the digger left...

Something to do with a blank canvas says our resident landscape gardener!!!



Will take more photos as it takes shape, we (a very Royal We!!)will be planting 8 red twigged Limes and 120 beech saplings before Spring.

The big prune...

It's Lent... a time of cutting back... and in our garden Tom took that rather literally!















































































Voilà!

A lovely weekend

Following my tumble, and planned due to a cancelled birthday visit, Mamine and Papytail came up for a stay before they set off on their French Spring visit.
Although Leah was cautious because of Papytail's prickly beard all the children welcomed their grandparents with whoops of delight!
Feeling rather frail and sore I wasn't up to anything major, so a quiet visit it was...








Thank you for your help, support and loving care Mamman and Daddy!

Vision was great!

have a look here

Close encounter with... tarmac!

Yesterday:
Well, the day stared out pretty much the same as normal... we set off on our bikes onthe school run... but a momentary lapse of attention on my part, meant I caught up with Isaac ahead of me...I clipped his tyre and in order to avoid knocking him off his bike, I threw mine to the left forgetting a vital sciencific law: "every action had an equal and opposite reaction"! The trailer stayed up straight and safe but the same force I used to push the bike onto the verge, propelled me over the handlebars and head first onto the middle of the road!
I landed full on my chin a horrible sound from within, and thought "ouch"!! Luckily a neighbour out mucking out her horses noticed me on the road making no effort to get up and ran over. The boys all wearing visibility jackets were used as safety cones to stop any oncoming vehicles as said neighbour rushed home to ring for an ambulance. The boys were scared, my chin was cut and seeing me on the ground with blood on my face wasn't a kindly experience for them. Another mum in her car on the school run stopped and took charge of all the children as the police and helicopter came to scene to join the ambulance. (the air ambulance was sent as they had thought it was a cyclist in collision with a car!) A pleasant surprise for the paramedics that no car was involved, as the outcome was to be much more positive.
I tried to speak to Tom who was in London working, to put his mind at rest that I was OK but I rather think I did the opposite not making much sense until Kim our neighbour put him in the picture. Off to hospital and although woozy, nauseous and on oxygen for the journey, I felt better by the time we got to the hospital, knowing that Tom was on his way up North. I had an xray of my hand as my little finger was causing pain, but luckily no harm done, and they managed to simply glue my chin together. So the most painful bit? the tetanus jab I was given!!!!
I count my blessings that we live in a small rural caring community that rallied around in a time of need,for Kim who realised something was wrong and called the ambulance, the no nonsense and organised way Sarah took charge of the children putting them at ease and calming them, for the Lent group who took charge of Leah and picked up Benjamin from nursey and subsequently fed them both, for Penny who then took them home and was ready to collect the rest had we not been in touch!For the paramedics who so gently took care of me and made me feel safe until I got to hospital. Not forgetting Sheila who appeared in the afternoon to drop off a Cottage pie and cake so tea needn't be a worry!
And I thank God who kept me under his wing... I am in wonder that I have come out of it purely with a cut and bruised chin and a bruised and battered body when so many things could have been worse. A special thank you to Susanna who back in september was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO adamant that I wear a cycling helmet giving me hers! and whose helmet I was indeed wearing, keeping my head safe.
Lastly I would like to praise all five of my children who despite being scared, worried and unsure, were cool headed, listening to instructions and being ever so helpful, for the lovely singing they did whilst we waited for the ambulance so that Benjamin and Leah who were still strapped in the trailer didn't panic unduly.
Thank you Lord for this fine day,thank you for keeping me away from potential harm, thank you for keeping communications between all parties open and clear. Thank you for my loving husband a dependable tower of strength and support, with whom we all feel safe and cared for.
Dear Lord.... Thank You.

Where did the Williams' go????????????

I'm sure they came up for a visit! But where is the blog? Oh here it is!

Could it be trying to snow?

The sky is blue... a few scattered clouds...the sun is shining..... and what looks like light hail stones are floating down!!!!!
Anyway it looks pretty and I remembered to bring in the washing! :)

Thank you all....

Prior to today, I was in a "last child syndrome, stroppy mode" thinking I'd been cheated ... Today I have woken up with a fresh view and a more mature understanding!... It is a blessing to have my birthday on Mother's day! Unlikely to occur again in the near future(I'm sure someone will tell me when in the future it'll happen again!),today so far has been extra special... A beautiful meal out at a Thai restaurant last night (a big thank you to Brenda and Audrey for babysitting) and a home/children prepared breakfast this morning with flowers and cards galore and presents accompanied by smiley faces and sunshine... what a perfect day.
Thank you to all who have been so thoughtful in remembering my day with kind cards, recorded renditions, emails and parcels in the post...
My thanks are for the blessings that my family and friends are to me... accentuated on this Mothering Sunday!

St David's day family walk

...Following a serious turn in the weather... The sun made it to the first "Billinghay family walk" of 2008 . We met up as usual at the Mosaic and then broke with tradition and set off to Tattershall castle!All present were members and it was it's first open weekend of the season.
A good run around through the floors, dressing up in the main hall, the wind was all too noticeable up on the roof and I let Tom take the boys up to the ramparts as I felt too unsteady...
(I know I shouldn't project my irrational fears onto my children, but I was NOT letting Leah go up, the thought of seeing her peering over the walls high up in her father's arms... Ooh, my stomach is churning simply thinking of it!) I'm fine with heights, it's the wind unbalancing me that overwhelms my senses)

Anyway the walk ended with a stroll around the neighbouring church although we sighted no bats! and then refreshments as usual provided by Chris and Su together with a box of mothering sunday chocolate treats! Mmmmmmmm thank you! See you all at the next walk!




PS Happy St David's Day Daddy!