A Mother's Ramblings

Did you have a marvellous Christmas? We did! I know I've already told you all this, but you might have been busy and missed my posts about what we have been up to! As always, every day we spend with each other is amazing. Our family have such a giggle together and even better, we push each other to do better each day.

I had originally intended to post this, the weekend that Tops and I went to the Temple. For some reason, I forgot to schedule it! So just imagine, this is back in November and I thought you might appreciate a quick recap because you might not want to reread about our Overnight Temple Trip . Tops and I were going with our Ward to the London Temple arranged to stay overnight in the Temple accommodation, and therefore drove down the night before most of our friends and basically sat and watched TV on my laptop in our room under we felt sleepy. Saturday morning, I woke up fairly early and tried to be as quiet as I could as Tops was still sleeping in the bed right next to mine. I played on my phone, I got up and did a bit of so-called work on my laptop, I threw on some clothes and went and took a picture of the sun rising over the Temple from the Reading Room and made it back all before Top Ender even thought about waking up, uncharacteristically, early. We ate breakfast together, we

I thought long and hard about what my word of the year, for 2019 would be.  There is so much that I want to accomplish this year coming. I want to lose weight (don't I always!), I want to continue spending more time with my family, I want to be a better wife and mother, a better friend. I want to feed my family healthy nutritious food, I want to continue learning, I want to do my Bible study and read more and just... there's a lot. And so I came up with a word. and then after having come up with a word, I spent ages, looking for the perfect font to display that word. As it'll live on my Wardrobe door for the next twelve months. Just in case you can't read the font, it says Balance. I think that Balance explains a lot about how I hope to be and I think the font will remind me what my focus is, and Flyfour seems to like it for some reason... no idea why he likes it so much.

It has become a favourite tradition of mine, that whilst the rest of the family sleep on Christmas Morning, I get to come downstairs and sit in the light of the Christmas Tree, thinking about the birth of our Saviour, those whom I love and have died and how lucky I am to have a wonderful bunch of friends and family. This year as I eased my way down the stairs, I was feeling sorry for myself. Sciatica was giving me some rather horrid pain in my back and down my left leg meaning sitting, standing and even laying down was hard! I didn't want to ruin Christmas for the family, by being a grumpy crying mess so I knew my traditional prayer in front of the Christmas tree was more than needed. I also knew I wouldn't be able to sit as normal, so I paced around the living room, praying not just for relief from the pain, but giving thanks for my friends and family and for the birth of Christ. I sang a couple of my favourite hymns, before getting Alexa to play a special Spotify Playlist

On Christmas Day, after dropping my Mum off home and emptying the dishwasher we had settled down for the evening. Well, Flyfour emptied the dishwasher and made the kitchen all neat and tidy again, I was sat on the sofa trying not to cry with the pain of sciatica and watching the end of Strictly. Top Ender was in her room reading one of the 12 books she received from various relatives and Dan Jon was in the Den playing on his new Xbox One game. Everything was good. Flyfour and I were sitting watching Michael McIntyre's Big Show, when he went to the hallway to have a rather odd sneezing attack. A few minutes later and Top Ender appeared downstairs, "I've had a strange text message" she said and presented her phone to Flyfour and I. It was a message from Santa.

IT'S CHRISTMAS EVE! As Flyfour is home for the next week or so, I won't be detailing what we'll be having for lunch or breakfast each day, as Flyfour and I are terrible when it comes to making a choice together. If I say we're having X, he'll make something else just because he forgot what we were supposed to be having! I have a mix of things on hand so we can pick different things each day so it will be a mix of Cereal, Hash Browns and knowing my family leftovers. So here is what we are eating aka my Shopping List!

One of my favourite Christmas Traditions is something that I have no control over. I'm not really sure how this tradition started, or even when, but as far as I know, a few families in our ward (Church Parish) decided one Christmas Eve to go Wassailing. Someone also thought it would be fun to come to the A Mother's Ramblings Home to sing and well, they've been coming every year since and it's not Christmas until these families have been and sung to and with us. I'm not sure how I knew, but the plan this year was that they would come on the Sunday before Christmas Eve, or as it's jokingly called in our house "Christmas Eve Eve" and so as soon as we got home from Church we started patiently waiting. Okay, I started impatiently waiting.

This is the final week of the Light the World programme and if you've been following along with me you'll know that we've gone from a global scale, down to local, to family and this week it's personal. This week it is about lighting your own faith. Now, I wanted to share something super here, to let you all see how important this week is, but I realised that faith is personal and me sharing something might not have the same effect on you as it would on me. Faith is something which each of us has to find on our own, sure I can help you nurture it, just like I would a plant, but it is down to each individual to grow... Does that make sense?!

IT'S NEARLY CHRISTMAS! I am not the only one super excited right? We've been to a Christmas party with some proper grown-up friends (I do love proper grown-up friends!), by the time this is published, we will have been to two of our three Christmas Concerts and hopefully, Flyfour will have had a rather lovely surprise. For breakfast this week, we're having hot breakfasts because it is sooooo cold and every morning is getting to be a struggle to get up and get going. The smell of a cooked breakfast wafting up the stairs, however, is rather tempting to get a move on!

This week the focus for the Light The World campaign is to Light Your Family. The video for this week makes me cry, every time I watch it. I warn you, you may need tissues for those onion cutting ninjas. Isn't that beautiful? It perfectly shows the youth of our Church. The youth are so kind, caring, loving and not just to their families and friends. This week, the idea is to serve your family or to light your family, with acts of kindness and love. It could be phoning your parents, writing a note to tell someone how much you love them, or something simple like spending time with your family, maybe doing something they enjoy but you don't! As you probably know, I am a great believer in Family Time. We have Family Home Evening once a week, where we have a small lesson together. Sometimes it is on something Gospel related, sometimes on things we think the children might need a reminder on or things we want them to learn as we think they will need the skill in the futur

It was only in the last few years, that I realised that going to the Panto at Christmas was a very British thing to do. As I've spent more time with friends from other countries who have made Milton Keynes their home I've realised that they have no clue about the genius that is shouting at a fully grown man "It's behind you!" because he can't quite see the one thing he is looking for. Of course, they also don't understand smacking one's thigh, the very thinly veiled innuendo or why everyone is willing to believe for two hours that Sherwood Forest is just down the road from Milton Keynes. Milton Keynes Theatre were once more kind enough to invite us to see the Panto and we bumped into Santa!

Top Ender had three Christmas Meals last week. Yes, I know I had two Christmas meals, but that's not the point okay?! Top Ender had three . It was on the last of these three, that she was sitting talking with a friend and some of the Guide leaders about the Baden-Powell challenge when everyone sort of realised at the same time that Tops needed to go on a residential before her 15th Birthday... which was in just four weeks. Gulp. Luckily, Top Ender's guide leader is amazing and after letting me know (at like 9 pm, as I picked Tops up from the third meal of the week) what needed to happen, she let me know that she would get it organised the following morning and the most that I would really need to do was get Top Ender somewhere in the UK the following evening.

I don't think that I'm the only one that will find it funny, that the week I start my Christmas break from the various clubs and volunteer work I do in the community, that the Church I belong to, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , has decided that Lighting the Community is the weeks focus for service completed by members in the Light The World Campaign they run each Christmas time.

This last week has gone so fast! There are just two weeks before the end of school and Seminary around here, (it's a late break up right?) and we are now in full swing of rehearsals, Christmas Concerts, Christmas Movie Watching, Elves being cheeky (whilst not sitting on any shelves) and of course I have relented and have broken open the Christmas treats... Anyhoo, here is the plan for this week's meals with a little bit of missed (mainly by me, occasionally by you) chat too!

This is Ministering. Yes, I know those are three Hot Chocolates with all the trimmings, but trust me. Those Hot Chocolates are Ministering in action. During one of the General Conference  sessions in April 2018, President Russell M. Nelson made an announcement that changed the way that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints looked after each other. At the time of the announcement Top Ender was super excited, as she had not long asked why she couldn't officially have a list of people to visit and care for and as the announcement was made that Young Women aged 14 and over were now going to be called as ministering sisters, we realised that she was preparing herself, me and a few friends we had shared the story with for the changes that were coming. Tops had truly been in tune with the Spirit. Further announcements were made about how we would carry out this new Ministering, no longer were the cultural expectations to be a once a month visit with a messag

Wow, December already! I can't believe we are almost at the end of the calendar year and already into the full swing of Christmas Concerts, Parties, Panto trips and the Light The World campaign, where we as a Church Community like to do Service for people not only around the world, but in our local community, our families and even in our own lives. I'm so excited! So, here is what we are eating this week!

For the last few years, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has encouraged its members to do something special each December. To take a few minutes out each day to serve others around them, to Light The World with goodness and happiness and to be like our Saviour, whose Birth it is we celebrate each Christmas. It's actually, really amazing to do and if you are here reading this and you're not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, then do it anyway! Spread some Christmas Cheer. I promise you that you will get so much more out of it than you put in.

Vending Machines. We see them everywhere. You can pay cash, or by card or even tap your phone on them these days and all it takes is a few prods of the buttons before the machine works out which item you wanted and pushes it off the shelf for you to collect at the bottom. Instant gratification. If only, giving to charity was that easy. Well, actually it can be and Tops and I were invited to London to visit the Hyde Park Chapel, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to witness the unveiling of the Giving Machines that have been installed for the Christmas season.