Grace in small things - Christmas time

I know many people are feeling stressed and unhappy right now and I pray they work through that quickly and realise that most of the stuff they are worrying about really does not matter too much. If they have their health, some friends or family about, enough food to eat well and a warm home then they are in a great place.

Despite an infection of some sort (chest or throat I'm not sure, I just know I've been poorly) I'm still feeling incredibly grateful and happy that Christmas is just around the corner. I'll share my thankfulness in photos this week -

Both our Christmas trees are up and we have sparkle and bling galore, I love it!

I adore these matryoshka dolls that I bought when I was visiting Belarus last year, they make me smile each day as I see them on the fireplace.

I am a sucker for stained glass and the church this morning that we visited for the kids carol concert was full of beauties

Monday night after a day in bed and still feeling very low the last thing I wanted was a group of people coming to our house but I knew I would enjoy seeing our pastoral group. I was so blessed by the lovely volunteers who came and joined dh and I for a meal and some fun. We got treated to chicken curry, a Brazilian dessert and these fabulous Czech biscuits.

I'm getting much better at learning how to use my new camera (my early Christmas present). It is a Lumix G5 and instead of going for the obvious choice of a DSLR, I went a different route and it is a CSC which means it is much smaller than a DSLR as it does not have the classic mirror prism but I can still swap lenses and manually adjust all my settings.I think I'm doing OK for a totally new user, just look at those water drops on the wildflower.

Lastly a big thank-you to Bon Marche who sent me through a pretty box of their accessories to use in the cold and wet months. How did they know red was my favourite colour?

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#TheGallery - Light

I have not joined in with the Gallery for quite some time but this week I wanted to break that and make it happen. This was the first linky I joined in with two years ago and it still reigns supreme.

This weeks theme is light and as soon as I read that, I knew the photo's I wanted to share. These photo's were taken on Bognor Regis beach in the late afternoon in September 2006.  JJ is 3 and he is sharing some time with his Daddy.  I love the relationship my boys have, it is a very special bond and they love to spend time together.

#TheGallery : When I Grow Up....

So the theme this week over at the Gallery was 11.11.11 and of course that was Remembrance Day, one special day of the year when we all join together in a minutes silence to pay our respects to all those people who fought for our country and lost their lives.

My little man fancies being in the Army, he is obsessed with all things camouflage and can often be found playing Army Club.  I'll be so scared if the day ever does come that he enlists but I will also be enormously proud that he has chosen such a selfless career. Only time will tell...

As for the girls...  Miss E just wants to be a Mummy.  Apparently she is never going to work, just have babies and be like me.  I did remind her that I work and still look after them.  Her response 'No Mummy, I just want to look after my baby all the time'.  Oh OK, we know what she wishes for then.

Then there is Miss M, my little vivacious twinnie, what does she want to do when she is all grown up? When I went upstairs Friday after school I found her play acting the career that at the moment she feels she will follow.  Can you guess what she wants to do?  Leave me a comment and I'll let you know if you got it right!

Don't forget to check out some of the other super entries for this weeks Gallery.

Simply Happy #TheGallery

This weeks Tara's prompt of a happy memory has stolen one whole night of my life.  I sat down earlier, grabbed my external drive and shifted through more than 7000 images taken in the last few years. What a brilliant night I have had.  Rubbish on the TV, no matter, I was walking down memory lane. Early night, ohh did I say that?  Whoops, it is now practically midnight!

I looked though all the classics - our wedding snaps, the kids being born, Christenings, holidays, family partys, weddings we have been guests at etc etc but the pictures that really spoke to me were those when JJ was just a little chap.  I look back at those pictures and dh and I look so young and happy.  I remember how we loved being just the three of us, we did that new parent thing of checking with each other if the babe should have a feed, or should we wean yet, do we check he is sleeping?  All those things you worry about when your babe is so new and so loved.

Keeping my Sanity about the MAD Blog Awards

I am getting rather excited, at the end of September I am going to the MAD (Mummy and Daddy) blog awards ceremony in Soho at the TalkTalk Customer Experience Centre.  I am a finalist in the MAD Blog about family life category and I intend to have so much fun, I am under no illusions that I will win but being there and joining in the with the evening will be reward enough.

Today, I have been shopping and that is one of my most favourite activities in the whole wide world. My Mum and I set off for an enormous M and S that is near us and we hunted for something glamorous for me to wear.  Luckily M and S have decided they would like to sponsor my outfit for the night and help to make me look tip-top! On the flip side sadly the fashion at the moment seems to have all dresses being not suitable for someone who has a rather large belly!  So dresses seem to be out but I have got myself something nice, so far!  Notice that 'so far', there is still 24 shopping days until the awards and I intend to use them fully, my outfit could get swapped right up until the last moment.

One thing I won't be changing though, is the shoes. I was super chuffed to walk into my local M and S last week and see the perfect shoes for the awards.  I wanted evening glamour and they are black patent with velvet trim and I wanted heels, which they do have but being me I am no good for long periods of time in very high heels, so whilst I would love to have worn my 4" platform patent shoes (also from M and S, yes it is my favourite shop) it means more to me to be able to walk all night and to be able to have a good dance with some fabulous blogging mates that I will see at the awards like @nickie72 @SAHMlovingit @ChristineMosler @allaboutheboys @northernmum @seasiderclare and so many more.

No jeans on the night though!

As well as going to the ceremony, I also get to spend the night at the Radisson Edwardian Bloomsbury Street Hotel, sharing a room with the super @Kykaree that I have only chatted to a few times before on twitter but I just know we will get on so well.

I am amazed at how different I feel now to the weeks that were the run up to CyberMummy.  By rights I should be more nervous now and worried about what to wear and how the evening will go but I just know that the @Swhittle and @Mum_Themadhouse will make sure we all relax and enjoy ourselves.  No going MAD for me this time!  Well unless I win the award and then who knows what may happen!

I am linking this post up to this weeks Gallery over at Tara's place, it seems to fit this weeks brief of shoes!

The Calm after the Storm! #TheGallery

Last week we were away on holiday, we had a super amazing time and looking at this picture you would be forgiven for thinking that we went to a really hot and exciting foreign destination.

Sandy beach, blue sky, blue sea, never-ending coastline, strange child wearing a hoodie when it was nearly about 80 degrees!

These pictures were actually taken at Sandbanks a beautiful white-sand beach in Poole, Dorset. For the cost of £4.50 parking we had 3 good hours of family fun on the sand.

This was one of those days when you made memories. Simple and special memories. Of 3 generations taking time out to be together, no media, no books just old-fashioned fun! 'Mum, do you remember when you buried JJ and Dad chucked sand right in his mouth!' 'or what about when we went wave jumping Mum and Nan and Grandad were there too?'. Nothing expensive, nothing too fancy but oh so special.

We built Miss E a special sand chair for Princesses (look at that smile, priceless)

Nanny and Miss M seemed to like it too!

The girls got brave and fed the seagulls.  Only when Mummy went looking for the packet of chocolate chip cookies was it revealed that Daddy had passed those over as good bird food! (If you ever see a fat seagull, you'll know why now!).

and like I mentioned we buried JJ and he loved it, he wanted his hat on like Daddy Pig does in Peppa!

Perhaps you are now wondering why I titled this post the calm after the storm?  It is not metaphorical, nothing clever about the title.  It is very literal.  These beach photos were all taken on Friday 12th August (World Photography Day) and the very day before Bournemouth and Poole had freak storms and flooding.  Just look at this photo below, have you ever seen water gushing from the prom onto the beach and back into the sea?  No, me neither!

Image Credit

This one day record of a day in our family life is my entry for this weeks Gallery.  Tara asked all participants to take a photo/ capture a moment on World Photography Day for this weeks Gallery.  Fancy taking a look through a virtual photo album? Head over to Sticky Fingers then.