It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

Well, sorry for not blogging for ages. I was feeling that if I blogged it would all come out wrong and depressing, so decided to avoid it for a while! Some have said I should blog however black my mood, but who wants to read that??
Anyway Ridley Term has ended (Praise God and many Hallelujahs)and I have Steve back for two weeks. I was even able to assist him with part of one of his essays at the end of term- shh don't tell anyone!!!

I'm currently reading a book called 'a handful of light' which is an Advent study, I've been trying really hard to read it while eating breakfast 'cos that's quite a quiet time in our house, especially if the children have gone to school already!!! It takes me a while to get into these things, but it's quite a good book- not sure if I'm reflecting on it quite as I should, but hey at least I'm reading something to do with God! I'm finding my spirituality and faith has taken something of a knock over the last term and frequently find myself very dissatisfied with Church and especially worship- which at Ridley leaves something to be desired and at St Barnabas is OK, but I miss St Mary's worship and especially miss singing and playing with 'Tongues of Fire'. In fact I think the teenagers are what I miss most- everyone's so serious around here and there's no-one to lark about with!!
We recently hosted a Christmas party for Steve's Ridley Staircase and everyone was gone after a couple of hours, there's not really anyone we're close enough to have that kind of banter and fun with like some old friends at home. I did have a great night last night with a few other Ridley wives; a meal and sing-along Mamma Mia at one of the other wives house which is in the grounds of Ridley Hall. It was a little disappointing to find out all their hubbies had gone out to the pub together and Steve hadn't been invited, but hey- that, it would seem, is life!

However thanks to my old friend Lorna I joined the St Barnabas Christmas Choir and thoroughly enjoyed the rehearsals leading up to the Carols by Candlelight service which we were due to sing at. The choir was amazing mainly made up of people in their 20's, 30's and 40's and a good mix of men and women and even a guide dog! There was an inspiring blind lady in the choir who had the words in braille and had incredible pitch! On the night I felt quite nervous and excited and it was fab - I sang soprano and reached all the top notes including a few top A's- which in previous years I've found impossible due to sore throats and so having a tonsillectomy last January was the best choice!! We sang a John Rutter piece, a beautiful version of In the Bleak Mid-winter and two gospel songs; one was 'Oh Holy Night' and the other was written and composed by a guy in the choir and involved congregational participation- it was amazing to see the whole Church swaying and clapping and singing 'rejoice'! I definitely want to do it again next year!

It's been a bit weird here this last month because usually by now we're up to our ears in youth service preparations, choir rehearsals, school plays and concerts, Christmas dinners and parties here there and everywhere.Here the children don't have a very active after school life and so there's no rushing around after school and Beth has no involvement in her new school musically, so no concert to go to. Isaac didn't have a play at school, but we did go to his short carol concert last week. So it's all been a bit quiet...
Currently I'm gearing up for Christmas - the tree and other decorations are up, the cards are done and sent, the presents are wrapped and hidden! I've done all the food shopping bar the fresh veg, I've iced the Christmas Cake, I've changed all the bedlinen ready for our guests, now it's just the cleaning and making up beds etc before our first guests arrive on Tuesday! I'm quite looking forward to having the family all here, but know it's going to be an interesting few days of family dynamics!

We've had a few niggles with the house too - a growing brown stain on the games room ceiling indicating a fixed leaky toilet was not the cause as we originally thought (wet carpet near the toilet caused by?? Maybe should get Steve's eyes tested?)The plumber then discovered the grout in our en-suite shower was virtually gone - so some magic gunk and hopefully that's the end of the growing stain! We had a light that mysteriously stopped working, change of bulb made no difference, the electrician fitted a new switch and hey presto we have light in the porch again!! Talking of lights - what is the deal with Christmas lights? How do they go away one year working and come out the next dead as a dodo? I have a garland on the banisters which has some nice pearly berry lights on it - worked perfectly well last time, got it out of the box, plugged it in to check it was OK and it was, but when in situ and plugged in - nothing, nada. So Steve and I fiddled with bulbs, plug fuses etc and swapped bulbs from another set and today Steve painstakingly swapped the bulbs from one set to another until ha had a full set working - but not on the garland?? So bless him he then took off the dead set and re twined the other set around the garland which are now working beautifully!!!! Why does it have to be so complicated??? Sometimes the set of lights on our Christmas tree (which have various funcions) suddenly stop 'slow glow' and go into mental flashing!! Maybe it's just us!!!

So I've survived this first term of 6 at Ridley and I'll admit it's not all been as I'd imagined, some good, some bad. Things look just as mad for next term, but without the whole getting to know you pressure! There are other pressures! I do think that I will struggle financially after Christmas as I'm not working and the nice cushion from Steve's redundancy has gone - it's a huge change for all of us (the children still don't really get it!) and old habits die hard, but new year, new attitude and I pray we'll cope. Well here's to the New Year, I pray for a good, healthy and happy one for all!
Well I need to stop this blog for now and go get my beauty sleep - this Wilkinson family is lighting the 4th Advent candle at St Barnabas tomorrow morning!