Bit of an update

Just played Monopoly City with J again. Just lost again.

We have had really lovely weather for the last few weeks but today it's poured with rain.

A couple of weeks ago we went to see my dad (his wife was away). Went out for a nice meal with him at local carvery. On the way we stopped off at a second hand bookshop where J bought the entire works of HG Wells.
We then went to see my niece who's just started at uni - seems to be having a great time. 

P and J have been repairing the barn roof which has been leaking badly, just as well as the weather seems to have turned.

Church going very well. Had a Benjamin cuddle on Sunday. He's doing so well and really doesn't look like a prem baby any more. I think he's the smiliest baby I've ever seen, even more so than J & he was very smiley (as long as he wasn't bored).

Full house

On Saturday we had 19 people in our house, this being the 'family house-group'. This meant we spent the whole previous week cleaning and tidying until I was at the point of exhaustion. It also meant that P did a major sort-out of the study so it actually looks like a study and we had a bulging paper recycling sack. I managed to make some chocolate brownies with P's help and he made  load of other desserts and salad and the others brought savoury dishes. It all went really well and it was lovely to have so many people laughing and enjoying themselves in our home.

This week I have been recovering so have done not very much except P and I went out for lunch today - duck spring rolls and fish pie - yum. 

Sunny day

Sun is shining. Sixth form is going well. In fact J seems really happy at school. Had quite a restful day today apart from taking a bunch of flowers round to Becky for her birthday.

Watched the Bethel Holy Ghost film today - amazing.

Sixth Form

J went off to Sixth Form today all dressed up in his smart shirt and tie. Ahhh...

Went to a wedding

This afternoon we went to a wedding - a girl in our housegroup. Really, really nice service. She's marrying a newly ordained Baptist minister. Was sitting next to baby Benjamin who is growing nice and big and cute and was sooo well behaved. Was just slightly concerned as he is a prone to projectile vomiting and while I don't mind babies being sick on me all that much I was wearing my best dress. His mum had a strategically placed muslin cloth though so all was well. 

Very nice time.

Update

The other things we did over the last month or so were:

go to Faith Camp - awesome
have a few days back home during which some friends came to dinner - good time
went to Wales
went to Ireland - had great time with family and my brother came over as well for a few days
went back to Wales - nice to be with brother and family again
came home

Teeny bit of a problem when got home - at some point power had tripped (? due to thunder storm) so fridges and freezer had been off for over a week, awful to have to throw out all that food. P had to photograph and list it all for insurance company who have paid out ok and J heroically cleaned out the fridge-freezer. While we were away P's camera had fallen off the wheelchair so that's another insurance claim.

 

Results Day

Well quite a lot has happened since I last posted. The thing that has been uppermost in our minds over the last few days has been the small matter of J's GCSE results. After arriving home from holiday the night before we had to be at school at 8am (yawn). I was feeling quite anxious a) because exam results can sometimes turn out how you don't expect and b) sometimes they can turn out how you do expect so I was thinking along the lines of 'What if he's failed English? What if he's only got a B in Art? How disappointed will he be?'

He disappeared into school and for what seemed like a very long time I watched the others coming out, observing that if a girl is crying it's impossible to tell whether she's done well or badly and it was amazing quite how much effort some had put into their appearance just to go and collect their results. Boys however, on the whole, came out with either a slightly satisfied swagger or a curl of the lip which said 'Ok I've done badly, ok I never did any work - do you think I'm bothered?'

P meanwhile calmly read a magazine.

Finally J made his appearance and slid into the car. As predicted he had A* in Maths and the 3 sciences. As predicted he had A in German, B in Graphics and RE (only 2 marks short of an A).  Then came the 2 shocks: in Art he got a D - D for major and unexpected disappointment. On reflection he thought that perhaps, in the last minute rush to get coursework completed (made worse by all his illness) he had omitted some vital pieces of work. In fact he had noticed that the othes were handing in folders somewhat thocker than his. I pointed out that he'd enjoyed the course and it won't affect his future at all and he seemed consoled by that.

Then the great big mega-shock:

HE GOT AN A IN ENGLISH!!!

Both papers - Language and Literature - he got an A. In fact in his actual Language exam he got an A* (his coursework brought overall mark down to an A).

After all those years of suffering with English it's so amazing and definitely partly due to his wonderful tutor as well as his own hard work. A real answer to prayer! Thank you Lord!

He got A* in the subjects he wants to study at A-level so has got straight into Sixth Form.

Yay!!!