Well, that was a weird week. Not necessarily bad, just lots of extremes.

It involved time in the Hub, prayers with colleagues, a pre-funeral visit with a family, a trip to Northampton to see my Cell Group overnight, a playdate, a BBQ for the ASSF volunteers, a renewal of vows and a Sunday consisting of 2 services and 2 birthday parties!

The highlight was definitely seeing my Cell Group. This was our first proper meet up all together since Covid. We’ve done Zoom, of course, and we were all at a wedding last year, but realistically, it’s been three and a half years since we spent proper time together face to face! But it was brilliant, and you’d never know it had been so long.

Ta-Dah Moment: clearing ‘cr*p corner’ in the kitchen. Since having Soph, one corner of our kitchen countertop has built up with paperclips, batteries, letters, cards, pens, coins, bits of toys, and (most frustratingly) an old £20 note. We’ve just never got on top of it, but this week I did! Now Nathan’s shiny new Kenwood mixer has somewhere to live.

Challenge: that’s an interesting one. So, if you remember, last week I said that Sophia has moved up to Toddler Room and that I was quite emotional about it. Well I didn’t feel much better by Tuesday. I had to unpick it all a bit: why am I still feeling like this? Well, I decided that it wasn’t just that I was being emotional, but that several things had happened that meant that the transfer hadn’t been as smooth for Soph as we’d have liked. So, I put my big girl pants on and I went to nursery and had a chat. The brilliant staff heard me out, and I even had a chat with the manager and deputy manager the next day. We’re all sorted, and I feel listened to and that it’s going to be fine.

God moment (linked to the above paragraph): so when driving to nursery to have this chat, I was a bit fired up. I don’t really like to cause a fuss if I can help it, so I needed to be quite motivated to go and say anything at all. Driving over, I found myself saying, ‘I will never stop advocating for her’. And in that moment, I felt another saying,’and I will never stop advocating for you’, which naturally made me burst into tears.

You see, you’ve got Christmas, the nativity, God the Son as a baby. Then you’ve got Easter, God nailed to a tree and then rising from the dead. We all know about that. But the less well known bit is the ascension, God the Son ascending to be with God the Father in heaven. But why? Why is it important that Jesus is there? It’s because he is our advocate. He sticks up for us, he wills us on, he fights our corner. And ‘he will never stop advocating for you’.

This week, I am grateful for our friend Josh, who came to stay while I was away with Cell Group. Nathan has done his other foot in (yes, you read that correctly) and is back on crutches and wearing the boot. I couldn’t have gone to Cell Group if Josh hadn’t been coming because Nathan would have had a really tough time trying to sort Sophia.

Mum moment: Sophia was just brilliant today. Despite being a bit under the weather, Sophia managed to sit through two services without too much drama and she then went to two parties, a 2nd birthday party at the beach and an 80th birthday party in a tea room. I love how she has friends of so many ages, and that she went to sleep chatting about Sonny-Gray and Barbara alike!

New phrases & words: sit there mama, oh dear oh dear, peekaboo, Elsa ‘rade (in reference to watching Disneyland parades on Youtube), silly juice (meaning ‘fizzy juice’) Mama voor (Mama, lie on the floor) and Dada but (when telling Daddy to get up and put his special boot on!).

Next week I’m looking forward to GREENBELT!