It’s Monday night again, let’s go.

I thought I’d got the hang of juggling before, but this situation is just another level, to be honest.

What I got up to this week. Visits, church meetings, playgroups, Sweaty Mama, a school meeting, the hot chocolate and toast event, the harvest supper, two services and admin.

Ministry was really wonderful this week. With all the harvest events and the parade service yesterday, I was just buzzing!

Mum life. Mum life is never bad. How could it be when it involves Sophia and Aidan? But being Mum to Aidan is having a big impact on my ministry at the moment.

For example, we’ve been asked not to bring Aidan to his childcare when the lady hasn’t got any back up because he is too distressed and she’s got other children to think about too. So Wednesday looked something like this:

9.30 Sweaty Mama with Aidan

10.30 Admin in the car while Aidan naps

12 Playgroup nearby with Aidan. I figure I’ll go in my collar. It’s better to mix with local people with my collar on while looking after Aidan than to just sit at home, right?

2pm Come home and hand Aidan over to Nathan. Go to do a hospital visit. Nathan asked if I could visit one of his people while I was there. Sure.

2.30 Locate St Giles parishioner and have a chat and a pray.

3pm Locate ASSF parishioner and have a chat and a pray.

3.35pm Pray with a different lady on the ward who was upset and needed some care.

4.05pm Arrive home. Nathan has collected Sophia from school, and tea is nearly ready.

4.10pm Shovel tea down.

4.50pm Leave home to attend curriculum meeting at school. Never been to one of these before but found it very useful.

5.35pm Walk home.

5.40pm Put Sophia in the car and drive to Rainbows at ASSF.

6pm Drop Sophia at Rainbows, but she’s still nervous, so I stay until they’ve sung the welcome song.

6.25pm Leave Rainbows and sit in the car. Chat to my family on messenger.

6.35pm The girls come out and start playing games on the field by the carpark. Sophia spots me in the car and comes over to hug the car. She’s never hugged a car before. I tell her to go and play.

6.45pm She keeps coming over to me so when she’s not looking, I fall sideways onto the passenger seat so she can’t see me. I spend the next 15 minutes like this until the end of the session.

7pm Drive Sophia home. Nathan has got Aidan down and tidied the kitchen.

7.45pm Sophia’s had some supper, a bath and is ready for bed.

8.20pm Sophia falls asleep.

8.25pm Sort some laundry.

That’s a fairly typical day at the moment, minus the 5pm meeting, which doesn’t usually happen. And then there’s the other general stuff that needs dealing with ontop of that. Like making sure somebody is home to let the CCTV man in. And booking Aidan’s jabs (yes I am late with that one), booking the MOT (thankfully not late with that one) and booking the tax interview (not disastrously late with that one).

Thank God for To Do lists.

Anyway, our day off was lovely! I took Sophia out for lunch and then we went to Lidl for her to choose some things for the Foodbank donation at the harvest parade. She was so kind, thinking about what other families might like. Key items were gherkins, gravy granules, chocolate and blue crisps.

What Sophia said: yesterday was her first parade service. She was asked to carry the flag! She giggled loudly, proud as punch, as she handed me the Rainbows flag, having paraded it down the aisle!

What Aidan said: Nathan took the kids downstairs on Saturday morning so I could have an extra hour in bed. When he bought Aidan back up for a feed, Aidan said ‘dadadad’.

‘Have you been with Daddy?’

Then he said ‘Dadad, ‘oph, ‘oph!’

‘And Soph?’

‘Oph’ followed by a little chuckle.

I think he was telling me that she had been making him laugh!

Highlight: A full church yesterday morning!

I’m especially grateful to Dad for coming and having Aidan for us and fixing the stairgate!

Coming up: the wedding of one of our oldest friends.

More next time x