I'm not sure I realised *just* how long it's been since I updated my blog, but I knew it was long overdue! It seems a fair bit has happened over the past couple of months, but I'll probably not think of everything just now.
In May we realised that Peter's dad wasn't doing very well so we suggested he came to stay with us. After a couple of days he wanted to go home again, and since we didn't realise how unwell he was, we took him back home. But after a couple of days on his own again, he realised he wasn't able to look after himself, so suggested that he came back. He then spent a week living with us before he started getting rather worse, so we finally got him admitted to hospital.We found out then that he had severe heart failure and it was too badly damaged for him to make much of a recovery at all. He spent just over 4 weeks in hospital, where he received very good care from the doctors and nurses there. He was a lot brighter in the first couple of weeks in hospital and seemed to be doing fairly well. However the quantity of medications needed to deal with the heart meant that his kidneys weren't able to cope, and eventually it became clear that he didn't have much longer to live. Peter had been able to visit him nearly every day he was in hospital (about 80 miles roundtrip) and then spent the final 12 hours with him before he passed away just over 2 weeks ago now. It was a blessing that Peter was able to be with him when he went and also all the time in the final 6 weeks of his life.
Benjamin doesn't cope very well with changes in life, nor does he always find it easy dealing with people. So he found it rather difficult to adjust to having his grandad come to live with us (despite it being for a short time) and then also the unknown as to what would happen if he got out of hospital, etc. So we had a rather rough 6+ weeks with Benjamin and various unusual behaviours that hadn't really been a part of his life before. :-/ I wouldn't say he's fully recovered from the stress of it all, but I think we've gotten to the other side now and things are improving - even if a bit slowly! He had Clement in his bedroom all this time, and only last week has C moved back into his bedroom (where Peter's dad had been). I took the opportunity of the room being empty to do some much needed painting in the last couple of weeks, so finally all the bedrooms are organised and everything is back to how it was before - so hopefully things can only get better for B. :-)
We are in the final few days of the school year and the kids are looking forward to the summer holidays. I'm looking forward to my break from being teacher too! ;-) Though at the same time, I've got a very busy summer ahead of me with the holiday house in Edderton. It seems to be rather busier than it was last year, which is a good thing. But looking after the house while pregnant is a new stage in life for me, so might be a bit more of a challenge than it was last year! But it's exciting that so many people have booked a holiday with us. It's fully booked from this week all the way through until the 23rd of August! And then only 1 week break in August before more guests arrive, and then more in September too! By the time the final guests leave in September, it won't be very many weeks before the baby is due! :-O I *have* blocked off all of October as my "maternity break" ;-) so at least I'm *hopefully* guaranteed a couple of weeks to recover from providing others with a holiday, before baby appears! :-) I'm already 24 weeks - so not toooo long to go. And with a busy summer, before I know it, October will be here. Each pregnancy certainly seems to pass faster than the previous one.
One Saturday in early June we had a trip to the beach with friends from church. It was decided to have the annual church picnic at the beach this time, which the kids all thought was a wonderful idea! :-) We were blessed with lots of sunshine and no rain - it was lovely! Here are some photos from the day.
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| The biggest four in the sea! :-) |
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| Elijah said he was making a gingerbread man! :-D |
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| My biggest boys |
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| Smallest boy - having soooo much fun! |
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| Deborah *loves* being at the beach! |
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| No idea what Abigail was doing or saying here! :-D |
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| Benjamin |
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| Clement |
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| A game of rounders, I think it was. |
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| Elijah and his shadow! :-) |
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| Clement |
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| Girls and their sandcastle |
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| Boys' sandcastles |
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And here are a few photos of Clement and Elijah's redecorated bedroom! :-) There's a bargain place in Inverness that has lots of oddments of paint at totally cheap prices. They seem to always have some lovely Farrow & Ball branded stuff too, and when I saw this "Hague blue" to do a feature wall in, I was sure I had to do a space theme for the room! :-) I couldn't believe I was getting a £40 tin of paint (2.5l) for only £5! :-) The lighter blue was just ordinary branded paint, but still at a fraction of the cost. And I got some yellow Farrow & Ball for the woodwork around the room too. I think the room came together really nicely and the boys are very happy with it! :-) The curtains aren't a perfect match to the bedding, but were a £6.75 (incl postage!) bargain win on ebay - with lovely Nasa rockets and space men, etc. [I do love finding bargains - ever since I was a kid! lol] And since they were extra long, I got some spare fabric from hemming them, so I hope to make some cushions or *something* else for the room with the extra fabric - IF I find the time! ;-) And I fell in love with the rug - I thought it was a great educational piece for the room! Elijah has really taken an interest in everything about the solar system - he's always talking about the moon and planets, etc ever since we started going the solar system in science this past year.
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| The finished bedroom! |
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| Even the old cupboard got a new coat of paint to match the room! :-) Believe it or not, this cupboard was Peter's when he was a child - he used to keep his toys and things in it. Though I'm quite sure he never had as many toys in it as my kids do! [oops!] |
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| A bit blurry, but happy boys enjoying their room! |
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| In early June our dear Elijah turned 2! He's been talking for so long and acting all grown up that it felt hard to believe he was only *just* 2 then, but so he is! :-) |
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| Happy boy with his presents! |
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| A bit of a wonky train, but my train loving little boy was very pleased with it! |
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| Birthday boy and his cake! :-) |
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| He *loves* to blow out candles! |
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| He thought it was yummy too! |
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| Deborah enjoys spending a lot of her time in books - even in the garden! |
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| And this wee guy *loves* the trampoline! |
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| Always full of energy - and giggles! :-) |
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| They think the top of the wood shed is a great place to hang out! |
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| Biggest 4 enjoying the sun! |
I think this post is long enough for now! I've got some photos from a homeschool meet-up that we had in Golspie last week, but this has enough pictures already. So hopefully next time I'll include them - and perhaps it won't be quite so long between posts! I can always dream! lol
