Arrivals, departures, arrivals!

Yes, it's that time again in the Tea and Toast household where we are off to Heathrow to pick up daughter no.1 who has just spent 3 weeks in Brazil working with street children.  She went there to make a film and to do what she loves to do - art and crafts with the boys and girls.  It was both challenging and rewarding.   How I love standing at the arrivals barrier - the excitement and anticipation is always there for me.  I love watching people reunited with their friends and families after a journey away and then seeing my lovely walk through those doors safe and well!

While she has been gone I have been busy with the quilt I started, dare I say it, last year!  Anyway it is now almost finished apart from a wash and dry and a love lable.  Of course someone had to test it out first!

It's not really clear from these photos but I have hand stitched hearts all the way round the strawberry border

So daughter no. 1 is just here for 3 days before she sets off again for another job in Dubai!   Then a week later we go to pick up daughter no.4 who is finishing her year in Paris and is coming home to complete her degree!

Best Shot Monday - Departures

While this cannot be construed as a 'best photo' it is nonetheless where things are at today!  For at 4am we got up to take daughter no.1 to the airport for a new job opportunity in Dubai!! It's been a tough couple of years for her workwise with the recession (the media has cut back drastically) but this is an amazing opportunity.  Another goodbye and another daughter overseas (that makes 3 of them now!) has left me feeling somewhat emotional but this is a great opportunity and one I hope turns out to be truly fabulous in every way.  And she'll be back for Christmas so.......no need to get too emotional.... although you just can't help being a mother can you?

30 years ago today!

These two little pumpkins were born!!  Here they are about 4-6 weeks old and you can see by the size of hubby's hands just how wee they were!  5lb 12 oz and 6lb 8oz they weighed when born 4 weeks early and now they are 6ft 1" and 5ft 10" and I've no idea how much they weigh!!.  I was only 24 and had been married two years. It was a special time but very exhausting to say the least as I fed them myself for the first six months. What a joy they were then and are now.  Lovely young women with so many gifts and skills and delightful personalities.  I love you my girls and I'm so glad you came into our lives! 

(my scanner isn't working and the drawer the photos were in is stuck shut so this is a photo of a photo but was the best I could do as I wanted to mark the occasion - roll on a new printer/scanner!!).

To Paris and back in a day!

Daughter no. 4 is now delightfully residing in Paris after we drove her there on Saturday.  We left at 5.00am and arrived at ' l'apartement' at 1.30pm.  Time for a very quick lunch and then back to the apartment to see the landlord and then hubby and I set off to catch the shuttle and arrived home at 10.30pm. Whew!  It was great to be in France again albeit a fleeting glimpse and we hadn't orginally planned to do this but it was a real treat to see her new abode which has this for a view on one side

This is such a great opportunity for her but I shall miss her lots.  Just hubby and Max here now!  Time for new beginnings!

Perfecting the art of relaxation

Someone here knows just how to do it. I wish I could join him actually.  This afternoon I found myself asleep at the computer!!! I know - what am I like!  Only for a few minutes of course but enough to make me realise that I had actually missed the last few minutes well and good.  I guess this might be because I had a wakeful night, the night before last.  Must try to get to bed early tonight!  But there is much to be thankful for here in the tea and toast household.  Last week at this time we (daughter no. 2 and I) were here:

where lovely daughter no.2 was having another operation on her poor foot.  We now have three weeks of bandage (no looking or changing dressing!!) until the stitches come out which means three weeks of hobbling about on crutches and not going very far.  So we are enjoying our time together, eating lunch in the garden and pondering what delights we might conjure up for supper.  And in between times I am up on the computer doing some work (and snoozing by all accounts!), and on the telephone etc etc.  But in the evening there are creative endeavours going on - daughter no. 2 is knitting a blanket for a friend's baby and I have just finished (absolutely amazing after a number of years - yes, years I tell you!) my 12 inch patchwork squares for the joint quilt I am making with my Canadian friend.  More on that another time, complete with photos.  In the meantime I leave you with a shot to the right of the entrance to the hospital which is just by the Thames and looks out on to the House of Parliament.  The ward she was on had this very view!

She's ok!

Last week was quite a week!  And it didn't help that we were away from home at a conference!  However all is well.  Daughter no.2's foot got a lot worse as did her general health and the drs decided that she needed to be flown home to the UK for an operation.  However the flight was scheduled for the day of the ash cloud so despite her bag being packed, she could not come.  Things deteriorated rapidly and she was whipped into theatre for the operation there and then and is now recovering well.  She is being flown home hopefully on Monday where she will recuperate for a while!!  Can't wait to have her back and to give her some much needed TLC.

I have never sent so many texts in my life!  It is the best way to communicate with folk in Uganda so despite the fact that I could only stand in one tiny corner of our accommodation in order to get reception (remember it was north west Wales we were in!) I managed to keep in touch with the lovely daughter no.2 and also with the organisation she is with.

So normal service will resume very soon now and because I had two long journeys (7 hours each way) I have one or two things to show for it!! A bientot!

Concerned!

I had all sorts of plans to write about a lovely birthday weekend with all the girls (2 weeks ago now!!) and Easter etc etc but my weekend has been consumed with concern for lovely daughter no.2 in Uganda who was admitted to hopsital on Friday night.  She has been very poorly with an infection in her foot which is travelling up her leg.  Hospital care in Uganda is so very different from here and she was already misdiagnosed and given the wrong treatment which has slowed the healing process.  I am grateful that I can at least contact her via skype on her phone although a text very early (5.40am our time) said she was running out of battery and didn't have her charger and felt worse!.  It's hard being so very far away at at time like this and although she is very capable, the mother instinct just wants her back here with the right treatment making a good recovery.  Hubby and I are off to Wales tomorrow for a conference where we are both working on exhibtion stands!  To say that I don't feel like doing this would be an understatement however.....

I hope to be back here soon with good news about happy, creative things, till then.....

The gift of mothering

(handpainted teapot - a gift from daughter no.1)

On Sunday here in the UK we celebrated Mother's day - a day to be remembered by our children and made to feel special.  I certainly did feel special when the day began with a cup of tea brought up to the bedroom by daughter no.1.  It brought back so many memories of when the girls were little and would sneak downstairs and prepare a tray with flowers, tea and maybe some cereal with a special napkin and traycloth, complete with handmade cards and gifts. Being a mother has been such a joy for me.  As an only child, I always seemed to be surrounded by grown ups and there was never anyone to play with so I often got very lost in my own imagination with my dolls and teddies etc.  Having children has meant having others to 'play' with and from very young the girls and I would play all sorts of games and do all sorts of crafty activities together; putting on plays at Christmas and cooking special food at holiday times.

(painted inside with hearts too!)

Now they are grown women themselves and I love the way they each relate to me differently - even different names for me; daughter no 1 calls me Mum, daughter no.2 calls me Ma, daughter no. 3 calls me Marmee (from Little Women) and daughter no.4 calls me Mama and each are their own very different personality and I love them all so very much.

Sunday carried on being very special with daughter no.3 and her husband arriving for lunch which was prepared by the girls and then I was the recipient of some lovely gifts - books and a dvd.  I didn't have to lift a finger all day and the kitchen had a spring clean too!!  Thank you so much my wonderful family.

Remembering.....

He had a difficult childhood

beaten by his stepdad

ran away when he was 14

joined the Navy and got in with a not so good crowd

then he met the love of his life

they had one daughter who was the apple of his eye

25 years as a fireman, saving lives and being a hero

but he had a problem - alcohol - it made life messy

until the day he encountered the God of grace and love

miraculously he didn't need that 'drink' any more

he knew a joy and peace at last - something he had never known before

4 little granddaughters came along

bringing life and laughter in all its fullness

one even had hair his colour (a beautiful red).

The years past and he became carer for the one who had loved him so selflessly.

31st January 5 years ago, heavy with responsibility and

disorientated beause his dear one was in hospital with yet another chest infection,

he went out to get his newspaper

and eager to get back, ran in front of a speeding car.

A tragic end

no time for goodbyes

This was my dad.  I miss him.

"Joy and sorrow are sisters; they live in the same house"

Macrina Wiederkehr

Piccadilly Circus!!

I just need to look at this lovely image and get some calm!  It's been a crazy weekend.  So many comings and goings.  Saturday began with a lovely breakfast with daughter no.2 (croissants and homemade fig jam) then daughter no. 4 arriving; daughter no.3 and fiance arriving and then daughter no.1 arriving.  This was followed by the dressmaker arriving to fit the bridesmaid dresses - beautiful!  Just said goodbye to the dressmaker and the doorbell went and it was the hairdresser who came to do daugther no.2's hair and also daughter no.1.  30 minutes later the doorbell went again and a friend arrived to see daughter no.2 and so it went on.  I was busy with coffee, then lunch for 8, admiring new haircuts, finding necessary accessories, talking through plans, putting shopping away, making homemade soup and so on.  By 3pm those left in the house were exhausted.!!  Time to sit down and catch up with daughter no.4 who was busy working on her Uni assignment for her menswear design course.  I picked up my knitting - "oh Mum, you wouldn't make a little swatch for me would you?"  "Sure, what do you need?"  There followed two little swatches in handspun yarn and variegated yarn and before you know it, it was time for supper.  This week is going be a busy one!

She's back!

It was just soooooooooo exciting on Friday.  Daughter no.2 was making her way back from Uganda for the wedding and all day I was preparing and thinking about her.  We set off for Heathrow around 2.30pm to pick her up just after 4pm.  I just love waiting at the arrivals barrier.  I always get there far too early and strain my eyes to see who is coming through the door.  You know the scene, I am sure.  You stand at the barrier, having first made certain that you are in the best place to be seen by the person arriving through the door.  You keep looking earnestly, not daring to turn away for fear you will miss that important moment when you spot them and they spot you.  The excitement mounts as you watch loved ones great each other after time apart.  Your eyes are straining, shouldn't they be through by now? Must be patient.  Then, suddenly you see them, you wave frantically and run to meet them, throwing your arms around them.  It's been a while you see, ten months actually since we have seen daughter no.2 although we have talked often on the computer but without video as where she is in Uganda doesn't have access to the internet except intermittently.  At last we are together again and talk all the way home in the car, catching up on news, stories of what's been going on and thinking of the big day ahead in a week's time.  Oh, it's so lovely to see her again.  Each daughter is so precious in their individual way. These will be treasured moments, these next two weeks while she is here.  I feel very privileged to be a wife and mother and to know these moments of joy.

What's been going on here at Tea and Toast? Instalment 1

I've been a very sporadic blogger of late and you might be wondering what has been going on here.  Well, it's been busy with family and with work so I thought I might just try and update you on things generally.  How about we start with Mother's day?  Remember we have daughter no.1 living with us just now and when I got up on the Sunday morning she had set a delightful breakfast table for me as above.

It was a lovely surprise.  She is an artist and always inspires me with her creativity.  Last evening when I had been working late and it was getting on for 10.30pm, she said to me "Come on Mum, let's paint in our sketchbooks". So we put the wonderful bunch of lillies she bought me for my birthday (last weekend) on the dining room table and she brought down her gouache paints and we set to.  It was a real joy.  She will be moving out next week, not far away, but I shall miss her terribly.

So back to mother's day, after church daughters 3 and 4 came for lunch and then we took a ride into Kent to one of our favourite tea shops.  We were quite a crowd walking in for a cup of tea and piece of cake (there were 7 of us!!).  It was a happy time, walking in the Spring sunshine, breathing in the cool air and listening to the birds and sheep.  I love being with my family and their friends, each one brings something different, dynamic and enriching to our mix.

Then it was back home and some went on their way and some stayed to watch the wonderful photography on the programme about Yellowstone National Park.  It was a lovely lovely day.