The 52 Project 27/52

This week was bliss, a mini heatwave!! One night both Seth and Ben ended up in our bed, not unusually but the additional heat made it slightly unbearable so I legged it to Ben's empty bed. At 6:00am true to form, I heard the bounding sound of Joseph leaping out of bed but then I got to witness him immediately fall to his knees and say his morning prayer. Seriously one of those jewels of a moment. He was surprised when I spoke as obviously I wouldn't normally be there. I told him how lovely it was for me to see him pray without being told to. he told me he prayers for the poor to have nice food and nice water because he doesn't just care about his family. 

On Saturday we went with Dad as he went to the temple with the youth. We met up with the boy cousins, Granne and Grandad and went and had some fun in Astley Park.

This picture depicts how much the boys feel the morning rush!!  Er, like not at all and quite frankly it does my nut in!! But I do love to see them play together. 

Blessings

One of the many blessing of a big family in the gospel is lots of opportunities to go the temple as they take out heir own endowments and sealings. This summer we went with both Alice and Amy as they went through for the first time. I love the new presentations. They portray the doctrine with such emotion and it makes you reflect and consider. I love any opportunity I get to go to this; our favourite place with my favourite person.   

What a blessing it is that these two are such pals. They love to go to the temple too. In fact whenever we go without them, they sulk! 

September / October catch up

At the end of September we had a lovely ward trip to the temple. Whilst the youth and adults were inside, the primary presidency had organised some activities for the children. Joseph's admiration for McKay began on this day. He and his family have moved into the ward from Arizona via Poland. Joseph LOVES him. We went around for FHE the other Monday. After giving the pep talk about appropriate behaviour - don't go noseying around the house, don't open their fridge, don't ask for food - yada, yada we knocked on the door. Nate opened the door and in they ran, flying past Nate's kegs and straight up the stairs, in a scene reminiscent (according to Nathan - I totally cracked up laughing when he said this to me on the way home) to the Dunkirk landings, the boat doors opened and the soldiers run for it. Pep talk worked then :) Within thirty seconds they were downstairs having found battery powered plastic machine guns - proud moment lol!

They kept the lesson nicely brief and afterwards it was nice to chat and get to know them. The boys loved playing with McKay and Cole and for the next few days Joseph asked daily if we could go again. Today at church he wanted to go and sit with McKay and then after church he wanted to go to his house or for him to come to ours - hope McKay is OK with all this adoration :)

We've had some pretty heavy rainfall resulting in the bridge being shut for the past two and half weeks. Fortunately the flood defenses held, the water was very close to overcoming them so the army and fire services came in the middle of the night to create extra height with sandbags.

The Autumn nights are drawing in and it's been nice to get the candles out and enjoy our cosy living room.

On Saturday, Skipwith was calling. A sunny Autumn day walk at Skipwith is a tonic to the hustle and bustle (and thankfully midgey free). We found the long horned cattle, the boys obviously found twig guns, a branch hobby horse and the puddles. They played tag with Daddy around the ramps and very graciously posed for a few photos for mum. It was particularly lovely to see Jospeh looking after his little brother ' Come on Ben' 'Hold my hand'. 

Richard and Ashley's wedding

Baby bro got married :)

Ashley looked stunning and her cheerful, playful nature came across throughout the day as well as an elegance too.

 Lots of tears, primarily from Richard and Mum. 

Lots of chasing around after the duo. 

Fabulous food in both quantity and quality at the Tullyglass hotel in BallyMena ( Bally means town or place of)

Lots of laughter at the speeches (some telling off directed at a certain 'tall' brother for being too mean)

Joseph won the whitest shirt contest and Ben lost by a landslide :)

 Participated in the 'wouldn't it be funny to take a photo of Kathryn stuffing herself with dessert with her big belly' photo :)

Joseph fulfilled his responsibility of walking down the aisle very seriously and actually Nathan did shed a tear of pride , he told me.

Sleeping arrangements. Nathan in single bed. The boys and I in the double?

Wedding day the second. Woke up at 6, once more at the Corr's Corner which fortuitously had a vacant room when we found out  that I hadn't actually booked the room at the premier inn for that night back in May - Duh. Insisting on staying until seven so we could have some of the breakfast we'd paid for meant that once more we arrived at the airport gates by the skin of our, the skin of our teeth - no joke the skin. Nathan had to be frisked and my bag had to be electronically swobbed???? Anyway we made it :) Dropped the boys off at the McNees and headed through 'torrential August bank holiday special rain' to the temple.

Flights for everyone else had been delayed so the sealing too was delayed but all things work out and it meant that Mandy and Joanne were also able to be there with us - a treat.

Lovely sealing, again by President Leece. Lovely to think about things of real importance to be given perspective on things such as our homes being our own little Kingdoms and to bring word to Heavenly Father about how we see things, especially about how we see our children, our concerns and worries about them as individuals and to seek His guidance in raising them.

Back to Bradford for Reception number two. Fab duo of Dale and Val in charge. Great food, good laughs, milder best men's speeches. Balloon fights a plenty.

Great day, very, very tired :)

Sleeping arrangements - at home in our own beds :)

A place of love and beauty

Over the weekend, we were able to go to the temple twice. Friday night with Caroline and Stuart for their endowment and Saturday for their sealing.

One of Grandma's favourite sayings is 'my cup brimmeth over' and it truly did this weekend.

Blessed to see my sister sealed to her love.

Blessed to witness how lives can change within a small space of time, Stuart had barely met Caroline 18 months ago, let alone heard about the gospel - amazing how Heavenly Father can bless us with not only what we need but also want. 

Blessed to be with all my siblings, my parents in the temple. Blessed to be with my Grandma, to be able to tell her much I love her. 

Blessed to be able to hold Nathan's hand and listen to the lovely message that President Leece gave as he explained the symbolism of the sealing and the blessings which come. To be reminded of God's love for us and how I felt 10 years ago at our own.

Blessed to be there with our children and nieces and nephews, to witness the joy that they find with each other and how excited they were to be at the temple. 

Truly a place of love and beauty.

RS Meeting - Being a temple loving people

Last Thursday we held a RS meeting focusing on being a temple-loving people. It was a really lovely night and worth all the wood-dying, painting, repainting, sanding, cutting and photo editing and re- editing. I actually really enjoyed all the prep and was really pleased with how the finished pieces turned out. As well as the temple art section we heard from Kath, Jenny, Teresa and Ann and their love of the temple for various reasons. Next month we have a temple trip booked :)

On the night Mayan had set up an amazing table display - it looked fantastic and I had great pictures to share however for some random reason there are not there anymore - gutted. The ones with Sharne posing have also gone too :( 

So here are just some I was able to take at home. The original idea for the art is from here and the photos which I used to edit are from 'The idea door' website found here. 

Each sister chose the temple she wanted, a colour choice and then a quote. I had a lot of fun using Piknik to create them all their personalised photos.

Some of the chosen quotes were-

Together Forever

Familes can be together forever

Whatsoever shall be sealed on Earth shall be sealed in Heaven (with their sealing date)

Never fear, God is always near

I feel my Saviour's love

Families are Forever

Steadfast in hope

You are never lost when you can see the temple

I chose - Lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven

Hooray I found the photos :) I'd randomly saved them to a separate memory on my camera. They're a little blurry but still they're not lost.

Love to see the temple

March 24th, Nathan and I got to go the temple for some of the upliftment and peace that only is supplied there. Mum and Dad had the boys for the day, they went to visit Grandma Josie and Grandad Dereck, entertained Charlie Brown, had lunch and then went to visit Grandma Hillary, went to the park at Barrowford and met up with the Great-Aunts and Uncles. Then went to Sarkeys for an ice cream, which Joseph then took 20 minutes eating. They had a great time and were wrecked as were the Grandparents :)

Anyhow rewind, before they left us, we attempted to have a family photo by the temple. Yep this was the best of the lot -  they're so cooperative lol!

I do love this one though - 

'I Love to see the temple

I'll go inside someday' 

 Thinking about it now (and very laissez faire of me not to check then)  there may well have been a nose print that needed  polishing off as well as the finger prints.

Nathan and I really enjoyed the session we did. I love being in there with him. Slightly awkward moment when I blew him a kiss and another man on his row was looking and may have thought I was sending it his way. We spent a while in the Celestial room and had it too ourselves for some time. It really is just so edifying to sit, pray and feel the spirit in abundance.  I looked for Grandma's bowl and it's still there. She's never noticed it but is on the look out when she next goes.

Before we left we went to look for Eric and Denise, two of our new members who were at the temple for the first time with some other new members from Harrogate. it was so nice to see them there and I love the way Denise really looks out for Eric.

We then popped into see Grandma, Grandad and Charlie Brown. he performed his 'Dance for a biscuit' routine :) I helped Grandad with some music he had copied, giving him some advice on  making all the bars add up correctly. Grandma had been able to go and see her sister, Vera, the week before which had been a nice experience and she had photos to show. I feel really blessed to have lovely Grandparents and to have them still around and to have them still be themselves. 

We then did a lot of popping. Pop to the charity shop near Grandma's to get a frame, pop to the book shop for picture to go in frame, pop to Boundary mill to buy Nathan shirts (failed). Pop to Mum and Dad's to collect the boys, pop to supermarket to get bits needed for the next day. Bed.

A lovely day.