Something of substance.

I feel like I'm not writing a great deal here, partly because I'm blogging here, here and here. Actually, ignore that last one. Have been lazy there too!
So I'll fill in a bit of the gap. Today was 'moving-up day' at Joshua's school. He's not normally there on a Monday, but given that toddler group today was a day trip to a farm, which we couldn't make, it turned out rather well. We were invited to take him along to school at 11.45 and join the children for lunch. Of course, the seats were breathtakingly small, having been designed for 3-6 year-olds, but thankfully they did bring the grown-ups bigger plates than the children had! It was quite entertaining. Joshua managed to get a vast amount of pasta down his shirt (which was still line-damp!) and the child next to Joshua baptised himself in almost an entire cup of juice. As I was trying to rescue the situation and ascertain the best course of action for the poor boy (his parents weren't there), one of the staff said to me, 'would you like me to change him dad?'. I said that, given he wasn't in fact my son, that would probably be best! He was actually dripping as he left. The other amusing sight at lunch was the two boys on the next table, one of whom was feeding the other his banana custard. Well, 'feeding', is perhaps too strong a word... Suffice to say not much was consumed, as such.

When I went to pick Joshua up at the end of the day, we had to spend about 1/2 hour in the playground at school. Then, on the drive home, we passed the playground in our road, and he said, 'can I go to the park now?'. So we did. Another 45 minutes there, then tea, Bob the Builder and bed. At prayers, his offering was, 'Thank you lord Jesus for our lovely day and I hope mummy and daddy can come to lunch at school again, Amen.'

Did manage to get some useful stuff done during the school gap though, and we're now pretty much up-to-date with our accounts. Always handy!

Anyways, I'm on duty tonight, and it's almost time for the next bell, so I'm off.

*** Brief Break ***

Just went outside to get the washing in (it's raining) and was reminded of what else I meant to say.
This weekend in the garden was notable for the birdlife. I already texted about the bold robin and its nest. Well, this weekend saw me having to go slowly around the garden for fear of treading on a baby bird somewhere. The whole place seemed to be swarming with the little fellas. Robins were darting this way and that, and the sounds of feeding babies were coming from most of the hedges (and we've got a fair few). On closer inspection, I found that there were zillions (ok, slight exaggeration) of babies all over the place. They were mainly pre-flight, but post-nest. Seriously cute little things with dumpy little bodies and wings that seemed unlikely to allow flight. They sort of hopped their way around the garden. I was really tempted to go and stroke 'em, but figured they'd either die of heart failure or be abandoned by parents because they smelt of person. But the sound was just extraordinary. I've never been so keenly aware of the transition from nest to sky. And what a terrifying time it must be for the parents. Four babies all going off in different directions, utterly at the mercy of predators (and yes, I had seen a bird of prey just past the back hedge last week). Ok, so they don't 'think' in the same way we do, but what fragility of life and relationship.
And then again, there are people in the world who do have to think like that. Where should their priorities lie? Which child is the most important? As I wrote in my chapter on 'simplicity' this week, I had a bit of a failure on the carrots front. What did I do? I laughed it off and planted more seeds. But what if I had no more seeds? What if the carrots were the only thing I had to feed my family. Suddenly it wouldn't be something to laugh off. What if losing some of my crop meant having to chose which child to feed...