It’s been a strange April day – sun mixed with rain and even a hail shower. The kids are out riding their bikes now but, looking out the window I can see it’s starting to rain again! I guess it’s true that April is often a showery month, especially in England, but hopefully we’ll get some May flowers as a result.
I’ve been busy today catching up on administrative things – emails, things I’ve needed to read and print, documents to review. Administrative work is just one of the aspects of my “job” as wife and mom. My aunt sent me an email recently and ended it with these words that made me smile . . . “Enjoy your day being wife, mother, teacher, listener, cook, washer lady, guide, nurse, etc. No wonder you are tired at the end of the day!”
Every day in our house there is something humorous said to keep me smiling. Joel wins the prize for yesterday. We watched a couple videos yesterday as several of the kids are battling a virus. While we were watching a video about wildlife in Britain, Joel said, “I wish humans had beaks. Then we could dive down in the water and catch fish, like salmon.” Later on, after we watched part of a video on “Incredible Creatures that Defy Evolution,” he said, “Mom, you know one fact from that movie: If I was a chicken, I would hatch out of an egg. If I wasn’t a chicken, I wouldn’t hatch out of an egg.” Well-spoken, son. 🙂 And one more . . . Peter has been going through the book of Jude with the children. While Joel and Hannah were playfully wrestling, Joel suddenly grabbed Hannah’s ankle, sat up and said, “May the Lord rebuke you!” At least he’s been taking in the message of the book of Jude!
Here are some photos from the past few weeks. Peter had a two week break from Cor Deo so it was nice to be able to spend a little more time with him. We took a partial break from school studies to coincide with the Easter break the children in schools had. Now we have just 6 more weeks left til we are done for the summer! We’ll be done just in time to prepare to leave for our USA trip on June 25th. Please pray that we’ll find good accommodation for while we are in Oregon.
OK, here are the photos . . .
We got to spend a lovely day at Bowood with Peter's sister's family. Here are all the cousins together.
Sweet baby Kaylah slept most of the time we were there.
Joel continues to love dressing up and Hannah loves to create costumes. Here he is as a Native American.
He's a knight this time, I think. The past few days he's been an Allied soldier, a policeman and a football player.
Sometimes I make a dish called "Kusherie" which is an Egyptian meal of rice and lentils. Hannah decided to dress Mariah up as an Egyptian for the meal. The result was pretty impressive!
A different kind of dressing up for Kaylah . . . the girls and I had fun putting this sweet outift on her for Easter.
One day during the holidays we went to the STEAM Museum in Swindon (museum of the Great Western Railway). It was lots of fun!
Four Meadlings in a ticket booth!
One morning, Peter invented a game, similar to bowls, that involved rolling tennis balls across the floor. He and the kids had great fun playing in the living room.
The trophies were pillows, including my nursing pillow!
This is us outside the US Embassy in London where we took care of our passport paperwork that needed to be done. We got up at 4:30am that morning so we may all look a little bleary-eyed. (When we arrived 3 hrs. earlier, Peter was the recipient of a pigeon deposit on his head. Unfortunately, I was laughing too hard to take a photo!)
After the embassy business was taken care of, we had just enough energy left to do some brief sight-seeing. Here's Peter and Joel outside Big Ben.
We got engaged in Westminster Abbey 14 years ago! Here is us replicating a photo we had taken back then, showing off my engagement ring.
Couldn't resist posting a few more photos of Kaylah . . .
Look at my chubby cheeks! (Wouldn't be a Mead baby without the cheeks!)
What a happy girl!
All the older children just love to hold Kaylah. Mariah probably asks me most often if she can hold her.
And Joel is learning to multi-task already . . . doing reading practice while holding his baby sister. (Note: the white vest is his "bullet-proof" vest. :-))
We could not do what we do without prayer support from so many people. We sense our weakness and need of protection in the spiritual battle we are in. Peter has 2 more weeks of preaching morning and evening at Ladyfield (on Acts) and has a Cor Deo conference in London next Saturday. Thank you for standing behind us in the battle.
