Last week Peter, the four older Meads, and five other Trinity Chippenham youth headed out to a campground in Wales for a week of youth camp run by Grace Church Bristol. They had a fantastic time! There were lots of laughs, good food, games and activities, and times of worship and teaching. All the kids and Peter came back full of stories and thankfulness for an encouraging week. In the midst of the week, Mariah had her appendix out! Not exactly what we were expecting to happen during camp week . . . but we did know she had a “grumbling” appendix and made sure there was a hospital near to the campground. She went into hospital Wednesday night, had the appendectomy Thursday night and came back to camp Friday night. I wasn’t so sure that was a great idea (mother worrying from a distance!) but Peter was there with her and someone gave up a bed in a house on the site for Mariah so she didn’t have to sleep in a tent for the last night. Needless to say, I was glad to see everyone (especially Mariah!) when they came home on Saturday.
Some of her friends from camp came to visit her in hospital.
Meanwhile, back in Chippenham, Kaylah and Jessah and I had a very special week. We went to Bowood, read stories, went to McDonalds (or “Old McDonalds” as Jessah calls it!) and had some time with friends. It was a precious time and I think they both really benefitted from the focused attention they got from me. It was a very quiet house!! When it was only just the 3 of us, it made me realise just how complicated it is to run a household of 8 (and hopefully I will be a bit gentler on myself when I have my moments of finding it a little overwhelming!)
Picnic at Bowood!
So cute to see the girls starting to read books quietly together. (“read” in Jessah’s case!)
In other events this month, we had a wonderful family “staycation” the week before camp. We played games, did some biking, had a picnic, played pool (we’ve got a table in our newly cleaned garage now!), and enjoyed a read aloud (Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot). It was so nice to have that downtime together. Oh, I also took Kaylah and Joel to a climbing place one afternoon. They loved it!
Kaylah got more and more confident as the afternoon went on!
Joel must have done this wall 25 times, trying to beat his speed record!
Jessah listening to some music!
Speaking of listening, Peter has been doing a series at Trinity on “Ears to Hear” – preaching through Jesus’ parables. Its’ been excellent (in this wife’s opinion!), Click here to listen.
Watch this space soon for some photos from our USA trip (finally!). I had some major issues getting photos from my phone to my computer but I have now fixed the problem . . . hope to post some photos soon!
