Seasons of Joy: A Look Back Pre-Lockdown

I thought I’d write a (not very) quick catch up post (two in fact) about the past six to nine months. I am hoping to capture just brief memories of those times as I did not blog at all. Excuse the topsyturvy nature of this post…

We were very blessed by a friend of ours who helped us create two bedrooms out of one bedroom upstairs. He removed the one doorway and build two doorways, one to the room on the left and one to the space on the right. He build walls around them and bam! we had an extra bedroom. The plan was for the twins to move into the littles’ room (now the biggest bedroom), the littles to move into Charlotte’s old room and Thomas to move from downstairs into Lillie’s area, which was now a separate bedroom with its own door:

The two new walls and doors
Thomas’ door opens outwards
Off to the left is where Thomas now sleeps in a bed which had to be built from the ground up to fit in. Chest of drawers under the eaves
View from his bed area. A small wardrobe built into the eaves and a wall light which has a pull switch and so can be turned on or off by the door. Off to the right is a small cubby hall under the chimney breast

This rearrangement of bedrooms meant that all five children were now upstairs and the bedroom built into the hallway downstairs was now empty. Our goal was to begin the fostering process. Which we did.

However, God had other ideas as he increased our family of seven to a family of nine, as a couple of friends moved in for a few months whilst one recovered from a major operation. We somehow squeezed the two of them in the small downstairs bedroom. Concerned that they may find the room too small, the house too crowded, the surroundings too messy and the noisy too, well, noisy, we need not have worried. They were wonderful house guests and it was a complete blessing for us to be able to offer them a family home to recuperate in. They left a week before lockdown began, and we sent them off in style:

Abigail cooked a Coq au Vin for us all
We decorated the room Tony and Debs’ style
Tony is the pun king so we stuck many a funny pun around the room
Including a donut one!
We decorated simply and prettily
The children made bits and pieces such as ‘100 things we love about you both’ jar and we bought a couple of presents for their new home
It really was such a blessing to have them stay❤
Pressie opening

In the months before lockdown we watched our children grow, play and work together:

Enjoying a tea and a chat together
Playing and studying whilst Thomas sings a few worship songs in the background
My two artists creating together
Making sew on patches
And gynastic-ing together
Genuinely enjoying being with each other
More creating, but with a different sister
Doing what Lillie does best…
A spot of reading

We watched our puppy and kittens grow bigger and more cuter by the day:

Brothers
A brother from a different mother…
Cuteness
More cuteness
Even more cuteness?
Scaling the walls

We also saw birthdays come and go…

Thomas turned 18
I tried to go mature and manly for the deco
I made a cake and bought some edible pens for everyone to write words of love
I decorated it along the same black and white theme of the table
We gave him our small black car for his 18th and I attempted to replicate that in a handmade black icing car
Thomas reading all his lovely messages
Becca turned nine (although I seem to be missing a chunk of the photos for her birthday…)
She received a balance beam for her gymnastics
As well as a lovely creative art nook area right beside mummy
We had a small gathering at home with Tony and Debs. Tony made three cakes which when popped together made a heart
Achieving her next medal in gymnastics
And lastly, Ads turned 17 for which we did a Hobbit/Lord of the Rings party for him and some friends from school
Apart from the whopping great tree the decorations were kept simple and homemade
With bread, cheese and lamb stew
Wooden bowls and hand made napkins
And a cake I tried to make as close to the one in the film as I could

Tony and Debs left us the week before lockdown, and Ads moved in two days before lockdown. We had made it through the first three parts of the fostering process and now had to make the decision to put it on hold. The fostering agency were very understanding and have kept our details in their system to pick up where we left off once we have a bedroom free again. In July Ads moved in permanently and is now just one of the family.

Both Charlotte and Ads are considered high risk with regards to the Corona virus, so we have literally spent the last six months pretty much in and around the house. Things have somewhat gone back to normal now, but tomorrow I will be posting about those six months in lockdown 😊