Days with friends

Wednesday was a quiet day at home, with visiting friends, then an evening with Big Alice – lovely to have a chance to catch up with people 🙂

On Thursday Bob worked from home in the morning so he could take the children (and himself) to dental appointments (they’re currently all on 6 monthly whereas mine are generally annual) which meant that I could finally get some of the larger toys out of the workshop, where they’ve been lurking since Tots had to move out of the church hall for refurbishment, and take them to the now new and posh church hall for rehoming 🙂 I also took slings to lend to Anna, who is taking over Tots and clothes for R and E, forgetting that they wouldn’t be there. Toys and slings delivered, clothes brought home again… We were expecting Big Alice back again, but she had a nasty m/w appointment and was left feeling too traumatised to come 🙁 Hopefully things will be sorted by the next one, as changes are underway.
In the afternoon our new minister came round for a cuppa and a chat, just as the children were crafting pumpkins and ghosts for Hallowe’en. Fortunately this didn’t seem to faze him and he fielded lots of interested child chat with good humour 😉 He also accidentally reminded me that I was supposed to be at a church council meeting in the evening by mentioning that he had one… I’d not registered that there was one at all, leave alone that it was an important one (Bob puts them on the church calendar, as he is webmeister, but never remembers to put them on our calendar or to tell me!) so that was a Good Thing. We’re considering redeveloping the church and the meeting was with architects who’ve been looking at possible paths to take.

Friday was another day with friends, although this time an away match 😉 We went to Gina’s to play – a change from our now regular trips there to work – and met up with Susan and K there too, which my K was very happy about 🙂 J was very pleased to see Gina’s J again too, as both being in school (but not the same school) has somewhat limited their opportunities to spend time together, and all the children played nicely while adults chatted, so it was a good day all round, with a few bonus bits of music and art thrown in too. Thanks Gina and Susan 😀

Saturday has not quite gone to plan. J had a trombone lesson, so Bob took him and the others to that, intending to take younger ones to the park while J was in his lesson, but ended up taking them all to the park afterwards instead, so they were later getting on with other things than planned. Meanwhile I went to a warehouse sale, only to find that there was a long queue to get in, so I was later than planned too. This meant that Bob ended up taking all children to Make a Difference day at church, rather than me taking J, so they all made sandwiches, laid tables, put out cakes and prepared tea and coffee, then Bob took A home when I got there (she’s very much a home-body at the moment) while the other three worked as waiting staff, serving afternoon tea to paying customers 🙂 I got to sit and be waited on, which was lovely, but the easy afternoon I had planned was taken somewhat off course when a young man came in, on a strong waft of alcohol, and sat at the table where the minister and I were chatting, clearly in search of help, support, or maybe just somebody to listen to him. We plied him with coffee and listened. We let him hold our hands and tell us about how his awful childhood had affected his adult life, about the many times he had been in prison for things he did whilst running away from life, about the counselling he is just beginning to undergo and how hard it is, but how he hopes it will help him to get out of the cloud he is in. We advised him as best we could, knowing that most of what we said will make no difference at all, given the alcohol-induced fug he was in. We warned him that counselling may make things feel worse for a while rather than better, but that that is part of the process and once you work through that it really will get easier. We tried hard to let him see that God was listening all the times he cried out to Him, but that sometimes prayers aren’t answered directly and sometimes God speaks through other people rather than through instant intervention, miracles or signs. We encouraged him to hold on, to seek help, not to run any more, not to give up. I wish I could have told him to go to AA for support, but he was adamant that drink was not a problem and I no longer have local AA contacts; I don’t know the groups here or what they’re like. If you pray, please pray for him.