Mothering Sunday and Diana's Peak

Yesterday was Mothering Sunday on the island, otherwise known as Mother’s Day. Nick didn’t know about this day until Saturday morning, by which time it was too late for him to organize something for the moms for Sunday. I specifically didn’t tell him about the occasion as it would have seemed like I was reminding him to buy me a present, so I just left it. He was none too pleased at not knowing though – it didn’t occur to me that the church moms would lose out! Oh well. We’ll celebrate the May day properly. We went out for a picnic lunch to Prince Andrew’s School, where we found a shady spot among the trees and ate our ham, mayo, cheese and tomato sandwiches with relish, followed by a chocolate for pudding. Then we headed off to Diana’s Peak, as we’ve been wanting to take the boys up for some time now, but the opportunity never seemed to present itself. Nick decided that yesterday was the day for it, being Mother’s Day, and the weather was just right too. It was so lovely to be back in nature, walking along those grassy paths that we haven’t seen since May when my parents were visiting. The boys handled the walk exceptionally well, although we helped them a bit along the dangerously steep or muddy bits. They enjoyed the novelty of being on the highest point in the country. We were all exhausted when we got home! Nick and I were still recovering from Friday night’s late night, so you can imagine that after church last night we were knackered! Church was good, quite full actually, especially since some ladies had come specifically because it was Mother’s Day. Apparently the Mothering Sunday thing started by people going to the “mother church” on a given Sunday instead of their local parish, and it somehow became connected with Mother’s Day. So whether the extra ladies were there hoping to get a chocolate, or because they were following the old tradition, is unknown to me. Nick preached on the presence of Jesus, emphasizing that it’s not just the Holy Spirit who indwells us, but also the Father and the Son. It’s a difficult concept to grasp!

We’re doing Pp this week in school. I’m so amazed that I can tell both boys to write the word “map”, for example, and they both get it right. Aaron has a good understanding of phonics so far, and can easily break a simple little word like ‘tap’ down into its sounds. Caleb continues to improve with his reading. We’re working through The Three Billy Goats Gruff at the moment, a very easy read book, and he’s becoming fairly fluent in his reading in places.