just another morning here » josiah

Done Gone

Sarah — Tue, 22 May 2012 20:50:29 +0000

I am still slightly overawed every time we attend ‘just a school concert’, and it’s in the Cathedral. It was a brilliant concert – I do have to pinch myself sometimes to remember that they are only primary school aged children – most pieces tonight were really very good and not too painful to listen to at all! The singing was especially remarkable – I love Joe’s music teacher and somehow she manages to get the best out of every group – they all sang beautifully.

Anyway. Steve accompanied Josiah’s solo tonight; I think he was far more nervous than Josiah. I’ve been trying to record this at home while they’ve been practising but Joe wouldn’t let me – he couldn’t stop to tell me off tonight!

God in the small things

Sarah — Sat, 19 May 2012 08:09:27 +0000

This post links with one of the journals that we’re doing in our church life group; finding God in the things we do every day. I have written something there as well and I *was* going to include an iPod with these tracks on in my journal entry, but someone has used my shuffle and now it seems to be lost. Anyway that’s beside the point.

I consider myself so lucky that the regular (not quite daily, but almost!) ‘school run’ that I do is to collect boys from evensong – and if I can make it there in time, I attend the service – I actually love evensong. The ritual, the ceremony, the music, the space, the time for contemplative thought and prayer – it is easy to find God in the words of psalms, anthems, and the readings too.

Anyway. Last night was a mayoral service and Josiah was honoured to be chosen to sing a solo in the first performance of the Magnificat by Jonathan Lee. Definitely a proud parent moment.

Magnificat Sancti Petri Exoniensis by Jonathan Lee by tworedboots

Other clips from the service are here too …

Quel heure est-il?

Sarah — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 08:35:59 +0000

Everyone needs a little half term craft project to work on, yes? (No, honestly, I could have done without it!)

Josiah’s French teacher set them the task of making a clock this half term – and she offered a possibly edible prize for the best one. Madame Stewart is well known for dishing out sweets in return for learning French vocab etc., so this was enough to spur Joe into action. I did help him a little bit, I confess. Well, it was more interesting than my own work!

I’m not sure that Mme Stewart will thank Josiah for it being quite such a BIG clock, but hey ho, she didn’t specify size! Et maintenant, c’est l’heure du petit dejeuner

Holy is his name

Sarah — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 22:56:55 +0000

We were at evensong tonight; I often go on a Thursday and Friday anyway but Steve joined me this evening because Josiah had told us that he had a little solo. Just one line but he sang it beautifully … listen for the running down ‘holy is his name’ at about 1min09s.

Magnificat with little solo by Josiah (mp3)

In other news – I didn’t get shortlisted for a job that I really wanted. Perfectly happy where I am though so no worries really, just marginally disappointing and very annoying to not even get an interview. Kids all fine; Anna went out busking with school/choir tonight and had a nice time, Abbie is planning birthday events despite the fact that she’s had a birthday treat already, Josiah’s just chugging along with choir and school. Steve’s thinking of new ways to make a million, as usual … and Suzie is enjoying having a new catflap to the big wide world outside. She still comes to give me a cuddle every morning though – and hasn’t brought me any special gifts yet thank goodness!

I played the piano for my school’s tree decorating assembly today which was fun as ever, and we went out for a team Christmas meal this evening; I love Christmas, I really do. People think I’m mean for not really doing decorating at home, or presents at home, but I don’t think my children are going to suffer that much, honestly

Out of the ordinary

Sarah — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 21:05:11 +0000

It is exceedingly rare that Josiah will allow me to take a photo of him, but he was obviously very pleased with the trophy he received at ECS Speech Day this evening – awarded for the most promising young musician. There are a string of names we recognise already on the trophy, children who have gone on to be inspiring people with their music – and, apart from that, it was the THIRD BIGGEST trophy of the night! (Obviously the most important thing )
I was hoping to escape having to attend the event, I confess, but actually it was worth it – we are very proud of him and also really grateful that he is part of such a wonderful school. I’m a sucker for being over-emotional at events like that but that is honestly how I feel!

Came home supposedly to plan lessons for tomorrow and have ended up falling asleep in front of the computer. Early morning instead I think …

Wild Tribe

Sarah — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 19:15:53 +0000

Today was Josiah’s 10th birthday party; a little in advance of his actual birthday but practically the only time near to his birthday that we could fit in a party!

He really wanted to go out to the woods, build a den, and sleep in it – but this was a little outside of Steve and my comfort zone! Instead we found this National Trust Wild Tribe event going on which was about as close as we could get, so we booked places for two carfuls of boys!

They had a wonderful time in the woods, once they stopped being over-excited and actually managed to get on with building a den. Their shelter turned out rather well, complete with bracken waterproofing on roof and walls. They managed to get all seven of them plus an extra friend that they made on the day into the den for lunch

After our picnic we went down to the main campfire where a couple of the boys did some firelighting, and the group cooked sausages and then roasted marshmallows. Our gang of boys climbed down to the stream to build dams and bridges … then they came back up to the dens and just played in the woods.

I’m sure they could have played for much longer if we’d let them – but the National Trust rangers were probably tired of us by then! Plus it had started to rain a tiny bit. This is the National Trust blog with a post about last month’s Wild Tribe event … perhaps this one will get written up by them at some point (I dread to think what they’ll write about our gang of exuberant boys!)

Anyway, after that fantastic day, we headed back towards home to Pizza Hut for tea, meeting the girls there so that they could join us for something to eat. The boys were very excitable all the way through the meal which made it marginally stressful but the waiter was very good with them and didn’t seem to mind too much.

We had a little bit of time at home for Joe to open presents/cards, then we stuck Home Alone on the big screen for a chill out before parents arrived to collect the boys. They all said they had a lovely day, and Josiah certainly enjoyed himself, and that’s what counts

That pesky 4th metatarsal

Sarah — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 20:18:37 +0000

Almost a year ago Josiah broke his wrist while playing in a friend’s garden. On Saturday he fell down the stairs and has apparently broken a bone in his foot. Of course we didn’t take him to the hospital straight away, no – we let him do the high wires on Saturday, and run around playing cricket on Sunday before we realised that really it was quite swollen and perhaps his limping was indicative of something actually wrong! Bad parents! I think he must have quite a high pain threshold …

Anyway I’ve let him have an easy day today; he just has his toes strapped together rather than a plastercast of any sort, luckily for him the break was nearer the toes than further up the foot. He insisted on walking round Sainsbury’s with me though, he was getting bored of sitting around!

Annoyingly I may have to re-think my plans for the weekend; we’d been planning to re-visit a cache in a coastal cave that we visited a year ago just after Joe had broken his wrist and he couldn’t climb up to it as a result. He’d asked to go back and do it again – but I think he’d be quite cross if we went there and he still couldn’t climb up to the cave!

New skateboard set

Sarah — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 15:56:40 +0000

Josiah’s been out spending his birthday money. A nice bargain, this set, since it was priced at Â£24.99 but when he got to the till it was reduced to Â£14.99! Bonus

He bought Lego Harry Potter on Wii with the rest of his money, and that’s it until Christmas

RIP Weekend

Sarah — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 20:07:39 +0000

So, this weekend:

We had a final meeting for those going on the Russia trip with the Exeter Children’s Orchestra. Over the past few weeks the magnitude of this undertaking has begun to sink in with me, and I am feeling rather anxious about being ‘in charge’ (not totally, thank goodness, but almost), I am beginning to pray daily that everything goes according to plan and no-one is sick, loses their passport, etc. etc.

The girls and I pootled around town while Josiah sang in the Cathedral on Saturday. We bought Steve a shirt for Father’s Day which amazingly he likes and it fits nicely (at least until I wash it), so that was a result

On Saturday night Josiah had a friend round for his birthday treat. We went up to do a nightcache (named RIP Nightcache) in Taunton. Had dinner en route, which was nice. Of course, being practically midsummer, it didn’t get dark at all until after 10pm so we managed a couple of extra caches before the night cache. The boys enjoyed finding it – Joe had new ‘nightvision’ goggles as a present from his friend – but as nightcaches go it’s not the best one we’ve done, since the trail was very short, only two markers. One of these days we will get round to setting a nightcache ourselves.

Anyway, after that we came home and had a late night viewing of Dr Who before the boys slept the night camped out in the garden. This morning they loafed around playing games which was nice In fact we all loafed around for most of the morning; the children went across to the park, and I cleaned the bathroom and cleaned out the fish, but that was about the extent of our activity.

Later on Josiah went out to sing evensong, and I got a bit of food ready – after evensong was the annual Dec vs Can cricket match and choristers’ party. Annual, though apparently it has been rained off over the past few years. Dec and Can are the names of the two sides that the choir sit on (Decani is the side of the cathedral where the Dean sits, and Cantoris is the side where the Cantor sits. I still get muddled up even after a year and never know which is which), so it’s a competitive game. Apparently Can have won the last few times but today Dec definitely had the victory – both in the boys’ cricket match and the girls’ rounders match. It was a lovely afternoon for it, so we enjoyed sitting out in the sun watching them play and chatting. The girls came too – Abbie went over to watch the rounders and played with a rather gorgeous puppy who was there, while Anna mainly helped look after the toddler belonging to the family cooking the BBQ. So, lots of food afterwards, then home for an early night before Monday morning comes round again, sigh.

Hansel and Gretel

Sarah — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 20:13:47 +0000

We went to see Josiah’s Y4 production at school tonight – a very entertaining musical version of Hansel and Gretel.

Josiah played one of the robbers who tried very unsuccessfully to kidnap Hansel and Gretel for a large ransom, but they were foiled by Gretel who conned them all into tieing one another up instead Great fun all round, good performances from all the Y4s, and we even got a glass of wine into the bargain!