Home is Where the Heart Is

Homeschool::

Why is it that the thought of starting something new can have such a paralysing effect?  For me, it is the worry of failing, so I put it off, let it slide and procrastinate telling myself that I will tackle it, whatever “it” is, tomorrow.

I have really wanted to take my blog in a new direction, but I feel so intrinsically tied to Under an English Sky that I have literally not been able to invest in my new blog. After all, I’ve been blogging in this little spot for 9 years, NINE YEARS! That is a long time of pouring one’s heart and storing memories to just hop on over to a new place.

I feel that my writing voice is well established here and that technically I should be able to transfer that over but…I’ve been frozen, unable to commit. So silly but hey-ho. So, I’m going to keep Under an English Sky for what it’s always been, my little informal meandering, thought spewing, little life sharing space and perhaps develop my website more as a shop for my yarns or some such thing. I’m just not ‘at home’ there.

SAT Exam Venue in Shrewsbury

Okay, enough with the melancholy musings. My youngest daughter wrote her final attempt at the American SAT on Saturday. This is the third time of writing, her second attempt went so, SO much better than the first ‘trial’ run. She improved her score by 100 points! She feels that this latest test date was the best yet, so we shall find out if that is so in about a week.

Fields of Canola litter the English countryside at this time of year. We couldn't resist having a little wander after the exam.

She has SAT Subject tests on the 4^th of June, can I ask you to pray for her? That she will keep her nerve (she does not actually do well with test stress) and that she would be able to answer the questions with recalled knowledge and applied logic? I would so appreciate it if you would remember her (Jessica) in your prayers. 

As is the case when writing the American SAT in the UK, you can end up travelling far and near to various test centres. For this latest test, we were back down to Shrewsbury, such a beautiful part of the world! It’s about a 2-hour drive from where we are in Chester. We left with plenty of time to spare and thank goodness we did!

We got stopped along a country lane for some rather curious pedestrians. The sweetie pies were being moved from one field to another, there were a few that simply stopped halfway across the road to check us out. Our next venue for the SAT Subjects is all the way in York, so that will be a super early start for us.

A Little Housekeeping::

Last week my grandmother and my dear friend got hold of me to say that the strangest thing happened. They both reported getting a blog post from UAES from September 2018! 

I am assuming that anyone who subscribes to my blog must have received it too and I wanted to first of all apologise and secondly just let you know that I have absolutely no idea how or why that happened. I have not been doing any maintenance on my little bloggy home at all. Must be gremlins living in the internet ether wires or something.

Creating::

I've been working on this little robin for TWO years! Honestly...there's that procrastination again. I remembered to take it with me when we took Jess for her SAT exam on Saturday. Because the venue is so far away there is no way to nip home, so this mama went prepared. The school makes their staff room available for waiting parents which is very comfortable indeed.

Trevor (DH) and I nipped off to the garden centre after we saw Jess off with her exam group. We bought some veggie plants because I kind of left it a little late on the seed sowing front and a few packets of seeds that can be sown from this month...which I have done (no procrastination there). 

Once we had been plant shopping it was back to the school to wait until the 4.5-hour exam was done. I got a good deal of stitching done which was bliss! There won't be much stitching getting done this weekend as I have my final law assignment on Wednesday and I'm struggling to focus and get the writing juices flowing.

Faith::

We have found our church home! I cannot tell you how happy this makes me as we never really found that in Devon. I was beginning to despair that we would ever find a church where the teaching was solid and practical and where we were welcomed in as part of the family.

But the Lord had started working on this not long after we moved to Chester. One evening in October, I got a message via messenger from two lovely blog readers inviting me to a table top sale being held in her church hall. To start with...it was so lovely to meet readers in real life that live nearby. We have since met for coffee and we are having our first knit and natter morning in a week or two. Anyhoo...getting off track. 

So it turns out that her husband is the bell tower captain...Victoria's eyes lit up, she loves ringing. It ended up being a good 4 months of trying other churches before I suggested we try this little parish church. That very first Sunday we were welcomed like long lost family, the vicar and his family were just amazing, welcoming, kind and hospitable. "Well you can stop looking", said the vicar, "You have found your home". And you know what, we knew we had.

After 3 years of feeling isolated and without Christian fellowship, I feel I can begin to heal from that time. The preaching is refreshing, and building up. I come away each Sunday with the Word that can be applied to my life. God knew in October where we needed to be even if I didn't, or should I say, when I thought I knew what we needed.

Anyhoo, I've rambled on long enough. I have so much to share with you and I am so happy to be tip-tapping on my keyboard typing out this post. Home is where the heart is and my writing/blogging/memory recording heart is at home right here.

I shall see you back here very soon 😘