Our Family in July 2019

As you read this post, we will have hopefully have survived our first night camping in the beautiful Yorkshire dales! We are heading there tonight for a mini camping trip with some of our lovely friends from the village. And, after only being home for about a week, it feels exciting to be heading on another trip and adventure together to make memories and have fun! In hindsight this trip was a wonderful idea, but now as we anticipate 4 days of 14 kids and a forecast of thundery showers the entire time (with random floods in some areas of the dales – heaven help us!) – it’s safe to say we could be in for a rough ride (and possibly be put off camping for life)!

With our recent adventures though – A holiday in France (post coming later this week) and a fantastic (albeit rainy) day in York this last weekend, it well and truly feels like summer and I am truly grateful for all of this time we have together…So now, if that heatwave would please return –  we can embrace it even more! As we have sat in the midst of these adventures; soaking it all in and feeling calm and relaxed as we just be as a family. It has highlighted more so the lifestyle we want to create for our little family and how we see our future. I love these moments to be able to set goals and to dream a little – it fills your soul with hope, happiness and a sense of excitement doesn’t it?!

July has well and truly been a great month which I am sad to see go. It has been filled with heartwarming mama moments and it has held some big news for our family too which is great. It has also been mega busy and exhausting, but each moment has been exciting and lovely to be a part of. All of our pictures this month are from France – My favourite is this one from the beautiful palace of Versaille and I also like the one we took in front of the Christus statue outside of one of our churches temples (also in Versaille). It was a wonderful little trip and I am looking forward to sharing more of our pics with you very soon.

So lets start this months update with that piece of news I referred to. If we are friends on FB (congrats) or you follow me on Instagram, then you will have seen a couple of days ago that I let the cat out of the bag and announced that Mr Smith has had a little turn around in his career and will be heading on a new path. After a lot of thought and pondering, we realised he wasn’t happy or progressing in the way he wanted to and has been searching for what to do. He wondered about sidestepping into the private sector, but again this proved to be unsuccessful and he also realised that he was a little bored and wanted to do something more worthwhile.

He then decided a few months ago to apply to teaching – it is something he actually wanted to do in his early 20’s and again about 5 years ago, but he was either talked out of it or it just wasn’t the right thing at that time in life and didn’t work out. But this time it feels like everything has aligned and it does feel and seem to be exactly the right thing – for him and for our family! He not only got accepted onto a PGCE for this September very quickly, but everything has fallen into place easily. One thing I really love about it all is that he also has a new passion and joy about him when he talks about it all and the future. He has had the courage to make a career change and as his wife, it is so lovely to see him now in contrast to what has seemed rather mundane for him. If I am honest I do anticipate It will be a little nuts to go back to student life for 9 months (especially as I am in my final year of my counselling diploma too) but worthwhile things do take work and I see it as a necessary stepping stone to something greater for him and for us all. I can see and am excited for the growth that awaits him, the progress in his education and a new career path that will make use of his character and attributes.

It all feels so right for us now we have it here on the horizon and have discussed what it means. And consequently the future feels exciting. I suppose you have to have the courage sometimes to make a change and I am proud that he has done just that – this career move I am sure will not only bless our family but those he works with too.

Rewinding now to the end of term and it was lovely to be able to go into school and look at what the kids have been learning and doing this last year. I love these moments to see their growth and be wow’d by their skills! And I love how excited they are to show us around their territory. The kids joined all of their friends for a whole school sing a long outside to the parents beforehand – which was so lovely and brilliant. And Ethan performed a trumpet duet with his friend to the parents in the hall (which was so cute). The week before this we had a fabulous piano concert too with his grandma to us and some friends and I realised that his skills are insane and I am so proud of him for how quickly he takes to music!

A week or so before this we had sports day where both kids did exceptionally well and then Megan had her fake wedding at school where she was a bridesmaid along with all of her besties. I think that each one of these events and moments, are those moments people are referring to when they say that we will miss them as they get older. I have loved seeing the kids push themselves and accomplish lots of wonderful things and I am grateful for each one of them in our family.

July also saw Alice turning 3 (you can read more about that here) and it was lovely to celebrate her. Finally July has come to an end on a high when this last weekend we has a fabulous time at the annual village show (where I sang with my choir!!) and the music festival Saturday night. It was our first time going to the festival and it was every bit as brilliant as we imagined. Such a fun night and big community spirit – we can’t wait for next year!

It has been a great month – lots to celebrate and be thankful for, some new adventures awaiting us on the horizon and a lovely holiday together exploring parts of France. I hope August too brings great things – Wish us luck on our camping adventure and lets hope it is as great as we initially hoped and filled with fun, because I so very much want to get into camping. Not only is it fun to do with friends and family, but is a big key to having lots more adventures on a budget!

In July we are grateful for:

*Nathan – for having courage, for working hard and for finding an exciting new path.
*Nathan being accepted onto a PGCE
*Ethan and his mean music skills
*A safe and fun time in France
*Seeing the Eiffel tower and other cool things in Paris
*Brilliant weather for the majority of the month
*Alice and the joy she brings us being in our family
*Living in such a wonderful community
*A fun day in York
*Having things to look forward to and dream about

1 Comment

  1. August 9, 2019 / 9:33 am

    you have shared amazing information and I have read the complete blog thanks for sharing this article.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badge

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Never miss a post - Subscribe to my Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,062 other subscribers.
%d bloggers like this: