My Mum

It's safe to say, like many other teenagers, I take my mum for granted. I get very used to her doing things for me. She makes me cups of tea when she arrives home from a long tiring day of work. She cooks my meals, does my washing and ironing. Mum doesn't just remember her tasks for the day, she remembers all of ours too, she's organised for  all of us!


Unfortunately it's only now that I realise just how selfless my mum is, and always has been.


Many people know that my dad had Multiple Sclerosis. This meant that not only did mum have 3 young children (who became teenagers) to parent, but also a terminally ill husband to care for.
As we got older, more and more of the parenting fell on mum as dad became too ill. I can't imagine how hard this must have been! It is well known that a mum's life is busy and hectic and full of responsibilities, but mum's was even more so.
It undoubtedly would have been a million times easier for mum to let dad be put into a care home, then she could have worked and had more time for herself or something. But out of her immense love for dad and our family she didn't. She didn't do what was easiest for her. Dad stayed at home, with us, until he died in November 2009. I, for one, think that's pretty amazing...


Throughout all of this I know mum has been constantly praying for us, her children. Constantly leading us to Christ. Always loving us, even when we were difficult.


I love my mum, for so many reasons. Her unique laugh (always followed by a snort), her sense of humour, her endless patience, the way her eyes close when she smiles just like mine do, her freckles, her hatred of cut flowers, her rubbish jokes, her amazingly godly example, her selflessness, her love for her children. 


I thank God for blessing me with such a beautiful mum.


In truth, I'm frustrated with this post. It's a bit pants to say the least. I can't fully portray to you how self-sacrificing and loving my mum is, so I'll just leave you with a quote I discovered today.

"A mother…by her planning and industry night and day, by her willfulness of love, by her fidelity, she brings up her children. Do not read to me the campaigns of Caesar and tell me nothing about Napoleon’s wonderful exploits.  For I tell you that, as God and the angels look down upon the silent history of that woman’s administration, and upon those men-building processes which went on in her heart and mind through a score of years;—nothing exterior, no outward development of kingdoms, no empire-building, can compare with what mother has done.  Nothing can compare in beauty, and wonder, and admirableness, and divinity itself, to the silent work in obscure dwellings of faithful women bringing their children to honor and virtue and piety." Henry Ward Beecher

Rejection

A couple of weeks ago I was rejected by Edinburgh university for medicine.
Now, it's no secret that my heart was set on this Scottish uni, despite hating bagpipes, kilts, haggis, the cold winter weather and the scottish accent.


However, I do have an offer for King's College London.
At first, I was pretty gutted about this. London is big and scary and impersonal.
People rush past one another in the street. On the tube everyone keeps to themselves, absorbed in their ipads and kindles, their own thoughts and their own world. It's not very friendly. No one smiles at each other as they pass by. Mcdonalds seem to appear on just about every street corner. The churches are big and crowded, very much unlike my home village church. Not somewhere that really appeals to me. It's different to my small village community, and I'm not a fan of change.


Fortunately, I'm pretty confident this is where God wants me. The more and more I look at London and all the amazing opportunities it will give me as a student, the more excited I get about September. I think it was partly pride that made me so upset. KCL is an amazing med school, in the top 10! But I thought I could do better, despite my initial UCAS application being very half-hearted.


God has really proven to me that He knows best. It sounds silly, but sometimes head knowledge needs a little push to become heart knowledge! It's like that C.S.Lewis quote I've written about, God is sending me to the university that is right for me, and not just the one I thought I wanted to go to. I thought I would hate the prospect of going to London to university, but in just a couple of weeks my mind has changed! Proving its' unreliability and indecisiveness of humans.


Either way, I am now very excited about September. My teachers are appealing Edinburgh's decision, but I think regardless of whether or not they give me an offer after, I'll be jumping quite happily on to the London 2012 bandwagon...

Last week

Last week was a week of many firsts.
For the first time ever I climbed a tree, all to aid my first ever attempt of breaking and entering, all of which was the idea of my friend Kaylee.


Now, this isn't what it sounds like. I am certainly not an aspiring criminal.
Last week I was supposed to be going to Dad's grave, and Kaylee to Katie's. Unfortunately, we didn't realise what time the gates were locked. So, in the freezing cold, wearing a floral print dress, tights and brogues (not an ideal tree climbing outfit), Kaylee gave me a leg up into a tree and onto the cemetery fence. Thankfully we realised BEFORE jumping down on to the other side that there would be absolutely no way of escape and we would've been stuck there until 8am the next morning. An unideal situation, I think we can all agree.


This may seem a strange thing to say, but I love Dad's gravestone. It's pretty standard, black marble, not particularly stand out-ish. On the rare occasion I've been to visit I've been known to walk right past it before realising it's there. It rarely has any (live) flowers in front of it. To anyone else, it's just another stone to mark another person who's died, another person who's missed.
But for me, it declares an incredible truth. To describe Dad's death, my mum had 'went to be with his Lord' inscribed on it. Not 'fell to sleep' or 'passed away', my Dad simply went to be with his Lord.
What a comforting and precious reminder!
As a Christian, I have no need to fear death! That's bold. There's no need to question, 'what comes next'. I know.

Grandparents

I love my grandparents. In fact, I think I'd go so far as to say I have the best grandparents ever!

Today I went to see Nana and Taid (my mum's parents) in Flint.
My Taid tells the best stories ever!
From a young (fat) child I've loved nothing more than cwtching up with him in his chair or sitting on his knee to be told a story.
Granted, most of the stories are utter rubbish (on several occasions Taid has been known to claim to have killed Hitler) but they are always entertaining.
As for Nana, her lemon drizzle cake and apple slices are legendary nationwide (sort of). When she knows we're coming, she stocks up the sweet cupboard and bakes. What a woman!Nana and Taid have taken me and the family on my two favourite ever holidays, both to Disneyland Paris. It was Taid who first coaxed me onto my first ever rollercoaster (with unfulfilled promises of candyfloss if I remember rightly). He even replaced my Mickey Mouse hat that I lost on said rollercoaster. As for Nana, she once saved me from choking to death on a cheesestring.

Unarguably, two amazing OAPs.

My favourite way to spend a Wednesday is with my Nana and Grampa (my dad's parents) in Ruabon watching Downton Abbey. I love their house. As a young child I thought it vaguely resembled a castle. An ideal location for a cheeky game of blockey or hide and seek, it has an innumerable amount of hiding places inside an out, not to mention a great apple tree for climbing!
My Grampa has the best beard ever.He's pretty much famous for it. Always in a trimmed condition, never has it been spotted with a crumb of food in! It was also Grampa who has entertained us for years with games such as Yahtzee, Scrabble and Pass the Pigs - games all renowned for Grampa's utterance of 'shambles' as he would lose yet again, though I'm sure that he'd agree it was simply to boost the confidence of his grandchildren.
Nana is yet another amazing cook, her chocolate chip cookies and welsh cakes are to die for! Whenever I go to their house, Nana makes my favourite Leek and Potato soup (made with leeks and potatoes from Grampa's garden) and we sit down to watch Downton Abbey or do sudokus. Nana and Grampa are both ridiculously talented people. They speak a couple of dead languages, including ancient Greek, which I'm always impressed by!

I've never had a problem that my grandparents can't solve with a cup of tea, a homemade cake and a cuddle. They give the best cuddles. Perhaps there's a mandatory grandparent cuddle class.
It is with my grandparents that I can truly be myself and unleash my inner OAP. From garden centre visits to doing sudoku by the fire, every moment is a joy.

In conclusion, my grandparents are the best, most thoughtful and talented grandparents ever. And I am so fortunate to have been blessed with them.