Sometimes, I expect much too often, we take for granted the most incredible and simple things.
Rebekah's story has pulled me up by my boot laces and made me look at the things I take for granted, even daring to be annoyed by some of them. With 6 children there is inevitably noise, mess, frustration and an incredible shortage of patience.
Today we went to the beach, it was a beautiful beach and one we haven't visited before. We parked and walked across the road and saw a huge expanse of sand and sea. FABULOUS!! This was a great place to be and I was immediately grateful to be there, especially with 3 little boys and a husband who ( despite being raised in Southern California..or perhaps because of it) isn't very keen on the beach day out.
Here we were and the icing on the cake was that we were going to meeting up with a crowd of other very nice bank holidaying people with lots of other children and a picnic. More fabulous. Aha, not very sure where on this huge expance of beach we were meeting, not to worry, we would just walk and look and see them, wouldn't we? It all started off so beautifully and we joined in the crawling through the desert games and the oh what fun to run the opposite way games, we cheered at the walking on walls and jumping off walls and getting back up on the bloody walls so we could jump off them again to crawl through more sodding desert ( am I writing about the waterless sandy places or pudding? Those spellings always catch me out!) It took us about 45 minutes to walk about 30 steps ( actually we walked about 589 steps because kids under 8 are physically unable to walk in a straight line, in one direction for more than 4 paces,) it is beyond annoying when the fun wears off for parents that the fun NEVER wears off for kids and with 3, 5 and under..well you can picture it.
Anyway, we never did meet up with the others until we were walking back to the car ( isn't that always the way?) but it hadn't mattered because when we actually DID find a great place to sit we had fun, piles of it, my heart took pictures and so did my old digital camera that I love.





And we drove home happy and tired and gritty, we ate ice-cream and dribbled it all over the car seats and no-one cared.
I am grateful today for the smallest things, the things that others would sell their soul for and today I appreciated one particular thing that I have always taken for granted and barely given a thought to.
This week I had an eye test and was told that I have the beginnings of a disease called Retinitis pigmentosa. My sister has it and it runs in families, no-one else has it apart from her and now me. Her sight is very poor and she is 16 years younger than me, she never mentions the fact that she can barely see, she falls over everything because she can't see to the side of her and she can't see anything on the floor so she walks into furniture, trips over anthing by her feet and she never, ever complains.
I've known for a few days that I have this and , honestly I don't seem to be worried as I have learned that life throws crap and you deal with it, it's not fun dealing with it and I hold my hands up and say that I am not one to sing hymns and praise the Lord when a new and terrifying thing lands in my lap but I can say that I deal well. I do what needs doing and I am aware that I am not alone while I do what I do.
I think, maybe the news sank in today, because there was so much to see. I am so grateful that I saw everything I saw, that cheeky goofy grin on Eli's face when he was playing peek a boo. The laugh on H's face when he was catching waves with Seth, the enormous eyes on stalks in Isaac's face when he saw a procession of loud motorbikes ( "oh me LUFF moteybites") I've always loved to soak in a good view.....noise is something I have trouble with, so bizarre then that it's my sight that could go. Ironic isn't it?
So....today I remembered to enjoy the small stuff...and guess what, I did.