52 Weeks of Gratitude catch up!

Weeks 19-22 (whoops)

The last few weeks have been manic and I’m so behind on this challenge. We have just got back from The Big Church Day Out in Sussex. The BCDO is a festival bringing together 25,000 people to enjoy live music and worship. Every year it gets bigger and bigger and has a great festival vibe with camping, several stages, food vans, camp fire, activities for kids and so much more. We have been for a few years now and have usually been involved with working in some way. Over the last few weeks I’m supposed to have written about how I am grateful for health, a friend, summer and then this week, something I use everyday so here goes.

The BCDO site is absolutely huge. There is so much going on and I’d say it probably takes 20 minutes to walk from the main stage up to some of the other areas. This weekend I was grateful for my health and fitness and being able to walk and carry our rather chunky 6 month old who hates her buggy from one side of the site to the other many times each day.

One of the reasons I love going to BCDO is there are always so many people I know from all over the place. This weekend I had the pleasure of spending some time with my lovely friend Beki. We went to uni together and now live 3-4 hours apart. Beki is a wonderful human. She is probably the reason I survived uni. She has taught me so much over the years and I am incredibly grateful for her friendship and was very grateful to get to spend time with her this weekend.

When I arrived at BCDO is was absolutely pouring with rain. To say I was stressed was a bit of an under statement. I had just been stuck in traffic for 2 hours and Zara was well overdue a feed. I got out of the car, tried to get Zara into the buggy screaming, changed my mind and decided to feed her in the car, left the buggy out in the pouring rain, fed her, got her back into the buggy, grabbed her changing bag and made my way across the car park with her still screaming (she hates the buggy). Luckily my lovely friends Dom and Katie (more friends to be grateful for) came to my rescue and held the umbrella over me as I got angry Zara into her sling (she then immediately turned into very happy Zara) and then pushed the buggy for me. Summer??? Within an hour the sun had come out and I was worrying about Zara getting sun burnt. I love summer so much and love a good summer festival feeling. This weekend I was so grateful for sitting in the sunshine watching bands, eating ice cream, wearing shorts and smelling sun cream.

This weekend I used a sling I borrowed from the yet another lovely friend, Lizzie. I’m in between slings at the mo and am just getting used to a ring sling so needed something I could easily get Zara in and out of and something very supportive. A sling is something I use pretty much every day. For some reason Zara has a real aversion to being in the buggy. She will just about put up with it briefly if she is sitting up and can see out but if it’s raining or really sunny and you put the hood up she is not happy. Who can blame her? I guess riding in a sling right next to your mum where you can see everything that is going on is far preferable. Anyway, slings are becoming more and more part of our daily routine and this weekend I could not have functioned without one and was so grateful that we had one with us. Zara spent most of the weekend riding in the sling and she loved it!

That felt like a bit of a rambling post but there we go. A great bank holiday weekend and lots to be grateful for.