Counter Cultural Weekend

So how does a counter cultural family spend a weekend? Here’s what we got up to this weekend.

On Saturday morning, after homework and music practice was done, we went for a walk with Goldie, our Golden Retriever puppy (only just a puppy still - she’s two in April, when I think we count her as grown up) It was a lovely morning, and the kids were full of life, though I was a bit grumpy, being full of cold.

After lunch Charlie had a party to go to, and Dominique went to the pictures with a friend (Charlotte’s Web). Bernie had a lot of music practice and homework to do, and Ant and I worked on a tree house she is building: it is going to be a pirate ship, quite high up in a tree in the garden. I had to fix the first of the major stress bearing beams to the tree at the top of a ladder. If I can master the technology, I’ll post photos as the project progresses (See below!)

In the evening the kids watched part of The Lord of the Rings on DVD before supper. Evening prayers and a bedtime story for the little ones followed. Then bedtime for the big ones. After that I took Goldie for a walk and admired the wonders of the lunar eclipse. And so to bed.

On Sunday we went to Mass early, then had breakfast, and I spent a bit of time with Charlie and Dom talking about Lent, penance etc (we try to have a Sunday Morning Religion spot every week, though it doesn’t always happen).

While I was doing that, the big girls were doing their music practice, and Anna was making a casserole for later and some sandwiches for lunch. We then went for a long walk in the rain and driving wind.

We had a picnic lunch in the lee of a monument at the top of a local hill, with ferocious gales lashing past us. Running down the hill in the rain was most exhilarating. We make sure we all have good wet weather gear for these occasions, so nobody gets too cold or miserable. The kids declared it a great expedition.

We then went to Benediction before returning home for a hot meal. The kids watched a bit more of the Lord of the Rings, while Anna and I went through our diaries for the next few weeks to check everything was going to work. Then prayers and bed for the little ones, and the trickier task of getting Bernie to go to bed at a decent hour. Ant is reading by the fire as I type this.