Run, run, as fast as you can.

So I've spent this morning watching my gorgeous older daughter run her first half marathon.  It was indeed a lovely if not exhausting day.  I know that most of you wonder at the nonsense that is feeling exhausted from watching others run, but believe you me, whooping and clapping your hands at every 3,000 people passing by at their 10 mile point is just that - exhausting.  Have I said that word too much now?  Obviously when said daughter passed by, looking totally cool, calm and not even slightly exhausted, I whooped and clapped a lot more, but I did feel somewhat responsible to all of the other runners that my place in the day's events was to encourage them on that last 3 miles. As they got slower and slightly more random in shapes and sizes that responsibility increased and by the time the absolute last ones were passing by it was all I could do to stop myself putting them on my back and carrying them to the end, such was my desire to see them finish.  That was until it seemed that all had gone by, the end car had passed, and then I was informed that there was one more on his way, in chain mail, and surely I should wait for him.  'How long behind?' 'Another 20 minutes!'  Forget that - my desire to go and see the gorgeous girl now she'd finished took over.  However as I sit, late at night, writing this I am wondering if 'chain mail man' made it.  Maybe I let him down.

The overwhelming thought in my mind as I watched most of these 'runners' go by was the fact that they were running for someone.  For someone who was ill, who had died, who they loved, and I was filled with this enormous sense of the good that was in people to want to do something, anything, that might help.  I also pondered on the sadness that was behind their choice to compete, to join in, to try.  Amidst all my whooping and cheering I thought of their mums, their dads, their children, their friends for whom tragedy had engulfed their lives in some way.  I wondered who I might want to run for.   Alzheimer's.  Cancer.  SIDS.  Asthma.  To name just a few. Daddy.  Auntie Betty.  Kate.  Matthew. Mary. Charlotte.  George.  Billy. Me.

We're all tinged with sadness.  But for today and many other days in every year, people choose to do something about it.  To raise money, to raise awareness, to raise their own spirits.  And I for one want to whoop and cheer for them because I'm glad they do. 

Today, my daughter ran for the Matt Elvidge Trust, started by the family of a young man who took his own life,  His family and friends chose to make a difference in the lives of many, many, other young people who face depression, often unnoticed, especially men.  I'm proud of them and today, I was proud of her.

Friends who pop in.

Had some wonderful friends staying from Kansas this week and it truly was a blessing to have them with us.  Jim Hester, his daughter Mary Katherine and her friend Gloria were a joy to have around. They were on their way back from a mission trip to Uganda.  We did however miss the remainder of the Hester family, but maybe they might visit another time.   Their stay provided all kinds of fun and laughter, along side deep and meaningful conversations.  I so love having friends come stay in my home, which is a good job because it happens often.  The fun part for us too was having all 5 of us together in our loft bedroom to sleep.  Like a 6 day sleepover.   The girls waking us up at night as they came in at all hours, switching on the lights and wanting to talk and then the little man waking us up in the morning at some ridiculous time, switching on the lights and wanting to talk.  I wouldn't have it any other way.  These times are so precious and I'm guessing will stop eventually when everyone decides to leave home!!!!  But until that glorious day our impressions of Charlie Bucket's family from Charlie and the Chocolate family will continue to be enjoyed.

Lovely too to have Hollie's friend Janel pop by and stay the night.  I'm not sure if I've said but Hollie truly has the most fantastic friends and long may they carry on 'popping' in.

This motto says it all for us.  Live, laugh, love.  The definition of a motto is a sentence, phrase or word which expresses the spirit or purpose of a person, organisation etc.  A family, maybe?  My family.  Our family. 

I think we may just claim it for our own, until we find something else we fancy.

I want, I want, I have.

I have got total blog envy.

I have been discovering lots of wonderful blogs full of vintage this and that, shabby chic, crafty bits, and generally homes that I am trying really hard not to covet.  My favourite one right now has already had her house featured in one magazine and now her latest addition 'summerhouse extordinaire' is in another.  Is it sad that I'm going right to the beginning of her posting in 2007?  It really is like your favourite magazine without the stuff you don't want to read.  Delicious! Trouble is I want to be her friend and I'm so sure we'd get on great but she doesn't even know I exist.  Although I did write some 'sucking up' comment on her last post so actually unless she never checks her own stuff I do exist in her world.  

It's similar to following a celebrity on Twitter - the acceptable face of stalking.  A strange world we live in now  that allows us a nose into other people's lives.  It reminds me of my favourite person ever, my Nana Sarah who used to stand in her kitchen looking out at the people passing by.  Every day, the same people, who all had weird and wonderful names as only my Nana would make up, as she worked out their lives according to her Nana World.  A tiny peep into their life as they went to the shops, or schools, or the park, or work, or whatever, but one that kept this 96 year old lady amused on a daily basis.

But, back to those blogs.  There is a part of me that smugly looks at the photos in them and thinks that my house looks kind of similar and perhaps if I took photos you might enjoy a peep into my cosy, vintage inspired, country feel home.  So maybe I might just do that occasionally.  However I am aware that it really is just my family and a few friends who venture on here and they already know what it all looks like.  Still, I might just clear away the mess that is Kai's toys and put the cushions that he's made into a den on the floor, back onto the sofa and start instagramming in the hope that one day some lovely person will comment on my blog and I will most definitely know that they exist and will view them as my blogging friend!