Check out Abby Rocks for my latest post! I accidentally posted it on Abby's site.
Merry Christmas - Joy to the World!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Levi Benjamin!

Check this out! This is a video (in a series ...Street Essentials) created by the pastor of the church where we are now ministering. There's a bunch more of these on youtube and you can also check out the link for New Life Church on the side bar. This is a glimpse of where we are at and what we are doing. ENJOY.

Hi there! I know...it's December already! Here's a few things that we've been up to recently.

We had a visit from Flat Stanley.  We took him out and about around our neighborhood.

The street we live on.

A willing bus driver.

The local post box.

Richmond Park ...(Kelli - you would LOVE this place)

Our favorite climbing tree.

Playing 'London buses' with Levi and Aleah

Thanks for visiting, Flat Stanley! Hope you have a safe journey back to Florida!

Have any of you mothers found that there is a certain time almost daily when chaos erupts in your house? Usually in my house it's that hour before dinner - when I'm trying to fix dinner, someone is trying to finish up their homework and needing help - immediately, another one is practicing piano, hunger is setting in along with that comes a bit of grumpiness, and usually there is at least one phone call...at least one!

Then, finally we sit down to eat. With four children this can also mean that there is a bit of competition to be heard as we go around talking about our day. One interrupts, another gets frustrated because they were cut off.    My picky eater is shuffling food around on his plate and has to be reminded again and again that the food has to go on the fork and into the mouth. A bit more conversation ensues. Another reminder to eat the food, and another. Children who are finished waiting to be excused from the table, while one sibling is still thinking about eating.

Needless to say that I was feeling a bit stressed and drained by the time dinner had finished. Knowing that we were having Bible study at our house, I also knew that dishes had to be done, pronto! Bed time routines needed starting, and I hadn't had a chance to read the chapter of the book we were studying yet.
My lovely husband have me a 'time-out'! I was sent to my room to read and have a break.

Aleah instantly piped up with - 'Mummy, I'm going to make you a card while you are upstairs. I'm sorry we've made you tired!'

 When I came down (after fighting off sleep, and reading the chapter) this is what was waiting for me.

 Outside:  It reads...'To Mummy we all love you very much, from Aleah, Daddy, Levi, (Sam and Abby are there somewhere I think)

Inside: Levi, Aleah, Abigail, Sam














Things like this completely wipe away all stress and frustration, and God reminds me how much of a blessing my little ones are.

It's me...again!

Ok, I know a lot of people have just about given up on this blog (mother) - I am asking you to bear with me yet again. The longer I leave putting up a post - for whatever reason- the more there seems to post and then I get blogged bogged down. There is so much that I want to share, especially with those living far away from us!
So here's my summary of what's been going on:

July: My mom's visit came to an end along with the school year.
Glory Hunters Children's Holiday Bible Camp with help from some great people from First Baptist Church Mt Washington, Louisville KY!

We signed a contract to rent a 4 bedroom house in Roehampton and started our next adventure in our journey with Christ.

August: My birthday (30...again I think.)
Family camping trip to The Forest of Dean including 15km bike ride and rain of course!

Contagious Youth Bible Conference - awesome and challenging time studying the life of Christ with approx 180 teenagers!

THE BIG MOVE - moved from our 3 bedroom flat at Twynholm Baptist Church (where we've lived since we were married) to a 4 bedroom Council Estate house in Roehampton.

September: School started again. Abby - Year 8, Sam- Year 6 (last year of primary school), Aleah Year 1...and Levi is at the school of life with Mummy!
We celebrated Abigial's 13th birthday - yikes - I am a mother of a teenager!

We handed over the ministries that we had been doing at Twynholm to teams of great people who God will use to further the ministry there. We had a celebration evening with the people of Twynholm (past & present) in which we felt very loved and blessed.

October: Officially began ministry at New Life Church!
Dean celebrated yet another birthday!
We celebrated our 15th Wedding Anniversary!

I do have pictures to post for some of these events, but they are currently on Dean's laptop and he is busy 'sermonizing' for church tomorrow - so it is a 'no go zone'! Stay tuned and I will have some photos for you within the next few days...I promise!

Happy Birthday, Aleah!

Our little girl turned 5 on Friday!
She was SO excited about her birthday...it had kind of been building up since our little celebration with Grandma on Monday. Aleah woke up around 3am! She was very happy to see balloons, banners and presents waiting. We had to put her back to bed and tell her it wasn't quite time yet...and again at 4am...and again at 5am...by this time Dean went and slept on the couch and Aleah crawled in bed with me...and eventually fell asleep til 7!

Birthday presents on Mommy and Daddy's bed is our tradition, so the others helped her carry her presents to our bed. (Thankfully the coffee maker had done it's job as well and Dean brought the coffee!)

Nanny and Grandad made a surprise early visit during breakfast! Then it was time to get ready for school...birthday badges and all!

Friday night is youth group night in our house so celebrations were then postponed to Saturday - cake and fun @ Richmond Park with family and church friends.

Saturday was RAINY! Thankfully we were able to take shelter in the basement of the church where we were able to enjoy food and fellowship together. We had a great bunch of people come and fun was had by all.

Grandma's last few days with us

Here's a few snapshots of what we've been up to the last few days.
Grandma's visit is drawing to a close (sniff, sniff) and we have really enjoyed having her around.


We (Abby, Mom, and me) went to the theatre to watch WICKED!!!


We managed to take Mom to the lovely village of Marlow. We walked through the park and through the high street and found a nice quite pub to have lunch. The weather cooperated as well and we were able to sit outside.


Free haircuts!!!!


'Mamma Jane' stopped by and showed Mom how to make 'fufu' in the microwave!!!! (We used to eat this in Nigeria - but then you needed yams, a yam pounder, and lots of muscle to make it!)



We celebrated a special girl's birthday a few days early just so Grandma could be there!


Thanks for the watermelon cake, Grandma...it was the bestest cake ever!!!!

Rooftop Garden Update

Here are some recent pictures of our rooftop garden.
Right now we are harvesting raddishes, beetroot, sweat peas, herbs, and various lettuces.




We are watching and waiting as the butternut squash, sweet peppers, baby corn, baby carrots, cucumber, and tomatoes grow.

Grandparents' Tea Party

Aleah's class, and the class below her (Nursery & Reception) held their Grandparents' tea party on Friday.
Aleah was privileged to have 3Grandmothers attend with her! Nanny La-la (her great grandmother),
Nanny (Dean's mum), and Grandma (my mother!)!!! How very special it was to have them all there.




The classes sang some songs around a 'mini-beast' theme. (That's insect/bugs for you USA'rs)




The children then took their grandparents to the craft tables to do some 'mini-beast' themed crafts. Aleah and her Grandmothers make a Ladybird (aka Ladybug for USA).




Then we all enjoyed some lovely tea and cake that had been provided by the mothers.
It was supposed to be held in the nursery garden but due to the rain had to be brought indoors to the school hall.

Rooftop Garden

We've added to our rooftop garden! The 3 youngest wanted to be in charge of some plants of their own so I found 3 unused plastic bins, we bought some soil, and some flowers and off we went.
I also purchased some herbs, baby corn, peas, sweet pepper, and butternut squash - that had already been started. Aleah and I have also planted seeds for baby carrots, beetroot, radishes, and various types of salad.





We did our planting in the kitchen. It was quite windy outside and our roof space doesn't have rails around it.




Aleah was very helpful sweeping up all the misplaced soil.

Dean's Mum has also picked up a few goodies for us from 'car-boot' sales. We now have-

Strawberries - there are now about a dozen strawberies growing!!



and tomatoes!

This is what our garden looks like now...


...yes, we even have a mini scarecrow! It seems to have actually helped the pigeons and the crows from eating our 'goods'!

Busy Weekend

Hi all! Dean and I are off to Wales with a BUNCH of other youth leaders from all over the UK for a training weekend in order to prepare for the summer conference that we help out with. CONTAGIOUS is a fantastic, heavy duty Bible conference for teens (14-18) that will take place in August.(They also have a conference for 11-14's which Abby will attend again this year!) This weekend is going to full of Bible study and prep for the conference. It'll be great to see old friends and meet new people as well.

We could only do this with the help of the great support team we have here by means of family and friends. Our kids are going to be shipped out to various family/friends for the weekend. I know that they will all have a great time and be well looked after. It would still be great to have the rest of our family/friends praying for us as we are apart. We are leaving Friday afternoon and will return Sunday evening.

I do have some other things I want to post next week - so as soon as I can, after all the unpacking etc I will post some of the things we have been up to here at the Dryden house. Stay tuned!!!

Easter

Easter has come and gone. My fridge is filled with chocolate Easter eggs and parts of Easter eggs. Soon we'll be using the chocolate remains for baking - if my family ever tires of eating chocolate.

This year we made gift bags of Resurrection Eggs for all the families in the church. We used 7 eggs to countdown the week before Resurrection Sunday. Each plastic egg had an object or a picture of an object and some scripture to share part of the Easter story from God's Word. My kids really enjoyed opening an egg each evening as we had family devotions and reading about the next part of the Easter story. It really helped to keep things in perspective and hopefully we have a new family tradition.

Because we always get together with Dean's family on Easter Sunday for a meal and a chocolate egg hunt, we do not get our kids chocolate eggs for Easter. Our kids are pretty much guaranteed 3 eggs - which is really more chocolate than they could eat. Dean and I used to get the kids a 'spring-like' gift...kite, skipping rope etc. Last year I started doing my own Easter egg hunt. I made up some coupons/vouchers for things like: 'get out of one chore free', 'meal of your choice-from our kitchen', 'breakfast in bed', '1 glass of diet coke at dinner'....etc.
I also put some pennies and five pence pieces in the eggs for the little ones.
I hide these all over the house and off they go! Last year I made sure that everyone got one of each voucher by colour coding the eggs. This year I only differentiated between the older ones and the younger ones. Solid colour - younger & Multi coloured - older. Once all the eggs were found they could bargain and trade for vouchers that they wanted.


Getting ready to hunt. Aleah is making sure her eyes are open and looking!


Sam thinking about his next move!


Levi making a discovery.


Abby scoping out the kitchen.

City Living

Aleah is my little gardener. She loves a bit of dirt and a spade or two. This is our little make-shift garden...a couple of window boxes.





I'm hoping to get something to actually plant in these window boxes soon. For now, Aleah is happy to just move the dirt around a bit. We have to plan these gardening sessions carefully...Levi has to be asleep because the garden is outside our kitchen window - on the roof of the church.





My clothes dryer broke this week! It's not too bad since Dean has kindly hung a washing line across the roof. I hang laundry and Aleah gets to garden.

I'm back!

I have just been challenged by a friend to keep blogging - it lets our friend and family into our lives. Since we live far from so many of our friends and family I realized that I need to be a bit more intentional about blogging. I am hoping to take up the challenge and be more consistent. Pray for me ...and poke me if I start to slack again.

Here are a few pictures to help sum up the last few months in the Dryden household.

JANUARY - Aleah started Reception (She has to wear a 'proper' school uniform - tie and all)



































FEBRUARY - Samuel's 10th Birthday


























MARCH - Chickenpox Fun
Aleah and Levi both got chicken pox. Aleah was pretty spotty while Levi had a total of 7 spots! We did lots of indoor activities and were happy to have friends that had already gone through chicken pox and were willing to coome over and play with us!