Tiny Talk Tuesday, and the tale of two sofas

I am interrupting the normal blog viewing schedule by posting about some real-life stuff, as opposed to more gorgeous photos of Paris, because that is now a distant dream. More french delights still to come – including dining out, my shopping purchases, and of course more photos than you could through a baguette at.

Tiny Talk Tuesday is a lovely feature by the blogger Not Before 7, but I rarely (never) post anything, because although I think my kids say wonderful/cute/clever things all the time (I may be slightly biased here) but somehow I never can remember the things they say, or remember to write them down.

However, a few weeks ago my son and I were playing the “I love you” game.
“I love you” I say,
“I love your more” he says,
” I love you THIS much” I reply,
“I love you MORE” he responds
….oh, we can go on for hours!

Anyway, finally after much “I love you too”s he finally came up and wrapped his wee arms around me, squeezed me uncomfortably tight and said “I LOVE YOU TOO MUCH”. I hugged him back even tighter, and thought yes, there are times my heart is so full of love for my kids it is like I love them too much. I wanted to capture that moment and treasure it for ever, but I will make do with a blog post, and maybe some day a digital layout (for a change). Here is the little man who has such a big chunk of my heart.

Is it possible to love someone TOO MUCH? It reminded me of God, and His love for me, and how He loved us SO much, that He sacrificed His Son Jesus. (John 3 v16)

On to my weekend round-up.

We had great plans for Saturday. This WAS the plan –

• pack up the two cars, one with our new sofa for the cottage, the other with the children, food and supplies for the beach.
• Drive to the cottage.
• Assemble new sofa.
• Remove old sofa and put in car.
• Tidy cottage and head for the beach to
• Relax and enjoy the beautiful weather
• Return home, with old sofa to donate to church auction.

Did you manage to get all that? Hope you were paying attention!

We got as far as Step 2 without incident and them came unstuck.

This is the sun room at the cottage before we started (old sofa covered in a quilt).

Note the gorgeous weather – perfect for assembling furniture in a sun room/sauna.

The task ahead:

As we unwrapped the new sofa parts we noticed a small but obvious puncture wound on a very prominent part of the sofa – aaarghhh!

We are now 60 miles from the shop we bought it, and now have a dilemma. – Do we return it all? Do we not assemble it, and just take the damaged part back? A phone call to a very helpful and apologetic member of staff at Dekko assured us a replacement part would be available within the week. The sofa comes in a 2 seater or 3 seater/chaise long type option – so we (that would be my husband) managed to assemble the 2 seater almost completely.

We were just reluctant to tighten the end where we would have to un-attach to add the replacement part (are you still with me).

Oh well – half of that step now complete. Now to put the damaged bit and the old sofa in my car.

It had spent the day in the sunshine, and the girls enjoyed a comfy seat, but now it was time to manouvre it into the boot of my car. It was bulky and heavy, but we made it – sort of! It was just too big, and there was no way I could safely drive home with it! So it came back out of the car, and round the back of the cottage and back inside.

So we now have two sofas in a small sun-room. Only one is useable, the other looks lovely, but is not safe to sit on yet!

By this stage everyone was a bit hot and bothered. We made a decision the kids could go to the beach as promised, with my husband. I would stay and tidy up, then relax and read my book. We would rendezvous for fish and chips at our favourite view point near Dunluce Castle for our tea.

After that, things went back to plan, and tea tasted even better with this stunning view.

Sunday was another busy day, and I started it with a walk and my ipod at 8am. It was the Sunday School service in church, and it was the first time all 3 kids took part, as my youngest has recently started. Part of it included a puppet show with some singing camels – which the kids all watched entranced. They puppeteers also told the story of The Big Picnic (the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5000) which was appropriate as the service was followed by our annual church picnic.

The glorious weather was not unfortunately to be found at Delamont Country Park but it was a great afternoon.The playground is excellent, and the miniature train was a huge hit with some of the adults as well as the kids.

So that is me up to date.

Come back soon for more Paris pics, and please visit Not Before 7 for more Tiny Talk Tuesday.