What lurks within?????

Thank you to everyone who has commented, called or emailed to ask about Miles. He is now responding to treatment and is much brighter although he needs to be reviewed by our doctor next week.

I'm pleased that he's no longer in pain and I'm also pleased that come the early hours of the morning I hope to be knocking out zzzzzz's instead of crooning Fields of Gold to a restless babe.

We've had a pleasant day and I am feeling much more human but I'm scared. Hearing of the update on Jade's prognosis I can't help but compare our age and circumstances and feel afraid. I guess I'm not alone in that. I'm sure there will be mothers of young children up and down the country right now thinking 'it could be me'.

I think back to a time some years ago. I remember the waiting, the wondering and worrying. Thinking about the decisions I made then and wondering if they were the right ones. We never truly know what lurks within and in some respects I suspect that's a blessing. I hate to live in fear. It's such a destructive force. But for today I can't help but wonder, 'what if'?

Visitation by the goddess

Cuddling and nursing Miles through the night, (again), last night, I remembered something Vera Scheibner (world renowned homeopath) said at one of her lectures I attended. She said feverish illnesses in children are a blessing, a visitation by the goddess.

I'm tired, weary and and crusty. I want some sleep, I want a wash. I want to feel less like a camel hyde flip flop and more like a human being.

If this is a visitation by a goddess, (and I'm not saying it is), then she has outstayed her welcome. Please leave.

Multi tasking

We've been burning the candle at both ends and it's catching up with us. I have spent most of today snuggled on the sofa with both Hermione and Miles - all decidedly tired, aching and snuffly. Miles took the the prize for being most snuffly. He's like his father, he likes to 'large it up' when he's unwell and even demanded a blanket and hot water bottle.


Miles snoozed and nursed most of the day. In fairness he must be whacked as he never snoozes or nurses during the day now.

Hermione spent much of the day chilling and putting the final touches to her article about food miles for a local community magazine.

Food miles

Some of the food we eat has travelled around the world to reach us. There are some problems with this. The supermarkets say that is alright so that they can get more money but there are problems with it.

One of the problems is that food that has travelled a long way is not as fresh because the travelling takes time. If food is not very fresh it is not as good for your body as if it had just been picked.

Another problem is that aeroplanes, lorries and boats can cause pollution which makes our world less clean. If we ate food from closer to home there would be less pollution.

We look after hens to save having to go and buy eggs. They are very easy to look after. You have to feed them every day, give them water, clean their house, give them fresh bedding and lock them up at night so that foxes don’t get them. If they try to escape and get into danger you have to clip their wings.

We grow vegetables too so that we don’t have to buy as many. Most of our vegetables grow in summer. It is too cold and the days are not long enough to grow a lot in winter.

Growing your own vegetables and keeping your own hens helps you to be healthier and helps to keep the world cleaner. The only problem is hen poo.

I multi tasked - I nursed, cuddled, helped with spelling and punctuation, recounted the Three Billy Goats Gruff lots of times AND crocheted squares for the granny square challenge I've joined. This seemed like a good idea at the time, but being very engrossed in this and that, (particularly trying not to poke nursing child's eye out with crochet hook), I have now realised that the squares are not uniform in size. They are supposed to be six inches square but mine vary from just over five and a half inches to six and a half inches. Drat. Do I start over? I don't know.










I've cancelled our lunch arrangements with two other home ed families tomorrow which I'm disappointed about but I really don't think Miles will be up to socialising. Hopefully another day on the sofa will see us right and raring to go later in the week.

Snow Glow, snow experiments and stuff

Amidst the snow flurries yesterday we heard a strange repeated knocking on our patio doors. It was this little fellow.




We didn't know what it was but a friend who knows a top twitcher has had it identified for us. It's a woodcock! Hermione and Miles decided they didn't really like it because it didn't look like the other birds we see and therefore is scary. This prompted much talk of how 'different' doesn't equate to wrong or scary.


I was awoken at 3.35am today by what sounded almost like riffle fire at the windows. Hail. Big hail. We don't have as much as a lot of the country but it's enough *grin*


'Honest mummy, I wasn't eating the snow....'








Would you believe her?


This prompted a quick experiment to try to demonstrate that all that's white is not clean. We filled a big pan with water, melted it over a low heat and strained it through a clean white handkerchief. 'Take care ' I said, 'Don't hold the pan handle too close to the pan,' at which point I interfered, got hold of the handle much too close to the hot end and had to dash into the garden to plunge my throbbing finger into the snow. Goodness, did it throb!


This is what we found in the snow.






Now I wouldn't fancy eating it having seen this but Hermione was completely undeterred and has continued to have the odd snaffle while out playing. In short I burnt my finger for nothing!



We also did an experiment to illustrate how a mass of water can expand when it changes it's form to a solid. We filled a plastic drinks bottle to the very top and put it in the freezer this morning. By this evening it was frozen solid. The ridges in the bottle were pushed out and in one place it had split.





Tonight we went out in the dark to make a snow glow lamp. It is actually very pretty and effective but has not photographed well at all. Basically we made a hollow mound of snow, decorated it with food colouring and put some candles inside. The light shines through and makes it look really pretty.









Confined to home, engagements cancelled, I've been busy with this and that. I've made some fragrance sachets for the bathroom. I filled them with capoc (not sure how to spell that) with geranium and lemon grass oils on them - something which is zingy fresh but also reputedly balances hormones too.






I also took an old baby sleeping bag which was badly stained and therefore not fit to pass on, and turned it into pyjama bottoms for Miles. I think they're excellent and confess to basking in a very rare 'uber mama moment' until Miles announced, 'I not wearing them mama, they very horrid'. A long conversation followed in which I tried to point out how warm/comfy/funky/practical etc they are - but to no avail. Hmmmph.

Flurries

Despite all the subtle signs of spring - the tiny green shoots, lengthening days and more 'give' in the soil, I think it may be still some way off.

Craig admirably soldiered on in the snow flurries to continue preparing my greenhouse base this morning. He's packed up now and is hogging the fire. The children aren't venturing far from the fire either today and I will soon be joining them.

Hey ho, it could be a whole lot worse. Here are some crazy snow photos my sister sent me from her part of the world.

Sad but not alone

A few people have asked me what I'm doing this weekend and they have all laughed when I've told them I was heading off to the Organic Growers Potato Fayre.


Well, I may be sad but I certainly wasn't alone! The fayre was advertised as being on from 10.00am till 2.00pm but when we arrived at about 11.30 am we were just in time to bag up the very last few spuds.


It was an absolute sell out! The organisers told me that when they opened there were ques outside.


Unfortunately there were no standard main crops left so we will have early and late spuds this year. In some ways this is good though - we'll have earlies when there's not that much else cropping, then no potato crop when everything is in full flow and a second potato crop late in the growing season when everything else is slowing right down.











I'm slightly miffed at not getting to pick and choose but at the same time I think it's a great sign that more and more people are joining the home grown revolution.


Miles and I are going to head up to the attic soon to lay them out for chitting. It's light, not too warm and not too cool up there so they should be fine. I'm just going to put them on newspaper for now and will try to get hold of a couple of large egg trays like you see in greengrocers next week. That will stop them from rolling and breaking the shoots off.

Thankful

I've got loads of stuff to be thankful for today - a wonderful afternoon spent with a friend, really easy conversation and lemon drizzle cake, a beautiful glass pendant which she made especially for me and snuzzly hugs with her baby.



I'm also ever so thankful to this lady Rachael Hertogs.


I approached Rachael to ask for help in introducing the idea of reusable sanitary protection to the ladies within a community organisation I'm involved with. Today I received a sample pad in the post and lots of information to share and distribute.




The pad is great quality and feels good. I'm so pleased she has helped me out in this way as I have no new ones and very much doubt that my well loved stuff would tempt anyone to try something new!


You can find Rachael online at Moon Times. Please go along and have a look if you have a moment. As well as sanitary products there are also fabulous artwork, books, cushions and all kinds. I really like the sound of many of her workshops too but unfortunately it would be a fair way for me to travel.

Even if you're not in the market to buy right now go along, be inspired and tell your friends

All of the photographs in this post belong to Rachael and show just a couple of the things she has to offer. They are not mine.