Enforced Stopping

It's been a while...

We've been really fortunate with the absence of illness recently.  I'm hoping it's a benefit of having had every known bug known to man in the first few years of my parenthood.  Maybe, now we're not so sleep deprived, we don't have to incubate every illness we come across.  That's an encouraging thought.

It couldn't last forever though.  The night before last, I awoke to a vague whimpering sound.  As I came to - it was apparent that Nathan had also recently woken up.  Poor chap had woken up lying in his own vomit.  His main concern was being so cold.

So - saving you any more unpleasant details - the rest of the night was no fun.  Suffice to say - little sleep was had, and much laundry was created.

Nathan's school has a policy that following this sort of bug, you can't go back until you've been vomit free for 48 hours.  All fair enough.  Yesterday Nathan was not too bad, but today he's pretty much back to normal.  He's downstairs playing with some toys as I type.

And actually I'm grateful.  Here I am - having to be at home - doing enforced stopping.  (I'm also grateful that my children are now old enough to at least attempt aiming their vomit into an appropriate receptacle - although I did promise no more unpleasant details...)

Don't get me wrong, I've spent a lot of time doing housework, and other jobs.  However, I've also been building marble runs, playing dominoes, driving cars, being read stories (Nathan very rarely lets anyone read to him at the moment, but he does like an audience for his reading...) and sitting with him on the sofa.  Nathan is a very companionable chap.

So I'm not rushing off to do x, y and z today.  I'm off to chill out with the boy xx

The Questions people ask...

When you enter the 'both children at school' phase of life, people ask you some marvellous questions... 

"What do you do all day?" (Probably the most common - I'm not going to rant - but it's safe to say; I'm not just sat on my rear watching Daytime TV...)

"When are you going back to work?"  Because combining shift work with the school run is just so much fun...

But my personal favourite:

"Are you going to have another baby?"

Seriously?

I have to get over my initial urge to just laugh maniacally.  No, I'm not.  If I was going to do that - I would have done it already; not waited until I had a bit of spare time - and then filled it with morning sickness, more stretch marks and additional sleep deprivation... 

Any of you who have ever read my blog know that I love my children a lot; after all - I talk about them enough.  They are marvellous, brilliant, funny, bright, insightful, *insert additional superlatives here* But I still don't want another one.

One of my good friends is pregnant at the moment with her second baby, and she's really struggling with her pelvis.  I had some pelvic problems; particularly in my second pregnancy; so empathy is not a problem.  Watching her struggle to move around, I can almost feel that pain again.  I know that, even amidst her pain, she is not regretting being pregnant.  I'm glad that I'm a bit more available to help; having kids at school does release you a bit to do other things - even if that is to help others with their babies...

So, dear reader - I am quitting whilst I'm ahead.
And if I ever feel the need to cuddle a baby - I'm sure I'll be able to find one...

Harvest Festivals - the Trilogy

This morning I went to my third and final Harvest Festival of the year.  Once your children get to school, you don't do these things once - oh no...  once is for wimps!

The first of these was Joel's.  Years one and two in school trek off to the local parish church; sing some songs, and listen to a chat from the vicar there.  All good fun.  I particularly enjoyed not having a squirming toddler on my knee.  In years gone by, I have been the parent chasing a wiggly and noisy toddler about whilst everyone else is trying to hear their pride and joy say their one line in the school production.  It was nice to not have to think about taking enough toys / snacks / nappies to get through thirty minutes, plus the always-longer-than-you-think waiting for something to actually happen time.  I also particularly enjoyed the kids singing 'Cauliflowers fluffy'; with additional dance moves.  Marvellous.

The second Harvest Festival was actually a harvest / thanksgiving / 1st birthday service at our church (how's that for multi-tasking?!)  Our congregation have been meeting in the local primary school for a year now.  It was a good chance to celebrate all that has happened over the last year; and to thank God for all He has given us individually and corporately.  We did this through the medium of huge ice-cream Sundaes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, singing, bacon sandwiches and prayers of thanks chalked on the playground. We have learnt a lot over the past year, and look forward to what God has for us in the years to come.  I'm sure God would have us dream big dreams for our future together; after all, as Bill Hybels would say: "The local church is the hope of the world". 

My third and final part of my Harvest Festival trilogy was this morning.  The Nursery and Reception age children aren't traipsed down to the church - they do their celebrating in the school Hall.  They all came in wearing headbands with certain vegetable pictures attached; Nathan was a cabbage...  They told us the story of Oliver's Vegetables; where a small boy searches his Grandad's vegetable patch in the hope of finding some potatoes to make some chips; in the process, he finds lots of other vegetables, which of course turn out to be very tasty...  My favourite part of the proceedings had to be the rousing rendition of 'Big Red Combine-Harvester'.  They were brilliant.

So what have I learnt from my Harvest Trilogy?  Well, I've certainly learnt that it's hard to pick songs that are perky tunes, fun for the kids and that actually thank God for the amazing things he gives us.  What's your favourite harvest song?  My personal favourite is probably 'Blackberries in the Hedges', but no-one around here seems to know that one...

Also, and I know this makes me sound old, but there is always something to be thankful for.  I think whether it's the joy on a child's face as he sings, the fact that you don't have to worry about wiggly toddlers, or something bigger like the sun and the rain that help things grow.  God has given us so many things, and I think it does our perspective and mental health endless good to be grateful.  Life might not always be easy (I know, no surprises there) and I'm not advocating pretending life is all shiny when it isn't; however, I know I'm more likely to be content if I focus on the multiple blessings from my heavenly Father than on the things that bug me, or that I don't have.

Today, try to cultivate (ooh, appropriate gardening term alert... pleasing!) an Attitude of Gratitude.  What are you thankful for?

School runs, 'the wall' and Jimi Hendrix

This Sunday one of my friends from church ran the Berlin Marathon.  I know, crazy chap.  Aaron ran the Marathon, because he wanted to - but also to raise money to support Christians Against Poverty; a marvellous charity helping people out of poverty - but also helping people avoid getting into debt in the first place.  There's still time to sponsor him if you like; just go to his Just Giving page.

I haven't seen Aaron yet since Sunday, so I don't know how it all went.  I was thinking about him this morning, and wondering if he had hit 'the wall'.  The metaphorical wall (after all, I'm hoping he managed not to run into any real ones...) when your legs turn to jelly, and you just feel like you can't go on...

I wondered this, because this morning - Nathan hit 'the wall'...

I kind of expected that this would happen at some point.  The novelty of going to school has worn off now; but it hasn't quite yet been replaced by the stamina required to make it through without tears.  He was properly tired this morning, and sad. 

"Can I stay at home with you, Mummy?"  "The day is too long..."  "Will you come in with me?" *generalised sobs*

He even tried to bargain with me, and ask if I would pick him up at lunch time.  If he can negotiate like that whilst crying and only four - hopefully he'll have the Middle East peace process all sorted by the time he is ten.

I gently cajoled him through the process of getting ready for school.  Breakfasted, dressed, clean(ish) and ready, he sat in the car - still crying - until the radio came on.  Thank heaven for Jimi Hendrix...

After a couple of bars of the opening guitar riff, the tears were forgotten.  Well - at least till we got to school.  Bless him; nothing soothes the pain of school like a bit of awesome guitar. 

He went into school, a bit sad again - but not as sad as he could have been.  I've promised him fish fingers for tea, in honour of his perseverance.  I think I might be cooking favourite teas all week actually.

So - what do you do when you hit the wall?  Just keep running.  That and listening to some Hendrix anyway.

Toxic Strawberries

Before getting down to the point of this blog...  Does anyone think 'The Toxic Strawberries' would be a good band name?  I just wrote it down, and immediately thought it sounded like a rock band.  Ah well, I digress, and before I've even started...  Could be an ominous sign...

Anyway, carry on!...

Yesterday, Nathan and I bought some new strawberry plants, along with a few others, and planted them out in our garden.  We've been attempting to grow our own fruit and vegetables with limited success over the last few years.  Last year we managed lots of potatoes, a heap of green (should have been red) tomatoes which ended up as chutney, a few dodgy looking carrots and parsnips, and three baby corn-on-the-cob...  We did also grow some impressive looking courgette plants, without courgettes on... Oh well, never mind.

My motivation for trying again, was Nathan's appalled reaction to the shop bought strawberries we had recently.  Although Nathan happily eats other strawberry (OK...  jam) based products, he obviously hadn't eaten an actual strawberry for a while; and thus had decided that they were not just unpleasant, but down right dangerous.

Of course, the fact that the rest of the family were happily tucking into the strawberries didn't seem to help.  You would have thought I was trying to make him eat a raw oyster, or some sort of creepy-crawly from a bush-tucker trial.  The strawberries were, in fact, toxic - and no amount of cajoling was going to convince him otherwise.

In the end, I did what a lot of parents do.  I told him he couldn't get down until he'd eaten the strawberry; and in the end he did eat it.  I think, despite all the angst, he did actually like it in the end. 

Thinking back on Strawberry-gate; I am thankful that we have incidents like that relatively rarely now.  Nathan had a very difficult food phase (by phase, I mean year...) after being ill for a month with a bug, and then an ear infection when he was 18 months old...  He hardly ate any normal food for a month, and afterwards, he seemed to have forgotten how.  Out of nowhere, almost all foods had moved from the 'OK' category in his head to the 'probably toxic - avoid at all costs' area.  We spent the next year slowly re-introducing foods, until he was finally eating something resembling a normal diet.  It was a very difficult and stressful time, and I'm so thankful that we are basically over that now.

And so, we will grow our own strawberries.  Water them.  Talk to them.  Give them straw beds to sleep on, etc. etc.  And hope that by the time they are ready to eat, a certain person will have decided they are not toxic after-all...

In the mean time, I might buy some more from the supermarket.  Let the desensitization commence!

Reasons to be Thankful, 1,2,3...

I stumbled across this looking for something else...  It's genius!! :o)

I've always liked Paulo Nutini and his slightly random lyrics and accent - he's a bit difficult to understand at times, but this song is definitely worth the effort...  Particularly when you've got some words on the screen to help you.

It made me think about how often we take for granted the things that we have.  Not many of us spend time being thankful for 'food in my belly and a licence for my telly'...  But I think we would be happier if we were a bit more grateful.  Maybe it would help us to focus more on what we have, rather than the things we haven't got that we'd like...

My kids are an example to me in this.  Each evening when we have tea, we try to remember to thank God for the food He's given us, and for anything else they want to mention.  They often come out with all sorts of random, if slightly mundane things: playing on the computer (Thank you Lord for CBeebies online - you have helped me cook so many meals...), sausage sandwiches (whilst eating something else), playing with friends, favourite toys...  My friend's daughter thanked God for Asda in her prayers recently...

So today, I will mostly be being thankful. 

For funky tunes to dance to, for good friends, for cups of tea, for my fabulous children, for Jesus, for my husband (so often taken for granted, but not today - love you x), for hot meals (those I haven't had to cook, and those I have), for a licence for my telly, for the opportunity to blog, for singing, for all the bits of my body still working as they should, for the people who smile at me when I'm playing the guitar at church, for chocolate, for central heating, for my comfy bed...

Thank you xx