Meet Mary - Grace

On Thursday 11th April 2013 I accompanied our daughter Kathryn to hospital and we were shown into this room:

Kind of apt don't you think!

 

 

Taking a sneaky peek at her hospital notes!

 

 

Last bump shot.

 

 

It was a rather tense time to say the least but a few hours later and this precious bundle made an appearance:

 

 

Snug as a bug in a rug.

 

 

" Oh Dear! It can't be that bad surely?!

 

 

Boo time with mummy...

 

 

 

 

Peace at last.

 

 

There was a lot of backwards and forwards travelling between  our house and Kathryn's prior to and after the birth so it has been a very tiring few weeks!  Benedict and Pip love the newest addition to the family:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kath has been a real trooper throughout and breasfeeding is going really well, both of them are complete naturals.  Thankfully she wasn't innundated with visitors and has managed to catch up on some much needed sleep this past week:

 

 

 

One lovely mummy and a totally scrummy grandaughter!

 

 

 

Playing games.

 

 

Before leaving we managed a trip out to a lovely restaurant in town, I think Kath was pleased to escape the same four walls and ...

 

 

... Gracie slept through the whole event!

 

 

We are now back home and I'm slowly catching up on household chores and washing.  I literally cannot remember the last time Benedict and I sat down to do some productive work, it has been a very long time!  It's amazing how sickness and a new baby can mash the best laid plans, still I would not have swapped these past few weeks for all the tea in China!  It was an amazing priviledge to see her being born and to hold her shortly afterwards, it is a moment permanently etched on my memory and in my heart.











Out of the mouths of babes

Pip:  " Sh, mum we are having a hideout"

Me:  " Why is that then?"

Pip:  " 'cos we don't want dad to bath us!"

Me:  " Well you had better go on and hide then!!"

I think it is safe to say that Little Miss PJ is slowly on the mend!

Art :: Easter Preparations :: Sickness

Benedict and Pip enjoyed their art lesson on Friday:

 

 

 

 

Benedict's Shield.

 

 

Sir Philippa.

 

 

On Saturday, Benedict and I made a start on the Easter Gardens.  I've been wanting to make one of these for the past few years but I've always left it too late.  Thanks to my lovely friend Eva, I managed to glean the necessary information and armed with a picture from my pinterest board, we made a start:

 

 



Preparing the base.

 

 

Adding the wheat kernels.

 

 

 

Waiting to germinate ~ we still need to make the three crosses to stand at the back and to hopefully make a quick trip to the beach, for our stone at the front of the tomb.  I'm not sure if there'll be any grasses come Easter Sunday, but since Eastertide spans a whole forty days until Penetecost, I'm hopeful something will appear in that time!

 

 

Dave was extra busy in the workshop last week making this lovely gift for Pip and Ben (made using a side from one of the packing cases used to deliver workshop machinery!):

 

 

 

 

 



His drawing of the Baltic which is an engine he is working on using a CAD design package.  He takes the computer to the coffee shop near Pip's pre-school and works there when she is in her sessions.

 

 

 

They have had enormous fun.  Benedict has invented new designs and Pip has been busy writing her name and other letters.

 

 

 

Dave and I had an interesting date night on Thursday, we braved high winds and a severe weather warning to travel fifty minutes to this place:

 

 

 



 

 

 

Cheerful flower display.

 

 

We went to see this nice guy who effectively told us there was no treatment available, neuro protective drugs are not a big money spinner it seems!  We have yet to receive our bill, gulp!!  On the way home we stopped off at a motorway services and treated ourselves to this:

 

 

 



Two decaff lattes and a chelsea bun for Dave.

 

 

Still Smiling...

 

 

... just!

 

 

 

Pip became unwell late on Friday evening ~ high temperature, headache, flu aching and vomiting.  Homeopathic Belladonna dealt with the temperature and hallucinations and Nux Vomica finally sorted the sickness, late last night.  All we have to deal with now is the  conjuctivitis and loss of appetite!  Despite feeling so unwell she was desperate to make her Easter Garden, so in a five minute spell of being able to sit upright, she made a start:

 

 

 



 

 

 

I also made her a play tray with some of the left over wheat kernels and it provided a suitable distraction for ten minutes:

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So here we are at the beginning of Holy Week, today is a much needed cleaning day, there are a few craft based activities I'm hoping we'll manage during the week  and of course the beautiful services at church.  The sun is currently shining and there are howling winds, a good drying day for sure!

 

 

 

Be Blessed x 

 

 

 

 

 



From Theory To Practise

This past week Benedict has been working on the human body as part of his science topic; he has looked at the internal workings as well as the foodstuffs needed for healthy growth.  He enjoyed designing his own food pyramid containing some of his favourite foods and thankfully it was a well balanced display, all those "lectures" on healthy eating seem to have paid off!

He was so inspired by last week's study that off his own bat, he worked on a menu plan of some of his favourite meals.  He announced that he would be using some of them when Kathryn has her baby, since he has designs on commandeering her kitchen!  I was then able to use this work as a platform for yesterday's study, which was grading the food groups within each recipe and decide was it a really a healthy choice.

Today he answered the following questions:

1. Name two types of nutrients that we eat that can give us energy.

2. Explain why we need to eat foods containing proteins.

3. Give two reasons why it is important to eat some foods containing fat.

4. Give two reasons why it is important not to eat too much fat.

5. We are often told to eat five helpings of fruits and vegetables each day.   Explain why these foods are necessary. 

He then had responsibility for choosing the lunch menu and making any necessary adaptations to ensure it was a healthier choice so:

Chicken, Leek and Asparagus Pie served with Julienne Carrots, followed by  Peanut Butter Booster Bars were on the menu.

The pie recipe called for a flaky pastry which is high in fat, so we traded this for a simple shortcrust using olive oil based margarine; it also recommended a cream based sauce so we used flour and chicken stock to make our tasty base.

The booster bars contained gluten free oats, cornflakes, mixed fruit, honey, sugar, butter and peanut butter.  The sugar and honey content was reduced and we did keep the butter, figuring that only a small amount would be eaten in one sitting!  The recipe made 18 bars, so there is plenty to share in the next day or so.

Without further ado her is the (young)man of the moment:

Chopping.

 

 

 

 

Ready for the pan.

 

 

 

 

Pie Filling.

 

 

 

Rolling.

 

 

 

 

Waiting for the topping.

 

 

 

 

Mixing the booster bar mix.

 

 

 

 

Smiley Pie!

 

 

 

 

Waiting for the oven.

 

 

 

 

"Quit snapping Mum, I'm hungry!"

 

 

WELL DONE BENEDICT, LOVE MUM XX

 

 



St Patrick

With a bit of last minute organising, we actually managed to celebrate this feast day, my Nanna would have been proud since it is through her that I own my Irish heritage.


We read from this book and with what can only be described as providence, I was able to cobble together these napkins:

May your thoughts be as glad as the shamrocks,

May your heart be as light as a song,

May each day bring you happy hours

that stay with you all year the long.

 

 

We ate lamb stew with crusty herb dumplings and colcannon and no St Paddy's day would be complete without a glass of the brown stuff!

 

 



Table set and waiting.

 

 

 

Lamb Stew and Colcannon.

 

 

 

Good Ol' Guinness!

 

 

 

 

 

Catching Up

It is 1am and it is raining and I'm currently on insulin pump suspension duty.  Benedict has had yet another awful hypo and despite treating him with apple juice, his blood sugars are still dangerously low.  Makes a change from them running dangerously high which they have done the past two mornings, cue sick bowl and ketone test monitor!  In fact since my last post, I've been lucky if I've had three full nights of sleep!  Never a dull moment round here!

Thanks be to God and homeopathic medicine, I think I am at last turning a corner in my own health.  The flu symptoms lingered longer than I would have liked, but hardly surprising since sleep has eluded me these past few weeks!  First it was Pip with the norovirus and then Benedict got sick and since then the diabetes has been totally whacky.

The middle of the night duties have afforded me plenty of quiet reading and pondering time and this has been a much needed balm fro my soul.  I'm currently reading this book:

 

 

I filched the picture from amazon but the quality is not great, so just to clarify the book is titled "Landmarks, an ignatian journey" by Margaret Silf.  I've read up to chapter two and it is essentially a modern day interpretation of the spiritual exercises as laid down by St Ignatius.  I ordered this book from the library late last week and  it is interesting to learn that our new Holy Father is a Jesuit and so he'll be more than familiar with this type of personal prayer journey! 

 

 

The learning zone has been very quiet these past few weeks; I have had not the wit, enthusiasm or energy to undertake such a task, so Benedict kept himself amused with reading and more reading.  Trying to find books that would interest and challenge him is becoming increasingly difficult.  Some of the material on the library shelves even I would not wish to read!  Our choices for this week are as follows:

 

The Machine Gunners ~ Robert Westall

The Kingdom By The Sea ~ Robert Westall

The Mystery Of The Spiteful Letters ~ Enid Blyton

Boudica, The Secrets Of The Druids ~ Caroline Corby

Sparrow, The True Story of Joan of Arc ~ Michael Morpurgo

Twist of Gold ~ Michael Morpurgo

Not Bad For A Bad Lad ~ Michael Morpurgo

 

Benedict has already finished the Machine Gunners, which as the title suggests  is based on the conflicts of the Second World War.  At first glance the book seemed reasonably "harmless" but there was quite a disturbing account of the main character finding a dead pilot in the woods, interestingly enough however I think this part of the story "went over Benedict's head" and he did not realise the full ramifications of what he had read.  So there's a lesson for me here and that is to either use the books as a read aloud platform or for me to read them first and vet accordingly.

 

We actually managed a trip to see Kathryn on Thursday, she was looking well and cooked a lovely lunch for us all.  "Midge" is also doing well but the little tinker is lying in a very awkward breach position and so a c-section is on the cards.  We should know within the next week or so, the date for delivery.

 

Pip continues to enjoy her time at pre-school and forest school.  She has made some lovely friends and enjoys contributing to all aspects of learning wether it be in group discussions, free playtime or problem solving. On Tuesdays and Fridays, Pip is only there until lunchtime so Dave takes his computer work and sits in the local tea rooms!  I think he enjoys the peace and quiet ... oh and also the cake!

 

Well, I'm off to make a warming cup of tea, so I'll leave you with some random pictures of these past few weeks:

 

 

Painting the inside of the daffodills for St David's Day.  We had potato and leek soup and Welsh Cakes for tea that day.

 

 

 

 



Benedict's God Father came for supper and the two of them had fun playing with jigsaw book.

 

 

 

We have found a lovely art teacher, who visits on a Friday after lunch.  She is a friend of Kamila, who is our friend in the Czech Republic.  Erika is Slovac and is an accomplished textile and mixed media artist.

 

 

 

Working on the planning stage of his shield design.

 

 

 

A spotty shield for Pip!

 

 

 

A coconut and lime cake for Mother's Day lovingly hancrafted by Benedict.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kathryn bought me this perfume and a miniature size bottle of beauty balm and hand cream.  Sara and Pip were absolute stars and cleaned the whole of the top floor and tidied the downstairs.  I also spent the afternoon with my friend Debbie, knitting and chatting.  She bought me a bunch of daffodills and we all enjoyed eating the cake and drinking tea.

 

 

 

 

My quiet place!  Yes it is the greenhouse!  Despite the temperatures barely hovering above freezing I was cozy and snug with my hot water bottle and blanket.  My intention was to pray and I did but I also benefited from a much needed "cat-nap"  Our now deceased cat Holly was not daft, she could often be found snoozing in between the pots and plants.

 

 

 

  

Spectopularly Sick

Well last year we had the February blahs and this year the whole month has been consumed by sickness!  Weird viruses, chronic abdominal pain and gastritis (me) and to wave the month goodbye and good riddance, Pip has been really unwell with a horrific gastric bug, probably The Norovirus and me flu!

The washing machine and drier have worked double duty and Pip looks very thin, she hasn't eaten since Friday and has only just managed to keep down sips of water. I always know when she is very poorly because not only does she not move from her bed, but she has asked several times for a "boo feed" despite it being a year since her last nursing and "want a back carry."  Typically Benedict's diabetes has also been running haywire and I'm back to losing sleep on pump suspensions and middle of the night hypos.

Here's hoping March will bring much needed and welcomed changes.

Monday Almanac

Listening ~  To the wind howling outside and quiet in the house!  The children are elsewhere and I am  appreciating these moments of uninterrupted peace!


Reading ~  I'm on the second reading of "In Celebration of Simplicity, the joy of living lightly" by Penelope Wilcock.  You can read how I came to acquire this book  here

Memorising ~ I am assured that God works for the good in all circumstances.


Cooking ~ a really easy tea of baked potato wedges and an assortment of ready cooked meals from the freezer.


Learning ~ We've had an  interesting week in the learning zone:

Benedict ~   I've seen a big improvement in his attitude to number work and on several occasions I have been able to leave him with a set of questions and he's just got on with them.

We listened to episode four of 'A Christmas Carol' entitled Mr Fezziwig. There were five questions pertaining to character analyses and the concept of greed as outlined in this particular part of the book. Benedict and I both agreed that it would be best to tackle one question each day and this has worked well for us.

We've also been listening to Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons' and Benedict of his own choosing listens to "The Jazz Suit" by Shostakovich! He also finished his 'Flight into Egypt' picture and the results are pretty good.

I found some really good resources regarding our Anglo Saxon unit study and so on Thursday afternoon, we took a virtual trip around the British Museum! They have an extensive collection of Anglo Saxon artefacts.

During my trip into town last week, I managed to pick up a second hand copy of "The Chamber of Secrets" and that book was read within twenty four hours! I've also made good use of our online library catalogue and have been able to order a selection of Enid Blyton stories.

Sara has been using a power point soft ware known as Prezi. Thanks to her teaching skills, Benedict was able to put together a presentation on "Swallows and Amazons." He was really animated and enthusiastic about this new found skill and I can see that, this form of media will prove invaluable as time goes on.



Pip ~ As always she has had great fun at pre-school and forest school and here is the excerpt from the weekly newsletter:

• For our Scottish theme we listened to lots of vocal and instrumental music. We tried Scottish dancing and followed some children's interests by putting on a little show at the end of the week. We baked bannocks which was a fantastic recipe for the children to make independently and they all loved eating them for snack. Here's the recipe if you would like to try at home - the measurements are for one portion and can be made in a small bowl:

half cup of porridge oats
quarter cup of plain flour
quarter cup of butter
hot water to combine
Mix dry ingredients together, add butter and rub with fingertips to mix, use a spoon to stir in enough hot water until mixture is combined. Put on a floured surface and shape into whatever shape you would like. Cook at 200 degrees for about 10 minutes.

We also shared photos of one Dad who has completed all of the Scottish Munroes - amazing! We looked at photos taken in different seasons, we were observant about the clothing clues to decide what time of year it might be. We talked about different equipment for climbing mountains and saw photos with ice axes and ropes. Thank you so much for sharing.
We read poems from the Katie Morag books and tried out Scottish dialect from another book, we made flags and talked about where Scotland is.
We ended the week with our own version of the highland games where we tossed the caber, did some curling and had a scotch egg race! The children were all awarded medals - yippee!

• We learnt a new circle game called, 'Doggy, where's your bone?' which was great fun and fantastic for personal, social and emotional development. There will be another new cricle game next week.
• Following children's interests we had a dance class area equipped with mirrors, dressing up, CD player and mats. The children made posters to advertise for a teacher and were soon very independent in working the CD player and making up dances - we ended with their show that they had planned: sword dancing, polka and galloping! Fantastic! We also followed up last week's interest in cake shops with a role play cake shop, currant bun production and singing and began the process of making salt dough cakes - more next week. There was den building and lots of imaginative talk as well as 3D junk modelling to support imaginative play - the cake shop was selling out of cakes that were being bought and taken into the den.
• Letters and sounds - we consolidated the first group 'satipn' with the children adding the last few sounds to their books. We played games, sang the action songs for each sound and used flashcards to recall the sounds.
• For maths we introduced a new counting song and a big bowl of giant pasta. Different types of number lines are now all around pre-school to support mathematical development during play. With the pasta game the number lines were used for one-to-one correspondance, numeral recognition and to aid problem solving using the language of addition and subtraction such as more, less, too many, how many more etc. We also introduced labels into the snack area, with a variety of numerals, shapes and number language such as 'lots'. If you are interested in knowing more about developing mathematical awareness at home please come and have a chat.
• Forest school was a mixed bag. On Wednesday, due to high winds we didn't venture into the woods. We talked to the children about the strong gusts of wind and why it might not be safe to be in the woods and then we went on a walk to feel the wind, listen to it, look for signs of the wind and also have a good run around in it! We did some digging on the allotments and used the compost bin to tidy up. We used secateurs to snip the willow and tidy it up a little. We sheltered from a rain shower in the willow den and enjoyed hot chocolate. We found some eggs under a rock that we thought might belong to a snail.

On Friday we listened to beautiful bird song on our walk and tried to imitate the call of a coal tit. We found primroses and snowdrops in flower. We took crayon rubbings of bark and stone comparing texture and colours. We followed up on our theme of trees by looking at erosion that has exposed tree roots and feeling them and their curves. We went to find some trees that had been cut down and looked and felt the rings. Later we found a letter left by Blub Blub the alien (visitor the previous week) - the children were excited to be given a plan to make a giant 3D tree on the ground (a symbol that could be seen from high up). There was great team work to make this artwork with a trunk, roots, branches and twigs. We looked at photos of woodland animals and placed them where they live on the tree and even talked about food chains with the children commenting on the mouse not wanting to live near the fox. Finally we had a surprise visit from Blub Blub's friend, Goo Goo! She had seen the big tree on the ground and come to learn from the children all about trees and animals that use them. Fantastic sharing of knowledge and understanding from the children.

Phew ... I must remember not to panic when reading this!   No seriously, the staff at pre-school are an amazing bunch of enthusiastic gals but they are tied to OFSTED inspections and mercifully I am not!


Planning ~ to take each day as it comes and not stress about the small stuff!


Pondering ~ 'Bloom where you are planted.'  Those words are our home school motto for this year. They are a reminder to me to keep my eyes on my own work and accept the circumstances in which I find myself on a daily basis.

As a result of a flare up in my health, I've had to re-evaluate how we do things around here. In so doing I have also had to accept that I'm not failing the kids if I do not have our days or week worked out in advance; that rhythm and routine although worthy are just not feasible for us as a family. There have been at least two occasions this past week where I have been working the late shift monitoring Benedict, finally crawling into bed at 2am, so it is unreasonable of me to accept that I should then be up and doing five hours later! This has been a hard lesson for me to learn.

I am however mindful of the fact that come September Pip will be home a lot more than she is now and that she is definitely a 'let's get things done' kid, so with this in mind I'm already working on a small list of activities that incorporate both my good and bad days.

Thankful ~  For medication, acupuncture and knitting therapy, I'd be a mess without them for sure!

Captured ~ Pip and I  had some fun on Friday with an easy to do craft and science activity:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vinegar, food colouring and glitter.

 

 

 

Adding the bicarb wrapped in a small square of tissue.

 

 

Watching and Waiting.

 

 

Understanding.

 

 

Excitement.

 

 

 

Fun!