I'm like a proper mum today

You know you're a proper mum when you get up and make bread and pancakes. :) Some laundry is outside and some is in the dryer - due to dubious clouds lurking above.

It's rather satisfying to do something homey rather than tearing about the place like a headless chicken.

Right now my eldest is rolling about on the floor and annoying the cat.



My youngest is writing a book.



I love lazy weekends.

It was our wedding anniversary on Thursday. Ten years together. We went out for a meal yesterday, which was lovely. Just the two of us. It's not often we get to go out as a couple with no kiddiwinks in tow.

Ten years is tin. Hubs got me a can of beans as a present. Ho ho. Only kidding, he didn't really. The meal out was our present and we exchanged cards. I know it sounds a bit cheesy, but I really did marry a lovely wonderful man. {{Hugs to the hubster}}

My Mum and Dad bought us a funny card.



But the joke was on my Mum when she realised that she'd bought us a birthday card and not an anniversary card! LOL

That made me giggle.

Hope you're having a gradely weekend.

A Gradely Prayer - C.A. Clarke 1922

Give us, Lord, a bit o’ sun,
A bit o’ wark, an’ a bit o’ fun.
Give us aw in th’ struggle an’ splutter,
Eaur daily bread – an’ a bit o’ butter.

Give us health, eaur keep to make,
An’ a bit to spare for poor folk’s sake;
Give us sense, for we’re some of us duffers,
An’ a heart to feel for them that suffers.

Give us, too, a bit of a song,
An’ a tale an’ a book to help us along;
An’ give us eaur share o’ sorrow’s lesson
That we may prove heaw grief’s a blessin’.

Give us, Lord, a chance to be
Eaur gradely best, brave, wise, an’ free;
Eaur gradely best for eaursels an’ others,
Till all men larn to live as brothers.

Glamour of a SAHM

Click on the pic

I'm not technically a SAHM...sort of part-time now. But my heart is home full-time. Milehimama's carnival is not just open to SAHMs, so I'm OK.

Anywaaay, this weeks glamorous task: When was that last time you cleaned out your computer keyboard? Today I did just that, and of course there were enough crumbs to feed a small army. You would be amazed at what falls out if you turn it upside down and indeed what is lurking on those keys.

I'll quote this from the BBC News site:

Keyboards 'dirtier than a toilet'

Consumer group Which? said tests at its London offices found equipment carrying bugs that could cause food poisoning.

Out of 33 keyboards swabbed, four were regarded as a potential health hazard and one harboured five times more germs than one of the office's toilet seats.

Microbiologist Dr Peter Wilson said a keyboard was often "a reflection of what is in your nose and in your gut".

During the Which? tests in January this year, a microbiologist deemed one of the office's keyboards to be so dirty he ordered it to be removed, quarantined and cleaned.

It had 150 times the recommended limit for bacteria - five times as filthy as a lavatory seat tested at the same time, the research found.

So, knowing that you might just catch the ebola virus from blogging it's time to clean the keyboard. First, turn keyboard upside down and tap very gently onto a level surface. If you have some ultra-super-dooper expensive keyboard then ignore me, I wouldn't want you damaging some mega-valuable piece of kit. But, if like me, you have a keyboard that's worth about £10 then a gentle tap, or (as the article advises) a shake, over some paper is the best way. Out from the keyboard will drop crumbs, dust, muck and, if you have children, things that look like they should be on a tissue. Yuck, sorry.

Then clean the keyboard with some wipes - the article advises alcohol wipes, but I use antibacterial wipes - they aren't so wet that they'd damage any circuits (or whatever's going on underneath those keys) and they don't clog up the keyboard with fluff.

It's a glamorous job, but someone's got to do it.

Well here I am, it's 9.00 pm and I'm having a brief breather before starting the ironing.

Things deteriorated with Nan and Granddad. A carer came, yesterday, peeled some spuds and then went. "Are you not going to make them some tea?", asked my Dad. Apparently not. Then they had no-one with them over night, even though we were promised someone would come. So my Dad's on the phone for an hour and a half. So Nan fell in the night, because whoever stayed wasn't being vigilant.

So there was a big meeting this morning with the social services and the district nurses. Care will be provided for 4 nights out of 7, which means family will have to stay over. My dad will help with meals but he doesn't feel it is appropriate for him to be taking his mother to the bathroom in the night and any related personal care. I agree, a man shouldn't be caring for a woman's personal needs like that. So that leaves me, my auntie and my mum. My mum is struggling to keep on top of looking after my grandma (her mother - my nan and granddad are my dad's parents). Grandma needs daily care. So that leaves me and my auntie.

Pray for us. Auntie isn't well and I am EXHAUSTED. I am glad to help, I really am. I can't bear to think of my nan and granddad struggling through the night. But I'm not sure how I am going to cope with travelling out after tea (they live about 45 minutes away), leaving hubs with the girls and then returning in the early hours so that hubs can go to work.

I really don't know how this is going to work. But God is in control.

Grammar point: I really am trying to be consistent with capitalisation of nan, granddad, dad and mum, etc. But I know I'm failing miserably. But you love me even so don't you?

Autumn

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns". George Eliot

I love autumn. Love it. The colours are beautiful.

“But I remember more dearly autumn afternoons in bottoms that lay intensely silent under old great trees” CS Lewis

It's wonderful to sit cosily indoors - oh how I wish I had a wood burner (one day, one day) - as the wind and rain howl outside.

“Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree” Emily Bronte

But there are also bright sunny days that highlight the colours in the trees are simply idyllic.

Flickr

Autumn is a time of exploring for children. Today we collected conkers, there weren't many, I think the Squirrels have taken most of them. But there are berries like jewels, the leaves are golden, the bugs are out in force. It's such a fun time for children.



I'm so desperate to find time to get out with the children and hunt for treasures. Here is a great Autumn calendar of fun activities for children from Holy Experience.

Autumn also feels a nostalgic, shadowy time. The bats are out, the mornings are misty, the evenings are foggy. There's a smell of wood smoke in the air and of burning peat on the moors. There is a quietness, a silence. Summer is noisy, autumn is peaceful.

“I saw old Autumn in the misty morn Stand shadowless like silence, listening To Silence” Thomas Hood

It's the time to read a mystery or a magical fantasy like The Children of Green Knowe. I love that book. I'd read it to my eldest right now, but we're in the middle of one of the follow-up books to the Malory Towers series. Chuh!

1954 edition (I think)

Have a happy autumn.


~My pictures on this post are from last October (except for one from creative commons photos on Flickr, see link underneath photo).

Poll

I have a poll in the sidebar about Halloween. I'm fascinated by all the variety of arguments for and against Halloween. There are a variety of different takes on the history of the festival. If you want to post a longer answer then by all means comment on this post.

We don't celebrate Halloween, it's something my mum was against and I've carried that on; my husband's main dislike is children asking strangers for sweets. So we tend to go out somewhere like Blackpool Illuminations or the Lake District for the day.

However, if you want to write about your own viewpoint I won't be writing critical comments* or run you down for celebrating. For this post, I'm simply interested in your thoughts. So vote now (which is anonymous - see sidebar) - or if you want comment on this post.

*Feelings on this subject can run high, so objectivity (i.e. simply state why you believe Halloween to be right/wrong, no personal attacks on the morals of others) and a sweet gentle tone is the key.

Enough with the Gloom and Doom!

Hopefully this will the the last 'woe-is-me' type post and I can write light hearted, inspiring, life-enhancing posts again...ahem [just biggin' myself up there].

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

I had an Upper-G.I. endoscopy (gastroscopy) today. I've had one before, which I hated. I hated it so much - due to the retching and gagging that's involved - that I tried to get out of having another one. So my doctor referred me for a second opinion, who said that I needed a gastroscopy. Herrumph.

So today was The Day. It was the usual trauma, lol. The throat spray to numb my throat made me gag and panic. I'd opted for a sedative because, as I helpfully relayed to the consultant, I am likely to try to do a runner during the procedure because anything down my throat in my mouth makes me panic - and and by the way I don't like needles. I'm a delightful patient, I really am.

So in between trying not to faint as they failed to find a useful vein as blood is running off my hand and then me grabbing hold of the consultant's hands as he tries to get on with the procedure ("Can you get hold of her hands I can't do this whilst she's holding my hands"), they actually managed to somehow get the camera down my throat.

They were a patient medical team and very good (despite all the holes in my hand now).

Anyway, the upshot is I have a hiatus-hernia. I also have to have an ultrasound scan to look at my gall bladder (not sure why). I'm just relieved it's nothing major.

The sedative was amusing though. My Mum said I looked like a zombie.

Floods and landslides

Today has been quite the adventure. I haven't had chance to visit my Nan and Granddad (if you remember I asked for prayers as Nan is ill and Granddad is struggling to cope). So my Mum and Dad were going to visit them today and I went with them because I've been unable to get to them for a couple of weeks.

So we set off. As we enter a local town we are stopped by police, there's been a landslide. So we decide to head over the 'tops'. We hit flood in the valley towns. So we head right up to the top of the moors and wind our way over the tiny roads and finally 2 and a half hours later (it should be a 45 minute drive) arrive at my Nan and Granddad's.

I wouldn't like to be living in these bungalows. Also see this swollen river picture.

Here are a couple of videos of the local rivers:





In the following video you can see the park filling with water as it is a designated flood relief area:



Anyway, my Nan is doing OK. She was cheerful and comfortable. They are getting plenty of help and care. There is lots to do and they need even more help than they are receiving but as a family we're on the case, as it were. I would still appreciate lots of prayer. For my Nan, for her pain and for my Granddad who is worrying about her and he also has a bad foot causing him a lot of discomfort.

Thanks.