For your card and gifts - like BBBJ they cheered me up no end. Especially as your parcel arrived the day after Allison's. So this week I have been spoiled with lovely, thoughtful gifts .... and feeling guilty because it simply didn't occur to me to do the same ....
But both sets of gifts have really lifted me this week and as a result I have found myself much better able to cope with Alex's behaviour during the holidays. And because I've relaxed he has too ... so it's all good :) Plus the sleeping medicine is working a treat with him, within one hour of taking it he's out for the count, and I am starting to get my evenings back.
I'm working steadily on Spriteling - had to rip back two rows or so a couple of times as I keep missing YOs by the CDDs - but I'm getting there and it's looking good.
Happy Easter to all - I hope you have lots of chocolate and happy days
Thursday, 21 April 2011
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
Thank you Allison
You are such a star.
This morning I was sitting at the table knitting and feeling mopey, and a parcel arrived with a selection of Body Shop goodies and a skein of gorgeous yarn in purples and blues. And a little note from Allison to say that she had sent a few things to cheer me up - it so worked ...
In the same post was a charity appeal for abandoned animals, and I was feeling so happy that I phoned them up and donated £15 on the spot. I guess that follows the precept - if someone shows you a kindness pass it on ....
I love the yarn so much that I'm going to ball it up tonight and chose a square from the Nicky Epstein book to start my collection of squares for the jacket/shawl that I have decided to make myself with an intention that it will be finished and photographed by beginning October at the latest - just in time for the cold weather.
Oh by the way I got the sock yarn out and it isn't red, it's fuchsia pink with gold sparkles. Still looks fairly spectacular though. I've cast Spriteling on and completed about 15 rows - had a bit of a problem with the 3 in 3 stitch but after discussing it with my sister, I've cracked it now and it seems to be going swimmingly.
Taking the kids to Wingham Wildlife Centre just the other side of Canterbury tomorrow - loads of birds wandering around the park - swans, geese, ducks, hens, peacocks the lot - and the kids can buy bird seed to feed them.
Although I cannot really call Amber a kid anymore. She has just had her first interview of many to join the army - she wants to join the Royal Engineers, and she has had a list of things she has to do, getting fit is one of them. She needs to be able to run 1.5 miles in 13 minutes - so I have promised that I will support her totally and buy anything she needs as long as she promises to work hard at it.
I've dosed Alex with his sleeping medicine but he is still playing his game at the moment - with any luck it should work within 45 minutes and I can go back downstairs and carry on with my shawl.
I have to say thank you again, Allison for your thoughtful gifts, they have lightened my heart greatly. I also want to say thankyou to everyone who has left me comforting and heartening comments - I'm still battling the depression but your friendship has helped so much.
Maybe we ought to do a parcel swap again soon? Too late for Easter but maybe a mid summer parcel, something like that.
This morning I was sitting at the table knitting and feeling mopey, and a parcel arrived with a selection of Body Shop goodies and a skein of gorgeous yarn in purples and blues. And a little note from Allison to say that she had sent a few things to cheer me up - it so worked ...
In the same post was a charity appeal for abandoned animals, and I was feeling so happy that I phoned them up and donated £15 on the spot. I guess that follows the precept - if someone shows you a kindness pass it on ....
I love the yarn so much that I'm going to ball it up tonight and chose a square from the Nicky Epstein book to start my collection of squares for the jacket/shawl that I have decided to make myself with an intention that it will be finished and photographed by beginning October at the latest - just in time for the cold weather.
Oh by the way I got the sock yarn out and it isn't red, it's fuchsia pink with gold sparkles. Still looks fairly spectacular though. I've cast Spriteling on and completed about 15 rows - had a bit of a problem with the 3 in 3 stitch but after discussing it with my sister, I've cracked it now and it seems to be going swimmingly.
Taking the kids to Wingham Wildlife Centre just the other side of Canterbury tomorrow - loads of birds wandering around the park - swans, geese, ducks, hens, peacocks the lot - and the kids can buy bird seed to feed them.
Although I cannot really call Amber a kid anymore. She has just had her first interview of many to join the army - she wants to join the Royal Engineers, and she has had a list of things she has to do, getting fit is one of them. She needs to be able to run 1.5 miles in 13 minutes - so I have promised that I will support her totally and buy anything she needs as long as she promises to work hard at it.
I've dosed Alex with his sleeping medicine but he is still playing his game at the moment - with any luck it should work within 45 minutes and I can go back downstairs and carry on with my shawl.
I have to say thank you again, Allison for your thoughtful gifts, they have lightened my heart greatly. I also want to say thankyou to everyone who has left me comforting and heartening comments - I'm still battling the depression but your friendship has helped so much.
Maybe we ought to do a parcel swap again soon? Too late for Easter but maybe a mid summer parcel, something like that.
Sunday, 17 April 2011
Spriteling
I've taken the plunge and signed up - I've got the first clue but must be short of two or three by now. Has anybody still got them and if so would you mind sending me a copy?
I've just realised that it is sock weight that I need, not lace weight. And I just happen to have a lovely bright red with gold sparkles that threw itself at me from Posh Yarns. Sounds perfect for this I think. :)
I've just realised that it is sock weight that I need, not lace weight. And I just happen to have a lovely bright red with gold sparkles that threw itself at me from Posh Yarns. Sounds perfect for this I think. :)
Thursday, 14 April 2011
Feeling sorry for myself
I'm sitting here typing this with my stomach and guts sounding like a bubbling concerto.
I have been mildly anaemic now for years, and all of a sudden the doctors want to find out what is causing it. So I had to go for an Endosocopy three weeks ago. Camera up the Jaxi type of thing. And it was agony, because they couldn't get the camera to go round into the down section of my large intestine, they kept pumping in more and more air until it was unbelievably painful. So the sadist - sorry surgeon - referred me for a Barium Enema - and that was today.
Of all the most undignified investigations, this has to be the worst. Worse still was that there were two men there but no female chaperone. I had two of those awful hospital gowns, one in front and one behind, but had to keep turning around on the bed as the operator pumped in air and Barium and xrayed me at the same time. It was very uncomfortable and totally undignified. To make matters worse he decided that he needed to give me an injection to stop my bowels from cramping - so he injected me in my left wrist only the first time he didn't get into the vein so he did it again. So now I have a painful bruised and swollen wrist to go with my painful and swollen stomach. And for both investigations I had to starve for two days and take a powerful laxative to 'clear me out'
Sorry for moaning - I suppose I ought to accept these things as necessary to maintain my health, but when you are in the middle of twisting onto your back on a very narrow table with a tube shoved up your bum, it is very difficult to think positively about it. I'm glad they don't video these things :)
Oh well at least that's all over now. I've had the full set - camera down the throat and up the behind, so I don't think there's much more left to investigate :)
I have been mildly anaemic now for years, and all of a sudden the doctors want to find out what is causing it. So I had to go for an Endosocopy three weeks ago. Camera up the Jaxi type of thing. And it was agony, because they couldn't get the camera to go round into the down section of my large intestine, they kept pumping in more and more air until it was unbelievably painful. So the sadist - sorry surgeon - referred me for a Barium Enema - and that was today.
Of all the most undignified investigations, this has to be the worst. Worse still was that there were two men there but no female chaperone. I had two of those awful hospital gowns, one in front and one behind, but had to keep turning around on the bed as the operator pumped in air and Barium and xrayed me at the same time. It was very uncomfortable and totally undignified. To make matters worse he decided that he needed to give me an injection to stop my bowels from cramping - so he injected me in my left wrist only the first time he didn't get into the vein so he did it again. So now I have a painful bruised and swollen wrist to go with my painful and swollen stomach. And for both investigations I had to starve for two days and take a powerful laxative to 'clear me out'
Sorry for moaning - I suppose I ought to accept these things as necessary to maintain my health, but when you are in the middle of twisting onto your back on a very narrow table with a tube shoved up your bum, it is very difficult to think positively about it. I'm glad they don't video these things :)
Oh well at least that's all over now. I've had the full set - camera down the throat and up the behind, so I don't think there's much more left to investigate :)
Thursday, 7 April 2011
And the beat goes on ,,,
Not sure why I chose that title - for some reason the song is running around in my head. I've chased it out several times but it keeps on creeping back in.
I have finally managed to get the specialists looking after Alex, to realise that he has severe sleep problems, and he's been prescribed Melatonin which is apparently a natural substance - secreted by the brain at night, to trigger the sleep reflex. By giving Alex 2mil of this each evening, he drops off to sleep within half an hour of getting it and sleeps through the night.
This is such a change and a relief. Previously he would go to bed at 7pm and spend 2 hours playing, demanding drinks and food, and having to be told repeatedly to go to sleep. He very rarely slept much before 9pm and sometimes would still be awake later. Then he'd wake up once or twice through the night for a drink or he'd had a bad dream.
He's had this for three days now and the difference is incredible. It's also helping his behaviour at school - he's much better behaved now than he has been.
We're getting there ....
I have finally managed to get the specialists looking after Alex, to realise that he has severe sleep problems, and he's been prescribed Melatonin which is apparently a natural substance - secreted by the brain at night, to trigger the sleep reflex. By giving Alex 2mil of this each evening, he drops off to sleep within half an hour of getting it and sleeps through the night.
This is such a change and a relief. Previously he would go to bed at 7pm and spend 2 hours playing, demanding drinks and food, and having to be told repeatedly to go to sleep. He very rarely slept much before 9pm and sometimes would still be awake later. Then he'd wake up once or twice through the night for a drink or he'd had a bad dream.
He's had this for three days now and the difference is incredible. It's also helping his behaviour at school - he's much better behaved now than he has been.
We're getting there ....
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
No brakes !!!!
Time is flying by at warp factor ten and my brakes aren't working - or at least that is what it feels like.
Funny that I should think that leaving work would mean more time to just drift along - so far it's been more exhausting than it was pre-lady of leisure - and boy does that sound like an insult now.
Alex is currently still on a restricted timetable of 1.5 hours per day at school as we still cannot get his behaviour modified. Sometimes he is a little angel and we think we've cracked it and then he blows his top at something silly and we're back to square one again. The school have been brilliant though, to give them their dues. The SENCO there firmly believes that Alex is trainable and that we will eventually succeed in getting him to restrain his frustration and find calmer ways of dealing with his issues of needing everything to run to his agenda.
Currently we have made an application to get him statemented - although I'm not entirely sure what advantage this offers us, if any. But they keep on mentioning special schools and the only one suitable for someone like Alex is an hour and a half drive away. But I guess it's going to take some time before anything is decided and I am worried that he is fast dropping behind in his education. We've tried attempting some education at home but there are too many other distractions and trying to force him to do anything he doesn't want to do just results in him having a massive tantrum and lobbing stuff around.
That sounds like we are not disciplining him enough but believe me we are. He loses his favourite things to do through bad behaviour and he knows that this will happen but it doesn't seem to be enough of a deterrent. I've resorted to smacking his bum rarely and that sends him into his bedroom but he then tells me I've been naughty and he will not accept that he was smacked for his own behaviour - and then I feel guilty !!!!!
Oh doesn't all of this sound self-pitying - sorry folks for that - but if anybody has any good ideas please don't hesitate to share them as I'm fast running out. The specialists make me laugh as they are all firmly against any form of corporal punishment, insisting that it never works and only a firm but gentle remonstrance will do the trick. And how many times have I seen him totally ignore these firm and gentle remonstrances or not even really understand them. Then he goes off and does the same thing again.
I'm knitting him a cat at the moment :) He wanted one to call Harry, but there is no way I'm having a real cat as Alex will probably hug it flat. So he's getting a knitted cat that will take the punishment and not scratch him. :)
There's all sorts of knitted toys lying around or waiting to be worked on. I've so many ideas now I'm going to have to jot them down as I keep forgetting them and then remembering them later on.
I've treated myself to two more of Allison's lovely handpainted yarns - I'm collection all DK so that they will all look good once knitted into blocks and stitched together. I didn't have a colour theme to begin with but it's now morphed into purples - so I'm intending to make me a shawl jacket of knitted blocks in mainly purples with accents coming from the other colours in the varigated handpainted yarns. But as I need a lot of yarn for a garment to fit me, I am going to have to decide which blocks I want, and how many, and then knit them up as I can afford to buy the yarn. But my birthday is on Sunday 27th March - which also happens to be Census Day and the start of British Summer Time - so I'm hoping for donations from various family members to swell the knit fund and let me buy more yummy DK for my jacket.
Having said that, I need a way to add a few more knitting hours to the day as well - I'm working on that one. I'll have to look on ebay to see if I can get a second hand Tardis - one carefulish owner :)
Funny that I should think that leaving work would mean more time to just drift along - so far it's been more exhausting than it was pre-lady of leisure - and boy does that sound like an insult now.
Alex is currently still on a restricted timetable of 1.5 hours per day at school as we still cannot get his behaviour modified. Sometimes he is a little angel and we think we've cracked it and then he blows his top at something silly and we're back to square one again. The school have been brilliant though, to give them their dues. The SENCO there firmly believes that Alex is trainable and that we will eventually succeed in getting him to restrain his frustration and find calmer ways of dealing with his issues of needing everything to run to his agenda.
Currently we have made an application to get him statemented - although I'm not entirely sure what advantage this offers us, if any. But they keep on mentioning special schools and the only one suitable for someone like Alex is an hour and a half drive away. But I guess it's going to take some time before anything is decided and I am worried that he is fast dropping behind in his education. We've tried attempting some education at home but there are too many other distractions and trying to force him to do anything he doesn't want to do just results in him having a massive tantrum and lobbing stuff around.
That sounds like we are not disciplining him enough but believe me we are. He loses his favourite things to do through bad behaviour and he knows that this will happen but it doesn't seem to be enough of a deterrent. I've resorted to smacking his bum rarely and that sends him into his bedroom but he then tells me I've been naughty and he will not accept that he was smacked for his own behaviour - and then I feel guilty !!!!!
Oh doesn't all of this sound self-pitying - sorry folks for that - but if anybody has any good ideas please don't hesitate to share them as I'm fast running out. The specialists make me laugh as they are all firmly against any form of corporal punishment, insisting that it never works and only a firm but gentle remonstrance will do the trick. And how many times have I seen him totally ignore these firm and gentle remonstrances or not even really understand them. Then he goes off and does the same thing again.
I'm knitting him a cat at the moment :) He wanted one to call Harry, but there is no way I'm having a real cat as Alex will probably hug it flat. So he's getting a knitted cat that will take the punishment and not scratch him. :)
There's all sorts of knitted toys lying around or waiting to be worked on. I've so many ideas now I'm going to have to jot them down as I keep forgetting them and then remembering them later on.
I've treated myself to two more of Allison's lovely handpainted yarns - I'm collection all DK so that they will all look good once knitted into blocks and stitched together. I didn't have a colour theme to begin with but it's now morphed into purples - so I'm intending to make me a shawl jacket of knitted blocks in mainly purples with accents coming from the other colours in the varigated handpainted yarns. But as I need a lot of yarn for a garment to fit me, I am going to have to decide which blocks I want, and how many, and then knit them up as I can afford to buy the yarn. But my birthday is on Sunday 27th March - which also happens to be Census Day and the start of British Summer Time - so I'm hoping for donations from various family members to swell the knit fund and let me buy more yummy DK for my jacket.
Having said that, I need a way to add a few more knitting hours to the day as well - I'm working on that one. I'll have to look on ebay to see if I can get a second hand Tardis - one carefulish owner :)
Friday, 25 February 2011
All change !!!
I've taken the massive step of leaving work to look after my son. Aaaarrrggghhh
It's so scary as I have never been in a position where I don't know what's going to happen next. But Alex has been getting steadily worse at school since the beginning of September, to the point now where he is only going for one hour a day as his behaviour is so extreme.
The school have been brilliant - he would have been excluded permanently from any other place. They are starting the statementing process for him but it could take as long as six months to be heard. Only problem with that is that they may well decide that he has to go to a special school - and the only one capable of taking him - because he is extremely intelligent - is about 50 miles away !!!!
The saddest thing about leaving work is that I negotiated special dispensation to go without giving one months notice - as all of my childcare options had run out - and we got the union involved to proof read the agreement and they have faffed around so much that they haven't signed it yet, so I had to go quietly today without being able to say goodbye to my friends.
The biggest plus though, is that I can do so much more knitting - my stash is large enough to keep me going for a very long day.
It's so scary as I have never been in a position where I don't know what's going to happen next. But Alex has been getting steadily worse at school since the beginning of September, to the point now where he is only going for one hour a day as his behaviour is so extreme.
The school have been brilliant - he would have been excluded permanently from any other place. They are starting the statementing process for him but it could take as long as six months to be heard. Only problem with that is that they may well decide that he has to go to a special school - and the only one capable of taking him - because he is extremely intelligent - is about 50 miles away !!!!
The saddest thing about leaving work is that I negotiated special dispensation to go without giving one months notice - as all of my childcare options had run out - and we got the union involved to proof read the agreement and they have faffed around so much that they haven't signed it yet, so I had to go quietly today without being able to say goodbye to my friends.
The biggest plus though, is that I can do so much more knitting - my stash is large enough to keep me going for a very long day.
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