Rainbows and Snowdrops

We have had a lovely week, very mixed weather wise, but fun. I am sure we have alternated between bright, sunny days and overcast, rainy days, might be wrong but that'show it feels. We've managed a walk everyday, which is great, went out for a puddle walk but had disappointed children as there were no good size puddle to jump in. They did find some nice sticks and I mentioned that some of the small puddles might be fairy puddles, cue, no longer disappointed children, imagination came into play and lots of fun had deciding on what the fairies might be called and when they might come out to splash in the puddles. Came home to a beautiful rainbow, realised after getting the photo, we also caught a good reflection of the sitting room light!

On Tuesday we had a lovely walk to the library, we now have a book on Egyptian myths to read, then round to the park and spotted all the snow drops coming up. A local community group over the last couple of years have done a mass planting of snowdrops, daffodils and crocus, they are lovely to see all coming up and makes the area so pretty.

More local news and doing a happy dance, though we try and keep our waste to the minimum recycling is great and from this week onward, we can now recycle yogurt pots, fruit punnets, meat trays and tetra packs, in our kerbside collection, yay!

Last weekend M had her drama exam, she was very nervous about it and relieved when it was all over and done with, said she mucked up one bit but managed to keep going. Fast forward to this weeks lesson, as we were driving over to it, she was saying she was so glad she had done it, even if she didn't get a good mark, she felt really great going in and doing her pieces. Put a big smile on my face, the drama is all about having fun and building her confidence, she's now talking about the next lot of LAMDA exams, wow!

L has spent a little of her Christmas gift money and bought a little lego set, loved the fact she spotted the set, worked out that the label meant it was reduced and what the price is, didn't feel I could say no to her. I have always encouraged the children to look at the prices, how much things cost and when they are older, what works out cheaper, for budgeting purposes and why we buy certain products etc

Apparently on Wednesday it was Storm the husky puppy's birthday, out came the play dough to make birthday cake, candle was a small crayon. Don't ask how many times happy birthday was sung because the puppy kept blowing out the candle too soon, lots of giggles had!

L had been asking what we had used before pens and pencils and I mentioned feather, she found one and wanted to give it a try, she decided she wanted to use it with paint, so didn't get a chance to cut it and use ink but she loved it.

Bread roll making ready for lunch.

L finished her animal sticker book and I had saved the sheets of partially used stickers and being half term had my older minded children for the day and they happily used them and drew scenes to go with them.

Lots of painting

Knitting, back, front and 1 1/2 sleeves made, there is no pressure from L at all, honest. I have been looking at journals, note booking, saw some lovely books but it was done as 3 year diary and a question a day, which isn't me. Then came across the Handbook For Mums from the Thinking Tree, L has a work book journal and enjoys dipping in and out of it, love it, mixture of colouring, books to read, thoughts for the day, films you have read, to do lists, how do you feel etc, plenty of variety, so think I will enjoy it.

The "free gift" with Lets Knit magazine this month is the wool to make this rather cute owl, those that know L, will know her love of birds and in particular owls, so one for her.

Linking up with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On

Magnetic Sand

Having fun with the magnetic sand and geometric solids, sort of linked to ancient Egypt as there is a pyramid, maths and  constructing.

It wasn't long before my older children decided to join L, the magnetic sand is rather fun to play with, it holds it shape well and therefore is great to build with.

Enjoying a game of around the world, L loves maps, so this game is perfect, throw in various extra comments, like take a sled ride go on 3 spaces, to fuel her interest and need to learn more.

New recipe tried this week, sweet potato tangine, I loved it, rest of the family not so keen, will have to try it out on the minded children and see what they make of it but it reheats nicely and freezes well, so I am happy with that.

Finally managed to get a photo of our new visitor, this black cap has been darting in and out the garden so quickly its been hard to id him but perseverance paid of and Friday morning managed to get a non blurry, complete bird photo.

We have a pair of long tailed tits that visit regularly, again not managed a full photo but least you can just make out the two of them.

I came across an article on mistletoe and its benefits to the habitat it is in, that one study showed that if mistletoe is removed from a woodland  then 20% of species richness was lost and a 1/4 of the woodland birds were lost too.

Fun with magnets, there properties, what is magnetic and what is not and making a compass.

Making magnets float.

Homemade compass and had fun disrupting the compass by placing magnets near to the bowl.

Made a huge amount of progress on L's jumper, back and front knitted and started on a sleeve, honestly there is no pressure from L at all to get it finished quickly!!

We are slowly stripping the paper from the hallway and stairs, as an incentive to get it finished we have finally narrowed down the colour selection,  now just seeing what they are like in the different lights. Which this weekend we have overcast, rain, snow and sunshine, so doing well, the snow hasn't settled but this is the 3rd time this week that we have had some flakes of snow,much to the excitement and then disappointment of the children.

Linking up with Nicole at Frontier Dreams

Finished

Well Monday, will start with the positives, O wasn't at college so volunteered to take M to her climbing session as I was at the hospital all day. They had a great time and O was allowed to climb too, might have to take them both again as they had a great time. As for me, I was well enough for the drug challenge, I got some answers to my allergic reaction but not all, will have to go back for more tests later in the year. Looks like I have developed an allergy to local anesthetic, which is going to complicate my life slightly, need more tests to see if I reacted to the steroids. The consultant is going to research to see if there any other types of local anesthetic on the market that I might be ok with but he was pretty sure there isn't. The team I had was lovely, which was good as I was there from 9am to 2pm, they start of with skin prick tests, then intradermal injections, which showed some reaction to steroid but at this stage local anesthetic was negative. So they moved on to injecting some local anesthetic, within a short time, my face felt tight and tingly, then neck itchy, followed shortly by nausea, generally feeling rough, so mega dose of antihistamine given, took a long while for all symptoms to go, slept for hours when I got home and still slept all night, woke Tuesday morning feeling like I hadn't slept at all, more antihistamines needed,  finally felt more human Wednesday evening but it took to the weekend to feel really back to myself, not looking forward to the next round of test! The waiting lists for appointments is 8 to 9 months, so will be a while! Mind you not sure hubby is looking forward to it either, he doesn't do hospitals and was bored stiff, L on the other time told me she had a great time, went for a walk, did some puzzles, drawing, Dad read to her and she listened to stories on her MP3 player, so my sorting out a bag of activities worked well for her, maybe I need to do the same for hubby! So all the children had a great time.

I've had hip back issues since a car accident 20 years ago, had physio at the time and later on saw an osteopath about 14 years ago the osteopath commented that my right hip had a lot of wear on it. The GP at the time dismissed this, I was too young and any pain was down to pregnancy and my job childcare, nothing else. Fast forward to a couple of years ago where a change of GP and hip pain getting worst. I was referred to physio, this time the physio picked up on an impingement and probably laberal tear. I had surgery to repair this and they discovered my hip was a bit a mess and that I had arthritis, bone on bone in the front region and general wear deterioration over the whole joint. So at the moment I am alternating between physio, dry needling/accupuncture and osteopath for management, as the car accident has left me with a bit of kink in my upper spine and now I am slightly of balance due to hip that area is causing some pain too. Throw in the fact I don't tolerate pain relief very well, or now looking at it a lot of modern medicines, I working my through alternatives In the past I have also tried the Alexander technique, taken omega 3, glucosamine etc but they don't seem to help now. Now trialing turmeric and apple cinder vinegar, discovered that the acv has the benefit of a good regular digestive system, so no longer suffering the common side affect of the cocodomol that I take for pain relief, which is a lot nicer and will save me some money too. I am someone that tries to be proactive and hate the times that I can't be, so any other suggestions gratefully received, thank you

On a crafting front, I have finally finished the throw I was making, central panel has tortured and killed my wrists but now its finished and laid it out on my bed to take photos, I was reminded of why I wanted to make it, it was worth it. The outside panels were easy on the wrists but the central panel is a huge amount of cabling.  L has already claimed it as hers.

So knowing I was coming to the end of the throw, I took L into the craft shop last week and left her happily pouring over the knitting pattern folders, while I looked at wool, she choose the pattern and wanted the mint green wool. Have since found out that a friend is expecting a baby girl, so a good excuse for some baby knitting, happy days.

L has been creating more scenes with the rainbow arches, this week they are houses and garages, as she had the railway and road pieces out to go with the.

We've been looking at stonehenge and how they might of transported all the blocks, L has done some drawings will try and get some photos to add to next weeks blog.  Other than that we have finished reading Cherry Tree Farm, L has loved this and has learnt lots about the different animals mentioned. I have taken to reading bedtime stories with a notebook to make notes of any animals she wants to research more. Then once she is settled in bed gives me a chance to search you tube for some nice videos for her to watch. I picked up this book Fairest Of All for M to read, I ended up reading it and rather enjoyed it, it the story of Snow Whites Step Mother, an interesting but light read, main theme is the damage parents can do to their children, the affects the comments they make can have on you throughout your life etc Hoping she will enjoy it as we also have Once Upon A Dream the story of what would of happens if Sleeping Beauty didn't wake up. M and I enjoyed watching Grimm and Once Upon a Time, we enjoy fairy tales and like the twists and turns so these books should suit us. Also reading Finnish Lessons covering the history of the Finnish education system, the changes made and future plans, only a couple of chapters in but so far good and interesting read.

After last month menu planning for the month went so well, decided to carry it on for February, seem to find I put even more effort into deciding on what food and it is saving me a lot of time too, somore time for other things. Lots of chance to bulk cook and freeze. Mondays there is left over meat form the roast and I cook a vegetarian meal, this then means I always have some veggie meals in the freezer as stand by for me etc.