Hello July

Well, I fell off the Marauders' Map there for a while, didn't I?

Clearly I needed some blogging-free time and I have made full use of it, I assure you.  

We are all well here in my little family and life continues apace. 

Much growing has been done by Frank, much crafting and reading of Harry Potter to Frank by myself and much retiring from his main job and poetry gigging by Mr Muffinmoon (aka Fred Slattern, Colchester's Slum Poet).

We have a ten day trip to Denmark under our belts and spent two days of those at Legoland, much to Frank's delight.

I seems, also, that blogger have been busy whilst I was otherwise engagaed and I am struggling to work out what's going on here today!

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I feel it will be impossible to fill all the gaps of what we have been doing in one blog post and so will concentrate on Denmark today.

We are a family with a camper van.  We have no other motor vehicle.  We walk and cycle or we drive our van around.  

Thus, for us, and considering I feel best when I am not in a tin can way up in the air and also when I can pack as much diabetes-related stuff as I wish, we tend to head for the Netherlands or Denmark or France or Germany or indeed stay home in the lovely UK for our trips.

This year, with a Lego fan in our midst who is turning six in a week's time (yikes!), we felt Denmark and Legoland over there was a good plan.

And, boy, was it fun, once we finally got there.   

And thereby hangs a tale:  waking up on the morning of our planned departure on the 5pm ferry I was getting Frank dressed and saw what looked like lots and lots of insect bites all over his back.  To the docs and the practice nurse confirmed chicken pox!!!   

This actually felt like a huge stroke of LUCK to me.  

Yes, really.

Imagine how it might be being already on the ferry or in Denmark and seeing all these spots break out.  The Danish are great at speaking English but I do not want to be fighting my D-Mama corner to doctors that might not understand me clearly.   We all know we are indeed the experts in our own child's care and that most doctors do not have the knowledge that we do.  

We are the specialists and travelling elsewhere can feel very much out of my confort zone should things go wrong.

Frank felt fine but we had no idea how many  more spots might break out and, more importantly, how having Type 1 diabetes might bring complicaitons for him.  So, we cancelled our place on the ferry, sat tight with the door closed and a skull & crossbones on it and waited it out.  

Frank continued fine.  

No more spots broke out and after a few days had passed we rescheduled and hit the ocean, heading north east to Esbjerg from Harwich.  

It is an 18 hour journey and so everyone has a cabin and we even enjoyed the fabulous buffet of smoked fish and fresh salads.  Yum. 

 And once there we camped for five nights, spent two nights in a pirate-themed room at Legoland, a night in a B&B and then came home much refreshed and, for me at least, needing a break from the strong coffee and smoked fish!

A few pictures for you all.  

A taste of Denmark.

 ~ Frank at the Ribe Viking Centre ~ I asked him to look like a "serious Viking" ~

 ~ smiley boys at Legoland ~

~ the best beach we found on the trip ~

~ the fantastic wooden castle and figures at the Ribe Viking Museum ~

~ and, finally, but best of all, the disabled toilets in the Hotel at Legoland ~ crocodiles in wheelchairs ~

Happy Sunday and happy July to you all.

Much love.

pancakes :: snow :: a quilt

In an attempt to record and share more of our days (because they are so immensely fascinating, you understand!) I am going to try to post often in the same way as Heather, whose daily posts have been a wonderful source of beauty and out-breaths recently.
We have taken to having pancakes for breakfast every Sunday and that little routine sees me jumping out of bed before the boys to pad downstairs and mix the batter, so it can sit for a while before we start cooking.
We each have our favourite topping.
Frank goes for agave syrup (although having read about it recently I will be removing it from the pantry soon) and Andrew and I go for lemon juice and maple syrup.
We get two pancakes each (big, thin ones like crepes) from a mix of 4floz oat milk, 1 egg, 4oz spelt flour, pinch salt and 1 tbsp oil.
It leaves us rather wanting a little more but that's no bad thing.

And the table always groans under the weight of Lego. Every meal!

We had snow last night.
About five inches and it drifted so in parts of the garden it was quite high.
Straight after pancakes we headed out, all layered up, to throw snowballs at each other and get thoroughly cold.
Today was the day when I realised I have a hole in my wellies and my feet were very cold very quickly.
My lovely blokes longjohns worked a treat though!

And in the late morning I managed to complete my first ever quilt. Here you can see it on the big bed, although it is for Frank and his little bed next to ours.
The fabric was from the V&A stall at a Knit & Stitch Show two years ago and is all based on fabrics from the V&A archives.
They are beautiful and I am so glad to have been able to keep them together.
You can see in this picture how we sleep.
Frank sleeps directly next to me in a little bed (Andrew cannily took a saw to a regular single bed and made a kind of Frankenstein's monster of a bed!).
Frank didn't used to sleep here, except when he was tiny, but I never rested well with him away from me.
This way we all sleep better and I can check on him frequently because, let's face it, the deep sleep we all used to enjoy pre-kids and especially pre-diabetic kids is AWOL for a while.
It works for us, for now.
He learnt to make snowballs today.
And throw them.
His little snow suit is one brought back from a Finnish flea market by a friend.
We rarely get this much snow but this suit is fabulous when we do.

Tomorrow the Wholefood Kitchen starts for Andrew and I.
Will post more on that in the morning.

Making & Hiding Out (d'you see what I did there?)

tea cosy for my sister for Christmas

Frank making golden bicycle wheels at our little class "Art Makers" at the new gallery in town : firstsite.

my tiny stash of very special material made into a little clutch bag, which I am using for small knitting projects. Note the reality of my crafting and do not for a moment imagine I have a "studio" or anything! Nope I craft right alongside the Lego and the puzzles.

updating the nature table with gnomes and gingham hearts from the Christmas decoration stash

Budd making a fabulous shed in the garden, he has worked really hard all week on this, whilst I have worked hard to keep Frank out of his way

Me, making a golden bicycle wheel, taken by Frank

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It has been busy around here with us making, building, creating ...
I finished the tea cosy for my sister for Christmas and am now making very few things for gifts. I made loads last year and it stressed me too much. Crafting and creating is something I do a fair amount of but I want it to kind of unfold naturally. I don't want to be handing over a gift that is only going to receive a lukewarm reception (it happens A LOT!) after I have sat up late trying to complete it. So this winter it's just a tie for Budd, a cowl for Frank and a couple of other gifts before I just knit for pleasure alone.
And next year I have already declared the year of knitting for ME!
That is going to be fun.
This week Frank and I enjoyed our second art class at the fantastic new gallery in Colchester: firstsite.
And Andrew has been spending the week building a shed in the garden; leaping out of bed once it is light and beavering away until it's dark.
He has done an amazing job.
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And onto the hiding out.
I have kind of been ignoring Diabetes Awareness month and not blogging about diabetes.
I think I have reached one of those phases of burnout and am just going with the flow.
In planing what to say here today I wondered if I should admit this.
A great deal of awe is felt here by me when I read other blogs, especially this month.
My stamina seems to have gone AWOL for November!
And, guess what, I wish it hadn't but I feel absolutely no guilt about it.
If I have learnt anything from this carousel of parenting a child with Type 1 Diabetes it is to trust my feelings and emotions and gut reactions to life and my moods.
I appear to have needed a quiet blogging month.
It certainly isn't all tea cosies and soup over here.
We have too many hypos and some ratios that have needed tweaking.
But the nights have been comfortingly predictable (for the first time in about nine months, I realised the other day! Jinkies! No wonder I look 93!).
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And this much I know:
Even when I lapse in regularity in my blogging.
Even when I am a bit lightweight with my post contents.
Even when I can barely function of an evening.
I feel the energy of all the other D-parents and D-friends out there.
Not in a weird way, just in a supportive way.
And I know that should I need to reach out, even after an absence, everyone is still there.
Just as I am.
Still here. Still there. Still reading.
Still Frank's Mama.

Lovely

I met up with a fellow blogger this week: the lovely Anna of Parallel Lives.
We began reading each others' blogs and e.mailing after she read a comment of mine on another blog and worked out that we live just 20 miles from each other. For a while we were e.mailing and commenting away and then it seemed strange not to meet.
I mean twenty miles! It's so close as to make it almost an insult not to meet.
So, a few days before that start of the 30 Day Vegan I contacted her to say I was going to be in Manningtree to stock up on wholefoods and suggested we meet for lunch.
So, we did. And two days before going Vegan for 30 days I had a yummy lunch of three cheese rigatoni and chocolate hazelnut torte with ice cream!
Oh, my it was good.
But not as good as seeing a familiar face from a familiar blog walk in the door.
After the initial weirdness that surely all bloggers meeting up feel of "I know all about you in so many ways and yet I have no idea who you are" we settled in with our heaps of melted cheese on pasta and began to talk.
And talk.
And talk.
On the drive home I kept thinking of things I had forgotten to ask and hoping I hadn't waffled on too much about Diabetes.
And then just one week later we met again in Frinton for a day on the beach and I met Anna's gorgeous children and fab husband. Frank was immediately taken under the wing of Anna's son, Johnny, and played on the beach with Livvy whilst watching Anna's eldest, Abi, playing in the sea. They were all such easy and engaging company.
What a lovely, lovely family.
And my mind is still spinning with things I want to ask and talk to Anna about.
I have read before about D-parents meeting up and of how lovely it is and this was just the same. We were friends before we met.
And just like I look forward to a friend's next post, I also look forward to seeing Anna and her family again.
Blogging rocks!

Taking a Break

We are having such a lovely summer (yes, not enough sleep, blood sugar mostly behaving but with the usual curve balls lobbed at me every day or so) and I am finding it hard to get to the computer.
Add to this, Frank managing to break my beloved camera by dropping it on the garden path! It now makes a sad kind of squeak when it gets used and takes very fuzzy photos indeed. He has decided that is fine for him and so, in his quest to be a wildlife cameraman, he spends a while each day taking lots of pictures of his orcas and shark toys and then showing them to me at high speed.
I need to get organised and get a new camera. It has surprised me how much I miss taking pictures of our days. And the weather over here is just so lovely, the sky so blue some days that the photos would be fabulous!
It's actually a bit too hot for us and we spend part of each days shade hopping and drinking iced water.
Life is good and I am going to sign out for August to enjoy every moment of it.
I am still reading all my beloved bloggy friend's words and will comment as much as I find time for.
Have a fantabulous August and I will be back at this space on 1st September with a summary of our month.
Love to all!
xxxx


P.S. I am sorry for freaking you all out over my previous post! Perhaps I won't tell you all the story of my Dad playing Hide and Seek with Frank and then just getting distracted by the washing or some such domestic thing and just leaving Frank hiding and not mentioning it to me for far too flipping long ...

Breathe :: A Giveaway

Well, hello there, lovely peeps!

This is my 200th post (and this must be the worst photo ever published on this 'ere blog!).

I have a poster of this print called "BREATHE" (click here for a better view) by the very talented Nikki McClure (click here only once you have hidden your credit card!) to offer to you as a giveaway today.

The one in the photo is framed and hangs on my dining room wall.

The giveaway poster will be sent in a cardboard tube for you to frame, or not, as you wish.

All you have to do is comment.

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I love her work and have a few of her posters framed and placed strategically around the house and in the summer house.

There is something spiritual in the single word, almost a mantra, and one can lose oneself in the details.

Taking a moment to breathe deeply, to connect with the moment, to be here right now, is something often lost to us, be we parents of diabetics or diabetics ourselves (or indeed just humans).

Maybe having this poster will help you do just that.

You have until Sunday evening when the random number generator, aka Frank, will leap into action.

And a final little note:

I am so very grateful for the online support you all offer me.

It keeps me the right side of sane (most days, ahem) and I am always so excited to read your blogs and hear about your gorgeous children.

Long may our support for each other continue.

Off to sniff into my hankie now, after that outpouring of emotion.

So very un-British of me ...

2011 ...

... is a year of plans.

There will be more

• knitting and a mastering (or should that be mistressing) of cables
• sewing (of our own clothes)
• learning new things (crochet for starters)
• planting veggies in the garden and eating them (that means you too, Frankie Boy)
• trips (to the Isle of Mull, the Cotswolds, Finland, the beach (lots) and Dorset are being planned)
• exercise & fresh air
• embracing of the moment
• music in our lives, both live and just around us at home
• art
• locally sourced food on our plates
• blogging and photos
• comments on blogs and yet no guilt if I don't find the time
• sleep ( a girl can dream ...)

There will be less

• screen time
• guilt
• worry about what others think
• fear of the future
• "responsibly sourced Madagascan prawns" on our plates (oh, yes, I fell for this one a month ago and hubby is still laughing at me!)
• time spent with people that don't sustain me or "get it" with regard to the D

Are you planning more or less of anything this year?

Happy 2011 and I look forward to sharing this year with you.

My husband posted this the other day (it's a friend of his) and I wanted to share it with you today, at the beginning of a new year.

It's raw beauty brings me to tears and it feels such a privilege to hear it each and every time.

Wow.

Wow.

This is all I can say.

Just finished breakfast and checking comments on my post from yesterday.

Found this.

"Ilya
Sorry to disappoint you but the way you feed the kid and your perfidious I heart insulin slogan is a premature death sentence. Do some reading if you really care about the kid. I'm pretty darn serious and know your reaction in advance. You are wrong. Insulin kills and this is a fact.
15 December 2010 01:58 "

How helpful.

The Versatile Blogger - c'est moi!

Jen kindly gave me this award, THANKS JEN! I have spent most of my blogging time this evening trying to work out how to add the button to my post. I have only managed to copy the picture. Anyone got time to tell me how on earth to add a button to a blog?

Anyhooo ... onto the conditions of the award.

1. Thank the person who gave you the award.

Jen, my lovely, supportive friend, thank you so much. I wish you lived just around the corner.

2. Share seven things about yourself.

• I was a vegetarian for 22 years until I was about five months pregnant and then remember saying to Andrew, whilst walking around the supermarket, that I needed "roast chicken and NOW". I still eat good quality meat and feel better for it.
• I am majorly clumsy and am always bumping into things and dropping things. I find this funny. Hubby not so much ...
• I speak fluent German.
• Kindness and empathy are hugely important to me both in myself and others.
• I adore Brussels sprouts and once as a student ate a whole pound of them, steamed, with butter and black pepper. Just writing that makes me want to do it again.
• I love to wear big, clumpy shoes. I just can't do heels but at 5'10", I figure I don't have to.
• Music is a source of solace and inspiration to me and it can bring me down if it's the wrong music at the wrong time. If it's the right music I can conquer anything.

3. Pass the award onto twelve bloggers you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic.

OK, here we go, hold onto your knickers:

Amanda at FeltFinland

Hannah at HomeBaked

Mary Beth at Salt and Chocolate

Sarah at Green Clogs

Sarah at Blue Garter

Lise at In the Purple House

Penny at A Sweet Grace

Nicole at Frontier Dreams

Calamity Jane at Apron Strings

Christine at Slow Living Essentials

Reyna at BETA BUDDIES

Andrew at Big Swifty

I admit some of these blogs are not "new" to me but I do rely on these voices to inform and uplift me all the time.

I hope they add some new voices to your days too.