March 17th 2015 - Depression

March 17th 2015 - Depression

Firstly Happy St Patrick's Day to everyone who is Irish, or Irish Decent or just celebrating.  Have a great day. I had hoped for today to be able to do something linked to St Patrick's Day, but this wasn't the case.

Today I had an appointment at the hospital with 1 of the counselling team about my depression and how they can help me to try and get up from the low place I am in at the moment.  I had spoken to the lady on the phone a few weeks ago but today was my first face to face appointment.  It went ok, the lady is nice (which is a good thing).  We went over the things that are making me feel depressed and why I think they are affecting me and we talked about the depression circle similar to this pin, we filled out a sheet about me in each box.

The lady has set me some "homework" for our next appointment in 2weeks time.  I need to fill out a few sheets of "what I do" and "what I did before but don't do now" and have a booklet to have a read through, plus I need to work out some "Goals" of what I would like to get from the sessions and how we can achieve them.

She did say that normally 1 of things that would be suggested for people with depression is to get out of the house for at least half hour a day and go for walk somewhere, but as I am still struggling with walking linked to my knee injury and the surgery I had on it last year that's not really an option as I end up in pain after walking.  I agree sitting at home within 4 walls probably isn't helping my mood but I am limited on what I can do.  (Don't get me wrong I like my walls, they are decorated lovely - a deep purple on most of them with a white and purple wallpaper of roses on my chimney).

So once the kids are in bed I plan to work on some of it to see what I can come up with.  I also need to get into the doctors to sort a medication review as I don't think my meds are doing much - the pain killers for knee are not easing that much and the anti-depressants that are meant to help me sleep aren't doing that as I am still awake at 1-2 in the morning most mornings despite going to bed at about 10pm!

March 16th 2015 - Vegetable markers

March 16th 2015 - Vegetable markers

With lil man trying to grow his own vegetables he needs to have markers of some sort so we can tell what he has growing (hopefully) where.

I didn't think that the plastic ones you write on would be very good with high winds and cats, so I looed on pinterest for ideas and found these vegetable markers made from stones with the image draw/painted on them and then varnished - much more sturdy.  So I set about making him some, so far we have carrots, potatoes and sweetcorn markers made (see below) and I need to make garlic, raspberries and blueberries.  These are not all in his big planter but in smaller pots as well.

March 15th 2015 - Happy Mother's day

March 15th 2015 - Happy Mother's day

Happy Mother's day to all the Mum's around, and a big Happy Mother's day to my Mummy who sadly isn't here in person anymore but is in my heart and thought about all the time.  I found a similar pic to this one (but didn't like the look of it so made my own.)

 

I would also like to say thank you to my 3 boys for my lovely cards:

And my gifts that they got me:

This morning would have been great had I not been woken up by my eldest being sick and yelling down the stairs that he had been!  Still love him though.  I know i'm not perfect but I try to do my best for all 3 of you.  You are my world and I love you all.

Hubby is cooking us all a lovely roast beef dinner as we couldn't afford to go out for a meal.  As my eldest was sick and didn't want dinner we took his plate full round to the neighbour as she is on her own for a few days as her hubby is away.  I hope she enjoyed it as much as I did.

March 14th 2015 - 3 more books from list

March 14th 2015 - 2 more books from list

Back on 9th January I made a post about the 2015 reading challenge.  This morning I have added 3 more books to the list of completed books, giving me a total now of 6/50 read.  I have read more than this so far this year but not all have been on the challenge list.

The 3 that I read this morning are Bulgy from Thomas the Tank from the category of "non-human characters" and Monster stories for under fives from the category of "book with a number in title" and the 3rd book was the dinosaur that pooped a lot from the category "funny".  All of these were read to my lil man, who like his Mum loves books and reading.  He's happy cos some of his on his shelf he can actually read on his own now.

We try and read at least 1 book or story a day, usually at bedtime, but occasionally like today, he will come down with a book and ask if we can read it.  The 3rd of today's he came back from town with as he went and used he book day token.

As its a dry day and the sun is shining I think I'm going to go out and do some of the garden, and I know lil man wants to plant his carrot seeds in his planter.

March 13th 2015 - Red Nose Day

March 13th 2015 - Red Nose Day

Today is Friday 13th!  The second of these this year.  Some people are very suspicious about this day and believe it to be bad luck - I don't!  Bad luck can happen any day of the week/month/year not just a set day.  Today is also Red Nose Day.

My eldest sons school was just non-uniform and pay £1, but the younger two (infants and juniors) had to wear something red and pay £1, they also bought noses for £1 earlier in the week - they both got the diver.

This red clothes wasn't an easy task - I have boys they don't tend to wear red clothes!!!  Well lil man said he would wear his red England top and trackies ok thats him sorted.  Middle son hadn't got anything in his wardrobe neither had the eldest.  So I raided the boxes on top of the wardrobe of clothes that are too big or summery etc, I found a red vest top and shorts (bit too cold for these) and a red top that middle son got for taking part in some event the school organised last year - that will do him.  I did think of removing the xmas decorations that I stitched to a red jumper but thought I would only have to re-do them for xmas so didn't bother.

Lil man managed to rip his red nose in half before breakfast so he didn't actually have it for school, nor for his friends birthday party this evening which is circus themed and he is going as a clown.  He has his blue onesie that has green and blue stars on it, and the wig  I made for him to go with it.  I will add a pic of him before he goes to the party.

March 12th 2015 - Stretching shoes

March 12th 2015 - Stretching shoes

Last week I bought a pair of shoes off ebay because I need a low heeled pair to go with my St John Ambulance uniform for our enrollment/presentation evening in a few weeks and couldn't find any in town that I liked or were comfy.

These shoes were listed as a size 7, which is good as that is what I am in most shoes.  However when they arrived they have a great big 6 on the sole, which isn't so good.  I did contemplate complaining to the seller  but for the sake of £3.79 (including postage) I didn't think it was worth it and would could me more than that to send them back.  I have tried them on and they are a bit on the tight side across the top of my foot and against my big toes.

Then I remembered that I had pinned this random pin about stretching shoes by wearing loads of socks and using a hair dryer - I can do that as have socks and a hair dryer.  So I started off with 1 pair of socks on and a couple of mins under the hair dryer, removed them and tried shoes on without socks, they were still a bit tight.  So we went for a 2nd pair of socks.  Although this did feel that they were stretching slightly after a total of mins the sole of one of the shoes had come unstuck.

So I can safely say that stretching shoes with extra socks and a hair dyrer doesn't work.  This is a pinterest fail.  And I now have a pair of shoes that are still tight and have had to glue the sole back onto them and need find another pair asap.

March 11th 2015 - Family Learning at school - William Wordsworth

March 11th 2015 - Family Learning at school - William Wordsworth

Today at the family learning at the school we had 2 ladies in from Dove Cottage - the home of William Wordsworth.  It was a fun morning and lots of hands on activities.

They started off by explaining who they were and where they from and asked if anyone had heard of it and the person who lived there, my boys put their hands up as we had talked about the people that lived there.  They then made a timeline of how old we all were starting with the 5year olds right up to the parents, and they then removed a boy to be William and a girl to be his sister Dorothy and they moved them round the room and then had them stop and face the rest of line to show how far back in time they were - the room wasn't long enough to have them on the end.

After this it was dressing up time.  They had a boy get up initially but he decided he wasn't wearing the outfit so my youngest son, Blake, said he would wear it - even with them tied to the smallest they would go they were still really big on him but he is tiny!  Because clothes were so expensive back in the 17/1800's they were made bigger so they would last as you grew into them. 

Here is my lil man getting dressed as William Wordsworth:

1. is his shirt
2. is his shirt and breeches (should be 3/4 length but full as he so small)
3. is his waistcoat
4. is his tail coat
5. is cravat
6. is his hat

They dressed 1 of the girls up as Dorothy with her peticoat, pocket, dress, sash, apron, bonnet and shawl this is a pic of them both, I have blurred her face as she is not my child, both look really good:

 

Then the rest of the children and 2 of the adults were dressed up as boys/girls from the era, they didn't have as much to wear as the richer people did.  The following 2 pictures are of Blake and his girlfriend and Blake and his brother Kenzie.

Once everyone had taken pictures and what ever the kids were told how people of the day would stand and how they would bow/curtsey and the males removed their hats etc.  They then all took the outfits off.

The ladies then brought out a box of very old things from Dove Cottage and talked about what they were called and what they would have been used for.  There was a Spurtle used for stiring porridge, a small but heavy iron, a muffin turner, a 2 pronged fork, a pair of small girls shoes and a shoe horn.  The children went for their break which was indoor play as it was raining.  When thy came back they had juice and cookies and were asked if they could remember the names of the items.  The 2 ladies split them up into older and younger children - the older had to choose an item, draw around it and then write a poem about it BUT they were the object and they had to include how they would feel etc.  The younger again choose an item and either drew round it or drew it by hand and they had to write words about what it was, looked like, was used for and its material.

The ladies then told a story linked to Williams poem about the butterfly and they had animal/bird puppets to use.  after this the children had about 10minutes to make bird masks from paper and feathers and things.  Blake made a robin, Kenzie made a brown bird.

It was a great morning and I am looking forward to actually going to Dove Cottage at somepoint, its about an hour and half drive from where we live.