Read Through The Bible in 90 Days - I'm in! :)

Yikes! But I soooo want to read the whole Bible, cover to cover. I have followed a book called "Cover to Cover: Through the Bible in a Year" a couple of times and the first time (when I was housebound with M.E. for two years) I got as far as Acts and then didn't get any further. It took a year and a half to get that far, and I was in a fairly good routine with it. So now I have four children aged 5 and under, and am horrendously behind with the housework, and newly homeschooling, and probably nutso to try to take on a 90-day challenge like this one! But...

God is higher. The Word of God is higher - a higher priority. If my first priority is firm in its proper place, then everything else in my life will fall into line. I know that I NEED to somehow carve out that extra bit of time (though I have no idea how yet, just that I will need to sacrifice something - probably internet time) to get that wonderful Word into my heart and mind and soul. I will be so excited if I actually complete the 90 days having read the whole Bible! I am not too sure I will manage it in 90 days, but I will be very very happy to actually read the whole thing, even if it takes me a bit longer!

I normally wouldn't think I stand a chance, except that it seems there's a huge bloggy effort to join in with this challenge. Many of my favourite bloggers are taking part, and I think with the support and encouragement online on a daily/weekly basis, I might actually be able to maintain the momentum and DO IT! :) I'm excited and nervous, and can't wait to get started!

I signed up with Kimberly at Raising Olives, but it's being hosted by Amy at Mom's Toolbox, where you need to sign up as well, here. Amy will be posting every Monday to encourage readers and so that we can comment as to where we are in the reading. I'm using my NIV Bible and not the 90 Days Bible. Amy has a printable list of readings for anyone who is not using the 90 Days Bible, which I plan to follow. It's a lot of reading! I know I will have to sacrifice some online time. So far I am thinking I will start reading the Bible after I come downstairs from putting the boys to bed, and not allow myself to go on the computer until the reading is done for that day. This will either mean I am online less, or else I stay up later. I know it should NOT be the latter! But I think I will struggle to stay disciplined over that one. I will pray about it. But I'm excited for the challenge! Join me if you can!

Sleepy Boxing Day :)

Another quick post like last night's - I must actually WRITE about Christmas, but I haven't sorted out the photos yet. Today Neil's mum and his brother came over for the day! It's so nice to see my mother-in-law because she lives up north and we rarely see her. But usually at Christmas she comes down to stay with Neil's sister who lives about an hour from our house - in the same town that Neil works in, actually! :) So we see her then. We are going over to Rosemary's house on Tuesday for the day so we'll see her again (and Ian - Neil's brother - again too), but Rosemary and her hubby and girls were with her in-laws today so they couldn't come to us.

We had a lovely day, and more presents for the boys from Grandma! They went out for a walk while Benjamin napped and I spend a really nice hour chatting quietly with MIL in a peaceful house. I love talking with her about God, about scriptures, about prayer, about spiritual discipline, etc, because I don't have any other relatives who I can talk with in person about things like that. My family are all very NON-Christian, and Neil's siblings are Christians but not awfully "practicing" at the moment, so to speak. I just love (ADORE!!!!) God and right now I want to talk about Him and anything related to Him as much as anyone will let me! :) I love to talk with people who are passionate about Jesus like I am. It's soooo nice to relax and chat with MIL about God's goodness and our experiences and so on. Really nice! I love love love having married into a Christian family.

Nathan had no chance for a nap today. He was excited all morning with the visitors, and then they watched a Thomas the Tank Engine movie which he didn't want to miss, of course! Nathan is our latest EXTREME Thomas fan. First it was Arthur, and then Matthew, and those boys still love Thomas, but Nathan has recently become HARD-CORE, hehe! ;) We got him a Thomas jigsaw puzzle for Christmas with 13 pieces and he's doing great putting it together. He tries really hard and gets frustrated if it doesn't work for him. He got this Thomas movie on DVD so he was thrilled with that. And a few Thomas books. And other non-Thomas presents! ;)

So after the movie and lunch it was time for an outing to the park to go on the swings and run about with Uncle Ian. We didn't venture out on Christmas Day so they all needed a serious run-about today! So Nathan went, and missed his nap therefore. He did so well, even though he was tired. He didn't get upset or whiney, and he took a REAL liking to Uncle Ian. I think he might finally be outgrowing his cry-in-terror-at-strangers phase!!!! I'm so glad!! That was a lonnnng phase! ;) He climbed on Uncle Ian for cuddles and stories a lot, and was not shy even of Grandma.

We ate spaghetti bolognese for lunch, and then a buffet dinner of a whole mixed bunch of things, pasta dishes, mashed potato, cold chicken, cheese, boiled eggs, pickles (mmm!), salad, veg, etc, etc. The boys had sandwiches and picked at the above stuff too. Nathan was so sleepy that he started to nod during dinner, and it was so sweet that I got the (new!) camera to take a video clip. I didn't get the zoom right which is annoying because it should have been zoomed in way more to see him more clearly. Also the quality isn't ideal for seeing the fine detail of his eyes rolling around in his head, hahaha! ;) Soooo sweet and funny! I had a hard time holding the camera still sometimes because I was laughing so much! He just looked so sweet still stuffing his face with food and yet his eyes rolling up into his head and then his eyelids coming down, hehe! Matthew used to do that (not Arthur. Arthur never slept. At all!) but he would doze off with food clenched in his fist, not moving it. Nathan was dozing off the most when he was actually putting food in his mouth and chewing it, for some reason, and at the time it was just so comical!

Anyway, I uploaded the video clip and here it is. Never mind the mess in the background. Be glad you can't see the rest of the kitchen! *sigh* We moved the table out so that more of us could fit around it, but even so we still had one person standing/eating later :S Also, please note the bit later in the clip where Nathan picks up a piece of bread and starts to eat it, dislikes the taste and so lets it fall out of his mouth with a yucky expression, and then proceeds to put the piece of bread over onto Matthew's plate, haha! ;)

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Sweet sleepy little boy! We put them to bed as soon after 6pm as we could manage, and they were all asleep around 6.30 or 6.45pm. Then Neil's folks stayed a couple more hours. He showed his brother his flying/shoot-'em-up game on the computer, and I played Scattegories with MIL. I love word games and board games at Christmas, and she does too! All our board games are packed into the loft to save space in the house, but Scattegories is easy to play with just paper and pencils. It was fun! I won! ;)

Will write more soon. I'm already getting in gear for the New Year. As SOON as Christmas is finished it seems like my mind shifts gear and starts going all resolution-y! I never seem to stick to New Year's Resolutions and don't particularly plan to make any (though I still may, for some sort of basic structure/goal for the year), but I do already feel excited about the start of 2010 - a new decade too! Things like homeschooling, and also getting this place cleaned up once and for all! And training (yes, I said training) the children this year. That's about the most important thing I need to work on. They need to learn to obey and respect Neil and I this year way more than they need to learn to read and write and add and subtract. And learn about God more than that. So I'm excited about the year ahead, and starting to work through my thoughts and ideas and goals in preparation, which is fun! :)

Christmas Eve photos

Well it's the end of Christmas Day, the boys have been asleep for an hour or two now, and Neil and I are exhausted! But we've had a wonderful day with the boys. Today was all about them. Neil and I did not have one single present ourselves to open, but this is probably the first year I didn't even notice (or care!) until late in the day. We bought their gifts with vouchers and money that family sent for them, and decided not to buy each other anything at all. Except that camera I bought last week with the leftover vouchers, but we had nothing wrapped or received today. I'm happy enough! I have my babies! I have my hubby! I have Jesus! There just aren't any better gifts than those.

I took photos today, but of course haven't had chance to upload and edit yet. I did get a few photos from Christmas Eve edited though, and I wanted to post them here for prosperity :)

My grandparents gave money to buy the boys something for Christmas, and I decided to buy them new (matching!) pyjamas (which we seem to now call "jarmies" in our family) to wear to bed on Christmas Eve, and thus open presents with them on in the morning! I have a weakness for pyjamas! ;) And I had seen some monkey pyjamas at Marks & Spencer earlier in the year that I LOVED but they didn't have the size I wanted (just for Nathan back then), so I didn't buy any. It's a pack of two pairs of pyjamas and they come with a soft toy monkey. Anyway, so I bought some for the boys. If they had had them in baby sizes I would soooo have snapped those up too! ;) Benjamin wore a red fleece sleepsuit with a little Father Christmas embroidered on it. It's a US brand and size 6-9 months. He has fitted it for the last month but he's finally outgrowing it really, in the torso length. I bought it (unable to resist!) second hand when I was pregnant with Arthur, but Benjamin is our first baby to be the right size at the right time to wear it at Christmas! Matthew was 6 months old at Christmas, but he wore cloth nappies and thus didn't fit it at ALL, hehe!

So anyway, the pyjamas! I also ordered a bigger size so that come next Christmas, I should be able to post a photo of FOUR little boys in matching pyjamas on Christmas Eve (aww, I am so excited about it already!) :)

They wouldn't keep still for a photo at bedtime on Christmas Eve - who can blame them! They were so excited! But I put them on the school table where I hoped they would be less wiggly and less able to run away! Nathan right away turned around and whipped the clock off the wall, so we had them sitting down after that! A lot of photos still came out blurry, and they were bouncing their monkeys around a lot, but here are some of the nicer ones (including the first one where they were standing up - I caught Nathan in the act!):







Then we put Benjamin on the table with them, just for a minute to get a group photo. I was nervous about it even though they were sitting back against the wall, but Neil was right on hand. Benjamin sat totally straight without wobbling at all, and actually today he has sat for most of the day playing with toys. I think he sat more than he lay down today! He is really not keeling over very much, which surprises me. We put soft things around him and he was fine, and VERY happy to be more independently upright, I can tell you! I took a few photos of all four boys together on Christmas Eve. They are laughing at some sort of incredible entertainment courtesy of Daddy in the background, hehe! Here are the photos, ending with my favourite :)











My sweet little boys! I still look at photos like this and just gape in awe that they're mine, I really do have FOUR children, four BOYS, and ahhhh I just can't believe I'm this blessed!! :D Thanks Lord.

I will write about Christmas soon. I hope everyone has had/is having a blessed Christmas today and enjoying family and friends! xxx

Benjamin sits!!! :)

I figured out the new camera today, and just in time too, because I was fiddling about with the settings just before bedtime for the boys when I sat Benjamin up, handed him a toy (he was fussing lying down on the floor) and he STAYED! He sat with a mostly straight back, and just played with whatever I handed him. No "tripod sitting" at all, and he corrected his balance any time he started to lean. I was able to sit further away from him after a while and aim the camera at him properly. I got some still shots as well but haven't uploaded those yet. Blogger is finding the video files too big (as is Facebook) so I have had to go back to good old OneTrueMedia.com to upload them and then post them to my blog and Facebook from there, which is fine with me! :) So happy to be able to post videos of my sweeties again!

So here is Benjamin sitting (and Mummy being thrilled, hehe!). Arthur was trying to get my attention about building a fort with the school chairs or something, but I was distracted by Benjamin for the time I was filming the little clip. Once he lay down I gave Arthur my attention. Nathan and Matthew were still at the table getting wiped after eating dinner, so it wasn't as chaotic in the room as it usually would have been! ;)

So proud of my BIG BOY, at only 5 months and 1 week old! :)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

P.S. Thanks for the lovely supportive comments on my last post! xxx

First conversation with Nathan!

Just a quick post, but for the sake of my own ridiculously fading memory, I had to write down my first actual conversation with Nathan, which happened this afternoon!

I took him upstairs for his nap, and he protested as usual. I put him in his cot, and he threw Monkey out onto the floor. I ignored the display and sat down on the floor.

Nathan: "Ah wantim!" (I want him)
Me: "You want who?"
Nathan: "Monkey! Ah wantim!"
Me: "Where is Monkey?"
Nathan: "On thlor" (pointing down)
Me: "Oh no! Poor Monkey! How did he get down there?"
Nathan: (pause) "Thow down" (gestures with arm)
Me: "Ohh I see. Poor Monkey. Do you want him back?"
Nathan: "Yes!"
I give Monkey back to him, and Nathan embraces Monkey lovingly, saying, "Ahhh, lovtly Monkey!"

I can barely restrain myself from sweeping him off his feet into my arms and squidgeling him into little pieces whenever (and I do pretty much mean WHENEVER) he talks at all. I do HAVE to restrain myself because you know, he has to learn to actually be able to talk without being snatched up and kissed till he squeals every time he starts to say anything! ;) Also he is often so serious about what he's saying to me, so I must sit on my fingers and bite my (quivering!) lips and just. not. squish. yet. Once he's finished saying his thing, I do though :)

Nathan has such a teeny chipmunky voice, and he has such sweet ways of saying certain sounds that I haven't heard from my other little ones. Like the word "floor" - he says, "thlor". I don't know why! It's funny because often "th" is a sound that is harder to pronounce so little ones tend to say "f" instead. Nathan is back-to-front with that one. He pronounces "f" sounds like "th", which makes for some serious cuteness over words like "floor" :)

Also his vowel sounds are unusual (to me, anyway!). They have funny little twangs - so when he says Matthew's name, he pronounces it "Meh-thseiouw" (if you can even sound that out, hehe!). I will have to make a video clip of him talking a bit. Our old camera that broke had video capabilities, but since then we have had no way of taking videos of our sweeties. I took video clips of Arthur's 5th birthday (STILL haven't posted about that, aaaaargh!!) but I can't get them onto the computer because I have lost the cable. Lost as in, it's somewhere in this awful pigsty of a home (can't seem to get on top of the terrible chaos) and could remain submerged until we move house (eventually!) or something. Urgh. The camera is broken in that it deletes images and videos randomly and won't hold many, and I daren't use it again till I find that cable. We've looked where we think it might be and it isn't there. Neil gets Love2Shop vouchers as part of his monthly bonus at work - they just arrive in the post for us every month! We have been saving them up, and have used VOUCHERS ONLY to buy all of the boys' Christmas presents! They don't cover an awful lot of shops, but they do cover Mothercare, Early Learning Centre, and HMV, so I looked in only those places for gift ideas and found just what I wanted for them all. There were a few little things not covered by the vouchers so I asked my grandparents if they wouldn't mind sending the boys' Christmas money a bit early so I could use it to buy and wrap presents for Christmas Day, and they agreed. I used some of that to buy non-ELC/HMV things. Neil and I aren't getting each other anything - we really don't need to, and we have all that we want or need anyway! My parents and grandparents give us generous gifts of money for us to buy things we'd like, and we are not supposed to use that money for anything other than something to pamper ourselves with or else support a hobby or something we'd enjoy. Lovely family! :)

But after the Christmas shopping, I still had some vouchers left, and then the next day, December's vouchers arrived in the post. Soooo, we decided I would take them to Comet (also covered by the vouchers) and shop for a basic point-and-shoot camera that Neil could use easily (he can't use the DSLR, he says!) and which also will take video clips! So yesterday I resevered a Sony Cybershot (yes, I do love Sony cameras! ;) ) at Comet, and being perpetually tired and woolly-brained, I then went to CURRYS and confused the staff over the fact that they couldn't find my reservation. They were great and showed me a lot of cameras, gave me demonstrations with several, found me a great deal, helped me choose a camera and memory stick, and then skipped me past the huge queue of people waiting to pay, to an unused till, where I happily handed over my vouchers. The lady said, "Oh. Comet?" And I felt like a reeeeal lemon! ;) So I was terribly apologetic and left, since I couldn't pay for the camera without the vouchers - it would have been too much money. I felt so bad because they'd been sooo helpful and got me a great deal and spent all that time with me! I felt even worse when I walked out of the shop, took a sharp right and turned straight into Comet next door, where I collected and paid for my *cough* reserved camera. Which was, of course, waiting for me.

But anyway! ;)

So we now have a new teeny tiny (these things get smaller and smaller every couple of years, don't they?!) slimline Sony Cybershot camera, which should take nice photos and which Neil will use a lot, and which the boys will NOT TOUCH AT ALL!!! They can have the one that takes photos but won't keep them too consistently! They don't mind that. And I will start taking a thousand video clips of my children asap. I feel so sad that I have no video record of Nathan's beginnings of speech like I have for Arthur and Matthew, and no video clips at ALL of baby Benjamin's first few months. I do have a couple of little clips from his first 6-8 weeks I think, but they're stuck on the old camera too. I can't wait to get going with the camera! I have so much I want to record for prosperity already! I will post clips as soon as I take them and figure out how to get them on the computer and up online. Yay!

I can't believe it's nearly Christmas already, and we're so not ready for it at all. We made precisely 3 Christmas cards (and started 2 more) - Arthur, Matthew and me. One went to my grandparents and that's it! Urgh. I so wanted to have it organised properly this year, but I seem to be really struggling to stay on top of life at the moment, and I have no idea why. Especially since being poorly with a bad cold - but it was just a bad cold so I don't see why that should throw things. We're almost completely better now anyway.

I wanted to write a blog entry about how I'm feeling in that department earlier today, but obviously have to wait till evening to write, and now evening is here I'm too tired to write that intensely! I need to ice the Christmas cake with the boys tomorrow or the next day, and that will be fun, but I had so many Christmassy things I wanted to do with them to make our own special family traditions and to make special memories with them, to spend some quality time and laugh together and feel cosy and Christmassy and joyful. I feel so sad that we have not done ANYTHING. I wanted to make Christmas tree decorations every day (we started one. Once. Last week. And it still isn't finished. And they were so enthusiastic, ahh I feel so bad.), bake various Christmassy treats - or at least decorate some sugar cookies (they were expecting to do this too) and we haven't. We did marzipan the Christmas cake we made in November, a week or two ago, and they had fun doing that, but it was kind of rushed knowing that I had a shortish window of time while Benjamin napped. I can't think what's thrown things suddenly, or how I managed before. Or how I ever will again. And how in the world did I ever home-school?!?! Because we're not doing that this week, and I am struggling to just get everyone dressed and nappies changed before the end of the morning, and then to get meals on the table at vaguely the right times. And that's without ME actually getting washed or dressed, OR eating, peeing or drinking for most of the day through the week. Yuck, I know. But I can't seem to cram it in, and I don't understand why NOT, and I can't fathom how I ever did! Or how I will again. I just feel in a rut that came from nowhere, like I can't quite keep my head above water still. I'm trying! My face is tipped riiiight up and my mouth and nose are clear of the water, but the water isn't keeping still and sometimes it slaps over my face, and my neck is getting tired. Maybe I am just tired and everything would be better if only I would get more sleep? I don't know. I can't stand the chaos all around me, and the boys probably can't either. Their behaviour is as chaotic as ever, which adds to the environment, which prevents me from having time to tackle the environment aspect, and thus continues the vicious circle.

Oh. I did write about the way I'm feeling! There we go! ;) But now I am going to bed because it is late and probably a good indication of the root of the problem! I need more self-discipline, but I am not doing great at that lately. I need to lean harder on Jesus.

I am so thankful for my children, and the nuggets of pure joy and love they surprise me with frequently, despite the difficult stuff! Like sweet little Nathey's tiny new spoken voice :)

My Husband Rocks! - Humour :)

I have missed a few weeks, I know! This does not mean that my husband has not been rocking during this time, nor that I esteem him any less! ;) I have just been pressed for time, or else just badly organised! Actually it's MONDAY today (shh!) and I have just discovered Blogger's thing whereby you write a post on Monday (for example!) and it gets posted automatically for you on FRIDAY!! :) So, where was I? Oh yes! "My Husband Rocks!" (cough) Friday! ;)

I love Neil's sense of humour. Sometimes he is tired and less happy or jokey, especially with the stressful job he has right now. But it still shines through frequently! I think it's something about him that I just *fit* with, you know? I don't know if some of the things he says would have other people laughing till they are crouched in front of the freezer (where they happened to be standing at the time) too weak at the knees to get up, and just CRYING real tears, but yeah, he does make me laugh! Sometimes over just simple conversation if he uses a certain tone, voice, or mannerism to add dry humour or something. And then I am a goner. But then, I am pretty hopeless once you start me really laughing (I was well known for it at school, haha!).

Anyway, I love my silly, funny husband who makes me laugh till I cry. I love that sometimes it's not the FUNNY of it, but the fact that I know him so well that I'm in tune to his humour or way of thinking as he says something, you know? Love that :)

Media-related rantings.

This is irrelevant waffle to most of my readers, but anyway! I'm just venting here because I can't at Facebook. I'm so surprisingly annoyed by the ridiculous TV/music-related thing going on here at the moment. I can't BELIEVE I have even let it annoy me, it's so school-playground-ish! >:/ (weird smiley, hehe!).

So there's a TV show called X-factor which is literally the only thing I now watch in the entire year, pretty much, except for the odd documentary. I'm not even sure if I should be watching that, because I notice it pulls me a little away from focusing on God. Anyway, so if you don't know, it's a contest thing where the general public audition and it goes on and on through various stages of voting them off from August until the big finale in December, when one of these contestants wins a recording contract and a bunch of money. Shallow, but fun entertainment! ;)

Now for 4 years the fact that it finishes in December (yes, probably arranged that way) means that the hugely popular, voted-by-the-public winner releases a single and instantly gets to number one in the charts for Christmas. Christmas number one used to be a nice affair of an actual exciting race for various artists to try and take the coveted spot at that specific week of the year, and I remember that well from my younger years, and enjoyed it too. Now it seems to be a thing of the past because of X-factor, which is a shame.

Sooo a Facebook group has started up to "fix" that, and make somebody else number one for a change. *sigh* I do GET it, but ugh it's so chiiiildish! And much much worse, the single that they are pushing forward to be Christmas number one is Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the name". Could there be anything more horrible to listen to or support (or spend money on)?!?! Full of expletives and nastiness. Yuck. I think it's that which has me so annoyed. If I had the inclination (thankfully I plan to leave the playground as soon as I get this post off my chest) I would buy like fifty thousand X-factor singles just to show my lack of support for the rival thing, but of course that would be reeeally daft and I am obviously not going to stoop that low! ;) I am just so wound up about it, which surprises me really, because I haven't let "surface" worldly stuff bother me in recent years. I'm annoyed at myself to be back in that way! Which is another reason I should probably not even watch X-factor any more, I guess!

It's not like if RATM DO get to number one it will mean anything, except that a vile evil hate-filled song is pumped into way more homes and minds than it ever should be, this Christmas (and way beyond). I'm sure lots of people will have smug smiles and all, but then what? It wasn't an upheld "old-fashioned race" for the number one spot! RATM wouldn't win because of that, they would never have REALLY earned or won the top spot, not like it should be, or used to be. And X-Factor would probably go right back to where it was next year, unless another similiarly stupid campaign were to take place then too.

I for one enjoyed the X-factor (which I know many of the campaigners do too) and am thrilled with the guy who won. I love his voice, and would much rather hear his single at number one than pretty much any other (not that I have actually listened to the charts since my teens! Gasp!). The song I would least like to ever hear, and am just boiling that it's even being PROMOTED (by Christians amongst others, even!!!) is RATM's Killing in the Name. Awful, frustrating, annoying, irritating stuff!!

I miss the real old-fashioned race for Christmas number one, but since those days seem to have passed, I am thinking just accept and move on really. It's a shame, but not a big enough deal for the craziness that has ensued.

Now endeth the rant! ;)

I shall be back as soon as possible (haha!) to put another post at the top instead of this one, since it's just whiney and irritable and just GRRRR!!! I am sure I have UK readers who strongly disagree (in fact I know a couple at Facebook) and have no interest in joining Facebook debates, or cluttering up my own profile with such things, but I am just popping mad about it today for some reason - I guess it's been growing on me day by day as I keep seeing this stupid stuff! So I hope that since it's VENTED, it's done, and I will now switch my TV off till next year or something, ignore the world at large, and focus more on God (like I should have been doing in the first place!) ;)

London appointment, and other things!

Today has been a day of appointments - well, only two, but it still seemed pretty full! Neil booked a holiday off work to watch the boys who weren't involved in the appointments, which made it a TON easier for me.

This morning I went for some blood tests. On Saturday I went to see my GP about some lumps I have, which have been making me anxious. A few years ago I went to see her (between Arthur and Matthew, I think? Some time before I was pregnant with Matthew? I can't remember. Not whilst pregnant though, I know that much!) because I found some small lumps in my thighs and also in the back of my pelvis. I was so nervous about what they were! But she said they were likely cysts and ran a full blood panel and it checked out fine so she said not to worry about them. Well since then they have been steadily increasing in number, and have been worrying me again for at least the past year. I have them around my ribs now and those ones are sore. I have a lot more at the back of my pelvis, and up either side of my spine too. I am trying to stay at peace about them, but I am really quite nervous about them, because I am thinking they can't be normal, and I'm wondering why there are so many of them and why they are steadily increasing like this. Anyway. So I keep wanting to go the doctor and ask her about them again. I finally mentioned it to Neil and he said I should go, so I went on Saturday. The doctor seemed as perplexed as I am about them, and still thinks they are cysts, but she said she would run a full blood panel on me again. She is also going to check for rheumatoid factors, which I have no idea about, but it makes me nervous all the same! If it all comes back fine, she will send me to the GP within the clinic who does minor surgery there, and he'll remove one to send off to the lab. If the blood test results are not normal then she will refer me to a specialist in whatever area. I'm SO nervous about the result of either the blood test or the histology on the cyst. :S I'm hopelessly prone to LEAPING to the "what if" side, and worrying about having something wrong with me that will rob my children of their mother, or their mother's ability to look after them properly, etc. I hope it's all okay, but I don't like all these cysts!

Soooo today I went to have blood taken, and Neil was at home so I could have gone by myself, but I thought that actually it would be a good opportunity for school with Arthur. So Arthur came with me. He was eager to see the nurse take my blood! We had two funny moments in the busy-yet-silent waiting room - Arthur was standing at the fish tank looking at the fish, and a lady came in with a little boy who was just about toddling. I guess he was about a year old, but he was HUGE!!! Really big for his age! And noisy. He was just RAAAAAARRRRR!ing at everything and everyone, and bashing past people's legs roughly! His mother didn't check him at all, and he noisily made his way towards the fish tank. He body-checked my legs out of the way (!!) and then stopped right up against Arthur. He looked up at him and made an angry face and yelled, "RAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!!" right in his face. Arthur didn't even flinch. He just bent down a little towards the boy and used his sweetest talking-to-a-baby tone that he uses with Benjamin and Nathan, and said, "Helloooo?! Have you come to see the fish?" and then he looked over at me and said, in his grown-up tone, "Aw, isn't he cute?!" hahaha! Spot the boy with three younger brothers! ;)

Before we got called in, Arthur was wandering over to the other side of the waiting area, and there was a corridor leading to a staff area. I noticed there was some clear plastic sheeting on the floor on the carpet there, like maybe there had been a leak or spillage or something, I don't know. Anyway, Arthur called to me (Called. In a busy-but-silent waiting room!), "Uh-oh, it looks like somebody is having a baby back here." Heads went up all over the room and I saw some uncomfortable looks! He said, "There are plastic sheets on the floor so someone is probably having a baby or something." Haha! Spot the boy whose mummy gives birth at home! ;) I reassured him that it was unlikely and there was probably just a water leak or some other reason to need plastic sheets!

In the car on the way, I told Arthur that this outing was part of school, and he should think of a question or two that he might want to ask the nurse, either about the procedure she was about to do on me, or about her job in general. He was really excited about it! When the nurse called me in, Arthur looked hesitant, and asked me if I was going to make noise when the nurse did my blood test. I said no, and then asked him if he thought it would be like when Mummy had a baby - and he said yes! Haha, I MUST finish writing my birth story and post it, but yeah, I did (as usual) make a lot of noise for them all to hear! :S Just at the very end, but yeah. Noisy me. Anyway, no noise during a blood test, so he came closer to watch.

The nurse didn't take any notice of him until she was prepping my arm and I decided to say, "Arthur is home-schooled and he's here to learn!" She seemed suddenly really interested and didn't act like why in the WORLD do you homeschool, or anything typical like that! Which was so nice. She called Arthur over and showed him how she was putting the needle in my arm. I was careful not to flinch at all because I don't really want to put Arthur off needles and such. He watched right by her elbow, while she explained that the tubes have a vacuum and that sucks the blood into them. She had to take 3 or 4 tubes so he had plenty of chance to see. He asked her what the different coloured tubes were for, and he was really excited to see my blood filling the tubes! In the interest of being encouraging of his excitement, I did look as well, but quickly looked away again! I don't mind blood tests, but I can't look at it otherwise I get a bit lightheaded. Weird.

The nurse explained that the blood was dark red because it was healthy and full of iron, and he asked what iron was and she tried to explain it. After the blood test, he pulled out the scales and stood on them, and told us the number it pointed to. He weighs just under 3 stone (what's that in lbs?? about 40lb?). The nurse came over and told him he weighed 18 kilos (slap wrists - I guess I'm supposed to be teaching in metric!), and said that was normal for his age. Then we walked the long way back to the car to chat and have a bit of a walk together, which was nice!

When we got home, I pulled out the "SCHOOL ONLY!" felt-tip pens and a new exercise book, and said he could draw a picture of something he learned about today. Here's his picture:



It's a nurse wielding a HUGEAMONGOUS needle with like a BUCKET of my blood (with appropriately coloured "cap" that he remembered from the last tube the nurse used). There's me looking very dark and tiny on the realistic-coloured chair (it was that blue!), clearly shrivelled up like a prune after all that blood was removed from me. And there's Arthur (with all his fingers and toes showing, bless!) being "the star of the story" at the front - because he learned new things today! He drew some black clouds and lightning and rain (and puddles) but it was actually a dry, cloudy morning!

Arthur was still just scribbling patches of different colours only a few months ago, and I was starting to wonder about it, thinking he should surely be drawing THINGS by now! And then almost overnight he started to draw object and people, and at the same time he was able to colour in pictures neatly without going over the lines much at all, so maybe it was just a late motor-development thing? I don't know. Anyway, he's drawing now :)

When I gave him his snuggle in bed at bedtime, we talked about the appointment again, and he asked why he was 3 stone and also 18 kilos. *sigh* Complicated different measuring systems!! I know we'll be covering that in maths soon enough, so I explained that they're different ways to measure the same thing, and that we'll do it in maths soon so he will understand it. He's prone to starting epic discussions at bedtime (he might possibly take after *cough* his mummy in that!) so I need to keep the answers pretty concise! I LOVE homeschooling! It's exciting to see opportunities for learning open up EVERYWHERE in everything around us, everything we do and everywhere we go. And the opportunities present themselves all the time for all children, but it's so much fun to take him somewhere in school hours, when he'd otherwise be in a classroom, and experience some real-world stuff. I don't mean to bash classroom learning by that, I am just excited about what we're able to do with homeschooling, that's all! :)

After he finished his picture, I had to hurry and get ready for the next appointment - another jaunt across central London in the car with Benjamin for his orthopaedic appointment. Now, you remember I said that before his last appointment, I took him forward for prayer at church when we had a guest speaker who had a particular healing ministry. At his next appointment they were so surprised with the change in his back and head shape, but said he should still have a few more treatments just in case he tended back to the twisted "torsion" he had before.

So today we had a TRAUMA-FREE journey!! Woohoo! I drove from our house to the clinic in east central London in exactly an hour! No break-downs, no running out of petrol, no getting lost or taking wrong turns, nothing! :) I only had to glance at the map a couple of times at red lights to make sure I was on track, as I was familiar with the whole route this time, and Benjamin slept the last 45 minutes of the journey. Something lovely happened! I actually ENJOYED driving through central London! Without the stress and the anxiety and not knowing which way to turn or which lane I was supposed to be in, I could relax and enjoy it more, and I have to say, I much prefer being above ground in London. The architecture is stunning and I love cruising past the landmarks and things in the comfort of my own vehicle! :) I was in a bit of traffic on Shaftsbury Avenue with people threading their way across the traffic between cars, and Jo Brand crossed in front of my car! She looked smaller and more insecure than I expected (she's a brassy (and rather mouthy) comedienne who has been on the TV a fair bit over the years). I noticed things that I hadn't had chance to see the other times I have driven there - like all the theatres in the West End and things like that. And more amazing architecture. I love that kind of thing!

So we were ON TIME (!!!!!!!!!!) for Benjamin's appointment, and the osteopath didn't even need to undress Benjamin this time. She didn't know what to make of his back, neck and head, and after a long examination, she called a clinical tutor to double check him. The tutor said she didn't know what to say about him! They said he was an excellent patient and had responded amazingly well to treatment, or something! I feel daft for not saying about God healing him, I don't know why I didn't :( But they said he didn't need to come back!!! The tutor suggested it might be a good idea to check him again in March or April, something like that, just to see that he wasn't "tending back" in any way. She said that sometimes growth spurts or vaccinations (interesting!....) can trigger regression in osteopathic conditions, but resilient children often do fine despite triggers. I told her I am delaying his vaccinations (Oh! I haven't had chance to write about this here yet! Oops!) and March will probably be when he has some, so I booked an appointment for early March to take him back again.

BUT YAY! How awesome is God?!?!?! Real, and true, and just soooo wonderful! There it is, a statement of fact, that Benjamin's back and neck should NOT yet be better, but professionals have checked and they ARE better! He has no tension, torsion or strain in any part of his pelvis, back or neck, and his head is almost completely normal and symmetrical in shape. He has the sliiightest little bit at the back of his head on one side where it is a little flatter than the other side, but the osteopath said that would resolve soon by itself. I'm just amazed. And I shouldn't be surprised! Because I already know about God's goodness. But I still am, every time.

The journey home was not so great. We had an hour of solid (barely crawling) traffic and Benjamin screamed (window-shattering, hearing-distorting screaming) the entire time we were in traffic, and I couldn't pull over or stop to comfort him! :( It was awful. And then he went to sleep as soon as the car was going fast enough and consistently enough. But all in all, a GREAT day! Thank you Lord! :)

Benjamin has not had any vaccinations yet. I read a report about vaccinations given in the early months being linked to wheezing episodes and asthma before age 7, and how the link disappears if the first vaccinations are delayed by at least 6 months - it's as though the body isn't ready to deal with them yet, but it is a bit later on, like with solids. So, it's not widely researched, and my GP surgery is not impressed and keeps sending me reminders, but both Neil and I have allergies (Neil has asthma too) and none of our kids are out-and-about at school, so we decided to delay his first vaccinations till 8 months (they usually start at 2 months). All the kids are behind on their jabs, except Arthur I think. Arthur is only due the pre-school Hib booster (which isn't all that necessary given that he's not at school, I guess), and Matthew has yet to have his 2nd MMR. Nathan hasn't had MMR at all yet, but I do plan to get him vaccinated and to finish Matthew's last dose as well. Those are nasty illnesses and I want them protected, but I choose not to give them MMR just after they turn one, when they're called in for it. I delay it until at least 21 months. It just seems too early to me. Anyway. Those are my choices for them :)

Tomorrow we finally have our new referral to the children's orthopaedic surgeon for Arthur's feet, at the hospital (local, thankfully!). Neil has the morning off work but he is only taking a half-day, and will be back to work in the afternoon. It's sooooo much easier to focus on what is said at important appointments without all the little ones there, so it's wonderful that he can help out this way. So Arthur and I will go the appointment, and we'll see what she says. We have only seen a physiotherapist for Arthur's feet before, since he was a few months old. For those who haven't been reading me for years, Arthur was born with very "curly" feet. Neil has a foot deformity (semi-corrected via surgery) which his siblings also have and his mum too. Arthur's feet are stiff and stubbornly curl inwards towards the big toe. He has had plaster casts on both legs many times as a baby, to try to correct them, and it has vastly improved matters but they are being stubborn and curling back again :( I am concerned he's going to end up needing surgery like Neil had back in the day, but according to the physio, that kind of surgery is barbaric to feet and results in further stiffening of other parts of the feet (Neil's achilles tendon is ridiculously unflexible now) and referred pain and wear to the joints above like the knees and hips. Neil's mum just had a knee replacement, is waiting for another one, and has hip pain now on both sides :( Since his early 20s, Neil has been having quite bad knee pain in the winter months. So I don't want poor Arthur to go that same way! I hope the orthopaedic surgeon can give us some answers, and that she'll be wise and know what to do about it!

Okay, crazy late, but I'll finish with a few photos of Matthew Binks! The first two are from a time during the week when I put him in the porch for a time-out, and he made a huuuuuge fuss which I ignored, and then went rather quiet. After a bit, I opened the door and this is what I found:




Little sweetie! He went to sleep! He was not impressed to be woken up in the LEAST, but it was almost 5pm and it would have made for a disasterous bedtime if I hadn't woken him!

Here's my sweet little green(ish!)-eyed boy the other day! I love my (challenging!) 3-year-old boy-boy!

Water levels...

... feel a little bit high for me at the moment. And I think it's the 5 broken hours of sleep over the last 60 or so hours (Benjamin waking frequently and staying awake for ages each time, the last two nights), but even with them snoozing peacefully in bed and a quiet house surrounding me, I still feel just a little bit like I have my chin lifted riiiight up and still it only just clears the water, you know? I feel a bit anxious about everything and nothing, and somewhat overwhelmed by the smallest things. OR I could be pre-menstrual - who knows! ;)

I miss my husband (who DOES rock all the same! ;) I know it's "My Husband Rocks!" Friday, and I WILL get right back to those posts soon!) who is stressed at work and spends all his evenings with headphones on watching TV or playing his flight simulator computer game. He's here about a couple of feet away from me all evening, every evening (thankful that I have him here though, really!), but I can't remember when we last talked properly. He is a sweet man and he listens to me and we chat about the day, but it's quick and surface-ish, and I feel all too aware of having a short time to cram in whatever I want to quickly say, because I know he wants to get onto his "relaxing" time in front of the TV. For months this has been okay, but I suddenly feel so sad and lonely about it tonight.

The main thing that feels overwhelming to me is the terrible state of the house. It's waaaaay beyond "so you've let the housework go because you have many small children and that's okay dear because it's far more important to tend to the children and give them quality time than try to keep up with the housework". It's SO bad. So bad now that it's actually bad for the children. And I don't know how to fix it, because the task is mountainous and I can't seem to get the time or energy to do more than a token few minutes a day. And that is not even maintaining what needs doing each day to prevent MORE mess/scum from accumulating, so it gets worse, not better, even with the effort I CAN put in.

I'm worried because:

1) I think if anyone welfare-ish saw it, we would be in some sort of trouble, for the children's sakes (THAT was horrible to admit in public!). Yes, I do HEAVILY crop my photographs, or take care about the backdrops.

2) I know it's affecting at least Arthur to live in such a horrible cluttered, messy, unclean home. There's little enough space in our home for us all as it is, but it's so much worse when that space is full of untidiness and disorder. Arthur is the type who really needs order around him to stay sane, it seems, and I feel so bad that I'm not providing it, even months and months after realising his need - nothing has really changed even with the various efforts I've tried to put in.

3) It depresses and agitates me personally (and probably Neil and the other children too, though they haven't indicated this as such) to live in a cluttered, dirty, messy state. Double that feeling for a cluttered, dirty, messy state that is seemingly impossible to resolve.

We try to really DO it at the weekends, but inevitably I'm exhausted from the week and need to get some extra sleep or rest, and Neil is taking on extra responsibility with the boys while I meet my needs and Benjamin's, and then throw in meals/meal prep, taking the boys out to the park or something, and just little things like putting little ones down for naps, changing clothes and nappies, etc, and the time is all but gone, even with two adults at home! Somehow it happens every single weekend day. Then it's evening and we flake out. Sometimes at the weekends I will try to "blitz" some horrible zone from when I put Benjamin down for a nap till when he wakes again, and I really feel like I could work fast and accomplish a lot, but the time isn't available and it's so frustrating! Benjamin wakes after 30 minutes (to the clock!) and sometimes I can go and rock/bounce his Amby hammock and he'll go back off for another 30 minutes (or occasionally a couple of hours, but somehow it doesn't seem to happen at the weekends!) or otherwise he won't go back to sleep and I get him up, and thus endeth the clutter blitz. Trying to tidy with Benjamin up and awake doesn't work well because he likes my attention! ;)

If the house wasn't in such a very bad state it would probably work to tackle it gradually like that over a couple of months. But it's so DEEP! I can't fathom ever getting a handle on it now. I think we'll move house eventually with it in this state, and hopefully start with a clean slate when we arrive at the new place, and process the clutter accordingly as we move in and unpack. But we haven't even got our house on the market or have any idea where we're going yet, so I feel sad that we're stuck with the mess right now :(

The boys are rather difficult behaviour-wise still, but that isn't news really. Arthur is improving a bit actually, though his bad moments are AWFUL. Also, Nathan has started to join in over the past week or two. He watches the older two, and copies lately. They are so RUDE to me! I wonder if there is any form of discipline they will ever respond to?! I know I'm a broken record, and I'm ashamed to say it again, but we must just not be being consistent enough, and we have to do better at it. Nathan has gone from saying a mischeivous "No!" with a smile when asked to do X, or say sorry to Y, or something, to this week saying, "Go 'way, shoo!" and smacking my FACE as I kneel in front of him to tell him something serious like, "We don't snatch toys" or "No hitting!" I can assure you, he gets disciplined IMMEDIATELY and consistently for this! He is solemn and will apologise right away afterwards, but it's just so disheartening to see two unruly kiddos turn into what looks to become three, and I can barely manage the two on bad days.

It's a pity party, that's what it is, and I should NOT buy into that, nor let myself dwell there at all. I am just having a (thankfully not frequent!) "Bad At" cycle. I look at the fruit, and don't see great stuff. My three main roles (other than serving and loving God, which, while I'm here, is not the offering it should be) are Wife. Mother. Home-maker. If my hubby is turning elsewhere for relaxation or relief from stress, then *I* must take responsibility for that. To some degree. A LARGE degree, I think. I should be making myself more enticing than the TV or the computer, as a source of happiness, comfort, and relief from stress. The fruit shows me that I have a waaaaaay to go in that department.

If my children are rude and aggressive and disobedient towards their parents at such young ages, then there is quite literally NOBODY else to blame but the parents. So I am feeling not-so-great at that area right now.

Home-making, well, I have covered that already. I don't want to be bad at what I do! I couldn't imagine wanting to do anything more than I have always wanted to be a housewife, have babies, and raise children! And yet I am sucking at not doing so well at the various components of those roles.

Well. That is off my chest. /pity party.

Soooo, Nathey is talking to Monkey lately about things as he carries him about, just the two of them! It's sooooooo cute! He shows Monkey the cars in the car box, and his favourite stories. I hear him say in a sort of slightly hushed "private" voice, "Look Monkey! Cwuck! (truck)" and things like that. After a while he will call over to me, "Showing Monkey!" for affirmation. He's the sweetest pie! If even a splash of water goes on Monkey and makes him a bit wet, he gets a very sad voice - almost panicky sounding actually - and says, "Monkey! Wet! 'Peew! (spill)" and then, "Make. Better!" His short sentences are still quite staccato and the words are seperate even though strung together. He then hands Monkey to me and says, "Put. Dees-usher!" All the appliances (washing machine, tumble dryer, dishwasher) in the kitchen are "dees-usher" (dishwasher!) at the moment, though obviously he meant for me to put him in the tumble dryer on that occasion! ;)

Benjamin is eagerly grasping toys, and has just started to transfer them from one hand to the other and back again, to examine them more carefully. He sits well with support and continues to do up to 10 seconds unsupported, just sitting on the floor. He is "tripod sitting" though, none of that well-balanced straight-backed stuff that will come in a couple more months! :) He quivers with excitement over ANY vehicle that we've shown him, and doesn't do the same over Duplo or other things that he's still interested in and likes to mouthe. Another vehicle addict, then! ;) His hair is growing in so fast and is getting on for a centimetre long in a soft fuzzy halo all over his head. It's mid-brown and delectable.

Matthew is learning to hold his pencil correctly, and finally eager to try it because he soooo wants to be doing "proper" school like Arthur. He sometimes accepts the pre-school worksheets and stuff that I offer him, but often he doesn't want THAT - he points to the books that I use to teach Arthur reading and maths, and says he wants to learn from THOSE books. He traced the number 5 really clearly today holding his pencil the right way, and we made a big deal of it and he was so pleased and proud of himself! The Right Start Mathematics number songs that we sing at the start of Arthur's maths lessons are going down really well. Matthew knows the words and actions, and sings them better than Arthur does, with SUCH enthusiasm, bless his heart! During the maths lessons we start with warm up exercises, and often I have to flash a number card or tally sticks, or my fingers at Arthur with a certain number and he has to quickly shout out the number, or enter it on the abacus. I see little Matthew's eager face behind Arthur as I flash the cards, desperate to take part. This morning I flashed a tally card depicting the number 3, and he yelled "THREE!!!!" within a second, before Arthur even could, and was again sooooooo pleased and proud! :) He loves to keep up with Arthur. It would be great to school them together at exactly the same level, but Matthew is just that bit too much younger than Arthur I think, especially as Arthur is off to a flying start.

Arthur's school is going great still! We are halfway through the Bible Study lessons, and currently learning about why Jesus came to earth. Arthur lately calls himself a friend of Jesus, and jumps about excited at moments during the day when he does something like stopping before lashing out at his brother, or obeying me straight away, etc, saying that he's excited because he did something to please Jesus. Sunday school have been working on this with the kids lately and they have butterfly posters that they coloured in, with a bunch of stickers to stick on them when they do something that pleases Jesus! I write whatever it is on the sticker and he sticks it on. He is very motivated by the sticker poster lately. On Friday last week, he suddenly said that Rachel, the lady who runs the kids' work at church, works very hard, and then he made her a lovely card. He dictated a message for me to write inside (something like, "Thank you for working so hard at kids club and church, and for all that you do. I hope you get some rest because you work SO hard." and then he signed his name himself, and eagerly took it to her at church on Sunday by himself. She emailed me the next day to say how much his card blessed her and how whe will cherish it always, and never forget his sweet face as he gave it to her! He was glad to please Jesus that time, too :)

Arthur is excited about adding and the beginnings of subtracting at the moment, and constantly asks me to give him more maths problems throughout the day, especially when I'm trying to cook dinner or at the table! He has been taught to add using the abacus, and when I told him one evening to wait till after dinner when we could check on the abacus for the answer, he just went quiet and thoughtful, and a few moments later told me the answer! I asked him how he knew, and he said he saw the abacus in his head and did it there. I'm excited about that because I remember when I was looking for a maths curriculum and I read all the stuff about Right Start, and it really stood out to me that children would quickly begin to visualise the abacus and work out sums and problems in their heads effectively that way. I remember thinking that sounded great, but hard to believe until I saw it, you know? Well I'm so encouraged to be seeing it! :)

His reading is going well. We did lesson 65 out of 100 today, from "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" and his letter writing is much improved too. He can write his name, and pretty much any word if I spell it out for him as he goes along. He has not done capital letters yet (I think we have another 10 or so lessons to go before we do those), but I have taught him to write capital A for his name. He learned the sound "oo" today, which is is thrilled about because it is part of the word "poo". *sigh* ;) He reads his stories in his lessons fairly easily. He does still have to sound out some words, but for the most part he is reading 1-2 words per second once he gets going. The story in his next lesson is this one:

the other side of the lake

a bug sat and sat on the shore of a lake. he did not have a car to take him to the other side. then a big eagle came and sat down on the shore. the eagle said, "you are sitting on the shore and you are sad."

the bug said, "yes. I am sad. I need to get to the other side of the lake. I will give you a dime." (Arthur knows that a dime is an American coin, just as he knows that a cop is another word for a policeman! These come up from time to time in the stories)

the eagle said, "yes. give me a dime and I will take you to the other side." so the bug gave the eagle a dime and got on the eagle. they went over the lake to the other side.

the end

The stories are sometimes silly and don't make a lot of sense, but I like that because Arthur finds them funny which increases his motivation to read through them. Also it shows me that he is comprehending what he's reading if he can tell me what is happening in the story despite it not making a lot of sense! Some of them do make sense though. I like the variation.

Well, I feel a lot better now! :) I nursed my sweet little tiny, and have reminded myself here that my boys are lovely lovely and worth persevering with! Neil helped me rock Benjamin when he had wind, and I ate some peaches and evaporated milk (Yum! Comfort food from my childhood!).

I really want to post more photos and also just jot down a list of some of the ways Nathan says things at the moment. They are too cute to bear and I DON'T want it all to slip by and to have no record of it when it's gone :( That would be heartbreaking!

Back soon!

Meal plan and Hotpot recipe!

I actually have a meal plan for the next week!!!! I usually plan very loosely for at least three quarters of the week, and I used to write meal plans for the week on Sunday and shop accordingly, and we ate the planned meal for each night of the week as per the schedule. I liked that! But I haven't got back into the swing of it still, since being pregnant and having a new baby. I'm also discovering that it's common for me to plan a certain meal but to find that due to various child/baby-related issues throughout the afternoon, I simply can't get it done in time for dinner. So I generally think of a few meals we'll DEFINITELY try to make over the whole week, and make sure we have the ingredients. If the afternoon is panning out well, I'll jump to it and make one! If not, we'll wing it. We wing it half the time (winging it usually results in baked beans on toast with grated cheese for the boys' dinner, or else quick tomato/pesto sauce (homemade) on pasta and good old grated cheese again, OR macaroni cheese (homemade)).

Anyway I am so ready to get back in the swing of more exciting GOOD nutritious meals for us all. I get itchy to cook hearty warming things once the winter sets in! :) I love this time of year! So I have planned 7 days worth of meals, and I am currently shopping online at Tesco for tomorrow morning's order. I have almost finished, but I suddenly wanted to post our meal plan at my blog, so here I am doing it! :) We'll likely be flexible on the days/meals, and to be honest I'll probably see what the dates are on the meat packages and re-order the meals accordingly, when the shopping arrives! But this is our meal plan for the next seven days:

Thursday 3rd December: Lamb and bean hotpot (recipe to follow! *drool*)

Friday 4th December: Spaghetti bolognese (double batch - one to freeze)

Saturday 5th December: Roast chicken and trimmings

Sunday 6th December: Leftover chicken - either potato-topped "pie" or pasta bake

Monday 7th December: Pork crockpot

Tuesday 8th December: Macaroni cheese with peas

Wednesday 9th December: Fish pie - although possibly fish fingers with my tomato/pesto sauce and pasta if it's easier (the boys like this better too).

Hooray! I'm sooo looking forward to those meals! Yum! :) Cooking them is enjoyable too, much more so than I used to find cooking, though it's usually stressful juggling the children's antics and the baby's naps with preparing dinner! Haven't figured that one out yet at ALL, but it'll work out in the end I should think. :)

I was hunting around for new recipes recently, and found that Tesco has a good-sized recipe section. I tried two new recipes from there last week - I don't think I can link them because I am not sure if you have to register at Tesco to see them. So I'll write the recipe out here. Anyway, I tried American Corn Chowder, which was nice (Neil LOVED it, the boys would not touch it at all) but not a favourite for me and I wouldn't be jumping to make it again. I did make a double batch, so we have another meal of that in the freezer. The other meal I tried was Lamb and bean hotpot, which - OH MY GOODNESS!! - is worth making every week! I LOVE it, Neil loves it, and it's lovely and hearty and yummy and easy, and all in one "pot", similar to the ease of a crockpot really, as it just cooks for 2 hours (with a little bit of attention during that time) and is a complete meal when it's done. So, in case anyone wants to try it, and so that I can read this entry back and drool once in a while (haha!), here's the recipe:

Lamb and Bean Hotpot

(serves 6; preparation 30mins; cooking time 2 hours)

2 tbsp olive oil
625 g (1¼lb) lean diced lamb
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 red onions, cut into wedges
1 tbsp plain flour
2 leeks, trimmed, sliced
3 large carrots, peeled, sliced
2 bay leaves
600 ml (1 pint) lamb stock
300 g can flageolet beans
6 tbsp fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
750 g (1½lb) white potatoes, peeled and thickly sliced
50 g (2oz) melted butter

1. Heat oil in a large heavy based casserole dish and cook the lamb over high heat for 4-5 minutes until browned. Add garlic and onions. Cook for further 2-3 minutes until softened slightly. Sprinkle the flour over. Toss well to coat.

2. Add leeks, carrots and bay leaves and pour in stock. Bring to boil, cover and cook for 40 minutes until meat is tender. Remove the lid for final 15 minutes of cooking.

3. Meanwhile cook the potatoes in a large pan of water for 10 minutes. Drain well. Preheat the oven to Gas 6, 200°C, fan180°C (no idea what that is in Farenheit, but could convert 200°C online to find out?).

4. Remove the meat and vegetables from heat and add the beans and parsley. Stir well. Layer potatoes on top of meat, lightly brushing with the melted butter as you go, then brush the top with remaining butter. Bake for 1 hour until potatoes are golden.

Sooooo yummy! :)

Lovely rainy day!

Today it rained and rained and rained. We have had a lot of rain lately. We're in the south of England, but in the north there has been some dangerous flooding with all the rain, and still it continues. Some days there is sunshine with the showers, and it's windy and cold with it too, but the rain is pretty consistent.

I am so thankful for rain. Today I watched it fall from the window and had one of those moments of surreal clarity. How amazing it suddenly seemed, to see water falling out of the sky and making big pools and streams on the ground! Like I had never really seen it before. I was just in awe that God sends water down to earth from the sky, and that the plants and living things grow and thrive because of it.

I thought about parts of western Africa which are right now experiencing severe drought. A charity letter that came the other week said that most children aged under six in those parts have NEVER seen rain falling before. That just stopped me right in my tracks. I just think, how can we - how DARE we?! - moan and complain about a little rain? I mean, Cumbria has reason to be upset about the rain and there has been loss of life in the floods, but I mean more in terms of general daily British whining and complaining about rainy weather. In light of the African crisis, it just sickens me to hear people complaining! I mean, really, it's nothing but a minor inconvenience or mood-depressant, surely? Not actually a big deal! We are BLESSED beyond measure - we need water to survive, and we literally have it falling out of the sky in our country! The landscape in parts of west Africa is scattered with dead animal carcasses. Nothing will grow, and no livestock can survive, so no food is available for people or animals, and everyone is starving. All for lack of RAIN.

Today, I rejoice in the rich and luxurious blessing of heavy rainfall, and I pray that God will release it over Africa again. Without intending to, Benjamin and I slept in so ridiculously late this morning that Neil got the boys ready for church without waking us, and went to church without us. When we got up, we enjoyed a quiet house, and some beautiful worship music. I flung open the windows, even with the chilly air, to bask in the beauty of the rain, with Benjamin in my arms. After watching it for a while, I realised that I really wanted to photograph it. The things that I feel really passionate about photographing are elements of nature, and babies and children. I have always loved photographing a pile of leaves, or a sunset (endless endless badly-turned-out photos of these from my teens and 20s, haha!), or a tree in its autumn colours. Today, the idea of trying to capture just RAIN gave me such a buzz! I took some photos, and then Benjamin went for a nap. Once he was asleep I was able to play with my camera a little more. I still know very little about taking photographs with my new(ish!) camera, but I certainly enjoyed trying various things to get the images I wanted. I didn't get quite what I wanted for all the different things I saw (maybe this should be at my photography blog?!), but I had fun! :)

Rainy morning



Benjamin watching the rain from my arms



Beautiful raindrops on my open window





The sun comes out!





And the rain continues...



How good are God's gifts to us, and how beautiful His creation is!





I love the rain! :)

Lots of photos, haircuts, and Benjamin's back!

Nathan LOVES to be a "big boy" and do school like his big brother! I caught him with a pencil and Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons, looking soooo pleased with himself! ;) These photos are actually a month old now, and I meant to upload them at the time, but you know how it goes...




Funny boy! :) The walls in our living room are a disaster. There are heavy crayon marks ALL OVER them, ugh. I tried the Magic Eraser and it did work, but it crumbled quickly and the two packs that I bought only took off one area of crayon (and there are many). The boys don't get the crayons without strict supervision any more, but somehow occasionally one crayon has been dropped under the table just behind the table leg, or rolled under the bookshelf, or whatever, and eventually someone finds it while I'm cooking dinner or settling a little one down for a nap! It drives me crazy that they draw on the walls (and by "they" I do mean Matthew! Mostly.) despite endless endless discipline over it. Anyway, so you'll see plenty of crayon-covered walls! I have tried various cleaning methods, and last week I put bicarbonate of soda on a scouring pad and it WORKED!!! I mean, I only gave a quick scrub to see what would happen, and it hasn't come right off but it's way better than the other methods I tried. When I get time, I think I can get a lot of it off with that. I actually wanted a nice natural cleaning method so that I can hand the stuff to the children to clean their own messes off the walls!!

Here is another photo from about a month ago (before the haircuts, when they were in desperate need of some!), of the boys playing. They usually are not allowed to play with the school-related stuff, but I let them use the chairs to make a bus and they all got their favourite cuddly toys to go for a ride! :)



Here are a couple of photos from last week, of my scrummy little baby-pie. I let him have some "air-time" without anything on, on the fleece blanket the other day. He loves that! I took loooads of photos, but the internet being the way it is, I don't want to post them :( I mean, I DO, but I don't, you know? So I cropped the first one enough, I think, and the second one is at a better angle than the others, to mostly get his face and shoulders. He's such a sweet little pie! :) The first one looks like an odd photo to take/post, but I am including it here because I think it really shows how much Benjamin and Arthur look alike. Their facial features are very similar, and Benjamin always reminds me of Arthur as a baby.




Benjamin is ever so interested in watching us eat these days. He watches food to our mouths with bugging eyes, and is very alert looking at the food on our plates if he gets to see them. Those who've read me for many babies will know that they can be as eager as they like, but I won't give solids till the day they turn 6 months! ;) Then I hand them a half-peeled banana! :) We do baby-led weaning and skip purees altogether, since Matthew. Matthew and Nathan did great going straight to table food and were much much better eaters than Arthur (they're super picky these days though *sigh*). So that's what we'll do for Benjamin, again. I love baby-led weaning sooooo much that I would never go back to purees for anything!

The other evening the boys had a quick meal of baked beans and cheese on toast. They love this meal and it's quick and easy for me if it has all being going wrong leading up to dinner time! On those occasions, Neil and I usually get a fish and chips takeaway, or pizza if we're feeling extravagant! Or a casserole that I've made and frozen but which the boys won't eat. Anyway, Benjamin was fussing and fretting and generally not feeling happy, while the boys ate, so I thought I would put him up where the action was, since I was right there to supervise:





He LOVED watching them eat! He watched each boy in turn, staring at their plates very seriously, and then looked around happily! I know he can't wait to be crawling amongst them, playing cars with them, jumping about crazily to music while they do (he already kicks his legs and punches his arms and SCREECHES with excitement as he watches them when they dance like this!), and sitting round the table to eat with them. You can now see it in Benjamin pretty much every moment that he's awake and around the boys - he's BUGGING to join in! He's very interested in their toys too.

I love that last photo of Matthew talking to Benjamin - the sweet looks on their faces :) Matthew is very tender with Benjamin and has been right from the start. They all are, actually. But Matthew has a much more calm and gentle nature, and takes time over communicating with his baby brother, and Benjamin really warms to that. He loves his brothers!

The other day the boys had just finished lunch and Benjamin was rolling and kicking on the living room floor. I got Matthew down and then Nathan, and when I came in, Matthew was lying on the floor with Benjamin. He had got The Very Hungry Caterpillar and was "reading" it to Benjamin! I thought that was so sweet! :) He likes to spend time with him, and tries to make him happy a lot. They all do (I know already said that, but it's true!). So, I took photos :)

First thing I saw when I came in from the kitchen:



Taking it in with interest as Matthew points out the different things the caterpillar ate:




"Not a bad story, Mummy!"



[Nathan approaches...]



Looking significantly LESS impressed with the arrival of Nathan who takes over the Hungry Caterpillar story! ;)



"I can't take TWO stories at once!!" *thunk*



"Waaahhh! Get me out of here!"



Hehe! ;)

I have sooo many photos as I am really behind, and I like to have them here for my own records. I do look back eventually, over the years, especially when I have another baby the same age, or when it's someone's birthday and I want to remember how they were when they were littler. So it's sad when I look and realise that I never posted stuff here from a whole section of their baby/childhood. I will try to keep up! But I take so many photos. I have still only edited and uploaded about half of Arthur's birthday photos, and I want to do an entry about that asap, but I didn't want to get more behind on the other stuff while I got around to the birthday post!

Ooh I cut the boys' hair!!! By myself! Saving us soooo much money and huge faff of going to the children's hairdressers in Chelsea! I did Arthur's a few weeks ago, following tips online (eek!) and using children's paper scissors, hahaha! But it worked. I didn't plan to (yet), but he begged me one day because his hair was in his eyes and he couldn't stand it any longer! Poor boy! Then I did Nathan's a week later, which was way more tricky because he did not want me to touch his hair, let alone comb, wet, or cut it! His didn't turn out as even/well because of the aforementioned issues, but it's out of his eyes and less straggly in general. The weeks went by and still I had not cut Matthew's whose hair was longer than the other boys' from the start. His hair doesn't suit him in the same basic short cut as well as the other two boys, and I didn't know what I wanted for his hair (and certainly not how to do it myself!). But on Saturday it was clearly getting ridiculous (!!) - his hair was below his eyes and he was forever sweeping it aside, and the back came to his SHOULDERS!!! Before I cut his, I invested in a pair of hairdressing scissors and a book on how to do the basic cuts, from Amazon. Once they arrived, I cut his hair! MYSELF!! Yikes! ;) I put him in a high booster seat on a dining room chair in front of the TV. I put a shower curtain (from my homebirth supplies!) under the chair over the carpet, and got Matthew to choose a DVD (Brum). Then I put the DVD on and started his hair. I wet it as I combed it through, and just worked away. I was quite nervous, and actually I felt so physically exhausted by the end (it took almost an HOUR that first time) that I felt sick and shaky for a while! But I'm really happy with the results. I think I would still change one or two little things next time, but for now, it looks okay (Neil says it looks really good!), and it's out of his eyes and he looks like a boy again, haha! ;) He wouldn't let me take photos of him, but I snuck a couple anyway while he was playing with trains the other evening. Here's the "before" photo - see how crazy it had become?!



And here is the front/side and the back afterwards. I feel confident that we can ditch the hairdressers on a permanent basis now, and I will cut all my children's hair for the forseeable future! Yay! We will save so much money. Seriously. I'm really pleased to be learning this skill for my family!






Okay, it's getting really late, so I have to go. Oh but if you didn't see my Facebook update today, Benjamin's osteopath appointment was today in Central London. I was a crazy (craaazy) woman again, and drove Benjamin and myself there (Neil took a day's holiday to stay at home with the other boys - Nathan is still poorly with a cough, although his fever is finally down I think - he has one new tooth for his troubles, so far!). This time I had just passed Buckingham Palace and headed into the Hyde Park Corner underpass when I started to smell burning... Hmmm! It got stronger and stronger, and there was a queue getting out of the underpass. I realised it was MY car in the queue and started to panic! I prayed and prayed and PRAYED till I was able to pull into a back road off Picadilly Circus. There I lifted the bonnet and it STANK inside, so I pulled out the mobile phone and called Neil at home. He talked me through checking the oil (which was EMPTY - nada! Just a tiny teeny smidge on the tip of the dipstick! Yikes!!), and then I poured a whole container of oil from the back of our car into the engine tank, and it still only just came above the minimum line! Benjamin was soooo good. He had slept for about an hour up to that point, and woke while I was trying to sort out the oil. He cried a lot before I could get to him. I breastfed him in the back of the car, and then we set off again. I was TWO HOURS LATE for the appointment!!!! There was some really bad traffic between Picadilly and Shaftsbury Avenue which hadn't been there last time, but at least I didn't get lost at all this time. The osteopath people were very understanding, and just moved me to a later appt, which I made it to in time.

When we arrived I found that Benjamin had done a super-human poo, but they wanted to start his treatment first anyway. He had a 15 minute treatment which he was very relaxed and happy through, and the osteopath could not quite understand why he had improved so very much in such a short space of time! :) Remember last entry, when I said that Terry Virgo had prayed for his back to be healed on Sunday?! :) I didn't tell her about it because I wanted her to tell me in a completely unbiased way how he was doing. She fetched her supervisor and the supervisor checked Benjamin and was amazed as well. She said there had been "dramatic improvement" and he was doing great! :) She said that he should still have a couple more treatments so that he doesn't "tend back" in that direction again. Even his plagiocephaly (asymmetrical head) has improved more than they expected in just 2 weeks. He did get upset when she tried to press into the bonier parts of his neck, but maybe he just didn't want somebody pressing into his neck bones?! Anyway so YAY!!! I'm so excited, and thankful! But not surprised. I already know about God being awesome! :)

So, Benjamin had pooed right through all his clothes, and I changed him at the clinic before we came home. I'm glad I always take multiple changes of clothes with me! On the way home, the burning smell was still there but waaaay milder, and it got better as time went on. Benjamin needed a breastfeed before we set off, so I nursed him in the car - with all the feeds, stops, oil changes, and the appointment itself, it really filled the day! I ended up being out with Benjamin from 9.30am to 3.15pm!! We almost ran out of petrol on the way home. The tank was below the line and I was praying and praying again to find a petrol station. There seem to be NONE in London at all! I had to wait till we were almost home on the outskirts of London to find a petrol station. I also did not have the opportunity for lunch so I was tired out and wobbly when we finally got home! But, worth it for the bean-boy's sweet little body to be okay! We have another appointment in 2 weeks. You know I'm going to do Crazy Woman in Central London: Part 3 and drive again, don't you?! ;)