Month in numbers November 2014

It's been a while since I recorded my numbers :) why is that?  

Because I have 1 new job :) 0.64 part time but actually lots of hours planning, marking and supervising detentions!  It is a brilliant job but teaching has a way of taking over your time and I do miss my gap year. Maybe I will have another one sometime soon. So this month ...

I have been enjoying walking to school (some days!) and watching the trees change and winter come in. 

36 beautiful and amazingly creative calligrammes made by my year 8 class. That is as many pupils in one class than were in the whole of year 8 in my last school!  We have been studying Apollinaire's calligrammes, fabulous surrealist poems in the shape of the object they describe, I wondered if it would be too difficult but as always my students totally over deliver!  They write beautiful words and illustrated them perfectly.  Very proud.

2 children at school and enjoying their learning this year. This month we have been mostly reading and learning our tables.  

Thousands of poppies at the Tower of London, a truly inspiring sight and I was really impressed that the children took it in and talked so intelligently about Remembrance Day.  I was very proud when w got his british  legion wristband and said he was going to look at it and think about the soldiers who died.  

 

I said no but ....

W wanted a Nutella sandwich after lunch, I said "no you've just eaten".  It all went quiet ...

Then he appeared ...

So I went to check out the kitchen...

It is hard to believe my tiny baby can make his own snacks and starts school next week.

As do I! This is the last week of the gap year, do I need to rename my blog now? Very excited / nervous about going back to work, I am sure by next Thursday night it will feel like I haven't been away.  Although I am teaching German on Friday for the first time in four years eek!  

My month in numbers July 2014

1 house finished!!!  We moved back on Saturday 13th and never would have managed it without Claire and G who worked like troopers to get our rooms clean and beds built so we could all sleep in our new bedrooms.  Thank you :)  The new space is amazing and we love it, the kitchen is so airy and light and a brilliant place to hang out, our new bedroom is just so calm and tranquil with a gorgeous view of the treetops from the new windows! The children love their new room, when they first came in William lay down and said 'I love this carpet'!  3 weeks of James' time and the main parts of the house are decorated beautifully including feature walls with fab wallpaper and quirky picture rails. I love it!!

50 square feet of storage unit still to come back into the house however!  It feels so spacious without all our stuff but we will soon need coat hooks and work stuff.  

The end of my gap year, so I will have to find a way to rename my blog! I had my induction day at my new school and am excited and nervous in equal measures about starting back at work.  I know I will like it once I get started but it is a bit scary especially teaching all new text books.

I finally made it to sports day for the first time in 3 years!  It was great to see Madeleine taking part and hold the ribbon with William because he didn't want to join in :)  The end of term was very calm  and we enjoyed the last few days walking to school again if we couldn't listen to Frozen on our scooters :) 

19 families at the hirschsprungs family day out in Southampton.  It was amazing to see so many children having fun with their siblings, it was impossible to pick out the HD children which is just how it should be. We also met lots of other parents and shared stories and experiences which is invaluable as we go along on our HD journey.  

31st was my birthday!!  Ah well as my now traditional photo of the children I got the most amazing books from Paul.  Our friend is an antiquarian book seller and found him the most beautiful boxed set of the complete works of the Brontë sisters complete with beautiful pictures and a useful ribbon to mark your page (that was the bit Madeleine noticed!).  Best presents ever :) 

My month in numbers April / May 2014

6 weeks with a very poorly little boy meaning I didn't count my stats last month.  8 nights in the children's ward in Southampton, one stoma closed, 3 different hospitals visited for subsequent sickness, endless beds changed and loads of laundry, it is very hard to find time to do anything else apart from looking after w and reading trashy novels.  Lots of books read in April not so many in May!  One very comedy moment when we took w to a&e in Nuneaton and they thought I had brought him because he had chicken pox, once we had established I wasn't that stupid we got a private room to protect the other patients, very nice!  One dose of Botox in mid May and we have our boy back!  It is incredible how well this treatment works and we are on the list for more later in the year.  I feel very blessed to have a team of people working for w that are so dedicated and prepared to keep trying things for him.  It is much easier to leave him in the operating theatre (this month was his 11th op) when I leave him with people who know him and are the best, he has had the same anaesthetist for 10 of his 11 operations and she is brilliant with him and knows him really well and just how to make him comfortable and me reassured.  Don't you dare mess with my NHS Nigel Farage!

One job gained!  The gap year will finish in September when I start working at our local school, it was a lovely interview with a really nice class to teach and a very friendly and encouraging panel interview where I struggled to find things to say apart from I agree with you!  I will have to teach more German than I have for a long time but it is a great school and I will also do French and be back working with the people who trained me a decade ago.  It feels like a nice way to get back into state school teaching after my lovely girls school.  Let's see how I like teaching round the corner and being spotted in the co-op! 

25 years and a lovely silver wedding afternoon tea for my parents,  the vintage china we borrowed from my friend was gorgeous and we managed to repack it without breaking any!  The music was great and Paul was brilliant as always.  Laurie made a lovely speech and it was all very romantic and pretty.  Just don't tell my West Country friends I threw away two bowls of clotted cream at the end of the afternoon!    We all had fun and I was very proud of the children being so good and polite while older people said how big they were!  W ate about 10 scones so I think his appetite is back!

56 bottles of wine drunk on our amazing half term holiday in Whitstable!  It was so lovely after such an awful six weeks to have a well boy and properly enjoy a week away with our friends.  So many highlights, prosecco in the sun, #breadbinheadchampers, amazing fish platter in Whitstable, ice cream in the rain! mini golf and Chris hitting the ball onto the promenade, w crying when he had to be silent in Canterbury cathedral because he doesn't like to whisper!  M and her new best friend which made their mummies VERY happy.  Just a really lovely week in the country with people we love.  

At least 100 times that we have heard "let it go" including the preschool assembly and a word perfect rendition on our new stage!  M is convinced that we should leave the new kitchen like this so it can be a theatre,  Paul wants a festival I am sticking with the steps and breakfast bar I have ordered!  

The house is coming on quickly and there are now 6 new rooms that actually look like rooms, it is getting exciting now that we can think about carpets and furniture and the fun stuff. There is only so much interest I can show in plasterboard and damp courses.  

My month in numbers is a monthly memory keeping idea from the brilliant Julie Kirk, check it out on her blog http://notesonpaper.blogspot.co.uk 

A moment of calm!

There haven't been many moments like this during my gap year!  I had wondered at the start if I could work in cafés using wifi while the children were at school. The reality is very rarely!  BUT since w had his Botox last week and is back at school I am enjoying a little burst of freedom :) having spent the last 6 weeks focusing on getting our boy back on track it is strange now to find myself with 3 hours to fill in the morning. I have LOTS to do but occasionally find time for a cup of tea and an hour on my iPad using the free wifi.  Today is a bonus as I have my free waitrose cup of tea!

I am starting to feel like a real person again!

Did you notice the torsade?  Well if the tea is free you need to have a cake, I am a marketeer's dream!

After I wrote this I remembered I hadn't voted yet so the moment of calm turned into a rush round the rest of the supermarket and then on to home to vote.  I was shocked at the number of parties on the ballot paper and how many seemed to be vaguely racist and most were anti EU.  I shudder to think what could happened they all got together thank goodness for factions.

My month in numbers March 2014

I finally wrote my entry and clicked off to edit a photo and lost the whole thing!! Lesson learned!

A quick rewrite!

22 days late with my march summary - will explain in April!

100 Club - a cool venue to see Paul's band and celebrate my baby brother turning 40 :). And nice to have someone to dance with thank you Gerard x

1 extension started and 2 very happy children who got to ride the digger in the first week!

This has been a plan for so long that it is strange to see the work finally start, they are going so fast that we moved out at the end of March to let the builders start knocking things down!

60 books read in the bbc books to read list, and a shameless chance to show off on Facebook as I have done anything cool!!  

I have actually read 3 of the books in French although I did finish Germinal in English or I would still be reading it!  

2 crafty challenge days before W finished nursery where I got to play with watercolour and all the goodies we bought at the craft show from the start of the month!  Lots of fun with crafty friends and lots of pages made instead of hoarding supplies :) this was the picture I was editing and who knows where those numbers came from!!  

My month in numbers is the brilliant idea of Julie Kirk check out her blog at: http://notesonpaper.blogspot.co.uk

Goodbye Mr Burp!

It feels very strange to be waking up without Mr Burp to look after today.  W has been very good and is cross and grumpy today which is a an excellent sign.  We are back in the same bed with the same view we have had for our last three stays and I am hoping this is the last time but it will be strange to have left this stage behind.  Now we are just waiting for a poo to show that the reconnected plumbing works ... 

Week 1 of our grand design!

Our grand design project has finally started.  The builders turned up at 7.45 on Monday 17th and by the time we were setting off for school most of the front garden and patio were gone!  They also let William ride the JCB and moved the plants I wanted to keep :) 

Foundations dug on day two and by the end of the week the brickwork was well underway.  

And they let Madeleine have a go on the digger too before it went back!  Two very happy children :) 

What will we see next week I wonder?  Watch this space...

Saved from the digger :)

I cannot believe how fast this first bit of building is going!  I am sure it will slow down and become very stressful in a grand designs fashion but at the moment they are making huge changed everyday and let W ride on the digger so everyone is happy :) 

My month in numbers February 2014

Quite a lot to pack in this month despite the missing days!  I did the usual thing of thinking there wasn't much to say then went back over my diary and Facebook (is that sad?!) and realised we have done loads this month. 

XX times - not a typo I really can't count how many times this month we have pretended to be Jenny Jones!  We spent a few days in Plymouth last month visiting family and heard first hand about her preparation from her brother (he is married to my cousin!) and so ever every excited about seeing Penny's aunty in the Olympics.  We watched her qualify and then win a medal and were SO excited and pleased.  She is a real inspiration and the children have perfected their slope style technique for the scooter which we do all the way down the cycle path!

1 mortgage secured for our extension!  Who knew borrowing money that was ours on paper would  be so time consuming?!  After sending almost every piece of paper in the house to the mortgage company it is all done and the builders start in mid march, eek!  We are really excited about transforming our home and making it a place we can stay for a lot longer.  Now we have drawings and an idea what it will be like I am looking forward to the new spaces and most of all being able to have a whole other family to visit at once!

So ready for the new rooms at our crafty meet this month I made 2 canvasses using my 30+ rolls of washi tape! a pile of stencils and lots of bits from home.  It was really fun to work on something so free form and it is totally my style with loads of colour and texture.  All we need now is a wall to hang them on... Maybe the family space can be a crafty space?!

11 nights we had Rocky and Shelley to stay with us and they had fun, well as much fun as you can tell two snails are having!  We fed them cucumber and apple, gave them a bath and watched them move VERY slowly around their tank!  The nice bit was how excited the children were to have the responsibility of looking after them, and if you are going to have a class pet to stay Giant African Land Snails are probably the least hassle :) 

3 lovely half term outings, a morning at the cinema watching Tinkerbell and the pirate fairy, W was enthralled, M more interested in her pick and mix!  Then a day at soft play with cousins,  lots of playing, 2 canvasses painted and nearly lunch if only wee could have found a café!  Finally M and I had an amazing day in London,  we saw street performers by the bucketload - a man on a bed of nails, another on an 8ft unicycle and lots of pretend statues.  It is so nice to visit somewhere I know well and see it through someone else's eyes in a new way.  I was super proud when we visited the national gallery and looked at art we liked, we talked about the colour and texture of the Van Gogh's and bought loads of stuff in the shop!  Then it was off to Westminster Abbey which could have been a disaster but they had an amazing kids trail and we spent ages checking out the kings and queens tombs, learning about the coronation and even got in to see Edward the Confessor's shrine, pushed along by the promise of a chocolate coin at the end - and it was worth it the coin was huge!

And finally,  24 years - how long I have known my lovely friend Kate :) who could have known that a chance meeting on a university visit day would have turned into such an important and long lasting friendship. This month we had a girls Saturday night out, dinner and then watching Jack Whitehall alongside some celebs!  Us being us we were gossiping and drinking wine and only realised something was going on when we realised everyone was looking at us, well not at us, past us to Frankie Lampard, Alex One Show and Holly Willobooby!  I never cease to be amazed at how rude people can be, they must have posed for about 100 pictures on people's phones and in the end had to ask people to leave them alone to watch the show!  We had a great time though and then caught up over several bottles of wine and 16 chocolates (v precisely counted by the children the next morning!).   

My month in numbers is the brilliant memory keeping idea of Julie Kirk, find out more at http://notesonpaper.blogspot.co.uk/p/months-in-numbers.html

Huh! Digger time!

Just a quick update to share, the diggers are coming!  Only two weeks until the builders come to start our extension and I get a real job for my gap year :) 

It is really exciting to think that in just a few months (well about 5!) we will have our new home, be able to entertain and have overnight guests.  I can now start to think about what we can put inside and what it will look like.

Now we just need to pack up and decide where we are going to stand for the weekly progress photos :) 

My month in numbers January 2014

The communal count 

Number of new things tried 2 - I tried making notes for month in numbers but I still wasn't quicker! (I have also wasted 5 days trying to get the photos off our camera from G's 40th but was thwarted but our super duper security software).  We have also started a cleaning routine which is giving us a much nicer, cleaner house :) while it is working well for me W is not so sure, last week he said, "I don't like Tuesday and Friday because of preschool, I don't like Wednesday because of swimming and I don't like Monday because I don't like dusting!" I have looked at lots of planners and ideas for organising 2014 on blogs, it is funny because although I would like a new planner and love the look of some of them I work on an academic year and September is my month for new diaries and new resolutions.

Bread - a new thing for us is not eating so much bread in our house so we only buy little loaves for the children.  They cost 80p :) 

My numbers..

20+ the number of times I have pulled the sofa out to find the marbles for the marble run W got for Christmas.  It is a really cool toy and we have had lots of fun building towers and runs but I am starting to wonder if it was a good idea for Santa to bring marbles to a house with wooden floors!  "Watch out runaway marble!" is the soundtrack to my days.

8 new families we met at our HD family day in January, it was so nice to meet other people in real life that are experiencing the same things we are living through.  It was lovely to see W meeting another child with a Mr Burp and also seeing how well the older children coped.  We are hoping to have a longer family day in the summer somewhere on the coast as we are all treated in Southampton.  It was so special to do something nice and not medical connected with HD.

17 hours late - our online shopping delivery!  Waitrose had a January promotion and were offering a free bottle of champagne for each online delivery, I think this was too much for our local branch and we waited a LONG time for our food!  I was so cross but when the guy came to deliver he was really young and everyone had been shouting at him so I just felt sorry for him and couldn't be angry at all!  We ended up with lots of voucher for another shop and the champagne so it worked out ok in the end.

Something with 3 noughts! The final bill for Gerard's AMAZING 40th birthday party.  We have been to lots of 40ths in the last few years and the incredible thing is they have all been totally different and all fabulous in their own way.  G had arranged a really sophisticated dinner in a lovely hotel, we had a private dining room overlooking the Thames and delicious food matched to perfect wines by the sommelier.  We had a very raucous family end of the table which ended up with Paul and Kim singing Meatloaf in the bar!  

My month in numbers is the brilliant idea of Julie Kirk, find out more on her blog notes on paper.

A tale of two hedgehogs

"Mummeeee, there's poo on the changing table!"

In a house that is as concerned with bowel movements as ours this is enough to send a chill down your spine.  What will I find when I get there?  Pootastrophes are less common these days but can be impressive and always result in more laundry.

So I climb the stairs in trepidation, open the door (which still creaks and has been annoying me for 4 years but for this story provides a suitable sound effect track!), and turn towards the changing table...

And this is what I see!

The poo in question is a small fluffy hedgehog who is part of a complex game involving billy the snake, a juggling ball and the Heisenberg hat!  (Readers please note W has not watched Breaking Bad but because I said he looked like Heisenberg in his hat he says it each time he puts it on!) 

The hedgehogs arrived two years ago at Halloween,  they were attracted to the hollowed out pumpkin and were waiting for the children one morning at Granny's when the had a sleepover.  They named them and Granny kindly sewed a name label for each one to avoid arguments.  W called his Poo as you know, M called hers Prickles and that tells you everything you need to know about how different two children from the same family can be! Needless to say both of them have quickly embraced the joy of being able to shout Poo!  and then blame it on the hedgehog, hours of fun for all.

The adventures of Mr Burp

When W was a baby and first diagnosed with Hirschsprungs Disease a common theme was 'let's try and avoid giving him a stoma'.  It seemed the worst thing that could happen was a stoma,  one year on in our adventures with Mr Burp and the stoma turns out to the best thing has happened to W. He is healthy and happy, hasn't been sick for MONTHS, has grown like a magic beanstalk and is very cheeky and naughty!  We have got used to the process and the equipment and like the predictability of the stoma and bag.  We are so relaxed that W has a tendency to show anyone his scars and mr burp bag and whip off a leaking bag in the swimming pool changing room without batting an eyelid. I love how relaxed and unselfish conscious he is.

As we wait for a date to have his stoma closed these are the things I should remember.  The things the stoma nurses don't always tell you!

If the bag is going to leak it will happen at 830am, 2.55pm when you have started the latest episode of breaking bad or at a play centre at the top of the twirly thing where you have to climb through the rollers. Or when you have just sat down in Costa with a friend and a cup of tea!

If he says it is leaking ignore him at your peril!  Even if you can't see anything it will break through very soon!

You will never want to smell peppermint again! (they did tell me that actually!)

Stoma paste sticks to anything and needs to be chiselled off!  Actually I might try using it for art projects :) 

You wouldn't believe how much a bag inflates during a swimming lesson, it must be the pressure, the poor thing looks like he has beriberi when he gets out of the pool.  Of course he doesn't notice!

It is easier to give a three year old extra crisps than a sodium supplement :) 

Two part bags meant I didn't have to stay up late just to empty.  More sleep is lovely, wish we'd had these at the start!

Tell people looking after W the obvious things, like roll the bottom of the bag up after emptying it!  

You need space to store all the stuff!  Best £69 we ever spent was our changing table, room for all this and a toddler watching an iPad on top.

I am apprehensive about the future and what will happen after Mr bump goes back inside, but I won't miss the piles of equipment and remembering the bag everywhere we go.

Mystery photo time!

What is this?!

No nothing surgical!  Homemade beet root crisps, low carb and surprisingly tasty.

I think it might be time to look for a new teaching job, I also washed the dusters last week!

Katie x

My month in numbers December

What a lovely month :) 

60 each of croissants, pain au chocolats and chocolat chauds served at the year 6 café to mark the end of our first term working together.  It was so nice to have such enthusiastic students and they all entered into the spirit of it with real gusto, when I arrived they had decorated the hall and put on the music from Allo Allo!  Everyone ordered in French and served their parents and guests in French as well, at the end of the afternoon they gave me a lovely thank you card they had made themselves and a chocolate Santa that the children and I ate while playing the gingerbread man game on New Year's Day!

46664 - Nelson Mandela's prison number, the press coverage reminded me how inspirational he was.  His imprisonment is one of the first things I can remember being interested in as an adult topic and it is amazing to think his struggle covered the whole of my life!  

8 postcards bought at the national portrait gallery on my grown up day out in London.  It was such a treat to have a chance to do something adult, I walked along the south bank at a reasonable pace, had a delicious lunch with my husband and saw lots of cool Elizabethan pictures.  It is so interestingly to see the faces to go with all the names from the books I have read.

3 beautiful carol concerts attended, a very Wildmoor Christmas was lovely and really special as it was the first time I have been able to go to a Christmas show since M started school.  Year 2 sang Stille Nacht in German perfectly and were the highlight of the show!  W had a great concert where they sang lots of songs with actions and then after 15 mins Hayley said 'that's the end!' And off we went clutching a chocolate coin, my favourite was Christmas pudding!  Then in the last week of term we went back to M's school for a French café, we had croissants and hot chocolate and then they sang vive le vent as part of French Christmas week, très impressionnant et je me suis bien amusée! 

12 bottles of rosé!  For our family Christmas party everyone had to do a 'turn' based on one of our holiday journals from the 80s.  We wrote 'on the first day in west France our family we did see' and performed it before lunch with extra loud singing by W who continues to sing it in the car every few days!  Reading the journal showed how different your memories can be!  One of our favourite stories about that holiday was when we went out in the dinghy not realising what the Atlantic waves were like and nearly took out an elderly French lady being swept back in to the beach at 100kms an hour!  We have been talking about it for years, doesn't get a mention! But the journals did remind me how much we did on those holidays and how lucky we were even if we didn't know it at the time, and all that French! 

One Christmas dinner cooked for 6 guests and all went according to plan thanks to Nigella!  We ended up having a really nice and chilled Christmas, we saw everyone who needed to be seen and had some fab family days at home and out and about.  

The communal count: 

How many Christmas movies is too many?  You can NEVER have too many Christmas movies, we discovered Arthur Christmas this year and Home Alone 4(!).  The highlight of our Christmas viewing was Wreck-it Ralph our new favourite film, we must have seen it a dozen times and W now goes around the house fixing things with his fix-it Felix hammer.

How many Christmas events did you attend?  2 Christmas carol concerts, two end of term French cafés, one lovely 'company do' lunch with my boss/husband! Two family parties with 'shows' and my favourite bit every year children's Christmas mass.

My month in numbers is the brilliant story telling idea of Julie Kirk at http:/notesonpaper.blogspot.uk.