Moog’s meanderings

Been a bit quiet lately on my blog. Sorry about that! I have been trying to figure out how it is possible to look after a very busy and boisterous toddler as well as a newborn (although he’s now over 8 weeks - I can’t believe it!!). It’s not easy as I am sure all of you who have been/are there will vouch for. Thankfully my Lupus is behaving itself and so are the boys (most of the time). I do find that having them both 24hours a day means that the more mundane things such as coming up with food for hubby and I to eat in the evening can become difficult to achieve. But we’re managing and we do somehow eat and haven’t had a single takeaway since Pumpkin was born(*).

Hubby brought the first broad beans of the season home from the allotment yesterday - hurrah! I absolutely love broad beans. I made bacon & tomato risotto with them (I know it’s not on the recipe, but this recipe is fab if you like risotto but can’t be bothered to stand stirring it for ages so I just modify it to suit my mood/the contents of my fridge). Yum!

Hubby’s PhD update: the Viva is happening very soon so we should know how it all turned out in the next couple of weeks. So far he doesn’t seem very worried about it but I guess he’s had a lot of work to do since the manic weeks getting the PhD finalised and handed in and paternity leave.

(*) Somehow that sounds very good of us, but it’s really that due to my gluten intolerance there’s only one takeaway place that I trust and it’s Indian food. I remember having a curry when Munchkin was tiny and he was really sicky the following day - apparently it’s quite common for spices (and citrus) to affect breast milk in that way - and I don’t want that to happen with Pumpkin as well.

Hubby handed in his PhD today!! YAY!!! We can all relax a bit now

Baby boy born 10th April 2009 @ 1255 weighing 6lb11oz

Well, Shelley wasn’t all that happy with me when I came to pick her up. She was kind of glaring at me in a kind of ‘how could you leave me here?’ kind of way but at the same time purring and wanting affection.
Apparently quite a lot of her teeth were already missing. The vet had to extract a few more. Now she only has 5!! The four ‘fangs’ and one pre-molar. The vet recommended that (while her mouth is still healing up) I should give her a mixture of wet and dry food so that she can choose what’s comfortable for her. I have never seen anything disappear so quickly as the wet food I got for her and put down that evening!!! I think she thought it was her birthday or something. It’s rather convenient giving her that stuff actually as she’s got to take some antibiotics twice a day for 5 days and we’ve always had trouble getting her to take pills. Easily done when they can be disguised in jelly!

On a completely different note; I read in leaflet on the Coeliac UK website that you should eat a normal (ie containing gluten) diet for 6 weeks prior to being tested!!!!!!!!! Given the reaction after one bit of gluten I don’t really think that going back to it for a 6 week period for the purpose of being tested is an option. Surely there must be other ways that gluten intolerance and/or coeliac disease can be medically identified?

Shelley (our cat) has gone in to the vet for a ‘dental’ today. I took her for her annual booster jabs last week and when the vet was giving her a quick check over beforehand he looked in her mouth. It was not good! One very loose tooth (and a bleeding gum) and a couple of others not looking too good. Not that they’re in generally bad condition in the way of plaque and tartar, just falling out and sore gums apparently. They looked really quite painful from what I could see.
I asked the vet whether there was anything I should be doing - possibly feeding her wet food rather than dried, or a mixture, or whatever. He said that the theories change as to which is better and it’s not really clear whether either make a cats teeth worse or better. She’s generally well and healthy and she eats all her dried food each day (in spite of the loose teeth and sore gums) so he said it would be best to carry on as normal.
In any case - she needed to go back for a ‘dental’ and possibly an extraction or two. So today I took her to the vet at 8.40am and signed a consent form before leaving her behind. It’s funny how an animal can become so much part of your life it’s wrenching leaving them behind for a general anaesthetic and something like this even though it’s routine. She’s not a ‘lap cat’ but is very affectionate in her own way and on her own terms. I felt as though I was abandoning her as I went home again without even leaving a favourite teddy or anything for comfort (she doesn’t have anything like that).
I am sure she’ll be fine and all will be well. Hopefully she’ll be more comfortable afterwards too as those teeth must have been painful (even though there was no evidence of that in her demeanor).
The challenge will be keeping her warm and quiet out of Munchkin’s way when I bring her home later.

I keep having things to blog about but then not really having a chance to blog them. So I suppose this could be a long post. Or maybe there’s not much to say when the original desire to write about something has passed.

My parents-in-law have just gone on to see some more family. They’ve been with us since Friday evening and we’ve had a lovely weekend. The weather has been fantastic. Sunny spring weather which was really quite warm. Yesterday we took a picnic to Coughton Court. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to take any pictures to share with you. The grounds are lovely as is the house. On this occasion we didn’t go inside the house (probably a good thing - I keep knocking into things with my bump!) but had a good walk around the play area and some of the grounds. Munchkin had a great time and very much enjoyed going on the climbing frame and slide repeatedly as well as looking at chickens and sheep.

This morning we all went to a very busy Palm Sunday service at our church. It was a really nice service and I wasn’t quite prepared for it to be so packed! It was very well organised too. We all met at the front of church and had the first bit outside (in the beautiful sunshine) before parading into the church with our palm crosses after the choir and the ‘uniformed groups’ (Guides, Scouts, etc.). Munchkin enjoyed waving his palm cross around and was really well behaved considering he woke up with a cold and a nose running like a tap. Poor little thing - he was shattered by lunchtime. He’s enjoying a nice nap now - I hope that it does him some good..

We’ve been enjoying some really wonderful tasting purple sprouting from our allotment. The recent sunny weather (we’ve had some fantastic days over the last couple of weeks) has brought things on well. The broad bean plants are growing up well and will need supporting soon and the shallots and garlic that hubby planted a few weeks ago are starting to shoot. He also sowed lettuces and planted out some seedlings that are further on as well as sowing radishes and leeks. All of which are coming up and seem to be doing quite well. Our spring cabbages and leeks (which we should be having about now) are all on the small weedy side because we planted them later than we ought to have done last year. Ah well - maybe next time we’ll get it right.

I went to the clinic just over a week ago and saw my obstetric consultant and my rheumatology consultant. They’re very happy and my scan showed that things are all progressing well and as they should be. The thing with Lupus however, is that in the case of people with anti-phospholipid antibodies (which I have), there is a risk of miscarriage up to 24 weeks and stillbirth after 24 weeks and which is even greater at then end. So I, like many other Lupus patients, will go in to hospital to have the baby induced at around 38 weeks if it doesn’t put in an appearance before then. That’s the week after Easter. I am very much hoping that this one decides to show up naturally before that happens - as Munchkin did.

The other thing that happened to me over the last week is that I had an adverse reaction to something I ate. I am absolutely certain that it was gluten from bits of batter in a portion of chips I had from the local chippie. I have had chips from there before and it’s been fine - never found anything in them and to be honest I have always considered my gluten thing to be an intolerance rather than an allergy so I don’t bother too much about things that ‘may contain traces of gluten’. So I didn’t worry too much about it and hubby picked out the bits when giving me my chips. However, I didn’t sleep well and my digestive system spent the next 24-36 hours rather unhappy. I wasn’t able to eat anything all day Tuesday because I felt rotten (and Hubby was away with work from before Munchkin was up until after he went to bed - which didn’t help). It made me get to thinking about whether I should try to get myself tested for coeliac disease/gluten sensitivity. I also did a lot of searching on the internet about links between Lupus and gluten sensitivity - with interesting results. But as it’s really time I should get Munchkin up I am going to save that discussion for another day.

The other day I was in town and bought a load of mushrooms for £1. 1.5kg of mushrooms to be precise.  Hubby and I both absolutely love mushrooms so I thought I’d make soup for the freezer or whatever.  However, on reflection I decided that mushroom pate would be a good idea.  I particularly love the Cauldron Organic Mushroom Pate that you can get in some supermarkets but I don’t buy it often because it’s expensive (well, it is if you spread it thickly). So I tried to replicate it.
I chopped a load of mushrooms and put some homegrown garlic through a garlic press. I fried it all in butter and then turned up the heat to evaporate the juice. I sprinkled it with Season All then put it in the blender with some cream cheese. I whizzed it and out came this fantastic delicious mixture fairly similar to the pate I buy. Hurrah!! Both Hubby and Munchkin are addicted to it - I made the mistake of letting them try some and the result was that Munchkin wouldn’t have his supper and instead ate a ramekin of pate with a spoon. Hummmm.

Today I have: accidentally pulled down the end of the curtain rail in the front room, half sorted my desk, cooked and eaten breakfast, made chocolate chip cookies*, made Rosemary Chicken with tomato sauce for later (we’re having my grandad and my brother and sister-in-law over for supper tonight). I still have to finish tidying my desk, make a cake for pudding tonight, make sausage rolls to freeze ready for when I am in hospital to have Pumpkin (they provide gluten free for lunch and supper, but not breakfast as I discovered last time around. I need a substantial breakfast otherwise my Lupus medication makes me feel VERY sick), rest and read the paper.

Hubby has verified that the transformer for one of the kitchen lights was duff (had to go under munchkin’s bedroom floorboards to get it first), been to buy a new one, fitted the new one, fitted a new dimmer switch, mended the curtain rail in the front room, done all my washing up (quite a feat considering the cooking I have been doing), had a long telephone conversation with his sister about his thesis and her dissertation. He’s currently on making modifications to Chapter 6 of his PhD based on the comments I made yesterday after reviewing it. Other things he has to do are go to the allotment and pick veg for tonight and help me with the crossword. And probably some more washing up

Munchkin is not here otherwise very little of the above would be possible! He’s with his grandparents having a holiday while we work on the PhD (and I make sure that Hubby gets breaks and properly fed) and catch up on a few proper nights of sleep.
So far so good…

* This recipe I made up and it worked a treat:
Gluten free choc chip cookies (not the gooey kind):
125g butter
125g caster sugar
1 egg
~1 tsp vanilla essence
150g Doves Farm gluten free plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
chocolate chips (I forgot to measure but I guess about 30g??)

Cream butter and sugar.  Add egg & vanilla essence and beat. Mix flour and baking powder together then add to the bowl and mix thoroughly.  Add and mix in choc chips.  Put teaspoon dollops on a baking sheet (well spaced - they spread!!) and cook on gas 4 for ~ 15 minutes until golden.

Today’s nap time is sitting with laptop.  Definitely a good chance to be ‘resting’!  I am now 32 weeks pregnant and am Big and Tired.  The dining room is out of bounds because of a new cupboard being built around the boiler - ready for decorating next week.  It’s involving drilling and banging so I am currently not washing up, cooking dinner, baking or any of those things I often (need to) fill nap time with.  I am also not in the conservatory as it’s kind of a ’staging area’ for the work in the dining room (bits of wood and stuff piled up).  It’s nice being in the living room actually.  It’s quiet (apart from the drilling next door) and as it’s south facing it’s currently very warm and sun-filled.

Munchkin appears to be having a good nap in spite of his room only being separated from the spare room (the decorator is currently in there - with radio) by plasterboard.  Long may it last!

Hubby is due back this evening.  It would be lovely if he made it back in time to see Munchkin before bed, but it’s a bit of a trek home so I am not really expecting him by then.  I usually go to a pregnancy yoga class on Thursday evenings so I suspect I won’t be going to that tonight.  On the one hand I’d like to go if Hubby is back.  On the other hand, I haven’t seen him since Monday so it’d be nice to just sit down and eat together and get an early night rather than rushing off out as soon as he walks in.

In other news:  We had our first purple sprouting on Sunday night!  It was really tasty.  It’s one particular vegetable that makes having an allotment really worthwhile.  The broad beans are coming up well because of the various sunny days we’ve had.  Hubby made it down on Sunday afternoon to do some bits and pieces while Munchkin was napping and he planted shallots and garlic as well as doing some tidying up.  the spring cabbages are looking a bit small and sad (ah - speaking of which I think I meant to feed them…  something for the weekend?!) and so are our leeks.  I think we’ll end up having them as baby leeks…

Hubby went off for most of the week yesterday.  He’s with a colleage teaching a course over on the east coast so I’m on my own.  Tiring is a good word for it!!  But it does give me an opportunity to catch up on my recorded episodes of ER and Holby City which he isn’t really into so don’t get watched unless I’m by myself.  I seem to be managing to keep on top of things so far even though it’s pouring with rain and I am without the use of the spare room for hanging washing.  Munchkin isn’t playing up too much although we didn’t really agree over lunch so he didn’t end up having very much.  I insisted that he sit in his high chair to eat while he insisted that he sit on my knee.  I refused to let him eat while sitting on my knee, and he refused to eat (and screamed at the top of his lungs) when in his high chair.  So that was that.  It doesn’t seem to be affecting his nap though.

The decorator is here all week doing the spare room (hurrah!) and then he’ll be moving on to the kitchen/dining room and the conservatory.  So far not too disruptive.  I am looking forward to it being done and everything finished.  My parents are staying with us at the weekend so they’ll be first to really use the bedroom in it’s new form.  I hope that it won’t smell too strongly of paint so soon after it is finished!!