Moog's meanderings

Munchkin came home yesterday after a week on holiday with his grandparents.  He seemed to have a great time and apparently wasn’t any trouble!  Since he got home he’s been re-trying all his boundaries and within 24 hours I feel as shattered and ‘tried’ as though I hadn’t had a week without him!!!  However, it is lovely to have him back again.  The house has been very lonely and quiet without him and both hubby and I have missed him a lot.

The chimney breasts are gone!  And so is most of the dust.  The walls, floors and ceiling are ‘made good’ and we’ve got things back (ish) to where they should be.  It all just needs some serious decorating!

We went to a ‘refresher’ antenatal class yesterday morning.  It was actually quite good.  I had wondered whether there was any point at all in doing a class having gone through the whole giving birth thing less than 2 years ago, but it was actually useful and I felt that I got something out of it.  Having done it once I suppose that there are different questions to be answered and different concerns as well as knowing what went well and what didn’t hence what you want to concentrate on being better prepared for (to try and make it better).  Of course, I am well aware that sometimes these things don’t go to plan and everything is out of the window, but I am a great believer that the more information we have the better equipped we are to make a choice in a situation.

Munchkin has gone away on holiday.  I would say that it’s quiet without him, but we have builders in the house who are currently demolishing the chimney breast in the dining room and the bedroom above so it’s hardly quiet.  Hubby has the week reserved for his PhD.  We had a very productive day yesterday with him working on it and I reviewed one of his chapters and we discussed it.  It’s good to feel that we’re getting somewhere and that I am able to make helpful contributions.

This morning we’re still trying to get everything out of the way while they get on upstairs – Munckin’s room has the furniture from the spare room in it, so that’s fine.  The problem is the contents of the many shelves as well as the fitted wardrobe and cupboard (which are being ripped out and won’t be going back when the room is decorated).  We have spent the last two evenings ’sorting’ things and the result is a load of rubbish but even more ’stuff’ in boxes to go to the attic.  I have passed all the lighter boxes up there but Hubby is having to do the rest himself because of my ‘delicate condition’.  It’s annoying not being able to be as useful as I would be in a non-pregnant state.

We popped down to the allotment yesterday to see whether there was any purple sprouting ready yet.  A couple of the larger plants have some lovely heads coming on them but they’re not quite ready for picking yet.  They’re looking very healthy though and I can’t wait to enjoy eating them.  The leeks are very small and rather drowned in weeds (another thing I’d rather like to do something about but getting up and down to and from a crouching or kneeling position is increasingly difficult and I am afraid that the weeds are a bit big to be upset by a hoe).  The broad bean plants are growing and looking fairly healthy and the spring cabbages are getting there slowly.  I read somewhere that it’s a good idea to give them a feed about now to get them some nutrients after a few months of winter/wet depriving them.  Must remember to do that over the next few days.

On Sunday I made a gluten free carrot cake, recipe courtesy of my Dove’s Farm recipe book (free with a stamped addressed envelope). It is rather nice and it’s also vegan. Definitely one I will make again. I can’t seem to find the recipe on their website though – if anyone’s interested I will post it later.

Well, I suppose I’d better go and do what I should be doing – helping with the ole PhD.  )

We’ve booked our tickets for Greenbelt 2009! Hurrah! Not sure how it’s going to work with a just 2 year old and a 3 month old, but other people manage so I’m sure we will. I can’t wait after missing out for the last 2 years )

Is it just me, or did CBeebies completely forget to play the bedtime song last night???

Well, he didn’t. I had a sandwich and a cup of tea and read the paper for a bit, studiously ignoring the intermittent wailing from upstairs. I really needed the opportunity to sit down and felt a lot better for it. Munchkin actually didn’t seem too perturbed by it in the end (except asking for Daddy when I went in to get him!). He did have a wierd rest of the day though – refused to eat any lunch at all. Managed a chocolate cake a little later! Ran riot at the Playcentre we went to later on with a friend and her son and was then persuaded to eat a good tea. He was really shattered by the end of it all and is still currently asleep.
Today hubby has gone to work by train so that I can use the car to get to our group this morning. Having not been well last week I have yet to figure out the bus to there yet.

Munchkin has a very good routine most of the time.  It’s nice because I can generally rely on having a couple of hours in the middle of the day (after lunch).  It’s been getting more important the further on in the pregnancy I get as I need the rest time!

Today Munchkin and I went to the library under 5’s group as usual.  We walked (well, I walked and pushed while he looked at the scenery).  It was harder than usual because of the semi-defrosted slushy sludge on hilly bits which haven’t been warmed by the sun yet.  On the way back I went to the Co-op to buy Milk.  By the time I’d got 50 yards out of the shop, he was asleep.  A good hour earlier than usual and without lunch.  ‘No problem’ I thought.  ‘I’ll just walk home and he can finish his nap there – that should give me a good hour to sit down and have a bite to eat’.  No such luck!  As I was heaving him and the pushchair up the steps in front of our house (not easy steps as any of you who have visited will know) he woke up.  Argh!  What to do??  So, I decided to just pretend that it was nap time, took him upstairs and put him in his cot.  Problem is, having had about 45 minutes already I am not sure he’ll go back to sleep again.  He’s still whinging and crying about being left (it’s been about 20 minutes now).

He’ll be a nightmare if I get him up now and he doesn’t have any more sleep all day.  I think I’ll give it a bit longer and hope that he drops off…..

This season hasn’t been good for parsnips. We sowed two or three lots (can’t remember) and from the last lot a single seedling appeared. My dad reckons that parsnips aren’t all that easy to grow although the first year we had the allotment we sowed a batch and had lots of lovely parsnips as a result. Beginner’s luck apparently!! The other puzzling things is that once they’re there they seem to just appear everywhere you don’t want them. When we took on the allotment there were parsnips growing all over the place. When we were digging over the plot making it into beds and pathways we were constantly coming across rogue parsnips (and potatoes, for that matter). For supper last night with our roast chicken we had the lone parsnip that we had grown roasted (alongside our roast potatoes, roast sweet potatoes, carrots and broccoli). It was truly yummy.
Hopefully we’ll have better luck growing them next winter.

..well, I suppose if we really put our mind to it we could get out and about. I have walked up the road to buy eggs. Munchkin, hubby and I walked round the block and threw snowballs. Getting the car in and out of the garage is not easy in the snow (as hubby experienced on Monday evening) so we’ve decided not to bother. The small roads where we live are bad (and not gritted) although the main roads seem to be ok.
It turned out that hubby wasn’t needed for the thing he was supposed to be doing workwise down south for Tues-Thurs so he never went. Given the situation on the roads according to the national travel news bulletins I am very relieved! It’s also been useful as I had a weird Tuesday and Wednesday and needed the help with Munchkin. I spent most of Tuesday in bed aching and feeling sick – all I managed all day was half a ginger biscuit and an apple. Of course, having not eaten anything I spent all of Wednesday feeling absolutely shattered. Today is very much better, but hubby feels shattered and has a nasty headache (and doesn’t look great). He’s gone for a nap.
I’ve been suffering quite badly from heartburn the last week or two. I did have it a bit when I was pregnant with Munchkin, but it started a lot later on and didn’t seem to bother me as much. It means that napping after lunch (well, lying down anyway!) isn’t a great idea because of the reflux so my plan is to watch TV or read instead. Not that I have been napping – more like rushing around the house getting things done, making bread or supper, tidying up or whatever. That’s probably not the best thing to be doing straight after lunch when one’s stomach is somewhat limited on space due to a hyperactive member of the next generation incubating down there.
Hey ho – TV it is! )

Hubby made it home again but spent 1/3 of his journey time within 5 miles of home. The snow situation (depending on your point of view) got progressively worse throughout the day and it’s now rather unwise to try to get anywhere. I am now no longer going to do the visit I talked about in my earlier post.
I was very proud of myself to have managed the walk to and from our regular group this morning. Munchkin slept very late and what with the snow making progress with the pushchair rather slower than usual we made it just in time for the sing-song and tidy up!! A nice person made me a cup of tea and gave Munchkin a biscuit though, and I managed to hang around and natter for nearly an hour so it was definitely a worthwhile expedition.
The second trip out wasn’t so much fun – longer and there was more snow to contend with. I made it the health centre (not my local one) where the notice at the reception desk advised ‘if you have an appointment wait to be called’ and listed the numbers for the various people/groups/clinics operating out of the centre. I sat and waited – having an appointment. 45 minutes later a nice lady asked me what I was waiting for and went to find out where the midwives were. None on site, and no clinic today. Frustrated? An understatement! This is just one in an ever increasing list of ‘miscommunications’ from my midwife (and these days I double check everything she tells me because there have been so many mistakes – dates, times, locations, …). As I was leaving I bumped into one of the midwives I know from my pregnancy with Munchkin, who had just returned from my regular health centre and had been wondering why I hadn’t turned up to my 1430 appointment. Grrr! When I left it was snowing fairly heavily and I can say that the trek back wasn’t all that much fun. Thankfully Munchkin slept from part way through the outward to just into the return journey, so at least he wasn’t too much disrupted by it all.
Looking forward to a nice hot bath (promised by hubby when he finally made it home) and homemade chicken stew with mash in front of the TV. Mmmm!

Munchkin is still asleep and I don’t intend to wake him just yet so time for a quick post!
Brum doesn’t seem to be that bad with the snow so I don’t think we’ll be in for a ’snow day’ today. Hubby has disappeared in the car (we have cut down to one) so I will be walking with Munchkin in the snow to our group this morning and then to a midwife appointment this afternoon. Unfortunately the midwife appointment is not at my usual clinic and involves me walking a lot further than usual so we’ll see whether munchkin can cope with being confined to a pushchair while I take a slowish pace. I am finding now that I am getting bigger and he is getting bigger that pushing the pushchair around can be hard work! At 18 months old he does like to walk but not particularly far before he wants to be picked up, and not particularly directly to where we want to go!!!
Tonight I am off out doing some ‘work’ type stuff. Not the paid kind! I have agreed to take over as a local volunteer for a charity. This means meeting potential and actual beneficiaries to assess their needs and write an initial and then yearly report. Tonight I am making a visit with the existing local volunteer from whom I will be taking over.
This week is going to be a long week I think. Partly because of today being a long day and having the visit which means being back home lateish (it’s not very near where I live). Also because tomorrow hubby is off (with car) and won’t be back until Thursday evening – hopefully in time for me to dash out to my pregnancy yoga class and relax a bit! Being without the car isn’t the end of the world. Lots of people get around without a car. I just haven’t much experience of getting buses around Brum. The groups that Munchkin and I go to on a Wednesday and Thursday are not walkable. Last week we trialled getting to the Thursday group on the bus – which worked well. This week I guess I’ll be looking up what route/timings I need to get to the Wednesday group on the internet again. The Traveline Midlands website is quite good and up to date. I am trying to think of it as an adventure!!!
Note to self: remember to spend evenings (and Munchkin’s nap times) relaxing rather than ‘working’ – whether around the house or volunteer type stuff – to keep the Lupus from flaring up out of the tiredness.

In other news – it was amusing watching the cat tiptoeing carefully down the garden in the fresh snow!! Even though there’s only a covering.