Moog's meanderings

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!!

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.  )

It’s getting there. The plastering has been finished off, and some of the sills and things also. It transpires however, that 4 of the panes on the front bit of the roof are the wrong way up. Apparently this means they have to actually manufacture new ones to fit because you can’t just swap them over. So we wait for someone else to come and sort that out. And the door doesn’t seal properly which is causing a draught – hopefully they’ll fix that when they come and replace the roof panes. So we’re getting there but it still feels a bit as though it’s still hanging in the air waiting to get sorted.
Hubby put the fence back this afternoon. He started on it last weekend when we had a friend around to help – re-stacking the bricks for under the fence, cutting the old fence panel and getting new fence posts and fixings to attach the re-sized panel to. He even borrowed ‘large’ drill bits from my brother. They weren’t big enough so today he had to buy some very large ones to do the job. Our power drill died in the process (thankfully we had a spare we had a rechargeable one as well which managed to finish the job) but he got there in the end. The garden looks somewhat tidier now and it’s nice not being pretty much in next door’s garden every time we go outside the door anymore. It’s also nice not having the old bits of fence panel lying around on the lawn.