Moog's meanderings

Well, obviously not my PhD. And this is a bit belated – those of you who know hubby and me in real life will already have this bit of info. The deadline for corrections was Friday 11th September and in hubby’s usual style of cutting it fine we were up late on the evening of 8th September doing a final proof before it was e-mailed to the printers. He travelled down to Cardiff on Thursday 10th September and met with his internal supervisor to go through the changes, and it was all fine. So now really has got it! We received the hard bound copy for our bookshelf last week and it’s very impressive looking. Very pleased and relieved that it’s finally really actually done and finished. Yay!

In all that’s been going on I have omitted to let you all know that Hubby has had his PhD Viva and it went very well indeed. He has been granted his PhD pending some minor amendments which he has a few weeks to complete. Hooray!! He is very relieved (and we are all very proud). Since that happened we have spent a week in Northumberland at a cottage near Bamburgh with my parents. It was really nice to get away properly without Hubby having to worry about being contacted about work (which always happens when he’s having time off but is at home) or working on the PhD. Pumpkin has started smiling a lot and gurgling and chatting back when he’s given the attention so it was great timing for my parents to spend some time getting to know him a bit. It also meant Hubby and I had the extra pairs of hands and eyes to help out! Mum and Dad took Munchkin out a few times and once took over for a full day so Hubby and I could visit Lindisfarne (Holy Island). Obviously we took the little one with us but he is very happy strapped to one of us in the sling so we were able to take our time reading the information about the Priory and Castle and soaking everything up rather than running around after the boisterous Munchkin!!

Both Pictures are of Lindisfarne Priory.

The last couple of weeks we have been having new potatoes from our allotment. They’re lovely! We’ve just started on the Charlotte variety which I am really enjoying (can’t remember what the other types are off hand). We are also just starting to get a few courgettes and hubby tells me that both the runner and french bean plants are flowering. I haven’t managed to get down to help or have a look since before we went away – timing it right with both kids is apparently more of a challenge than I can handle at the moment!

I have an appointment back at the rheumatology clinic tomorrow morning. Hubby will take Munchkin out to a picnic held by our regular ’stay and play’ group while I go along with Pumpkin. I don’t expect them to change any of my medication or anything. Healthwise things are going pretty well – just the odd blip here and there. I am so lucky to have (a very proactive and helpful) hubby working at home for the most part meaning that he’s available to help out at mealtimes (which for me are the most difficult bit of having to deal with both of them together next to bath/bedtime). I do wonder how my illness would be affected if I had to cope with him being away more on business. He does travel a bit, and generally is off on site about one day a week. I cope, but it’s obviously harder. When he does go away for a few days then I start to see things deteriorating. Lupus is affected by hormones and tiredness/worry/stress sends ones hormones off doing funny things, setting off the Lupus (apart from chronic fatigue being one of it’s big symptoms in the first place). So by the time he gets back I find myself wound up and tired suffering from a short temper from being worn down as well as the familiar arthritic problems in various joints making it hard to do lots of things including picking up/supporting the children. Anyway – I seem to have gone off on a whinge so I apologise!!

Both of the boys are doing well. Munckin will be 2 years old in less than a fortnight! It seems to have crept up on us so fast! He’s such a lovely little boy and he’s just hilarious at the moment as he’s learning to talk. He often stands there for ages looking at me and repeating the same word over and over and over, while I try in vain to decipher what it means. I often don’t manage and it either ends in tears or a very odd kind of lopsided look before he wanders off to do something else! Pumpkin is really getting interactive and smiles a lot. It’s a really nice stage when they get to chuckling and gurgling at your attempts to keep them amused! He is also quite often only waking up in the night once, which is a relief. Although not last night (so I am feeling rather tired especially as Hubby got up to disappear down South for the day at 6am). Isn’t it typical that as I ended up getting up that early having not had a great night anyway the other two boys carried on sleeping until 7.30am!!!

On the (gluten free) baking front I recently made some cheese, corn and bacon muffins (I found the recipe in Coeliac UK’s ‘Crossed Grain’ Summer 2009 Magazine but I can’t seem to find it on their website) and they were really good. A great savoury snack for when you’re on the go. I also made an enormous batch of chicken nuggets a few weeks ago (Most of them are now in the freezer). These were a variation on a recipe I found in How to Feed Your Whole Family a Healthy Balanced Diet, with Very Little Money and Hardly Any Time, Even If You Have a Tiny Kitchen, Only Three Saucepans (One with An Ill Fitting Lid) and No Fancy Gadgets – Unless You Count the Garlic Crusher… and they’re fab! I used coarse polenta to coat them and they’re really good. The apple and carrot in them gives them a very distinctive (good) flavour and it means that I can have chicken nuggets and chips without it costing the earth or being particularly unhealthy. Ironically, now that I have got around to making my own, Sainsbury’s have finally got their gluten free chicken nuggets back on the shelves again (it’s only take about a year since the scare about lactose that made them take them off).

Anyway – as both boys are asleep and the other one’s at work, I might see if I can make the most of it and go for a short rest or even a nap.

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

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.

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.  )

So much has happened since I last blogged properly.  I am unlikely to manage to touch on a lot of it!!!

I am currently sitting in our new and about 90% completed conservatory.  It was a surprise to us towards the end of the year that a conservatory and therefore more space for Munchkin and his future sibling were even a possibility, but it is now an actual physical thing on the back of our house (taking up a portion of our small garden).  It’s all been a bit of a marathon as the big bits (walls, glass & roof, concrete floor) were done before Christmas, but the rest (plastering, sills, floor, electrics & heating) have taken lots of co-ordinating and there are still little bits to be finished off.  However, it now feels like an actual room and is very pleasant.  I like the sheer amount of light!!  I can’t wait for it to be properly finished off and finally decorated so that we can decide how we’re going to use it.

Munchkin has spent the last week with his grandparents in North Wales.  Hubby and I took him up there last Saturday and left on Sunday.  They are bringing him home today.  It was funny in a wierd way leaving him behind last week – not least because he hadn’t actually gone to sleep for his nap and was screaming behind the bedroom door!!!!!  But even though he has stayed away for a few nights before it somehow seemed that he would be more separated from us this time – probably because the distance is so much greater between us and Hubby’s parents than mine but also because he had never been there before so it was new territory!  By all accounts it has worked out very well.  The grandparents appear to have loved every minute of it and Hubby and I had a week by ourselves (for a specified purpose).  I am looking forward to having him back later!!!

So, the specified purpose of the last week was for Hubby to break the back of his PhD.  I am not sure whether he has really broken it but he has had a good go.  He has been doing this PhD part time since 2000.  During that time he has worked full time and spent time abroad working (apart from 2 months a few years ago between jobs – during which he was mostly job-hunting!!).  It’s been quite difficult for him to keep it going and it’s been very much in fits and starts.  The other difficulty is that although his day to day work is connected to his PhD, a lot of his work is for companies on a confidential basis so he cannot easily use the work as case studies in his thesis which will be accessible by anybody.  But the work is there – according to his supervisor and mentor.  So the big thing is to get it sensibly written up.  He now seems to have it mostly complete in an early draft form.  My job has been to read and try to help with the making sense of it (in a big picture kind of way for now).  Later on it will be more proof-reading.  It’s been hard work getting my brain into it so intensively!  Hubby and I both have a Masters Degree in very similar subjects and I am very much in a position to help and criticise his work but I am just not really used to it so constantly anymore and have ended up with a few headaches!!!  But he has made progress and the hope is that it is realistic that it can be successfully completed by April (his absolute final deadline).

We haven’t spent the whole week day and night just doing that.  We made an ad-hoc decision on Wednesday to go to Symphony Hall – not something you can do with a toddler around! – which was really lovely.  We also went out with my brother and sister-in-law last night for a curry to celebrate my birthday (tomorrow).  It’s lovely to be able to go, not worry about getting back for a particular time or about being got up early in the morning!

On the pregnancy side of things everything is looking good.  I am now a bit over 24 weeks and have had scans almost weekly over the last month.  Various reasons (some Lupus related) but everythings fine.  I feel a bit ungainly and am constantly tired but generally well.

Our cat – Shelley – has been rather perturbed by all the work going on outside the back door and the various different workmen coming and going making a good deal of noise.  We bought a new catflap to go in the conservatory door which uses her microchip for unlocking the mechanism meaning she no longer needs to wear a collar with a (fairly heavy) infra-red key fob hanging from it.  We have played some frustrating games learning how to use the new catflap!!!  She’s still a bit suspicious of it but did manage to come in through it this morning without special encouragement.  She’s also suddenly got suspicious of the old one (we’ve turned off the locking mechanism as it’s now an internal door – so it no longer clicks when she gets close enough to go through and I think she doesn’t think it will open for her without the click) so we might have to go through the charade of convincing her that one’s ok to use as well.  Hubby reckons that as soon as Munchkin is home and chasing her around she’ll just go through them both without a second thought, but we’ll see!

The allotment has been utterly neglected.  We have made regular visits to dump our compostable waste on the heap but nothing more than that.  I was delighted between Christmas and New Year to discover that the broad beans are up though!  The purple sprouting is also looking very healthy and one of the plants is even looking as though there are some heads appearing already.  Hubby has been given a day’s hire of an industrial rotovator for Christmas (to use when he wants) so that will be fantastic in the Spring when the weeds start to come back with a vengeance.  Not sure how that fits in with the PhD and arrival of Pumpkin?!  Time is never on our side!

All in all things are good.  Life goes back to ‘normal’ now – in a good way!