Climbing the walls

I was climbing the walls tonight....but in a good way! Tai Chi Man and I took two of the boys to the indoor climbing centre - a friend's son came too.


Lego Nut has been before but the rest of us were climbing wall virgins!


It was fun! Hands are a little sore now, and I'm sure there'll be a few muscles letting themselves be known tomorrow. The kids want to go back again....and again....and again!

There's a drop-in on Saturdays so I'm sure I'll take them now and then (and I'll sit upstairs and knit and occasionally watch them climb). After all, I can't risk damaging my knitting fingers, can I?

That red blob in the centre is Tai Chi Man - you can hardly see him for all the handholds and tape on the walls.

And the best part? The boys' school paid for them to climb as an educational expense.

Getting ready for Samhain

We have never been a trick-or-treating family at Halloween. Bringing up vegan children, any candy that they might collect would most likely not be vegan so would have to be given or thrown away. However that doesn't mean that the kids haven't enjoyed dressing up and carving pumpkins.


A couple of years ago, rather than hide in a dark house to avoid any kids coming to the door (Bah, Humbug!), I decided we needed a ritual that we could enjoy without the excessive candy element. So now we celebrate Samhain, the pagan festival that Halloween is, after all, based upon. It is a time to remember our ancestors, celebrate the harvest and make predictions for the coming year.


Today we carved jack o'lanterns and roasted the pumpkin seeds with oil, sugar and spices.


I finished making cloaks for the two younger boys. And tomorrow we're going to have a mini-pumpkin hunt in the garden....though the mini-pumpkins are actually satsuma oranges on which we have drawn jack o'lantern type faces. Not only is it cheaper to buy satsumas but we can actually eat them afterwards!

Some of our pumpkins are reversible with designs on both sides....here they are...

If Women Ruled the World

I'm very aware that I haven't blogged since Monday. However there is a good reason for that. My blog is my homepage - every time I have clicked into Firefox in the last few days, there's been that great photo of Hugh looking out at me and I haven't had the heart to replace him!

However I suppose I can't leave him there forever, so here's an update.

I'm in the middle of reading a book called If Women Ruled the World: How to Create the World We Want to Live In. This is a collection of essays by women from many different backgrounds. I'm really enjoying it. In fact, I'm enjoying it so much that I'd love it if each of my female blogging readers would write a post entitled If Women Ruled the World and give their version of how they see things being different. It would be great if each person who takes up this challenge could challenge their own readers to do the same. So if you're reading this, please think about writing a post and telling others about it. Pass it on!

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Off topic, my oldest son has a new name - instead of Computer Geek, to which he objected in the comments the other day, he is now to be known as MacAddict. That's Mac as in Apple Macintosh computers. We've always been a Mac family but when MacAddict wanted his own computer last year he ended up building a desktop PC. He did an awesome job. This was followed up by the acquisition of a laptop PC - he just HAD to have one for our holiday in the spring, and a PC was cheaper. However I have lost count of the number of complaints I have heard from him about PCs, Windows, Microsoft et al over the last few months. I have learned many new computer terms from him, one of them being "the blue screen of death" (which is what you get when your PC crashes - which it has done, many times).

Now he has spent the last dime that he had left on the planet (and a few of ours) to get a refurbished Macbook Pro. A laptop with a 15 inch screen and lots of capacity. He's loving it! He may have had plenty of "learning experiences" with the PCs, but he also had a lot of stress. Having been over to the Dark Side, he has now seen the light and fully appreciates the beauty, functionality and user-friendliness of a Mac.

Oh yes, and he also bought an iPod Touch. This makes, let's see, the third iPod so far. The other two were only Nanos though!

Medals

This is how K and I spent Worldwide Knitting in Public Day (Saturday)... earning medals in Taekwondo! Didn't have time to knit.

We were up at 6.30 to be ready to leave at 7.30 for the one hour drive to Vernon. The morning was spent watching the younger/lower ranked competitors. As a black belt, I had my first experience of judging some boys performing their patterns and sparring. In patterns, there are five judges, in sparring there's a centre referee and four corner judges.

Later, K competed in his division, earning a silver medal in patterns. His group was split into heavy- and light-weights for sparring, which was good as K is on the light side. At the same time, I competed in my division - there were five women in my group. It was a relatively small tournament, so they grouped all the women red and black belts over 18 together (normally I would have been lumped with the "35 and better" women). I made a mistake the first time I performed my pattern, but did it perfectly the second time, and made bronze. I sparred two rounds, first with my friend from my own club, and later with a woman from Vernon. No medals there!

Once that was out of the way, I was free to judge the men's black belt sparring. That was great! The black belt men always compete last and a bigger deal is made out of it than anything else. It's somewhat sexist, I'm afraid. I loved the judging - I was a bit nervous about doing it at first, but I got the hang of it by the end of the day.

I was happy with my bronze medal, as I have had a painful health problem the last few weeks that I thought might stop me from competing, but I resorted to a couple of preventative painkillers and made it through okay.

R spent all day Saturday and Sunday in a First Aid course, renewing his certification. It's paid for by his employer, but unfortunately he has to do it on his own time.

And today we celebrated S's tenth birthday. Yes, double digits for my youngest son. Ten years ago today, my bedroom was set up as a birthing room. Two midwives were here to assist me. My oldest son was 6 at the time and was standing in the hall with my neighbour, who had been looking after him and my 3 year old while I was in labour, watching me give birth to his littlest brother. (I just reminded him and he said he doesn't remember it. Boo hoo! My neighbour certainly remembers it, though - she got more than she bargained for that night!) It was wonderful and definitely the best birth experience of the three (not that I had a bad experience with the other two, but this was the BEST)!

I didn't have to make cake - S said he wanted some mango coconut Good Karma rice ice cream instead, though I also bought the Mudd Pie and Mint Chocolate flavours. We had home-made sub sandwiches and strawberries dipped in melted chocolate too. A gift was easy - I took his wish list into ToysRUs and found a Lego set that he wanted - a Mars Mission set called Alien Infiltrator, which he just finished building and brought to show me.

Happy birthday, S.

Some retro decor

Looking through those old photos, I couldn't help noticing the colour scheme in the house in which I grew up.


This photo was taken at Christmas in 1966. I would have been four, my sister two. Admire the lovely curtains with the orange flowers and the carpet that looks almost leopard-print! My dad used to set the self-timer and run around to get into the picture. Handsome devil, wasn't he!


The second and third ones were taken on the occasion of my sister's 3rd birthday. She obviously received a doll's pram as a gift. Note the delightful orange wallpaper. The coal fire in the living room was the only heating in the house, except I think for a wall heater in the bathroom.


Quite a crowd there for the birthday party. This was the dining room. I'm sure that wall co-ordinated beautifully with the black and white tile floor.


The final picture should give you a laugh. I can guarantee this is the most you'll see of me on this blog! I don't know how old I was in this one.

And lastly, for those who are knitting-deprived,
my sock progress...

...actually I have since turned the heel and started decreasing for the instep. This sock is going way faster than the last one!

Memories of my grandparents, Part 3

Only two photos today. In the album my sister made for me are these two, showing my grandparents on my mum's side. Above is (back row) my Auntie Iris and my mum, seated are my Pop and Nan, and in front are my sister, a mystery baby and me. I must be somewhere between seven and ten in this photo as I have those lovely glasses on that I needed after I had the measles. My sister and I are wearing the blue dresses that were our summer school uniform. This was worn with a straw boater hat and white shoes and socks.


This one must have been taken in our dining room in the house I grew up in. Classic black and white tiled floor. I'm the one standing, my sister on Nan's lap.

I didn't know my Pop very well. When we used to go around to their house, he just sat in his chair and didn't say much. He was quite deaf. I do know that he went to Canada as a young man, and when he met my Nan on a trip back to Jersey* he convinced her to marry him and go back to Canada with him. She did, but hated it - something to do with hanging her silk underwear on barbed wire to dry it, according to my mum! Anyway, she was pregnant with my aunt when they returned to Jersey, so that would have been about 1925. He died when I was 14. I still remember my mum coming into the living room and tearfully telling me that he'd died, but it didn't have a lot of impact on me.

My Nan died in 1991 so she never got to see her great-grandchildren. She was quite a character. I spent more time with her and got to know her better when I was an adult myself. She liked to hang out in her local pub and smoke cigars and drink whisky. She'd play cribbage with her friends. I sometimes joined her in the pub when I was about 18, wearing my army khakis and Doc Martins from the army surplus shop.

My two sets of grandparents couldn't have been more different!

*These were my Jersey grandparents - Jersey is the small island in the English Channel where I was born and grew up. I probably saw more of them than my English grandparents, but have more memories of the latter, probably because going on holiday was more exciting!

Memories of my grandparents, Part 2

I came across another photo album today. It's one that my sister put together for me, from photographs made from some of my dad's slides.


I mentioned yesterday that my sister and I had our favourite stuffies that we would take everywhere with us. Well, here's a photo of us - me on the left with my Tickly Ted, her on the right with her Bunny.

This is us at Petersfield Pond. Remember, it WAS the sixties, mini skirts were very fashionable!


In the paddling pool in the back garden at Gran and Grandad's.

In the front garden.

Me, aged three, with Gran.


The golf ball tube that I mentioned in yesterday's post.


And finally....back row, my mum, my Uncle John (deceased), my Auntie Chris (deceased), Gran and Grandad (both deceased)....front row, me aged 10 (we're into the seventies now, can you tell?), my cousin Steven, my cousin Lynne, and younger sister Caroline.

(click on any picture to enlarge)

Memories of my grandparents

Louise at Home is Where the Heart is inspired me to post about my grandparents. A quick look through my photo albums led to me scanning this photo in to show you. I think this was taken in 1988 - we were probably visiting my grandparents' house to attend my cousin's wedding which would have been that year. I remember that because I was married in '87 and my sister in '89 and my cousin in between.

From left to right are my husband, my mum, my sister, her (now ex) husband, my grandfather and my grandmother (my dad's parents).

I loved their old house in Hampshire (England). That verandah nurtured many geranium cuttings throughout every winter. They kept their garden very neat. Their back garden was huge and had a hole in it for putting practice (they were keen golfers). I remember they had golf clubs we could play with and a long yellow tube that stored a number of golf balls.

When my parents, sister and I went to stay at their house for holidays, my sister and I had to share a double bed. Much giggling and farting competitions! In the mornings, we always ran into Gran and Grandad's bedroom and watched the teasmade make the tea. In case you don't know what a teasmade is, it's a machine about the size of a coffee maker that boils the water, pours it into a teapot, and then buzzes to wake you up and let you know the tea's made!

My sister and I had our special stuffed toys - I had Tickly Ted (still have him) and she had Bunny. Once we heard my sister's screaming coming from the bathroom and went in to find Bunny being tossed around on the waves in the toilet! He was rescued, washed and hung on the washing line to dry.

We always were offered bitter lemon to drink (little bottles of fizzy lemon-flavoured drink) and there were cookies in the glass cookie jar on the dresser. We played Solitaire (the one with the round board and the marbles) and Patience (solitaire with playing cards). We had a paddling pool outside on hot days.

My grandad used to work for the Courage Brewery and occasionally one of the carts pulled by two massive shire horses would stop in the road and we'd get to pat them. I have one of the black Courage jugs that my gran used to use for milk - they would be used for water in the pubs.

We used to visit the same favourite places each time we went there - Chessington Zoo, Selbourne Hanger (a zigzag hike), Petersfield Pond to feed the ducks. Many happy memories.

Sadly my grandparents are no longer alive. A few years ago my grandfather was getting a bit dotty and we thought he might be the first to go. Then my gran died suddenly ..... and 6 weeks later my grandad died too. They had two sons - my dad and his brother John - they sold the house in Hampshire, and I find it hard to imagine someone else living in it now.

On food intolerance and nagging

Here's an update since my whine about my oldest son. I mentioned he seemed to sniff and clear his throat a lot. He would eat a lot of oranges and grapefuit every night, but had mentioned that he didn't want to eat them any more because they were making him feel sick. So I stopped buying them and, guess what, after a few days he seemed to have lost the sniffles. However they came back, and now I suspect tomatoes. He eats a lot of canned tomatoes and commercial salsa and I think a couple of weeks of not eating them will do him good. Maybe we can reintroduce them later on and see if he notices any effect.

I did get a heavy tome out of the library on food allergy and intolerance, but it didn't really help. I was hoping to be able to look up a food and its likely symptoms, but of course everyone has a different reaction to different foods.

I made a decision yesterday that I would try to keep my mouth shut around my dear son if it was something I'd said before. In other words, if I had something new to say, fine, but if it was another nagging session about how he should be getting more exercise or whatever, then zip it, mum!

My friend Amanda told me that she had tried a new way of doing things. If a mess was bothering her, she would clear it up rather than nag her son to do it. She felt a lot better. At the time, I responded that I would feel resentful either way. If I nag L to clear up the food mess around his computer, I feel resentful that he doesn't do it immediately, if at all. If I do it, I feel resentful that I feel like a maid! Lose lose for me.

However yesterday I was washing dishes and decided that while the water was hot I would go downstairs and get any plates or whatever from the computer room and quietly (without being a martyr) remove them and wash them. I felt good - I knew that the dishes were all clean, there wasn't a smelly pile of stuff downstairs, and I didn't have to nag L to do it. That wasn't so hard. Thanks Amanda!

Stop the world, I want to get off!

The title reflects how I was feeling this morning. I have since calmed down, but boy, was I mad!

Someone said to me last week that teenagers are designed to drive you crazy, that way you start to look forward to the day they leave home and don't try to hold on to them too long! Hmmm, there might be a grain of truth in there.

Both yesterday morning and today, L was ranting to me about how there's nothing to eat for breakfast. Bear in mind that he's been up all night, so is probably tired, but when I have just got out of bed the last thing I need is a whining complaining kid giving me hell.

I want him to eat well. I want him to choose healthy options. So when it comes to certain foods, I try to limit them or not buy them at all. I keep the sweetener in my bedroom so he doesn't help himself to it at night. If we have ketchup and mustard in the house, I often keep a tight rein on that too, or it gets slopped on bread by the gallon, along with a slab of vegan "butter"! Today he said he wanted to make pancakes for himself - but we only have a stainless steel frying pan, which makes a mess of pancakes, but I refuse to buy a non-stick pan for health reasons. He won't eat porridge - says I wouldn't let him put in enough sweetener so he could taste it. Smoothies are OK now and again. Fruit - nah, apparently the oranges and grapefruit that he's been eating at night are now making him feel sick, so those are out.

After a winter of inactivity, where the most physically challenging thing he did was walk upstairs from his bedroom to the kitchen, he's looking a little chubby, a little pale and pasty-faced. He sniffs and clears his throat constantly - too much mucus, I'd say. The other day he finally agreed with me that he needs to do a cleanse or at least change his diet a little - less stodge - because he's finally noticed he's not feeling that great. However, when it came down to it, he couldn't do it and was cooking himself great mounds of pasta and tomato sauce as usual.

I have to confess I don't receive L's whining well. As I said to my husband, all these parenting books (which I no longer read) tell you, as parents, how to communicate, how to deal with your kids, etc etc. I know that, as an adult, I should be the one to "set a good example" and "behave how I would like the kids to behave" and all that, but I'm afraid it all goes out of the window in the face of a whining kid. I am regrettably easily irritated, quick to give L the argument he's looking for, and hell yes, I want to have the last word, so it was a good thing that shortly after we "had words" this morning he went to bed and I had a chance to get over it (after a good cry).

I say we need fewer parenting books and more books for teens on how to be less selfish and self-absorbed!

My baby is 16 today

I can't believe it! Sixteen years ago today, I gave birth to a little 7lb 5oz boy (well, he didn't feel so little coming out, he WAS my first after all).

Above is a photo of him at one day old, next to the huge rabbit that my sister bought for him. He still has that rabbit, but now that he's 6 feet tall the proportions are a lot different!


I like this photo of me - despite the excess post-baby weight, my hair and skin looked healthy - I was 29 at the time.


This was how I kept him with me in the garden when there was laundry to hang out! He didn't seem to mind.

Happy Birthday L!