This is me right now.

Let me set the scene.  I had dished up dinner, plaice, potatoes, mixed vegetables and cannelloni beans.  In dishing up the beans I had dropped some on the floor, so decided to quickly mop that area as it would be dry by the time we had eaten.

This was he first time the boys had cannelloni beans as a side  rather than in a stew, so I had only popped a few on their plates and no sooner had I sat down to eat my dinner had the “please Mummy can I have more beans?” started.  So being the good mother I am I went in to the kitchen for more beans and slipped on the wet floor.

I went arse over tit, in slow motion and put my left arm out to try and stop myself my catching on to the counter top, but instead of stopping me falling it just went crack instead.   So off to A&E in an ambulance I went.  Gas and Air did nothing and the poor paramedics couldn’t get a vein to administer any pain relief.  Drew arranged for the boys to go to his parents and followed behind.  Once at the hospital I mad some morphine and then x-rays and yep, my arm is broken. but……………… in typical Jen fashion (I do not do anything by half) it is a lateral fracture of the bone as it goes in to the shoulder, so it can not be potted.

So I am in a sling and in a lot of pain.  We are hoping that the bone knits well on its own in 3 to 4 weeks and then I am back for more x-rays in four weeks.

I am feeling very sorry for myself, as it means I can not drive, dress myself or pretty much do anything at the moment, other than whinge and complain about the lack of sleep!

I do not take being ill or injured very gracefully.  I am a pretty independent person and hate asking for help.  I really feel sorry for my dear husband as he has to put up with me and I am a like a caged animal already.  Goodness only knows what I am going to be like at the end of four weeks.

So now I am a statistic, one of 2.7 million people who go to A&E each year after having an accident at home.  I am never mopping the floor again!

One of the big things for me this last year has been making the right choices for me and my family.  For actively choosing to be happy and spread happiness and live as much as possible in the here and now.  I read a lot of blogs, they have replaced my magazine habit and are a lot cheaper and every now and then I come across a blog or a post that really touches me.  Lil Blue Boo is one of those blogs.  I have followed Ashley for over three years.  I comment occasionally and have also been though a molar pregnancy and the subsequent issues that she is going through, but although this touched me, it is the phrase “Choose Joy” that really has reached out in to my soul and tattooed itself on to by brain.

When you have been though illness, challenges and life changing events like I have, it can be hard not to keep looking for the next big thing.  The next issue that is going to come and kick your feet from under you and leave you firmly planted in the mire on your arse.   I can tell you from experience this is no way to live.  The anxiety that comes with daring not to enjoy the good times for the fear of what is round the corner, the concern that it is only pay off for the next debilitating event.  Sometimes it seems that we are given with one hand and then taken from with the other.

There have been times when I have screamed at the top of my lungs to an empty beach “why me?  What have we done to you?  Why do I have to pout up with all this shit?”.  There have been times when I have had to lock myself in the loo to hide the tears from my boys, haven’t they seen enough suffering in their short lives?

Then I read a blog like Ashley’s and it reminds me that life is all about choices, not just the ones we actively chose to make, but the ones we chose to ignore too.  It is my choice to make the most out of each and every day, to believe the universe will provide and that we live everyday, not survive it, but enjoy it.  That I am going to chose joy.  That I am going to embrace my family and journey with them ever forward and yes I might be scared, but I will always travel my path with dignity, my husband and boys by my side and a heart filled with optimism and love.

I am going to try and live in the here and now and watch my children with their joyous abandon and let its infectiousness rub off on me.  I am going to make time for my husband and our marriage and I am going to enjoy reclaiming some me time and finding some inner peace amongst the white noise of everyday life.  I am going to do one thing everyday and do it well.

I am choosing joy.

Children and jokes.  I am not sure that the boys really get jokes.  They have up until now made up ones that made very little sence to me or anyone else for that matter, but had then rolling in the aisle.

But the times they are a changing…………………..

Maxi: Knock Knock

Mini: Who’s there?

Maxi: Love

Mini: Love who?

Maxi: Love you too

Then they both kiss!

Mini: Knock, knock

Maxi: Who’s there?

Mini: Atish

Maxi: Atish who?

Mini: Bless you

At this point they are laughing so much one of the boys has rolled off my bed, as they were telling jokes before bed, whilst I cleaned the bath.

Mini:  Mummy, we have a joke for you!  Knock, knock

Me: Who’s there

Mini: Banana

Me: Banana Who?

Maxi: Banana

Me: Banana who?

Mini:  BANANA

Me: Staring to get exasperated now Banana Who?

Maxi: Orange

Me: Orange who?

Mini: Orange you glad we didn’t say banana again!

Image via A place of my own

Sheppard pies with golden pillows of potatoes topped with cheese and edges oozing with the delicious promise of what hides beneath.  Simple delights of cauliflower cheese or braised steak and onion.  The more complex flavours of lemon soul with fennel and potatoes.  A seventies delight of a pineapple upside down cake.

The focus has always been what you contained.  You were always been a vessel, serving us well.  My mum would use you to serve up wholesome family food and when the boys were born and she was on her own, rather than have you languish in the cupboard unused, she passed you down to me.

Once again, you became well used.  Perfect roast potatoes where held within glass walls, roast chicken, lasagna, macaroni cheese.  You became my go to dish, the one I always picked up first.  You were a doddle to clean going in the dishwasher and coming out as good as new.

Then last night the unthinkable happened, I dropped you.  This time you did not bounce, you shattered and with you so did a small piece of me.  You might only have been a Pyrex dish but you held so many memories for me.  So much of my childhood is wrapped up in the delicious food that my mum cooked.  I hold very fond memories of the time we spent in the kitchen.  She was a superb cook and tried to make sure that I was involved in the preparation in the kitchen with her.

As I grew up and had a family of my own, my mum always encouraged me to cook and I realised that she had given me a firm foundation in the kitchen and love of seasonal produce.  I know you are only a dish, but I cried a little last night for a woman that I miss so much and then when I saw you in the bin this morning I cried a little more for the time in my life you represent.

Yes, I know my mum would be saying “it is just a dish Jen” and indeed it is, but also a thousand memories were baking inside it and it will always hold a place in my heart.

]]> http://www.muminthemadhouse.com/2012/05/02/the-pyrex-dish/feed/ 14 http://www.muminthemadhouse.com/2012/04/30/olympic-learning-make-your-own-medals/ http://www.muminthemadhouse.com/2012/04/30/olympic-learning-make-your-own-medals/#comments Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:12:38 +0000 Jen Walshaw http://www.muminthemadhouse.com/?p=3173

There is nothing better than winning a medal, well perhaps winning a medal you have already made yourself.  So we set about making own own set of Olympic medals.

Materials

• Ribbon
• Silver foil
• Gold and bronze pain or crayon
• cardboard or milk bottle lids prepped with PVA glue or polymer clay

To make our medals we pained or colored them in or covered them in silver foil and then drew our chosen design on them.  To get some inspiration we took a look at the past Olympic medal designs and discussed the symbols and their meanings.   I then punched out a hole in the top and threaded the ribbon through.

We also made some out of filmo and airdring clay.  We rolled out the clay and then cut out a circle with a cookie cutter and made a hole at the top with a straw and drew on our designs.  Dry or bake as per instructions and paint in the appropriate colour and allow to dry before threading your ribbon through.

Olympic Medal Facts

The silver used in the first and second place medals must be at least 92.5% pure. The “gold” medals must be gilded with at least six grams of pure gold. Medals also carry the name of the sport contested.

The front sides of the medals awarded at the Games of the Olympiads feature an image of a Hellenic goddess holding a laurel wreath with the Athens Colosseum in the background. Since 1972, local Olympic organising committees have been allowed to create a design for the back sides of the medals.

Maxi has been a Beaver for nearly a year and last week Monday was the eagerly anticipated first night of Mini’s induction in to the world of Beavers. He was ready a whole hour before it was time to go, in Maxi’s old uniform (which was kindly donated by a kind sole off twitter).

This week he was just as eager to get there and ran out of the house early. When he came home all red faced (they played dodge ball) we discussed what he had learned:

“We learned about Saint George Mummy.  He is the patron saint of England” he happily told us

“He was a Roman soldier who be came a crispy one”

Well we couldnt stop laughing and then Maxi told him

“No Mini, he became a Christian, but it doesn’t matter as it is a myth anyway”

I am linking this to The Things they say and do at Thinly Spread

Romance, what is romance? I have to say I often feel the same, especially with two rather full on boys, however, since the transformation of Mini’s bedtime, we have been having much more relaxed evenings and also making sure that we actually dedicate some time to ourselves and to each other.

BC (Before Children) we used to really enjoy going to the cinema, but since we do not have any one to baby sit we haven’t been for loooooooooooooong time.  However, Warner Bros sent us a care package after the Oscars, which included:

Casablanca [Blu-ray] [1942]
Gone With The Wind – 70th Anniversary [Blu-ray] [1939][Region Free]
An American In Paris [DVD] [1951]
The Blind Side [Blu-ray] [2010][Region Free]

Over the last month we have made time to watch these films, not ones that we would have normally chosen ourselves, but ones that we have enjoyed, not only for the films, but for the company.  We have made a real effort and off have gone the mobile phones and other electronic devises.

I have been amazed at how powerful, current and moving the older films are and even more amazed at the fact that I hadn’t seen them before!  Also they were easy watching, so we could chat during them and not lose the plot, which is an issue I have with a lot of films and programs these days!

But more than that, it reminded me why I married MadDad and just how much I enjoy his company and how much I relish time on my own with him.  We have resolved to make more time for each other on an evening and also to try and arrange a couple of days or nights out just for us.  For the last seven years our life has revolved around the boys and the time has come to reclaim a bit of  couple time.  We are not talking about a regular date night, just taking the time to chat and turn off all outside interruptions.

We have and are quite a tactile couple and hold and all that in front of the boys, but I have to admit to finding it hard to find enough hours in the day to get everything done.  Something has had to give and it really has been our time together.  I was finding once the boys were in bed and I had everything prepped for the following day all I wanted to so was veg on the sofa and go to bed.  Finally now that Mini is going to bed like a good boy and Maxi is getting up and making his own breakfast I feel a little more human!

How do you make time for yourself and your partner?

I have two boys aged seven and very nearly six and I remember when they were very small having a conversation with MadDad about the fact that I wasn’t going to allow toy guns in to my home.  I was determined that they would grow up in an environment that didn’t promote fighting, death, anger or shooting.  For the first two years of Maxi’s life, he didn’t even know what a gun was, let alone how to use them.  I would not let any program on the TV that had violence on it, no Ben10, no Power Ranger or such like.  I was very clear and if he was ever bought a gun or such it went straight in the bin.

However, we got to a point where anything and every thing became a weapon.  He would use sticks as arrows and swords, duplo was fashioned in to guns and imaginative play revolved around cops and robbers.

As time went on the boys toys included Playmobil knights, castles and dragons, LEGO police and Toy Story little green army men and I realised that I was trying to swim upstream against my refusal to have these thigs in our home.  The final straw being when the boys were given Nerf guns and I realised that we all had a ball with them.

So we implemented a new plan.  Guns would be allowed in to the house as long as when I was involved in the play they fired “love bullets” and I would smother the boys in kisses and tickles when I shot them.  This has become a fun tradition when in our home.

I can not stop what happens when they are in school or at other peoples home, but I can in my house.  I do not encourage guns and I refuse to let them have access to shooting and war games on the Xbox, Wii or any other electronic devise.  As I believe that introducing them to active violence at this age is harmful and thankfully MadDad agrees.   There is enough real violence and war in this world that I do not wish to trivialise it or normalise it in any way.

But…….

I am realistic.  I know that they will role play cops and robbers, goodies and baddies and other role playing and I feel that this is an important aspect of their development, by playing it out they are actually reinforcing any learning about good and bad.  I am a huge believer in the benefit of learning through play and both my boys have had kitchens, cleaning toys and a buggy and babies.  There is nothing stronger in my opinion than learning in this safe environment.   There is nothing Mini likes more than dressing up as a Knight and slaying dragons or saving the villagers!  By not outlawing guns, I can start to influence my children’s attitudes about them rather than just pretend that violence doesn’t exist.

I would love to know your thoughts on guns and children, especially if they are a little older like my boys.

Chris at Thinly Spread and Kate at Kate takes 5 have teamed up to produce an idiots guide to gardening with children.  Even though we have raised beds, I usually leave the gardening to MadDad and the boys, but this year these ladies have inspired me to take charge and join in.

The week before last me and the boys planted tomatoes, sunflowers, peas and beans and put them in a tiny plastic greenhouse that I purchased from Aldi.

I am really amazed at just how well they have done.  One thing I have to remember is being in the frozen north we have to plant a couple of weeks after Chris does.  So I may need to pot on some of the beans.  I have not been as successful with the kale I planted as none of the weeds have germinated.  We also have planted onion sets and potatoes in two of the raised bed.

So my action list for this week is as follows:

• Purchase some sweet pea seeds
• Purchase some more kale seeds
• Purchase some rainbow chard seed

I’m linking this post up to the ‘Come sow with me’ meme which is being run to support @ONECampaign ‘LetsThrive’ campaign. For more information read this.

I adore things that I can make and do that take no time at all and use things that I already have in the house.  Perfect when I need a moments “me time” in this house of chaos I live in.  When I saw this fab project on Make It, Do It, I pinned it for when I needed a moments creative space.

It is a really simple project and a perfect way for using up any magnets that you get free.  I had a couple that we had received that were on our fridge.  I carefully pealed off the label, which thankfully came away very simply and left some adhesive on the magnet allowing me to apply some white paper on to it so that the tape which can be translucent had a good backing.

If it doesnt all you need to do is take some white acrylic paint and allow it to dry before the next step. I thought it was very apt that my magnet was all about recycling!

I then took a selection of my tape and stuck it to the paper on the magnet.  As it is self adhesive this is all you need to do.

I used my guillotine to cut between the strips of tapes and  and then used scissors to make the ends look as though they have been torn.