Signed off

Doc has signed me off work for another week. She's probably right, but I am feeling quite a bit better now. Almost human at times.The horns are retracting, the forked tail doesn't show, the teeth shrinking down. I didn't yell at the boys at all this morning, and that's quite an achievement especially as they are tired and 'end-of-termy'.

So things are looking up. I am still spoiling myself, and doing minimal housework. If I am honest I am not a one for overdoing the housework anyway! I'm cutting dow on the comfort chocolate eating.

Now to try and catch up with the boys, I have given them so little time recently. So, next week will be devoted to them. I hope we can have some fun! 

It is still seriously cold here, below freezing every night, and it doesn't warm up much in the daytime. The snow came on Saturday night and went by Tuesday. We had about an inch at the most. The house doesn't warm up. I'm not stinting on the heating, but it is not helping. I cannot get how Pup will sit around the house in just a T-shirt in all temperatures! I am turning into my mother, always nagging him to wear a vest. What 8 year old boy wants to wear a vest? How uncool can you get??

My brain hurts

  And a lot of other bits hurt too. Having just about got over 'The Virus' (diagnosed by my GP on my sick note as 'lethargy', which doesn't sound half as impressive) I have now got a cold. Or at least it started as a cold but now it is exhaustion, aches in places I didn't know could ache, and pounding heart if I do anything.  Yesterday afternoon I took to my bed after the school run leaving Pup and Tigs downstairs alone for over an hour before Himself came home. . The house is still intact, although Himself was pretty vocal about the sticky substance of unknown origin that he found on the hall floor. And we have to accept that it was the cat who ripped up the letter from school as everyone else is denying all knowledge of it.

This morning Himself was also fairly disappointed that he had to go into work late becasue  bacause  because (I always type that word wrong!) I was not up to taking the boys to school. In fact I am barely up to climbing out of bed today, and dreading having to ring work to tell them I won't be in tomorrow, unless I stage a nearly miraculous recovery. I am disappointed that Himself was not more supportive, because of course I am feeling really sorry for myself. In fact when I am more rational in a day or two I will probably admit that he has been trying to help as much as he can, that he has taken a lot of time off work recently, and he has had a rotten cold himself. Right now I admit nothing.

 All this is very interesting - not! So what else has happened here in Middle England?

  Well, I'm afraid it seems to have been all about sickness. Tigs has had one of his colds, and when Tigs has a cold he has a cold. Not just man-flu, but really suffering with it, high temperatures, dramatic coughing, the works, poor chap. Pup too has had a cold, which is more of a worry. He was only off colour for a day or two and seems to be on the mend now, but he had a pretty amazing cough as well. I have dosed him up on antibiotics ( acca aunty bots), and he is now nearly human. And I think I already said that Himself was ill too? I did.
   Oh and The Ginge had a poorly eye for a day or two. Fortunately he seems to understand the dreaded V.E.T. word, because when I mentioned it to him his eye started to dramatically improve.

  So that's us. No, we haven't been anywhere, or done anything exciting. We are stay at homes, until such time as we are fit to join the human race.Make it SOOON. Please.

Cream Crackered

I think I have a virus. That is my theory anyway, I visit the Doctor tomorrow to get confirmation.
I hope he listens because I have been off colour all week, and need to be certified tomorrow because I should be back at work (some people may say I should have been certified years ago)

So the household is getting a very thinly scraped superficial layer of attention from me this week. Likewise the family.

Cleaning is getting done in small doses. Washing is thrown in the machine and left. Actually there are sheets that have been on the line for three days. They got nearly dry yesterday, left out overnight, then it rained this morning  (sigh) The boys are being told 'Mum is on a short fuse. Be nice to her'. Pup is trying, in his usual delightfully random style. He offered to make me a cup of tea on the way home from school yesterday, and he actually remembered to do it. I nearly cried. They all brought me a bunch of flowers 'to cheer you up mummy' last Saturday. That is extravagance coming from Himself, who is NOT the last of the big spenders. Himself is really pulling his weight, which is nice; but he is understandably reluctant to take days off work just to nurse a wife who is feeling sorry for herself.

So here we go round and round. Or that's how it feels. Get one big issue sorted and something else crops up.

I shouldn't complain. We have a decent home, are warm, fed, both have job security, the kids have an excellent school. That's probably more than 90% of the world population has (don't quote me on that figure!) I'm just in a blue mood. Hence my last rather negative post.

How are the rest of the family? Oh yes, I'd forgotten about them.

Himself. Overworked and overtired all the time, or so it seems. Still manages to laugh fairly often.

Pup is just - Pup. The one and only. Wants to be a chef. Is his normal self. Still can't shake off his frustratingly persistent morning cough. Is becoming a really caring and thoughtful person - when he's not pushing hs little brother around or being totally silly.

The Chef

Tiggs. Teacher says he's growing up, and is behaving a lot better at school. Is 'off' reading at the moment. He can do the easy words and can't be bothered with the hard ones. Has a cold and therefore a horrible hacking cough, so thinks he is 'very very poorly'. Still enjoys writing on walls, despite the amount of time he spends trying to wash said writing off walls.

The cats. In winter hibernation mode. I would love to be a cat in winter. Sleeeeep! The only downside would be having to go outdoors to the loo.

They deserve to be heard.

  This morning Tiggs started crying in the cloakroom at school. He didn't tell me why, and I assumed it was because he'd fallen on the way to school, then to top that when he got there I was nagging him gently reminding him that he must sort his coats, lunchbags, bookbags etc before he started on his social life. The teaching assistant saw him crying and came up to ask what was wrong, and he immediately told her that he was upset because another boy had moved his lunch bag. He hadn't told me that - I hadn't asked, I'd assumed I knew what was wrong. Teaching assistant escorted him off to the classroom still sniffing, and I walked home alone making mental note to self to listen to my kids more..... 

Sometimes there just doesn't seem to be time to listen to them in all the jobs that need to be done. And often I am not patient enough to listen through all the garbage that small boys talk - the role play games, the silly word play games they both love. 

Asking them how their day was doesn't work:

Pup "Ok, mummy"

Tiggs "I forget"

I've got a book called 'How to talk so kids will listen and listen so kids will talk'. It's a book I've got a lot of time for, but putting the advice into action with two hyper boys is not easy.

Must try harder.

Please God grant me the ablilty to listen to my kids, and make me into the sort of Mum that they want to talk to.

They DO deserve to be heard.

What's new?

The new stuff around here is

• A lot of new toys, some already broken (naturally) 

• Tigs new glasses; titanium, supposedly as small boyproof as you can get. We picked them up the Wednesday before Christmas, and they were broken on the 6th January. He had a temper tantrum on the way home from school, threw them on the pavement and a woman on a bike ran over them. You could ask (and I did) why she was riding on the pavement, but it was not her fault that they were there.

• I've been a bit low and am not doing as well as I should in sorting out Mum's affairs. Trying not to kick myself all the time because I just don't feel up to it sometimes. The garden is full of rubble because of one of our latest projects. It looks a mess, but we just do not get enough time to get it done quickly. Yes I could be doing it right now instead of blogging. Doh.

• Pup 'swims up' from Beavers to Cubs tonight. I am somewhat concerned how he will get on in Cubs as he is not good at late nights (late= after 8pm!) and it runs until 8.30. Also he is quite immature in some ways and may not cope too well with the new regime. He does like older boys though, so it may do him good. 

•  The Ginge is nearly one, and he he thinks he's a grown up cat. Except when he behaves like a dog. His favourite game is retrieve the mouse. This is best played when your people are in bed. 6am is a good time. (so he thinks) He brings a toy mouse onto the bed and drops it. Then he waits for one of us to throw it across the room. He'll find and retreive it unerringly within seconds even when it is completely dark (quite an achievement considering the piled up state of our bedroom floor). The worst time was when he chose to bring a live mouse instead. We refused to throw that one (spoilsports!) He is developing attitude, and starting to challenge the Monochrome cats dominance. She still cannot stand him. All the cat books say that it should take about six months for a resident cat to accept a new cat. Well they have not met Monocat. Stubborn is not her middle name. It is her identity, her defining feature.

 

The Feast of the Unconquered Son

I realise this is a dreadful play on the Latin words.

Sol Invictus. The undefeated sun, from the Sol cult. A late Roman festival, held on 25th December to celebrate this deity  may or may not be responsible for the date we celebrate Christmas.

Saturnalia an earlier festival that started in the third century BC held from 17th December onwards is more often linked to Christmas in modern tradition; but there is no real connection.

But on 25th December I was very happy to celebrate the feast of Gods unconquered Son; even if we don't really have a clue what time of day, what time of of year he was born - or even what year for that matter. 

I would love to know the details, when / where / how.....  Why did Mary go with Joseph? We guess that only males were required to travel to their home towns because of the census. Did Joseph take her away with him because she was an outcast in her own home and town because of her unexpected pregnancy?  Did Mary travel on a donkey? No idea. Did they travel alone or with friends / relatives?

There is a subtle hint that maybe he was not born straight away after they arrived in Bethlehem: "While they were there" the time came for the baby to be born. It was probably not a romantic little stable in a Bethlehem inn (there was after all NO room at the inn). Maybe in a field, or a borrowed house. Some tradition has it that he was born in a cave. Possibly a barn. Barn / stable - what difference. Somewhere poor anyway. He had to be put in a manger to sleep. Sounds awfully scratchy for soft newborn skin.

Shepherds visited him the night after he was born. Shepherds, the lowest of the low - why did God choose them in particular? We hear no more about them - what happened to them after this/ Did any of the shepherds survive to become disciples? Did they bring him a lamb? Not very likely if he was born in mid winter, but there are no clues about this in the Bible. What did the locals think when the shepherds were racketing around Bethlehem celebrating the birth? Did anyone else see the angels?

What did the locals think of the whole thing? How bitter were they about the escape of one child when all the other young boys in their town were massacred? That takes us to the Wise men. Where did they come from? (the 'East' - very informative!) How many were they, did they fully understand the significance of their gifts? Did they follow a star, or simply see a star as the were skywatching at home, then see it again when they finally found their way to Bethlehem? Were they really so naive as to believe Herod? And how old was Jesus when they reached the village? He is called a 'young child' not a baby in that part of the story. And Herod told his soldiers to kill all boys under two, so Jesus was probably at least a toddler.

How did Mary and Joseph feel about it all? I think what would have impressed me most was Jesus' welcome in the Temple, when his parents took him there. Anna and Simeon - wow! What prophecies!

I would love to know about the family's stay in Egypt. How long? What happened? 

The rest of Jesus childhood is almost a closed book. He had siblings; I would guess all younger than him unless they were half siblings as some traditions have it; four brothers and some unnamed sisters.  He lived in Nazareth for some of the time. His father was a carpenter / builder. Was he working on some of Herods great building projects? It would be so good to learn more.

Pup is crazy about the carol 'Once in Royal Davids City' at the moment after learning it in school choir. It has a few lines that had himself and me in hysterics recently:

'Christian children all must be

Mild obedient, good as he'

Our boys mild, obedient?? If this was the young Jesus, then it's a role model they just could not live up to. So maybe it's a good thing that we just don't know what sort of child he was. If he was 'Our childhoods pattern', he would give every child a complex, mine not the least. So I think I'd rather not know some of the details. But the story fascinates me, and I would really love to know more about the incredible story of how Gods unconquered son was made a child, and came to live on Earth.

'Our God contracted to a span,

Incomprehensibly made man'

(from Charles Wesleys hymn  'Let earth and heaven combine')

I want, I want, I want.....

No it's not the kids with their christmas lists, it's me.

The kids don't know what they want. Pup says he 'likes surprises'. When I suggested that nothing was a good surprise he got quite indignant, so I think he does want a christmas present. But I'm the one with the three page wish list on Amazon. Himself struggled very hard to produce a decent wish list for his family, who probably very sensibly don't do surprises (at least then you get something you actually DO want). All he wanted was a Kindle.

And I have been trying so hard to fight my materialist streak this year. Looks like it really is NOT working. of course what I really want is peace on earth, and peace with God for all men. But I don't have that sort of faith.

Ho Hum. Or should I say Ho Ho Ho?