The week in photos

Squirrel theft!


Durty Dawgs!




Revision!

This:

has become these for LMB to put inside her boots when we walk to school.



and of course, no young lady is quite complete without sporting a headband with felt flower which I made up from a practice band of cable I'd been working on - waste not want not and all that! My sister now wants one in black!



The cardigan just needs sleeves. Next project is to finish the front of Master Beehive the elder's sweater and decide if I have enough time to knit sleeves before he grows out of it, or if it might be better as a tank top ;-)
Then I want to start on a baby cardigan for a friend having a baby in April.

What else? Hmmm, well, since reading The Red Tent, I've suddenly become anxious about the fact that storytelling is an important part of discovering who we are. I've bought a book for my parents as a start, to ask them to fill it in to pass onto the grandchildren. I know my maternal grandmother actually started to write a book about her life and I realise how little I know about them. She used to tell us all the time, but when you're a child or teenager, you don't always take it in. Now she's gone and I'm anxious to hear her story, so my challenge over the next few months is to track down her notes (which I think went to my aunt when my grandmother died) and see if I can have a copy to read. Perhaps this is middle age, or maybe middle age is Mr Beehive, who is now "in" the crate with Meggie, apologising to her for him squirting the "no bark" this morning and her taking the hump with him ROFL!

Blues and the Red Tent!

Eugh! If there is one month I really loathe in a year, it's January. After a lovely Christmas, lots of hunkering down with family in the warm, home cooking, playing games and laughter, everyone tootles back off to school and work and I'm left with the grey sky and endless mounds of washing.
It's a looooong month and everything always seems to be dragging it's heels and getting off to a really slow start.

My midwifery interviews seem like aaaaaaages away and now I'm worked up because, despite getting the interviews and doing OU Human Bio next year and getting 80 and 90% on all my GCSE Biology assignments so far, I'm all bothered that I won't be "science-minded" enough to do it, despite the fact that I'm strongly of the opinion that midwifery is a holistic vocation that slots neatly into both art and science. I don't know if I'm just chomping at the bit, anxious to get started, or really bothered about this. Too many grey days where I can't get out and get dosed in Vitamin D is doing something to my confidence.



Still, we've booked our summer holiday, which really is something to get excited about. We have decided to have a big blow out holiday this year as from next it'll be unlikely that Mr Beehive, myself and the kids will be able to have two straight free weeks together for a while, so...we're going to Kenya! I'm really excited. The boys have always wanted to see the animals in their natural habitat, so we're having a week in the Masai Mara and a week in Malindi - whoop whoop!



I'm also reading a great book at the moment, which I have to share with you; it's The Red Tent by Anita Diamant It tells the story of Dinah and her family (she was the only daughter of Jacob and Leah in the Bible) and the Red Tent, the tent used by all the females in the family or commune during birth, their menses or postpartum. It weaves a wonderful tale of the solidarity of sisterhood and motherhood, kinda like girlpower in the old testament!
This was the place the tales of birth were told and witnessed, stuff that used to be handed down from generation to generation and now comes from NCT classes or the NHS in the form of a handout, no wonder birth has become managed and clinical!

Well, it's time for me to get under my duvet with a cup of tea and my book - I'll see you when I come out of hibernation in the Spring ;-))

Sleep talkin' man

So, everyone's talkin' about sleep talkin' man!!

If you have a spare half hour, want to tone your abs and have a Tena lady suitably in place, then proceed, however, be warned you may want to wear custard in your pants or never eat a fishcake again...

http://sleeptalkinman.blogspot.com/

Enjoy xx

Young face and old soul.

I wish I could get warm. My toes are frozen when I'm waiting for the children after school!

My midwifery interview was cancelled for today and rearranged to the end of Feb. Selfishly I was fed up about this as I'd done all the preparation and felt I was as current as I could be and on top of it all. I'm nervous that five weeks later I'll have gone off the boil. Still, it was a good decision for them to make really considering the snow is so bad everywhere and the interviewers need to get in and candidates need to travel.

So, instead, I am at home this weekend, in the warm where, really it doesn't matter if it snows again as we have central heating and enough food to feed an army in the freezer. We have fresh water and blankets, we don't need to go anywhere.

Some people don't have that choice. I am saddened when I read about the suffering, particularly of the elderly at this time of year, that they're having to make choices as to whether or not to eat or put on the heating? Where they're too scared to go out because the paths are not gritted, they get no visitors for days on end. Does anyone remember the lad last year who was arrested for gritting his elderly neighbours path and drive with council grit *sigh*.
Little Miss Beehive spent her Friday sweet money on a sandwich today! She then proceeded to give it to the homeless lady sat on 5 inches of snow and a few layers of cardboard outside the store. Now, my feet were cold in my expensive boots, so goodness knows how she was feeling. I was very proud of dd I must say. It made me sit up a bit and think and I'm going to remember to try and do one good deed for someone each day for the next month. It was an easy forfeit for LMB but made a lovely difference for that lady. I urge you to do the same. If you live next to an elderly, infirm, heavily pregnant person or just someone that you could offer a hand to, perhaps you could check if they have all they need and if not, offer to loan, buy or help?

I'm not normally one for sanctimonious postings, but my five year old daughter has woken me up to myself today so I'm passing on her spirit.

Stay warm x