Pacing

So I a trying this new physio thing to help with the pain, pacing, it is meant to relearn my body's tolerance to pain and I am sure it will work but putting it into practice is a whole new level of pain!!!! Pun intended.

I have to work on my baseline amounts that I can do without being in pain, so for instance I can do 3-4 minutes walking or standing then i have to change and position and do something else. That can get difficult especially when cooking, am I standing or walking in the kitchen and when it is time to change how on earth do you cook whilst sitting???? And don't even get me started on how I am supposed to shop properly!!!! Walk for 3-4 mins then stand or sit.... yeah right that will work when I am on a shoe hunt or a handbag hunt!!! I shall try it out on Monday when I tootle off to Reading. It will be interesting.

I will also have to stop my habit of overdoing it, no more big blow outs, lots of little and often with breaks. No more housework marathons. Actually is that a bad thing?

I will need to get my friends and family on side with this which is going to be hard for us all, how do we all learn new habits and how will I learn to let them guide me in what I do???

home again, home again jiggety jig.

A day away from home with the Childe and the "grandkids". Golly gosh I'm knackered. They sure do know how to tire out a Chouet. It was as usual though a lovely time, lots of hugs and snuggles and this time the added bonus of hysterical laughter.

We decided to have some girly shopping time whilst Connor was at pre-school. Pink however did what was probably the sensible thing for her and went to sleep... Monster mine and I were shopping for a not mother mother of the bride outfit. We started off with some varied choices but soon got the hang of agreeing what was good to try on and what was not. We may have made a mistake when it came to a certain spotty number, looked gorgeous on the hangar but when on it reduced us to hysterics, the final straw was when I took it off it stood up on it's own. On reflection it may have been a bit poofy!!!! I am sure the Childe will agree. The other choices were just as random including the top that I couldn't even get over my head..... I did buy a dress though, and a skirt.... and the monster likes it, now all I need is a cardigan, shoes and a bag.... Not much really.

The evening was really good, bathtime fun with sprogs, and dinner with Da Jonathan a most enjoyaby fun evening. This morning I painted my girl, literally, her face I mean. She looked yummy but a bit more practice required. Also there was a small southern electric issue to deal with which some how seems to have landed in my lap...hmmmmmm

Still it's Friday, I'm home, and yes I have said this before but it's friday.....wine and pizza!!!!

friendship

Friends come in all sorts of sizes and shapes, they last for different durations and each accomplishes something different, be it in our life, our thoughts or in theirs. It can be very difficult at times to connect with enough people and to make new friends so maybe when we do we grab onto a new friend and maybe hold a little bit tight. Maybe some friendships creep up on us after a long while and we don't realise it has happened, whatever the reason friendship is precious and should be cherished, however it comes about or however long it lasts.

Many articles are written in magazines about how to say goodbye to friends who have no place in your life or who you have no feelings for anymore. Yet these articles seem not to bother mentioning how painful and difficult it is if you are the friend that is deemed no longer a friend. It is hurtful when people leave our lives and give no warning or no reason why and we are left wondering in the dark about what we have done wrong and how to make it right. We may not of course have done anything wrong but it is human nature in some of us to automatically think things are our fault. We look inside ourselves and question what we have done and said, could we have done it differently, could we have tried more? many soul searching questions keep us awake at night and yes we get angry as well as hurt and it colours our life. It is a process very similar to grief, well after all we have lost someone, and just as we think we have cracked it a stray thought pops into our heads and all the angst comes back.

It is unfair of people to treat us with such lack of respect and decency, okay we may not be what they want in a friend anymore but before ignoring communications or changing phone numbers they should stop, think, and then have the guts to let us know that we are surplus to requirements. If we were good enough to be their friends at one time they owe us this. Would they like to be treated that way? I doubt it.

Even as we struggle with this loss we can find a semi silver lining, a way of looking at things so they do not seem so brutal. Life only gives us what we can deal with, yes it doesn't seem like that at times but we cope, we learn and hopefully we carry this lesson on with us. Take for instance the short lived but intense friendship that appears, we give it our all, this person is needy, they need us we can help them, we don't necessarily see this at the time we are just being a good friend but once our usefulness has finished we are no longer their friend. They no longer need us and they can move on. We are left feeling abandoned and wondering why. The why is easy, we were there to help this person, give them what they needed to see them through a difficult time in their life and help them cope and when that was done they go on emotionally fixed and we count our emotional cost. It doesn't seem fair, and is probably not but after the fact it is possible to look back and see the good that has been done. Nobody said being a good person was easy.

Whatever the reasons people decide to drop in and out of our lives we must always remember that we are worthy of being loved, that we are capable of helping others, that we will be hurt again, that we must try not to hurt others. After all we should treat others as we wish to be treated....

Not blogging enough

Today I have been told off for not blogging enough. Yes Monster mine it's you. I do seem to be missing alot of days though. Its those days that disappear. You know the ones I mean, those days that start off with good intentions and degenerate into nothingness. It could be that I pick the pooter up to write but get ambushed by playing spider, it could be that I don't turn the pooter on at all and am busy cleaning, don't faint, it happens, it could be because I have gone out had some fun and then have no energy for blogging.

I have had a few of those settee days again and a few of those busy days where I rush around getting stuff done and regret it afterwards. I am on a hunt at the moment to find the ultimate non mother mother of the bride outfit. You know the one, killer outfit with matching accessories and shoes. Only trouble is I have no idea what I want, where to look and how much I am going to have to shell out..... My favourite shopping friend is a new mum but we are in talks to sort out a shopping visit. Thankfully. It will be a bit of a logistical nightmare but we are women we will manage it.

We had the usual travelling Mothers day, luckily I had had a non Mothers mothers day with my mum so we only had to travel to one mother. I did however have to bake lots of goodies for the various days, and not helpful husband was as his title suggests. It did cause some friction over the weekend but being adults,now don't laugh, we did manage to sort it out. Took some talking but thankfully, for once no big shouting!!!! Or no throwing things in the pool, well we don't have a pool so that could have been why!!!

Well I'm going to escape now, to the country and drool over houses.

Soups and settees

Well although I am still pretty much settee stuck again I have made it out of the house..Gasp...I managed to get to Sainsburys with kind husband yesterday evening. It was a very quick visit and I was exhausted afterwards but it had to be done, I was going stir crazy and that is not good for a marriage. Cranky me???? I am still suffering from lack of baking and pottering in my kitchen but I guess something had to give. I have however, had time to potter on the Big pooter and make some art work. Frustrating at times but finished now and I am rather proud of what I have achieved, I only hope no 1 nephew likes it as it is birthday present. I went for the personal touch this time. Now all I have to do is think of something for no 1 nephew's partner!

I lied actually, I have bn in the kitchen today, I made a soup! I don't know about anyone else but when I am under par I crave Heinz tomato soup. I can't eat it and that is a shame. Today whilst cooking left over soup I made the holy grail of dairy free cream of tomato tasting soup. I was amazed and aghast.

Dairy free Cream of tomato soup.

Half a butternut squash roasted
tin tomato puree
some stock

As usual I just bunged it all in a saucepan, cooked it up and then blitzed it to a pulp and voila tomato soup.

A strange way to discover my own creamy soup and considering there is no cream in it and relatively little tomato it strangely works.

Now all I have to remember to have around is roasted squash!!! Oh yeah and make it for husband.

Those pesky kids

I have been sadly out of touch with my blog lately and as the title suggests I blame those pesky grandkids of mine. They have been brought up properly to share, toys, hugs, sweets, even their coughs sneezes and diseases. So sweet. I have managed to avoid colds for some time and yet this year so far I have had 2 colds and latterly a horrible viral cough. Coincidentally I have been spending lots more time with my Baby Monster and the Pink Poppet...hmmmm I smell a rat. I could say that this is giving me time to get in touch with my inner settee self but I am bored with being a settee slug.. whine whine whine.

The ME does not take kindly to me being ill. It sulks! It also doesn't leave me with any oomph for some of my favourite past-times; shopping, cooking, cleaning, coffee. The freezer is looking a bit short on baked goods which I suppose on behalf of my waistline is a good thing, on behalf of my taste buds it is a bad thing. I have had to give helpful husband some cooking time, this is a mixed blessing, he wants to be helpful and do everything perfectly for me which is incredibly nice yet this involves lots of questions of how to do things. That can be as tiring as doing the jobs myself. Sorry helpful husband, I have made a pact to stay out of things and not tell helpful husband how to do things unless he asks. For a control freak such as me that is really really hard!!!

So no recipes today apart from to reccomend Jamie Oliver's slow cooked pork shoulder....mmmmmm mmmmm

Oh My I made pie

This week has just flown past covering most of the spectrum from lazy to downright busy. I spent Monday and Tuesday being a slug, I knew I had a busy end of week so I decided to log some settee time to allow myself to regain some energy. I had just about had enough of tv and settee when Wednesday was upon me, that was " yet another supreme visit from Mother" day which entails me getting up and rushing off to the station, running late as usual.

We decided to stop at Starbucks first for a much needed latte and that was where my day out ended! I had a dizzy turn and yes there are those who would say I am permanently dizzy but this was horrible. The room would swim, I would feel not quite sick but not quite right and I couldn't shake it, a soya latte, bar of plain choccy and a bottle of water all had no effect on it. I had to apologise to Mother, drive home, and yet again veg out in front of the TV. This time though we decided it was time for another dose of Greek sunshine in the form of Mamma Mia..Ahhhhhhh.... we didn't count the weeks to our holidays honest!

Thursday was another busy day, a drive down to Southampton for dinner out with The Girls. Geek husband had made a request for a stop at Richer Sounds.... men and their tech porn. I was to buy speakers, unfortunately I did not have the product number and only knew the brand name and Geek husband was usefully in a meeting. I wonder how many mad women Richer Sounds get in a day? I was successful though, a smile and a stooopid act generally works quite well I have found.

To make up for my lost Wednesday I hit Debenhams. It was fun, I bought shoes, make-up and clothes. I think the clothes might go back but no way is the make-up. I shrieked when I saw a Smash-box counter in there. My favourite lippy is mine again. I tried on some outfits for the Childe's wedding, no black, pretty, feminine, spring-like. All I can say on that subject is Bring me back the Black!!!!

Dinner with the girls was it's usual mix of laughter, gossip and in my case wine. Yummmmm

Friday morning was a shock to my system. The Childe wished me at her place for 10am for more wedding stuff, doesn't sound bad but it is the other side of town from Mother's and there were road-works everywhere. I left nice and early and only got angry with 2 other drivers. I think my Chelsea tractor must be invisible. Wedding stuff was sort of accomplished along with a very cold but pleasing visit to the park with the grandkids. I wish I had worn my Uggs though not heels for a park visit, Still Chouet always likes to look her best.....

Today we wine shopped and it was surprisingly hard, our usual store had very little choice in our price range which was very disappointing but Geek husband and I made up for it with a rather expensive New Zealand red. Drinking it now and I can say it was worth it. I had removed some frozen cooked turkey from the freezer, strange that, taking some thing frozen from the freezer, and then had to wrack my brain with what to do with it. One thing Munching husband and I have missed alot on this whole gluten and dairy free thing is a decent pie, and I can tell you from painful experience that making the pastry is not easy. Today I cracked it....

Pie Crust

1 1/2 cups plain GF flour
1/3 cup made up of a mix of cornflour and potato flour
60g each of dairy free marg and Trex or similar
1 egg
cold water.

Put flour and fat in a food processor (or rub in by hand) and blitz til a sandy consistency. Add the beaten egg and pulse then add cold water, and pulse again, just enough water to bring it all together. Put the pastry in the fridge for a minimum of 20 minutes then roll out between cling film. This is the easiest way to handle GF pastry which is drier and more fragile than normal pastry.

Stuffed Husband highly recommends the pastry and is now pondering on all his other favourite fillings. What have I done??????