So I have actually been knitting...

Just to prove that I still have been knitting, in between reading and taking care of kids, and enjoying the sunshine, and all sorts of things....

This the Autumn Leaves pattern done on 3.25 mm needles for newborn. One of C's Scouts leaders is expecting imminently and I hope she likes this. I am actually quite proud of it, in spite of getting my YOs wrong. Although when I look on Ravelry at the other finished products, I am not the only one. So maybe they are not wrong so much as emphasized. After all, there are many ways to do just about everything. I was worried about it being too big, and since I used Patons Cotton Washed Haze, I wanted it to fit in the finer weather, but now I think it may be a bit small. It definitely won't fit for long, so let's hope it is a small baby.


I have also used the same yarn to do a neck shawl (ok it's a scarf really) to sell raffle tix to fundraise for the boy's Scout Jamboree in 2011. (I do have a photo, but I can't find the camera and it doesn't have any batteries because the very expensive lithium ones I bought got used by C and M and a neighbourhood friend to make a video.) We need £250 by the end of this month. Then we need to get the rest of the £2000. So far we have about £58. :-)  At least we have started. If only I could get sponsered for each raised point in my blood pressure...

So what did you get in your Easter basket?

Oh Well...

So Easter Monday was interesting. Baby A has been quite ill, scaring me with how hard she was finding it to breathe. Finally went to A and E on Monday and she was admitted to Whythenshawe hospital. Little tangent, we went to A and E at Trafford General, but Trafford General don't have a children's ward anymore, so we got to go in an ambulance to Whythenshawe, which was way too busy and full. Aren't the people who decide where we should all go for medical care a bunch of pillocks?

Anyway, I reckon she was already on the mend when we went to the hospital - great thing hindsight, eh?! And we may as well have been at home for the amount of attention we got. You arrive, nobody tells you anything, you have to go out and get that cot they said they were getting 2 hours ago, you have to go out to find out when she is getting her IV antibiotics, you have to go out to ask why the oxygen isn't actually turned on when she has been sitting there in an oxygen mask for 2 hours, you have to go out to find out where the registrar is that you were told was coming. He came, at half past midnight. And you have no idea where food is... Thank goodness for the little woman called Wendy, who brought me fruit, a hospital gown to sleep in, toiletries, and went in search of nurses when none could be found.

I don't blame any individuals. I think the nurses and doctors and everybody does work hard for the most part. It cannot be easy working with ill children. But the system is set up in such a way as to make it virtually impossible to provide anything more than basic and/or emergency care. I really don't think we needed to be in hospital, but at least that option was there for us. I was a worried parent. A had been ill for a week, and every time we thought she was getting better, things changed. They reckon it was bronchiolitis. One of those things I have never heard of, but now when you mention it to people, everybody knows somebody who has had it.

All other things on hold for the moment. I read other people's blogs, and wish I could write more, cuz I used to be really good at writing. But now the living seems to get in the way. I get angry that others seem to have so much time to do so much and actually blog about it, while I just hope to get a shower a couple of times a week, and maybe get some knitting and crocheting time in. I think I have forgotten how much time babies take. But then again, so do they all.

Off to wash some dishes, some pants and me, while hoping the babe stays asleep for another half hour, as I climb over all the shoes, laundry baskets, old post, bags, toys, nappies, and musical instruments that accumulate on every horizontal surface.

Proud mummy moment!

Had a few proud mummy moments... first words, first steps, gymnastics competitions, musical productions, shows, good exam grades, getting into college on the basis of a portfolio, but yesterday was pretty damn good. Some poor disillusioned bloke happened by our house to put a 'Vote Labour' leaflet through our door. Sadie, who is 19 and reading Politics at Bristol, took the leaflet, chased him up the road and said, 'You can have this back, 'cause I'm not voting Labour!'  :-)

A traditional Easter Sunday....somewhere....

Happy Easter if you celebrate that sort of thing. It is a pretty sunny day today and I wish we could go out for a walk, but we have had a very sick baby for the past few days and she is sleeping peacefully for the first time in 3 days, so not going to take any chances with that.

We did the chocolate egg thing, and Al even got me an egg, dairy free, wheat free, gluten free, vegan, and very tastey. Kids got Cadbury's chocolate button ones. :-) And several Cream eggs which were hidden around the house. R had a friend spend the night, so there were 20 eggs hidden around the house, and they took their time finding them. I like that fact the the 15 and 19 year olds still enjoy hunting for chocolate eggs as much as the 10 and 13 years olds, and as much as I enjoy hiding them. And I was impressed when S found her 4 so quickly, even the ones in the Jack in the Box, and the binoculars case.

So, on to our Easter dinner. Sort of forgot to go shopping for a nice dinner, so we went Italian. I managed meat balls cooked in some leftover tomato sauce, a vegan lasagne made with lots of veggies and spelt lasagne and wheat free, dairy free, mushroom and black pepper bechamel sauce. Then there was the basic pasta bake, with one my best cheese sauces (which I can't eat at the moment) and a nice crunchy topping of ciabatta crumbs. Then there was salad and bruscetta and ciabatta. Not bad, considering I thought I had nothing in. :-) And there was something for each of the fussy eaters in the house.

Now, off to eat more chocolate, 'cause that is what holidays are all about!