this saturday i'm grateful for long drives

It's been a long and rainy week but the sun waits for no man :-) So this Saturday I'm grateful for...

* long drives - me, my man, some great tunes and a long drive. We are off cross country to my SIL's 40th birthday party today.

* bravery - I say this tongue in cheek (kind of) but this is the furthest distance I will have been away from Little B since he was born (3 hours). He cant wait for a weekend of the sole undivided attention of Granny B and me?? I have to remember what I'm like without an appendage for 2 whole days LOL

* doctors who listen - we needed to provide a strange and abstract letter to Little B's preschool next year about his allergies (in order for them to change a few things). Problem?? It takes 6 months to see his allergist. Solution?? A divine allergy friendly GP who listened to our story, read his food diaries and provided said letter...hooray!!

Checkout Maxabella loves for a grateful dose this weekend xx

Mister Maker

After what seems like days and days of rain, Little B and I have become a tad stir crazy :-) So we whipped out a Mister Maker book that Little B got for his last birthday. We are going on holidays soon which involves a 2 hour drive to the seaside, so what better than a making a toy for the car.

We settled on the sticky picture box, found an old shoe box and some felt remnants from sewing. Then went to work cutting out shapes. Little B decided a blue background was best as it could be either the sea or space (two current faves).

And in a short time it was done. I had great fun cutting out pieces that could be used for either theme. Seaweed upside down becomes rocket fuel. And our mermaids face becomes the moon. And as you can see above Little B decided to turn a fish sideways and give it some hair (which was a clam).

It was a cute quick project and has already proved to be an interesting diversion in the car. The box sits well on his lap and contains all the pieces. I'll definitely be giving some more projects out of this book a go, especially since we seem to have fallen back into winter somehow!?!?

this saturday i'm grateful for winston churchill

Picture from here

I had to laugh when I read the title to this post - it seems a bit out there :-) Anyways, this Saturday I'm grateful for:

* winston churchill - winston had a saying "never never never give up" and we've adopted it as a mantra for the family. I love the power of positive thinking.

* perseverance - Little B has decided it's time to ride his bike without training wheels. And even if he is a bit wobbly he is mastering it (on flat ground anyways). But he just keeps on trying!!

* honesty - I have to say that I felt yesterday's post kind of freeing. I havent had the motivation to blog recently as regularly as I used to. Instead I felt boxed in and like my life prevented me from saying much at all.

Check out Maxabella loves for more grateful loveliness this Saturday xx

I am a dragon mum

Three interesting things happened to me yesterday. Firstly, I read this article. Secondly, I had a confrontation with a potential new preschool for Little B (it's joined to the primary school he will go to) and finally, a close friend told me that my blog wasnt a true reflection of me if I wasnt honest about my life.

So here goes...I am the mum to a gorgeous little boy who also happens to have additional needs. In June this year, Little B was diagnosed with developmental coordination disorder (or dcd). This disorder used to be known as dyspraxia and in his case would be considered motor dyspraxia. He was born with hip dyplasia (complete dislocation of one hip) despite not having any of the call signs...he was a boy, not a breech and we had no family history. I now know that the bad bleed I had at 18 weeks was probably the cause (if any) of his additional needs, with hip dysplasia being the first indication.

So what does this mean?? On the face of it to the outside world - nothing. Most people wouldnt guess that there is anything "wrong" with Little B. But when I took him to a occupational therapist (ot) on advice from his preschool and then onto a paed physiotherapist on their recommendation, I could clearly see the differences. Little B struggles with balance, coordination, muscle tone, fine motor control to name a few. We now do 18 hours a week of physio and ot (a mixture of appointments & home based therapy) to improve his life - get him to grow some muscles. Little B had no muscle memory and no natural premonition for things that come next - his body quite simply does not respond to him naturally the same way that yours or mine does.

I'm lucky that my insistence on attachment parenting, lack of tv and therefore immersement in outdoor play / craft / reading books etc has actually meant that he has more skills than they normally see. But this process of physio intervention and so forth will be a life long one. He wont "get better" from this.

So how was yesterday interesting? Unlike Emily in the article above, my child is not going to die young. But he has a lifelong disorder...we are learning to parent a child who has in some instances a very difficult future ahead of him.

"This requires a new ferocity, a new way of thinking, a new animal. We are dragon parents: fierce and loyal and loving as hell" - Emily Rapp

I am a dragon mum - fierce and loyal and loving as hell. The last 4 months have shown me the challenges of fighting for your child in a system that is happy to let all the balls fall down. That would happily consign your child to the cracks. The difficulty in fighting a 4.5 year old to do physio everyday without fail when he doesnt want to.

So this is me being real and honest. And proud - I adore my son and as Emily says I would walk through a tunnel of fire for him. So instead I take my fierce nature and I fight for him, I help him, I train with him, I love him...I never never never give up. And if that's all he ever learns from me than I have done a brilliant job.

Home-made Icecream

With some lovely warm weather our thoughts turned to ice cream today. So we whipped out our icecream machine and away we went.

 Look at the lovely yellow yolks - nothing like free range home grown eggs

We used a really simple recipe which can be adapted to any kind of milk (cow, rice, soy)

100g caster sugar

1 tsp cornflour

4 egg yolks

2 cups milk

* Put caster sugar, cornflour and eggs yolk into a bowl and cream together until egg yolk gets lighter
* Heat milk until it just starts to boil. 
* Pour into bowl and mix with egg yolk mixture. 
* Put back in saucepan over low heat and mix together until it feels slightly thicker (dont let it come to the boil or simmer). 
* Put in fridge to chill for 6-12 hours.
* Add 1 tsp vanilla or 1/4 cup cocoa to mixture.
* Then put into ice cream machine and voila you have ice cream.

For an egg free option - replace the egg yolks with 1.5 tbsp rice brain oil (as it has no flavour). I make rice milk ice cream this way.

Renovation Central

This is how you find me most days - engrossed in green living and building magazines that I borrow enmass from my local library. Unlike our previous renovations we are intent on doing a bunch of things before we even move in. Structural work is a given - the house is being restumped and re-roofed before Christmas (yay!) but I am also absolutely intent on doing everything as green and sustainably as possible (as much as our budget allows as well LOL).

But it's been a challenge so far. Finding a roofer was mission impossible and then finding one who doesnt use toxic products was like finding a needle in a haystack. But I'm keeping lists of the products I've found and investigated and that we want to use. Magazines such as Green Living and Sanctuary are such a great starting point for ideas. My current obsession is paint - we've tried eco paints in the past (total disaster) but I'm hoping to not have to resort to Wattyl ID paints this time around (but am cool if that's what eventuates).

I loved Gavin's post last week about retrofitting and this is fundamentally what our new house is about. We want to retrofit it to the best of our abilities to account for life now but also in the future. We are starting with double insulation in the roof cavity after the roof is fixed. Then come the ceiling fans in the bedrooms. The rest will come as our budget allows but we hope to get underfloor insulation pretty quickly, then solar hot water and a wood heater installed into the fireplace.

And since we lost all our stuff from the old house, we are also trying to kit out the house as sustainably and minimally as possible. Friends and family have given us some 2nd hand furniture and I've found some friendly secondhand and vintage stores who understand about my mold allergy and let me know when they have found a "clean" item for me to see. And since the house is art deco we also want to make sure that the house has a vintage feel to fit in with the period pieces that it has.

I love the promise that a new house brings and have to say love the idea of renovating (until the actual work begins - then I'll be the first one moaning about how much I hate painting LOL - ironic considering I'm always the wall painter in the house, whilst Mr B is the fixer of all things fixable!!)

this saturday i'm grateful for being organised

Pic came from here..drool....

With only 6 weeks to go until settlement on the new house, my days feel jam packed full of things to do. So this Saturday I'm grateful for..

* being organised - I have lists everywhere of what we need to do, have and accomplish before starting our next renovating project at the new house.

* books that change your focus - I've been reading some great books at the moment and the side effect has been their take on positive living and positive home environments. Sometimes you just need to be at the right place and the right time and something clicks. 

* comfort food when it's raining - you can never have too much spaghetti or pancakes if you ask me :-)

Checkout Maxabella loves for more grateful goodies this weekend...