Spring Season Swap!

How exciting to open our season swap this morning - Chloe finally understood the purpose of sending/receiving a surprise gift! It's a beautiful daffodil knitted/french knitted by Claire (blackhobbescat) and it's gorgeous! Here it is, in pride of place on our spring display (which is not a table, but a hideous 1950s beige tiled fireplace we are trying to disguise!):

This was such fun, I can't wait for the summer swap now!

Star letter!!

How exciting to open my copy of GP magazine this morning, start reading the letters page and think 'how funny, I wrote something about donating to the homeless...' only to realise I was reading my own letter!! Slightly worrying how long it took for the penny to drop - I'd forgotten I'd written it, if I'm honest.

I haven't had anything I've written published anywhere since another star letter about teenage motherhood being my inspiration to succeed a few years ago in Real magazine, so it's amazing to see my name in print again. I used to write for a local paper and write and edit my college and uni magazine/journal, and I just feel writing is what I'm supposed to be doing. I just wish I could find/create more time for it. It's a different headspace to crafting, multi-tasking and generally family-managing, and that's a space I cherish but rarely find. I guess that's something I can work towards. A lovely feeling today though!

Here comes the sun

And I say, it's alright :-)

We've been out in the garden, digging, planting, playing and exploring - guess who did what?!

Dirty feet in the garden for the first time ever!! A little explorer! Finn thinks the guinea-pigs are hilarious, and loved a plant pot he made into a drum! Daddy is using a tree we had to cut down when it split in the winds last year to make a teeny border around the patio...I think he may be working on it for the rest of our lives...
Chloe posing on the slide, surrounded by mangled grass patches courtesy of the animals:

A happy girly on a swing and a little brother who's anxious not to be left behind!

A lovely line full of washing - is it sad that this makes me happy?!

A newly dug and planted veg patch (well, half planted!) and a mini pond full of tadpoles!

One of the aforementioned tadpoles: Splashes of colour, and a pretty thing I made as a housewarming present which really doesn't belong in this post at all but I'm pleased with it!!

No fixed abode...

I was in the dreaded supermarket yesterday and saw the front page of the local paper. Two of my ex-clients have been barred from entering the city for two years. On one level I'm pleased that something has been done about these two - they're a couple who have harrassed and bullied so many vulnerable people through the years and have lead to the deaths of at least a couple of other clients. Of course it's all drugs related, and if their absence makes it easier for anyone to beat their addictions or to get themselves straightened out then it's great and I applaud the authorities.

On the other hand, it's a total non-sentence and probably won't stop them from continuing to flaunt the law and do whatever the hell they like. After all, these are people who've dealt heroin for the best part of fifteen years between them and have spent most of their recent lives in prison, so I doubt that they will be concerned by an ASBO. And what has also irritated me is that there's two sides to every story, and although the reporting reflects some of the damage they've done, there are many things it doesn't say.

It doesn't say that he can't read. That he's dyslexic and has never been able to come off drugs for long enough to work with a teacher successfully. Or that he'd love to learn but believes himself to be "too thick". Or that he is, basically, a kind-hearted young man (25 now, I worked with him aged 21-23) who has been under the spell of a woman much older and more experienced (and more damaged) than him since he was little more than a child.

It doesn't say that their childhoods were so horrendously awful that they actually chose their current lifestyles as the better option.

It doesn't say that she has been so badly abused that she sees selling herself for a bag of smack as "no big deal".

It doesn't say that their baby died two years ago, that he was stillborn, probably because she simply could not cope without the heroin that is killing them both. Or that she had already had her first two children taken into care but was desperate to turn things around and keep this baby. Or that she was threatened by dealers who promised to cut the baby out of her before killing them both. That maybe this stress was as traumatic as the heroin for the tiny little boy who never stood a chance.

It doesn't say that these two are the product of a society that treats parenting as a part-time chore, not a privilege, an amazing honour and an inspiration. It doesn't say that we are all to blame for the way in which these two and countless others like them have turned out and for the fact that they see no value in their own lives or those of anyone else. It doesn't say that once, a long time ago, these two were tiny babies with a blank canvas of life ahead of them. It doesn't say that someone let them down. But hey, it's alright, because they can't enter the city for two years. And that'll fix it all. Won't it?

The best laid plans...

So we've arranged our day - and indeed our week - so that we can fit in the lovely music group at the children's centre...only Finn didn't think much of that plan, clearly. He decided to get up at 5.45am, after an hour of climbing on me, shouting and feeding, so despite a little sleep in the sling earlier, he's just fallen fast asleep in his lunch and is now out for the count in our bed. Such is life. So instead of having cups of tea (water, I don't drink tea) with other mummies, I'm updating this blog instead. And actually, it's probably a better option since I started my day by cleaning the bathroom and changing nappies before 6am and am still fuming after ridiculous comments from the very same other mummies on wednesday.



Just in case anyone is interested, and because it's still irritating me now, there was a discussion about MMR jabs, to which one mum contributed that her daughter will not be having it as her son is severely autistic, so she's having the single jabs instead. Fine. Her right to decide. Only another mum (who is actually very nice and not the ogre I've been imagining since she said this) said: "Oh I thought you were going to say she wasn't having it at all, and that's just irresponsible". WHICH MADE ME MAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How on earth can anyone be so ignorant?! How is it irresponsible to decline something that you believe to be a danger to your child?! I would bet my house on the fact that I've done more research (7 years and counting) on immunisations than she has, in fact, I should imagine she's just obediently obeyed the govt propaganda without having any idea what actually goes into the jabs or how effective or necessary they are. Which actually strikes me as fairly irresponsible in itself. But there we are, a nation of 'responsible' sheep.


So that turned into a rant and to lighten the mood, here's my lovely boy's new favourite game:

I'm sure there's some fun to be had here with a machine full of clean, wet washing: I'm so helpful, I've unloaded it all for mummy. Now what shall I do?

I know, I'll put it all back again!

Children are just so scrummy gorgeous perfect!!!!

Mama's new sling!

The postman has been kind to us today, delivering our new Joey Mei Tai sling. I feel a little extravagant, but couldn't find exactly what we wanted anywhere secondhand and even Phil knew it'd be well loved so didn't mind the expense. Anyhow, it's gorgeous! And soooooooo comfortable. Finn just giggled away on my back for ages and I got loads done - it's so much easier than having him on my front (but a little bit less snuggly so will definitely still use the wrap for front carries on walks.

Terrible picture of me, but he's happy!

Sooooooo pretty! A bit lopsided in this one though!

I'm so pleased with it, it's just so easy! I'm so glad we tried it as I felt awful not coping with the wrap on my back very well and this is perfect :-)

Crafty things!

I've been meaning to put up pictures of the crafty bits I've done lately, so here goes:

Earrings made of shells with Amethyst chips, and an Amethyst and Quartz bracelet I sent to a GP mama: My first attempt at needle felting:

More needle felting - with an unfinished ladybird, lol!

A bag for my mum, made from the curtains she made for me as a baby:

Toy bags for Finn and one for his friend - a present for our first birthday party amongst the babies we've met:

And the back of the second bag:

I've really loved doing these little bits but have still only half finished my seasons swap so I'm really hoping to get that done today if the little man will stop feeding for five minutes!