Day out

On Tuesday I was meant to have a physio assessment. The hospital sent me dire warnings about what would happen if I cancelled my appointment at short notice. So what happened? They cancelled it at short notice. Can't get another one for 3 weeks.

As we were all psyched up to go out we went to a large shopping centre instead. Had a nice time mooching around. All we bought was 6 books from a charity shop and we had a lovely salad for lunch. Just nice to get out really. We had a bit of a look round PC World as well as the sad reality is that our laptop is packing up and is actually physically cracked. The question is whether to get a mini one like we've got now which is nice and light to carry round or have on your lap but obviously has the disadvantage of a smaller screen or go for a larger one. Dunno really.

Healing on the streets

On Saturday P and In went into town and there was someone from our new church and some other people doing 'Healing on the Streets'. I'm usually up for being prayed for so I sat in the wheelchair and three lovely ladies prayed for me. One, who doesn't know me, asked what was wrong. 'I've had ME for 19 years, I've got osteoporosis, arthritis in my hands and possibly something wrong with my liver.' Definitely what you might call a challenge and she did look a bit taken aback but, undaunted, they prayed for me and it was really nice and I could feel my arms tingling when they touched me. I love it when people have faith that I'll be healed.

Where are my genes and not on the washing machine please

Listen boys, changing the Google Account password without telling me is not ok. Changing it to something stupid I can't remember is also not ok. Not telling me you're down to your last clean school shirt is not ok. And while we're on the subject leaving a mega tub of fatballs on top of the washing machine so that there's a huge crash during the spin cycle is NOT OK. Ok?

So snow turned to rain. Lots of rain. We now have a pond in the wood.

J was off school Friday and Monday. Made him go to school on Tuesday as they're preparing for another English assessment and a German oral exam. This is the reality of life in Year 10. He was supposed to have a catch-up lesson with his English teacher yesterday but she was off sick. I told him that this assessment is only 10% of the English Language mark and the exam board say it's meant to be fun so not to stress about it. He looked at me in astonishment: 'English. Fun???'

I don't understand how this has happened. I was good at English at school. Where have my genes gone?

Pleasant evening, horrid train journey, nice rail staff and exams

Yesterday after picking up J from school we went to London where my (sort of) sister in law was involved in a poetry event. Very good evening, lovely to see my brother and his partner (and give them their Christmas presents!). It all went very well until the journey home which was quite difficult - several cancelled trains then several crowded trains and no-one prepared to let someone in a wheelchair on. Finally a couple of the staff came to our rescue and helped us get on. We had decided not to stay for a meal with the others as J had school next day and felt a bit under the weather. He ended up staying up late anyway and getting cold standing around on the platform and had to stay in bed today. He was a bit exhausted anyway as he had a big Maths exam on Wednesday after which he had both skating and his German tutor in the evening.

Talking of exams he got a B for his English assessment on Shakespeare which, for a boy who sees English lessons as a form of torture, is pretty good I think.

In order to try and help my liver along I have been eating really healthily and drinking loads of water - which has helped a bit. Have also lost two pounds (as in weight) this week.

Bewl Water

Pictures below are to remind me of a happy day out P and I had in September at Bewl Water in Kent. A lovely place, would recommend it.

Snow, money matters and a shield

It snowed all day Saturday and Sunday so J had high hopes of school being closed today. At 7.30 I had a text to say 'school open as normal.' It was like you could feel the wave of disappointment from pupils and teachers alike sweeping across the county. Never mind, it means he'll get a bit more educated I suppose.

Something quite momentous we've just done is to pay off our mortgage. We were advised that this was the best thing to do with some of P's lump sum from his retirement as we were paying far more interest on the mortgage than we'd get on any savings. It's a really nice feeling - our house is ours not the mortgage company's. It would be too tedious to go into the hassle involved in the actual process of paying it off. We spent a great deal of Thursday going back and forth between the bank with which we had the mortgage and the bank with which we have our current account. 

On Saturday despite the snow we went to a meting of the family housegroup. We had a very nice evening with good food and conversation. Was chatting to J's German tutor who also goes to the group. She says J's doing fine and has a very good grasp of German grammar.

We also had to do this thing about values where each family member chose their 5 most important values from a list. P's were: creativity, family, honesty, punctuality and recognition. J's were: happiness, personality, relationships, self control and self respect. Mine were: family, honesty, humour, love and perseverance.

Then we had to make a 'family shield' on which we wrote each person's one most important value. Mine was love, J's was personality (?), mine was love (aaah) and P's was.... punctuality. Punctuality?!?!?!?!? 

Not very good news

I'm just going to briefly mention my bit of not so good news. 

On Saturday I got a letter from the hospital saying that the results of the blood tests I had suggested there may be an abnormality in my liver. Yikes. I've got to have more blood tests, an ultrasound and an appointment with a gastroenterologist,none of which I fancy at all. I have been feeling a bit sick lately which I put down to the painkillers but now I'm wondering if it's because my liver's not working properly. The painkillers probably haven't done it much good anyway.

Good news is that my fingers are feeling a bit less painful so can cut down the tablets a bit.

Mark 10:27 says '...all things are possible for God.' (NIV)  I'm trusting Him to heal my liver along with everything else.

Photos

P took these photos when we had a very heavy frost in December. Pretty good I think.

Frost

Hassle

Enough snow to be pretty but not enough to close school. Yay.

I'm in a bad mood today a) because I've got a sore throat again and b) because I usually do my blog on the laptop and for some reason after typing I can't access the 'publish' key. So after typing a page on my other blog I had to copy it, email it to myself then open my blog on the desktop and paste it in. What a lot of hassle. Trouble is it's harder typing on the desktop.

I know I'll see if I can find some photos.

German moved

In order to avoid my blog becoming one long German lesson I've started a new blog called 'Liz learning German' which basically is just a notebook for me to record what I'm trying to learn.

We have got more snow now. 

 

Just a bit of snow

A light sprinkling of snow this morning, a bit heavier round school but school still open - sorry J. Just started snowing lightly again (at one o'clock). Thankfully my niece was able to get to school to take her Maths AS-level exam.

Cold outside but nice and warm indoors (so glad not in caravan, have I ever mentioned that I didn't like the caravan?). P busy doing governor stuff. I managed to do a little bit of tidying and cleaning. I went shopping on Saturday and bought some long-handled dusters and sponges which are easier to use.
 
 

No snow and sleepy

Woke up at 5.30 again. Why??? Quite cold but not snowing so far. J desperately hoping it will.My niece is desperately hoping it won't as she has an A level exam tomorrow.

Went to church this morning which was good but cold. P busy with the audio system and moving chairs etc. I'm all too conscious I can't really do anything at the moment. Never mind some day I will. Someone came over and said my testimony had made her feel really sorry for me and she was praying for me. It's good she's praying for me but my testimony was meant to be positive - God loves me in spite of everything but it obviously didn't come across like that. I think I've just lost touch with how different my life is to most other people's and even though I'd watered it down a lot they were still shocked. I suppose being ill and disabled for 19 years and then getting another disabling illness is hard to get your head round.
 
Apart from that haven't really done anything today, just lounged around, fell asleep on the sofa. Talking about falling asleep we've been going to this 'Freedom in Christ' course on Fridays at someone's house. It's a good course but on Friday I was sitting on the nice comfy sofa, in nice warm room listening to nice soothing worship music... next thing is P nudging me to wake me up. Oops.  

The new blazer

Since J went back to school in September there have been several inches of bare arm dangling beneath his blazer sleeves. As a new blazer would cost more arms and legs than we fancied paying we decided a trip to the second hand uniform shop was in order. Ok, the only problem was that finding out when the shop was open and actually getting there seemed to demand a higher level of competence than we possessed. Finally one day at the end of November I announced 'It says on the school calendar that the uniform shop is open at 7.30 tonight and we are going to be there. Ok.' Fine.

About half an hour before we were to leave I thought my tummy felt a bit funny. 30 seconds later I knew I was dying. After about 20 minutes P knocked on the bathroom door. 'I can't come out, I think I've got norovirus,' I groaned. (My abiding memory of the first night of norovirus was having a fervent desire to die in bed in comfort while instead I was stuck in the bathroom for hours). 

Anyway P and J set off to travel eight miles through a dark stormy night only to arrive and find several disgruntled parents and a shut shop. Christmas holidays and several colds later last Wednesday I saw that the shop should be open at lunchtime. After last time perhaps it would be better to phone and check. 'Uniform shop open? Don't know anything about that,' said the woman on reception. The relationship between the school calendar and real life seems to be 
somewhat tenuous. However she said if we came in she would open it up for us. Yay. So she and P spent some considerable time searching fo a J sized blazer. Finally he emerged triumphant with a blazer over his arm. At home that night J tried it on: 'Yes it fits. Er Dad there's just one problem - it's a girl's blazer.' 'What??? You wouldn't consider wearing a girl's blazer???...er no ok, stupid question.'

Thankfully when P went back on Thursday he got a boy's version which is only a bit too big - you're just going to have to wear it - ok.

Thankful Thursday

Because lately I haven't been feeling all that good I've got into the habit of, as soon as I wake up, thinking of 10 things for which to be thankful. As it's Thursday today I'll write (tap) this morning's down:

1) That God loves me.
2) That He who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion... (Phillipians 1:6 NIV)
3) I've got P.
4) P loves me.
5) I've got J.
6) J loves me.
7) I've got a roof over my head.
8) I've got a snuggly wuggly bed.
9) I've got a nice warm bathroom.
10) I've got a lovely shower.

The shower is lovely, it really is. Remember the 'bathroom' in the caravan? Hardly room to move, no heating at all and a hole in the floor through which could see the grass underneath.Talking of which must go and have a nice hot shower.

P's clock lets me down

Guten Morgen! Heute ist es kalt. 

(Good morning! It's cold today.) It is cold, really frosty. J's hopes of getting snow and school closing are rising.

It was a strange morning. P has an internal clock which is almost never wrong ie he can tell what time it is without looking at the clock. I on the other hand have an internal clock which is almost never right. In seriously struggle to get anywhere on time ever. Normally in the mornings J wakes at 6.30 am, P sets his alarm for 7 am but usually wakes earlier and I just sort of slither into semi-consciousness. This morning I woke up and P said 'It's almost 7 o'clock' and I said'Oh no, why isn't J awake? He must be ill'. I went into the bathroom, banging the door and waking up J. Then I looked at the clock: 5.30! Had to persuade a grumpy J to go back to sleep.

What happened to your internal clock P?

German lesson

Some German words:

weil = because   was = what   warum = why  wo = where  wann = when

Freund = friend

Taschengeld = pocket money

Spiel = game

Badezimmer = bathroom  Esszimmer = dining room

Spargel = asparagus   Erbsen = peas  Kartoffel = potato  Blumenkohl = cauliflower 

It was me

If you were listening to Premier Radio yesterday morning when they were talking about some people being cheerful in the morning and some not so cheerful (suggesting the former might be more likely to be female) and at the end they read out a text from someone called Liz quoting Proverbs 27:14:

'If anyone loudly blesses their neighbour early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse'. (NIV)

Well it was me. I sent that text in. And I have someone in my house who is very loud and cheerful in the morning. He does bring me breakfast in bed though for which I am very grateful. 

Back to school

Schlafzimmer = bedroom

J says everyone knows that. Well everyone who's been studying German for over 3 years might.

After a last minute finishing of Art homework and discovering he needed his PE kit 5 minutes after he should have left J went back to school this morning. He had a test today to confirm if he can have extra time and use the computer in his GCSEs (ahem he has already done his first GCSE assessment, hadn't they noticed?). Anyway the result was that he's too good at English to get extra time but can use the computer as there was a considerable difference in speed between his typing and writing. He feels frustrated about it as he says the tests didn't address his problem which is difficulty in organising his thoughts. It was interesting that in one of our 'round robin' Christmas letters someone described her daughter as having the same problem, like there's so much going on in her head she can't pick out what to write about, but because she has reading problems as well she's been definitely diagnosed as having dyslexia whereas J's diagnosis is 'difficulties of the dyslexic type'. Anyway we'll just have to pray he's ok without the extra time. For him to use the computer in his exams we're also going to have to get a psychologist's report every 2 years - at £450 a go!

Apart from tidying some papers and with P's help taking down the Christmas decorations I don't feel I've done much at all today. Feel so tired. Throat still sore, being held at bay by gargling with aspirin.

Bendy finger

My right index finger, which up to now has been the least affected by arthritis, has started bending over. I don't want this to happen, I really don't. Perhaps it'll only bend a little bit.

Zimmer

German word for today is Zimmer which means room and presumably has nothing to do with zimmer frame.

Funny Chemistry

It's Sunday morning and I'm not going to church as really don't feel up to it. Throat is sore again, don't know why. P has gone off to new church. J is going to walk to old church. He would have come to new church but P has to get there an hour and a half before service starts to set up audio and that's a bit much for J which is understandable. Right now he's in the study doing his Chemistry homework. Strangely I keep hearing him laughing. I don't ever remember Chemistry being funny. Although with hindsight there was perhaps a bit of humour in the time my test tube sort of exploded and the contents shot across the room and hit the teacher on the face and burnt a hole in his beard and he chased me round the lab. I say with hindsight, definitely not funny at the time.

 

Can you just stop doing that?

Both P and J do this thing where I'm lounging on the sofa tapping out my blog and they walk past and either tickle my ears or pull my hoodie hood over my eyes. Thanks boys I really enjoy that.

J who is back at school on Monday has had a pile of homework to do over the hols so when did he start it? This afternoon. Still 3 subjects to do. Still that's his problem not mine.

Dudelsack

You've probably never thought about this before but do you know what the German for bagpipes is?

Dudelsack.

Isn't that a wonderful word?

I need to get out more. I really, really do. I haven't been out all week, the only people I've seen have been J and P, apart from saying Hello to our neighbour's brother over the fence.

Hopefully I'll be going to church tomorrow. I feel a bit nervous about it really. After my 'testimony' last week I feel people may think I've got a bit of a negative attitude. Perhaps I shouldn't have admitted to spending most of a day crying but what I think is that Jesus has already won the victory for us but sometimes as part of the process of appropriating that victory into our lives we need to deal with the bad stuff and letting it out by having a cry occasionally is ok.

But then people might not be thinking I'm negative at all, I might just be being paranoid.

Definitely need to get out more.

Dudelsack is what I say.

Our poor dog

Woke up at 5.30 feeling shivery and achey. Took some paracetamol and fell back to sleep. Woken at 9.00 by P bringing me tea. Was having a dream in which we were out for the day and our dog jumped into a water feature and went under the water and didn't come up. The lady who owned the feature said we had to find his body as it might block up the pipes. I was really distraught.

If you have read this blog before you might be thinking: 'But you haven't got a dog.' You're right,
  we haven't.
 
Anyway after I woke up again and had got over the loss of my imaginary dog I felt better and got up in time for lunch.Then my brother phoned which was nice and then a friend phoned which was nice. Then I even managed to put curtain rings in our new curtains for the study and P hung them up.I think they look quite good. He thinks they don't go with the walls. No problem, just paint the walls.

Now I've had a nice bath and am in bed nice and early. Wish I could stop saying nice.

German lesson for today:

'Hast du deine Hausaufgaben gemacht?'  Have you done your homework?

I think that will come in useful.

In bed with Schnupfen

Ich habe der Schnupfen. That's (I think) German for 'I have the sniffles' and I do have the sniffles, very, very bad sniffles. In bed all day. J is doing German GCSE and has a tutor which has improved his speaking skills no end but disadvantage is he keeps speaking to me in German which I don't understand. I have this idea of learning one word a day. How about this: 'Ich bin im Bett mit dem Schnupfen'? 'I am in bed with the sniffles'. I think it's dem not den, I just asked J and he didn't know. What am I paying the tutor for?

And something else, don't tell J but ich habe eine Schnachtel Pralinen auf meinem Bett.

Sun!

Spent New Year's Eve not going to party but in bed with cold. J went and slept over at Tim's, he got to sleep 2.30. 

I got up at midnight and saw fireworks through window.

Cold worse today but should soon be better. After what feels like weeks of rain has been sunny today!!! I love the subtle colours of the oak branches against the turquoisy winter sky. 

We finally finished turkey today. Note to self: next year get a smaller one.

Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
HOPE 2013 IS A GREAT YEAR FOR YOU