Happy Birthday Sunshine!

Sage turned fourteen on the very last day of February. She loves to read so I got her a new book and a pashmina scarf for her special day. Here are a few self taken photos of the hundreds we see on our computer. She had her friends over for the weekend to celebrate and go to a dance with her. They liked my chili because not everyone here knows how to make it so I felt very talented indeed for making a huge pot on the Friday that was gone by Saturday night. Sage knows how to have a good laugh, she can see the funny side to most things. She is extremely helpful when I need a right hand woman. I am very grateful she is my daughter and I get to share her life. She has a beautiful soprano voice and is learning to play the violin and piano. Her favourite classes are drama and music.

New Beginnings

So a month ago I had a look and realised I had not written here for nearly a year and was quite surprised. I feel like writing again but am unsure as to how to catch up on a year's worth of life in our family. I think to take the pressure off myself I will simply write when I feel like it and see how often I can do it and write one post at a time. This should be fun for me and fun for you.

I have passed the halfway mark to be finished with my course now and that helps me measure where I have been and how close I am to reaching that goal. It has not been easy to say the least, to become a Nursing Student and still be The Mom. I have had to let go of my hopes of perfect assignments as I have not been particularly good at managing my time. I am hoping to improve with every assignment. I have identified my misconceptions that have since been done away with:
A) that the kids would take over the housework like they said they would when I was applying to the course
B) that it would be easy because it was what I wanted to do and felt so good about starting it
C) that my essays would be fantastic due to my literary husband's support

Ok so the kids have come a long way, and do what I ask usually. Somehow no one took over my role of seeing what needs to be done and just doing it (Come on teenagers!). A spit spot house is simply not a child's priority. I accept that. They should still be enjoying childhood, with some responsibility. Simon and I are working with them more as that seems more motivating for everyone and it gets the work done quickly. The teenagers care. They care so much...when someone is coming over so my plan is to invite people over at least twice a week when possible because what they can do in half an hour is amazing if they know someone is due to stop by :-)

Sage is a TEEN!

My Sweet girl Sage has had her birthday today and is now beginning an important period in her life. She is already a lovely girl and I can imagine her continuing her present successes into the future. She is a good student as reported by all of her teachers and she is almost always found reading on her bed. She is studying violin and is starting to have a lot of fun playing with me on the Piano or with Ainsley on her Cello. Her sisters and brother love to play games and have fun with her. I love how she is a willing helper and gets up and ready for school independantly. She is hard working and dependable and I am so grateful to be her mother.

Next month she and Ainsley will travel to Belgium and France with the youth from church. It was fun to renew her passport photo and see how much she has changed over the past five years.
We love you Sage!

Running in the rain lately

Hello my dears. I have been a very naughty blogger and am way behind on recording the events of these past Autumn and Winter seasons. My excuse is that I started to work at the hospital in September 09 and have just been in my own student nurse world since then. Working as a nurse has been interesting and I feel another realm has opened up to me that I was not aware of before. I started working at a West London hospital on a Colo-Rectal/General Surgical Ward. Before I could say cholycystectomy I was removing catheters, nasal gastric tubes and cannulas from our lovely post op patients. I was able to stand in theatre watching bowel surgery up close and personal. I have the utmost respect for the multi-professional teams that make surgery safe and possible. Working on this ward has also helped me to reinforce my healthy eating and lifestyle habits. I do not ever want surgery however 'safe' it may be:-)
At the beginning of February I started to jog with a friend. She has run marathons before and is at a greater fitness level I should say. She has been fabulous at encouraging me, showing up in the rain and generally being a great running buddy. This past week I had a wonderful breakthrough: I can now run over two miles without stopping to walk at all. I run with her three times a week at the moment and want to increase that to four times starting next week if possible. I think I shall need to go on my own a couple of times due to my early schedule at my new placement. I finished at the Hospital and now am at a residential home for people with epilepsy and learning disabilities. I love this place. I am enjoying seeing the world from someone else's very different viewpoint. I love how accepting the service users are and how much fun we all have during the day. Best of all it is a lot like what I do with my own family so I already feel like I am good at it. I have learned to start peg feeds, administer meds into pegs and to use music and touch to help calm someone. I am presently working with a young man who is autistic and has epilepsy. He seemed very easy to care for until the end of the first day, he had a siezure and afterwards started running at full speed and we couldn't get him to stop. He was in the zone!- and he ran outside in his socks. It is rainy and muddy this past week. He eventually was ready to stop and was ok but I can see how some would consider this challenging behaviour. Hope to catch up more soon.

Holidays in Dorset

Beautiful view from left side of beach in Swanage
Daddy and his girls
Ainsley was very intense about the design and construction of this sand. Perhaps she'll be an architect like her uncle. She is very creative and still says she wants to do hair, and I always add that it would be a great way to earn money while she is at university studying...other things.
Saxon is winding down and feeling chilly here. He went in the water a lot with our blue dingy.




This is Swanage on the Tuesday. After putting up our tent in the spitting rain the night before, this did not seem a bad day. The water was gorgeous and the beach was not over crowded. A perfect start to our holiday. I thought Simon would be very guarded about his eye after just having surgery two weeks ago, but he could only sit at the sidelines for a few minutes before hopping off and going over to dig in the sand with the kids. By the end of the week he was ready to drive again. It may be my driving, or it may be that he had recovered so well by then he felt confident enough, he didn't say. I had a lovely time people watching and went for a nice walk along the pier with Simon and Charlotte to find some food for our crew. We ended up with some having Cornish Pasties and some having Margarita Pizzas (fancy way of saying cheese pizza so you aren't so annoyed by your unadventurous children). There was a guy who had a crepe stand and you could get pretty much anything sweet or savoury in a crepe or thin pancake. After our failed trip to Cornwall (because of the emergency eye surgery) I wanted a pasty and it was worth eating a days worth of calories in one go. Most food tastes delicious when you have been out walking on your holiday and you do not have to prepare it. We spent three hours here before it did finally rain us back to our protective tent.

Bronwyn goofing

Charlotte having a go on Saxon's Go-Kart

Bouncing Boy in Speedo

We do speedo in England.

Ainsley's First Cello Concert

Sweet Charlotte after church on Father's Day 2009

It is Summertime!

It's official. I am a Student Nurse.
Posing after church on Sunday. Got some new clothes for summer!