Of many things
Categories: cooking-gluten-free, gardening, family, lupus-sle
Tags: allotment, hubby, munchkin, pumpkin, kids, vegetables, baking, cooking, gluten free, motherhood, lupus, PhD, Holiday
Date: 13 July 2009 13:17:38
In all that's been going on I have omitted to let you all know that Hubby has had his PhD Viva and it went very well indeed. He has been granted his PhD pending some minor amendments which he has a few weeks to complete. Hooray!! He is very relieved (and we are all very proud). Since that happened we have spent a week in Northumberland at a cottage near Bamburgh with my parents. It was really nice to get away properly without Hubby having to worry about being contacted about work (which always happens when he's having time off but is at home) or working on the PhD. Pumpkin has started smiling a lot and gurgling and chatting back when he's given the attention so it was great timing for my parents to spend some time getting to know him a bit. It also meant Hubby and I had the extra pairs of hands and eyes to help out! Mum and Dad took Munchkin out a few times and once took over for a full day so Hubby and I could visit Lindisfarne (Holy Island). Obviously we took the little one with us but he is very happy strapped to one of us in the sling so we were able to take our time reading the information about the Priory and Castle and soaking everything up rather than running around after the boisterous Munchkin!!
Both Pictures are of Lindisfarne Priory.
The last couple of weeks we have been having new potatoes from our allotment. They're lovely! We've just started on the Charlotte variety which I am really enjoying (can't remember what the other types are off hand). We are also just starting to get a few courgettes and hubby tells me that both the runner and french bean plants are flowering. I haven't managed to get down to help or have a look since before we went away - timing it right with both kids is apparently more of a challenge than I can handle at the moment!
I have an appointment back at the rheumatology clinic tomorrow morning. Hubby will take Munchkin out to a picnic held by our regular 'stay and play' group while I go along with Pumpkin. I don't expect them to change any of my medication or anything. Healthwise things are going pretty well - just the odd blip here and there. I am so lucky to have (a very proactive and helpful) hubby working at home for the most part meaning that he's available to help out at mealtimes (which for me are the most difficult bit of having to deal with both of them together next to bath/bedtime). I do wonder how my illness would be affected if I had to cope with him being away more on business. He does travel a bit, and generally is off on site about one day a week. I cope, but it's obviously harder. When he does go away for a few days then I start to see things deteriorating. Lupus is affected by hormones and tiredness/worry/stress sends ones hormones off doing funny things, setting off the Lupus (apart from chronic fatigue being one of it's big symptoms in the first place). So by the time he gets back I find myself wound up and tired suffering from a short temper from being worn down as well as the familiar arthritic problems in various joints making it hard to do lots of things including picking up/supporting the children. Anyway - I seem to have gone off on a whinge so I apologise!!
Both of the boys are doing well. Munckin will be 2 years old in less than a fortnight! It seems to have crept up on us so fast! He's such a lovely little boy and he's just hilarious at the moment as he's learning to talk. He often stands there for ages looking at me and repeating the same word over and over and over, while I try in vain to decipher what it means. I often don't manage and it either ends in tears or a very odd kind of lopsided look before he wanders off to do something else! Pumpkin is really getting interactive and smiles a lot. It's a really nice stage when they get to chuckling and gurgling at your attempts to keep them amused! He is also quite often only waking up in the night once, which is a relief. Although not last night (so I am feeling rather tired especially as Hubby got up to disappear down South for the day at 6am). Isn't it typical that as I ended up getting up that early having not had a great night anyway the other two boys carried on sleeping until 7.30am!!!
On the (gluten free) baking front I recently made some cheese, corn and bacon muffins (I found the recipe in Coeliac UK's 'Crossed Grain' Summer 2009 Magazine but I can't seem to find it on their website) and they were really good. A great savoury snack for when you're on the go. I also made an enormous batch of chicken nuggets a few weeks ago (Most of them are now in the freezer). These were a variation on a recipe I found in How to Feed Your Whole Family a Healthy Balanced Diet, with Very Little Money and Hardly Any Time, Even If You Have a Tiny Kitchen, Only Three Saucepans (One with An Ill Fitting Lid) and No Fancy Gadgets - Unless You Count the Garlic Crusher... and they're fab! I used coarse polenta to coat them and they're really good. The apple and carrot in them gives them a very distinctive (good) flavour and it means that I can have chicken nuggets and chips without it costing the earth or being particularly unhealthy. Ironically, now that I have got around to making my own, Sainsbury's have finally got their gluten free chicken nuggets back on the shelves again (it's only take about a year since the scare about lactose that made them take them off).
Anyway - as both boys are asleep and the other one's at work, I might see if I can make the most of it and go for a short rest or even a nap.