Tea room 22- A Farmhouse kitchen, anyone for a cuppa?

[UniS]

Welcome to the 22nd incarnation of the tea room. This time we are watching for spring from a cosy farmhouse kitchen. There is an aga for baking virtual cakes and an inglenook with toasty fire and settles to rest weary bones on. The distressed chintz sofa and footstool have arrived safe and sound and the priest hole is around here somewhere. On the Window sill is an aspidistra its pot surrounded by a hand holding circle of nearly naked mohawk babies, they have placards and a brazier.

Outside in the surrounding fields can be found the tea room horses, Earl and Lady Grey, also a herd of bison AND a Ha Ha to keep the bishops from invading.

Usual rules apply, no fisticuffs, if you want an argument go else where. Mellors the butler / game keeper will supply all sorts of things on request. Welcome Mums of one, none or many to the tea room of requirement.

Can someone tell BabyScout to stop scratching the wall? I will not rescue him from his bed until he naps....

Hello all, and a special hello to Spice Weasel. Keeping up is tricky; I have resorted to purchasing a phone that has internet. I'm avidly waiting for an app. for Mumsnet. Perhaps I should start a thread.... I bet there is probably one in the pipeline for the iphone, but my plan didn't stretch that far.

I have come in to take refuge from the cold. Today it is minus 2 outside, and according to my themometer around 9 or 10 in the house. Mexico has come to a stop (at least here in the north), noone's asleep under any catuses with their ponchos on though, anyone asleep outside is suffering from hypothermia. I shouldn't complain too much in Ciudad Juarez they are at minus 17 and it has snowed.

I do so wish I had a) central heating b) a chimney and a fire b) anything other than a poxy small electric heater to try and warm the house.

Scout, yay re the weight!!!

Catita, still cold in Mexico? The weather is mighty strange over there. I reckon you need to invest in shares in central heating companies soon!

Yes, I'm behaving. I've been supervised all day

Scout, forgive me, I don't know why the weight thing is so crucial and I am too polite to speculate. Can you enlighten me?

Scout is on some long term medication for a blood condition. The med has nasty side effects such as significant weight loss. (Summarizing what she's shared on here, I'm pretty sure she won't mind my saying.) So we're all after her to eat lots of calorific food.

Catita, we were freezing our arses off earlier in the week (but enjoying the sunny weather that tends to come with the cold here). Back to the usual January temps, 8 - 10 degrees and gentle rain. Ho hum.

Amber, how are you feeling today?

Scout, I am going to go shopping soon for fattening protein bars for you. When I got up this morning, I thought, hmm, no plans, maybe JB and I will zip across the line to Bellingham and go to Trader Joe's. They have Clif Bars with 20 gm protein in them, and Clif Sweet&Salty Peanut Butter Pretzel bars.... mmmmmmmmmm.... and then had a rude awakening: we mailed off our passports for renewal last week, and you can't cross into the US without a passport anymore. Bugger. So I'll have to see what I can find here.

While pregnant with BabyScout they discovered a health problem that is scary but treatable (keep in mind I already have lots of health problems, so this is one more thing to tackle/deal with). I stopped breastfeeding earlier than I think I would have liked but did so so that I could start the treatments sooner rather than later (the thought being side-effects, especially at the beginnng, are bad/rough and I wanted to get them over with before BabyScout was a toddler). I started in August and have approximately a year of medicines, doctors appointments, tests, etc. Two of the side-effects are loss of appetite and weight loss and I was told if I lost 10% of my starting body weight they'd have to "intervene." While I was never big to begin with (in fact was classed as underweight until my mid-20s when I finally put on 20 lbs and was up to 125-ish) I had put on a few pounds after marrying MrScout and was finally comfortable with my size/weight. I was back to pre-pregnancy weight before I started my treatments. Every month since I've started I've lost, on average, 2+kg/5 lbs. I've definitely lost my 10% and was going to flag it up this month if I had lost any more since I am at my "single girl" weight (though not shape -- thanks BabyScout).

My goal in January has been to force myself to eat (very hard when you really don't want food) and not lose any more. I've made a real effort to always eat when BabyScout does by telling myself he needs to see his Mommy eating, too, so that he knows eating is positive and social (I eat dinner with MrScout when he gets home at 8, but I have a bit of dinner or a snack with BabyScout when he eats at 5-6).

Fortunately for me (so far) BabyScout LOVES food and will eat anything I put in front of him. Some days he'd happily eat all day if I'd let him, so plenty of opportunity for me to nibble, too.

Bugger re needing passports to cross the border, JM. I know it's such a pain! And considering most Americans don't have a passport, I don't know how all of the border residents cope any more!

And oooooo, Trader Joes.... Seriously envious. And Wegman's (though don't think they're on your side of the country). Aaaaaaa.

Must get my bum in gear and finish JB's surprise to go with your Galaxy bars.

I'm feeling great, thanks! Seriously. No pain, slightly stiff under that wing, but no problems so far that I'm aware of. And my initial "eeek!" has become more of a about why we don't actually have a simple answer to a fairly simple cell division problem in 2011. What are they doing with all those millions and millions in research budgets?! Just one single charity - Cancer Research UK - has an income of £500 million a year! How many ruddy times can they look down a microscope and add chemicals to cells without finding an answer to the main ones, for that money per annum?!

Is there anything else you'd like from Trader Joe's?

Are you still sitting on that comfy chair, amber?! We don't want another ladder incident, young lady....

Awww, no thnks JM. I just like going in for a wander [sad grocery geek emoticon].

Not sad at all... I love browsing around Trader Joe's.

I know Amber, I get like that over ME/CFS research..of which there is lots, but nothing ever seems to be found to identify why people like my mum are plagued with it. Which is why (I think) that so much importance is given to the state of mind of the patient in both cases. In the absence of anything else concrete to go against, a person's mood is often the easiest target to attack.

I do wonder if there are so many genetic issues in medicine that when we find out more, we will realise how much we have been piddling about up until now, IYSWIM.

Do you know, people, I like this kitchen so much I have been looking for a house with one on Rightmove (sadly to little avail).

My nanny saw me and said if she won the lottery she would buy me one, as long as it had a nice annexe for her and her mum when she visits, and she would work for free as well, as long as I promised not to make her start before nine (she is not a morning person, bless her).

Honestly, how lovely can you get??

She sounds like a jewel Boffinmum.

Right now I'd settle for just the aga.... my feet are numb and sore. I fear my chilblains will along in a minute just to let me know they are still here.

Anyone for some?

Passes Catita a glass of to go with her toast.

(Sorry, just wanted to use the new emoticon.)

Toast and wine? Why not!

Had a "treat" and had breakfast at the hospital this morning before my appointment. People kept walking by cooing "Look at that baby eating toast!" BabyScout enjoys his food and at one point got almost a quarter of toast into his mouth and sat there trying to figure out what to do next. Thankfully he remembered his manners and ate it nicely after that. lol

OOh lovely, for all.

Why is it that babies go quiet for ages, you think they're asleep, and then they start chattering again?!

Thanks Catita!

Tis very windy here in East Anglia tonight. Feels like the house is going to be blown away.

Is it too early for the disco ball to make an appearance?

Ready for !

Actually about to start baking my birthday cake. Using my dinosaur cake tin. Yes, it was purchased for LCT's birthday, but I want some!

Is that the Lakeland one ? We are very fond of dinosaur cakes here.

Well, DS has been delivered to his sleepover so heres hoping that sleep will happen...

DH watching rugby with friend, curry ordered - peace is reigning !