Episode 34 - The Tearoom moves to New England

[beanandspud]

At this time of year New England is famous for its glorious foliage as billions of leaves change from green to a kaleidoscope of colours. The air is crisp and cool ? perfect for hiking, biking or a drive along back roads, where farm stands are piled high with crunchy apples and orange pumpkins.

Everyone is welcome. There are tea, cakes and wine aplenty so pull up a comfortable chair and join us.

The usual rule applies - no fisticuffs please!

Trying to have a toy clear out before Christmas. Problem is I don't quite know what to get rid of, what to save for later (as in put away for prosperity) and what to leave out. Trains stay out, for sure. But things like the Duplo SB doesn't really play with any more, preferring Lego, but he will occasionally get it out. So I've boxed it up and am going to put it in my closet to make room for Christmas toys. Same with books he doesn't look at/read his board books any more, and we have loads, but I'm hesitant to just donate them. Would friends take board books, do you think? SB's Godfather & his wife just had a son (their first child) and I thought of offering them but he's the youngest of a long line of boy cousins so might laugh at the offer considering they got everything from their siblings.

Part of the problem is MrS is a hoarder and can't donate/throw things. I've convinced him to let me worry about my stuff (which I regularly weed through) and SB's stuff. But when I got him to agree he got very concerned about what I was going to "do" with things. MiL said something the other week, too, that worried me: "My kids' toys have been put to good use these last 13 years or so." Yes, maybe, but I don't have the space to keep everything in case there's a grandchild someday in the future. And some things I just don't think would last/fair well in storage (even in plastic bins because our only storage would be in the loft). I have donated some of SB's baby things, things he never used/played with/looked at, to the local children's center we utilize and know the things are used either in the activity rooms (I've seen one or two of the things being loved) or been given to families that need support.

Sorry, I'm rambling, I'm just trying to work out what I'm going to do.

JM - so glad its good news. I don't think you panicked - not only is it very scarey being called by the GP I also think having been through all your "ragged bits" dramas that pain/ fear/ hassle/ distress/ issue leaves a legacy - a sort of stain - that is triggered or seeps into any other potential health issue so you have less robustness/ tolerance to other potential health issues - iyswim? Certainly that happens to me

Scout - I would take things away and if not remembered or asked for in 6 months I would donate/ chuck

UniS, who wouldn't want a bunny pancake? :)
I've bookmarked that link - it might come in handy at Easter. M

Oxeye - you always have the best words of wisdom. You really do.
I think you've put your finger on something that I didn't actually realize at the time. When you say "a legacy of fear" - yes, that's it. I do feel emotionally scarred by it all and yes, I think it means I have a harder time with that sort of thing than someone who's more resilient.

Honestly, I just kept thinking, no, it can't be anything serious, JB is so little, he needs me. :(

Anyway - it is most likely a cyst, I've had them since age 16.

Thanks, all of you, for holding my hand and worrying with me

Scout, I have regular clear-outs, and, IME, JB has rarely missed anything I've cleared out. Also, I wouldn't worry about SB's eating habits. You couldn't possibly have a fussier eater than mine. [tearing hair out emoticon].

Sorry, hit "post" too soon and I didn't mean for that to sounds as dismissive as it reads. What I meant was, you have every right to feel proud of SB trying a new food the way he did, even if he didn't like it, and I'd have given him something tastier (to him), too.

Mistlechick sometimes gets a bee in his bonnet about certain things. Most recently it is 'I don't like mushrooms... urrghhh its got MUSHROOMS in it... I don't like pizza with mushrooms on....' - you get the gist. The silly thing is that he's quite happy eating mushrooms, and once we've got over the urrghh he'll eat them up without any problem. And he always used to eat them happily. In his case I think that he possibly soaks in various food aversions from friends at school because I can't see where else they might stem from.

Mistlehound is adorable - very different from mistledog, but that was expected. At the moment though she has a bit of a dodgy tum - and in combination with the housetraining issues, our hall mat is taking a bit of a pounding. I was up with her at 2am and again at 4am (there is, after all, a benefit to light sleeping as I can wake up when the dog gets up and walks down stairs almost silently - and then comes upstairs to see where I am (that's a real sucess in itself!!!!) so that she can go out...) and still had to do some mopping up this morning.

Oh, poor mistlehound. Does she really feel it when she has an accident? And look all soulful and apologetic?
Poor you, too. Another light sleeper here.
The damn cat woke me up twice last night!!! JB had a bath before bed and I left the bath toys in the bath to drain and dry out. Stupid cat jumped into the tub, as she does (why?????) and flipped out over the toys.
Sometimes I eye her with a view to making furry slippers out of her.

She is starting to get a bit apologetic about it JM - the trouble is that she's about 2 and I'm pretty sure has never been housetrained before - so that when she came here she thought that the house was the place that you did that sort of thing - not the garden, and certainly not when out on a walk. So we've got to get over a lot of conditioning to start with - and there's the problem of her being extremely unvocal to add to the issue - she doesn't for instance bark or whine at the door to go out. She clearly is learning though, and doing her best even when feeling dodgy.

To put your mind onto other things, tell us what you're been doing to your lovely house - and what you've got planned inside and out - particularly the garden

Does anyone have a black tea (with sugar) I could pinch? I'm not well and I'm cold and tea sounds good right now.

Oh, my garden :o
I've ripped almost everything out in the back garden. I left one bush of heather. The rest was all spiky, spiny, shrubby stuff - me no like. And they had four cedars blocking the picture window out into the garden. Whyyyyyy????

Anyway, they're gone.
What I've planted reads sort of like The Very Hungry Caterpillar of Gardening :o

4 hydrangeas
4 hellebores
3 lilacs
3 camellias (which are blooming!!)
3 climbing roses
2 clematis for the fence
2 peonies (both Itoh peonies - double bloom, one pure white with a hot pink centre and the other pinkish-purple with a white centre)
1 dogwood tree

In the spring I plan to plant clumps of glads for height, bleeding hearts facing north, Monarda interspersed with the glads, forget-me-nots and sweet alyssum for ground cover. If I still have bare patches I add some dahlias and begonias.

The front faces west and I dumped all my lily bulbs in a huge patch, and am going to do bulb planters.

Bliss :)

one tea coming right up and with it, a peanut butter square. Like tiffin but with oodles of peanut butter in it as well.

If you see me in here during the day tomorrow, please kick me out. I MUST get on with some jobs. I have a christmas present to finish and should be slaving over a hot sewing machine .

Boy is V excited, he is going to sleepover at his best mates house tomorrow. He's not impressed that I am collecting him from school and he is coming home to change and collect sleeping bag etc before going to friends house. Think he wants to take an over night bag to school.

Yum!!

Have fun with jobs to do. I'm hoping for a lazy day myself. I am so tired. Sorry to be a whiner, but I don't know how single parents cope. I have been working nearly every day (compared with my usual 4 per week) while DH has been away, because I can't work my usual long days, and December is an expensive month. Plus being both mum and dad to DS, keeping the house reasonably tidy, and all the million things that need doing when there's only one of me, rather than the usual situation of having a very helpful DH around.
Sigh. Must quit whining.

I think it's also because I'm anticipating no rest until end of December. No me-time, anyway.
DH gets home Sunday evening, parents arrive Monday evening. Staying for ten days. I'm so looking forward to seeing them but I'm also dreading it. My stepdad had a stroke in March, a small one but it's left him with some deficits. And I think he'll find traveling hard, and he likes his comforts, and I'm worried he'll hate the rain, and how small the guest room is at our new house (the only big drawback), and that he'll bring his difficult, querulous self rather than his willing-to-be-pleased self. I want to have a lovely Christmas (as does everyone), I don't want to be stressed and exhausted.
I feel stressed and exhausted way too much.

Am I the only who really only articulates in here, and definitely never in real life, how often I feel like I'm just on the bones of my arse? I hope I don't whine too much
Just feeling really tired right now.

Mmm, tea with extra sugar. Cheers!

JM, can I move in with you? Please? I'll bake! Though I might have to bring SB with me.... MrScout can stay here and fend for himself.

I'm not sure I could cope with a dog and a toddler -- both seem very needy.

SmallBoy definitely didn't get enough sleep last night. I know I didn't. I am, at least, standing mostly upright which is more than could be said for last night. I think I'm having another appendix attack thingy -- it's been very similar to what happened a few months ago. Between that and the cold/wet weather (with no car) in Scoutshire today I don't think SB and I are going far today. I could do with a wander around the shop/s and some adult conversation (yesterday was the first time I talked to another adult, except for MrScout, in days) but it's not going to happen today.

Oh well, today I shall try to do things done that didn't get done yesterday -- second type of nuts made, meats & chicken separated & frozen, presents wrapped (SB wants to help wrap his present to his BFF), mulled wine kits (minus the oranges, I'll do those just before delivery) made, more Christmas cards written, etc. SB and I will probably have an afternoon of CBeebies again ("watch baby again, Mommy!" said SB when he discovered this week that Baby Jake is actually on television, not just on television on the airplane).

Stay warm and dry everyone!

I should know this but the American in me is confused.... if I want to send a card to Ireland (Co Wicklow, Eire), I'm going to have to go to the post office for a different stamp, aren't I?

You need to check, Scout.

Postage to the EU used to be the same as first class domestic post, but it went up a few years ago. I'm reeling from the reminder this morning that even second class post is now 50p. I can hear my dear mama saying "That's ten shillings in old money"!

Gah -- I thought that would be the case!

I bought loads of stamps before the last increase, enough for two Christmases worth, so I'm not feeling the card pinch as badly. Grant it, the stamps are fun Christmas stamps but a stamp is a stamp!

The stamps AREN'T fun Christmas stamps....

Gah, I'm being distracted by SmallBoy and his tablet.

Scout, your to-do list for the day has me reeling!! Of course you can move in with me but I'd probably make you have a rest! But we would have adult conversation, at least :)

I don't recognize the name change but I spotted a Tolkien fan :)

JM, that's only a small fraction of yesterday's to do list.

You alright, JM?

evening. most jobs done. present made and wrapped. only shouted at the sewing machine once. It kept on snapping thread and didn't like pulling fleece fabric through for zig zag stitch. GAH.

Boy off on a sleepover and DH and I are having a grown up dinner later. bliss.

My Inlaws arrive tomorrow ...

Honestly Scout, if I had that much to do, I'd sit down and cry.
What is wrong with me??!

You'd hate my daily to do list then, JM. But I find sometimes even putting the every day mundane things on it like "take out trash" or "empty diaper pail." I like the satisfaction of making a check mark/tick next to each thing.

UniS, enjoy your Grown Up night tonight! How long are the in-laws there for?

Oh - that's different then :)

UniS, have a great night!