I Made Two Diffusers

I blogged about making diffusers on 3 January 2016.  It wasn't very satisfactory.  I tried again today.

First of all, I found these

It's a bottle of a basil seed drink, which is apparently Good For You and available in Thailand.  Bear enjoyed his.  It turned out that they are the right size and shape for the whole diffuser thing, as worked out by me.

Once bear had emptied a bottle or two and I assembled my kit, I had this

That is, surgical spirit, essential oil, glass bottle with narrow neck, water and gemstone chips.  Getting the gemstone chips (remarkably inexpensive from eBay, but I got less volume than I expected for £3.29) into the bottle was a challenge, but I split it between two bottles and added the mixture left over from last time (50% water, 50% alcohol, loads of drops of essential oil).  I got this

The picture doesn't really do it justice.  The chips are lovely and iridescent and the liquid is very clear. It looks muddy in the picture.

And when it needs topping up it will not only be visible but use remarkably little.  The kit is stashed away for use in a few weeks time.  That's one thing off the list.  Eleventy ten to go.

Bear is Still Slightly Endangered

The Battle of the Curtains continues.  I have had a long talk with DH.  We have had to look at what is realistic and possible with nine year old boys.  After some discussion, we agreed.  We are eventually going to move furniture to limit his access to the curtain.  Giving bear some naff raff about the curtain has limited success and I suspect in the end it will just bounce off him.  I am currently trying to work out whether I can sew a casing under the heading tape to take the curtain pole.  It will either resist bear's accidental attacks or pull the pole down.

I have to stress that I do not think bear is trying to do anything.  I think it is entirely accidental and without malice.  It is also without much contrition.

Last night I was on the phone telling bear's cousin all about it.  I stopped mid-sentence as bear paraded through carrying a piece of card with 'Shame' written on it.

I could hear giggling behind the cardboard as he held it in front of his face.  I told this to his cousin who was highly amused, and updated her on the position of bear's thumb.  Bear returned with this.

I reassured him that it would be very simple and he would be fine while continuing to chat to his cousin.  Bear returned with the amended first sign.

I'm working on stopping him interrupting phone calls.  At least it has stopped audible interruptions, although the giggling kept going.

Bear does continue advanced.  For a nine year old, his eye rolling at what his parents are telling him is remarkably forward.  At the moment I find the roll of the eyes amusing.  Long may that continue!

Failing to go Blonde

I failed at the hairdressers.  They had rescheduled the appointment, but when I got there I ended up waiting half an hour.  During that time I got a call from school and they are ringing me back (just checking on thumbs etc),  I decided not to risk the extra time getting the highlights and just went for a cut.  It was a very nice cut, and I am very happy with it.  I'll call in and make the colour appointment some other time.

It's been a fail week so far.  I've got bits done, but it hasn't been as productive as it should have been.  I have seen something on Mumsnet, which led to to the Bullet Journal website.  This calls to me.  It really does.  I am missing stuff and forgetting stuff and anything that hints it might help sounds amazing.  On the other hand, if I listed all the stuff that needed to be done, I think I would sink.  The porch roof needs doing, the carpets are desperately unfit for purpose, the stair carpets are heading towards Health and Safety breaches and that is without considering the cleaning that I need to do.

You are supposed to get a lovely notebook.  I have a weakness for lovely notebooks that I rarely indulge.  I get pads of A4 paper instead.  This may be the reason it calls to me.

I shall fossick out a notebook and give it a go.  If I last more than three days I shall share.  I am desperate.  I am scared of starting a to-do list as I suspect it will run to three volumes, but if I don't do something I am going to drown.

Tomorrow I am going to spend the day organising what needs doing.  I intend to make lists and start plans.  Today is supposed to be sitting and making curtains, as my leg is bad.  This is presumably why I've cleared out the treat cupboard and disinfected the veg rack.  I'll see how the rest of the day goes.

Caught Him!

The dratted curtains are so far off their dratted hooks that I don't think I can get the dratted things back up.

On the comparatively bright side, I've worked out what is happening.  This morning bear waved goodbye to DH through the window, pushing aside the curtain to do so.  The curtain caught on the back of bear's chair.  When bear went to get dressed, he swung around and the chair pulled the curtain. There was an awful crack and one of the remaining curtain hooks broke.  Bear was completely baffled that I should find this stressful.

The solution to keep my curtains up lies, on the whole, with bear.  I can try to bear-proof my curtains, but unless I can convince a nine year old boy to actually pay attention to what he is doing and respect soft furnishings I am fighting the odds.  It isn't impossible to get a nine year old boy to respect soft furnishings, but it is not easy.  I ought to be thinking, 'challenge accepted.'  I am actually thinking, 'darn it to heck'.

Last night as I was considering tab top curtains (wouldn't work as the pole is right against the ceiling so there would be a gap at the top) or ring top curtains (would have to buy ready made and I'm not sure I want to go through that again) but if bear is pulling on the curtains it could bring the whole curtain pole down.

I tried to take a photo of the curtain, but the light is too bright outside.  I found this picture on Wiki Commons, which gave me curtain envy.

Image from Wiki Commons, taken by Oxfordian Kissuth and used under the Creative Commons Agreement

I also found a story on the BBC about a domestic cat being mistaken for a leopard in Chelmsford here.  It cheered me up.

I've no idea what to do now.   It may well start with grounding bear.

A Sort of Afternoon

I'm not sure if it was a good afternoon, or a tough afternoon, or an expensive afternoon, or a trying afternoon.  I am sticking to afternoon and working out from there.

First things first - bear has trigger thumb.  There is an issue with the tendon in the thumb and he will need a minor operation, probably under a light general.  I am sure he will be fine.

Getting there was a stressful experience.  Time was tight and I was really worried we were going to be late.  I shouldn't have been stressed.  We had to wait over an hour.  Seeing some of the children there who were in far worse positions than bear made me very grateful for how blessed we are.

The doctor was very good, and explained things very well to bear.  He drew pictures of the bones and tendons and he let bear know what was happening.  I am confident that bear will be fine.  I told bear that the anaesthetic would be fine, and whenever DH has an anaesthetic he has a lovely sleep and feels much better afterwards.  Unfortunately bear asked how I reacted to anaesthetic.  I didn't lie, but quickly moved on to reminding bear how much like his father was.  I do not react well to anaesthetics well at all.

I have decided that it is less expensive to go the awesome maths tutor in a taxi.  The bus fare for bear and I is £6.30.  The taxi fare, including a reasonable tip, is £8 - but I don't get sucked into buying bear a treat.  It is definitely expensive to hang around town killing time before the awesome maths tutor, but by the time we would have got home we would have had to go straight out.  That would have been the less expensive option.

First of all we agreed to go to The Works for stickers at bear's request.  However before we even got to The Works we had a diversion.  Bear spotted the Dunkin Donuts shop.  As he had been very patient in the waiting room I agreed that we could stop in.  That was a doughnut for bear, one to take to the awesome maths tutor, a pack to share with DH and a drink.  Then we called into The Works.  For those not familiar, they are a shop that sell cut price kid's craft stuff, inexpensive but interesting books and all sorts of tempting bits of stationery.  That led to a large pack of dinosaur stickers, one book on dinosaurs because the stickers were on a buy one, get one free deal which also included some books, and a completely unnecessary book on gardening which I am determined to use.  That lot was £10  Another £10 went on a case for bear's tablet.  The Doctor Who one had been for the wrong model, so we purchased a generic one from a barrow in one of the shopping centres.  Then we went to a cafe which not only does gluten free and bear appropriate food but where the staff indulge bear.  They had stopped serving food so we had a stop gap of cake with a drink and spent another £10.  I can't remember how much bear's sushi was.  I bought a pack for him to have tonight and a pack for breakfast tomorrow.  Throughout all the shopping, bear was as focussed as a kitten in a feather factory.   By the time we had got off the over crowded bus at the stop for the awesome tutor, I was on my knees.

In my defence, I had taken soluble paracetamol with codeine.  It suppressed the cough, which was necessary.  The continuing issue of convulsive cough and weak pelvic floor means that I am having to regularly change clothes and making me reluctant to go out.  So the codeine cut that down a little.  It also left me completely spaced out.  I was glad to sit down and be quiet when I got to the awesome maths tutor.

However bear had also told me how lucky he was having all his nice things.  He gave me hugs.  And, for the first time with me, he went into the gents' toilets on his own.  He is nine.  I can't take him into the ladies with me any more.  It was in a nice shopping centre, quite busy, and I told him if he got stuck or something then he should shout out and I am sure someone around would help him.  Those few minutes he was in there were some of the longest I have ever spent.  I should have known better.  Bear came out safe, well and he had washed his hands and face! He no longer was streaked with the after effects of the doughnuts.  That made up for a lot.

Not a Good Start to the Day

The dratted curtain has been pulled off another dratted ring.  I think if I'm going to keep the dratted curtains at the dratted window I'm going to have to nail them to the frame!  Bear swore he hadn't touched them.  I was wondering if 8.22 am was too early for strong drink.

The school run was far too windy.  It felt like I was taking a brisk walk through a Dyson hand-dryer and I came in reeling.  I was so stunned by the wind - which is far less than many parts of the UK - that I tried to hang my keys on the light switch.

The wind is bad at the moment.  There are overturned wheelie bins outside the flats and the laurel 'bushes' across the road are really being shaken.  I dread to think what it must be like for the poor people in Scotland.

Odd piece of information.  Vampire bats, the little ones in Central America and not the fictional ones in films, are altruistic.  The details are a bit gruesome, but vampire bats will share with those not related to themselves and prioritise the most desperate.  This puts them above some people I know.

The curtains are driving me demented.

Darn it to Heck (Again)

I've lost the letter that I am supposed to take with me for bear's hospital appointment tomorrow.  I have rung in and checked so know where I am going so fingers crossed I will get to the right place.  The lost letter warned about waiting.  Just because the appointment is at 1.45pm doesn't mean bear will be seen then, or even nearly then.  The letter advised bringing something like books etc. to keep little ones occupied.  I suspect that it will be a loooong afternoon.

I've promised bear some treats afterwards, then hopefully the awesome maths tutor.

Today has been a fail day.  I'm going to have to pull myself together somehow.  I always feel low this time of year, though, so I am sure I'll pick up when the nights get lighter.