Today is the launch of a Mental Health Blogging Carnival here at Bundance.
The timing is interesting as I am currently fighting the Black Dog myself today. After feeling really well for ages today I’m just not. No idea why.
Do take a look at the carnival. Lots of great blogs by lots of great bloggers.
Let’s get talking. Let’s fight the Black Dog.
and I went back to bed this morning for 3 hours. I slept so hard I didn’t hear Simon and Adam come back from their walk. I feel much much better.
Anyone who knows me knows I think privacy is rapidly dying. Between everyone posting everything to Facebook and Twitter every minute and the fact that nothing is ever really gone from the ‘net, I think anonymity is already dead and total lack of privacy isn’t far behind.
This is why I never put things on the ‘net that I wouldn’t say out loud to people who I barely know. You may think I lay myself bare on here, but I don’t. You may know my real name, the name of my son and my husband and even the city we live in. But you don’t really know me unless you are one of my very closest friends, and those are few and far between. There are lots and lots of things I never blog, Tweet or status about.
This was brought to glaring attention this week when a very well known blogger, who I won’t name here as I am not trying to advertise their blog or their problems, admitted on their blog that their partner had moved out. That their marriage was in trouble.
And I found myself unsurprised. Because their relationship, while I am sure not recorded second by second, was very open on the blog. Their fights. Their issues. Their triumphs and their pains. And yet, they looked to be the perfect couple. Too perfect and I felt there were cracks. Because too much of their relationship was happening on stage.
I rarely talk about my marriage on here. Oh I talk about Simon, sure. But not about our relationship. Not really. Because it’s no one’s business but ours. And our close friends. It certainly isn’t the business of the random people who read this blog.
And that’s the way things will remain. If you don’t want the world to know your business, don’t talk about your business. If you don’t want people to figure out who you are, don’t post on the internet. Ever.
Because nothing is ever gone from the ‘net. And once it’s out there? It’s out there.
I will tell you, however, that Simon and I have strong, stable and loving marriage. Divorce is not an issue. Murder, on the other hand…
That’s right. It’s been a week of vomit.
Adam started on Tuesday night.
The I went yesterday.
Today is Simon’s turn.
At least we didn’t all get it at once.
Always look for the silver lining.
So, like most people, I had a lot of leftover turkey after Christmas dinner.
So I broke the turkey apart and put about half in the fridge and we ate it over the few days after Christmas, including a pie I made Boxing Day.
The rest I put in the freezer.
The Boxing Day pie, while tasty, was not to my satisfaction. I had decided to make a double crusted pie for the first time in my life and it didn’t occur to me to not blind bake the bottom crust. So then I had to try to adhere the raw top crust to the cooked bottom crust. It tasted okay but the pastry wasn’t really done to my satisfaction.
Cook’s Note: No, I did not make pastry. I never do. Angela Harnett, one of my cooking heroines, never makes her own pastry. She buys the refrigerator stuff. So I do too. 🙂
So tonight I’m trying again. I defrosted some of the turkey. I precooked some veg. I placed it between two uncooked crusts:
Uncooked...
It smelled wonderful when it came out of the oven. And looked like this:
Cooked!
It even tasted good!
Something I will definitely make again. With two crusts. And cook it for slightly less time. 🙂
In the UK, every child who turns 3 is eligible for a 15 free hours of pre-school the following September. In Northern Ireland, unlike other parts of the UK, this is not guaranteed but depends on funding and space availability. Adam’s day care may have funded places in September, and his name is down for this, but we are exploring other options as well.
So today Adam, Simon and I went over to one of the local primary schools that has a pre-school, or playgroup as they call it, attached.
And loved it.
It’s a very small school, one class per grade and Adam might go there from playgroup through P7, as it’s called here. We put in our application on Wednesday and then hear if he has a place at the end of March.
The only problem with sending him there is it is only 2.5 hours a day, although 5 days a week. And, I think, it’s too far for his current day care’s pick up programme, so I either need to sort alternative child care a few days a week or figure how to work in only, about, 10 hours a week, which is how much time I will have minus Adam’s commute back and forth.
But, I must say, Mummy wobbled. He’s so little! And we’re looking at primary schools! It’s so different from the US.
Unless things have changed from when I was a kid, you went to pre-school or nursery until you were 5, then kindergarten and then first grade at 6.
Here you go to pre-school at 3. Start P1, which is pretty much kindergarten, at 4. And what amounts to first grade at 5. A whole year earlier than I am used to.
There is also the fact that his birthday is in June. The cut off for pre-school admissions for Northern Ireland for September 2012 is age 3 at 1st July 2012. So he will be one of the youngest in his class. Totally opposite from what I am used to, as my birthday is in February (less than a month, in fact) and was always one of the older ones in my class.
So I’m still a bit shell shocked by it all.
But it seems to be a good school and will be one of the, if not the, first choice for us for his primary for sure. I love the classrooms, with tables rather than desks and many multimedia aspects to each class, whether that means computers or the Egyptian head from paper mache made by the P4 students. I love the fact that our tour guide was P6, so about 10, and was articulate and polite. And amazed when I told him that I do for a living what he was learning in his computer class, where they were working on laying out pages for magazines and posters.
I love the fact that the uniform is a jumper (sweatshirt material) in the school colours with a white polo underneath, rather than the shirt and tie I see so many young kids in around here. Yes, even at 3 and 4 years old.
So it was a good day and I learned a lot about schools here in Belfast.
But I’m still a bit wobbly.
MY BABY!
The house on our left has a kitchen window that is directly across from ours. I can’t see into it because they have that textured privacy glass on it, but the light, obviously, shines through. And I can see the silhouettes of the couple who live there as they work in their kitchen. Not that I stare, but it is right in front of me when I’m at the sink!
One day last week, while I was making dinner, I noticed, for the first time since we moved in, the window was dark. It was slightly disturbing and oddly unsettling to have nothing but blackness in front of me as I worked in my kitchen. Since the weather has been so horrendous there has been no moon so it’s been very dark and all I could see was…nothing.
It was just the one night and I’ve noted and smiled at the light ever since. No longer taking it for granted.
Light is comforting.
Into a little boy room.
I couldn’t do anything about the truly hideous wallpaper, so I turned it into:
A highway
The waterfront
And a sky full of planes.
I then took down the flowered curtains and put up:
Racing cars
To go with:
The car on his floor.
I then covered a chair, that we own:
With a duvet full of diggers.
To make it all match:
The duvet cover he already had.
I’m quite pleased with the way it’s turned out. I hope he will be too when he gets home from nursery and sees it!
post about the last week with pictures and everything.
But in the meantime:
Simon’s sister and her family are here. It’s amazing how two 2 year olds can seems like 9 or 10 of them!
The boys are more or less sharing. My niece (6 months) is adorable. Way too much food was eaten and too much wine drunk last night.
We are hoping to take some small people to the park but the weather is horrid. So backyard it might be with a few balls so we can dash inside if it rains.
I hope everyone is having a nice holiday period!