Letters from Wetville

In which we went for a drive to Hoki and the kids chose books from the second hand book shop (I got some for Brighid that I had loved as well - Noel Streatfield's Thursday's Child, Black Beauty the abridged version and some more Enid Blyton) and then we went to a cafe and the kids read their books and/or played with the toy box and they were fantastically behaved. Oh wow. Parenting kids who are getting bigger definitely has perks. Yeah I know I've jinxed it now, but it was still a great afternoon yesterday. She is happy again, and soon we'll have those hollows round her eyes gone. The jersey, for knitters out there, was knitted by my Mum. Spiderman comic. Today was also fabulous. In addition to going to work, taking Fionn to the nurse, visiting my elderly cousin, making lunches and dinner and watching agog as Fionn pulled out his homework for the first time in nine weeks (his laxness and mine, not the teacher's), I also baked rhubarb and ginger cake, mended Fio...

Today, absolutely, was a lot better than the entire preceding week. This is because everyone ate, I prepared none of that food beyond a few sandwiches, and I had a day sleep. Nana nap, I believe some people call them. If I really was a nana though, unless the grandchildren were always with me, no young man would wake me up to show me his list of the Famous Five books he has read so far. That was leading somewhere, all the way to trademe, but I declined to follow his lead. Even with about thirty five interruptions, it was still a great day sleep. In the morning, the girl and I chose Mary Poppins at the library. Well, I did actually. I may need some self control not to read it all myself now she is in bed. It's been a while. I read some nutritious books on food. I ogled some pattern reviews and classy blogs on sewing. But I maintained a considerable distance from such intensive activities as actually cooking or sewing. Favourite Handyman finished stacking the wood despite...

It has been a terrifying week. On Sunday night Brighid came down sick. By Wednesday night, we'd been to the doctor's twice, she'd thrown up countless times on multiple days, she'd eaten only part of a piece of toast in 72 hours and she had signs of very significant dehydration. I rang the medical centre and got through to what appears to be a national helpline as it was after hours. The advisor there (presumably a nurse) gave me an action plan to rehydrate her at home and said it was preferable to putting a needle in her at hospital. Empty out your cooled boiled water from the jug into a clean container. Boil the jug with fresh water. In a small amount of that freshly boiled water, add 8 teaspoons of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Dissolve and then use the cooled water to make up to a litre. Give two soup spoonsful to Brighid straight away and then again in five minutes. Wait ten minutes and give 2 more soup spoonsful and then give again after five minutes. Repe...

Ten barrow loads of wood stacked. Four square metres weeded, limed and fertilised and planted with six cavolo nero seedlings, four celery seedlings, six lettuce seedlings and three spinach seedlings. Three art competitions judged (bounty: a sliding scale of tiny teddies for round one and sliding scales of animal biscuits for rounds two and three). One girl with streaming nose but still racing around trying to do everything her brother did. One bike ride in which my not-been-biking-for-a-loooong-time muscles squealed. Then one little girl increasingly unwell, now in bed hopefully sleeping off that feverish look. No work for me tomorrow - I'm not interfering with her need for uninterrupted morning sleep and maternal care. Best go get some sleep while I can; parental night shift is likely to be busy.

The wood arrived earlier this week and had to go under the tarpaulin because of the large quantities of rain this week. But today Favourite Handyman made a start on stacking it, as you can admire in the photo below. I'd better do some tomorrow given it isn't even half stacked yet. We would normally need to buy at least another truck on top of this, but I'm hopeful that the brickettes made of lime and coal finings will work well in our fire and I can stock up on those instead. They are much smaller and lighter than wood for the comparable amount of heat produced, so I could fill up the boot with them instead of paying for delivery. Lovely flowers and foliage huh? Shame so much of it is on the ground. Even though this area supposedly has wind protection on four sides, it still gets battered. Here in Wetville in a damp corner - the cactus and succulents garden is thriving. Armed with Procion MX fire engine red, I decided to deal to my beige linen skirt. I bought this sk...

The Christchurch kindy dressups project is moving along nicely. I haven't had a deluge of offers of help from other mums, but I have found some more cool things at the Sallies plus when I told my friend who works there about our project, she took me out the back and handed me a huge bag of dressups. When we get some good weather (not obviously on the horizon), I can get it all out and wash and mend and alter and then have heaps to send off. The fabric dye I ordered earlier in the week has arrived and I will use that to dye two capes for the dressups project and my buttery tan linen skirt which never gets worn in its current impractical form. What colour? Fire engine red, which I'm assuming will be slightly darker on my skirt. In addition to my kindy dressups finds, I'm also on a roll at the Sallies in terms of my own wardrobe. On Monday, a Thornton Hall tailored jacket which fits me well and is in great condition, for $5 and today a pair of hardly worn jeans which fi...

I admit defeat. The forces of nature and the hideousness of the current government's early childhood education policies have overcome. I had for some time intended to write to the head honchos at kidsfirst kindergartens to complain about the ways in which our kindy has become a top-down institution instead of a community resource. But just as I was writing the one in my head about why I no longer take the laundry basket home when it is out with a request note and why I wouldn't be fundraising for a kindy which changed its hours without community consultation and harrasses families who don't fit their specs of dropping off by 8.45am each morning... just as I was writing that in my head for the seventh time, tragedy struck in Christchurch and it seems worse than churlish to complain given that head office is in Christchurch and some kindies are so devastated that apparently no one has yet been inside to assess them. Soooo. Putting my best community foot forward seems a be...