Cooking, nurturing , playing, coughing and surviving a difficult week.

It's December ..I have mixed feelings. Owen clearly does too and his stress levels are climbing by the day, despite us keeping it all very low key. 

Sam is still poorly and I take him to the doctors...both boys find that really hard and complain bitterly. I have quite a job getting them to the appointment on time. They are relieved when it's over and we can get home.They struggle all afternoon and Sam is more hyper because of his steroids. I have to reduce demands further, even so Owen is melting down frequently..although I know from past experience, it could be much, much worse.

That evening I decide that I will take a very much hands off approach for December, when I inform the boys the next day, they brighten considerably and think up a whole range of activities for themselves.

Sam is still clearly ill, he peak flow isn't coming up as fast as we had hoped and he's sad he will miss his jujitsu class.

We open our advent calendars and read the activity booklet that came with them.

Owen helps me put the shopping away , whilst Sam finishes his breakfast. They then go to get some games from the activity cupboard. Both boys organise which games to play first.

We settle on Operation to start. Owen found losing hard today and took himself off to calm down.

Sam and I played a physics/coordination game called Suspend..

We then move on to Tumbling Chimps.

Owen has decided he wants to 'make Dads tea' and researches recipes that use Coconut Milk ..'Dad likes curry, so I will make a chicken one'. 

This is what he decided on:

He realises we don't have curry powder so looks up how to make his own. He checks I have all the ingredients as he goes.

Then grinds the spices together in the pestle and mortar.

He's struggling with the knife because the onions are making his eyes water so much..so I help and he enjoys the onions and peppers sizzling in the skillet.

We clean as we go and I explain why this is helpful when working in the kitchen 'like Masterchef mum?'.

Soon the room is full of exotic smells, he adds the coconut milk and the meal is ready to be heated up later, when Blokey gets home from work. I explain the sauce will reduce down as it cooks and he helps tidy and clean up.

'That's smells good Mum..I think he will like that'...his face has lit up. 

I grab myself a cuppa ..I have been up since 6:30am and the boys have been busy since 7am ..phew.

The week has been very stressful for a variety of reasons, I have needed to call/email Specialists and try and deal with forms and complicated medical jargon etc. These things have to be done and we plod on juggling health, normal household stuff, home ed and being exhausted.

Sam decided he wanted to bake cookies in amongst all this. It was really hard for him to focus his mind and he span, hopped and jumped his way through it all. 'I am trying not to cough on the food too!' ..but we ended up with non coughed on cookies and he felt very accomplished.

We did our daily checks on the mushrooms we are growing and sprayed them with water.

On Friday Blokey had his rota day off and we decided to take the boys out . Sam is still not great but it lifted his spirits to have some time at the park . Owen did some climbing and seemed to emerge from his shell enough to enjoy running around and was more chatty. He has said he has been worried about his brother coughing. It's clear to see there's a lot niggling him at the moment, I resist the urge to quiz him before he is ready to talk. I have learnt he will talk when he ready and me pushing him will add to his stress. I make sure I am sat close by throughout the week and he feeds me little snippets of information when he needs to.

They zip wired over ( and into)  puddles

We spotted different types of mushrooms

Used the excercise machines

Pushed a very lack lustre boy on the roundabout ( he loves to be spun very fast) 

Admired the noisy geese that greeted us.

Gazed into the water under the bridge...

We looked and talked about the interesting architecture of the Victorian houses that skirt the edge of the park. Then Investigated the cenotaph on the way back to the car...which all tied in with our project about remeberance day/our talks about the current conflict/war in Syria.

And afterwards we treated them to lunch out.

....on the way home, a very tired little boy, fell uncharacteristically asleep.

Today the the UK was hit by Storm Desmond. The wind howled and rain lashed the house but we faired better than the people of Cumbria and parts of Wales. We kept up with the news and watched clips as events unfolded. Some of the places worst hit were near where we went on holiday last year.

We snuggled up warm, chatted and played games together as a family. I caught up with friends and family and we did a bit of shopping and cooking together..including home made oatcakes.

We woke to a grey day and a rainbow seemed to signal that the worst of the storm was over. Sam and I looked at photos of the damage to Cumbria and hoped our friends up there were ok. Many people had to be evacuated.

Despite the cold and wet Owen went out with Blokey and they walked the dogs together.

We looked at our advent activities and went off swimming early. Sam is still getting breathless but we figured the exercise would do him more good than harm. He is so happy in the water and we managed to book him in for a assessment. He thinks he may like additional lessons to improve his technique, he needs the assessment to determine what level he is at. Wen suddenly changed his mind and asked if he could be assessed too, so we booked him in. It really depends on how the assessment goes as to whether we arrange further lessons, it may prove to soon for them but time will tell and it's their idea and their decision, we will just support them.