Exercise and A Diet That’s Wise (by sarah)

Today whilst out for a walk we decided to pop into a Lidel and there we found a 7 quid exercise bar - we have been after one of these since we lived in the flat in Essex but it had some how never happened. So we fitted it - the above picture shows it took both of us! And yes Jean took the photo 🙂

We then all had a go on it - you are not seeing the photo of me trying as well - Alaric said it made me look bloated :/ I can not lift myself at all but just trying I think will help things. Also today is not a good day as anemia stuff if acting up and I've had a bit of set back with muscle spasms so am a bit weak at the moment.

On the other hand I am doing the Kinnect Adventures game each day - I earn a cloth badge a day and that is enough to get me very breathless and sweaty - this is great. The problem I've had before is that by the time I get anywhere to exercise I am shattered but this is I can just turn on and go!

The other restriction to one game (plus the warm up it makes you do) is that the pelvis still can't take prolonged amounts of strain. I am not seeing an improvement yet but then we are only five days in!

Food wise I am grumpy - as I was before Christmas - ever since they started giving me hormones in various ways to stop the bleeding I have been hungry. I mean hungry all the time. And I thought that it was because I was eating the wrong types of food etc... but no I am still hungry all the time. The only time I have ever experienced anything like it is during pregnancy and I suppose that is the problem the hormones are mimicking pregnancy.

Still the damn thing is coming out at the end of the month though god knows what will happen to the bleeding then but I really do not want one back in - it was fine whilst I thought that it had just slipped but to have it stuck... Anyway I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

I am making sure I drink the 7 glasses of water a day having herbal tea etc... I also picked up some dried cherries and things today to have as a sweet snack as I'm down to only savoury seeds and things.

I made a lovely chick pea thing yesterday as part of my whole foods thing - not raw this time but whole food is good as it makes the body work to digest - of course raw does this more so but I hate cold food that's not salad or fruit or sweet things!

It does seem stupid though that I am having to use martial arts training to not scoff my face off. It probably wouldn't be such an issue if I was properlly mobile but I am not!

Oh well all I can do is try my best.

Jean Programming Again :) (by sarah)

So I resigned myself to the fact that Alaric would turn the new TV into a giant computer screen.

Of which my main concern is that he will work on it rather than going down to the 'lab' to work, but instead he set things up so Jean could play with Turtle Graphics which is a new version of an old thing he has implemented. Basically she has to actually programme in order to get a little turtle to draw. She has produced me some lovely flowers and a house and things 🙂

The pictures she's created are on Al's laptop so he'll have to pop them on here when he gets a spare moment (haha). She is using Chicken Scheme and using a programme called Simple Graphics which is what Al created initially though I believe it is open source and others have since added stuff 🙂

She also started to 'compose' scenes for photography today - which was a shock to me!

Child Benifit 0.o (by sarah)

Thankyou government for giving me a mini mental break down tonight - the issue is not that our Child Benefit is being taken away, as we no longer need it for food (which we have in the past) but more the complete lack of notice and the only reason we knew was a random thing on the radio sending me into a panic.

So now I have completely mis-budgeted for the year, feel like a complete waste of space, had a worse panic attack that I would be done for fraud as I have no idea what my this and that numbers are and there is now not time to find out.

Another issue is that I now can't afford the child care (that is already arranged) that I need to launch me back into the work space. Poor Jean overheard things and came down to ask if she would still be able to do Ju Jistu and the answer is I don't know.

Alaric has had to calm me down and help me with the form and site as it was the classic dyslexic's nightmare. Now I am sitting here with my decaf coffee, sense of nonentitlement and pain from yet another balls up nhs palava - a cardboard box has been destroyed whilst a string of bad words such as 'I hate F..... Politicians and cr.. how are x, y and z going to manage - they need it for their rent'

I have never before declared that I hate a section of society and this makes me feel bad and worse. 2013 was going well but to be honest tonight I feel like I've just had the rug pulled out from underneath me.

New Years Eve At The Snell-Pym’s House (by sarah)

We were gifted an X-Box Connect for Christmas but did not have a TV ours having died a death a few weeks previously and being an old one just for DVD watching anyway it still wouldn't have been any good. We looked at was best for playing this sort of thing on and I took the money I had been saving for a new camera, my birthday money and Jean's vouchers she had gotten for her birthday - Al put in some money too and we went and got ourselves a new TV from the super market whilst doing our food shop.

Of course we then couldn't get all of us and the TV in the car so I had to walk home (40 mins) - it was tough as I didn't have my stick with me but I managed it! I couldn't talk when I got back but it was worth it! a) this means I am improving again and b) the TV is fantastic!

So we set the X-Box up and WOW! We hadn't really been following electronic gaming as we thought we wouldn't be able to afford a system for a good long time yet so it has been just amazing! It had already been suggested to me that I should get a Wii or something for physio therapy purposes and now I see why!

This is jean on one of the games

We can NOT thank Santa enough for this present!

Alaric spent the remainder of the afternoon trying to extract a half edited novel and a completed poetry book off of one of my old laptops for me - unfortunately it didn't work but he says there are still a few things he can try.

We had a take away Pizza as I am giving pizza up until I lose some weight! And watched Bill and Ted on the new TV and again just WOW! It was fantastic - I sat and knitted and the girls snugged with Daddy and we all agreed that To Be Excellent To Each Other is a good thing to aspire too. Jean's comment at the end when Rufus says they will get better was, 'Well they will, Mummy has' 🙂

Mary was very excited to be dressing up in a pretty dress, the little angel outfit we were given for Jean when she was little.

She is a rougie type of angel, playing rough and tumble with her sister and attempting to steal Christmas Cake!

She ended up being a very sleepy angel

We then all played on the X-Box again after which we played one of my favourite board games Elixir which is about wizards 🙂

At midnight we rushed into the garden and banged our pots and rang our bell and fire works went off all around us and the neighbours started singing in their house - very loud and merry in serbian whilst we shouted Happy New Year and hugged and watched fire lanterns whilst humming Old Langsi.

We then popped the tired Mary in bed and played the board game until Jean was too tired and then me and Al blogged about our year and discussed our plans for the next year. Oh and we had a home made veggi sushi supper and White Knight with Peppermint Candy Cains 🙂

Resolutions, Goals and Hopes (by sarah)

2012 has seen a large number of first for me, from soldering, to poetry slams, to making my own cake toppers to us having our own house, I have gotten off of the crutches and walking sticks and faced a few medical hurdles. We have been to many amazing events and met some great people, had the ability to look back on the past few years and see just how surportive and lovely our friends have been.

2013 I hope doesn't compare to be honest! The year has been fun but intense and I just want to take things a little slower to enjoy them! I am hoping to sort some novels out to send off to publishers and get back to the writing and crafting which was starting to become impossible with the number of other things we were doing!

I also hope to become part of the Art Evolved (dinosaur drawing group), Friday Flash (flash fiction writers) and the Scifi Chatters once more as I've sort of slipped off the radar since having Mary which is almost 2 yrs ago now!

This leads me on to goals:

1) Get stuff published by publishers ( I got a few flash fictions published last year but that was it)

2) Publish and sort previously stuff myself

3) Sell stuff on Etsy et al

4) Make more Art

5) Sort my blogs and websites out!

Resolutions:

1) become healthier - this means exercise and no cake testing! I've found that the medical stuff last year kept setting me back but I still managed to get going with the belly dancing and walking - and now with the X-box Connect I can do stuff on my own as fun games as well 🙂 Food wise I am cutting out sugar and caffine and pizza is restricted to half term outings unless homemade from scratch - holidays and parties don't count you see! I want to chomp on more whole raw foods to help keep the diabetes at bay. So more cooking of the savoury (low salt and fat).

2) To be more organised! Yes I know I am me but I've got to at least try!

3) To learn a new skill once a season and learn/try something new everyday

Ontop of these we are going to be spending large chunks of time on the house and finishing off old projects 🙂 And just being a family and having friends round etc... I am looking forward to getting the garden in shape and hopefully passing my driving test.

The guitar must be practiced daily 🙂

Happy New Year Everybody!