The cycle of life, warts 'n' all

The personality trait I admire most, and strive to attain is tolerance. In my opinion the world would be a much better place if there was more of this around, but I can only do what I can do, and in my small way I try.

Which is why, if and when I get a moment to reflect on things, I'm quite surprised by how my life has changed, for the better, since having children.

I'm not a naturally maternal woman.  I don't ooh and aah over small fluffy cute things. I don't often coo about babies. My instinct has been to avoid small children, medium sized children and teenagers, they're all too needy and noisy, too whiny, too sticky and smelly, too tangible.  I was quite happy without them.  For quite some time.  For 35 years to be specific.  Well, for 34 and something years.  To be frank, I didn't want children, and they equally didn't want me.

And then Mother Nature caught up with me, my biological alarm clock went off, and happily, in the year 2000 we got Phoebe, and in the year 2006, we got Tom.

So life changed. From being the happily independent, working woman, to part-time working mother, to full time mother, and back to part-time mother working again, has been an education in self-perception and tolerance if nothing else.  And what have I learned from this experience?

I've learned that not all children are as bad as I'd imagined.  Which is a good thing.  When we moved to Oxfordshire in 2007 I did what many mothers do to get established, and went to the toddler groups.  This was a new experience for me at the age of 41, and often made me the oldest mother in the room. A strange feeling whichever way you look at it.

Luckily I saw that I could benefit if I became more actively involved and for 18 months I ran one of the toddler groups when the other mums moved on.  I didn't realise it at the time, but looking back this exposure to very young children (en masse) gave me the confidence to expand my horizons when I started work in the Library.  I got to grips with organising and conducting rhymetimes for the under 5s, and that gave me confidence when I had to handle a class visit.

Now I'm settling down in my new job as Library Manager (I still can hardly believe it), I really enjoy the aspect of the job that involves children, as much as any other part of the role.  To this end, I've been volunteering my time on Wednesday mornings (my branch is closed on Wednesdays) in my son's primary school library.

Sadly, the school library had become neglected, and hadn't properly been used since 2010. Ah-ha. I spied an opportunity. I could volunteer - they get the benefit of a 'real library person' working for free - I get the benefit of working more closely with children, learn a bit more about what makes them tick, and then take the benefit of this knowledge back to the library to make it tick there too.

Woo hoo. It's a win-win.  This morning in the school library I had great fun introducing 30 Year 3s (ages 7-8) to the library, explaining who I was, why I was there, how I could help, and then putting it into action as they each chose just one book to take away from the shelves that aren't quite in order yet, but we'll get there, and why should we have books in order on the shelves, and if they'd written a book themselves where would they look to find it on the shelves? and go and stand where they think their book would be, and I sat on the floor by the letter 'L' because that's where my book would be if I'd written one, and it was funny to see a grown up sitting on the floor just chatting happily with them about choosing a book, and with a promise that when they come back, they'll tell me something about the book, no right or wrong answer, just how did they get on with it, how did they feel? even if they don't like reading, just to tell me something, even if they didn't like the book.  And do you know what?   They all looked me in the eye and said they would.

That's why I love my job. And I couldn't have, wouldn't have done this job without having had my two lovely (mostly) children, Phoebe and Tom.  The cycle of life. What goes around comes around.

Kat :)

Up together

I'd like to be more 'up together' with my blogging, but life usually intervenes and it's a hit and miss affair again.

So, obviously it's been busy since last posting (1st December).  The end of a school term is always frantic, and then there's the subterfuge of buying, hiding, wrapping and hiding the Christmas gifts.  We've an advantage this year as Tom's staying with his grandparents for a week, which makes the wrapping and hiding much easier without prying eyes....  Our children's schools break up a week before the state schools, so the usual childcare option isn't available.  Thank goodness for Grandma and Grandad - in so many ways....  :)

So far as Christmas goes, as of today I'm fairly 'up together'.  The presents are, for the most part, wrapped and hidden.  The ironing's done.  Full-stop.   The kitchen floor is mopped, although why I bother at this time of the year is a constant frustration - there seems very little point in mopping the kitchen floor only for it to be muddied immediately by dog paws.  It's not the dog's fault, it's the weather.  When we get the kitchen re-done I'll replace the 50cm cream tiles that are there presently with traditional country kitchen quarry tiles, thank you very much.  I'm practical first and foremost.

On a practicalities front there was an unwelcome development when I got home from work this evening.  One of the hens had died.  I half expected it, but not as quickly as that.  The remaining speckeldy must have been 4 years old, and after her sister had died in August I'd been keeeping an eye on her.  She'd had a mucky back end for a while, but seemed OK, and with some worming stuff in the water she seemed to rally, and her back end had appeared much cleaner, drier and her feathers nice and fluffy after the moult.

I was slightly concerned this morning to see her isolating herself from the other two, and had noticed her hunched stance, but in my experience with other birds this is usually a signal to observe.  There's no easy way to decide when the right time is to despatch a hen, but I'll do it if I have to, and have done so in the past.  Not this time.   She wasn't in 'bed' with the other two, so I had a quick search round of their enclosure (in the dark, in this evening's pelting rain, with my head torch on) and spotted her on her side, legs sticking out stiffly.

I've yet to dispose of the body.  I'm still in my work gear, and it's still raining.  It seems a little disrespectful to leave her outside all night, and I'm not sure what I'll find in the morning if I do leave her, so will probably get changed and sort it out after this.

On a lighter note, I've good news to share. I've got a new job, starting 20th January.  I'll still be in the Library Service, but will be working Tuesday morning, Wednesday afternoon and all day Friday at Witney Library on a permanent contract.  It'll be very different to the last two years at Grove, but I've learned a lot, and my contract was due to end end of April.  I'm looking forward to the challenge.

We chose the pantomime 'Aladdin' for our festive display in the library this year.  Note the pointy shoes and turban in front of the genie/jinni.  I made them. 'Junk modelling' and papier-mache!  Not bad, if I say so myself.... My boss's son did the artwork for the characters on the wall - we're really pleased with the effect.  We had to move the treasure box of chocolate coins further along the shelves as they were being melted by the wall-heater.

Right ho. The mince pies won't make themselves.  I'll knock up some pastry, and then I've two jars of last year's home-made mincemeat, so they should be good.

Night y'all.
Kat  :)

Friday the thirteenth...

So the saying goes that 'things' come in threes.  And the 'things' that come in threes are usually 'bad things'....   It is also usually accepted that 'bad things' may happen on the 13th, and on Friday the 13th in particular....  Now, I wouldn't say that I am usually or unusually suspicious, but read on and let's see if what I relate is just coincidence.

Our lodger, bless her, has been known to be a little accident prone (in as much as she maybe has a tendency to break things.  Like the time she drove off with the coffee cup on the roof of her car. Needless to say it didn't stay on the roof of the car...).

On Thursday she apologised for breaking the catch on the door of the microwave oven in the kitchen, so for the moment the microwave doesn't work.  Not entirely a surprise, as the door had been feeling stiffer than usual for a while.  I tried to glue it back together to see if it helped.  It didn't.  The catching blob shape on the catch detached itself to the internal workings of the slot it engaged with, and is now lost.  The engineer will be here on Saturday.

On Friday (the 13th) I broke the kettle.  More of a nuisance, but not really a problem as I'd got a 3 year warranty from Argos, so a replacement was easy to come by.  What was irritating was the fact that I'd already replaced the same kettle (with the same model) after the same fault in January.  At about 6 months of use of this kettle the quick-boil 1-cup facility goes 'pop' if you drain it entirely after boiling and then fill with cold water.  I don't know about you, but this seems a design fault to me.  Replaced it with a different brand the following day, no quibble from Argos.

And the third thing?  On the evening of Friday (the 13th), our lodger put her head round the door, looked dejected and like she was about to cry, and said that she'd clipped my car (with hers).  What can you do?  It'll be fixable, and in daylight shows a scuff of exchanged paints and a pimple and hairline crack on my back bumper...  but it's a hassle.  C'est la vie?

On a lighter note, at work in the Library on Saturday I was delighted to try to find a book for a 10-yr old boy I'd not met before.  He was in with his mother and (as it turned out) younger half-sister.  His demeanour impressed me as he was polite, calm, confident and thoughtful.  Not adjectives I'd normally associate with 10-yr old boys, and thus far my experience working in the library has shown me that a classful is usually a handful, and class visits need to be carefully planned, but I'm ever hopeful of meeting a nice one, and 'O' was a nice as you could wish for.

He was looking for a 'Percy Jackson', ah, that's Rick Riordan, I'll check the shelves for you. No sorry, our copies are out, did you want to reserve one?  No thanks, I'll try and find something.  Have you seen this one?  (Inkheart, Cornelia Funke).  No.  Looks good.  Thanks.  I quite like football books, there's one with (I can't remember the character name, but I looked it up on keyword search, and found the author, Dan Sheldon?, but we didn't have copies).  Umm.  Have you read Harry Potter?  Yes, read them all when I was 8. (wow!)  I like the look of this 'Zom-B' Darren Shan. That may not be a good choice for you at the moment.  That title's 'older teen' as it's got a sticker 'teen+'. It's a good idea to try just 'teen' stickered ones as they're crossover from junior and will be more suitable.  Have a look at this one - Holes, Louis Sachar - I read it recently and really enjoyed it, and I've a 12-yr old daughter who read it as well. It's a modern classic, well written, a good story with a couple of good twists....

Eventually, in between serving other customers/borrowers, and keeping my eye on him, it ended up with him borrowing 'Bootleg' by Alex Shearer.  the blurb goes like this:

The Good for You Party is improving the health of the nation. Fruit and vegetables are compulsory and chocolates are banned. When best friends Smudger and Huntly discover an overlooked stock of cocoa and sugar, their secret chocolate-making business takes off fast. Can they stay ahead of the law?

I await his verdict with anticipation.

perched on my car ariel..  difficult zoom, best I could manage!

Night night y'all.  Kat  :)

Brain melt

Another hot day - the hottest of the year - yesterday, and I'm disinclined to catch up with anything.  Chasing the shade was the name of the game, and we turned some of the lights off in the Library in an attempt to keep cool...  I never understood why the 'Shops, Office and Factories Act' or whatever it's called has a minimum temperature, but doesn't state a maximum temperature to work in.

I mean, you can always put on more clothes to get/keep warm, but when it's too hot you can only take so many off!  A bit of google searching finds:

( Workplace health, safety and welfare. Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992. Approved Code of Practice)
An acceptable zone of thermal comfort for most people in the UK lies roughly between 13°C (56°F) and 30°C (86°F), with acceptable temperatures for more strenuous work activities concentrated towards the bottom end of the range, and more sedentary activities towards the higher end.

Something sensible from the HSE (Health and Safety Executive)!  Well I never.  We hit 28'C in the Library with the windows and door open and the fan on, and there was no other way to cool down.  I'll show this to my boss next time we have a heat-wave, and maybe we'll have to close for the afternoon!  Dream on...

So, here's a quick recap of the Summer Holidays so far.  We had an early week away in France as both children's schools had broken up before the state sector, so no childcare available.  It was the middle of the heatwave, and the weather was glorious. The children, and we adults, hit the beach every day.  Its' the first time that's happened, and I think because the weather was so exceptionally nice it made sense (to me) for the first time.

Plerin les Rosaires - plage (beach)

So the kids played, the French sunbathed, and I took to the water like the French women of a certain age.  In as much as I walked in the seawater between knee and thigh deep for 20 mins that way and then 20 mins back again.  Quite a good work out, and I'm fairly sure my core strength improved.  That's what I'm telling myself anyway...

The beach is perfect - wide and flat, and is described in our battered copy of the 'AA Explorer Guide to Brittany' thus:
...'the splendid 3km (2 mile) beach of Les Rosaires to the south.' ...

There was one day when the sea fog beached up and stayed for the afternoon, and being British we braved the elements ... along with the French...

sea fog on the beach - eerie!

It's the first time since becoming a Mum that I've actually felt relaxed on holiday with the children. They didn't get on my nerves until the Thursday...  Must be an age thing - theirs and mine I suppose.  We'll have to see how I get on for the rest of the summer.

Wildflower planting in front of the church on the drag down the hill to the beach at Les Rosaires

Anyhoo, time to get the hens to bed, and I've a book to read, and work tomorrow morning, so will stop here and try to blog more soon.

Keep it sweet!  Kat

Knitting with biros...

I kid you not.

At work on Monday afternoon we (my boss and I) were putting the finishing touches to our festive decorations.  We'd taken inspiration from a previous display at Carterton Library, where they'd used old deleted stock (books) to make Christmas Trees with.  Essentially you fold over the pages from the outer edge to the spine a couple of times, and repeat all the way through the book.  This gives a cone form which can then be decorated with glitter glue and the effect is, well, appropriate for a library...

Our version of the trees this year is part of our display in the junior fiction area.  After some experimentation with the glitter glue spray can, we went for gold spray paint sprinkled with glitter. We're all about the bling!  Here's the end result...

In the middle of the display (to the left of this) there's another camel, and a fluffy sheep, and of course, a shepherd...

We also made paper folded angels... there's a paper folding theme here, and it's not origami!

But the 'pee-ace de resistance', our show-stopper, our magnus opus is the snowmen.

Again, more folding of books deleted from the catalogue...  Actually, you'd be surprised how many books we delete a week. Why do we do this?  Well, if the book is over 6 yrs old in circulating terms, and has come to the end of it's rota, and hasn't issued for more than 6mths (fiction) or 1 year (non-fiction), then it's deleted from the catalogue and sent back to central to be sold.   This way they make something back from something that's outlived its useful life in circulation terms.  But, I digress.

So the snowmen were folded slightly differently in order to make the more spherical shape (they're actually a bit pointy in the middle, but no-one's perfect).  Polystyrene balls were purchased for the heads, and twigs were collected for the arms.  So far so so. But, but, but. What do all snowmen need?  What do they call out for in the chill of the night?  What do they want to keep them warm?  A scarf.

We looked in the craft box as Pauline thought there was a scarf already made, but we couldn't find it.  We did, however find 2 balls of wool.  Useful.  If only we had knitting needles.....   IMPROVISATION is a great skill, and one which should be taught in schools.  We used biros.  6 stitches, and you get a really chunky garter stitch.  Nice.  1 hr later, both snowmen were suitably attired, and the job was done.  See what I mean?

Bless, this is Pauline's (my boss) scarf.

This is my effort.  Ho, ho, ho!

So, how we'll cope after Christmas I don't know, in that we've made all these decorations which will more than likely go into the bin, as we're so small there's no storage space to save them.  It'll seem jolly plain once we've taken it all down.

On a more positive note I'm actually looking forward to Christmas this year (after last year's stressy time with the business going into administration and us being redundant...).  My library closes on the Saturday 22nd at 12.30pm, and re-opens on Thursday 3rd January, and it's only costing me 3 days leave.  So here's to Oxfordshire County Council, I'll give them my vote of thanks, and wish them a very merry one!

I'm off to see what's happening in LCL (Lady Chatterley's Lover).  Wish me luck!

ttfn.  Kat  :)

Water under the bridge

A LOT has happened since this time last year.   Thankfully mostly good.  I've got a job I love at the Library.  Simon's working very hard and his job is going well.  Phoebe passed her entrance exams and is now attending the school she wanted to go to.  And Tom is your normal 6 yr old boy with the usual passions (Lego, Moshi Monsters, Monsuno etc).

I've learned a lot about myself.  Some good, some not so good.  Some emotional stuff, some personal stuff and some physical stuff.  I've cut out alcohol.  I'd been heading that way instinctively.  I'd stopped enjoying having a drink several years ago.  The taste didn't do it for me anymore, and the effect was to disrupt my sleep and wake me up with a dry mouth - even on one glass of wine... Whether it was the mix of stress and cortisone (stress hormone), or just my middle aged female hormones messing me around I don't know, but since I consciously gave up alcohol at the start of the year I've been feeling more centred, grounded, happier.  And sleeping better as well.

I've cut down on dairy.  Swopped milk on my breakfast cereal for soya milk.  Cut out cheese.  Cut down on yogurt.  This seems to have helped reduce my hot flushes immensely.  Or is it the improved stress levels now our employment issues are resolved?

In all the bother of the personal issues which resulted from the business going down last year, it transpired that I have high blood pressure.  The medication I'm now taking is working well and I'm feeling better, although the hbp was symptom free before diagnosis, so explain that!

Our dog is older and it shows.  He's smelly, as in dog smell and also fartier (is that a word?).  I've been telling other dog walkers that he's nine and a half for the last six months or so, so he must, by now, be ten.  We keep him light to avoid any flare up with his back problem, which is 3 yrs ago this Autumn.  Also if he's lighter it's easier on the joints, and he does seem creakier in himself, when he turns and turns to lie down, he's obviously stiff in places, morning and night.  I'll start giving him cod-liver oil capsules again (dog breath plus fish breath, ugh!).

Autumnal Berries in Ardington

So I'm still reading 'Blaming' by Elizabeth Taylor - will finish it although I don't care for any of the characters, her writing is good - easy and and well aimed, but I'll be glad to get to the end.  

I've actually read another book in the meantime.  'The Paperchase' by Louis Theroux.  This was a good read, although the denouement was actually a bit too clever and didn't satisfy entirely.  

I've finally started reading 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' by DH Lawrence.  Nothing happened yet, two chapters in, but it's obvious what it's building up to, and his descriptive passages of the town and the setting up of the characters and the scene are expertly done, and again, not at all heavy going. Will reserve judgement on the actual 'nitty gritty' so to speak, as haven't got that far yet!

I don't usually read two or more books at once, but the Elizabeth Taylor has me at once annoyed and held captive - I don't really care for the characters at all, but I want to see how it turns out.... which probably says more about me than the book.

On that I'm off to bed.

ttfn.

Kat