Time for smiles again

Thankfully the communications with Louise's school seem to have done the trick

The girls in question have backed off and whilst I don't think they will ever be bosom buddies at least they're leaving her alone to get on with settling into the school and making a good circle of friends

I don't know what the school said to them, I'm only grateful that things have improved dramatically

Long may it continue for my smiley little one here in the new school uniform - thank you to everyone for your massive support - most appreciated

Nick is bumbling along quietly - some days I think he's tiring of the implications of the diabetes as he seems to kick back about some of the rules and limitations - other days I think that maybe he's just being a normal teenager - they seem to kick back about something most of the time. He will be 14 on Friday - where did that little boy disappear to?

Sarah is studying hard and playing hard - nothing new there then

The other week she had the opportunity with the rest of her County squad mates to participate in a training session with two of the current England Ladies squad

She's the one with the huge grin in the centre of the picture - the ladies in red on the outside are England player Kim Oliver (right) and the England captain Catherine Spencer (left). Nigel will get to watch these two ladies in action as he's going to Twickenham on Saturday for the England v New Zealand match and the Ladies play directly after the Men's game. The way the guys are playing at the moment perhaps the girls can show them the way to go!

This is two days later after she had the honour of captaining the Somerset U18 squad against Hertfordshire and Gloucestershire - the attractive mud packs at either side of her face are a result of playing #8 and pushing her head between the muddy shorted derrieres of the two second row players in the scrum - the mud was very sandy and boy was her face sore once she cleaned up - the next best thing to dermabrasion I reckon!

Muddy but ecstatic as ever!!!

I've managed some stitching this last few days

Secret Santa gifts completed - a couple of sneak previews:

These are of the SSCS one organised by Elf Donna in Australia (but where will this one travel to I wonder?)

These are of the BQL 'made' one which will go a little nearer to home possibly - I haven't quite decided what to send for my other 'bought' gift yet

And finally I've made good progress on the Soft and Gentle quilt for Nigel's cousin

I've realised the arthritis pain in my hands has been irritated by drinking fresh orange juice so I've cut it out and noticed quite an improvement - missing the OJ though - nothing else gives your taste buds quite the same wake-up call in a morning I'm afraid!

A close up of the next round of hourglass blocks

And a 'done so far' view waiting for more flowers in each corner to complete this round - it measures 56" square so far

Think I might do sawtooth stars for the next round - if I can stomach the thought of all those flying geese components - we'll see..................

Baptism of Fire

It saddened me greatly to read Tanya's posting the other day about bullying.

The whole concept that people of any age can be so slyly cruel to another is sickening.

The post came at a particularly poignant and pertinent time for me because this week has shown the worst and best of human nature.

The worst has come out in a girl who went to primary school with Louise two years ago and often made her life less than happy probably we think because of jealousy.

This girl, when she found out that Lou was transferring to her secondary school this week, organised the worst kind of welcoming committee for her.

Through the internet and word of mouth she convinced her friends, a group of undesirables at the school, that Louise had been trying to steal one of their boyfriends (all of them aged 12/13 - I ask you?)

She then sat back and slyly watched her carefully orchestrated scenario unfold at a distance with Louise as the unwitting victim

By the end of her first day Louise had endured them all levelling nasty accusations in stage whispers in two of her lessons and finally they tackled her off the premises when she was waiting for me to collect her at the end of the day

Her second day carried on in the same vein culminating with a session in the changing rooms for a PE lesson where Louise finally broke down in tears and rushed out of the room to get help

We should be thankful that all this was only verbal not physical abuse but nevertheless totally unnerving and very upsetting

At the end of the first day I had sent an email to her form teacher to make her aware of the situation - many years ago Sarah suffered at the hands of some of her peers just before she transferred to secondary school - not wanting to exascerbate the situation we adopted a 'suck it and see' tactic which turned out to be the wrong one and as a result I have always since stepped in at the first sign of trouble to endeavour to get things nipped in the bud

Fortunately, because of my job, I have access to the County Global email address list and could pen this missive promptly - other parents don't have that sort of access and would have had to resort to ringing the school and waiting call backs which would have further delayed the onset of any solution

Coincidentally Louise went to her teacher for help just after she had opened my email and the school sprang into action to sort out the situation

As you can imaging Louise had been even more nervous about going into school on the second day and I was like a cat on hot bricks all day

At 2.30pm I received a call from the school - they wanted me to go into school at the end of the day to talk to her Head of Year

To give credit to the school they were mortified that this had happened and massively apologetic

Mrs Matthews had sat patiently with Louise going through all the Year 8 pupils' photographs on the school management system so she could identify the girls, all of whom she'd only met the day before and of whose names she had no idea

We came to the conclusion that Louise had been a victim of cyber-bullying and the school would do all in their power to sort it out

Yesterday I had another call from Mrs Matthew's PA reassuring me that they knew which girls were involved include the back-room conductor of the band and they would be dealt with.

She also told me that she was amazed at how mature our 12 year old blonde baby had been in dealing with the situation by both keeping her composure under fire and also having the courage to contact a virtually unknown adult in a new environment to ask for help. They have identified a place of safety for her to go to if she ever feels exposed and she added that Louise was a real credit to her parents in being able to handle the situation in such a composed manner so I guess you could say the best of human nature has manifested itself in her

At least now the school are aware of the situation and dealing with it, and should it continue, sanctions will be set for these girls to hopefully avoid any recurrence

On the better side of human nature two girls in her class that she has befriended have been massively supportive and done their best to help her settle in

Of course the most ridiculous thing about the whole situation, if anything can make you raise a smile about such things, is that because these girls had jumped in with both feet immediately on Louise's arrival they couldn't even try to shift any of the blame for bad feeling onto her

Cleverer girls would have bided their time and then started trouble a few weeks later being careful to blame Louise for any animosity - nasty and not bright - not a good combination

Instead they were hoisted with their own petard

Things can only get better (please)

Keeping my head above water - just!

My life is generally busy

I run around after three kids, work part-time in an ever-changing job, keep a (not very tidy) house, look out for my elderly parents, try to squeeze in some time with my husband and occasionally manage to pull a little me time for stitching out of the hat like the proverbial magician's rabbit

I don't think I am alone with this number of conflicting demands on my time

I'm sure that many, many of you also only just manage to keep various balls in the air too

However at the moment life seems ever more complex and I have to say I'm struggling to keep my head above water

Our younger two children followed their big sister to our nearest senior school. It is a small school which is viewed in the eyes of most of the local residents to be the least desirable school in the town to attend

However we liked everything about it when we first moved here and all three of our children have each chosen it when their turn came and we've never regretted our decisions...

until now.....

Lately there have been changes afoot

The local council in conjunction with the local Church of England diocese have campaigned and been authorised to close our lovely school along with its nearest neighbour (a school we have never liked or considered sending our children to) in order to establish a brand new Academy on the site of this other school

In view of the alternatives (our school would have had to close anyway because of a falling roll) we have given these plans our full blown backing - I even appeared on local television and attended a County Council meeting speaking in support of it

Until....................

it was announced that the existing Headteacher of the other school was to be appointed as Principal of the newly formed Academy

We have serious misgivings about this appointment and the knock on effects, we feel the appointing bodies have missed the opportunity to bring in a new dynamic leader for a state of the art new school and we suspect that there has been some sort of behind the scenes wheeling and dealing to get the other school on board - hidden agendas at every turn

So to cut a long story short after many family discussions and a great deal of heartsearching we came to our decision

Nick has opted to stay with his supportive group of friends and work his way through the transition period for the new Academy for his all important two GCSE exam years - with his newly diagnosed diabetes to cope with he needs less, not more, disruption and we support his decision

But Louise is to move school, in the middle of her second senior school year, to a different school again which is across town adjacent to the 6th Form College her elder sister attends

This will mean three kids at three different establishments and all the complex taxi driving that entails for me but it is manageable - just!

Today is Louise's first day at the new school

She is an outwardly confident, clever, happy kid who has been looking forward to this day since she made the decision

But sitting in the new school's reception area waiting to be collected by someone from her tutor group this morning her courage wavered - tears were perilously close to the brink - tissues were offered by the kindly receptionist and she just managed to hold it together until one of her peers came for her

Similar tears streamed down my face, held in until I was out of sight driving home

I just hope she comes out at 3.05pm with a smile and a desire to return tomorrow - I'm not sure quite how I can magic things better if she doesn't

Isn't it awful when powers beyond your control pull the rug from beneath your feet - I just hate that feeling of powerlessness

Unclean, Unclean - ding - a - ling..........

Well the two youngest and I have been holed up at home with the lurgy

I don't have it - I'm playing nursemaid

I did suspect swine flu especially in Louise on Tuesday and Nick was following in her wake

Obviously this raised the alarm for both of them but most especially him because of his diabetes

I rang the helpline and they authorised a course of Tamiflu for each of them - I have no idea if they actually have swine-flu - they've not been seen by a medic and the only true way of telling is a blood test apparently. They have been pretty ropey but who can tell?

I spoke to the Diabetes Nurse who gave me advice on what to watch out for with Nick's sugar levels and warned me about the side-effects of the Tamiflu often being worse than the Flu symptoms in youngsters

I took the executive decision to keep them off school for the rest of the week but not to give them the Tamiflu as we were coping with the symptoms

So far they are managing, unwell but not dying and the other three members of the household including myself are okay at the moment

I could definitely have done without the time out of work but it was unavoidable as Nigel is in Spain for work this week so can't share the nursemaid duties

Never mind whatever doesn't get done will no doubt be waiting for me next week and ultimately my kids are more important than the school finances

As an unexpected bonus I've managed to fit in some stitching while administering to the patients

I mentioned my friend Sue in last Thursday's Breast Cancer Awareness Month posting

She was actually on ITV's This Morning programme on Tuesday being interviewed by Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby about her diagnosis and how her blog has helped her cope

I started a lap quilt for her when she was first diagnosed and never got further than sandwiching it. Her favourite colour is cerise pink - very apt for a breast cancer patient. Lots of simple piecing and hand appliqued hearts

This week has given me chance to quilt and complete it just in time for her mastectomy next Monday. I've used cream fleece as the backing without wadding so it's not too heavy and the fleece has been brought over onto the front to make a soft binding too

I think she might like to snuggle under a quilt full of cuddles while she's recovering from surgery

The quilt is my PINK item for this Thursday of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Ladies, if you do nothing else of great importance today, start a regular regime of checking yourself and going for mammogrammes if you fall in the relevant age bracket - you owe it to yourselves and your loved ones.

All is well

Time has been whizzing along and passed me by in a total haze

I can't believe I've not posted for over three weeks

Nick is doing well, not letting his diabetes get in the way of his life too much and we're all coping with his diagnosis in our own ways but coping well

Work is as busy as ever and getting ever more complex - how much more can my brain take I wonder!

And virtually no stitching is happening - my hands are extremely sore and my mind is elsewhere

In support of our dear friend Sue who lives firstly just up the road from us and secondly with her battle with breast cancer I'm posting a few completely random pink items this Thursday for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I may not remember next Thursday so you're getting a few to be going on with.

A happy picture of Louise playing the fool with an improvised pink hat - what a clown!

A smiley picture of me on Sark in a pink shirt - don't look too closely at the laughter lines

Pretty in pink - Hagley Hybrid - a favourite among my beloved clematis in the garden

And finally the two pink cot quilts I made for the births of Nigel's nieces a few years ago - both photos are taken at the old house - now that is a while ago!

Silver Linings

You know to every cloud there's usually a little bit of a silver lining if you search hard enough

This time last week, whilst I was keeping Nick company in hospital, in between playing games of scrabble and gleaning as much information as I could from the staff I used the time productively

There are countless leaves and berries to be stitched onto the outer border of Batik Baskets

With the unexpected time out of the usual hustle and bustle that is generally family life I have managed to get just over an eighth of the border completed - still a way to go but I keep chipping away at it, half watching Casino Royale on the tv last night gave me chance to add a few more

As for the Soft and Gentle quilt - this one really does need a better work in progress title - I've added the next round ready for more applique but have stalled at getting the bias tubing cut, stitched and pressed ready to start the handwork

The 6" corner blocks went together like a dream - all that jewel box and plaid quilt practicing obviously sharpened up my piecing skills - well something definitely needed to! :o)))

We're Home!!!

Just a quick post to let you know that Nick was discharged from hospital this afternoon

I have been astounded by how grown up he has been over all this - my boy is really a man in teenager's clothing on the quiet

His attitude when asked how he feels is a shrug of the shoulders and the reply "I've got to do it so I'll just get on with it"

He has to administer his own insulin injections four times a day and prick his finger to carry out blood sugar level tests regularly - all this he has mastered quickly with no fuss and great competence

He's now desperate to get back to some semblance of normality so he returns to school tomorrow

As for me - I'm shall we say somewhat nervous especially now I'm away from the hospital safety net even though they are accessible 24/7 at the end of a phone

But I'm in total awe of the way he has coped and is looking forward to the future with his usual zest for life

Thank you to everyone who both commented or emailed me privately with your support, advice and good wishes.

You've given me more support than you can ever know

So now - onwards and upwards!