How cool is this potato?
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Broken Broom
Do you think that this proves that I must be a truly terrific and hard working housekeeper?
I took the photo so I could easily explain to the enjo sales lady what had happened. She wanted me to spend $70 on replacing the entire foot piece, so I spent $35 on a whole new sabco broom instead.
Only problem is that although the fibres that it came with are excellent, the broom itself is totally awkward and stiff compared to my old one.
I guess I'll be spending that $70 after all.
Supervision (or, Leila is not to be trusted)
During the school holidays one morning I wasn't paying a whole lot of close attention the the girls. When I got around to checking them I discovered this:
Not a good game, I told Leila. Hannah didn't seem upset, but I rescued her anyway.
Not a good game, I told Leila. Hannah didn't seem upset, but I rescued her anyway.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Leila is 7
The brilliant, the dazzling, the one and only:
The girl is 7. We can hardly believe it. She actually is growing, despite being able to fit into the same clothes she's worn for 3 years, she is heavier and taller.
And more capable. Reading quite well too now. She has enjoyed finger-knitting during Bethany's piano lesson time. I the above picture she wouldn't stop after the lesson, and when I went to buy light globes, she found a perch, sat, and just kept on knitting.
Leila's cake was a point of contention for a while, because she kept changing her mind, or coming up with ideas that I wasn't so keen on. It wasn't helped by the fact that Hannah had already chosen her own cake theme, and Leila was a bit jealous. She wanted an angry dragon cake at one point. Her darling Mother (me) put her foot down and made the cake SHE wanted to make, based on Leila's favourite toy.
I did the icing 3 times before I was happy with it. I ended up using pre-made fondant, whilst the fondant I made with marshmallows ended up in the bin. We were all happy with the end result however. I refuse to make a novelty birthday cake that I am not happy with.
While we are on the topic of Leila getting older, check out what I found when picking up after my girls recently: a spontaneous "to do" list that Leila had made herself. This filled me with delight, because I feel that I must be actually getting somewhere in my parenting efforts. She actually works very well with written lists that I give her, but it is SO MUCH BETTER seeing her self directing.
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| Finger-knitting |
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| Out for birthday dinner at Hog's Breath Cafe |
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| Happy creating |
While we are on the topic of Leila getting older, check out what I found when picking up after my girls recently: a spontaneous "to do" list that Leila had made herself. This filled me with delight, because I feel that I must be actually getting somewhere in my parenting efforts. She actually works very well with written lists that I give her, but it is SO MUCH BETTER seeing her self directing.
Plus the spelling is adorable.
Angry Birds Cake
This cake was Hannah's request. I liked the idea, it is based on the computer-phone game "angry birds" which Damien and I play sometimes, and which the kids also enjoy on the playstation. A Google search discovered some fabulous playable cakes. The birds are sling-shotted at the pigs in their little defensive castles. It took about 3 1/2 hours to make the characters, and that was with mostly pre-mixed coloured fondant which I purchased from the lovely lady in the Bellerive cake shop. There are cool-mints and bubble gum balls inside them.
The green icing wasn't really a success. I made icing sugar in the thermomix, and I don't think I made it fine enough. The brown "planks" are oreo bars. I intitally tried to just balance them, but they kept falling. The solution was to get out my heat gun (used for shrink art and embossing) and slightly melt the ends of the bars so that they stuck together beautifully.
We had Hannah's birthday early, because Damien was going to be in Hong Kong on the actual day. Libby's and her children, Granny and Stephen's children came along. We found Damien's slingshot to be quite effective. If you check this post later on, you may find that Libby has sent me pictures of little funny-faced squashed birds that hit the opposite wall of the kitchen. It was my most fun cake ever.
The green icing wasn't really a success. I made icing sugar in the thermomix, and I don't think I made it fine enough. The brown "planks" are oreo bars. I intitally tried to just balance them, but they kept falling. The solution was to get out my heat gun (used for shrink art and embossing) and slightly melt the ends of the bars so that they stuck together beautifully.
We had Hannah's birthday early, because Damien was going to be in Hong Kong on the actual day. Libby's and her children, Granny and Stephen's children came along. We found Damien's slingshot to be quite effective. If you check this post later on, you may find that Libby has sent me pictures of little funny-faced squashed birds that hit the opposite wall of the kitchen. It was my most fun cake ever.
School Holidays - ice skating and plastic cups
What do you do with Rainbow Trousers? Why, anything you like, but especially go ICE SKATING.
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| The walkers were awesome. |
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| We had the rink pretty much to ourselves |
The rest of the pictures in this post are of a really good holiday toy that we picked up at the supermarket: Plastic cups! They were great fun for quiet play at all levels of ability.
Book Week 2011
I am a capable woman. I can sew, and I can craft, and I can make interesting cakes. This year I had distinct moments of regretting all three. It is LOVELY to make things for my children, particularly if I am on top of all the basics at home and am feeling exited about the item I am making.
It is NOT lovely to be bullied by children who think you can perfectly create what they have imagined in their heads and who are happy to drop items all over the house and then expect you to have time to create a masterpiece for them. Argh.
I have stated firmly that if I am the creator, then I have the last say on what is to be created and how it is done. It didn't make me feel much better or get much more sleep though.
So, here is book week, 2011. Somewhere inside, part of me loved it, but most of me sadly did not feel so happy about the whole work/life/craft/sleep balance. It kills me. I think it was after 3am when I got to bed.
One of the reasons why I got to bed so late was because I was formatting, printing and stapling Bethany's story. I also refused to make a top from scratch and temporarily altered a merino top with felt spikes (removable). The boots are gumboots which Damien decorated with coloured adhesive tape. Rocket boots to help flying dragon girls to rescue baby dragons. Her teacher read her story to the class, so she was very pleased with how the whole event went.
Leila's costume required a drastic last-minute alteration: she woke me up at 6:30 having found it to be too tight. You can't see it clearly in the picture but there is a little velvet cape too, and Hannah kindly found a toy tabby cat for Leila to carry. The Broom was considered a great success: it is just a cardboard tube stuck into a decorative store bought grass sheaf which we trimmed to suit. It had pearl beads threaded onto some of the grass, which Leila liked a lot. There were plenty of girls dressed up as witches, but no-one had an academic logo and trim on their hats like Leila did. We have been listening to recordings of the worst witch audio books. Leila has even been reading along with the narrator. It is fun to see my child enjoy the same stories that I did growing up.
Damien thinks I am crazy for spending so much time and energy on it all, but it is hard not to. They were so happy about dressing up for school. Perhaps it was almost worth it.
It is NOT lovely to be bullied by children who think you can perfectly create what they have imagined in their heads and who are happy to drop items all over the house and then expect you to have time to create a masterpiece for them. Argh.
I have stated firmly that if I am the creator, then I have the last say on what is to be created and how it is done. It didn't make me feel much better or get much more sleep though.
So, here is book week, 2011. Somewhere inside, part of me loved it, but most of me sadly did not feel so happy about the whole work/life/craft/sleep balance. It kills me. I think it was after 3am when I got to bed.
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| Leila as Mildred Hubble from "the worst witch" series |
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| Bethany as "Dragon girl" from a little book she wrote and illustrated herself |
Leila's costume required a drastic last-minute alteration: she woke me up at 6:30 having found it to be too tight. You can't see it clearly in the picture but there is a little velvet cape too, and Hannah kindly found a toy tabby cat for Leila to carry. The Broom was considered a great success: it is just a cardboard tube stuck into a decorative store bought grass sheaf which we trimmed to suit. It had pearl beads threaded onto some of the grass, which Leila liked a lot. There were plenty of girls dressed up as witches, but no-one had an academic logo and trim on their hats like Leila did. We have been listening to recordings of the worst witch audio books. Leila has even been reading along with the narrator. It is fun to see my child enjoy the same stories that I did growing up.
Damien thinks I am crazy for spending so much time and energy on it all, but it is hard not to. They were so happy about dressing up for school. Perhaps it was almost worth it.
Hannah's Castle
More fabulous Hannah artwork.
Best of all, Leila and Bethany gave her some wonderful compliments. I am happy to see them celebrate each other's gifts. Too often life is a less friendly competition!
And here is another image. We took it to Hannah's music lesson where they "show and tell" on a given topic each week. That week's topic was fish, so we also took along a shark egg collected at the local beach.
Best of all, Leila and Bethany gave her some wonderful compliments. I am happy to see them celebrate each other's gifts. Too often life is a less friendly competition!
And here is another image. We took it to Hannah's music lesson where they "show and tell" on a given topic each week. That week's topic was fish, so we also took along a shark egg collected at the local beach.
Twiddler's syndrome and dirty machines (some work stuff)
I took these two photos in theatre. I've decided not to write all the gory details about the case here, but I will tell you a little:
A poor old dementia patient presented to emergency with a pulse rate of about 27. I tested his pacemaker to see if getting it to yell louder at his heart would fix the problem. It did: He had a lovely pulse until the test finished and then his heart decided it wouldn't beat at all on its own. After a really frightening amount of absent pulse (during which time MY heart rate was a little unhealthy too) I gave up on traditional (slow) programming and hit the emergency pace button. Then after I'd calmed down and he'd had a respectable amount of recovery time I set about doing the tests again in a safer mode, contacted the cardiologist to recommend a new pacing lead, and cranked his device to the safest appropriate setting. The placid semi-conscious patient suddenly became quite a handful. He was much easier to manage when his brain wasn't getting enough blood.
His later repeated test results were variable, but we were eventually able to reproduce his initial problem and he ended up in theatre. It took a couple of goes to get a satisfactory result. We ended up with some beautiful ECG images.
We pace the left heart first (right bundle branch block) if the pacing wire enters a vein(the coronary sinus) and wraps around the outside of the left ventricle. If it is directly in the right ventricle we get a left bundle branch block pattern on the ECG.
Would you believe that this poor fella came back AGAIN after a few weeks with a pulse rate of 37? It turned out that he had been "twiddling", or in other words, he had been turning the small flat metal pacemaker over and over under his skin, twisting the leads into tight coils that shortened their overall length and basically ripped the lead tips right out of his heart. The surgeons went back in and repositioned the device deeper (under his muscle). Hopefully that will be the end of it.
My last image is a picture of how I found the ultrasound imaging probe one Friday morning. Ugh. It turned out that the previous sonographer had rushed off to attend a meeting. I wish she had left a note on it to say "THIS MACHINE IS DIRTY, I WILL CLEAN IT IN 30 MINS" because then I wouldn't have felt quite so outraged. Fortunately I noticed before bringing a patient into the room, and our fabulous new aid Sharon helped me scrub the entire machine. We finished just as the culprit returned, and I must say that it was a relief to hear her explanation.
A poor old dementia patient presented to emergency with a pulse rate of about 27. I tested his pacemaker to see if getting it to yell louder at his heart would fix the problem. It did: He had a lovely pulse until the test finished and then his heart decided it wouldn't beat at all on its own. After a really frightening amount of absent pulse (during which time MY heart rate was a little unhealthy too) I gave up on traditional (slow) programming and hit the emergency pace button. Then after I'd calmed down and he'd had a respectable amount of recovery time I set about doing the tests again in a safer mode, contacted the cardiologist to recommend a new pacing lead, and cranked his device to the safest appropriate setting. The placid semi-conscious patient suddenly became quite a handful. He was much easier to manage when his brain wasn't getting enough blood.
His later repeated test results were variable, but we were eventually able to reproduce his initial problem and he ended up in theatre. It took a couple of goes to get a satisfactory result. We ended up with some beautiful ECG images.
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| right bundle branch block due to lead in coronary sinus |
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| Left bundle branch block |
We pace the left heart first (right bundle branch block) if the pacing wire enters a vein(the coronary sinus) and wraps around the outside of the left ventricle. If it is directly in the right ventricle we get a left bundle branch block pattern on the ECG.
Would you believe that this poor fella came back AGAIN after a few weeks with a pulse rate of 37? It turned out that he had been "twiddling", or in other words, he had been turning the small flat metal pacemaker over and over under his skin, twisting the leads into tight coils that shortened their overall length and basically ripped the lead tips right out of his heart. The surgeons went back in and repositioned the device deeper (under his muscle). Hopefully that will be the end of it.
My last image is a picture of how I found the ultrasound imaging probe one Friday morning. Ugh. It turned out that the previous sonographer had rushed off to attend a meeting. I wish she had left a note on it to say "THIS MACHINE IS DIRTY, I WILL CLEAN IT IN 30 MINS" because then I wouldn't have felt quite so outraged. Fortunately I noticed before bringing a patient into the room, and our fabulous new aid Sharon helped me scrub the entire machine. We finished just as the culprit returned, and I must say that it was a relief to hear her explanation.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Big Bed for Hannah
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