Over coming the gremlins (and fun at forest school!)

It has been a frustrating time away from my beloved macbook typing my blog and other writing projects I have on the go! As hard as I try I cannot seem to fix this problem of the cursor jumping all over the place! After much googling and reading it seems that it is indeed a common problem with macs and it requires that you reset the laptop in various ways! Not easy for a techno dunce like myself!

Firstly I tried the 'easy' solution but it didn't seem to work, although, touch wood so far into this post I have been fortunate that all is going to plan so perhaps it has worked after all!

The other solutions will require that I write all the instructions down as I can't follow the instructions and reset the laptop! Naturally I have backed up all my work just encase! It says files shouldn't be affected but alas this is me we are talking about and if someone is going to loose all their work it will be me!

Let's start on today and work our way back shall we? Today has been a wonderful day, my pain was horrendous this morning but I listened to my body and did as it asked. I rested. The sky was over cast so I wasn't too overwhelmed with a need to get out into the garden to potter around so instead I set up camp on the sofa and tried to fix my laptop whilst watching old episodes of friends!

We had a family SEAL coffee catch up this afternoon which I always look forward too! You may remember back in January I started a course up at my daughters school, we would go for two hours on a friday afternoon the first hour we would learn about how the children were being taught socially and emotionally and how we could implement it at home and in the second hour the children would join us and we would do an activity with them.

We were a group of 12 (it was open to all parents with children starting in reception but we were the ones that took it up. It's actually a good thing because we were told it works better in small groups and I honestly think it did. We all got to know each other) and now the course has finished we still meet in the staff room once a month when we can

.............Cue another mass delete and grumpily walking away from the mac!.............

                                              

It's monday evening now and I am suitably calm enough to try again! Ha! Honestly, this blasted machine is playing with me! It's such a shame because it really has well and truly sucked the enjoyment out of writing over the past 3 weeks! I wish I knew what had started it but alas....

I had a cracking weekend! There was a special forest school at Saturdads this time (it's fortnightly) but as Tony was working I asked my Dad if he could take Amelia-Rose and he did! This time of year my Dad normally has so many weddings (him being a vicar 'n all) so it was a nice surprise that he could.

Well, let me tell you, Amelia-Rose came home absolutely BUZZING! They'd cooked bacon and toast on the bonfire, whittled a pair of tongs out of a thick stick and 'caught an (imaginary) pig in their pig catcher' (how very Lord of the flies!)


They were all having such fun the session actually over ran by an hour! I was pumped by her sheer enthusiasm when she got home, we are (her and I) are very outdoorsy, it's obviously gotten harder since I became disabled and I can't help but feel that she misses out on this wonderful world of adventure that is the great outdoors but I do my best.

I want to show her woods and wide open spaces but they aren't exactly wheelchair friendly so we make the most of our garden and visit the meadow just down from our house. Living so close to the sea she of course experiences a whole other kind of 'outdoors' to the one I grew up with (being a country bumkin) but is doesn't make it any less magical!

Forest school was everything I hoped it would be for her, it was like she had caught the bug and asked if we could sleep outside that night!! I was informed we had to find something to make a net to catch a pig and we would cook it over a campfire for tea!

The hilarious thing is that 90% of the time Amelia-Rose is a vegetarian! Recently she's been leaning more to full on commitment into the world of vegetarianism (I being a vegan/vegetarian and Tony being a meat, meat, meat and veg kind of bloke she sees both sides) I was tickled by this sudden desire to hunt down a pig for her dinner!

Once she had refuelled after her exciting morning I took a deep breath and got on my mobility scooter to venture out alone for the first time in three months! On the account that the two times I have been taken into hospital for my bowels has been unplanned and in the back of an ambulance my confidence has been somewhat knocked. I haven't trusted my body but with Tony back at work I need to get back out there (literally!) At three weeks post op for my hip surgery I want to regain some kind of normality and that means going out alone with Amelia-Rose.

We headed for the hardware shop for string, I know it's not exactly foraging but it's all I had!

Forget 'kid in a candy store' this was 'Amelia-Rose in a hardware store' we went in for a string and left with a child's fishing net, string a plenty, bamboo canes (always handy for the garden afterwards!) and matches! Next we headed for the local butchers! Girls go a hunting! Ha!

We also went into a pop up shop in town and got glittery tattoos, not so lord of the flies but hey, give a gal a break!

Once home Amelia-Rose took to making her pig catcher. It turns out a pig catcher is string of many colours tied to a garden swing! Fabulous use of materials to hand!

I was interested by the conversation that followed; 'Mummy, I hope I catch a big pig for tea!' "Oooo I bet!" 'Actually Mumma I hope I catch a baby pig that I can keep for a pet, I wouldn't want to kill a baby pig' "Ok, but what about the big pig, that might be the baby pigs mummy, how would you feel if someone caught me in a net and ate me?' "Gosh mummy, that's a very good point! I don't think I will kill that big pig after all!'

Amelia-Rose kept talking about sleeping outside which really got me thinking, I had always wanted to take her camping and felt very cheated by my illness that I had been unable to do so. What if...what if I went and got a two man tent and we slept in the garden? What if, I asked Tony to buy a throw away BBQ and we really did cook dinner outside?

By the time Tony did get home my mind was made up! I was 20 minutes to get to the shops and I just managed it!

This is how you dress for a campfire
apparently!

By the time I got home the little girl from next door had come over and I must admit I was a little disappointed, I had so wanted to return to the wonderful time we had been having but it wasn't all bad. If anything it forced me into pacing myself so I was able to have a rest.

The tent went up and the girls had a wonderful time playing in it. We lit the BBQ and cooked Amelia-Rose's sausages and toast which she ate inside the tent!


At bedtime we told each other stories and breathed in the fresh night air. It was perfect.
As my pain is so bad and my bones are so creaky I totally cheated and slept on an air bed but I was still outside sleeping in a tent with my beautiful daughter. Something I thought I would never be able to do. Talk about triumph.

                                  We at least really did 'forage' for pudding!