A little hello.

A few weeks ago, a good friend asked me why I hadn't been blogging recently. I had to think about why. Perhaps a mixture of being up and about a bit more, but then when I have rest time, I need to sleep to recover in order to do the next block of 'activity'. There is also the fact that I waste/use up hours on Facebook, and recently have been getting stuck down the rabbit warren that is Twitter. But also, I have been reading some brilliant and challenging blogs I stumble across, and finding that what I would 'say' has already been said, so then I don't bother. 

The last 8 months or so, have mostly been lovely. Really really lovely. My two little ones are growing and developing in a way which I feel so grateful for. They are healthy and strong, have fun and amazing opportunities presented to them weekly to explore and learn, it's every parent's dream really, isn't it ? It sometimes takes my breath away when I watch them, and know how safe they are, and how much education awaits them, such a contrast to the images I see regularly on twitter of families fleeing, surviving, and dying. 

The juxtapose of my life, and what I see on social media is a head wrecker most of the time. 

I find, as I am emerging out of the 'baby stage' and on the slow road to both my kids being in some kind of education/nursery, It raises loads of emotion for me. The questions all mums have of 'what will I do now' or 'great, I can do what I'm already doing but not have to pay for childcare' etc etc. 

I think for me, it raises some disappointment and sadness. The lack of career is a tough one. My degree sits largely unused. Today both my kids are being looked after by others so I can rest, sleep and have enough of a breather to be able to function as I need to. Today, that reality feels sad. Other days, I feel nothing of that sadness, but instead the joy every mum feels of a quiet house for a few hours in amongst the chaos of life with a 2 and 4 year old. ( My 2 year old is getting louder - he is LOUD )

I think it's all about feeling I don't have a place, or fit in somewhere. Although my experience of having small children has varied lots from my peers, I have fitted in, with the chats of struggle, of tiredness, of 'will our clothes ever be folded again', not being at work all week. Before my children arrived, I inhabited a space which most twenty somethings didn't, being at home a lot during the week, but occasionally being well enough to hold down a few hours of work. 

But then, I think, I consider, I have never really been someone to 'fit in' with the standard path, so I guess I just need to bed down and find my place again. 

I read this a while ago....

' And I dig into this place, looking for truth and mining for the joy that is always in the mix. 
And as I do, I glimpse hope and possibiity looking back at me '

When I read it, my soul was shouting 'ALL THE YES'.....
This is it, just how I feel.
It was written by a brilliant lady, she blogs ....here at 'thehippochronicles' ( crazy name for a blog ! )

Another reason I haven't blogged much, is cos I am SO very very bad at grammar, I know I am a sloppy writer, and when you read an abundance of well written blogs, It shines a mirror up to my lackadaisical approach to writing. I am no perfectionist when it comes to writing, there's no denying it !

I will leave you with some snaps of the two faces that keep me ticking along. and hopefully, a promise of some slightly more focussed blog posts again soon ! 

The space between.

I have been wanting to write again for a while, but I just haven't quiiiiiiite managed it.

But here I am, back in the blogging saddle and ready to go.

I've been trying to put thoughts together in my mind for a while now, about the space I occupy.
The space in-between being healthy, and being one who lives with a chronic and disabling illness.

Today I have been both packing to go camping at the weekend, and also looking into buying a mobility scooter.
I have been to toddler group with the kids, but also spent 4 hours in bed this afternoon. It's an odd place to occupy.

The space between.

I fit into both worlds, at different times.
At times I feel out of place and a fraud in both camps.

Mentally it can be tough to deal with. I have amazing friends who really 'get it'. But even for them I can make it hard, as some days I want to pretend, pretend that I don't always feel unwell, kind of like you do at the end of a virus, that my limbs and joints don't ache, and when there is lots of noise and stimulation I feel totally overwhelmed and tired.
Then some days, I realise I have to acknowledge the condition more. I am slightly disabled, and it's not only better for me to acknowledge this, but also better for the people around me.

There are weeks where I don't really think about CFS, I just move about in the little world I have created which works, happily resting and pottering about with the kids. I am so grateful that I have this luxury. There have been many times where I feared that I wouldn't make it back to this stage of energy/ health. And this fear isn't unfounded. There are many women, who, after having kids relapse for years and years and are bed bound entirely.

But then I remember... 

I remember it, when my kids don't like walking much, and that is largely because we don't, we drive everywhere, even to the shop across the road.

I remember it, when the weekends have to factor in a few hours sleep for me.

I remember it, when to enable my husband and I to socialise one evening, I need a lie in, then a long sleep all afternoon.

I remember it, when we need a second income, but I am not well enough to go out and earn some pennies.

The space between 'normal' energy, health, and living with chronic illness is at times an uncomfortable and confusing place.

Half way up.

Have you ever climbed up a really big hill?
And as you approach what you believe to be the top, you see, that there is in fact, a whooole lot more hill to climb. But when standing at the bottom, you couldnt see the actual top, just the 'pretend' top ?

Well right now, that's about where I am at with this whole CFS/ME malarky.
compared to this time last year, I am ooodles (I love that word) better.
I can walk around a shop, I can go to playgroup with the kids, I can make it to church most weeks. I can sometimes cook a meal.
Progress.
It's great.
I find it hard to describe the feelings of elation at getting a bit of energy back after a prolonged period of absence. The other day, I stood in my kitchen and wiped things, I made things shiny ! Granted, someone else had swept and mopped and done lots of the other jobs, but just being able to stand for longer makes so many more things possible.

Yesterday, I found myself feeling down,  just fed up, frustrated and trapped.
After some time mulling it over a bit, it dawned on me. I have had this condition for over 10 years,  I have experienced times where it has been fairly mild, and times when its been severe, but its been there since I was 23. Thats a long time. And some days, it it just feels too much.

I keep kind of hoping that I would morph into someone who has no desire to go for long walks, or go for a jog, or go canoeing, or body boarding, or swimming in open water half way up a hill, or do a job which uses my talents or I worked hard to train for, chat at a party, or go to a conference for a full day, or, you get the picture.
But I haven't, I still want to do all those things. I know some people don't but I did, and still do, and its like i'm  in a prison not being allowed by my body to do them.

If a Doctor could give me more of a reason why I have limited energy, I am unsure if it would make it any easier, but it would be nice to know anyhow.
Having spent months revelling in the joy of being able to go out together as a family, socialise a bit more, chat a bit more, create and enjoy, a bit more...I want more.

I just want more.

It's like I have reached the 'fake top', and I can see what else there is to grasp at.
People say to me, ' ahh yes, but when you have kids everything is more limited and you can't do the things you want to'.... well yes, but I couldnt do them before I had kids !

So here I am, half way up my hill, so very happy to have made it this far, but ohhh so desperate to leave my 'half way camp' and climb to the top.

Thinkings: When people die without air.

I read this news article yesterday, and it kind of hit me in the face, you know, right between the eyes. There are so many things in the news that grab my attention, propel me out of my comfy life and force me to look, head on at the awful 'stuff' which takes place around me.
But this one, just did something a bit more than that.

If you haven't read the article, it is an account of a small shipping vessel found off the coast of Sicily. Like lots of boats approaching Italy at the moment, it came from North Africa, and was rammed to the brink with people trying to escape to Europe, in the hope of a safer life. 
When the police reached the boat, and went down to the hull, there was a mass of intertwined bodies, hundreds of them. Intertwined, like a messy pile of string, desperate to be unravelled.

They all died while trying to flee the reality of violence and poverty they were trying to leave behind.

I was lying in my bed while reading this, and two things really struck me.
Firstly, just how desperate some people, well not some, but thousands and thousands are, to want to cram themselves into the hull of a boat, just to escape to what they hope will be a better life.
I hate boats on the sea, I get VERY seasick, I hate going below deck, the fumes are horrid, it's usually stuffy and hot. These people basically layered themselves in, they paid a lot of money for this privilege, just to escape.
They second thing I found gruelling to read, was the account of a man who said he was on the boat. He was thought to have paid more for his passage as he got to sit on the deck, 
this deck.

 He said that the door which led to the hull of the boat was open, so the people squashed in the hull could have an air source. As the boat hit choppy waters, they started to try to clamber out of the hull, thus jeopardising the safety of those already on the deck.
So the passengers on the deck, shut the door.

They shut the door.


Shouts could be heard begging them to open the door.

The door was never re opened.


I couldn't believe that the people on the deck, just let them die.
They LET them die.
But then, I stopped and thought.
They shut the door, as they feared for their already volatile chances of survival.
Could they have not done some kind of rotation system ?
Could they not have explained it to them,
could they not, could they not.....?

It was then I realised, the people on the deck were richer, the ones underneath weren't, they paid less for their tickets.
How often in life could I forgo a luxury ( let alone a basic necessity to live) to help someone less fortunate than myself. To swap places with them for a brief time, just to make things more bearable.

Daily, I choose not to do this.
Human nature is to protect ourselves, it is also to help others, but there is a line.
And on that boat the line was drawn, and those people died.

If I was in that position, what would I say to someone like me? 
I don't know, I really don't. But, I suspect some on that boat, coming from Syria at some point had a life not dissimilar to mine, with all the privilege that being middle class brings. 

But then things got messy. There was war and displacement.

What would they say to me today ?

I kind of wonder, if it would simply be, enjoy the freedom I have. Enjoy and live life.
Not spend my days feeling guilty, guilty that I have, and they don't. Guilty that I am alive and those who died in that vile and inhumane way, aren't.
But just to live, to thrive, to enjoy every ounce of what I have.
Surely not to make the most of my freedom, and take pleasure in what I have is the ultimate insult to people on that boat ?

I don't know, but that is what I just wondered when I read it.

I also kind of wonder if people are going to desperate measures to get to Europe, the least we can do is share with them, just a little bit more ?

Ten on Tuesday

Ten on Tuesday

1. Today was my biggest's sport day, well, when I say sports day, think a gaggle of 3 year olds running about, attempting obstacle courses, not entirely sure what they are supposed to be doing. She was a bit young to fully enjoy it, but another 'First' for me as a Mummy today.
Sports day - check.

2. My little one has started walking, and he is fast. He also has an overarm throw on him, which, if continues to improve could pop him on a fast track as a javelin throwing olympian. 
So far his throwing skills have broken two mugs 
( of course they weren't the cheap ones ) and a Denby plate.

3. We went camping a few weeks back with a group of friends, it was a lot of work, and I came home with a throat infection, BUT, it was worth it, and made me very glad of the english countryside and the friends I have who are 'doing life' with us.

4. I have had more energy than usual, so am trying to reduce the price of our weekly shop, I had forgotten how much money you can save when you have energy to cook, and chop stuff, and withstand a visit to a budget supermarket from time to time.

5. I had also forgotten how much I love it when it is warm enough to make the transition from inside to outside without the need to change clothing.

6. Husbando is off with a load of stinky teenagers on a 'Duke of Edinburgh' trip this week. I am yet to decide who drew the short straw, me being with the kids solo for a few days, or him in a field in the rain. ..... jury is still out.

7. I had my eye on a top recently that I liked, was £16, just too expensive for my budget, saw it on the 'sale rail' for £4 - result.

8. I have just had a coffee with a friend who lives on our street, and has the same aged kiddos as me. When we moved here, a little way from my existing network of friends, I prayed for a friend who I 'clicked' with, who also had kids the same age, and whaddya know, she materialised ! 

9.  I always love Glastonbury weekend, I set myself up with some tasty snacks, get my remote and enjoy the festival vibe from the comfort of my dry sofa. Have to say some of the presenters this year did my head in just a teensy bit, I used to love it when John Peel and Jo Whiley just winged it as they went along. Getting a bit old maybe ?!


10.  This little chap was fairly grouchy for most of our camping trip, apart from when eating strawberries.........

Moments of Joy

When the sun comes out, and I have the energy to go out in it, Life always feels good !

We have had a few trips away over the past few months, Here are a few snaps of my girl, enjoying herself. 

I am very thankful for happy kids, most of the time mine are, and on the times when they are not, I tend to put on some loud music, and ignore them.

(Watch this space for a parenting book to be written...... or not ! )

 By the stream on the campsite we went to in Edale....... 

 In our friend's garden at Easter..... there is lots of Joy in dancing isn't there ?

A catch up and a few Thinkings.

It seems I haven't written a blog post for about three months............I'm not entirely sure why, I think mostly it is due to the fact I have been reading a bit more. It's been great to have the mental energy to read again, and oil up those rusty brain cogs of mine, setting them in monition once more. 

I have been feeling like I'm ready to explore a bit more theology, and where the Christian practises I am part of originate from. In the past, I guess I have been a bit tentative about digging too deep, asking too many questions, as sometimes it's easier to listen to a leader at church, (who you are fairly certain isn't a total loony) and kind of go with what they think.
(I hope I'm not the only one who is perhaps that lazy ?!)

Here is a whistle stop tour of a few 'thinkings' and things I have been reading lately. 

It's been very much in the forefront of the media, Christians everywhere are being forced to consider what they actually believe God says about LGBT marriage/relationships, I too have been trying to make some space in my head to consider this. 
This blog by Vicky Beeching, has been a great starting point for me, and has helped me to look into varying view points around the theology of sexuality.

Another thing I think about a fair amount is suffering, God, prosperity, and how the three lie next to each other, This lady's blog has been another place to help me explore these things Tanya Marlow.

Sometimes daring to question things can be tough, isolating and a bit scary. 

The book 'Found' by Micha Boyett has been on the top of my reading list. She explores the way Benedictine Monks pray, at intervals throughout the day, and uses that as a pattern for her daily prayer, in the midst of changing nappies, working and attempting to connect with God. It's like reading a book a friend has written. I identify with so much of what she writes. Thoughts of feeling like my life doesn't quite have the positive impact on the world and the needy as I hoped it would, and disappointment that my prayer life often resembles more of a mumble, or a 'tweet', rather than an intersession. Anyway, it's good, I would recommend it ! 

The energy fairy has definitely been kind to me in recent months. Despite currently writing this from the sofa, a bit too knackered to get out this morning, in general, I 'm doing really well. Getting out and about, picnics, camping trips and cooking a few meals here and there.....things are good ! 

Here is the little one, in the wheelbarrow, 'helping' to mix the concrete for our patio.

Bye for now, and hopefully I will be writing again soon !