vomit zone
It was lovely while it lasted. Absolutely, utterly lovely. A healthy household that is.
Yesterday, just as I was running around in a state of medium level torment over how many things I had to do and how mu multi-life was spirally out of control, firstly I came in from the washing line to find a message to say I had no childcare that afternoon due to a tragedy involving the family cat. That's not an insurmountable problem, just another task. So I can't get my friend on the phone, so next choice is I make Brighid's lunch really quickly and head to kindy ready to ask the favour at kindy pick up and at the same time I'm running through the steps needed if Brighid needs to stay with one of us at work.
But none of that turns out to matter. I walk into kindy and am immediately called over to a corner by one of the teachers. Brighid is on a makeshift bed and looking dreadful. We leave with an ice cream container just in case. Fifty metres down the road I stop the car and Brighid fills the container with her kai (morning tea). I drive to work, run in very fast to tell the two key people I can't work and run out and take her home. Since then, Brighid has vomited and slept and done nothing else. The vomiting was mostly at night and the sleeping has been mostly in the day. As I've cancelled everything I'd planned for today (and tomorrow for that matter, given her current state), life is not actually nearly as stressful now as yesterday morning.
I love that we have a reliable washing machine. I love that we have plenty of spare bedding and linen. I love that we have plenty of coal to keep the house warm.
Fionn is home as well. His cough sounded like a seal barking in the night so I decreed he was staying home in convalescent land as well. This morning we played Monopoly and now he is writing a letter to his Auckland Grandad. Homeschool for a day or so I can do. Actually he wants to play on the computer, but because those far off days when I was going to parent without bribery are so far off that I'm not totally sure they ever existed, he has to write the letter, to my satisfaction, first.
Yesterday morning, one of the tasks preying on my mind was the Blackball working class history museum exhibition on care workers which Denise and I haven't started. Last time we planned to meet, her family vomited, and today was my turn to cancel. But I did choose my non-fiction purchase for 2011. Other years I've bought nutrition or cooking books (e.g. Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions and Paul Pitchford's Healing with Whole Foods) but this year I've gone for history. I miss having a university library at my disposal very very much and I haven't been organised enough to interloan through our local library. So I ordered two (ooops) books by Margaret Tennant. The first is Past Judgement: Social Policy in New Zealand History and the second is The Fabric of Welfare: Voluntary Organisations, Government and Welfare in New Zealand 1840-2005. I loved Margaret Tennant's work on Victorian charitable aid and ideology when I was studying in the early 1990s, so I hope these books are similarly wonderful. My idea is that I will a) enjoy reading them and b) get the wider context I want from an up to date source before I launch into the real substance of the exhibition, which is local interviews with care workers.
My Kings Seeds order has arrived. Time to get started with some windowsill coriander, assuming I'm not needed on vomit support.
Yesterday, just as I was running around in a state of medium level torment over how many things I had to do and how mu multi-life was spirally out of control, firstly I came in from the washing line to find a message to say I had no childcare that afternoon due to a tragedy involving the family cat. That's not an insurmountable problem, just another task. So I can't get my friend on the phone, so next choice is I make Brighid's lunch really quickly and head to kindy ready to ask the favour at kindy pick up and at the same time I'm running through the steps needed if Brighid needs to stay with one of us at work.
But none of that turns out to matter. I walk into kindy and am immediately called over to a corner by one of the teachers. Brighid is on a makeshift bed and looking dreadful. We leave with an ice cream container just in case. Fifty metres down the road I stop the car and Brighid fills the container with her kai (morning tea). I drive to work, run in very fast to tell the two key people I can't work and run out and take her home. Since then, Brighid has vomited and slept and done nothing else. The vomiting was mostly at night and the sleeping has been mostly in the day. As I've cancelled everything I'd planned for today (and tomorrow for that matter, given her current state), life is not actually nearly as stressful now as yesterday morning.
I love that we have a reliable washing machine. I love that we have plenty of spare bedding and linen. I love that we have plenty of coal to keep the house warm.
Fionn is home as well. His cough sounded like a seal barking in the night so I decreed he was staying home in convalescent land as well. This morning we played Monopoly and now he is writing a letter to his Auckland Grandad. Homeschool for a day or so I can do. Actually he wants to play on the computer, but because those far off days when I was going to parent without bribery are so far off that I'm not totally sure they ever existed, he has to write the letter, to my satisfaction, first.
Yesterday morning, one of the tasks preying on my mind was the Blackball working class history museum exhibition on care workers which Denise and I haven't started. Last time we planned to meet, her family vomited, and today was my turn to cancel. But I did choose my non-fiction purchase for 2011. Other years I've bought nutrition or cooking books (e.g. Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions and Paul Pitchford's Healing with Whole Foods) but this year I've gone for history. I miss having a university library at my disposal very very much and I haven't been organised enough to interloan through our local library. So I ordered two (ooops) books by Margaret Tennant. The first is Past Judgement: Social Policy in New Zealand History and the second is The Fabric of Welfare: Voluntary Organisations, Government and Welfare in New Zealand 1840-2005. I loved Margaret Tennant's work on Victorian charitable aid and ideology when I was studying in the early 1990s, so I hope these books are similarly wonderful. My idea is that I will a) enjoy reading them and b) get the wider context I want from an up to date source before I launch into the real substance of the exhibition, which is local interviews with care workers.
My Kings Seeds order has arrived. Time to get started with some windowsill coriander, assuming I'm not needed on vomit support.
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