The Big Bounce!

 

I don’t have a fancy camera, I took this on my phone by keeping my finger on the button and taking a burst of 24 photos. This meant I could get some fabulous action shots like this one of my girl bouncing in the air.

Can you believe, we’ve had this trampoline since December but have only managed to put it up in our garden. Thanks to all the snow and miserable weather our garden has been like a swamp. Now it’s all dried out and the grass has been cut (and partially destroyed) so it was a good time to get it out.

The kids have always wanted a trampoline and we got this one from Big Game Hunters it’s an 8ft Orbisphere with enclosure and it’s currently on offer for just £100. My kids are going have loads of fun on this all summer.

There are lots of times when we can’t get away from home because either mine or Star’s illnesses, so it’s great to bee able to provide the kids with lots of entertainment in our own back garden. Yes, I would like a pretty garden full of flowers and ornaments, but for now I’ll be happy with the swings, slide and trampoline which make my garden look more like a park. Sometimes I miss my old garden, it was so much bigger and I had room for both.

Is your garden full of flowers or toys?

 

Photalife

 

Sunday Snap

 

 

Today I am angry and upset.

Yesterday I spent many hours in A&E with my Little Man.

We have some big decisions to make.

It all started a while ago and I wrote about my Little Man being bullied at school.

Since then we have visited the school and spoken about the issues and talked with his teachers many times. We have been assured that everything is being done to stop the bullying. We have also been told on a daily basis what a naughty boy our Little Man is at school.

To be fair we’ve been confused about what has been going on. We know by far that our Little Man is no angel, but he’s not the type to hurt anyone, yet this is what he’s been accused of. They have been making out that he is the bully. My Little Man has always had many friends at school. He’s always been well liked by his teachers and done well in class…until this year when the bullying started. Now it seems that he cannot behave and is always in trouble.

We’ve tried to get to the bottom of it, we’ve talked to him and rewarded him when he has been good. Imagine my delight when he came home Wednesday having been the best behaved child in the class that day. In fact he’s had a really good week. Well, up until yesterday

Bruises

My Little Man has always had plenty of bruises on his arms and legs, not only is this normal for boisterous  seven year old’s, we are also a family with a history of bruising easily.

Last Sunday we put up our trampoline and the kids couldn’t wait to play on it. The Little Man was off within about five minutes complaining of back pain. We were confused because he’d not fallen on his back and had only been on for such a short time. He’s tried to go back on several times but each time he’s come straight off because of his back. Then we noticed some bruises appear on his back so I made an appointment with the GP to see if there was anything we should be worried about.

He went to school yesterday morning and we picked him up just before 11 am for his GP appointment. When we picked him up we found he had fallen off his chair in class and bashed his arm on the radiator. The teacher’s comments surprised us as she claimed it was karma because he was leaning back on his chair.

We all know that leaning back on your chair is dangerous and stupid.

We all have done this at some time in our lives, particularly at school. Is it karma to fall and hurt yourself, is it reasonable for a teacher to state so? I wasn’t there at the time but I was so angry when I heard this.

The GP looked at the Little Man’s arm and told us to take him to A&E as she thought the bone may have a fracture. She looked at his back and said it looked like an impact injury. She noted down all his other bruises, which were all impact bruises.

Hospital

The hospital was really busy and as the Little Man was not deemed as urgent we had to wait three hours before being seen by a Doctor. The conclusion was that his arm had suffered severe bruising and she was certain that the bone was okay. Phew! She also looked at his back and told us to take him back to the GP if it didn’t feel better within a couple of weeks. Then she mentioned that he may have a connective tissue disorder and we should ask for a referral to a rheumatologist.

She asked if he was clumsy? Was he? I guess he did have a problem with walking anywhere and runs all the time, I suppose this makes him a little more accident prone.

The School Calls

I didn’t send the Little Man to school today, I hadn’t decided what to do. I called and told them he wouldn’t be in and the deputy head called back to arrange a time for us to talk. We made an appointment for the Monday they go back to school after the holiday next week.

We had a chat and I told her some of my concerns. She stated that they had thought things had improved and that they were keeping a close eye on the Little Man and frequently asking him if all was okay. She also claimed that she’d noticed he was a little clumsy in school, always bumping into things.

This is where my dilemma begins. Is she  saying that because I told her about his bruises and she’s trying to put the blame on him rather than the bullies? Of course it’s in the back of my mind what the consultant said yesterday.

The Little Man claims he is being hit by the other boys and I have no reason at all to disbelieve him. I do, therefore believe that these boys are still being mean to him and sadly they’ve moved their actions to the classroom after being closely observed in the playground.

No matter what, this has to stop, whether it’s the main cause of his bruises or not.

I feel that when we go in for this discussion that the deputy head is going to try and convince us that it’s probably the Little Man’s fault and that they are doing all they can to protect him so it’s highly unlikely that he is being hurt by the other children. If I expect this in advance then I know she won’t catch me off guard. I know what’s going on and it has to stop.

Dilemma

The Little Man is distraught at the thought that we will take him out of school and away from his friends. We told him he could keep in touch but apparently he likes some of the teachers too, and there is a something he calls ‘friendship group’ that he really wants to be part of.

It’s mind boggling how the mind of a seven year old works. Each day he gets up and seems distraught that it’s a school day. Each day he comes home and doesn’t want to talk about school. Occasionally we have tears from him because he hates school so much.

Yet, the thought of leaving school has him in floods of tears.

I am thinking that he is worried about starting a new school, beginning again, making new friends. But, he’s always been so good at making new friends and he’s so young I’m sure the transition would be easier for him now rather than later.

I’m not going to rush into this. We have a whole week off school ahead of us, plenty of time to think about our next move.

The only thing I am really sure of is that the bullying has to stop. I cannot bear to think of another child hurting mine and if it happens one more time I will not be able to control my rage.

Parents.

Despite my saying not too, Graham was so incensed yesterday he approached the Mother of one of the children that has been bullying our Little Man. She denied it vehemently and even claimed that it was our boy that was the bully. On hearing our boy had bruises she angrily retorted that it couldn’t be her boy’s fault as he’d not been in school all week.

Ping!

So, that’s why our Little Man has had such a good week then. (Well up until his fall yesterday, which was his own fault, and definitely NOT karma.)

The Little Man made this colourful character while waiting to be seen by a Dr at A&E

Crafting

After a busy week last week I don’t seem to have much planned this week. I guess I’ll have to focus on my crafting.

I’ve not made any new cards yet but I’ve been working on a drawing that I’d like to include on one I need for next month. I really want to practice with my die cut fairies though, I’d love to create a fantasy scene.

I have started on a new blanket, it consists of many diamonds that will all have to be sewn together. I’m not keen on the sewing bit so wish me luck. My CAL blanket also consists of many pieces that will have to be joined together, but that won’t be until next year! I also have to make another soft toy.

Decorating

I want to make a start on the family bathroom this week, I’ll be able to do some myself but I’ll need the help of Graham to get most of it done, and he’s not keen on decorating. There isn’t really that much painting to do but the door and skirting board need doing and I get headaches when using gloss paint. I also want to paint the hand rail on the stairs, but as I need it to get up and down it’s difficult to find the time to do it. I guess I could paint it myself but I’d have to start at the top and work my way down. If I’m honest I don’t know how safe I would be.

It’s so frustrating not to be able to do these jobs, they are not the jobs I would have shied away from before I was sick. I remember painting the living room ceiling when I was heavily pregnant with Star, and I loved paper hanging. Do you like decorating or do you leave it all to someone else?

A Right Royal Weekend with Bounce

We stayed in on Saturday because I really wanted to watch the Royal Wedding. I made sure I’d done everything before hand so I wouldn’t be disturbed, and I even put a frock on. We didn’t have any banners or flags though. I watched it on television with Star and my eldest son, no-one else was interested.

On Sunday I asked the kids if they’d like to go out somewhere or if they’d like Daddy to put up the trampoline (which we’ve had since last December!) They opted for the trampoline and the girls have loved it. We have to limit Star’s time bouncing because of her condition, but she’s really good at limiting herself.

Sadly though, the Little Man started experiencing back pain shortly after his first bouncing session. He said he didn’t fall and the pain just started. It’s been 48 hours now and he still feels it when he goes on the trampoline, but otherwise he is okay. It’s very strange, and very sad. I hope it passes. What worries me is that he is now at the age that Star was when she had problems with her neck. I hope he doesn’t have spinal problems too, but maybe I’m just overthinking it. I’m going to book him an appointment with the GP for after school tomorrow just in case he’s done any damage.

What have you been up to this week?

 

Debs Random Writings

 

 

Last week I talked about Self-Love and how I believe it is so important to give yourself a break and show yourself some compassion. This week I want to spread the love a bit further.

It was hard to hide away from the Royal Wedding of Harry and Meghan, everyone was talking about it. In particular, the Bishop Curry, who made a big impression with his fourteen minute sermon, which was supposed to have been only six minutes. He talked a lot about love and how he believed that love could cure the world. The sermon was passionate and moving and very different to anything anyone had heard at a royal wedding before.

Love Can Cure The World.

There is certainly not enough love in this world. Just think for a moment, if we replaced all hatred with love what a different world it would be. There would be no violence, no war, no segregation, no fighting. There would be a better distribution of wealth and a more democratic society. There would be less illness and more compassion to those who were sick.

There would be more happiness, and every human desires happiness, it is our life goal.

There are some that would disagree, those that say that anger and hatred is a part of human nature that we cannot ignore.

Tenzin Gyatso; The Fourteenth Dalai Lama speaks wonderfully about compassion and the individual. If you have the time it’s well worth a read. In the meantime here is a small snippet.

Some of my friends have told me that, while love and compassion are marvellous and good, they are not really very relevant. Our world, they say, is not a place where such beliefs have much influence or power. They claim that anger and hatred are so much a part of human nature that humanity will always be dominated by them. I do not agree.

We humans have existed in our present form for about a hundred-thousand years. I believe that if during this time the human mind had been primarily controlled by anger and hatred, our overall population would have decreased. But today, despite all our wars, we find that the human population is greater than ever. This clearly indicates to me that love and compassion predominate in the world. And this is why unpleasant events are news, compassionate activities are so much part of daily life that they are taken for granted and, therefore, largely ignored.

 

This In compassionate World

I could list a million ways in which this world lacks compassion but I’d like to focus a little on Social Media and the Internet. I think we have a platform in which we can show so much compassion and love but instead, so many decide to attack instead.

We get people who are determined to make others feel worse or miserable, or even just pick an argument.

We get people who take every comment as an attack on how they are feeling.

The Internet can be a miserable place, so many people have the wrong kind of attitude.

To break it down into a few categories (I know there are more.) We have, those that complain about personal issues all the time, we have those who paint their lives as perfect and rosy and would never admit they had just had a blazing row with their partner and we have those who are determined to just tell it how it is.

It’s a personal decision how much you disclose about your personal life to those online. If you want to keep stuff back, that’s fine, if you want to tell all, that’s okay too. What’s not okay is if someone takes what you say and uses it to attack you. Doing this makes both parties unhappy.  Even if the person being unkind thinks it makes them happy, it really doesn’t. In the long run it will only bring them misery because no-one wants to be friends with someone like that and we all desire the friendship of others even when we think we don’t.

A little compassion goes a long way. Deep down we all know that showing kindness makes you feel better and the other person will feel better too.

Love is Strong.

These days we have lost the belief that love is strong. We see it as weak, we see compassion as weak. But it’s not, it’s strong.

In a world where people are hell bound on not giving a f**k we think that love will just bring us down.

I’m all for getting rid of the rubbish in your life, cutting out the stuff that makes you miserable. And of course there is only so much you can care about isn’t there?

Compassion is not all about giving in, or allowing other’s to control you. Love is strong, it will make you feel better, it will give you a better life. You don’t have to care about everything, but if you start to practice compassion regularly it won’t matter, you will find yourself caring without stress. Hating is much harder work than loving and much more draining.

What do you think?

Would you be prepared to show a little love to someone today.

 

Monday Stumble Linky

Lucy At Home

In celebration of yesterday’s Royal Wedding I’m sharing a wedding photo of my own.

Our wedding was really nothing in compared to Harry and Meghan’s but it doesn’t matter because each wedding day is a celebration of love and that’s all that matters.

Did you watch the wedding or did you turn off?

I was actually really excited for the event, it was promised to be different and it was. I love that they combined all the pomp of a royal wedding with the touches of a modern couple from different nations.

The dress was simply stunning. Not over the top or what you would really expect, but just beautiful. Meghan looked amazing. And her veil was 5 metres long! The little bridesmaids and page boys were just the cutest.

The music was diverse, appropriate and lovely, I loved that they had another choir to sing ‘Stand By Me,’ what an amazing touch to the ceremony.

Then there was Bishop Curry, who stole the show with his powerful sermon of love. It was truly an unexpected touch to royal wedding, but so passionate and so relevant. we could all heed his words, there is certainly not enough love in this world.

Most perfect of all was the way that Harry and Meghan looked at each other. This was a true marriage of love.

I wish the couple a happy future together.

 

Photalife

 

Sunday Snap