Powertex Sculpture

This amazing wall hanging was made by my mother this month. She has been experimenting with various sculpture media in recent years. This particular one was made with a substance called 'powertex', which is applied to fabric to create different effects. I thought this example was stunning - particularly as this was her first attempt to use powertex. To learn more, see this link.

Nine Days until Moving Day

Nine days out, and things are still amazingly calm and organised. It will be interesting to see if this is merely the calm before the storm, though. My index cards are proving to be very versatile when it comes to planning a move. Even better, things are getting done, and getting done on time!

Packed boxes are colour coded according to which room they will go in at the new house. Each box is listed in my moving notebook, together with a list of its contents. This has already proven to be very useful. We also seem to be moving only the things that we really want or need to keep (no clutter).

Here's hoping it all goes smoothly from here on in...!

Glass Dip Pen

Never heard of "glass dip pens" before? Neither had I until recently. Now I am the proud owner of a beautiful, handmade pen (made to order by a man in Bundaberg, Australia) and a matching Italian-made ink well. I have to say that the photo does not do them justice. The pen has a glass nib, which you dip into the ink (hence the name) before writing. From my research I expected to only write a few words between "dips", but my pen lets me write about 1-2 sentences at a time. To clean the nib, I simply dip the pen into a little water and dab it onto a tissue.

One of the benefits of using a dip pen (as opposed to using a fountain pen) is that you can swap ink colours anytime you wish. I haven't tested that yet, as I only have blue ink (so far). But I can see how easy it would be. Oh no, I can feel the world of inks, pens, wax seals and beautiful paper beckoning me....

Wheelchairs and Bowel Motions

Not a terribly charming topic, is it? Nevertheless, it has become a very practical problem in our household. The dilemma is this: sitting in a wheelchair is simply not helpful when it comes to needing to "go". Trust me on this one.

Christopher has solved this in the past by asking to lie down on the floor when he feels the need, but I am past the point where I can lift him off the floor. He is adamant about not lying on the bed, for reasons unknown to me. (Perhaps he feels unsafe, even with the side bars up?).

Since the floor is no longer an option, he has been doing his business in his walker. That involves the following steps:
1. Christopher asks to go in the walker, so we lift him from w/chair to walker
2. House starts to smell
3. We lift Ch. from walker onto bed to be changed
4. Lift Ch. back into walker or w/chair.
Sadly, the transfer from walker to bed is really hard on one's back, so this isn't going to be a permanent solution either.

Clearly we need to rethink this, with full awareness that Christopher is almost eleven years old now - and will only get taller and heavier. Also, being the smart kid that he is, how much longer will he want his parents dealing with this? Well, at least that's still another problem for another time at this stage.

Making Lace

Thanks to a very gracious lady, I was introduced to the art of lace-making several years ago. Now, I certainly don't claim to be any good at it, but I do enjoy it!

One of the pleasure of making lace is the use of bobbins - many of which are beautifully crafted works of art in themselves. They are often decorated (in pairs) with glass beads. Handling dozens of bobbins is simply soul-satisfying. They sound soothing, feel wonderful, and look attractive - a pleasure to work with.

Then there's the amazing process of producing actual lace with a little thread and some pins. In many ways I still feel as though it's a mysterious process. I also like the fact that this craft is so rarely seen today.

Here is a photo of a few samplers I have made:



And here are some of my bobbins on a lace pillow:



Not that I have any time for lace-making at the moment, of course, but I thought I'd take a few photos while I was packing my lace-bag away.

Christopher's Health (Update)

Christopher saw his paediatrician yesterday for his 3-monthly diabetes checkup. We've been working hard on his blood glucose control and were therefore hoping for a better result this time. Our hard work paid off with a HbA1c of 7.5% !!

Good diabetes control requires a level as close to "normal" as possible, with normal being about 6%. Achieving such a low percentage isn't recommended for people with diabetes, as it results in too many hypos to be safe (where blood sugar drops so low that you can become unconscious). So we aim to get a result somewhere between 7-8%.

Aside from this good news, however, the paediatrician expressed some concern about Christopher's hips. He has recommended that we get some x-rays to assess for risk of hip dislocation. If there's an increased risk, we may need to look at Botox injections. In addition, he is starting to worry about the possibilty of spine curvature (scoliosis) - which requires surgery if it gets too pronounced.

So - rather a mixed bag of news yesterday - and it will take some time to determine how serious these issues will be for Christopher. Meanwhile, he is looking forward to our family reward for the great HbA1c result: dinner at a local Irish pub. LOL.

SeaWorld Video

Here are some photos of our recent SeaWorld trip, plus a litte bit of video footage of the kids. You will need to click on the Play button twice to view this movie. Enjoy!

"Mum" by Catherine

Three More Weeks

Three weeks until we move! Catherine has been cutting one number off our tape measure every day to keep track of the countdown, and this morning we're down to 21 days. All the books we're taking are packed, apart from my textbooks. Christopher's room is already quite bare, with only homeschool and medical equipment remaining. He has been the main motivating force behind all of our packing and preparation, as he loves to watch us at work.

Catherine's room is still underway, as she needed to do some extensive cleaning up before we could start packing. She has been such a delight. Her daily jobs now include feeding our cat, washing up the breakfast dishes, and keeping her room clean. She also enjoys putting on a load of washing for me some mornings. Her latest achievement, of which she's very proud, is that she can cook 2-minute noodles without any adult help.

Yesterday, Christopher (in his walker) and Catherine decided to clean the whole house. They dusted, swept and mopped floors, vacuumed, cleaned windows and scrubbed the toilet. Don't forget I'm talking about an eight-year-old girl, and a 10-year-old boy in a wheelchair here. Now, some of our windows have new smudges, but it's worth it to see them doing this for enjoyment. I could probably learn something from their approach!

Eternal Echoes

"The sacred duty of being an individual is to gradually learn how to live so as to awaken the eternal within you. If you can awaken the eternal beauty and light of your soul, then you will bring light wherever you go. The gift of life is given to us for ourselves and also to bring peace, courage and compassion to others."

John O'Donohue, Eternal Echoes

My Library Thing

As part of our move, we are drastically culling our book collection. I am also creating an online catalogue of the books we *are* taking with us. You can see a random sample of that catalogue on the right side of this blog site, and there's a link to our full library there (just click on "my library").

Keep in mind that we're only part way through the process, so there are many more books to be added! The thing I like about librarything.com is that you can attach various 'tags' to each book, which allows for really easy searching on a topic (or for an author).

Warning! If you are keen and decide to try this yourself, don't be caught out as I was. When I'd added 200 books, and was finally getting quick at the process, I found out that adding more than 200 books required a membership. Let me tell you, by the time you've done this much, it's easier to simply pay the membership than it is to admit that you've just wasted all that time - so I paid up (LOL). I'm mentioning this here so no-one gets caught out thanks to me!