Youth 4 Climate Strike March '19

Yesterday we joined millions of school-aged children and young people world wide to demonstrate how important climate action is. It has been said, that there are only 11 years left in order to change our current approach, until climate change is deemed irreversible for the worse.

It is unbelievable that in this day and age, some people still question climate change - there have been warnings since I was a young child - let alone claim it is a conspiracy or 'fake news'. And yet, when the people who will be directly affected after my generation (and older) are long gone, actually shout and make a noise about the fact their elders are not doing enough, it is met with claims that "they only wanted a day off school", and "the kids are hypocrites" etc.

Nobody leads a perfect life.  Even friends I have that I trying to be totally self-sufficient by growing, making and mending as much as possible, need a car occasionally to get around.  Or another friend who doesn't drive, is vegan and tries to be as environmentally friendly as possible, cannot live totally plastic-free.  And it is unreasonable to suggest that unless you can do all these things and more then you are a hypocrite and it's not worth trying anything.  Bullshit. We can all do a little bit more.  And for things that are outside of our control, we need to use our voice to protest, march, petition and at least try to change the minds of those in power: councils, governments and businesses.

So while the protest we attended was not in a major city, so was not as large as many that were around the country, and around the world, for these 30-odd students (yes, there were more not in the picture) they are showing they care, and give me hope for the future.

Feeling like shit

Bit of a frank post this one.  I've been feeling like shit recently.  A combination of lots of things, including the fact that I ran out of antidepressants on Monday.  I ordered more last week, and thought I had a week's grace, but obviously not. As it takes 4 working days for repeats to be fulfilled, I was only able to collect more on Thursday.

My weight is also increasing.  As I'm an emotional eater, my response to this is to shovel more crap into my pie-hole.  Part of me is curious whether I can actually make it to 100kg?  Anther part of me wonders how high I can make my weight? And the sensible part of me tells me that's a crap idea, I need to lose weight as it is (because I need to have surgery in a couple of years, not just general health reasons), and I'm stupid for even thinking otherwise.

I'm meant to be a 2B Mentor, but I can't even sort out my own head.  I wanted to do the Body Groove Facilitator Training at the end of this month, but thankfully saved my money, as I'm not even managing to do 10min dancing a day, let alone claim to be able to get others dancing.  It is something I would like to do one day, maybe they're next offering it in the UK, but my head isn't there yet.

I watched Isn't it Romantic? last night: "After hitting her head, an architect who hates romantic comedies wakes up to find her unremarkable life has become a dazzling, cliché-driven rom-com".  It was really enjoyable, but made me realise that I don't love myself.  I don't even like myself half the time.  I'm amazed I have friends at all, as I can be so clingy and melancholy at times << I'm hoping that's the depression talking, though it feels very real.

One good thing to come from this slump, is that I haven't got angry!  I always thought, and it seemed to be in the past, that if I came off my ADs, then my temper would run riot.  Actually, it hasn't been the case at all.  I haven't argued with DD1 once this week.  All my anger has turned inwards on myself, which is probably what you'd expect with standard depression.  I did think about going to the chemist/doctors to try and get my medication early since I had run out, but I couldn't convince myself that I was worth it.

I have lost weight before, and I know I can do it again.  But I also know that my head has to be in the right place.  Previously, my weightloss was kickstarted because I had HG when pregnant, causing me to lose 3 stone in the first trimester.  After that pregnancy, I lost a bit more weight, before becoming pregnant again, and managed to lose even more, so I was comfortably down to 64kilos.  That is where I would like to go again.  The 'diet' I used (inverted commas, because it was a lifestyle change) was based on the book Fat Burner Foods by Dr Caroline Schreeve.  It was low carb, high fruit and veg, and high amount of liquids/soup throughout the day too. It showed me that I really don't have to eat very much at all, to stay full and satisfied.  I seem to have lost that along the way.

A few years ago, I was making smoothies daily for breakfast or lunch, and though I didn't lose much weight, I felt much healthier and better in myself, as well as being fitter (I was exercising more then too).  Right now, I have tried to pre-prepare salads and vegetables, I have bought fruit with the honest intention of eating them, but I am wasting lots of food.  Not in the worst way, as I do compost, so it's not just going straight to landfill, but still a waste of food and money.

So what am I doing about it?
Spending even more money of course...

The Core is a raw food and juice bar that also offers programmes. Right now, I don't seem to have the mental function for making food for lunch or dinner (I'm not sleeping well, so am not even waking up for breakfast!), so having everything ready made will be good for me.  I'll be doing the standard 'Juice Programme' and have not yet decided whether I am going to stick to liquids alone, or whether I will need some food alongside, but we'll see how we do.

Now I have started taking my medication again, I hope that this increase in nutrition will kick-start my body into behaving and give me more energy, and help me make the needed steps in the right direction.

Edited to add: I wrote this yesterday and took an AD when I received them in the afternoon.  In the evening, my husband commented how much happier I'd seemed.  It's kinda scary (but good!) how fast/much they affect me.
Last night I even slept well, not waking up until this morning!

Pi Day

Today is Pi Day!  Yes, it doesn't quite work for us Brits, but since there aren't 14 months in the year, we just have to celebrate with the Americans on 14th March (or 3.14).

I'm giving 3 tutorials today, for a variety of abilities, and will be celebrating Pi Day in each of them.
In my first, and longest, tutorial his morning, I started by labelling the parts of a circle (Circumference, Diameter, Radius and Tangent) and got the students to measure the diameter and circumference of a variety of cylinders in order to calculate Pi. 

Then we looked at the real digits of Pi (rather than our calculated attempts) and used a rhyme found in The Joy of Pi by David Blatner:

Sir, I bear a rhyme excelling
In mystic force and magic spelling
Celestial sprites elucidate
All my own striving can't relate.
Or locate they who can cogitate
And so finally terminate. Finis.

This gives the first 32 digits of Pi, where the 33rd digit is zero.

Personally, I can only remember 3.14159265, and in fact for almost all engineering applications, 3.14159 is all the number of digits you need to remember, if you don't have a Pi Button on your calculator.  22/7 is a good approximation for when you do calculations by hand, but these days there's always a calculator/computer/phone nearby to help.

Then we used loom bands to make a Pi Bracelet: Start with 3 bands of the same colour, then use a bead on a different colour band.  Change colours again, and add 1 band.  Change colours again, and use 4 bands.  Change colours again, add 1 band.  Change colours again, use 5 bands, etc...

After this we talked about ways that Pi is used in physics: angular velocity, radians, cosmology, trigonometry, radio waves, electricity, simple harmonic motion, to name a few.  Obviously, within a 1.5hour tutorial, there was not the time to go into each topic in depth, but just enough to illustrate that Pi is actually a really useful number.

Finally, we played a card game: Deal out 5 cards to each player (removing picture cards), leaving the rest in a pile on the table.  Decide who goes first.  The first player has to put down a 3.  (Ignore the decimal point).  If they can't go, they need to pick up one card from the pile and play passes to the next person.  After the 3, a 1 needs to be placed next.  After the 1, a 4, etc. The winner is the first player to have no cards left!


With my own girls, they made Pi Bracelets from loom bands, played cards, and also made pizzas for lunch and we're having pies for dinner tonight. Most maths can be taught using food. Yum!

Remind Me Not To Do This Again!

A couple of years ago, my girls wanted to go to Kidzania, as we often go as a group of home educators altogether.  Someone else was meant to be organising the trip, but when I queried about a month beforehand (so I could buy my train tickets) they said they weren't organising it after all.

Being a bit of a natural organiser, and with experience, I know after the 'general interest' stage, not to accept bookings without payment.  So, I organised a trip for last March for around 30 home educators.  Of course, last winter was known for the Beast from the East, particularly the return of the mini-beast mid-March... the same time we were meant to be going to Kidzania.  On the day, everybody who was planning to drive cancelled, and though 5 or 6 families (including us) bravely got to the train station, all the trains were cancelled.  It was a bit of a nightmare.  Thankfully Kidzania were really understanding, and allowed us to postpone our booking until the May (the next date that we could all attend that was not during school holidays).  The trip took place, and everyone had a good time.

Meanwhile, lots of DD1's dance friends were going on various residential courses with their schools.  As my girls are home educated, I didn't want them to miss out of the experience, not least because I remember all the fun I had when I was on residentials at that age.  So, when they asked if they could go on such a course, I stepped up to organise it.

Simultaneously, I contacted loads of activity centres within a 2-3hr radius of where I live to ask them a myriad of questions, whilst also started a FB group of people who were interested in joining us, if I organised a trip.  Within days we had over 100 members who were interested, and wanted a say in the type of thing being done.  

It is often said that the only thing home educators have in common is that they don't use schools, and that is very true!  I had parents who would only allow their children to come if they didn't have to; and others who would only allow their children to come if they could attend too.  Interested parents had children with a range of physical and learning difficulties, as well as a range of allergies.  Some parents only wanted their children to attend during the day, not overnight (it's a residential!!).  Some parents wanted all accompanying adults to have full DBS checks (if you arrange and pay for it, I'll gladly be DBS checked, but in the meantime, it ain't happening!). Some people would only attend if I arranged transport too (nope).  And yet others wanted a say in everything, but had no intention to come.

Eventually, between all the venues that replied to me, and all the parents with their own conditions and questions that they desperately wanted me to ask, it got narrowed down to one activity centre that does everything we want it to: Parents can attend if they want to, or they can leave their children alone.  There is a choice of 4 night (M-F) or 2 night (W-F) trips.  They can cater for all physical and learning disabilities, and have even allowed some free Carer places for adults who have to accompany their children.  They will accept DLA as part of the booking.  "Supervisors" do not have to be DBS checked; but all their instructors are DBS checked and have first aid certificates etc.  They can cater for all eating requirements and allergies as long as they know about them in advance.  And  we can put in our preferences for the activities we do (though they can't be guaranteed, as there will be other groups on site at the same time).  All in all, it looked really good.  The only requirement is that we need a minimum of 8 children on each trip (4 night or 2 night) in order for them to go ahead. Phew!

The system they use is that after booking, an initial deposit is required after 4 weeks; an interim deposit is required after a further 6 weeks; and the final balance is required 3 months before the trip.  

Despite having over 100 adults in the FB group, when it actually came to asking for money, a lot of people decided that they were no longer interested.  That was to be expected, and why I always ask for money upfront, as I can't afford to fund any shortfall!  We had around 30 children sign up, over the two trips, so a nice amount.  

As time went on, some people had to drop out of the trip.  Initially it was younger siblings, or parents who felt they no longer needed to attend.  For some people their circumstances changed, so they are no longer available. And for a couple of people, they had to pull out due to allergies.  For each change, we were charged a cancellation fee equal to the individual deposits paid so far.

Meanwhile (again), last year Beat the Street came to my town.  As I had asked the question whether other people wanted to join us, it was defaulted to me to set up the team.  Actually, it was a lot of good fun.  Because all members of the family could join in, we had over 100 participants on our team, and we actually won the section for 'Community Groups'!  Our prize was £300 of Decathlon Vouchers, and was up to me to organise getting the prize.  Some people wanted the prize to be split by the number of points won per person, others wanted an even split by family, others still thought it should all go towards the children, and some people didn't want a prize at all, and wanted to nominate their winnings to a charity.  In the end, I made the executive decision to divide the prize by the number of participants, and allocate the vouchers accordingly.  So for example, in my family there are 4 of us, so we had ~£12 to spend.  Because the vouchers were an email code, I could not physically divide the vouchers, but had to buy what everybody asked me for.  Once it was sorted, it was actually quite easy; everybody got what they wanted (eg trophies or bags, or sports equipment) and we managed to get 42 sets of hats, neckwarmers and gloves for a homeless charity in my town.  This was before Christmas, and we're now in March, and hopefully tomorrow, the last of the prizes will finally be collected!

Back to the residential, and people are still dropping out; even after they've paid the final balance! 

We are now down to 9 children on the 2 night trip and 8 on the 4 night trip.  I really hope nobody else pulls out between now and May (when we're going) because we're now at minimum numbers.
Also, though the activity centre has been really accommodating for all our random needs, the first set of invoices that I was sent through, in January, were incorrect - not least because they hadn't removed the two sets of deposits that I paid last year.  We have already past the 3month deadline for paying the final balance, and the invoices have still not been corrected.  I'm in this awkward situation where I don't want to pay them any more money until I know it's right, but I also don't want to forfeit out booking that as been many months in the waiting (or 'making' - I can't remember the right word).  But, things are looking good, and I'm hopeful that I'll be able to pay the final amount this coming week.  And, we've managed to sort out various mementos and souvenirs for those attending who wanted them.

So last year, I organised a day trip in this country, that had problems.

This year, we're going to a 4 night residential in this country, and I've had problems.

Please, please, please remind me not to up the ante again, and attempt to organise a residential either for longer time or in a different country.  Nope.  I don't want to do it.

Weekly Update No10

I've been a bit quiet this week.  Life has been a bit overwhelming (for no obvious reason) so I've been in hibernation, and scoffing all the wrong things.  I've woken up brighter today, so hopefully I've turned a bit of a corner (though in the bad side, I've run out of my meds;  I ordered them last week, thinking I had another week left, but I don't.  I'm hoping this doesn't set me back).  Sunlight definitely helps, and I managed to do some washing and put it on the line. My cleaner also helps, especially on days where I can't face the world.

So, I've not lost any weight (put less than half a kilo on).  I'm going to try and cook better, because when I cook, even if it's the "wrong" things or reheating stuff in the oven, it is still much better for me than takeaways and eating out.

Pringles Ring Engineering Challenge

I saw the Pringles Ring Challenge on Facebook, and I thought that is one I have to try with my girls.  So, this week I bought 3 packets of pringles and we gave it a go.

Obviously, the first thing to do when given a packet of pringles is to empty them everywhere...
though I can attest to the fact that this step doesn't have to be done, as I didn't.

A sneaky peak of DD2
in the background.

The trick is to build the bottom layer thick enough to carry the weight of the pringles that are building up the sides.  Layer them, as if you are building a wall, so they overlap and hold firm.  (Though firm is relative in this case, as all three of us have experiences the pringles toppling sideways.)

DD2 has a gentler touch than DD1, and is well known in our family for balancing things, or building tall towers from bricks, even when she was pretty young.  DD1, otoh, was getting frustrated, until she use her brain and was able to make a pringles ring very easily.

Not sure that was was was expected from the challenge, but is a pringles ring nonetheless!

DD2 and I continued.  It looked like everything was going well for me, until I noticed that the two sides of my ring were unequal heights.


After a bit of readjustment, I managed to fix and complete my ring.

It only had one pringle on the top, so I wanted to make it a bit thicker.  This cockiness caused it all to collapse, but at least I have photographic evidence that I did succeed!

At this point, DD1 and DD2 were turning the table into a campsite by building tents out of pringles.

Eventually, though, DD2 had another go, mixing two different flavours of pringles, and managed to make a heart.  The camera angle doesn't do it justice, so you may need to use your imagination a bit.

Women of Courage: 31 Daily Bible Readings by Jennifer Carter

Women of Courage feels a short book because every chapter is only a few pages long.

Each starts with a short passage about a woman from the Bible, and then expands to how we can put the lessons into practice in our lives.

The blurb says:

Women of Courage explores the lives of inspiring women from the Bible, through thirty-one daily bible readings. In a quest to understand what a Godly woman looks like, Jennifer examines the often untold stories of thirty-one women in the Bible. Each of these remarkable women has much to teach us. They led busy lives and experienced challenges, disappointments and triumphs. Yet each found fruitfulness, purpose and contentment. Their stories can inspire us to be more courageous and help us find our place in God's plans and purposes. Understand more of why God has created you to be exactly the way you are and enjoy the special gifts that He has given you. Discover and embrace the unique plan and purpose for your life, and be set free to experience God’s gift of fullness of life. Find inspiration and hope in the stories of these ordinary, yet courageous, women.

I really liked this book, and it helped me understand more about the women mentioned in the Bible, especially when they are not given a starring role in that context. I particularly liked the thought-provoking questions at the end of each chapter, as they made me think for a while after I’d finished reading.