Washing machine. Grinding noises. Stopping mid-cycle. Rewound it to the start of the rinse stage, started again, seems ok. Aiee.

I wish I knew more about this stuff. It's probably got a pebble from a child's pocket in it somewhere, or needs an internal filter cleaned out, or something.

Bah.

We have no piano today!

It's out in the street, and the biggest panels and the hinged bit on top have been removed, along with all the keys, by a freecycler. Rob and I got it out of the house ok and now we have a little more space in the dining room.

There was a cigarette card under the keyboard, with a First Aid tip on it. We gave it to the child who took the piano keys.

of why I founded plan_survive on LJ and DW.

I lead a very glamorous life. I dress for breakfast, and again for lunch, and sometimes also for dinner.

Really, really glamorous.

Also, containing a lot of laundry.

(The good news is, if someone else is digestively disturbed too, it was probably a virus and not hormones for me).

(Also, on Monday night I got a vast quantity of clothes from my neighbour's big black charity bag, and so it's been more fun than usual to have to change early change often).

In my teens, I was maaaaaaad. Wild and wacky. And recovering from A Colourful Childhood, the complex and frightening custody arrangements about my parents' legal separation (no legal divorce at that time!), depression, irritable bowel syndrome, dysmenorrhea, and really not liking the idea of getting drunk (though I remember with varying degrees of pleasure the few times I did drink alcohol as a teenager, they were definitely atypical). Oh, and I was suicidal a lot of the time, but that started before puberty.

Every time I ran away from home, or exploded a relationship in my own face, I had a period start just a few days later. They lasted for 3-20 days on average, and started 21-48 days apart. I didn't try to predict them, but I did record them, on and off.

Then I went on the pill for YEARS and it was WONDERFUL and although I still had cramps that made me collapse in public and fall off buses into the gutter and so on, it was nothing like as debilitating as the other. Then I came off the pill and started trying to get pregnant, and gradually I got sicker and sicker, though that could have been the series of jobs in which everyone got really ill, not just me, and my periods were more and more regular and predictable, and then I got pregnant, and was weller and more marvellous than ever in my whole life and also pregnant and full of joy and indigestion and mad cravings for raw red meat on the bone.

Then I had a baby and when my periods came back (fast) they were shorter and less painful and more predictable and so on than EVER. And my ovulation signals got clearer and clearer. And when my baby was 18 months old I got pregnant again, and then the bayb was born, and that was almost three years ago now, and I'm wondering...

Are my hormones resetting?

I've just had a hideous period, 11 days long, so heavy even Rob noticed, which left me anaemic and ill. Before ovulation I felt unhappy, ugly, and very slightly suicidal in a habitual kind of way, not an intent kind of way. At ovulation I was in agony and feverish, and now I'm sick and headachy.

It might just be swine flu. But I'm somewhat frightened that it might be Proper Periods again. I don't want to do that again.

Packed things for posting: Oscar gift, Mum recipe, Niall socks, Orla photo

Phoned to book Sail Rail for trip to Dublin 20-24 August

Made some updates/plans for ORCG website

Got number to call for spare part for dishwasher (powder-compartment door won't close any more, looks like entire compartment should be replaceable)

Fed both children once

Facilitated drawing with markers and cutting with scissors in reckless non-houseproud way

Made a tent out of a laundry rack and a blanket

Fretted about possible political issues within LETS, which is infuriating

Been sick and felt sicker

I woke cheerful and earlier than the children - not unrelated - and spent a happy twenty minutes putting away an enormous haul of handmedown clothing for ME, from our neighbour, who buys wonderful things in charity shops and treats them excellently well. Then I threw up on the bedroom floor and Emer woke up.

I'm feeling a lot better now but am still not having breakfast. I've dressed in one of the new skirts - it's on-the-knee-length, which makes me feel all naked, but I think it looks ok. I need to work out what to do shoewise. My usual shoes and socks make me look divided into several short chunks, which is unfortunate. I may start looking in charity shops for chunky brown sandals, since a lot of what I got from the neighbor won't go with my blue ones.

Yesterday was good. I was in a lot of pain, but Emer and I painted the front of the dollhouse and then I did the roof on my own, and I got some laundry done and tried something new with polenta, which we had lots of because it was cheap.

Friends came over in the afternoon and then we had our neighbour round for dinner, and after dinner I went out to the community garden for a committee meeting. I may or may not be doing things so that they have a reasonable website in the near future.

After that I went to our neighbour's house and spent about an hour sorting through and trying on clothes. It was fantastic. I have stuff I wouldn't buy, because I'm not very adventurous when buying things, and am really looking forward to wearing some of it, though I clearly need to have more Dressing Up occasions.

White flour, rice milk, eggs, mixed spice, sugar, yeast, warm water -> bread.

Black coffee.

Rob: Oh dear! Emer's gone! Is Emer under the bed?

Mysterious Voice: No, my no-ot!

Rob: Is Emer... in the saucepan?!

Mysterious Blanket: [quivers madly with excitement, suppressed giggles escaping as from pressure cooker]

Rob: Is Emer... behind the curtains?

Mysterious Voice: I in HE-AH!

Rob: Is Emer... under the blanket?!

Emer: YOU FOUND ME I WAS LOST!

Rob: There she is!

Audience: ded of laff, applause

Friday was a difficult day with lots of good bits. As usual in the heat, neither children nor I had enough sleep. I did some laundry and lured, tempted and harangued them out to get Emer to the dentist. They did eat breakfast and brush their teeth, before we left, so that was a considerable bonus in my scoring system. I brushed Emer's doll's teeth too, because I was asked to, and then said "There, that's Baby's teeth all done," whereupon I was scornfully informed "Him a doll, she hab no teef."
( Open wide )

Niall's socks
Oscar's birthday card (and present)
Niamh's birthday card (and present)
Pomes to publisher aiee argh ow
Recipe to my mother

We forgot to put the recycling bin out, and it was full, because it had been six weeks. So we had to repack it and eliminate some of the empty spaces. We're good for another two weeks now, and we technically could repack it again, better.

The landfill bin went out last week, half full, for the first time in six weeks. We're hoping to go a full three months without having it emptied, this time.

We're also almost ready to buy a Green Cone for the back garden.

Tomorrow - well, later today - is Friday, so there's Emer's dentist appointment, and Linnea needs wider shoes, and then there's a slingmeet AND there may be something happening at ERAPA.

And I still haven't got Linnea's hat back from where we left it last week.

BUT tomorrow will be much less hot and miserable than the rest of the week so Emer can go out in the sun and not turn red and prickly and blistery.

And I'm wondering whether we can squeeze a winter holiday out somehow, maybe in February. I'm already noticing the shorter, darker evenings, even though the children can't sleep because it's too hot and bright.

You were all so helpful last year that I'm asking again, as the bras I bought are no longer comfortable; as far as I can tell the elastic has gone brittle and they've shrunk. It occasionally happens that the temperature and spin speed dials on our washing machine are adjusted mid-cycle, so that's quite plausible.

( Tedious detail )

I had cucumber and hummous, rye crackers and tomato, pickle, and orange juice (diluted, with xylitol, because Emer isn't allowed juice even at meals otherwise).

Linnea had cucumber, and pickled cucumber, and orange juice.

Emer had pickled cucumber. Lots of. Then she took the spread from her cracker and started putting it on her arms for sunscream.

Still, the table was beautifully laid. That's something.

Emer
I had a shower this morning while chatting to Emer and then said "Oh, damn, I forgot a towel," (yes, I swear in front of my children. I have no idea how much. Quite a lot, I suspect.) Emer said "I know, you can use toilet paper!" which I thought was genius. I love problem-solving.

Linnea
Linnea and I are discussing opening a bank account for her - though what she most wants is a wallet. Also, her hair is now long enough to pull into a ponytail including the bits at the front which used to be a fringe. She looks mindbogglingly grown up.

Accomplishments
I still haven't managed to wash the tent, but the passports arrived this morning, so that's that done. And I'm discussing via email getting rid of the piano - three people have said they'd like to use the wood, so I'll see who can take what.

Last year, around the time of DWCon, we raised half of the money for a wheelchair for Baby Seraphina. She couldn't get it on the NHS because they don't fund them for children that age. And part of the reason is this: She already needs a new one.

If you do Causes on Facebook, the link is this: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/304589?m=3f1cca43

We bought a second-hand piano about six years ago, because it was extremely cheap and we had the money. We got a piano tuner to look at it a while ago, and after we'd booked him in at full tuning-the-piano cost he said, in essence, "It's not possible to repair that kind of piano, there's no-one in Europe doing it any more, and incidentally I have a piano here you might like to buy," so we ignored him. And this morning I got the piano repair guy around the corner ot come and look at it, and he said "No charge to come and look," first off, and then when he looked he said "If it's of great sentimental value it can be repaired, but the first stage would be £2000 and it would need more work after that too, but isn't it lovely?"

So we need to get rid of it. I'm quite sad, because the wood is nice, and some of the woodwork is lovely, and if I had an infinite amount of space I'd keep it just because the case is nice, but there you go.

I'm thinking of offering it up on Freecycle in case anyone wants the case as a stage-prop or the wood for almost anything, because the only thing the piano guy could suggest was getting the council to take it to landfill. The marquetry panel in the front would make a very pretty table. The hinged lid on the top would make a couple of lovely shelves. All the fiddly bits would make beautiful picture frames.

I wonder is it really walnut?

This weekend we started the emptying of the attic again, and did almost the whole week's laundry in one day (I'm experimenting with having the washing line away most of the time), and Rob put some of the skirting boards we removed almost a year ago back where they came from, and we started washing the tent inner pods, though I have to have another go later today, and I scrubbed corners of the front room which haven't been cleaned for ages, and the kitchen is also being slowly degunked, and this morning I phoned someone about having the piano tuned or repaired or whatever it needs and he's coming tomorrow morning to give me a quote, and in four days Emer will have her dentist appointment and nine days after that the work starts on the new bathroom.

Coo.

It's probably not a good idea to tell someone that they don't know what you're about to tell them about themselves and their experience. Not unless you know them really well.