Also, we've all been ill. I've had a cold on and off since before Christmas, but Emer came down with a Super Cold this past week and shared it around for all of us, including Lucy. She woke screaming in the night form the pain in her throat a few times, and my throat pain kept me awake. Emer's, of course, went straight to her chest and turned into a cough, as all colds do for Emer, and mine is sitting in my sinuses. Rob's is a manageable but uncomfortable sore throat and stuffy nose. Linnea's basically well; she had a cough and a sniffle for a day or so.

Unlike previous illnesses, Emer agreed to take things to make her feel better this time; she drank warm milk and honey, and licked the honey spoon, which she has never actually done before. This made her much more comfortable, because honey is good for sore throats and coughs.

But we spent four nights, I think, or maybe it was five, in a row, with Emer up for periods of three to five hours. One night I didn't get to sleep at all until after six in the morning. Rob slept one night on the floor of the living room while Emer played around him. I don't remember the others; much sitting up and rocking and soothing.

Emer had one night of nightmares and crying in her sleep.

Emer says telly makes her better. Actually, she said telly would "bake be betta," because she had a cold. I was fine with that, because nothing I could do was helping. She won't take much by mouth, so apart from paracetamol suppositories there's very little we can do. And although I wanted to reduce her fever to make me feel better (it's worrying, a slight fever, even when I know it's a good thing) I didn't actually do it, because a fever helps combat illness and she wasn't uncomfortable because of the temperature, only because of the cough. She doesn't like coughing; it wakes her up and makes her cry. "I'm really sad!" she wails. "I can't get happy!"

I've been telling a lot of interminable incoherent stories about Mrs Large the Elephant in the middle of the night. And being corrected when I get the plot or dialogue wrong.

In the middle of it all, Linnea was able (as the noncontagious one) to go play with some well friends, and some of my well friends brought me emergency deliveries of honey and lemon, so that was lovely. Rob arrived home from work with treats every day; one day lemons, another Strepsils and Karvol vaporisers, another day soluble paracetamol.

I've been complaining about my inability to take masses of drugs and wishing homeopathy worked. And having baths. I got some quality sleep in a warm bath in a steamed-up bathroom, one morning.

We're getting better today. We've dried three duvets hanging indoors, and Emer said, when I asked how she was, "I'd fide, Bubby!"

You can tell a household is ill when ordinarily there's enough bedding for a visiting family of four as well as the household but suddenly they have to dig out the emergency backup bedding from storage. It's lurid pink and electric blue and my auntie gave it to me when I was 14. From kindness.

We've been playing on the Wii a bit. We have the Wii Fit Plus, because we got the Wii second-hand so it was easy to justify.

Rob is excellent at the Penguin Iceberg Slide. Linnea and Emer love cycling, especially the bit where you can repeatedly crash into walls. I find the way of playing much more congenial than any other computer game I can remember; it's sociable, because there's something for people who aren't playing to watch (Rob is a fabulous flying chicken, by the way) and it doesn't seem to give me RSI or hurt my SPD too much, though I've not risked yoga yet.

Linnea had a go at snowboarding, skiing, skateboarding, and jogging, and turned them all into dangerous sports with a high mortality rate.

The day Rob bought a silicone cover for the balance board was the day a child was too engrossed in a game to go to the bathroom; Wii wee. Emer is terribly confused by the homonym.

Linnea really, really likes making new people - new Miis - and naming them. It's the dullest thing to watch on the Wii that we've found so far, though.

Chicken flying and doing sums with one's bottom are probably the most amusing.

Rob cooked up a double batch of this soup for the shared lunch after Meeting the other week, and it was very well received. He's made it once more but we haven't finished eating it. Also, for lunches, the children and I have been eating a lot of pitta bread with olives, feta and hummous, and tomato and avocado and things. I'm not sure why. Emer and I had some very successful pittas filled with scrambled egg, one day, too.

Rob made bread at the weekend, so that we'd have something to eat with the soup, and it's good. He very very rarely makes bread, so it was a nice change. No doubt he'd feel the same if I cooked dinner.

We've been eating Quorn, too, which it turns out is sustainably produced within the UK, so that's good. I have been wondering how I could be vegetarian or vegan without dairy or soy, and I can't work out how to manage it without getting ill again yet. But it's probably at least partially a matter of altering habits. Meanwhile, our meat intake is all locally sourced organically reared meat, which is better than nothing.


I don't make many packed lunches any more, but I want an egg-shaper anyway. I will probably cave in and get one in time for spring salads and picnics. SO CUTE. Bet they don't persuade Emer to eat the yellow bit though.

For some reason, cakes and things haven't been happening so much. I wonder why?

A few days ago I heard screaming in the street, in the middle of the day. I looked out; some teenagers were horsing around. The screaming stopped, they moved on.

The screaming started again. The two boys had picked the girl up and were threatening (with their body language) to put her in a wheelie bin. She looked distressed. I raised the curtain and made sure they saw me watching them. They put her down.

The screaming started again and I heard high-heeled running. I looked out; she was running away. I opened the front door and called "Are you ok?" across the road.

The BOYS said - one of them said "She's fine!" and the other said "We're her brothers."

I was livid. I snapped, with my voice raised, "I didn't ask you, I asked her."

She turned and did the it's-all-ok laugh-and-smile thing, which might mean it's all ok or not, and said she was ok.

The screaming didn't start again, anyway.

I'm never going to get over those two boys in the car, am I?

We brought my cold out for a walk.

Linnea didn't want to come to town with us because she really wanted to go and play with someone first. So we phoned a few people until we found someone who was in (bonus: another friend happened to be visiting at the same time!) and just brought Emer into town. She wanted to go and play too but she's still coughing and sneezing so can't visit people yet.

We got the bus into town because I'm not well enough to walk, between the cold and the SPD. At the library we renewed my Reading Passport and got Emer a new one, though she was asleep for the photo, and looked at some adult books before I decided that the risk of them being unpleasant was too great and opted for teenage ones instead.

After the library we went to WH Smiths to get a couple of handwriting workbooks (mainly for Emer, she's a bit jealous of Linnea's ones) and a pencil sharpener. I want one which the children can use easily, which catches all the bits, and which doesn't mangle the pencils by going blunt overnight or suddenly having a loose blade. We may have managed it. There are millions of pencil sharpeners around but I remember being really annoyed by bad ones as a child, especially when they mess up colouring pencils.

Then we went very slowly and in considerable pain to FabricLand where I bought polyester fleece to make ponchos for the children, and some Dylon hand-dyeing dyes and fabric pens, in case we get around to doing the kids' tops etc sometime.

And then we came home and I fought the printer and Rob fought the printer and we managed to get things to print but it's acting All Weird.

Emer napped for about two hours today, all told. I hope that means she sleeps better tonight.

We have marvellous friends. They show up on the doorstep with hot coffee, they post us dairy-free chocolate, and this week one found dairy-free Quorn in a supermarket and bought it, and another did an emergency honey-and-lemon-and-orange-juice run for us.

This has been in many ways a horrible week, but we do have lovely friends.

I have been trying to sleep and failing since a little after 11 pm. Rob's asleep. Both children are asleep. But I can't breathe lying down. Emer was first to go down with this cold, and me next; Rob has a milder version of it and Linnea a milder one yet. First Emer coughed her throat raw, then developed a more productive cough and a stuffy nose. My throat and tonsils are crazy and my sinuses are cement. Linnea has a bit of a cough. Rob has a sore throat and sounds sort of Tom Waitsish at disconcerting intervals.

Three nights running Emer has been up and crying for 3-5 hours in the night. She wakes Linnea, who isn't impressed.

And to top it all off the wireless network has been playing up for days. I suspect gremlins, myself. We change channel a lot but it doesn't help for long. Basically, there are too many networks in the area, I think.

---

I need to write about: the boys not-beating-up their sister in the street, Linnea's reading, the new table, the Wii, Linnea's self-reliance, my renewed closeness with Linnea (oh, so happy about that one!), and hibernation and hermitage.

Just about to finish reading Michael O'Halloran. I used to love this book. But goodness, wasn't GSP a helluva misogynist?

Today was absolutely horrible until about 2pm. Now it feels like a lovely relaxing day.

I started off by washing paint off the dining room floor. And clearing the books from under Linnea's bed so I could push the trundle back in, and bellowing, roaring, screaming, shouting and howling at Linnea to get her to reshelve the books so that they're not an actual hazard.

Then I washed out the washing machine, and rewashed the last two loads to be done in it, so that they are clean and not smelly. I also did two dishwasher-loads, and dealt with a ton of food waste - leftovers, and potato peelings, and mouldy bara brith (sob!), and teabags. And I washed a bunch of teapots.

And by the time the cleaning lady arrived it was clear enough that she and her assistant were able to actually clean a fair bit of the house. They'd get more done in the time if we were tidier but that's an ongoing battle for us.

The house was such a tip this morning that the children used pallets of rice-milk cartons as tables to eat their breakfasts off. I couldn't reach the kettle past the chaos on the counter. Reader, I cried like... well, like a thwarted toddler.

I got so annoyed at the mess that I was too queasy to eat, so that helped. And eventually I managed a cup of bouillon and some grapes, hand-fed by the children. They did have breakfast and lunch, inelegantly. And the next meal should be straightforward to arrange.

After the cleaners had gone the Ebayer who sold us a second-hand table arrived and now that's in the bay window in the front room. Linnea seized on it and demanded to Play Homeschool, so they've been doing sums and writing and, um, eating grapes and building things with cuisenaire rods. I have learned that Linnea likes to form her numbers 6 and 9 in reverse.

I wonder how long the novelty of doing things at a table like school will last.

We set the kids up on the shiny new Wii Fit today and I was really NOT HAPPY with them measuring the kids' BMI and labelling them "at risk of overweight" and asking them to set weight-loss goals.

I cannot articulate how annoyed I was, in fact.

But the good news is that I didn't articulate how annoyed I was, particularly in front of the children. I ignored it.

I sincerely hope that the children and I gain enough weight in the next 6 months to mess with that blasted calorie-counting pig's head but good.

---

On the other hand, both children find the balance board easier to operate than the remote controls.

Quite a lot of interesting, enraging or amusing things have happened lately, and I just do not feel like writing them up in the slightest. This may be the first time I've felt this way since I was about seven.

Perhaps iron supplements will help.

Braxton-Hicks contractions are just like PTSD flashback contractions. This is going to take some reprogramming.

I had a midwife appointment today - I'm 16 weeks now. Everything is fine. My blood pressure is at the very low end of normal, which is unsurprising, and the baby has a proper heartbeat duddudda duddudda duddudda, and everything is fine. I'm tired but not unusually tired.

I have a mild cold, which is fine, but it won't go away. Bah. The midwife recommended a particular iron supplement, so we'll see if that helps.

I also achieved minor housework. And there's a cat sleeping in the bath; I have no idea why he chose the bath.

I've been ill since just before Christmas. I have good days and bad days. My symptoms are basically cold symptoms, with optional additional suddenly falling temperature, down to just above 35C.

I'm really, really tired. Fall asleep in the middle of doing something with the children tired.

A lot of this is normal for pregnancy, but I'm tired and often in such pain - sinuses or ears - that I can't sleep properly, or can't lie down.

I think I'm going to buy a Neti pot, which I feel guilty about because it's such an experimental waste of money.

And think hard about food. I probably need to put more effort into eating.

Today I started with tea and scones in bed, scones with raspberry jam. Then I did some financial admin and tried to sort out Emer's hair, and had a shower, and we had lunch (homemade bread, bolognese sauce, other things to put on bread), and went out. Rob took the children to the museum while I hunted down a Le Creuset casserole, and I met them at the town hall and booked tickets for various children's theatre things in the not too distant future. Sadly, we're too late to get tickets to Dara Ó Briain at the Hexagon, because in spite of the website not saying so, they've been sold out for weeks. Apparently.

We went for a drink and then came home via the Workhouse Coffee Shop (for good decaf) and the secondhand furniture shop (we measured up a table which might work if we don't get what we want on Ebay). Then Rob cooked a huge chili in the new pan, which he loves, and Emer fell asleep on the floor.

Rob's morning, you see, included his first ever Taking A Child For A Jab expedition. Emer got her H1N1 jab today, and so was tired and out of sorts this evening. She's more or less recovered now, and will probably go to bed soon. Meanwhile, we're watching Bosco.

Lots and lots of Bosco.

A letter from the hospital still makes me feel sick as soon as I see the logo on the paper.

Still, I have my referral to a physiotherapist, so I can phone up and make an appointment now.

@yatalley: They didn't Shutdown us, they Force-restarted us...

@fredodupoux: nooo that's a archival reinstall ! Crushed the system but backed up the user folder. :)

(Can I just say, these people are casually tweeting in three languages. I love that sort of thing.)

It's still a good idea to send money, too:

Irish people, you can donate €5 to UNICEF Haiti Appeal by texting AID to 57500.

UK people can give £5 to DEC Haiti by texting GIVE to 70077.

USA people can give $10 to the Red Cross by texting haiti to 90999.

Canadian people can give $5 the Salvation Army by texting HAITI to 45678.

There are lots of other ways to give too - you can give to Partners in Health and MSF online, or to Oxfam, or DEC, or the International Red Cross.

They're still having aftershocks which are bringing lumps of loose rubble down. It's not very funny out there.

One of the horriblest things about this cold or flu-like-illness or sinus thing or whatever it is is that I'm surrounded by books and I don't want to read any of them.

I've just ordered another Gene Stratton-Porter on Ebay. Maybe I'll want to read that.

I still haven't cleaned up the yeast I spilled on the tablecloth yesterday.

Someone tried to pour a glass of rice milk and tipped the just-filled glass onto the floor as they drew the jug away.

Someone else sat on the edge of the nappy bucket, tipping water, detergent and excreta all over the bathroom floor. The floor slopes towards the door, so I had to clean and disinfect the rear hall, too.

The cooker was completely scrubbed on Monday. It's filthy again now; I think some pasta boiled over.

Spilling raw egg while cooking lunch makes me nervous. I don't know why; I lick cake-bowls, but raw egg without sugar and chocolate and things makes me nervous. Double standards.

Still, my hands are very, very, very clean today. And so is the bathroom floor.