Craft ideas for children

The weather has turned now & Autumn is well & truly upon us, which means less playing out for kids & more spending time indoors.  As I am not up to going out lots with my little Miss we often do crafty things in the house anyway.  Which I have to admit I enjoy as much as she does!

I am going to list some of the stuff she/we have done & that has kept her occupied for ages.

Most recently we picked a load of conkers (which the majority of were used to put on windowsills as a spider deterrent!!).  The ones that were left I said she could decorate, which meant getting glue & glitter out, my favourite thing!  She had found one lonely pine cone too so she also blinged that up :)

Autumn is also good for collecting all the different coloured leaves & we usually do some sort of artwork with them! After jumping (her not me!) in them she collects them in a bag & chooses the prettiest to make pictures with. They don't last long as the leaves dry & crumble but it's nice doing.

Something she really enjoys is baking.  I love it too but I struggle with more complicated recipes as it wipes me out too much. So providing we measure everything out first she will happily mix it all together & if I tell her what needs doing she loves doing it. We make a mean sponge cake (thanks to trusty Be-ro & their recipes) & make them pink as often as possible..not forgetting decorating them with lots of sweets!

Another thing she likes doing is making (sugar free) jelly & we use silicone moulds so it makes it a bit more fun. Strawberries work well in it if you want to add something but kiwis don't as I found out when I tried it!

Paint is always good fun for kids & I saw something online which I thought was lovely..putting their handprints onto clothes.  She jazzed up a couple of her things & did a vest of mine. I kept it as I am sentimental like that! I love having stuff she has made & actually have a box for such things :)

Another thing she did very recently was painting a self portrait onto a blank canvas. She has really got into drawing in the last year & has a real eye for detail.  She will happily sit drawing pictures for ages now & I have started putting them in a folder as they are so good! The canvas she did is up on her bedroom wall & it's such a simple thing for them to do too. We also have one that she did with my niece when they were tiny & it looks more like a crime scene but art is art! :)

Being a parent with M.E or any chronic illness is very difficult but there are lots of fun, low energy things we can do with them at home.  I mentioned in a post a while back about the guilt I experience about not being able to take her to lots of fun places etc.  But when we were talking about me not being able to do certain things she told me her favourite is doing craft stuff with me so I must be doing something right.

How we perceive things isn't always the way they do.  So we need to try & be proud & should be giving ourselves big pats on the back for what we do manage to achieve.

And my love of glitter & all things sparkle has rubbed off on my daughter so I am very proud ;-)

A day in the life of ME!

Imagine a full battery. Now imagine a battery that's almost empty. *That's me*! And that teeny tiny bit of energy is supposed to get me through a day.

In my previous blog about spoons here
I talked about how they are like units of energy & each activity, no matter how small, uses up a certain amount of units (spoons). Once they are gone they are gone & you are literally running on empty.  Too drained to keep going. Out of power so to speak.

A typical day for me starts after probably having a rubbish sleep the night before. Even if I have slept ok I feel horrendous when I wake up.  Like the worst hangover ever.  I may as well have been out partying all night as that's how it feels.  The unrefreshing sleep is a major symptom of M.E. And that's on a good day! Some mornings it feels like a train has hit me in the night & everything hurts so badly.

I always take some sort of snack upstairs with me at bedtime so when I wake up I can quickly eat something & try to top up the little energy I have.  Depending on whether I am up with my daughter or not depends on what time I wake up.  If it's my turn then it is sometime around 7am which when you've not slept great is a bit of a nightmare sometimes! I drag myself out of bed & walk round like a zombie. If I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror I scare myself quite often.  Or laugh at what I look like!

If I am up with my daughter for school she usually has me hysterically laughing within minutes with whatever crazy thing she does. Great mood lifter having a child (sometimes!) She practically bounces out of bed & has so much energy!  She gets dressed & we go downstairs to get breakfast. Me usually still in a zombie state!!

My carers come around 8am & take her to school for me now if it's my days to do it. Which means I can chill & stay in my pj's then go back to bed haha! Usually within an hour & half or so I am flagging & need to rest.  If I don't stop & rest & push myself to keep going it means I won't pick up enough to get through the rest of the day as I go into negative energy.

On those days I get a decent amount of time to properly rest & if I can snooze it helps pick me up a little bit.  I have to try to make sure I eat regularly & snack on stuff otherwise I go light headed (see previous post on food). I usually ask carers to make something like a salad for me & leave it in the fridge so I can quickly grab it for lunch when I am hungry.  I tend to spend those days resting & will watch some stuff or do a bit of jewellery making if I feel upto it. I go online & can talk to or have daft conversations with my online friends on social media. Or I browse glittery things online & wish I had loads of money to buy it all! I tend not to see friends on the days I have my daughter as I know I will need energy for later on.

Then at school pick up time I will either go to collect her or a carer will do it for me. School are good & allow me to park in the carpark but it takes so long as I have to get there earlier & leave after everyone else so I find it really draining.  It's a lot easier if I just wait at home & then am likely to be able to actually spend some quality time with my daughter when she gets in instead of needing to rest straight away.

She knows I have to have rests & is quite happy drawing or playing or watching something while a carer stays with her, so I can go & lie down for a bit.  I just need to keep topping up that almost empty battery as much as possible to avoid it completely draining & me crashing. Which happened a few days ago & was very scary but will talk about that another time.

Tea & bathtime soon comes along & we always end the night with stories in bed before she goes to sleep.

Weekends I find difficult as trying to occupy her for a full day is tough so if I can get someone to help out it gives me a break & allows me to rest.

The days where my husband isn't working are pretty much similar apart from me not having to get up as early! I might arrange to see friends or go shopping but all depends on how I feel that particular day.  I hate having to cancel on people but they understand.  If I do go out, even if just for a coffee & a catch up, it wipes me out.  But I always think that if we didn't do stuff then an already difficult life would be even more boring! It is sometimes worth the Payback for doing something you enjoy even though you know you will suffer for it.

People might think how good it must be to not have to get up & go to work.  But it's not. It's rubbish & it's very hard to stay level headed & not get too down about it.  Some days I cry & scream & swear just to get it out of my system.  Which of course wipes me out even more! Not one person I know who has to live this life would choose it over being what I call "normal". What even is normal anyway? Being normal is boring I say!!

I am going to be doing a question & answer blog post soon so if anyone wants to ask anything relating to the M.E or my condition please leave a comment below or send me a message (those who know me!)

Thanks :)
xx

M.E & eating (healthy!)

Something I struggle with sometimes is remembering to eat. How can someone not remember to eat you may be thinking...but it's something that with a combination of lack of energy & brainfog is quite easily done.  M.E is great :/  I sometimes don't realise I'm hungry until it's too late & start feeling a bit lightheaded.  Which is why I have to try to make sure I have stuff ready that I can quickly grab & also try to eat little & often through the day.

I have always tried to eat fairly healthily & I actually enjoy it!!  You know those tv programmes where they try to change someone's poor eating habits & they have a big table with all the bad stuff they eat on & then a table of healthy stuff next to it.. I am one of those (some people say strange) people who loves seeing the big displays of fruit & vegetables!

Love it when shopping has been done!

However, it is not always easy to eat well & it can be easier grabbing something more convenient & less healthy.  The last thing you want to do is start making food or cooking when you don't have the energy to do it.  My friend Meg, who also has M.E, inspired me to try to experiment a bit more with food as she posts gorgeous food pictures on her Instagram & has a fab blog too. She eats clean & her food always looks amazing.  Her blog is Meg Says & her Instagram is here.

I have fairly recently discovered coconut oil & the brand I use is Lucy Bee link to website

It can basically be used for everything as it is 100% natural & has lots of health, cooking & beauty benefits.  I don't use oil anymore for cooking & use it in literally everything.  I am sat drinking my daily green tea with a spoonful of it in as I type this!  You can even eat it straight from the jar if you want.

I now make my own granola as the stuff you buy in shops is not only really expensive but it is full of sugar.  I have it on its own to snack on or with fruit & yoghurt.

I have been making smoothies recently a lot as they are so quick & easy to do.  I sometimes have it in a bowl with granola on top.

It is so easy to make..I use oats, nuts, seeds, melted coconut oil, almond oil, honey & sometimes dried fruit. You literally mix it all together & whack it in oven until starts browning then leave to cool & it goes crunchy.  I make loads & it lasts ages.

I love warm peaches & find it a really easy snack to do.  I just fry them in coconut oil for a few minutes.. it is so nice!

I am trying to eat more fish too & less carbs as they bloat me so much. This was a favourite meal recently.

You can also use coconut oil on your hair & skin as a moisturiser.  It is good for problem skin too.  A friend of mine has used it for ecxema & it cleared it up.  You can use on babies for nappy rash & cradle cap.  If you look on website it tells you all the uses.  Too many to list here!

Lucy Bee had a competition recently for children to draw a picture of a plate of colourful food.  The winner would have their drawing made into a meme for them to use on social media.  My daughter did this picture & won!!!

So keep your eye out if you follow Lucy Bee as you will be seeing my daughter's piece of art very soon!!

If anyone has any favourite quick & easy meals or snacks feel free to leave in comments as I am always looking for new ideas :)

xx

What is a spoonie?

Some of you may have heard or be familiar with the word 'spoonie' that some chronic illness sufferers use to describe themselves. However a lot of people probably haven't heard of it or even if they have, they may not really be sure what it means.

It was developed by Christin Miserandino who suffers from lupus, which is another chronic illness. The following link takes you to her website which explains how she came up with the spoon theory & the term 'spoonie' link to Spoon theory

In a nutshell we start the day with a certain amount of spoons & each "activity" uses up a number of them.  Lower energy activities don't use as many but obviously any activity requiring using more energy use up more spoons. Which is why we have to try not to deplete all our energy too fast as once the spoons have gone they aren't coming back!  The word activity can be quite deceptive though as stuff that us poorly people class as 'activities' are not the sort of stuff non poorly people would imagine them to be.  Simple things like getting up out of bed & brushing teeth use up precious spoons.

This picture explains it quite well..

I have mentioned previously about there being a large M.E/chronic illness community online via Social Media. People can tweet using the hashtag (#) Spoonie & they will be able to talk to people who are in the same position as them.  People who understand.  There are (#) spoonie chats on Twitter & many people have developed good friendships as a result.  We liken it to being a spoonie family which is just because the community is so close. There is always someone there for you whether you feel low & need cheering up or whether you need to ask questions.  It is comforting knowing there are people out there who just get it.

It is really easy to use up spoons too quickly & one of the things that helps is to pace ourselves.  Which means stopping & resting after every "activity" before starting something else.  However it is not always easy to do & more often than not I am not very good at it!

Spoons obviously now represent more than just something we use to eat with & I have had some lovely spoonie gifts from fellow spoonies.  My friend made some chocolate spoons a while ago & sent them to some of us which was lovely.  Thanks Anna :) Very recently another friend decorated some gorgeous vintage spoons & sent one for my daughter & I.  I have mine hanging up near my bed & my daughter has hers on her wall in her bedroom. Thanks Charlotte :)

I also have some spoon charms which I use in my jewellery making - previous post about it here.  I have a bracelet that I made myself & love it.  I have also made them for other spoonies & one lady I did one for never takes hers off!

I have to go & rest now as have used a few too many spoons up writing this.. I will never learn!

Hope this has been helpful
xx