Was this in the Plan? Blog Hop Post

Steph over at "Was this in the Plan" has started a Blog Hop which I am delighted to participate in!

The Power of Coco Pops!

I've taken the liberty of re-hashing a post I wrote in SATS week this year, because for me it speaks volumes. As a Primary school teacher I have many ideas about how "learning" and "education" works. My second son has forced me to revisit and mostly rethink them. Certainly not "In the Plan" when I planned my family, and perhaps most profound is the "learning" I have done along the way alongside him.

Technology in school - when embracing the future is a step too far.

Our children's school is making the bold move of not even providing iPads in school but adding them to the school "kit" list. It *is* an independent school but I still find the assumption that parents are going to cough up several hundred pounds for an expensive luxury is a little insulting. Christmas is not a big spending spree in this house and our children are pretty fortunate already. If tablet devices were going to replace the extremely heavy sets of textbooks our children lug to school and back each day then I might be in favour, but content available is still very American, and very restricted.

Blue Sky Thinking

Three of our children attend an excellent private school which my brother and I also attended (many!) years ago. Our eldest has flourished there, really come into his own taking advantage of so many of the opportunities on offer - but interestingly very much in his own time. Initially he was wary of over-commitment and worked hard on the academic stuff, biding his time to leap into the unknown. This came relatively late, after several years of us wondering whether his laid back approach was really what we had hoped for when sending him there!

But you have to trust your children, give them the tools and opportunities and be there in a supportive - NOT a driving - role.

Gut Allergies - Why We Need Awareness And Understanding

On the support forum I run and another I co run I am constantly writing the same replies to the same questions. Time and again the same questions come up - a child/baby with reflux who the doctors say they will "always" outgrow by 6 months fails to do so. Then 12 months comes, but weaning is problematic and the child appears to be reacting adversely to Cows Milk, Wheat and other foods. Tests are negative and parents are fobbed off and made to feel they are blowing symptoms out of proportion.

Many doctors perform allergy tests, for gut allergies which cannot be tested for, and then promptly dismiss the case because there is nothing for them to do. They may perform a pH study, previously the "Gold Standard" reflux test which cannot detect alkaline/allergic reflux or pressure changes in the bowel and possible allergic bowel inflammation is never picked up. Few hospitals can offer an impedance study, fewer still know how to interpret the results adequately. So because they don't have a clear answer many doctors are dismissive.

You would be horrified how often this happens, I hear about it all the time.

Some carry out endoscopies but stop above the stomach and the results are clear - so there must be "nothing really wrong". All too often the spotlight is then turned on the mother who "must" be neurotic, over-reporting symptoms, depressed perhaps? But lack of understanding or explanation is NEVER an excuse for being dismissive and accusatory. Ignorance does not excuse such actions - or have we not come so far from the Witch hunts of the seventeenth century? I have no explanation does not equal "someone is to blame". Even the most sympathetic doctors run out of ideas when tests come back clear.

I'm not sure what alarms me most - that there is still so little understanding amongst health professionals about gut allergies and their impact on the full length of the GI tract and elsewhere, or the stark truth that gut allergies in infants and children are occurring in epidemic proportions.

Forget juggling, let's try cloning next...

Please speak quietly. I am currently in a catatonic state having made it through the first few days of the new school year with three schools (and four children between them) to juggle. I'm not sure I am likely to accurately process much for the next two days....

"It's not the despair, it's the HOPE that gets you"

I often think of this quote, it has resonated deeply on many occasions, and none more so than the troughs in the rollercoaster that is dealing with chronic illness.

Over the years since the twins were born we have coped with everything life threw at us, sleep deprivation, severe reflux, feeding difficulties, poor growth, swallowing problems, bowel problems, food allergies and exclusion diets, hypermobility, subluxing joints, pronating feet, autonomic problems.... the list feels endless at times. But you get on with it. it's not as if there is much choice! But when someone hands you a buoyancy aid you grab it. Fast. With both hands....

Great Excitement!

I can hardly contain myself.... I am beyond excited!

What, may you ask, is the reason for such enthusiasm and eagerness? A holiday? Have I won the lottery? Secured a new job?..... None of the above. After three years of oh-so-very-patient really impatient waiting we are boarding our loft space and getting some STORAGE baby!!!!

It honestly IS that exciting. Six people and many years of stuff accumulation and even the most reformed of hoarders would struggle to cope with a couple of measly cupboards for storage. I'm not even talking about the kind of cupboards Harry Potter would have been grateful to call his bedroom, these are more the kind you quickly shove everything in and shut the door. Fast. Hoping it doesn't open again immediately.

My friends will tell you I am a very tidy person - obsessively so I guess. Ok, I admit it, verging on OCD at times. BUT for me keeping in control of my environment when other aspects of my life go spiralling out of control is my way of hanging in there, telling myself I can get through whatever it is and come out the other side. Unfortunately the flip side of this is that any untidiness/lack of extreme organisation sends me into a headspin and I find it extremely difficult to cope. Recognising this definitely helps but I have yet to find a solution except let the anxiety take its course whilst a tidy and sort - much to the amusement of those around me I'm sure.

I suspect my years at boarding school are much to blame for this need to organise and sort. We were allocated a small wardrobe and two shelves per person in each dormitory. The concept of not "taking up too much room" was drummed into us until I would panic before each term over what I might take. Whilst I'm quite sure I took this advice far too literally it had a profound impact on me to this day. Coming home from a shopping expedition is one of the most stressful moments for me - whether there will be room for everything - and whether I have too much of anything.

It has meant over the years that I have parted with items I would rather have hung on to, let go a few of the sentimental things I could really have done with holding fast to. I'm quite a sentimental person, someone who finds looking forward much harder than looking back, and someone who finds the smell, sight and touch of something old so profoundly evocative that I can be reduced to tears in an instant. As an historian I indulge myself regularly reading about and researching into the "Past"   finding some aspects more difficult to return from than others.

So what of my loft? Why am I honestly that excited?

Because apart from the wholly cathartic process of sorting through everything and "filing" it neatly in my new space, I gain oodles of cupboard space and permission to retain more. To hang on to more, retain more of the present - and exert control and order on my environment. It's better than a holiday, and the next best thing to the elusive magic wand I seek to regain a little control over the other aspects of my life - the children's health, education and future.

One of my favourite quotes is:-

"If you're not living life on the edge you are taking up too much room." 

A favourite for obvious reasons but it works for me on so many levels. Flying by the seat of your pants through an often chaotic life, but with the security blanket of a home environment in perfect order. Works for me.

 Lofts ROCK!!!