I am a Snapdragon

I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

"Mischief is your middle name, but your first is friend. You are quite the prankster that loves to make other people laugh."

My Web Wanderings (weekly)

• Fever and Temperature Taking

  tags: children, health

  • What is a normal temperature?

    
    

    Now that you’ve taken the temperature, check the following chart to see whether your child has a fever. The normal temperature range varies, depending on what method you use.

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

    Measurement method	Normal temperature range
    Rectum	36.6°C to 38°C (97.9°F to 100.4°F)
    Mouth	35.5°C to 37.5°C (95.9°F to 99.5°F)
    Armpit	34.7°C to 37.3°C (94.5°F to 99.1°F)
    Ear	35.8°C to 38°C (96.4°F to 100.4°F)

• Large Family Mothering: Slavery

  tags: homemaking

• A Beautiful Life: Day Two & Blouse

  tags: Modesty

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Cheap Risotto Rice

In December I started keeping a price book. If you don't have one already, I would definitely recommend doing so - I did not really appreciate how significant the savings could be before I started.

It was very interesting to see how different foods compared to each other and one that particularly struck me was the huge difference in price between "pudding rice" and the special risotto rices such as arborio and carnaroli. The cheapest risotto rice was £2.16/kg which was more than double the 96p/kg for pudding rice.

After much unsuccessful searching on the internet to find out the difference, I decided to take the plunge and try out pudding rice in a risotto (pea risotto to be precise). I am pleased to report that the only difference was a slight reduction in the cooking time - other than that, there was no apparent difference. So if you like risottos, I would definitely recommend using pudding rice instead of the more expensive "official" risotto rice.

Keeping Kids Rear Facing For Longer

Well our trip last month was successful and we now have a rear facing car seat which will last at least until Little Girl is four and hopefully longer.

In Sweden children are kept rear facing at least until age four. Here in the UK (and most countries except the Scandinavian ones) children are usually turned to face forward when they are around one. We actually moved Little Girl on when she was nine months and only just at the legal minimum weight for forward facing (9kg) because she was too tall for her first car seat. Although we would have kept her facing that way longer if we'd been able to, we did not know how significant a difference it makes and we also didn't know that it was possible to get rear facing car seats in the next stage (Group 1).

I just happened upon the information when someone linked to UK Rear facing campaign on an online parenting discussion group. The statistical difference is quite significant. The following graph shows the deaths and injuries per 100 000 children in Sweden vs. Great Britain.

As you can see, for under ones (who are rear facing in both countries) the figures are fairly similar. This illustrates that the difference for older children must be because of the car seats and not a difference in cars used. You can see quite clearly that children in Great Britain aged 1-5 are more than twice as likely to be killed or injured in a car accident than their Swedish (rear-facing) counterparts.

Unlike an adult (who's head makes up just 6% of their body weight), a toddler's head can be up to 25% of their body weight. This combined with less developed bones puts the neck at much greater risk when forward facing. In a frontal impact a rear facing car seat will support the head and torso together. A forward facing seat holds the torso (by the straps) and the head is unsupported potentially leading to serious neck injuries

I found this video to be particularly helpful in illustrating the difference because being in the same test, the rear and forward facing seats are subject to the same conditions and you can clearly see the difference in effect on the crash test dummies.

For more crash test videos, see Car Safety for Kids.

BBC News Video Clip about UK Rear Facing Campaign

One concern that people have about older children in rear facing seats is that they won't have enough leg room. This is actually not the problem you would expect and I was surprised at how much leg room there actually is. We have also found it is easier for Little Girl to get into the seat herself as she can stand right in front of it and then sit down whereas for the forward facing seat she had to climb into it over the side and then turn around in the seat (which would always take a very long time so we tended to put her in ourselves rather than waiting). Another issue with legs is that people sometimes think that having the legs like that is dangerous but in fact bent or crossed legs are not dangerous.

As you can see in this picture, Little Girl had plenty of space on the journey home:

In fact, she was so comfy that she fell asleep:


Obtaining a rear facing seat for an older child
Although it is possible to get rear facing Group 1 seats on import, there is one - the Recaro Polaric - which is specifically available on the UK market. We bought ours from Babyworld because they were the easiest for us to get to but we were very impressed with the service and would definitely recommend them to anyone who is UK based. The person who fitted it for us talked us right through how to fit it and the reasons for everything and was clearly very knowledgeable about car seats in general and about why rear facing is best. He said the reason they only stocked the Recaro seat is because if they got others on import then they would not know if there was a safety recall so we were glad we had gone for that particular seat in the end.

Useful Links
Keeping Kids Safe in Cars (North American car seat safety site)
Rear Facing Rocks (Illustration of the difference in head size at different ages, statistics on types of crashes, lots of links)
Joel's Journey (Joel was in a car crash in September last year. He suffered internal decapitation and now is Grandpa is trying to raise awareness of the risks associated with putting your child forward facing compared with rear facing.)
Pictures of kids in rear facing car seats.

Watching Paint Dry

Well technically it's ink but near enough. After wrestling open some of my jars of ink (it's a long time since I last used them) I'm *finally* making my Pay It Forward gifts and I'm doing a bit where I have to wait for each bit to dry before doing the next bit because otherwise the colours bleed into each other. I'm writing this post in the waiting gaps to avoid being to impatient and messing it up. Just one more bit to do and then I'm done with the waiting bit and will be half way through the second one. It's almost time to get Little Girl up from her nap though so I think I'll be doing the third one tomorrow.

New House Cleaning Plan

Since we're hopefully moving house in the near future, I abandoned my plans to update my Home Keeping Guide as so many things will be changing it is not worth doing it before the move. Instead I have been working on plans related to the move.

Since the house is a repossession, it needs a good clean. It is certainly not as bad as some that we viewed while looking for a house but obviously when your house is being repossessed you don't worry about making sure it's clean when you leave and then it has also been sitting empty for a while.

I have tried to come up with a comprehensive cleaning plan so that I can make sure we take all the things we need with us to clean the house and we can do a decent job. Also since there's going to be more than one person doing it (me, Hubby, and a friend has offered to help us) it's useful to have some kind of checklist so things don't get missed out or done twice and everyone can find something to do.

So far I've done a first draft for the living room, kitchen, bathroom and each of the bedrooms (which are just the same as the living room except for no fireplace to clean so I haven't posted them here):

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Living Room

Feather dust cobwebs. Feather dust windowsill. Feather dust ledges. Feather dust fireplace.	Feather duster
Wash down walls. Clean windowsill. Clean ledges. Clean fireplace. Clean radiator. Clean skirting board. Clean door. Clean door handle.	Bucket Hot water Flash all purpose Washing up liquid Cleaning rags Washing up gloves
Clean lightswitch.	Baby wipes
Clean window.	Vinegar spray Cleaning rags
Clean carpet	Vacuum cleaner Bicarbonate of soda Spoon Tea strainer Carpet stain remover

Kitchen

Feather dust cobwebs.	Feather duster
If everything is very dirty do preliminary quick wipe down with old towels and plain water to remove excessive dirt.	Old towels and warm water.
Wash down walls. Clean tops of cupboards. Clean fronts of cupboards. Clean windowsill. Clean radiator. Clean skirting board. Clean door. Clean door handle.	Bucket Hot water Flash all purpose Washing up liquid Cleaning rags Washing up gloves
Clean lightswitch.	Baby wipes
Clean hob. If encrusted, cover with damp old towel for an hour to soften then clean with soapy water. Make bicarb/vinegar paste for any remaining dirt.	Old towel Warm water Vinegar/bicarbonate of soda Spoon Old mug Old toothbrush Cleaning rags
Clean oven. Put bowl of hot water with lemon juice in for 1-2 hours until almost boiled dry. When cool enough, add bicarb/vinegar to water and use to wipe down oven. Wipe out with plain water.	Pyrex bowl Hot water Lemon juice Spoon Vinegar/bicarbonate of soda Cleaning rags
Clean sink Draining board/sink - make paste of vinegar/bicarb, pour over, leave to soak then rinse. Drain - 1 tsp bicarb and ½ cup vinegar down drain, leave for ½ hour then flush with water. Wipe over with soapy water.	Vinegar/bicarbonate of soda Spoon Cup Soapy water Cleaning rag
Clean inside cupboards. Clean with soapy water first then with bleach.	Bucket Hot water Flash all purpose Washing up liquid Cleaning rags Washing up gloves Bleach spray
Clean worktops. Clean with soapy water first then with bleach.	Bucket Hot water Flash all purpose Washing up liquid Cleaning rags Washing up gloves Bleach spray
Clean window.	Vinegar spray Cleaning rags
Clean floor Use mug to pour water onto floor for scrubbing then use old towels to mop up dirty water before adding more fresh water.	Bucket Hot water Flash all purpose Washing up liquid Old mug Old towels Washing up gloves Scrubbing brush

Bathroom

Feather dust cobwebs.	Feather duster
If everything is very dirty do preliminary quick wipe down with old towels and plain water to remove excessive dirt.	Old towels and warm water.
Wash down walls. Clean windowsill. Clean radiator. Clean skirting board. Clean door. Clean door handle.	Bucket Hot water Flash all purpose Washing up liquid Cleaning rags Washing up gloves
Clean lightswitch.	Baby wipes
Clean tiles Clean with vinegar spray then treat with car wax.	Vinegar spray Car wax Cleaning rags
Pre-clean bath Pre-clean sink Pre-clean toilet. Wipe over with soapy water then clean with vinegar spray (leave vinegar for 5-10 minutes before wiping off).	Bucket Hot water Flash all purpose Washing up liquid Cleaning rags Washing up gloves Vinegar spray
Clean bath Half fill with warm water and add a cup of washing powder.	Warm water Washing powder Washing up brush (to stir)
Clean basin Fill with hot water, flash and washing up liquid. Soak for at least half an hour then wipe out.	Hot water Flash all purpose Washing up liquid Cleaning rags
Clean toilet Spray with bleach then wipe over after 5-10 minutes. Put 3 Steradent tablets in before leaving to be left overnight.	Bleach spray Cleaning rags Steradent tablets
Clean taps. If buffing with vinegar spray is not sufficient leave a vinegar soaked cloth around the tap for half an hour. Run taps over with vinegar cloth then with a dry cloth.	Vinegar spray Vinegar Cleaning rags
Clean mirror. Clean window.	Vinegar spray Cleaning rags
Clean carpet	Vacuum cleaner Bicarbonate of soda Spoon Tea strainer Carpet stain remover
Clean floor Use mug to pour water onto floor for scrubbing then use old towels to mop up dirty water before adding more fresh water.	Bucket Hot water Flash all purpose Washing up liquid Old mug Old towels Washing up gloves Scrubbing brush

I now need to do a list for the hall, stairs and landing which I forgot to do before because it's not a proper "room": It will probably be pretty similar to the living room and bedrooms. I also want to make an overall list of what we will need to take and a list of things we need to buy (probably just a bleach spray since ours is broken). The other thing left to do with regard to cleaning is to go through my bag of old clothes and cut any suitable ones up for cleaning rags; I know there's more there that could be used but I hadn't cut them up as I don't normally need a huge amount all at once.

If you have any tips to share, please feel free to leave a comment.

Menu Plan Monday #1

I've actually been menu planning for over a year now but this is the first time I've gotten around to posting one. We used to have a veg box delivered on a Wednesday so my plan usually goes Thursday to Wednesday and I usually plan it on Wednesday afternoon. Sadly the farm which delivers has had to fold due to a 55% drop in customers but this has coincided with a time when we want to use up various stocks and cook food for the freezer in preparation for our move so I have planned out two weeks going from 19th March to 1st April. Combined with what we already have in our freezer, by the end of the month we should have just over a months worth of dinners in the freezer.

Monday 23rd: Tomato rice with sausages (onion, red pepper, garlic, thyme, stock, olive oil, tinned tomato, bay leaves, basil, grated cheese and sausages) ~ 2 meals for freezer

Tuesday 24th: Veg casserole (whatever random veg I have around with some herbs and spices and tinned tomato all thrown in the slow cooker all day) with lentils and rice and possibly a bit of salsa (tomato, onion, sweet chilli sauce and lime juice) ~ 2 meals for freezer


Wednesday 25th: Spaghetti bolognaise (mince, lentils and rice from Tues, grated carrot, stock, tinned tomato, onions, garlic, Worcester sauce, basil, oregano, chilli powder, spaghetti, grated cheese) ~ 3 meals for freezer (bolognaise only)

Thursday 26th: Chicken casserole (chicken thighs, random veg, onions, coconut milk, black pepper, white pepper) served with boiled potato ~ 2 or 3 meals for freezer

Friday 27th: Tuna quinoa (quinoa, tuna, stock, onions, black pepper)

Saturday 28th: Lasagne (as spaghetti bolognaise except lasagne instead of spaghetti and also milk, egg, cheese and white pepper for cheese sauce) ~ 3 meals for freezer


Sunday 29th: Quinoa from Friday

Monday 30th: Cheesy pasta

Tuesday 31st: Spicy tomato pasta

Wednesday 1st: Cheesy pasta from Monday

My Web Wanderings (weekly)

• Itsy Bitsy Books

  tags: Education, Reading

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Alphabet song

A while ago I saw this video posted on Mommy Life:

I showed it to my husband who then managed to find this alphabet song by Barbara Milne:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK9VPtz3EHQ (Embedding is disabled so I can only post a link and not the actual video.)

Little Girl absolutely loves to watch it and sometimes requests it. She also often goes round singing bits of it. Although it does have some American words or pronunciations which we wouldn't use (such as cookie, undershirt and zebra) they are not significant enough to put me off and it is by far the best one I could find. If you happen to have a child of the right age I would definitely recommend it as it is also an enjoyable song which doesn't get annoying after you have heard it a million times.

Ultimate Blog Party 2009

Janice and Susan, founders of 5 Minutes for Mom, are hosting The Ultimate Blog Party. It’s a cool way to get to know some new mama bloggers and also a fun chance to win some prizes. If you want to know more about the party, click on the banner at the top of this post and it will take you to the party page.

Some people reading this will be regular readers but for those who aren't, I'd better introduce myself. I'm Susan a.k.a. Saved Sinner - welcome to my blog. I live in the North-East of England with my husband and my almost two year old daughter.

First and foremost I am a Christian - a sinner saved by god (hence the blog title). I hope that this comes out through my blogging and I aim to glorify him in all that I do. I hope that my blog can be an encouragement to other Christians and mothers and that those who are not Christians feel welcome and are able to learn something about my faith.

Although we would not consider ourselves "attachment parents", we do do a lot of things which would be associated with attachment parenting such as elimination communication, baby wearing, baby led weaning (baby led solids to Americans!) and extended breastfeeding. I haven't blogged as much about these things as I intend to so hopefully I will write a bit more about them in the near future.

Speaking of the near future, we are God willing move house very soon. For the last couple of weeks (and for the next two weeks) I have been cooking loads of meals for the freezer so that when we get down to packing, moving and unpacking I won't have to be cooking so much. It's been quite fun planning what to make and freeze and I enjoy cooking a lot. In the last year or so I have been learning to cook in the style of "Nourishing Traditions". I regularly make yoghurt in my crockpot and sourdough bread. I have just about finished developing a spicy fruit sourdough loaf (which can also be made into hot cross buns) which I will be posting before Easter.

Feel free to browse around my blog before you hop back to the party.

My Web Wanderings (weekly)

• Brazilian Anencephalic Baby Shatters Pro-Abortion Myths

  tags: pro-life

  • When Marcela was diagnosed with anencephaly, still in the womb, her mother was given the option to abort the child. Her doctor, she says, "gave me a week to decide if I was going to continue with the pregnancy. I responded that it is not right to be so cruel as to kill that small and innocent child."
  • Myths about anencephaly abound, and if Brazil's recent decision on embryonic stem cell research is any indication, factual scientific errors about the condition could lead the justices of Brazil's Supreme Court to condemn thousands of unborn children to an untimely death.
  • Abortion advocates promote several fallacies about anencephaly. The first and most obvious error, similar to the previous one, is that anencephalic infants are not viable outside of the womb. However they can, and do, survive for weeks, months, even years after birth. What may be the longest-living anencephalic baby, "Baby K", lived two and a half years in the United States, dying in 1995.

  • Risks of misdiagnosis may seem "insignificant" to a doctor, but parents tend to have a different perspective. A case in point is that of Brandon Kramer, who was diagnosed with a brain defect while still developing in the womb. His parents, Becky Weatherall and her boyfriend Kriss Kramer were told that their son's brain was malformed and enlarged, and that fluid had collected in his skull (see recent LifeSite coverage at http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/feb/08022603.html).

    
    

    Doctors told the couple that their son would be deaf and blind, and was unlikely to survive long after birth. Although the pregnancy was at a late stage, they recommended an abortion, an idea that Weatherall and Kramer rejected.

    
    

    Contrary to the doctors' claims, the couple's child was born completely healthy, and normal.

    
    

    "I feel incredibly guilty thinking that I could have killed him," said Weatherall, "and then I find myself wondering how many other babies are killed who would have turned out to be completely healthy."

    
    

    It is difficult to know how many false diagnoses of anencephaly and other birth defects occur annually because a high percentage of such children are aborted, resulting in a mutilated corpse that is not examined after the procedure.

  • Approximately 95% of anencephalic babies are aborted before birth, according to the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University. This rate is similar for other birth defects. In northern California, for example, 95% of unborn children diagnosed with cystic fibrosis are aborted, according to the insurer Kaiser Permanente.

  • "Doctors will tell you that an anencephalic child can neither see nor hear, nor feel pain, that he or she is a vegetable," says Anencephaly-info, a website maintained by parents of anencephalic children (http://www.anencephalie-info.org/e/faq.php#14). "However, that does not match up with the experience of many families who have had an anencephalic child."

    
    

    "The brain is affected to varying degrees, according to the child; the brain tissue can reach different stages of development. Some children are able to swallow, eat, cry, hear, feel vibrations (loud sounds), react to touch and even to light. But most of all, they respond to our love: you don't need a complete brain to give and receive love - all you need is a heart!" the site's authors write.

• The story of Faith Hope

  tags: pro-life

  • When I was 19 weeks pregnant, I was told that my baby had no brain. This condition is known as "anencephaly." I was told that my baby was only alive because she was attached to me, but that she couldn't survive on her own. The doctor said that I could continue the pregnancy safely, but that my baby would die shortly after being born. Or I could choose to terminate the pregnancy then, which would mean being induced at 20 weeks and letting my baby die without ever seeing or holding her
  • Well, to some people this would be a difficult decision, but it wasn't for me. I knew there was nothing to gain by terminating the pregnancy and I already loved my daughter more than anyone else in the world. Even if she was unconscious like the doctors said and lived for only a few seconds or minutes --even if she was stillborn --it was worth it to me. And so we began our journey...
  • Today, as I type this, Faith is 20 days old. Apart from a sterile dressing on her head that needs to be changed once a day, Faith lives a completely normal life. She isn't suffering or sickly, like you would expect. With no tubes and no machines supporting her life, she continues to thrive. She functions at the same level as any "normal" baby.
  • I hope that by sharing our story, we can shed some light on this condition we call "anencephaly." It may seem like doom and gloom when you get this diagnosis, but there is hope and there is joy. I know that first hand. You can read all the text books and medical journals you want, but the truth is revealed in babies like Faith. This is real life, not a text book. When you see the pictures and watch the videos, you can't deny that this life is precious and worth protecting.

    
    

    Myah

    (Faith's mom)

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Accepted

Our offer on the house was accepted this morning. The repossession company expect you to complete within 28 days so God willing we will be in our own home by 1st April.

Hubby spent this morning making phone calls back and forth to the mortgage broker, the estate agent and the conveyancing solicitor. While Little Girl is napping I have been printing off and filling in forms and now I'm waiting on a call from Hubby once he hears back from the mortgage broker about a query we have. Once that's dealt with (and I've got Little Girl up and fed), we'll be driving round to where Hubby is working this afternoon (he happens to be working for friends from church) so that he can sign the forms and fill in the bits I can't do and then hopefully I can get them off in the post today.

I think I might be abandoning some of the goals I set myself for the first quarter of this year as moving is going to take up a lot of time and be a high priority. I would love to start packing now to get what I can out of the way as soon as possible but I think that would be a bit counting my chickens so I am resisting that temptation.

I am so thankful for how smoothly everything seems to be going so far and I pray that God will continue to uphold us throughout this time.

Waiting...

... for the phone to ring. This morning we put in an offer on a house and we are waiting to hear back. It's a repossesion so if it's accepted, we will have to really get our skates on and there is a higher than average risk of being gazumped.

Please pray that if it is God's will that it will all go smoothly and that we don't get too stressed during it all.

Thanks.