12/52 The GraceFaith year long art project...

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year...

Parenting is...

... sighing deeply (and/or muttering swear words under your breath) as you realise your 7yo has forgotten to flush her poo yet again.

11/52 The GraceFaith year long art project...

...Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year

Mr Sandman, bring me a dream...

HUNTING SEASON - Alternative Easter Egg finds...

Now we all know there's plenty of chocolate around at Easter, often too much it would seem, so for those parents hunting for some great alternative Easter gift ideas, here are my top five... (collaborating with publishing house Laurence King).

Annual Easter Egg Hunt at West Dean Gardens - Easter with the kids

All children big and small love Easter Egg hunts and the idea of being rewarded with a small handmade chocolate treat, don't they? Well let the family join in the fun at the simply beautiful West Dean Gardens in West Sussex daily over the Easter, for they are offering Easter Egg trails from the 25th to the 28th of March from 9am – 5.00pm (last entry 4.00pm). 

INFO
Normal Adult gardens’ entry applies. 
Children’s entry to the gardens FREE although there is a small additional charge of £2.50 per child for the Easter Egg Trail, including two children’s activities and a small, handmade chocolate treat for completing the trail.

Free parking
Fancy a spot of afternoon tea? There's a shop and restaurant on site
Dogs welcome, on leads

10/52 The GraceFaith year long art project

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year...

What a happy Mother's Day! How I love this bowl Esme has made for me and how I will cherish eating my breakfast from it every single day! Thanks gorgeous girl. x

World Book Day today...

...and this year Esme's school is not participating in costume wearing - although Esme is for it also happens to be her assembly and she will be dressed as Pippi Longstocking later on this afternoon. Rather wonderfully, they are embracing the World Book Day theme. (Thought to self... goodness knows if the coat hanger wire in her hair will work?) I think perhaps the blog point I'm trying to make here is this... never mind dressing up, World Book Day is an annual reminder to read to our children, to encourage a love and lifetime of enjoying books, to support our local libraries, and overall, to express how interacting with the printed word can be every bit as good (indeed better) than a screen. Happy World Book Day one and all.

Julia Donaldson and Esme on stage, act out Julia's fabulous book 'A Squash and A Squeeze'

FRAMED - the busy day Fia had

LIFE AS IT IS This week in... Feb 2016 - Tummy Troubles (3)

Don't assume a woman is pregnant - even if she looks six months gone...

Looking down at my abdomen and again in profile - the bloating has become more severe of late. I wake in the morning and my tummy is normal. I drink a glass of water, and oh yeah up she rises. I'm wondering if an ulcer alone could possibly be responsible for this reaction? To help combat it - together with the wonder drug Omeprazole which heals the stomach lining - I started a probiotic, but rather wonderfully, all that brought me was a commonal garden bird. FFS. Oh, and I had to dig the nit comb out - although that itch was more than likely due to a new hair product: Some mousse I bought in a bid to inflate my lack lustre locks. Perhaps I'm allergic to that? While I'm on the subject of hair, last week I took the scissors to mine and I'm feeling quite lopsided now, wearing a rather unsteady base line chop which I'm viewing positively by calling it texture. Funny thing is, I go to the hairdresser, no one says a word, I do it myself and I've had a plethora of praise. Are people being kind do you think? So as my LIFE AS IT IS bumbles along, I do have one positive to mention about the fact that I'm looking very pregnant these days... I'm getting offered a seat on the underground every time. Chivalry appears to be very much alive and kicking - unlike the baby within.

9/52 The GraceFaith year long art project...

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year

Struggling to give up the booze - A poem - Tummy Troubles (2)

Don't ask me how it's going - it's only been one week.
Truth is, it's bloody hard and I'm feeling very weak.
Friday night was hardest but even Monday wasn't great,
And now that it's the weekend, I'm thinking of my mate.

Not the one dressed to the nines and heading to the Ritz,
Who'll later neck Dom Perignon and get right off her titz.
Nor the one that's laden down with Cristal, Cru and Boli,
White wine, red wine, and rose, sitting in her trolley.

8/52 The GraceFaith year long art project...

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year...

Esme and Mummy flying together

Coeliac V Stomach ulcer - Tummy Troubles (1)

So they go in looking for coeliac disease, and they come out finding a stomach ulcer.

Good job that I gave up coffee. Not so good that I left it so long.

I'm convinced it's the sheer amount of coffee I consumed year after year that led to an ulcer.

Oh and stress of course. For motherhood and my Life As It Is has certainly been stressful at times. Goodness, you only have to read this or this to see how manic it has been. And what did I nearly always turn to on these occasions? A good glass bottle of wine. Mmm. Like a lot of us do. Alas, no more for me I'm afraid. Doctor's orders.

Tonight will be my last hurrah for a while. Out to a joint 40th to enjoy letting my hair down before I stop drinking booze for 6 weeks. The thought itself is enough to finish me off. I've never been up for a dry January - let alone a dry part Feb, March, and part April. Feck!

A parting thought... and a sobering one at that... endoscopes are not pleasant.

7/52 The GraceFaith year long art project

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year

Esme plans a blanket design

LIFE AS IT IS - Tummy Troubles

Off for a gastro camera today. Not worried about it although I'm sure it won't be that easy to stomach. There's a question mark over coeliac disease. And not just with me.

Fia had cameras both ends a few months ago due to blood in her stools. After almost a year of wondering, they found and removed a polyp that had been 4x2 cms in size. Huge. Certainly for a wee girlie.

Unbelievably (or perhaps not), the hospital phoned me yesterday to say that they had not tested the blood they took last month correctly, and that she will need yet another blood test. It will be her sixth.

So from a mother who has been told her child is not a coeliac, I now wait to find out again. I now have the pleasure of taking her for another blood test.

And I told her there would be no more needles for a very long time.

That's our current LIFE AS IT IS...

coeliac.org.uk

When all around you is a monstrous sea - A poem

A monstrous sea whips all around,
Waves engulf you whole.
Beyond your depth, fighting for breath,
Totally out of control.

My advice: Open the vodka.

6/52 The GraceFaith year long art project

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year

ARCTIC CONDITIONS

There's an unspeakable beauty about a place like this.
And really… seeing is the only way of truly communicating that beauty.
For breathtaking, it renders the observer mute.
And how could one possibly recreate that vision through words anyway?
Visiting for yourself is the only way to understand. 

When she's not off gadding, Freelance travel writer Emma Oliver can be found WritingLifeAsItIs.blogspot.co.uk

FRAMED

déjeune en Paris

Paris has a beauty and charm that defies time - yet still it had been far too long since my last visit. So there I was again, invited for lunch. And being lunch in Paris, come on... it was never going to be disappointing now was it? The food and drink - masterfully paired, were an overwhelmingly good onslaught on the tastebuds. I was left wanting more...