stairs, ears, babies and education

It has been a rather frantic couple of weeks here. Last week I was desperately trying to finish some crochet for my Mum’s birthday on Friday (I just about made the deadline and she loved the doily!). This week has been stressful and tiring and I am glad to see the back of it.

My Mum fell down the stairs early Sunday morning (about 4am I believe). She didn’t break any bones or anything like that, but an empty wooden shelf fell out of the bookcase and cut off her ear. She was rushed to a hospital forty miles away to have a specialist sew it back on and has been stuck in there all week while they monitor her recovery. I have therefore had to spend five hours on various buses to get down to see her on Tuesday and have spent Wednesday morning tidying up her house and doing her laundry so she won’t have to do it when she comes home later today.

Amongst all the excitement, my little sister gave birth to a gorgeous little boy early this morning and is currently in the local hospital. I would like to go and see here, but as she talks to members of the family that I don’t, it is somewhat awkward to organise a visit there. When she comes home I won’t be able to visit her at her house because the bus doesn’t stop close enough to her house and I can’t manage the hill or the long walk.

I therefore have a rather frustrating weekend ahead of me. My mother will be unable to drive for a while and will be unable to wear her glasses for approximately a month (at least another fortnight anyway). Her sight is so bad that she is virtually blind without her glasses or contact lenses, but can only wear her lenses for driving as they aren’t suitable for trying to read a book (which she can just about manage if she holds the book close enough to her face). Ordinarily she would wear her lenses and then put on glasses to read something.

In addition to the above frustrations, we have just found out that the local college that our son has been attending will no longer be running A Level courses. This means that he is left with an AS Level in English Literature as his only A Level qualification and his BTEC qualifications in music. He is unlikely to be accepted into a university with these, and this is his final possible year of studying before attending university, since he already wasted one year at a school that messed him around.

Our daughter got her GCSE results yesterday but didn’t get the results that she wanted so has had to change some of the subjects she will be studying next year at A Level.  She also has to repeat her Maths. She did very well in some subjects that she didn’t want to pursue, but that is no consolation for the D in Psychology.

As my stress levels have been so high this week, I am now in fibromyalgia flare-up. Everything hurts and nothing helps. I tripped over things at my Mum’s house when I was there, so my knee has swollen up to almost the size of a football. I will be spending this afternoon with my feet up.

I have not crocheted at all this week as I have been too stressed to concentrate on it. In stead, I have been doing Sudoku and logic puzzles. I am now bored, but still don’t know if I can concentrate on the crochet. Maybe I will pick it up later and give it a go. At least the worst that can happen with that is that I would have to rip out a few rounds…