Right. January.

It would appear we're in February already! I know i have been conspicuously absent recently but in my defence i have spent the majority of this week teetering on the brink of total physical and mental collapse so hopefully the 2 people that actually make the effort to read my blog will forgive me ;)

I caught the plague you see, or at least something quite similar in it's presentation, and by Wednesday evening i had a temperature of 39 degrees and my brain had turned into alphabet soup.

Chris came home early from placement to find me trying to run a bath for Toby, barely able to stand i was shaking so much, Toby running around on the landing half dressed and dripping with snot but cheerful as ever and Rudy screaming away on the bed (the latter not being particularly unusual to be fair, it doesn't take much to get him going, in that case just being put down on the bed for a few minutes was enough to royally piss him off)

So, despite my protestations that i felt "f-f-f-freeezing!" Chris attacked me with cool flannels, water and paracetamol and within an hour my temperature was down to 38.7 and i no longer felt that losing consciousness at any minute was a very real possibility.

I continued to feel impressively shite and have a labile temperature for the next couple of days but today i am sat up, on the laptop, dressed in actual clothes (as opposed to Christmas-themed flannel pyjamas) writing this blog, so i think it's safe to say the worst of it must be over.

My head remains foggy, my nose remains snotty and my back aches like i am an old, old woman but knowing my immune system that will all linger for a while yet.

It's not just me (in case you were thinking this was going to be an entirely self-pity entry!) all the boys are poorly too to various extents.  Chris has a cough and looks like he could fall asleep standing up, Toby is like a beautiful little slug, leaving shiny slime trails behind him wherever he goes courtesy of his nose running like a tap, and my poor Rudy bear, his teeny nostrils are easily blocked and he is finding it difficult and frustrating to breathe/feed/sleep, which, to be fair, at 16 weeks of his age, is pretty much all he does.  Alongside nappy-filling and gnawing on his own hands.  Not to be overlooked!  His amber teething necklace and anklet arrived today:

I'm really pleased with the necklace and and anklet anyway, i just hope they help!  Chris is sceptical, but that seems to be a new favourite hobby of his anyway so i'm not taking it personally ;) We had a lively debate about placebos and complementary therapies last night (He's reading "Bad Science" at the minute)

Which sort of leads me on to what i was intending to say when i started writing this!...January! You may (or may not) remember my challenges for the year...one new book and film each month and one new recipe each week.

In January i...

Read

• "Murderous Manchester" by John J Eddleston and
• "Classical Education" by Caroline Taggart

they are both non-fiction books and i bought them both in the "12 days of Kindle" sale on Amazon in December.  I really enjoyed them both but Murderous Manchester was definitely the easier read of the two.  Classical Education was very funny though, Caroline Taggart has a really dry witty sense of humour which definitely lightened the heavy subject matter!

Watched

• My Sister's Keeper
• Sherlock Holmes
• Inception
• Charlie and the chocolate factory
• Shrek 4
• Cloudy with a chance of meatballs
• Rio (actually, to be honest i was making dinner during this so dipped in and out)

I enjoyed them all, as anyone who has a clue what the story is about will realise, "My Sister's Keeper" was utterly heartbreaking and depressing, but i thought it was quite well done.  I haven't read Jodi Picoult's book that the film is based on, but Chris told me afterwards that apparently the film is quite controversial in that it has a completely different ending altogether from the book, but when he told me the book ending i actually thought i preferred the film version as it seemed more positive and yet also more realistic.

I loved Sherlock Holmes! I'm not sure what else i can say about that except that we've added the second one to our "reserve" list on Love Film now :)

Inception was clever and i liked the cast but i wondered at times what the hell was actually going on, so suspect that perhaps some of it may have gone over my head! I'd like to watch it again i think so that i could spend more time enjoying the story and less worrying about who's dream it was supposed to be!

The others were all "family movies" so mainly watched for Tobias' benefit, although i confess i do have a soft spot for the Shrek movies.  He enjoyed that and Cloudy with a chance of meatballs probably the best, he wasn't really into Charlie and the chocolate factory at all but we were all a bit underwhelmed by it to be honest, and at the end both Chris and i were a little confused questioning if we had in fact completely forgotten how the book ends, but Chris hunted the book out on Toby's bookcase and no, we were right, again the film ending was totally different to the book!  Rio was ok from what i saw of it.

Cooked/Baked

• Jamaican Jerk Chicken with Apple and Potato Rostis and Corn on the cob

As you can see, somewhat predictably perhaps i have excelled myself with regards to the films and books and got off to a very disappointing start with new recipes.  I am not being too hard on myself though, as January was a tough month with the boys so i feel like not being more experimental with what i feed them is probably the least of my worries.  I will try harder this month though i promise!

I'll end with a photo of the boys, taking an afternoon nap in our bed earlier this week.  It's rare that Toby sleeps during the day and the idea of them both sleeping at the same time, well, that's just plain crazy but on Monday afternoon, shortly after this photo was taken, that is exactly what happened! And although it was just for a couple of hours it was bliss, so much so that i just lay there between them enjoying the tranquility!