Noah's teeth

When Grant was about 24 years old he had his wisdom teeth extracted. When the dentist did the x-rays he discovered that Grant had two bonus teeth (called supernumerary teeth) growing inside his palate, upwards. They extracted them at the same time.

Fast forward I-won't-say-how-many years and Daniel has a routine dental checkup - they have them at a mobile clinic that comes to their school. The dentist phones me to let me know that they ran some x-rays and he has two supernumeraries in his palate - one pointing upwards and one pointing down.

And lo and behold, at around the same time I spotted something on Noah's palate ... a supernumerary that actually emerged! Yes, he had a bonus tooth, which looked like a spike, growing out of his palate. Weird and kind of gross.

I blame Grant for distributing the freak gene.

Both boys have had their teeth monitored by the oral health unit at a nearby hospital. The risk with supernumeraries is that they can get in the way of orthodontics, and they can develop cysts. So far Daniel's seem to be stable and not doing anything and hopefully won't interfere with orthodontics. But Noah's single supernumerary needed to be extracted, as well as a very large milk molar that was preventing his adult back molar from descending properly.



He was very nervous about it so we didn't tell him the exact day it would take place until the day dawned - which was this past Wednesday. He had his breakfast early and then wasn't allowed to eat after 6:30am.

Grant was off work that day (it was one of his rest days) so we took him to the hospital together. We'd arranged for Daniel to go home from school with a friend.

At the hospital there were a lot of questions and forms but we didn't have to wait too long. Before we knew it, I was geared up, ready to go into the OR with Noah.



As soon as they'd administered the anaesthetic gas I left and went back to the waiting room. The procedure didn't take long - only about 25 minutes - and they called me again. Poor Grant didn't even hear them calling me, he just saw me jump up and take off! They brought me into the recovery room because Noah was thrashing around and distressed, even though he was half unconscious still. As soon as I held his hand and talked to him and stroked his head he calmed down.

It took a little while for him to wake up properly, but as he did he held me hand so hard. I tend to be a bit squeamish about blood and operations, so as I stood beside his bed I started feeling sick and hot and like I was going to faint. The nurse brought me a bowl in case I spewed (I didn't) and a cool cloth for the back of my neck and had me sit down. By this time Noah was able to open his eyes and sit up, so they moved us to a room with a recliner where we could just sit and cuddle for a while.

I was feeling okay by then and after cuddling for a while Noah perked up and came round properly. We brought him home and made a fuss of him and he's been absolutely fine. We kept him off school yesterday, but really he could have gone. He declared, "I feel like normal except I have teeth missing!"

And yes, the Tooth Fairy paid him a visit. For those who are interested, here are his teeth.

He was so super brave all day, we are so proud of him. I am amazed at how well he handled it all. At one point, while we were in the waiting room, he said to me, "Mommy, I don't feel very brave right now."

I told him that's exactly what being brave is - you feel scared but you do what you need to do anyway.

SO proud of him.

Finally, for those who are squeamish (they are kinda gross), I will give you a little space as a warning to click away now if you don't want to see the teeth!

Ready?

....

Are you sure?

....

The spike supernumerary is the grossest.

....

Really really sure? Okay, here they are.

Against blue

We are scheduled to have power outages between 9am and 4pm today. It's a good reminder to not take for granted all that we have. It's amazing how our whole day revolves around having electricity - dishwasher, washing machine, kitchen appliances, oven and stove, computer, hairdryer, hot water heater, internet, phone, TV etc.

Green

"Truly it may be said that the outside of a mountain is good for the inside of a man."

- George Wherry

Chicken spa

On a sunny day the chooks love to bathe in this pile of dirt that we have. They wallow in the sand and flick it up under their wings. They later shake off all of the soil - this helps to clean their feathers and keep parasites under control.

And do note Doris's beautiful, poofy, fluffy "petticoats" - she has the floofiest undercarriage of them all and I just adore it!

Leaf burst

 

"It is with our passions as it is with fire and water; they are good servants, but bad masters."

- Roger L'Estrange

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to the moms out there!

For those desperately longing for the blessing of motherhood, I hope and pray that your dreams come true soon.

For those who live near their mothers, give her an extra hug for me, as mine is 12,000 miles away from me and I miss her.



Me with my mom, October 1975

Quinoa with goat's cheese and roasted veg

Can you tell it's autumn here? I made this for lunch yesterday and Grant and I both loved it (we ate it with a little aioli mixed in).



I don't have exact measurements for you - adjust to taste.

Cut up and roast some beetroot (about 1 per person), onions and pumpkin. Cook your quinoa in chicken or beef stock, and drain. Mix roasted veg into the quinoa, and add some crumbled goat's cheese. Season to taste.

That's it! Super easy, healthy and delicious.

Roasted pumpkin and apple soup

This soup has such a lovely savoury, rich flavour due to roasting the ingredients before blending. Make it thinner if you prefer by adding more stock. Can be frozen.



4 lbs / 1.8 kg fresh pumpkin peeled, seeded and cut into bit sized chunks
4 large apples, peeled and cut into quarters
2 onions, chopped
6 cups chicken stock
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried sage
½ tsp nutmeg
salt and pepper

In a large bowl, toss pumpkin, apples, onions, olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Spread evenly onto a couple of large rimmed baking sheets. Roast at 180°C / 350°F, mixing once, for about an hour or an hour and a half - until very tender and starting to brown.


Transfer to a large bowl or pot and mix in the stock. Puree until smooth using an immersion blender, or transfer into a blender or food processor in batches and blend that way. Heat through over medium-low heat, stirring constantly for about 5-7 minutes.

Makes about 8 portions
1 Weight Watchers ProPoint / Points+ per serving

Brand new monarch butterfly

We have two swan plants which are food for monarch caterpillars. As each caterpillar reaches the point of forming a chrysalis (they wander away from the bush) we bring them indoors and they form their chrysalis in a box, or we find the formed chrysalis outside and bring it in and hot-glue them into the box.





We watch them change from green to almost black. And then, if you're lucky and happen to be around when it happens, you can watch the butterfly emerge.



The wings are small at first ...



... but over the next half an hour or so, as the newborn butterfly hangs trembling on the empty chrysalis shell, they fill with fluid until they are full size.



When the butterfly is ready it starts to move around and take short flights. That's when we place the box outside or near an open door and say goodbye.



It's been so fun to watch this little miracle play out. We've seen three butterflies emerge so far and as you can see we have two more in chrysalis form which will emerge in a little while. Have you ever seen a butterfly being born?

Chicken wire basket tutorial

I've been wanting to make a chicken wire basket since we bought chicken wire for the original chicken run and had some left over. While shopping at a charity shop the other day I spotted this monstrosity and knew it would be the perfect base:



I don't even know what it was supposed to be. Maybe it held pot-pourri at one point? Who knows.



I started pulling it apart. The padded rim was glued onto the painted wire frame.



When it was all removed there were fibres and glue left behind.



I also wanted to rid the frame of the cream paint. I decided to stick the frame into a hot oven, thinking of how heat guns are sometimes used to strip paint.



I didn't leave it in too long as the fumes were awful. Unfortunately, the paint wasn't affected at all but the glue melted off.



Grant came up with the idea of putting it into the fireplace when we had the fire going. That did the trick!



As you can see, all of the paint charred off.



I sanded the metal with some sandpaper and rinsed the frame. Then it was ready for the next step.



The chicken wire we have is the large hole variety. I would have preferred smaller holes but I wanted to use what we had rather than buy a whole new roll.

I laid the frame onto a piece of chicken wire ...



I then used wire cutters to trim the wire slightly larger than the base of the frame.



I placed the cut piece inside the frame as I wanted the cross pieces underneath to help provide support to the contents of the basket.



Then I used my jewellery pliers to twist the chicken wire onto the frame, making sure to smooth the sharp edges well.



Here is the finished base.



I repeated the procedure with each panel of the sides.



Want to see the finished basket? Here you go! It can be used to store apples ...



... or eggs ...



... or onions. I have it sitting on the counter full of onions right now.



I think it would also be cute on a bathroom counter with rolled washcloths in, or draped with a napkin and filled with fresh bread rolls. Whatever it's used for, I like the rustic almost vintage look and the fact that it's one-of-a-kind :) What would you fill it with?