I have that song by Alice Cooper bouncing around in my mind as I type.  I wish I could have it playing in the background as you link to this blog post, but the best I can do is point you to this You Tube clip.

We’re in the final stretch of the school year and the end is tantalisingly close.  G finishes school tomorrow and M has one last day on Monday.  The promise of 6 weeks of summer (well I can but dream) to enjoy is wonderful.  A time for us all to rest, recuperate, have some fun and hopefully see M return to better health for the start at his new school in September.

The last 2 weeks have been mixed.

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Last weekend, Mike took the kids away on a “Dads and Kids” camping weekend, organised by other Dads in our church.  The weather was amazing, they had a great weekend, got to build on some fantastic friendships and I got to have a weekend off!  I wish I could say I spent the weekend doing nothing but relaxing and spoiling myself, but the reality is that I spent the weekend catching up on some long overdue household chores – ironing in this temperature is no mean feat – and trying to stay cool.

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Unfortunately, M’s hoarse throat on Friday afternoon turned into, well, I’m not 100% certain what it turned into, but it might have been croup or a heavy cold or a chest infection or any combination of the above.  By Sunday evening, his temperature had shot up to over 39 °C and that started 3 days of a very poorly M.  He had a sore throat, high temperature, complete loss of appetite, croup-like cough, no energy to do more than sit and watch TV and felt sick every time he took his new medicine.

The problem is for M that he just has no reserves to fall back on when he becomes ill.  His body can’t cope with the illness and his EGID symptoms will typically flare too.  He has, however, headed back to school today; the lure of the Year 2 leavers’ disco after school being too great for even my poorly boy to ignore.  It is such a shame that he has missed 3 days off this week as he moves on from the school at the end of term and will miss his friends.

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Our plans for the summer holidays are simple.  Mike and I will spend most of our weeks working, whilst G and M spend some time with my Mum.  We are off to Portugal for a week once again and I’m already beginning to plan what foods I will need to take with us.  The time I have at home will be spent playing in the garden, investigating our local area and trying out some new baking recipes that I’ve been given by friends.  Most importantly, we will be trying to encourage M’s body to recover and hopefully see a return of his appetite. The hot weather at the moment isn’t helping, but I would love to see him eating as much as he was even a fortnight ago.  We don’t have any return visits to GOSH planned until October, but I will be putting in another call to the gastro team this week to see if there’s anything else we should be doing or if they do want to see him ahead of the next appointment.

Most importantly, my plans include ice lollies…lots and lots of M-friendly ice lollies!

Courtesy of lovefood.com