What's been happening?

I turned on the computer on this morning to be notified I need to restart to turn on new features. Well although I myself need some time for recuperation, there have been some new features installed into my life regardless, and they're all good. Good for me.

I begun my new job as merchandiser for John Sands this week. It requires me to tidy up, restock and reorder stock for John Sands displays in several supermarkets in Millicent and Naracoorte. It will only take up a day or so a fortnight, which I am happy with. It's enough for me! So keep me in a job and buy greeting cards, packaging and wrapping!

I also finished the Cognitive Behaviour Therapy course I was undertaking. I am now a certified CBT practitioner. Not practicing, but I like to broaden my knowledge and it's kept me engaged and has actually helped me recognise and understand my own behaviours and where I can improve my mindset.

Thirdly, I start a volunteering role at Resthaven today, an aged care service. I will be helping out with exercise classes on a Friday and also going on social outings now and then. 

A lot of things have been getting on top of me lately. Life sure doesn't slow down for anyone. A recent visit to the doctors and blood checks showed that I had low iron, which would explain my tiredness and fatigue. I am not one to trot of to the doctor unless I have to, but I realise I need to look after myself better. To listen to my body and respond. I am no longer going to put myself last.

I do feel in the last week or so, that life is renewing for me. A page has turned and a new chapter of my life has begun.

Talking about new life, we've had our resident plover population take over the cul de sac in the past week or two with their fluffy, cute little babies. They wouldn't let me get too close for better photos as they pitter pattered down my driveway. They've been wandering and exploring up and down our short street, so it makes for a slow exit at five kilometres an hour while they dart and waddle around.

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Half yearly round up for 2017

I was excited about this year. It was a new beginning, who knew what it would bring. I do believe that this will be a year I will never forget.

Summer started school at the end of January. I am so proud of her, she's a social butterfly and floats easily amongst her peers. 

I am still in awe watching my third child learn. Five year olds are amazing little beings.

In February, I started my gymnastics coaching journey, enrolling in the Beginner gymnastics coaching course with Gymastics Australia. At the end I was able to coach under supervision.

I followed with the Intermediate coaching course, with Kindergym for 0-5 year olds as my gymsport, which I completed at the end of March, with 20 hours experience at the club, and a two day practical course in Adelaide. This was the first time in about ten years I had been away for the weekend without all my people, being husband and kids. It was liberating, and I didn't miss them one little bit!

Back to the beginning of March, and I lost my Gran. She had been slowly fading away, and with a few snowballing health problems the previous few weeks, she passed away at the age of 87.

She actually died the same day my son Jake, was readmitted into the mental health ward at the Mount Gambier hospital. I had the holiday house to clean that day after and drove around with all the emotions bubbling on the surface. I drove around with Metallica playing full noise for that week, it helped me through the emotions and the motions. I cried a lot! 

We buried my Granny Wanda the following Friday. Jake wasn't there. I stood next to my sisters and my mums cousin Fay. I will never forget it. Her coffin was draped with her crocheted Crows blanket, beanie and scarf, and a fishing rod. She was well known for her fishing on the Southend jetty. Her only living sibling, Nora, was seated in front of us.

I cleaned my sons house while he was in hospital, there was spit on the walls, seemingly tainted with red wine, to try to dull the voices. Dirty surfaces. His belongings were all packed lined up along one wall of the lounge room. The psych said it was common with Schizophrenics to pack, ready to flee, from an imaginary enemy. She had known of them moving around the country, with kids in tow even, in the fear of someone chasing them.

I cannot the imagine the despair and turmoil going through his mind at that time. I wish he had been diagnosed earlier. I am ever so grateful for the police for understanding, and for their help along with the ambos to get him back to the mental health ward in Mount Gambier. This was the turning point in getting him the help and support he really needed. I could have never have done it on my own, and who knows what could have become of him and the further anguish that our family would have been through.

He had previously been admitted for two weeks. Forcably by the police, on request from us, his family, and diagnosed with Schizophrenia. Obviously two weeks wasn't enough, for him not to be in that hospital environment on a new medication. He took his first weeks medication out of hospital in one night, in an attempt to be rid of the voices.

His second admission, was for three weeks. The medication by that time had kicked in and I can see it working now, we have our boy back (even though he is a man). It has been a long road since he was a teenager when all of these behaviours started to reveal themselves. It makes me sad that it has taken this long to have a diagnosis. It makes me sad, and finally happy that he crossed paths with a psychiatrist that saw his psychosis first hand. Jake had become a master at hiding it away.

That it wasn't fobbed off as bad boy behaviour, or drugs and alcohol. Don't get me wrong, there were drugs and alcohol involved. I will never forget the insane back and forth from him that night when I got a phone call from the coppers to come and help to try convince him to get in the ambulance. One minute he was in defiance to go, because it was a waste of time, because they(the doctors) didn't do anything to help, and the next minute crying in desperation because he just wanted the voices to stop, so he could sleep.

He's now doing well and has a fellow from MIND that visits him every week. An appointment with a clinical mental health nurse every fortnight, and regular follow up appointments with a visiting psychiatrist and with the psychiatrist, who, when faced with a 24 year old who begged for help to get the people with microcomputers to stop talking in his brain, made the diagnosis. I can only be grateful.

The same week this all happened, I met with a holiday house owner in Rendelsham and started as her house cleaner. She lives in Adelaide, and lets me know when she has holiday renters, and I set up and go clean afterwards. 

To say that I begun 2017 with my feet hitting the ground running would be an understatement!

In April at the start of Term 2, I lead my first Kindergym class. I loved it and was so pumped up and excited to do the second class, and no one turned up so I had to wait unitl the following week. I did the lesson plan for the next week that afternoon, I was so in the zone!

I am about to finish my first full term of  Kindergym, and am so proud that I jumped over that cliff of uncertainty and just went for it. I you told me a year ago, I would be working at the gymnastics club I would have told you where to get off. 

It has actually come at the right time, and fit in perfectly. Both the girls are at school now, leaving me with some spare time, a small wage,  and I get school holidays off! My fellow Kindergym coach has just announced she is leaving at the end of year, so eventually I will move into taking Kindergym two days per week, and possibly a Tiny Tots (five year olds) class or two a week. Who would have thought?!

I felt like a rock star earlier this week in Woolies, when coming across a couple of sisters that take my Kindergym classes. It is lovely that they stop to say hello and have a little chat. 

Without further or do, here is a little video with some highlights from the last six months.

Sometimes I surprise myself and blog on a Tuesday. Linking with Kylie.

Taking stock - the June edition

This is my first Taking Stock, sounds a bit like a confessional doesn't it. I saw this version on Sandra Kelly blog, but she attributes Pip from Meet me at Mike's for hers. So here goes. 

Making: Warming soups now the weather has turned. Mum gave me a couple of wild ducks someone had given her. I slow cooked them in the oven on Friday. It was fairly gamey and hubby didn't think too much of it. I didn't think it was too bad, so picked all the meat off the bones and made a yummy soup with a packet of McKenzies soup mix in the pressure cooker. So good!

Realising: I should be going to bed. I don't usually work on a Monday, but the other Kindergym coach is on holiday and I am taking her two Kindergym classes in the morning and then a Tiny Tots gymnastics class with eight, four year olds! Pray for me!

Cooking: Cake! And not just one. The last cake I baked was coconut with some choc chips thrown in. Meant to be cooked in a slab tin, in other words, to feed an army, I poured it into three tins, baked, and froze two cakes. So handy for school lunches, when there's bugger all in the pantry.

Drinking: Too much wine! I was thinking tonight I would love a hot chocolate. In fact I've been craving chocolate all day. 

Reading: Well not much really. Oh, ok! Usually crap news stories sourced on Facebook! Or cookbooks.

Wanting: A holiday on my own.

Looking: Through my photos from the last year, trying in vain to decide which ones to enter into our local photography competition. I have about a week to work it out, and get them printed!

Pondering: Why I am grinding my teeth so much lately.


Wishing: That time would stand still, so I could catch up on everything that hasn't been getting done.

Enjoying: Watching Masterchef. I really wasn't that into it to start with, but have become hooked. Again.

Waiting: For Spring. I do not like cold weather, I don't care how much it rains, but I don't like being cold, and the last week it has been icy.

Liking: That despite the frosty nights and mornings, the sun makes a presence during the day. The wind is still bloody freezing though. 

Wondering: How long I can sit here without my five year old, who is still awake, disturbing me....

Loving: Having a little extra money here and there, with my job at the gymnastics club and holiday house cleaning.

Listening: To music in the house, really loud. Well not too loud. the neighbours would have certainly heard it though. I've been revisiting music I haven't listened to for years. Like INXS' The Swing album and Harry Chapins' greatest stories.

Considering: Getting a hair cut. My usual hairdresser closed down in March, so I need to book somewhere else. 

Buying: New pillows and a storage trunk for the house in Pelican Point. There isn't a hell of a lot of storage space for towels and spare linen there, so I've bought a trunk to put at the end of the main bed to store stuff. Plus it will look good. Wink, wink.

Watching: Reality TV. I have been trying to avoid the news lately, my tender soul doesn't want to hear about the tragedies befalling innocent victims. It all seems like a horrible nightmare. If only it was a dream.

Hoping: My son will be OK in his new flat, I spent Friday and Saturday helping him move and clean up his old flat. He seems happier. He's not 'just around the corner' anymore. But just down the road from my mum. She might get the early morning drop ins, just to see whats in the fridge or pantry.

Marvelling: At the bulbs coming up from the ground in the garden. There should be Jonquils soon. One of the things I do look forward to at this time of year.

Cringing: About how cold the gym is going to be in the morning.

Needing: To go to bed!

Questioning: What is wrong with the world? There's been lots of comments about 2016 being the worst year ever, even the year before. But 2017 is turning out to be a doozy!

Smelling: Gardenia oil in my oil burner. I usually burn incense, it does wonders to relax me. Lately I have been remembering to buy candles for my oil burner, all classy like from the cheap shop, along with smelly oils.

Wearing: Warm clothes! I need to lose a few kilos, because my tracky dacks in this weather are becoming way too comfortable, and I know there's plenty of other pants I could be wearing if I lost a couple of kilos round my belly!

Following: Some amazing local photographers on Instagram. I am in awe of the fantastic way they capture our area. Like trosenthal636 and stevechapplephotography 

Noticing: That my youngest has a cough. Darn winter. 

Thinking: Too much about everything I need to fit in this week. One. day. at. a. time.

Admiring: My mum. Loads of people say nice things about her, and they are right to. She brought us five kids up, and now finally has done some study in aged care and I am so proud of her.

Getting: Quite uncomfortable sitting in our recliners after a couple of hours. the padding is going on the back and the frame is killing my back!

Disliking: Getting in a freezing cold car to take the kids to school. 

Opening: A new tube of mud face mask that came in the mail this week. I wasn't game to do it tonight, in case I had a bad skin reaction. I don't want to be leading Kindergym with a poxy red face.

Giggling: Summer running from the toilet holding her pants up, to answer the home phone today. Brett accidently rung it from his phone, he was sitting two feet from it. It was funny. You had to be there. 

Feeling: Generally with life, I am feeling pretty good. I have my moments, when I let it get on top of me, for about two minutes and then get back on with it.

Celebrating: I've had a few good life wins lately, it affirms to me that you get back good things when you give generously. It's nice to know that Karma has my back.

Pretending: That I am not nervous about taking a class of eight, four year olds tomorrow. Some parents will be watching me too. I hope the kids behave and are not looking at me like I have two heads!

Embracing: All I am learning to do with gymnastics. Embracing the kids who are giving me great feedback with their smiles and enjoyment in the gym. Even the good vibes from parents who are amazed at the facility we provide our community.

An InLinkz Link-up

Time stops for no one

The weeks are flying by. I can hardly keep up. 

It's been an eventful week. Rain, lots of rain. The house in Pelican Point now has a moat around it. Only around the boundary fence, not near the house, thank god. It must have bucketed down there. The lawn is a bit squelchy, we could just about host mud wrestling championships in the front yard. There was still loads of rain last night. God knows what it's like now.

We had no power on Wednedsday night for about 7 hours. Boring! It was snags on the barbeque for dinner and an early night. The supermarkets were a little bare in the cold sections for rest of the week. It gave us all something to talk about anyway.

We've just started school holidays and I was hoping the weather would be better by now. I was looking forward to getting the kids out and about and not be stuck inside for another holidays.

We have a family wedding at the end of this week, that's going to be exciting. Not only because it's at a winery, but we get to travel and we're staying by the beach. It's been a couple of years since our last family wedding. It feels like yesterday.

An InLinkz Link-up

Red lentil and coconut dhal

I like to spoil myself for lunch and cook yummy stuff just for me. Some days I need to be kind to myself, to treat myself well. Be comforted with something warming and healthy. It's also a perfect accompaniment to these bitey winter days.  

The bonus is it tastes satisfyingly good. The kids wouldn't touch this with a barge pole though. No one in this house appreciates my cooking finesse! That's OK, more for me, they can eat boring nuggets or sausages (which they would have no complaints about)!

I appreciate the days Summer and Izzy are at school and kindy. I need those days to catch up. To calm the overwhelm. I am in a state of tenseness (mainly in my shoulders) most of the time. 

In the last six years I haven't had a break away on my own. A break from being a mum, a wife and housekeeper. It's taking a toll on me. I need a weekend away by myself. No kids, no husband. Just me. 

Finding that weekend seems near impossible any time soon. I just have to keep plugging away and savouring the breaks where I get them. I need to nourish myself well, mind and body. I have too many people to care for and no one to look after me. Except me. So I need to do a bloody good job!

A recent course I undertook, to do with food and health, encouraged you to eat as many different ingredients in a day as you could. About 25 - 30 different foods was the recommendation for obtaining as many nutrients as possible from natural sources. 

This recipe has more than ten, so it's a good start to reaching that goal, along with a great breakfast and evening meal filled with healthy natural foods.

Red lentil and coconut dhal

1 medium onion, chopped finely
1 stick celery, sliced
2 tablespoons oil
2 teaspoons finely grated ginger
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 teaspoons cumin
1 star anise
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
1 fresh green chilli
3 cups water
375 gram packet of dried red lentils
1 can coconut milk
500 grams diced pumpkin

Fry onion and celery in oil over a medium heat until onion is transparent.

Add garlic, ginger, cumin, star anise, coriander, turmeric and chilli, stir for one minute.

Stir in lentils and coconut milk, bring to boil.

Reduce heat, stir in pumpkin and simmer covered until lentils and pumpkin are tender, about 25 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper.

I like to serve it with a dollop of natural yogurt, fresh coriander and mint scattered on top.

• Remember not to eat the star anise, it's not that palatable, however I don't mind chewing on it to get the flavour out of it and then spitting it out. It's not for everybody.
• Instead of pumpkin, try other veggies like eggplant, zucchini or sweet potato. Even carrots, broccoli and peas!
• Keep peeled ginger in the freezer. It won't perish in the bottom of the fridge and is easy to grate when frozen and pop the rest back in the freezer for another time.
• I also freeze any herbs that are threatening to turn feral in the fridge, like coriander. The stalks give so much flavour to soups and casseroles. You'll be saving money too by keeping it for later.

An InLinkz Link-up

Something I hadn't prepare earlier

Just a quick one from me, as I am spending way too much of my little time, going through all my photos in preparation for this weeks show entries.

This Millicent annual show is on over the weekend, and I'm entering some produce and flowers from the garden, and photos. Exciting, but SO much to organise and do. Bit nervous about actually having any decent roses to actually enter.

Thursday is the day I have to drop everything off. I still have to order my prints online, and get Brett to pick them up after work in the Mount before then. It's stressing me out just thinking about it! Hoo, breathe.

The kids are putting a few things each in the show too.

Isabel has been wanting to use my camera, and I've been cautiously letting her. She's getting one for her birthday (not an expensive one like mine), because she is showing interest in photography. Her sister and I have become sitting ducks, along with the next door neighbours dog. So she'll be putting in a few photos.

This is one of Izzys, a close up of her sister. It was a nice surprise to find this on my camera. It is awesome.

I'm off my meds now, and everything seems to be going ok.

There's so much happening between now and Christmas. The show, the kids birthday parties, the Christmas pageant, end of school concert. We'll get there in the end, just have to meet things as they come.

We've just gotten the Gymnastics concert out the way this past weekend, done and dusted. One to cross off the list. Isabel is starting pre competition classes in a couple of weeks. Apparently she 'has it'. I hope she enjoys it. If not, she can go back to normal gym classes. That's OK.

I hope you all have a great week, and remember to meet life as it comes. I am trying not to stress about what's ahead, because really, it will be just fine.

An InLinkz Link-up

This garden path I'm on

My garden is so established, it doesn't take much maintenance. Seasons come and go. Weeds are pulled, roses are pruned, escaping ivy is contained. The ivy seems to be my biggest problem. 

It wasn't here when we got here, but it took off like a shot in no time. My guess it was here before and it's just taken over again.

I've forgotten the therapeutic benefits of getting out in the garden. I've become complacent, lazy. On Saturday morning I filled an empty green waste bin with ivy that had spilled over the paths borders. It felt good. It made me sweat, and I realise how unfit I am. 

Last week I saw my uncle, and he asked me if I had 'one on the way'. I responded "No. I'm just fat!". I took no offence from it. I have stacked it on. Like I said, I've gotten lazy. 

So back on the healthy eating, an attempt at looking after me. Getting back to the basics, the things close to me, that bring me satisfaction. Like tending my garden, taking photos and appreciating the simple things I have, and not getting down about the things I don't have or have time for. 

Outside my front door, there is a place, my garden, that brings me peace. I never tire of the passing seasons and the wonderful things that happen there.

I've had a garden in every home I've lived in since I was 20. Besides my own garden, I have worked in two fabulous local gardens. Something I am proud of, and really I should be backing myself more than I do, when it comes to garden knowledge.

This year I have joined my local community garden. I've already convinced several gardening stalwarts, that the Slippery Jack mushrooms that grow there, are not weedy fungi. You can actually eat them! A bonus to our community garden if anything.

Being involved in the community garden brings new and exciting possibilities, dreams. Goals. I have already pushed my boundaries, and social anxieties, by approaching several local businesses for donations. I am still feeling apprehensive about it all, but know what I am doing is good. I am feeling unsure about the website I have set up for the gardens. Insecure. But again, is it a good thing.

But like blogging, I just have to believe. If it feels right, just keep pushing on. Keep plugging away. There is always encouraging people and moments of gold along the way. That little piece of sparkle is motivation enough. Motivation that my direction is positive, a step in the right direction. In the end, if the direction is not the one that I am not supposed to be on, at least I have learned new skills. Skills that will boost me on a new path. 

What skills are helping you on your path?
Do you lend your skills to your local community?

New life in the garden

When Boggy mentioned the other day there was a nest in one of the trees I didn't take much notice.

On Sunday he came in and said there was a bird sitting in it if I wanted to go out and take photos. 

I never noticed it before, it's at head height tucked away in the fork of a tree, right next to a garden path.

Mother bird flew out of the nest when the kids came around being noisy, revealing three(I think) little babies.

Kiddlywinks and a few chooks ;)

Playing on Summers new bed

Dare devil Izzy

while I take selfies

These two have taken a liking to this seat in the garden

Wordless Wednesday

A week off...

I've had a week off. It's been swell. 

I have come full circle back to Monday. Open slather.

I have nothing. I have lots, nothing to say. That's just me. Bursting with information with nothing to say. 

Boring as batshit, eh? I sometimes wonder about Jakes' aspergers,  and wonder if I am a little that way inclined. In the fact that I am not a great communicator. Not a big talker. And when I do talk it comes out all awkward. 

I go through the week, light bulb moments. Scenarios exploding in my head. I come to sitting down at the computer, I have zilcho mundo. 

I have a recording function on my phone. Why don't I just hit record and talk? Beats me. Note. to. self. press record.

There has been lots happening. 

I received an email from an elderly gentleman.  A photo of his wife at ten years old in front of a rotunda with her relatives in 1940. Trying to find the location of that rotunda. It looks like our town rotunda. Amazing old photo, has me intrigued, referred it to the local family history group. Interesting stuff.

Buzz has gone on to another home. After the fourth time escaping the fence, Brett let the pound find him a new home. I was in two minds. He is such an active dog, he needs more room. He was bloody marvellous with the kids, but he is a farm dog, an intelligent, working dog. We love him but realise he is the wrong dog for us, right now. When it comes to the crunch we had to seccumb to reality and not sentimentality. He already has a new suitable home. I hope they have a basketball for him, he's a bloody good dog.

The council dog catcher referred us to www.petnet.com.au and rightly so,  for the next time we want a new dog, we will be most certainly be following this advice. 

About receive my first parcel in the mail for review. Excited plus. 

I am in the process of writing up a disclosure/PR page. No friggin idea what I am doing. But I'll keep thinking, piece of piss, and trogan on as per usual!

I haven't been totally slack, you will surely notice I have spruced up the place :) 

What's been happening with you?