Goodness me...

...I've got a head cold AGAIN. 

This week the kids are still home because their school doesn't go back until next week...

FAR OUT. This is the week that I'm meant to be taking them to parks & the movies & lots of fun stuff they've missed out on...darn it all!!

I'm off to bed with a tissue or 100...

Warrior Mothers

Reading this amazing book at the moment...autism in children & how diet can be a huge help to those children who have it...amid other things.  It's written in such an interesting way that I can't put it down! The kids are watching episodes of Thomas the Tank Engine, the house is a total mess & it's lunch but I'm trying to read more...

That fierce love & determination to help our children makes my chest puff out with admiration for all the parents in the book who are pulling out all stops to help their children. (I read about it on someone elses Blog somewhere.) I do agree that the amount of toxic chemicals in our society are really affecting children & the number of children with illnesses & allergies continue to increase. You can't tell me it isn't. As a teacher I see it! Like Jenny McCarthy I wonder what the future holds for our children unless we do something about it?

Better go wash the dishes...darn it!

eBay

eBay is my new best friend!

Been buying a few cool things - why do we bother buying brand new things all the time & wrecking the environment when one man's trash is another man's treasure?

The intention is to SAVE money of course...spending to save...hmmmm, not sure that is working...

Starting to feel a bit better after the whole winter flu disaster here. 

Almost Perfect

Just read an awesome book by a lady called Kelly Denley who decided after having 8 kids, that she wanted to head back to school to do her HSC. After getting through that with 97.3 her family seemed to be struggling at school with so many issues that she & her husband decided they would throw everything into their cars & travel around Australia to improve relationships within their family & create some memories for their children. As someone who has just had to cancel their holidays with a camper trailer it was a little sad/bittersweet to read it these holidays, but also inspiring & made me laugh & cry. There is nothing better than a  great biography to read. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BOOK!!

Now, back to blowing my nose again...

P.S. Been so caught up with my own miserable cold that I just realised Miss Bon looked very flushed. She's been in with Dad in the studio & has been complaining about how COLD it is today. She's got a huge polar fleece dressing gown on. Just took her temp - the poor darling is running a fever of 39.4. No wonder she looks so dreadful, she's shivering with a fever. She's just curled up on the lounge now with a DVD of the Muppets to sooth her. Last night she didn't sleep until 1am. When I got up for a toilet break I heard sobbing & she said "I can't get to sleep, my leg aches". She fell down the ladder to her bed the other night so I just thought that perhaps she's broken something in her foot or it's bruised after that? I got out the heavy duty pain medicine for her & a chocolate to help it go down & she was so desperate to sleep she knocked it all down - very unlike her to take medicine without kicking up a huge fuss. Maybe it was all her joints aching with this cold she's got. (Dad took her in to his work yesterday & she was out in blisteringly cold winds on some play equipment - rolling my eyes! I'm sure that contributed!!) Off for another cuppa now & to keep an eye on her. Hot Chocolate & Kermit. What could be better when you're unwell!?

I wish I was...

...going to the new Harry Potter movie premier tonight instead of sitting in bed sneezing & blowing my nose!!

Sheesh I'm a whiner aren't I?????? 

2 years on...

Two years ago (on the 13th July) David had his brother's stem cells put into his veins via his central line to give him a chance to LIVE. His body was filled with chemicals & radiation to totally destroy any remaining cancer & to totally destroy his immune system to give it the best chance to accept the new blood. We prayed & prayed that this would find its way into his bone & start the work of making new fresh marrow...

Two years down the track I am so happy that David is here - alive - with us. It has certainly taken a toll on us all though, & some results from this whole process remain to be fully seen. It has taken its toll on us all - emotionally, spiritually & physically. 

Here he is on his 40th birthday this year...there are many health issues that continue & instead of being a time of wonder & joy this is actually a time of darkness for him I think as he comes to grips with his life & his dreams...yet each day we put one foot in front of the other & we move forward - sometimes without realising it? Life does not stop so we can wallow in our private anguishes, it rushes ever onwards. It's like that Leunig cartoon of a man walking along a dark path looking up a laneway at bright lights & the arrow pointing up the laneway says "the life you could have lead" but the sad character continues along the path that says "the life you lead". That kind of sums up where I think he's at...

Heaters, blankets, snuffles & prayer

D going stir crazy after a week of coughing at home so has rugged up & headed off into wild blue yonder for an hour. (Eric's eyes welled up with tears as he left. Sometimes he is so sensitive & on the ball with what Dad is feeling!)

Although Sunday is normally a NO TV day here, I just put on Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory to settle the kids down. They are "antsy" today, nitpicking with each other. They have built things with KidsKNex, they have coloured in & made a drawing for a sick friend, listened to music & looked at books...time for some snuggly comfort under some blankets laying around in front of the TV. A better mum would find something else for them to do I'm sure, but today I'm pooped. I listened to poor D pour out his darkest thoughts last night about how

 frustrated he is with his post-cancer body & his life. I've run around waiting on everyone this week & today I really am pooped. Praying for everyone. Think I might go & do a meditation & just sit & vent to God! He's big enough to take it!! Some weeks are tough. This was a tough one for us. But the only thing we can do is put one foot in front of the other each day. My brother-in-law is having his 60th birthday celebration up the coast right now & we are here instead of there...

Time to crank the heaters, pass the tissues, rug up & maybe do some reading!?

 

Cancelled holidays :-(

Bummer. 

D & kids really unwell with fevers & coughs. Probably swine flu which is so rampant around here they're not even testing any more. A local school had 250+ kids off one day this week!! I went to the shops yesterday to try to stock up while I could & everyone around me seemed to be hacking. My sister who works at Kempsey hospital has been handing out masks left right & center to try to stop people coughing on each other. I can't believe that people still don't cover their mouth when they cough!! As the lady who served me at the shops - you expect kids to sometimes forget but someone coughed right in her friend's face - AND SHE IS RECOVERING FROM CANCER WITH A LOW IMMUNE SYSTEM!! She didn't appologise or appear to think she'd done anything wrong. What hope do we have with people like that walking among us!!

But sadly (yes Kerrie, it's just as you thought) we won't be heading up to Queensland - again. Waaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!! I guess it could be worse. We could be up there & THEN come down with it. For now we have to rug up, stay warm & take some Panadol...

It's the hard knock life...

Went to see the SSCS production of Annie last night...good to get out to see a show. D was on baby sitting duty after spending all afternoon at the hospital visiting a friend. 

He's there tonight. I'm off to bed after helping Eric's class visit a local Fire Station, then a picnic at a local park. (Working near little ones totally exhausts me!!)

Off with a cuppa to read I think!

zzzzz...........