Belated baby news

I'm typing this left handed at the moment as my ten week old baby snoozes in my right arm - hopefully for long enough to write this post! Yes, ten whole weeks already.  He was born on the 11th August at1.57pm weighing 3.17kgs and 50cm long.  He was induced 3 weeks early because he had stopped growing so he wasn't the big fat baby I was expecting but he's certainly making up for it now.   He was 5.8kg and 59cm at his 8 week check up and going on how quickly clothes are being moved to the 'doesn't fit' pile, he's more than 6kg now.

We named him Dominic Theo and MR and I are loving being parents.  We're very lucky, he's a very good baby - doesn't cry much, self soothes at bed time, usually gives us at least one block of 4-5 hours of sleep at night. I'm slowly starting to feel like I've got the hang of this (most days) and MR is a bit of a natural.

I'm sure I'll be back to tell you more another time in the hopefully not too far distant future but for now its feeding time again so I'll leave you with some photos.

On his due date

P.S. I knitted that blanket he's lying on in that last photo!

 

Today

Today has been one of those beautiful Winter days we get here in WA.  It's been cold - it didn't quite reach 14 degrees - but there hasn't been any wind or clouds so it is just glorious outside in the sun.

:: Self sown pumpkins creeping across my pavers :: The Meow soaking up the warmth :: 

:: Early jonquils starting to flower ::  Lemons ready for picking :: 

:: New towels and linens for the baby washed and on the line :: My favourite gum tree in flower ::

On normality

I've been wanting to write this post for a while now but I've been too busy. Busy being normal.

From about Week 18 of my pregnancy, once the morning sickness finished and I could eat enough to get some energy and my blood pressure came up enough that I didn't feel like passing out after 10 steps, life has been resoundingly normal. And it is fucking awesome. 

I had forgotten what normal was like. Normal is going to work and not coming home exhausted. 

Normal is not needing two rest days to get through the week. 

Normal is being able to go out both days on the weekend and not feel shattered. 

Normal is feeling happy pretty much every day, instead of just when I've had enough rest. 

Normal is amazing. 

Being off my leukaemia drugs because they're unsafe to the baby has shown me just how much I've had to change my lifestyle and that what I thought of as normal really truly isn't. The 'new normal' is often talked about amongst the dealing with CML or liver transplant circles and it's taken this medication break to realise just how true that is. You feel pretty shit when you first start the medication. Lots of side effects and thing to make you feel awful. Then when that wears off after a month or half a year or however long it takes you start to think you're getting back to almost, but not quite, normal. It's amazing how quickly the brain can adjust to the new energy levels and while you know you used to be able to do more with your days you just accept it as a change. 

I've embraced every minute of normality while it's returned to me. It's so precious. I know MR enjoys having the true old me back as well. I joke about staying pregnant forever. Just second trimester though. 

Normal is beginning to come to end. A few weeks ago my feet started to swell, then my ankles and calves. Then my fingers and hands. And while I'm still enjoying the energy, I'm starting to get a bit more tired and a lot more uncomfortable, mainly in my feet and hands. My blood pressure is fine so that's good but I'm on close monitoring now due to the higher risk of pre eclampsia in someone who's had a liver transplant. Close monitoring involves lots of trips to Perth and back which are starting to get wearying and it's likely I'll have to stay down there soon, even though I'm only 31 weeks. 

My leukaemia cell levels have started to rise too, which of course is expected when I'm not on the medication. I've never actually reached 0, only getting down to about 0.027 (which is nothing you say but while there's a trace its risky to go off the meds) and it's now back up to 0.8. It needs to stay under 1 while off meds to keep the risk of it getting serious as low as possible. So I'll be back on the medication sooner rather than later. 

I've started to grieve a little bit in advance of losing myself again, it's been so nice to be back to normal. There's always that lingering hope for the miracle that it might just disappear. 

I'm also a bit worried about how I'll cope with recovering physically from birth, dealing with the sleep deprivation of having a newborn and having to go through all the side effects of the meds again and the fatigue it causes. It's not that I didn't know I'd have to go back on it after giving birth, it was that I'd forgotten what it was like to have regular energy levels. 

Regular energy levels are amazing people. Never take them for granted. 

And just so you're not feeling depressed by my post, here's a photo of my big fat baby at 29 weeks who is measuring on the 90th percentile and looking very healthy. It's all worth it. 

Quiet Days

I'm really savouring my quiet days at the moment, knowing they are finally limited and quickly coming to an end.  

Every other Thursday I don't work so an hour of my morning is spent at pregnancy yoga which I find just leaves me feeling so calm and centred for the rest of the day.  So the TV is left off, the washing machine too if I can get away with it, and I spent the day in quiet pursuits.

 

There's usually a bit of knitting happening and the cooler weather means the meow might hang out on my lap for half an hour or so if I'm lucky.  Today I also made some soy candles for my yoga instructor.  I'm still the only one in town doing it, although apparently next week (on the week I can't make it of course) a few of the other pregnant ladies in town are planning on attending.  And because I'm the only one she hasn't accepted any money, saying I'm her guinea pig.  Lucky me! So I thought I'd make her some candles in thanks.

I don't have a book on the go at the moment which is sometimes a good thing because it means I get a lot more done.  If I have a good book it doesn't last very long but on the days I'm reading it a whole lot of not much else happens!

I spent a bit of time out in the veggie garden, giving it a good watering and enjoying the sunshine until the flies were beginning to ruin my calm and I headed back inside.  Hopefully I'll head out in half an hour or so once the flies have left for the evening and before the mozzies come out to spend a bit of time doing some light weeding.  It's a bit of a juggling act to do gardening in between bugs out here.  

Our mulberry tree is having a little spate of out of season mulberries as well.  We had a couple of weeks with a lot of glorious rain and now some lovely low to mid 20's sunny days means that I'm getting a small handful off the tree every few days.

I think knowing these sorts of days will be very much ended for a while in approximately 18 weeks is making them all the more sweet but I am really feeling so recharged after a day of quietness.

#100happydays

You've probably seen this around on facebook or instagram - I've been doing it on instagram @threadsofhappiness.  I initially started this as a way to remind myself to notice the small things.  Back when I began this blog I gave it the name silver threads of happiness because sometimes it feels like the happiness is just little threads through your life, nice sparkling silver ones, but still small moments or threads.  I've always been one to notice the small things and get pleasure from them and so I thought this would be a good title and theme for my blog.  I actually got it from a poem I wrote as a teenager.  Back when things were really dark and twisty.  But anyhow, soon after starting my blog I was diagnosed with leukaemia and finding those little moments, little threads became even more important to me in not freaking out or letting illness consume my life. 

I used to join along with Maxabella's weekly gratefulness posts but when they went over to kidspot I sort of petered off on it, not having kids myself.  But they were perfect.  A reminder to reflect on the good parts of the week.  And I've sort of missed that.  Not that I haven't noticed the nice and happy things in my life, or that I've been overly sad - just that little reminder to make note of it.

So here are my first 18 happy days.  I'm already up to day 47, I know, a bit slack at getting them up here but there you have it.  For real time go find me on instagram!

 a new haircut :: morning tea on Wednesdays :: cuddles with my meow girl
leftovers means no cooking :: tulips - my favourite :: a free chocolate with my hot choc
cannoli :: taking some pieces on a hunt for frames  :: finding one right sized frame & potted tulips

massage :: bees pollinating my loquats :: nursemaid meow while I was feeling crap
(three day hiatus while in hospital)

coming home to my own bed :: the sense of achievement at lighting a fire :: drove 3hrs for cuddles with MR

new skincare :: my hair is getting longer (slowly) :: HBF Run For A Reason - raised $2135 for Donor Mate and walked 4kms with my sister

It's not too late to go join in either, you just start whenever you like.  I'm not finding it difficult, some days there are many things I could put up as my happy moment.  I'm much more active in looking around me and being observant as well and I'm finding it easier to be positive even on shitty days.  I took a few days off while I was in hospital but in retrospect, I didn't need to, there were still happy moments even while stuck in there feeling awful.

#100happydays

  

Garden growth

While I was having lunch with Mum last week, she mentioned that the weekend was the best time (according the the planting moon calendar) to plant Spring bulbs.  Mum is quite a good gardener and she does all of her planting according to this calendar so I thought I would give it a try.  I am a middling gardener at best.  About half the things I plant either die or never seem to grow.  Plus, it was the day before Term 2 started and gardening seemed like some good productive procrastination.

Autumn has finally arrived in my part of the country with the weekend also bringing our first really good proper rain for the year.  The mornings are crisp and cool, the days are mostly sunny - the type of sun that is best for basking in - and the nights are best spent with slippers, jumpers and rugs.  I haven't turned on the heater yet but I've been a bit tempted.

I spent an hour outside, clearing a few weeds, removing old agapanthus leaves and flower spikes, planting the bulbs - some tulips, snowdrops and bluebells - pulling up the dead part of the pumpkin vine and burying it over in the right hand corner to compost.  There's still a few bits of it growing, it seems to have taken root again?  I'll just leave it to do its thing.  We only ended up getting one pumpkin off it (so far?) and that's reminded me to post about it next time.

After I had finished, I stood back and thought about how much our garden has grown in the three years it has been since we bought the place.  Certainly not all of it, but this part of the garden looks so good with the frangipani trees really taking off in height now, shading the plants below in Summer and letting the sun in when the leaves drop closer towards Winter.  I've planted the bulbs in under the frangipani trees.  I'm hoping the leaves will create some shade for the flowers in our very short Spring and help them to flower better and last longer.

The photo below was taken when we moved in.  It's a bit of a different angle but look at the change.  

So many differences.  I'm reasonably happy with this part of the garden at the moment.  I wish I could say the same for the rest of it.  Since working out we would not be in this place for much longer, the urge to plant new things has decreased a bit.  I'll be sad to say goodbye to my fruit trees though, and before I've even gotten an apricot from our apricot tree.  I'll have to keep my fingers crossed for an early crop this year.  Last years crop was a grand total of one single apricot which somehow disappeared entirely while still green.  I think a bird must have flown off with it.

How is your garden going?  Autumn is such a lovely time of the year to spend outside isn't it?  And do you plant new plants via the moon planting calendar?

 

Goodbye old car...

 

You've treated me well over the past eight years.  I've loved you well and washed you little.  I'm sorry.  You've never broken down on me in 218,000 km.  You may have hit three kangaroos on separate occasions and left me stranded with a rather stoved in front half in the middle of nowhere at about 8pm one night but it wasn't your fault you were a roo magnet.

Note to self, when you hit a kangaroo and notice that your car temperature level is increasing dramatically, make sure you take note of approximately where you are so that when you call friends to come and rescue you and they ask that all important question, your answer is not a high pitched "On the side of the road next to a really big tree."  So helpful.

And hello new (to me) shiny sporty car!

 

Happily, mine and MR's idea of a good car for me matched up perfectly, right down to the colour.  Working three days a week does not create a budget allowing for sports car purchases so we bought it together.  Our first joint big joint purchase/loan! 

It's been a bit of an exciting week hooning driving this baby around.  It's a 2011 Subaru WRX.  It has leather seats and sat nav and cruise control and bluetooth phone hands free things.  I thought the air con was on crack because it kept stopping being cold but MR informs me it is actually just rather clever and has climate control so when it thinks the car has reached that temperature it stops cooling it.  

It's been on one trip out to country town home and it has got some quite powerful acceleration happening.  Overtaking is very easy and quick.  There wasn't really any speeding because of the double demerits I'm a responsible driver but I did have fun slowing right down and then speeding up to the speed limit on some straight empty country roads.  I took my sister for a drive and there may have been some mad cackling from both of us while on those straight country roads.  Mum declined a test drive...   

 

A milestone reached

High Four for Responsibility!*

I think I may have finally reached the milestone of Official Responsible Adulthood.  I certainly feel responsible anyhow.

How did I get here you ask?

Well, it wasn't turning 18.  Nor moving out of home.  It wasn't buying a car.  It wasn't my first holiday overseas without my family either. Or finishing uni, getting a job and moving a three hours drive away from anyone I knew. 

This week marks the week that I paid off my credit card for the first time since I got one when I was 19.  That's 13 years folks.  13 years of paying off bits and then spending more, repeated ad nauseam.

Hooray!  I can't describe just how chuffed I am with myself that I didn't spend my tax return on a Thermomix or a fancy new blender (my two initial thoughts of how to use it).

This means that as of now, apart from about $500 of HECS debt (uni fees for those nonAU people), I am completely debt free.  Admittedly, MR has lots of debt because he bought our house but it was his decision to not do a joint mortgage. 

The opportunities are endless.  Unfortunately, now I feel like I have lots of spare money because I have an empty credit card so I need to get onto reducing my limit quick smart before I belie my above claim to responsible adult-ness.   I do however have a bit of extra cash each pay that used to go towards paying off my credit card which I'm going to save all of and, oh all right, some of and put it towards a deposit for a new car (and some more debt). 

The other bit, if I'm entirely honest, will most likely be blown wildly on new clothes that I don't need and craft stuff that I don't use.  Just like usual.


Maybe I still have a little way to go...


 
Do you feel like a responsible adult at least some of the time?  Did you have a defining moment of reaching that milestone? 



 
* I may have been struggling to find a relevant photo and Meow has such cute fluffy paws...

New Zealand ::South Island::

Continuing on from here.

From Wellington we got a flight down to Queenstown.  We decided to do it this way because by now we only had 4 nights left before we flew out!  Time goes so quickly on holidays.  The view coming in to land in Queenstown was just beautiful, even though we were apparently on the wrong side of the plane for the really big mountain views.

Snow!

We had two nights in Queenstown, the first place we stopped at properly since visiting family.  We stayed at the Pounamu Apartments which I would definitely recommend.  I made sure we booked somewhere with a washing machine so we could clean all our dirty things and there was even complimentary washing detergent next to the washing machine.  Although we had a back apartment because we just booked a studio room, there were one bedroom and two bedroom apartments at the front of the complex which had absolutely amazing views of the lake and mountains behind it.

The ski fields were already closed but we took a drive up to see some snow (which was very icy because of melting) and we just missed a freak Spring snowstorm the day after we left which left people trapped where they were and unable to get through the mountain passes.  While it would have been pretty awesome to see snow falling, we were glad not to have to change our holiday plans.  While up at the snow fields, I was captured by an discarded, unmelted icy pole which must have been there for a few days at least as the place had been closed for almost a week.  You would never see anything like that in Western Australia!  The view up there was pretty amazing as well.

We also went up the mountain/hill on the Gondola and down via flying fox, or as they call it, zip lines.  I'd done a flying fox in Dwellingup (south WA) on a school camp and loved it so I was really the drive behind doing this.  It was the only adrenaline style thing I was really interested in doing.  It was so much fun.  There were 6 zip lines in total, zigzagging down the hill front.  Unfortunately, we completely forgot to go to the store to see the photos of us on the tour that we could buy and we didn't take very many while doing it.  We were about an hour out of Queenstown when I remembered we were supposed to go and look at the photos.  I did get a couple of us turning upside down in our harnesses but because they were taken from behind all you can see is bums.

The gondola ride up and the view from the top

Ziplining and the amazing view between the trees

Queenstown is such a gorgeous place, I could easily have spent a week or two there.  There were rugs draped over the back of the chairs in the outside seating area of the cafes and pubs to keep warm.  So cute.  There were daffodils growing wild on the banks of the river and the side of the road.  It would have been lovely to hire bikes and go for a ride around (part) of the lake but we just ran out of time, as we did everywhere.

Following Queenstown, we drove to Dunedin.  On the way there we stopped at a cheese and winery and bought some picnic supplies.  We found a beautiful little spot by the side of the river with a little waterfall to sit and picnic next to.  We were so lucky with the weather, it continued to be sunny and even though it was cold, sitting in the sun was just glorious.

We were only in Dunedin for one day and spent most of it just wandering around until our flight which was in the evening.  We went to the Otago Museum and (more minibeasts alert) went to the Butterfly area in the Discovery World Tropical Forest.  The new butterflies were released at 10:30am and I was like a little kid rushing through the museum to make it in time (our breakfast took a bit longer to come out than we thought it would).  Because the new butterflies were still a bit dozy and their wings were still drying off, they were quite happy to be placed on the hand of a person and just chill out there until they were ready for flying.  So exciting!  I had one butterfly land on my nose but was too slow to take a photo.  There used to be a butterfly enclosure at the Zoo here in Perth but it closed down many years ago and now there are no butterfly places around.  Whenever I travel I always check for butterfly places. The tropical forest had three levels, ground, mezzanine and sky.  Down the bottom there were some tortoises in a pond which were pretty cute as well.

From Dunedin we flew to Auckland where we stayed the night just outside the airport and flew out the next day.  MR secretly upgraded out tickets to business class on the way back as well and because it was a newer plane we got the Skybed seats.  So amazing!  I read an entire book and watched a movie in comfort with my feet propped on the ottoman or stretched out on my bed.  Definitely the way to fly if you can!


Currently, it is seven weeks before we head over to New Zealand again for Christmas and while we won't get a chance to go to the South Island again as MR's family is in the North Island, I really cannot wait to do some more exploring.  Number 1 on my list is to have a bit of a soak in a nice warm geothermal stream somewhere, one of the things we ran out of time to do this trip. 

Do you have any other suggestions of places to go or things to do in the North Island?  We will be around the Te Puke region and I'd welcome any ideas, particularly good shops to hunt down!

 

New Zealand ::North Island::

I finally uploaded my photos from our New Zealand holiday to the computer last night (mainly because I needed to show a friend the shots today) so now I can do my holiday wrap up post.

Our trip started off well, we were upgraded to business class because the plane was an older one and didn't have premium economy seats (the ones we did book).  This meant we got to hang in the lounge while waiting for our flight!  MR is well and truly immune to the excitement of lounges as he used to be a regular attendee when flying up to work.  Mine workers are more prevalent than business men in gold class lounges here in Western Australia.  I however was not at all immune.  It was my first lounge visit (and business class flight) and I was like a little girl in a lolly shop.  Trying all the free things, checking out what was available.  Trying more of the food.  And some more.  There was free alcohol as well but I didn't try any of that.

Coming in to land was amazing.  The landscape looking like a blanket of lush green carpet.  No brown or red to be seen.  If you haven't been before, think florist foam dark green.  It looked like every hill had been sprayed with that.

We were also really lucky that the only day of rain we had was on the last day.  All other days were sunny and while we were in the North Island it was short sleeves, hats and sunscreen sort of weather.

We started off our holiday visiting MR's family.  They took us to see glow worms on our first night on what they called "about a half an hour walk" to the local waterfall.  Of course, that walk involved 20 minutes of walking down steps by torch light into the gully where the waterfall was and then about 30 minutes back up again.  On three hours sleep.  As you can imagine I was the last back to the top.  I kept stopping to look at glow worms on the way back up (or so I told myself).  The next day I was pretty stoked to see some bumble bees and spent a good twenty minutes alternating between galloping around the garden chasing them with the camera and squatting down trying to get a good photo, much to the amusement of the rellies.

However, the holiday was about more than just minibeasts (although they do feature again later).  We learnt about growing kiwi fruit on the family farm and the troubles they have had with disease in the past few years.  We went for a visit to the Tamaki Maori Village and learnt about Maori culture and had a tradition hangi meal for dinner.  It was really interesting to hear about the Maori history.  I'd never thought about how little I knew about it.  We also went to the Wai-O-Tapu Geothermal Wonderland and walked through the stinky rotten egg sulpher steam clouds, (which we dubbed 'poo clouds') looking at all the different geothermal pools and boiling mud pools.  These were not ones you could get in to, there were many signs warning of the temperature being 100`C and no touching.*

After visiting with family we spent a couple of days driving down to Wellington to visit one of MR's cousins before flying over to the South Island.  We stayed in this restored old home which is now a bed and breakfast while in Wellington.

Unfortunately we were only in New Zealand for ten days and we wanted to see Everything so it was quite rushed.  We only spent one night in Wellington and flew out early the next morning.  This was probably a good thing for MR because as soon as we were somewhere for longer than just a night I wanted to go shopping!  We are lucky enough to be heading back to the North Island at Christmas time to spend Christmas with the family over there.  MR's parents are paying for us, his two brothers, their partners and one grandchild to come over which is just so generous.  So we are very much looking forward to heading over there for another ten days in a bit under eight weeks.


I'll fly us down to South Island and fill you in on our adventures there (hopefully tomorrow) but for now, unfortunately school work is calling me.



  

*Can you guess who was the five year old who read the sign and then spent the rest of the walk wanting to stick her finger into all of the pools 'just to see'?

Two

Today my liver turns two. 

Two years since that precious gift from an unknown young man. 

I think about him and his family as I make my traditional anniversary cupcakes. Raspberry, Apple and Cinnamon this time. Do they do something each year in remembrance of him? Or does it pass quietly, individually, retrospectively?  I feel he should be celebrated. But I understand if they are not ready yet.  

I've just gotten back from my first overseas holiday post transplant.  New Zealand.  A place I would never have had a chance to experience if not for the generosity of an anonymous family.  So many experiences I've had in the last two years and so many moments to come that I owe to them.

How do you say thank you for something like that?

Unfortunately, my leukaemia disallows me from donating organs or blood.  But if you are allowed to, you should consider becoming an organ donor or a blood donor.  There are so many people in need and it is such a amazing gift to be able to give.

Last week I wore a bikini for the first time since surgery.  My scar is still there but it is now just a part of me, I often forget it is there. Parts of it have faded a lot, parts are still pink. I don't mind. Oddly, I am less self conscious of my stomach now than I have ever been.  I'll have to take another photo soon for the records and compare.

Tulips

These beautiful tulips from MR are on my tallboy in the bedroom at the moment. Catching the afternoon Winter sun. Looking amazing. I could lie here all afternoon smiling at them. They make me happy. Just what I need after a few annoying days stuck in hospital. 

I am not really much of a flower type girl. Many of them are too pongy and give me a headache. But Spring bulbs I could have in my house any day. Tulips, Snowdrops, Bluebells and Ranunculus particularly. I love how you can gently pull down the tulip leaves a little bit and they go all curly. It's like hair styling for flowers. 

I often think as I am looking at photos of flowers (or trying to arrange a bunch myself) how do you get them looking so beautiful? I never seem to get it looking quite as nice. The only thing I have learnt about arranging flowers, or anything really, is that odd numbers grouped together look better. It is something I did a little bit instinctively without really realising and then when I read it, it was a bit of an epiphany moment. 

Are you are flower arranging queen or have you done a flower arranging course? I've love some more tips. 

And what flowers would you have in your home year round if there were no climatic restrictions? 

  

Looking forward

Right now there's lots of good stuff to be looking forward to and about.  Both event wise and life moments.

I saw my haematologist today and my Leukaemia cells are at their lowest ever.  Last month they were at 0.057 and this month they are at 0.022 which is an excellent drop for a one month period.  My next test is in three months time now so I've got my fingers crossed I'll get another zero on the right side of that point mark.  Either way, I'm feeling very positive right now!

There's two days left of Kindy until I'm on school holidays.

I'm heading to MRs home town this weekend for a bit of time with him and his family.  He had his first week of work at home and enjoyed being busy and working with the tools again after being office-bound management for quite a while on the mines.

On the weekend there will be some quilt finishing by me and some quilt starting by MR's Mum who is making us a quilt which I think I have finally finished selecting fabrics for.

I've made plans with four friends for four different catch ups over the holidays.  Movies and lunches and afternoon teas.  And hopefully I'll manage to fit in a few more catch ups along the way.

And super exciting, we had some work done on the house this weekend just been.  It's not entirely finished so no photos yet.  The workman is back tomorrow to finish it off and I can't wait to show you what we have had done.  I am so pleased with it and it is our first big change to the place since moving in two years and three months ago.  What a long time we took to get to this point!!


Have you got some lovely things on the horizon? 

This week...

we got a dishwasher. We haven't had one up til now and I am on cloud nine. Every time I put a dirty dish in it I get a big grin on my face and when I turn it on (twice so far) I have clapped my hands and bounced with glee.

I finished my Kindy reports a day early. This is big for me, usually I am the type that hands things in a day or two late. Being on time has never been my strong point. So to finish and hand them in a whole 24 hours before they are due was a super exciting and proud moment for me. It also meant a weekend ahead of no school work. *ahhhhhh*

I baked, twice. Sago and banana bread. Can you guess the reason why? (Hint: see point one) Baking and no dishes afterwards? My kind of bliss.

I caught up with my best friend for a movie (Monsters University) and waffles. We felt like we were in high school again as we both chose mint fudge choc chip ice cream, the flavour of choice from those years.

I bought a new pair of jeans and only paid $35 for them. Enough said.

I have managed to schedule in a don't-leave-the-house, pyjama-filled day of reading, blogging and relaxing.

I have indulged on naughty forbidden treats; blue brie and pate. Oh how I love them. I'm on antibiotics at the moment so I figure they will kill any bad things hiding in them. This is my justification anyhow.



And finally, this week marks the end of MR's break after finishing up on the mines after 6 years! Unfortunately he is not now living full time with me but instead we have swapped locations from when we were first going out. Now he will be in his country home town working at the family business and I am in Perth. We're back to (as many as we can possibly fit in) weekend visitations after two years of approximately one week of three visitations. I'm a bit sad about it but it also marks the start of the next chapter in our lives together and I'm sure I'll get used to it again. I'll be in Perth probably until the end of next year and then I'll be heading back to the country as well.


How has your week been?

  
  

Many Good Things

Today is the first day of school holidays.

Need I say more about good things when the above is the case?

Not really, but I shall.

Not only was it the first day of school holidays but I also woke up to rain on the roof.  How good is rain of the roof when you get to stay in bed?

I am still in my pyjamas and it is 3:15pm.

I got to have yummy banana bread that I baked yesterday for breakfast.

The house is relatively clean because MR vacuumed yesterday.

I managed to find the energy to do a double batch of baking yesterday as well as go to Brown Owls, (amazing what you can get done when you don't need to conserve energy for a week of work) and so MR has headed back to work this morning with two containers of ANZAC biscuits to snack on (his favourite).  

I went to Brown Owls yesterday and had fun chatting and stitching away at this.

I have a $100 reward shopper voucher from Picnic/Hobbs and a $20 one from Myer burning a hole in my wallet for some retail therapy later in the week.

I have a massage booked for Friday.

I have a lovely stack of books from the library just waiting to be read.

My cold seems to be getting better.

MR and I went to Cirque du Soleil's Ovo show during the week and it was just as amazing as expected.  And the bouncing lizards?  Even more amazing!

My baking cupboard has been reorganised as well as finding enough space to have a dedicated pots, pans and frying pans cupboard.  (Today's job is to reorganise the plastics cupboard and tomorrow's job is the pantry)

We got our soil tested on the weekend and have started the steps to improve it so things will actually grow.

In the small area of the garden where things do actually grow, there are buds on my loquat tree for the first time which will hopefully turn into fruit.

And best of all, Summer seems to have finally ended, leaving Autumn a chance to shine (and pour, as it did all night and morning).




  


What is good in your world at the moment?

 

Back to basics

Once upon a time, way back in the beginning of this blog, it was a lot more about good stuff.  And if not nice big good stuff, then the little good stuff. 

There was Maxabella's grateful type good stuff, until it moved to kidspot and childless me felt even more a bit out of place than usual amongst the onslaught on Mummy bloggers. 

There was also my silver lining.  The partial inspiration of my blog name.  I haven't really used my silver lining blog label with any regularity in a long long while now.  And not just because I've been the slackest blogger ever of late.  Well before I petered off. 

Since getting back into work I have felt completely flat out.  It's been great working again but the lack of energy hit me and it's taken til now, after a lovely five day break over Easter in which I didn't leave the house for three days, that I'm finally starting to feel a bit more energetic.  Like maybe I've got my head around this working three days a week business and maybe I can start doing something other than feeling exhausted and shell shocked on the other four days.  You see, I really have done very little of interest to blog about.  Work has got in the way of living, which we know is not the way it is supposed to be, but I have been confident hopeful that my body was going to get used to it again and things would start to balance out.  Fingers crossed that's what happening now.

So now it's time to get back into the good stuff that's been happening in my world.  Big things as well as little things.  Probably mostly little things, because that's what makes each day count.

1. There was much fun last night with MR as we spent a bit of time trying to work out what pattern we had in our fingerprints without actually printing them on anything (don't ask me why we were doing this at 9:30pm, I can't quite remember).  And much hilarity (by me at least) as we both tried to say 'whorl' without sounding like we were drawling American's from the deep south. 

2. Last week I had some lovely retail therapy success for the first time in ages, finding not one but two jackets that actually looked nice and had arms that were long enough.  And a new pair of jeans that were reduced from $230 to $90.  They're on layby at the moment because I was actually just looking for a new top...

3. I have been doing lots of reading lately and really enjoying the peace, quiet and lack of screen time.  On the weekend I read the entire 1111 page World Without End by Ken Follett.  Not my usual sort of read but I really liked it.  I've been trying to branch out in my reading style lately.



What good stuff has been happening in your life lately?

Getting my craft on

There's been a bit of creative productivity happening at my place this last week.

I've finished of a WIP from last Winter, this plaited cotton knit scarf...

There has also been an initiation to quilting when Sarah came over yesterday a sewing day and helped me plan my fabrics and design.  I spent the whole time cutting fabrics but managed to get it all laid out and ready to start sewing...

And check out the yummy lunch we had in between all our crafting - chicken pot pies by Sarah and a rocket, orange and pomegranate salad by me.

Last night while slothing on the couch watching the cricket, I whipped a my first Woollies for Tassie crochet square.  I'm sure you've all heard about it by now, but there is an appeal for 20cm knit or crochet squares for blankets for those families who have lost their homes in the Tasmanian bush fires.  This one is 8/9ths of a pattern from Spincushions crochet along which I'm contemplating belatedly joining in with!

Finally, I've been making some file covers and box labels for all my themes for school this year - everything will look a lot prettier soon!

I'm loving this bit of productivity, I know all too soon school will start back and I will certainly not have the time or energy to be getting so much done that isn't school related, particularly for the first month or two. 

 

Happy New Year!

Look at the beautiful full rainbow I saw at sunset on the 30th December, one day early to farewell the old year and two to bring in the new one.  But I'll forgive Mother Nature, she can put on displays like this above my house anytime!  It was during the smallest of sun showers I've ever experienced, the pavement was pretty much dry the second after the rain drops hit the ground.  This was my first go at using the panorama feature on my iphone, simply because I couldn't fit it all in with one shot.  I was already standing on the road to take this and the Meow thought this meant it was okay for her to come and roll around on the road too.  That's my house at the end of the rainbow there on the right.  Does that mean a big pot of gold coming our way for 2013? Wouldn't that be lovely.

May 2013 bring you many moments of joy, plenty of good fortune and much healthiness!

Celebrating

This year MR and I are having Christmas with his family.  They have a big family Christmas once every two years with extended family and such invited. 

I got my email with all the details about it a little while ago and completely unknown to me, MR's Mum decided that the theme is purple and there will be a jar collecting money to be donated to Transplant Australia.

Isn't that lovely?

But it does bring to mind (not that it was far out of it) the fact that I still haven't written a letter to thank my donor's family.  I think about it often and practice writing it in my head but I never really come up with anything that sounds meaningful enough.  How do you thank someone for the loss of their loved one that allowed you to live? 

However, it needs to be done - it's been over a year now.  So this is how I'm going to celebrate me this year, by celebrating, and thanking, the wonderful people who were generous enough to help others through their loss.


joining up with #reverb12

  

Sunday snippets

It's been ages since I've played along with Tinniegirl's Sunday Snippets and seeing as I was a total instagram whore this week I might as well share some of my moments...

MR and I went down south for my best friend's wedding - note pinwheels
instead of flowers!

The groom is a cyclist so there was a bit of a bike theme, plus a special
thank you heart for me

Vanilla panna cotta for dessert, yum!

Retail therapy after unpleasant medical procedure

A sleepless night and a Meow ready for cuddles

Super wardrobe tidy out - look at all the empty coat hangers (that need filling!!)

Three bags of clothes waiting to be taken to the local op shop

Attempting a new Christmas decoration....

And some cross stitch chevrons which will hopefully also be a new Christmas
ornament providing the waste canvas comes out easily like it is supposed too...

A busy week for me!  Not so much scheduled for this week which is good because I need to clean the house ready to put up the Christmas tree and decorations.  Wheeeeee!