My Ear surgery experience

I have been a little quiet on the computer front of late as I went in for day surgery last Thursday to have the large hole in my right eardrum repaired. This involved taking a small graft and placing it behind my eardrum. They place a gel packing in first, then the graft...the gel packing holds the graft in place and eventually dissolves. My ear was then packed with heaps more dressings on the outer ear. I was pretty anxious before the surgery, so they gave me some Valium, which I now wish I didn't take as it made me so drowsy afterwards. I asked the anesthetist not to tell me when he was putting me to sleep, so I don't remember anything after being wheeled in to theatre. I was in a fair amount of pain in my ear after surgery, so they gave me some pain killers. My blood pressure was also really, really low, (78/47) so they kept me there for some time until it came back to normal. On getting home I felt quite sick and went straight to bed, clothes and all. Little Stella kept coming in and sleeping with me and stayed with me pretty much all the following day. They say they can sense when things aren't quite right and I believe she knew I was sick, as she's not usually that cuddly...sweet little thing. I was nauseous and had headaches all the next day as well, and Damian went up to my doctors and got a script for some stematil to try and ease it. I am still getting nauseous though off and on, so I will be glad when that stops. My ear isn't too bad, but gets a bit of a stabbing pain and a swooshing through the ear as well. I am hoping I will be feeling much better tomorrow. Day 3 - 5, still quite nauseous and headachey, I haven't been eating much at all. Damian went back up to the farm on Sunday, I was going to follow him up, but I just didn't feel up to the 4 hour drive so I stayed in Brisbane for an extra day. Kasey and I headed back up to the farm on Monday. My ear has been achey, but not agonising, just achey. Strong pain tablets every 4-6 hours keeps the pain manageable. I returned to work today, finishing up the office setup and running a couple of errands for Damian. I have to keep the dressing on the ear for 3-4 weeks, and then I will return to the specialist mid Sep to get the dressing removed and ensure that everything has been a success. This is my ear after the surgery, (a little graphic, sorry)  it has been dressed with a top dressing and covered completely in a plasticky film to keep any moisture out. This has to stay in place for the entire 3-4 weeks. My ear is getting quite itchy right down near the eardrum, but I can't scratch it.....arghhhh....very frustrating..

 

I am hoping that is the worst of it over for now, unless something happens with the surgery not taking...crossing my fingers all is well.

This weekend.... natural skincare and Glandular fever....

It's been a busy weekend for me, I have spent all day yesterday and today at a natural remedies and skincare course, making medicinal vinegars, herbal wine, tinctures, etc, and then today making up yummy face creams, scrubs, massage balms, lip balms etc. Had a great time, but  I will touch a little more on that later in the week with photos etc. I have just gotten back from taking Toni to the hospital, she has been quite unwell for a few days, and her glands have swollen to an absolutely huge size, and have gotten much worse today still, and the swelling has now spread to her jaw, which is what was worrying me, as I didn't want to wake up in the middle of the night with her having breathing problems. She had blood tests yesterday, and is due to go for an unltrasound tomorrow. The hospital accessed some of the blood tests from yesterday, and it appears she has got glandular fever. We are still waiting for one of the blood tests to come back to 100% confirm it, but everything so far is pointing to it, they are 90% sure that's what it is. Even the lymph glands on the back of her head have swollen! I took her down to the Wesley, and I can only say what a great hospital they are,  the doctor spent so much time with us, accessing her blood tests etc for us, and fully explaining absolutely everything, and answering all of our questions with such detailed answers. It is quite expensive to go to their emergency dept, but having spent many, many hours in public hospital waiting rooms over the years, it was well worth it. Unfortunately, for glandular fever, there really isn't anything they can give her for it, we just have to manage the pain and nausea with medication. She is suffering quite badly with nausea and headaches, so I think she's going to be in for a tough time with it all.  Anyway, I've finished my cuppa now, and I'm starting to feel pretty tired, soI'm  off to bed.

Catching up slowly....

I took Kasey for an abdominal ultrasound this morning, she has been having some tummy pains for some time now, and the doc wanted to rule out any issues with her kidneys etc.  Everything is aok and they couldn't see anything abnormal which was good.  The results of her pathology tests will be back tomorrow, so that may shed a little light...will wait and see.  I finished off a silk wedding today for this weekend, it has come up sooo nice .  I have only taken photos of the bridal bouquet at this stage, as I finished the rest tonight, and I like to take photos of my bouquets in the daylight.  This is the teardrop bouquet for the bride...it is gorgeous...but I do love purple :)

I ended up cancelling tonight's sewing class, as Damian has been getting home really late, and I was really tired this afternoon.  I am glad I did now as it allowed me to finish off the silk wedding. So tomorrow I now only have some phone calls to make, and a few things to organise...so I may be able to sneak in a little nanna nap at some stage....that would be fab....

An eventful few days...

Well, we came back from our couple of days at Mooloolabah yesterday.  It was really nice up there, the caravan park where we were staying was on the beach, so lots of opportunity to spend some time on the beach.  I have had a few mishaps though, Saturday I went for a swim, and by the time I finally went in, (which was after about a 1/2 hour of getting used to the cold water,) I dived under a wave, and my ear got water in it behind the eardrum...it felt like I had burst my eardrum, it was really painful, so that was the end of that swim....I still have some water in there..so I left the swimming to Damian and Kasey from then on. And then after we got back yesterday, I started on the washing, and then went out on the ride on to do some mowing, when I got a debilitating pain in my back and chest...really tight, and nausea, headache etc....it really scared the daylights out of me, and I was unwell for the rest of the day, using heat packs to ease the pains, and have had nausea and headaches still today, my doc sent me up to the hospital tonight, as she wasn't happy with my heartrate and blood pressure being so low, but I waited for nearly 3 hours, and the waiting room hadn't had even 1 patient called in, they were absolutely packed....so I gave up and came home.  I will speak to the doc tomorrow about getting the blood tests and other checks done through a specialist or similar.  I am still feeling a bit off, but I'll just play it by ear. Tomorrow I have coffee with Tammy, and then I have a morning tea to go to with the SS girls, so it will be nice to meet some of them, and I have a bride coming to see me in the afternoon. My diary isn't too full this week, I have purposely kept it light on, Wed night we have Toni's year 12 graduation dinner in the city, and Thursday am I have embroidery club, where we will be making Xmas stockings...but otherwise, I will be at home...yay...anyway, off to bed soon...

6th November, 2010

I went and saw my naturopath yesterday, just a quick follow up visit to make sure things were starting to improve a little for me.  She has doubled my lemon and garlic mixture, to try and clear up my stomach bug a little quicker...the difference over the last 2 weeks has been amazing, I am definitely starting to feel so much better, and my motivation and energy levels are picking up again.  I will see her again in a month, when she will check my stats and see how every thing is going and what supplements I can come off and which ones I need to stay on.  When I got home I got to work on today's wedding for Amy.

Today was spent delivering the wedding flowers, and picking up the vases from last weekend's wedding.  Kasey had a friend over to play today, so that kept her busy, and tonight we went to a BBQ at Wayne and Lynda's for Lynda's birthday, it was a nice relaxed evening, very casual.  So now Damian is fast asleep on the lounge, snoring away merrily....he would deny this of course!...tomorrow will be a relaxing morning, with some washing and gardening probably thrown in for good measure.  I would also like to make some soap, we are starting to run low, and I want to try some new varieties.  We are planning on heading away for a few days at the end of the week in the caravan up the coast.  Toni is working so she will be staying at home but will probably day trip it....Damian really needs the time relaxing by the beach, and I will catch up on lots of reading and some craft activities.  I also have a scrapbooking retreat coming up at the end of the month...really looking forward to that....anyway, off to bed shortly...

I have been to sewing today for embroidery club.  This month's project is a fascinator for Melbourne cup, which has embroidered fabric flowers, organza flowers and ribbon and feather loops sewn in the hoop.  I have done my in black, to match both my elegant eventing bag I made a few months ago, and also being black, it will go with most outfits.  I will post some photos once finished.  After this, I went and saw my naturopath.  She feels that I have got my gut infection back in a mild capacity, so has put me on a lemon and garlic medication to try and deal with that, as well as my usual supplements. I called in to a fruit and veg shop on my way home to pick up the garlic and lemon, and also called in to the organic butcher a couple of doors down, it had such a lovely old fashioned country town feel, and they were so busy. When I got home, I let the chooks out, and picked a few things from the vege garden. The beans are starting to produce, and I picked a few hundred grams of beans, a kilo or so of roma tomatoes, 7.5 kgs of rhubarb!! and a few peas. The craft show starts tomorrow, so I am planning on going as I want to have a look at sewing machines, as I would like to update mine before it gets out of date, as now that I am using it a lot, there are a lot of things the newer models have which definitely makes life easier, especially the usb stick and being able to go forward to a particular part of an embroidery quicker than by 1 stitch at a time.  I want to have a look at everything available, in 1 place, and then make an informed decision. Ann, Mum and I are going to go in on Sunday, so that will be a busy day.....I am also going to go over to Ikea at some stage in the next few days, as I need to pick up some vases for an upcoming wedding.  I am extremely tired tonight from all of the running around today, so I don't think it will be too late a night for me. I am just going to finish watching Packed to the Rafters, and then off for a shower and bed. I need to make up the lemon and garlic mix, but it needs to simmer for an hour, so I will do it tomorrow instead. The naturopath also wants me to start to come of my medication, so hopefully within the month, I will be medication free.

Some relaxation time coming up

I have finished delivering the wedding for today, I now have the weekend free.  This is today's wedding:

I am loving the purples....but purple is my favourite colour so I am a bit biased... I enjoyed putting on a relaxation cd last night, along with a scented candle and a Tia Maria for company, after Kasey went to bed I had a couple of hours to myself, and it was very relaxing.  I am planning on doing the same tonight before dinner for a little while.  I called in to the video store on the way home from Kasey's swimming lesson, and picked up some DVD's, I wanted some comedies so that I can sit and have a good belly laugh later...they say laughter is the best medicine, so I am going to put it to the test.  Looks like we're in for some more rain tonight, the vegie garden can't take too much more, some things are starting to suffer...I also haven't really done any sewing for the last couple of weeks as my energy and motivation have been suffering again for the last few weeks, I am going back to see my naturopath on Monday, so naughty foods will probably be out again for a while I think :(  I have a couple of quotes tomorrow, but otherwise my weekend is free....yippee....

The drying out begins......

What a gorgeous day outside. The sun is shining, things are starting to dry out a little here, I have opened up the windows and doors to let in the fresh air. I made myself get up this morning when my 6am alarm went off, and I have already hung a couple of loads of washing out, Kasey is ready for school, I have my joggers on, and I am ready to face the day.  I have a wedding to prepare today for tomorrow, so that will keep me busy for the day. I was meant to go to sewing yesterday to finish the free motion stitching on my Back on the Farm quilt, but was feeling very overwhelmed with lots of things that had cropped up yesterday morning, so I ended up staying home.  I am glad I did now, as I got to watch the Chilean miners rescue begin.  I deinitely had a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes when they got the first miner out, and the 2nd miner out was hysterical....it's going to take a while to get them all out, but that was history in the making... I am definitely feeling brighter today, so I hope that continues. I have started back on my healthy eating regime from my naturopath today, and I have been on very, very minimal sugar the last few days, with the view to getting sugar out of my life as much as possible. I am also going to contact my naturopath today and make an appointment to see her, and start back on some of my supplements, as I have let all that slide over the last few months, and I have definitely gone backwards again....I am looking in to another therapy at the moment, which involves a few lifestyle changes, so I will see what information they give me over the next few days and make a decision on whether that is for me or not.  Anyway, I am also going to make a concerted effort to spend only minimal time each day on my computer, so after checking my emails and a couple of blogs, the computer will be off for the day, and I will go and get stuck in to tomorrow's wedding.

Busy, busy....

Hmmm, this week has been pretty busy, I will try to remember what I have done so far....Sunday was not too much, had a BBQ dinner and then watched a movie. Monday was paperwork, I also had a follow up with my doc, and we tweaked my medication a little, so will see how that goes...Tuesday was a bit more paperwork and a few things around home...can't remember what...Wednesday I can't really remember either..this is why I should write my blog daily!!  Oh actually, I was doing wedding prep on both Tuesday and Wednesday with a few little errands thrown in for good measure. Thursday I had sewing club in the morning, but I couldn't stay for the sewing in the afternoon, as I had more wedding prep. Today has been weddings all day...this weekend is the busiest weekend of the year, and I had 3 weddings to do today!!   The good news is that they are all done, and were done by 7pm, due to all of the prep I did on Wed and Thurs.  Now I just need to deliver them all tomorrow, and when i get back, get Sunday's wedding all done....phew...thank goodness it's only this busy once this year, then back to normality.  I can't sleep at the moment, so  I am catching up on some reading, and having a cuppa, and hopefully then I can sleep.  I think it's due to a bit of anxiety about all of the wedding deliveries tomorrow...silly I know...but the mind can be a fickle creature...

My cute little machine appliqued owl....

I had embroidery club this mornng. We made these lovely little in the hoop machine appliqued owls. These can be made as stuffed toys, or as I have done here, as an applique to attach to clothing, bags or quilts. I was pleased with how it came up, and this is another new technique I have now learnt.

I have also embroidered some towels with the word "Baby" for Mum, as she wants them for the markets stalls she does. I have done  9 of them this afternoon. I was having some problems with them yesterday, as I was using the stabiliser that the lady gave me free with the sewing machine, but it is really poor quality stabiliser and was causing all sorts of problems with the machine jamming and threads catching etc, as the stabiliser was tearing. I bought some better quality stabiliser today, and also the proper stuff to go over the top of the towels while the design is being stitched out, and had no further problems today, and all of the towels stitched out nicely. I have some to do for a couple of friends who have recently had bubs, so I want to do those in the next couple of days and send them off.  I still have this bad cough, and my throat is very dry tonight, making me cough even more, so I really hope this starts to clear up soon, I have started having a couple of puffs of ventolin a few times a day, which seems to help for a little while with the coughing, and helps me sleep at night. I have caught up on the wedding paperwork this evening, and touched base with a couple of brides I needed to chat to. I have to go and pick up some silk flower supplies in the morning for next weeks wedding, as the bride wants silk halos for the flowergirl, and then will get stuck in to the paperwork.....maybe.....   :)

Cardmaking, Sewing and a nice clean house...

I had card making class on Monday.  It is always a nice relaxing day with lunch provided, and we always make some nice, different cards, utilising a lot of techniques. These are the 5 cards that we made on the day:

Tuesday I had my weekly coffee with Tammy, and afterwards I went home and started on cleaning the house. After doing the bathrooms, I decided to redecorate a little, and went to Loot and bought some flowers, and some potpourri and a couple of decorative items to go with what I already have here in vases etc. I am really pleased with how the bathroom has come up, and Toni says it looks like a resort bathroom now, don't think it's quite up to that standard, but it does look nice, and the kids have managed to keep it tidy for a whole 24 hours now....amazing.....I finished cleaning the house this morning, I only had the floors to finish off, and the house looks so much better, and I always feel really great and organised when the house is tidy...I also caught up on the washing and did a quick grocery shop before Mum came down today to pick up her sewing machine that I picked up for her yesterday. Mum spent the day here sewing and learning how to use her new machine, and we had a nice girly sewing day. Tomorrow I have embroidery club in the morning to sew up the owl...should be fun as I haven't ever done anything like this before. I will post some pics tomorrow after class as it is very cute...I have a really bad cough at the moment, it gets worse late afternoon and evenings when it's a bit cooler, and my stomach muscles are quite sore from coughing...I hope it clears up soon as I am definitely over it....I have a bit of paperwork to catch up on tomorrow afternoon and Friday, so hopefully I can get that out of the way if I can be organised....here's hoping....I am in the process of ordering some books through amazon at the moment, I will try and finish the order off tonight, just want to have a good look and make sure there isn't anything else that I want....Radical Homemakers is one of them, and some homesteading and country living ones, I will have a look at some sewing and craft ones as well before I finish off the order....

Wiping the slate clean for 2011???

I gave up my 4 day a week paid employment in August last year, for various reasons, the main one being because I had become unwell due to the job I was doing.  I really needed the time away from working to become well again, as I had lost all ability to focus on the day to day, and to look forward to each new day, or anything in general. I really thought that after a couple of months I would be back on track. I have always been a very organised person and routine is a big part of that for me. But, for the life of me, I just can't get into a routine...the days go by so quickly, and it is absolutely driving me crazy. I started this blog to keep track of what I do actually achieve, and to keep a record of my day to day, as my memory is not that crash hot...I know that I do get things done, and I certainly don't sit around on my bum all day not doing anything, in fact, I hardly ever sit down at all...I even feel guilty sitting down for longer than necessary to have lunch etc..So, why do I still feel that I am not getting where I want to be? Why do I still feel that at the end of each day that I have had no control over what I have done during the day? Why do I still feel like I have no routine to my weeks? Why is the year going so incredibly fast? I am still annoyed with myself that I stayed in my paid employment for so long when I should have left after 12 months because I knew it wasn't doing me any good, instead I dragged it on for 3 years, becoming sick in the process, and it has changed the person that I was...I no longer know how to prioritise,  I can't handle any sort of stressful situation without becoming very anxious and stressed, I suffer from headaches at the slightest hint of stress, and it can be something so small that sets it off, and it is so frustrating...but I think I may have finally worked out what I need to do....totally start again.....wipe my slate clean, and start completely fresh by having no classes to attend, no weddings to do, and no responsibilities to anyone or anything other than my family and friends, and to just chill at home for a few months, and really concentrate on getting my life back and getting my routine back.  I have tried to force a routine back in to my life with lists and routine schedules etc, but it is not working... I haven't completely made up my mind yet, but I think it may end up being the only way to go, start afresh and re-build my routines from scratch.....I think sometimes everyone needs to get rid of the baggage and start afresh..so, unless things drastically change between now and the end of the year, I think this may be the only way to solve the problem.....I just have to put some more thought in to this and then make the decision.....

Weekend wrap up

I've had a busy weekend....I got up early on Saturday and headed out to do a few things and get them out of the way. I picked up a few supplies, chook seed etc, and went to the material shop to pick up some fabric that matches the mod cushions that I made a few months back. I have had the cushions on our bed recently as I didn't want them to go out in to the shed with the rest of the things from our under renovation spare/craft room, and I have been inspired to make a matching quilt for a change to our bedroom colouring.  After this I went and bought a few new items for the house that I have been looking at buying for quite some time - a new kettle as our other one was so noisy that we had to turn the tv up whenever the kettle was put on, a new 4 slice toaster as our 2 slice one takes too long when cooking meals for the family, and our old one has gone out to the caravan to replace the old and very delapidated one that we have had for about 20 odd years. I also bought a new food processor/blender, as my old one was broken, the blender no longer worked and the processor unit has bits missing from being dropped once or err....twice.....this new one has a glass blender jug which will be good for processing soups, as I will be able to put hot liquid in it, and the stick blender misses big chunks in the pumpkin soup etc, I had to return the kettle this morning and replace it with a different brand as it ended up being noisier than the one it replaced, even though it was meant to be quiet.  I helped Damian in the afternoon to clean out the mess in the spare room from plaster and dust etc, and he has now finished replacing all of the framing timber in there, and it is ready for my brother to come in and replaster for us.  I went to the markets this morning, and found a 4 foot diameter wagon wheel for Mum for $60....an absolute bargain, as she has been wanting one. Mum was coming down today, and she absolutely loved it. Mum also dropped off my singer sewing machine, and it is absolutely gorgeous. It looks really nice and much nicer in the flesh than in the photos. I picked up quite a few vege seedlings at the markets this morning, I was going to plant them this afternoon, but Mum didn't end up leaving until nearly 5.30, so I will do this tomorrow.  I didn't manage to get the bulk lot of strawberries I was after, but maybe next time there will be some more. We have a public holiday here tomorrow for the Ekka show holiday, so I am going to try and have a little sleep in, and finish off the silk wedding I haven't got to yet, and also get to the sewing that I haven't got to either.  Kasey has been unwell over the weekend, running a temp and having stomach pains and headaches, so I will have to keep an eye on that. Panadol and Nurofen are keeping the temp under control, so hopefully she will be feeling better soon. No school tomorrow will be a good thing as it will allow her more time to get well.  I have 2 free days in the diary tomorrow and Tuesday, so hopefully I will catch up on the wedding and the sewing I need to do....

The last few days updated, and routine still out of reach....

What a beautiful few days weather wise we have had, beautiful warm days, cool nights...lovely. Friday I went to an overlocker session at the sewing centre as they were doing a demo on the babylock overlockers. These are definitely fabulous machines, they thread themselves and tension themselves automatically, and threading my overlocker is the most frustrating part of using the overlocker. They are very expensive though, $3500 for the model I would look at, which is insane for an overlocker...so I will be sticking to my trusty Janome for now...I don't use it enough to justify that sort of money, if I was sewing in a commercial environment then I would definitely look at it. 

Had a scrapbooking crop on Friday night, haven't been to one for a couple of months because Damian had been away, but it took me a while to get back in the groove, and I forgot the bag with my ribbons and inks etc in it, so couldn't finish the pages I made, but I had a good start on them. Kasey starts ballet lessons this afternoon, she has been begging for months to go, but after doing the insane running around for years with Toni at ballet I just was not wanting to go down that path. But Kasey spends almost all of her time dancing like a ballerina around the house that I felt bad not letting her go. I found a ballet school close by.....in fact it is only 2 doors up in the same street!  I didn't even know they were there, but it is a fully operational studio, and they are going to put her in the end of year production etc..and we can walk to class, which is absolutely fantastic. So I need to go this afternoon before class and purchase her leotard and shoes, all of the shoes I have kept from Toni are from her later years and are too big for her unfortunately.

Damian did a bit more work in the spare room yesterday, we have had to pull almost all of 1 wall out now as we found damage further up the wall, and the door frames are next. We are going to pull the carpet up in there as well and replace it, as the carpet is 18 years old and is starting to look a bit tired like many other things here including the owners! I have been to the dentist this morning and had the tooth that broke off repaired, so that feels much better now, and I only need 2 other very small holes fixed before they start to become a problem, other than that my teeth are all good...nice to know. I think that is everything that I have been up to the last few days updated now....

I am still desperately trying to get some sort of routine happening....I am trying really hard to get up at 6am in the mornings, but it's not happening, I heard the alarm going off this morning on my phone, but ignored it...6 times!......before finally getting up at 7.....I was asleep by 9.30 last night so I should have been able to achieve it.....I haven't been able to implement my daily routine that I put in place a few weeks ago, I have been writing a list each day though and have been getting through that, which is a good start.  I might have to put some more thought in to how I can get past this issue though....perhaps 1 thing a day at the same time each day and expand on that....

Off to Mackay we go....

We flew to Mackay today. This was Kasey's first plane trip, so she was very excited and scared at the same time. 

Kasey just before take off, looking very brave....I managed to prise her hands off mine for a couple of seconds....

We will stay until Tuesday and then start heading back down to Brisbane. We went and did a little bit of grocery shopping and had a bite of lunch while we were out. Other than that we just relaxed this afternoon as we were all a bit tired after a big week. Not sure what the plans are yet for tomorrow. While we were eating lunch part of my back tooth broke off, it seems to be ok at the moment, bit I will have to get to a dentist to get it fixed fairly soon, as it is really annoying me as it is a really sharp broken edge, and  I keep feeling it with my tongue because I know it is there. I am on Damian's laptop at the moment as I haven't been able to get our wireless internet card setup on my computer yet, so I can't load my photos at this point, but hopefully tomorrow I will get it up and running. I am going to head off to bed soon, as I am quite tired.... I will probably phone Toni before then and see how they are all going at home...

hmmm....today was well.....hmmmm

It has definitely been one of those days today. I have found it really hard to get myself out of bed this last week or so, and this morning was no exception. I think I have dropped Kasey off at school after the bell most days this week, which isn't like me at all. Last night I applied some liquid nails to the inside of the souls of Kasey's school shoes, as she has been dragging her toes on the concrete in her shoes and they soul has been flapping around in it's own universe for a couple of days. So this morning, the liquid nails had dried, apparently, so she popped her shoes on. I was busy cleaning her room (as usual) and she brings in a tissue and says "Mum, is this the colour of the stuff you used to glue my shoes together?" I was very frustrated with Kasey this morning as she was being a bit hard to deal with, so I didn't even look at her, and said, "Look Kasey, just give me 5 minutes, I'm not going to answer you right now, just leave me to get a bit organised"....I lived to regret that....when I came out of the jungle, I saw liquid nails smeared all over the floor, from the dining room to the lounge room. It had been seeping out from her shoes, as the stuff in the middle of her shoes hadn't quite dried yet....so after spending about 15 minutes scraping it all off the floor, I said, right, let's go....and as Kasey turned around to head out the door, I spotted it.....the back of her school pants was covered in liquid nails...!!!  oh lordy....
anyway....after I changed her, took her to school, and then returned home to scrub as much of it as I could off her pants, I proceeded to do the mountain of washing that has once again accumulated. I then did some bookwork, and organised the insurance renewal for Damian's car, then I went to the demo at the sewing centre for the Palmer Pletsch dressmaking course, picked Kasey up and took her to the doctor. Turns out she has a ringworm on her arm, so have to put cream on it for about 6 weeks. So this evening after doing all the usual stuff, dinner, light the fire, do the chooks, feed the dog, load the dishwasher etc, I was quietly sitting at the table reading some blogs, and Kasey decided she would make me a beaded necklace. Something in the back of my mind was shouting "danger, danger" to me, as I was envisaging all these tiny beads being spilt all over the floor, when Kasey took the lid off the beads, the lid was stuck so she pulled extra hard....and....yep....the teeny tiny beads ended up all over the floor....Kasey is in bed now thank goodness, so my floors might be safe for another day.....then again, Toni is due home from work any minute....so you never know....
4 eggs today, 1 chilli picked, a dozen or so passionfruit, 1 stalk silverbeet and a few heads of broccoli for dinner....the tv is off, the kitchen is tidy, and peace currently reigns....bliss...

Solar, Library and Sewing

We had the energex people come out today and hook up our solar meter in the meter box, so we are now officially making power....yippee.....also got the power bill in the letterbox.... :(
I don't know how much difference the solar system will make in the grand scheme of things, but hopefully it will cut our bill down by about a third.....that would be good. We have plans on adding more panels as we can afford it, and possibly a larger inverter, so we can add even more panels. It would be fantastic to eventually get to a point where we are generating enough power to cover what we use, but I don't think that is a possibility at this point in time with kids, a pool and an inside fridge, an outside fridge/freezer for bulk goods, a bar fridge and a flower fridge (even though this is only turned on when I have a wedding to do)
I am feeling much better today, I have only had to take 2 lots of painkillers today for headaches, and the sniffles seemed to have cleared up.

I dropped Damian back at the airport this morning, after this I called in to Spotlight and picked up a zip to continue on with the MAKE sew along project, and a new jeans zipper for a pair of jeans that the zip keeps coming down on. After this I went up to the library, I haven't been in ages, and I picked up a few goodies:

I am really looking forward to the "how to crochet" book. I can crochet, but I only know the very basics, and am really wanting to learn all of the stitches that I can do, and be able to construct more than a crocheted flower! It has lots of projects in it to work through as well, so that should be fun. I am going to try and do some sewing shortly, and work on the MAKE project, depends how I feel though, I am pretty tired right now, but I am keen to do some more on it. I have a demonstration to go to tomorrow afternoon at the sewing centre, they are telling us all about some dressmaking courses, so I am looking forward to that. I also have to take Kasey to the doctor, she has a sore on her arm that doesn't seem to want to heal, so I am going to go and see what that is, and get her 2nd swine flu needle. So, it will be another busy day tomorrow.

The dreaded flu lurgy has got me....

I have felt this coming on for the last few days, and have had a constant headache the last few days, and yesterday it has presented along with flu like symptoms. I feel pretty dreadful today, headachy and tired mainly, the cold and flu tablets are keeping the runny nose at itchy eyes at bay most of the time....so I have propped up on the lounge with the heating on, and might try to catch a bit of a snooze......bet the phone rings.....

Still hanging in there

So far so good with the chicken.  She is currently still  hanging in there, she does appear to be in some shock, but I imagine this will probably take her a few days to get over. Her tail is a bit droopy, which would indicate that she is not feeling very well, but late this afternoon she came rushing out for the scraps, and she is walking ok and there was no blood on her...I think Max may have jumped on her, not actually bitten her. She is not looking real flash, but getting there.

Kasey has been home today, she has had a headache for the last 2 days, and showing signs of a cold, so I thought it best if she stayed at home. I had a dentist appointment this morning to have root canal treatment on a back tooth. It has ached a little since then, but not too much. Only had 1 lot of painkillers since I had it done, but may be due for some more soon. I have been working on my back on the farm quilt this afternoon, I have got 2 blocks positioned, they are now ready for free motion sewing tomorrow at the monthly block of the month club. I may try and get 2 more blocks positioned up at class tomorrow, but if not I will concentrate on the sewing, and do the other 2 blocks before the next class. I will post the photos of the next 2 quilt blocks after I have done the free motion stitching.We had shepherds pie for dinner last night and tonight. Very yummy, I have posted the recipe on my recipe blog. I always try to get a roast lamb or beef that is large enough to get 2 meals out of, 1 as the roast meal, the 2nd I usually always make a shepherds pie out of, it is one of our favourite recipes.

Ho Hum.....

It is quite cool today, with a sprinkle of rain about. I was really tired this morning, and our plans to go and look at caravans today have fallen through, so I propped myself up with a new craft mag and a cuppa to warm up a little, and would have been quite happy to have a snooze, however, guilt overcame me, and I am now in the office trying to do the few things that I would rather not be doing.... I really need a push at the moment, I am feeling very unmotivated around the garden again....ho hum....and I am even a bit unmotivated towards the sewing and craft etc....must be the weather, I don't know....

I have also been having little bouts of anxiety....it really sucks to be honest, I have never, ever been an anxious person, but have suffered from this for the last 12 months or so, along with that other nasty 'D' word....I was feeling quite good when seeing my naturopath, but have gone a bit wayward with the diet and supplements in the last few weeks, as I was feeling much better, but I think that I need to reverse up a bit, and stick with this a little longer....will ring the naturopath shortly and organise for them to send me some refills...it is just soooo expensive, you order a few things and it cost a few hundred dollars!! However, feeling like this sucks, even Toni asked me this morning if I was feeling ok...

Over the last couple of months, I have concentrated on the more crafty blogs instead of the gardening type blogs and websites, and I think this is where my enthusiasm has waned a little, along with the fact that I don't seem to be able to get the vege garden to really bloom, it seems that I spend lots of time in there for not too much of a reward, this tends to dampen the enthusiasm quite a bit..... my garlic didn't take, which was really disappointing, the standards like pumpkin, sweet potato, rhubarb, asparagus, chillies and spring onions and the rampant mint always seem to soldier on, but I do have trouble with most other things at the minute. The tomato bushes are having a little re-fruit at the minute, but not much.  I planted some sweetcorn, but only half a dozen or so of those took as well, I planted about 40 seeds, so that was disappointing as well. I seem to have been having problems since I purchased the diggers seeds, maybe I will try another supplier, I have also been having issues with getting up to the seedling supplier at the markets, as you need to get there really early to get what you want, and I mean 5.30 or so in the morning, and even then there is a line up, so that is why I purchased seeds as I wanted to avoid that line up every couple of weeks. I just seem to have a constant battle with things not growing other than the bloody weeds!!! I fertilised everything really well in March, and dug it all over and mulched etc, but have not had real success, so I really do believe it's more the seeds than anything else, as I have always had relatively good success, not as good as the real green thumbs out there, but pretty good.  Anyway, I am just out of sorts right now, so need to deal with that, so I can continue on with the journey here at home.

We went and had a look at some caravans yesterday, as we are looking at upgrading our caravan. We currently have an 8 year old coromal poptop van, which is just beautiful, but we have decided we will go back to a van with bunks, so that when we do a travelling trip, we don't have to setup a tent etc for Toni everyday, and I do worry about her being out there in strange towns. We are also going to get one with a shower and toilet, as again, setting up the outdoor shower tent and toilet every day is also quite a pain day after day. Damian is also looking at going up north to work for a couple of weeks here and there, so we need enough accomodation for both himself and Michael, as currently we only have the queen bed and a smaller lounge which Kasey sleeps on, so we definitely need to go back to the bunks. Our first caravan had bunks, but the older kids decided they would like to go into tents, so we didn't worry about it so much with the Coromal. I am looking forward to the shower and toilet in the van, this will make things so much easier when camping. So we will probably go out tomorrow and have a look at some more, we are not sure yet if we will go new, or a year or 2 old, there isn't too much of a difference price wise to be honest, so whichever has the best features and is the best built for the money is probably the way we will go, we would dearly love a Kedron Top Ender, but...$120,000 is waaayyyy out of our price range, but they are the absolute pinnacle of beautifully built but extremely tough caravans...but we can't justify or afford that sort of money.....I would have liked to have headed away for the weekend, but I think it's too late, and we have a bit much to do this weekend as well, as Damian is heading away next weekend for a couple of weeks of work....oh well.... maybe the June long weekend will be the way to go...