The "man flu" and super Mum.

Dear friends

If you have not met the man flu, let me explain:  this is when your other - sometimes better - half gets sick.

He sighs.

He sniffles.

He sighs some more.

He is pitiful.

Well,...truth be told, the "man flu" this year is pretty extreme.  What gave it away as "real" man flu was the pile of many blankets, a wool jumper, a heat pack ALL in front of the fire.

But never fear!! With his incapacitation, life went on.

I took 3 children to the airport at 5am on Saturday so the boys could go to Queensland for their holidays.

The little Bella Boo enjoyed her early morning trip - I bet no one had heard a more excited 3 year old at 6:30am, than when the planes took off.  

And yes, I mean "planes"...plural.  

Because when the boys plane took off...

we had to stay for the next one as well.

Thankfully Bella Boo also went back to bed once we got home, so I could also steal a few more winks before I got up and into....

Prepping the ensuite!!

As a bit of background, our ensuite has had a change in vanity and loo, 

 the walls were in desperate need of attention

with peeling white paint over

the dreaded 80's apricot.

I had bought myself a new power tool to help with the job: the all powerful sander, with multi speed, multi attachments, multi everything...I was excited!!

When I bought the sander, the boys were still here on holidays.  Knowing they were happily ensconced in front of the TV for hours of Wii Indiana Jones Lego fun, I adorned my safety costume of mask and goggles, primed the ensuite and attacked the walls with a fierce and noisy vibrating abandon.

When I stopped to admire my first sweep of sanded art, I turned to find two bewildered sons staring at me.  Wii controllers gripped still, their mouths slightly ajar!

"What are you doing", asked my eldest genius.

"I'm sanding" I said with glee!

Though perhaps that was muffled by the mask I still wore.

Again, my eldest stared at me as if an alien.

"You're building!" he said.

"No!" I reassured him, "I'm sanding".

They were a touch confused by my activities.  But then again, I reasoned with myself, perhaps the combination of their holiday hang-time and my inspired behaviour with a power tool...perhaps, this was the first true opportunity for them to realise I am a woman of action AND many talents.

Yeh, whatever.

Anyway, back to the "man flu".

So I had already sanded the ensuite and had puttied.

Once the boys flew away - a quiet relief as their concerned glances at me "building" was not doing much for my "I can do it all" confidence - I needed to perform further sanding...further puttying.  Without watchful, concerned eyes, I took to my task like a seasoned pro - I had little idea what I was really doing, but it felt good. It felt right. And I was a little OCD about making sure everything puttied was smooth...that all previous signs of peeling paint were obliterated.

By the end of the weekend I was ready to make the most of the extra holidays I had taken to paint our ensuite.  Bring on the completed task!!

Then guess what happened.

I got "girl flu".

Naturally, it is not as bad as "man flu".

(seriously!!)

But it has involved alot of this:

Simply Me

I will finish the ensuite...it may not be as quick as I would like.  I certainly hope though, it is before the boys return from holidays.

big hugs

Cath
xx

Goodbye dear friend

This is our gorgeous dog Bronson, who gently passed away to sleep this weekend.

He was 16 years old and spent much of the past year asleep near the front door, during the day, or at the end of the bed at night time. Both these spaces are now very empty.

Bronnie had the most beautiful and patient nature;

He taught my eldest son that dogs can be gentle;

He taught my middle son that a dog really is mans best friend; and

He taught our little angel that if she drops food she doesn't like on the floor,
he will always be there to hoover it up;
that if she lies on him, kisses him, smothers him or takes his chew balls...
he will be willing to take such treatment, to a point, in exchange for all food shared.

Bronson now has a beautiful resting place in our garden.

Forever in our hearts.

Having a moment...

Hi all my lovelies

 

I am sorry I have been missing in action; there is just too much on my plate at the moment and unfortunately this means I just want to flunk on the couch at the end of the day.

In no particular order:

• my husbands parents, who are in their 80s are in the early stages of dementia; they are only 2 minutes from us so my husband has spent the last year assisting with numerous health assesments, supporting the sale of their home, organising their move into a retirement village...only two more weeks and they will be settled in. Luckily his sister is near enough to also be helped this process along beautifully - but it all takes it's toll after a while;
• Our dog of 16 years is, well...on his last legs.  We have had the talk with the children and now it is just time to get the vet to come over; he has a lovely place ready in the garden.
• my grandmother in QLD, who is 93, has had a fall recently and broke her collar bone.  She has dementia which means she is in a heightened state of confusion - while she was in the hospital they found that she was terribly aenemic, which is most likely why she fell, and required two blood transfusions. The aenemia was due to massive ulceration of her esophogus (I have no idea if I am spelling any of these words correctly!)so she is getting treatment for that too;
• I have had both my boys have massive crashes on their skooters in the last month - both involving facial and limb injury.  The first was my youngest man who crashed on the way home from school; skidded along his nose and lip and battered up his elbow: I had a phone call at work from the side of the road for that one. The second crash was my eldest out the front out of our house - he timed this perfectly with our wee one jamming two of her fingers. He crashed off his home made ramp: as he later said it was a "three point landing" knee, head, shoulder. Let's not talk about the helmet he wasn't wearing, but he couldn't walk, so that included a trip the hospital. No breaks, but a severe amount of swelling, antibiotics to prevent infection in his wound (blergh!) and Mumma attention required constantly. Boys!!
• I can't find my special doovie to download my photos off my camera...hence, no photos at the moment either.

Sorry about the big blergh,... I am missing catching up on all my favourite blogs and telling you all the GOOD things that are happening here too. Because yes, there is good.

• We have a new beautiful TV cabinet for our family room;
• I recovered and painted my kids toy box for a "storage" box;
• I have made cushion covers;
• I have (as at now) undercoated another chest, ready for painting;
• I have whipped up a painting for the wall to compliment the new colour scheme - white, aqua and chocolate.  It is abstract and very simple;
• I've made blackberry jam; it was my first time and OH MY! I kept making scones, just so I could eat the jam...!  Yep, a couple of extra kgs went on there!

I have also been working: it sort of straddles the good and bad category :-D

 

So please forgive my absence - I will be back soon!

 

Big hugs

 

Cath
xx