Lightening Online

WE’RE HAVING A BABY!!!!

After 2 miscarriages and nearly 2 years of trying, we’re finally pregnant!

Fingers crossed I can carry this one to term!

My due date is debatable. By MY dates, I’m almost 12 weeks. By the first ultrasound I had (to ensure we actually had a heartbeat), the date has been put back 5 days. I’m sure the baby will come in their own time.

Inspired by my post saying I need to get a better handle of financial stuff, I decided to attempt a zucchini soup for tea.

Zucchini (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We have zucchini’s growing wild in the backyard.  So much so that many are going to waste because no-one wants to eat anymore (and I’m slack with the picking).

We eat a lot of homemade pumpkin soup (this year my pumpkin plants didn’t make it though) and a vegetable/minestrone soup but I’ve never made zucchini soup before (never had quite this many zucchini’s or had them growing when the cold set in).

I made it pretty similarly to how I make pumpkin soup.

Chicken Stock (I sometimes make my own but this was a 1L bought stock)

Water

Red Lentils (about half a packet)

Onion

Garlic, Salt & Pepper to taste

A pot full of diced zucchini

I boiled it all for around an hour then left to simmer for another hour before whizzing it all up into a puree with my stick blender.

That’s it!

We added some sour cream and grated cheese after serving and it was a HUGE hit!

And cost me next to nothing to make (would have been even cheaper if I’d made my own chicken stock).

The family had toast with it but I didn’t.

It was surprisingly filling.

And I’ve been having the leftovers for lunch!

I have actually tried to write several posts but seem to have problems with “finish-it-off-itis”.

Problem is, I write the post…then want to add photo’s but it’s so complicated a process on this computer (must do something about that), that I procrastinate and it never gets posted.

Like the photo’s of the tree that fell on our caravan just after my last post.

Away for a lovely weekend with extended family and in the middle of the night there’s a HUGE crack and hubby is yelling at me to get out of bed.

Thankfully no-one was hurt.

We are VERY lucky though!

EASTER

Ended up being a quiet affair at the in laws shack (since no caravan to go away in).

It was nice and I spent lots of time catching up on sleep.

NETBALL

Has now started again for the year.  I’m coaching F Grade and C2 Grades this year.  Was only supposed to be F Grade (same as last year) but no-one had put their hand up to coach C2 so one of the other players and I are doing it together.  We have quite a few teenagers in the team this year and I’m quite enjoying it.

Friday night I do my first coaches course.  Looking forward to it.

JOB HUNTING

Did I tell you that I was looking for a job?

I went for 2 job interviews and was offered both jobs.

Then I had the difficult task of deciding between them.

I can’t even tell you what my job is yet as it’s not “official”.

Stay tuned for the official announcement, hopefully sometime soon.

FINANCES

The family budget is in such a hole at the moment.

Anyone else struggling with constantly rising cost of living?

My solution has been to stick my head in the sand and ignore it.

Oh, and tell hubby we need a payrise.

He’s working on the income side of things.

I really should pull my finger out and do more on the expenditure side of things.

Now that I’ve got 1 teenager and 1 preteen, life is certainly proving pretty expensive!

So, there’s an update on where life is for me at the moment.  I’m going to forget about the photographs for now and concentrate on posting a little more often.  I know that’s boring but is it better than nothing?

This weekend is a long weekend in South Australia.

They’re a kind of foreign concept when you’re married to a farmer.

Where every day is pretty much like all the others.

Except for the kids having an extra day off school of course.

However, today I’m very excited because we’re actually going AWAY for the long weekend!!!!

Farmboy’s sister turned 40 just over a week ago so she organised a family get together for the long weekend to celebrate.

Must ask her to organise more long weekends away I think.

So, we’re off to Moonta Bay.

Kids are excited because we’re picking them up at lunch time.

And they’ll get to see their cousins.

I’m excited because it breaks the monotony of being home.

And I’ll get to spend some time with hubby.

We’ve been so incredibly busy lately that we haven’t had much time to spend together.

And really, the secret to a good marriage is spending time together.

Not to mention they have a really AWESOME coffee/pizza place right across from the caravan park!!!!

Anyone else doing anything for the long weekend (if you’re in a state that has one this weekend)?

RIGHT????

Okay, well maybe I’m not an “old dog” just yet.

Although I do feel a bit long in the tooth when it comes to how long since I’ve studied.

Yes, I have decided it’s time to tackle a new “challenge” in my life.

For a while now I’ve been feeling restless and dissatisfied with my life.

Not that I don’t LOVE being a wife and mother.

And not that I don’t end up helping out on the farm periodically.

But I felt it was time to do something for ME.

So, I have just enrolled in a Diploma in Professional Counselling.

It’s mostly done via distance education (workbooks or online) with some intensive seminars/practical assessments I will have to travel to Adelaide for periodically.

I’m not sure yet if I actually want to BE a counsellor (and if I do, I would probably need to go on and complete a Bachelor in Counselling) but I have no doubt the information and skills learnt in this course will help in many areas of life.

At least I hope so.

I’m really excited.

And nervous!

* Image source www.siwa.org.au/News/Pages/Work-Experience-in-Safety.aspx

Death, an integral part of the life-cycle that none of us can avoid.

Premature Death, when someone is taken from us way too soon.

That is the situation in our family right now.

Last Saturday, in the early hours of the morning, Farmboy’s cousin was taken in a tragic accident.

He rolled his ute.

His wife found him several hours later.

It’s just horrific.

He leaves behind 3 children - 12, 11 and 7.

I wish there were words that could convey how I feel.

Numb, sad, stressed, frustrated, angry, helpless….

And all the while, trying to help my children deal with what has happened and their own grief.

And support the family the best I can.

The funeral is tomorrow.

Another sad day.

Hopefully it can also be a day of healing.

A day to celebrate the life he had.

The first day of the rest of our lives.

Without him in it. 

I know I’ve mentioned before how much I enjoy finding online deals. Being so far away from decent shops, I find I tend to be doing more and more online shopping. I still try to shop locally where possible, but there really is so much money to be saved online so it’s a balance of supporting local businesses and supporting our own personal budget.

This week, I’ve been looking at a site called Groupon. They offer daily deals for most capital cities around Australia, as well as some online deals. I can’t always take advantage of the deals that are in the cities, although I’m thinking they could be quite handy for gifts (which reminds me, need a 40th present for my Sister-In-Law if anyone has any ideas. Pity she’s not a computer person because how cute are these????).

So, I’m wondering, has anyone used Groupon before and how did you find them?

P.S.  Sorry I haven’t uploaded the promised photo’s yet.  Can you believe that I’ve had 2 computers die on me in the last couple of weeks????  Hubby is a very reluctantly letting me borrow his.

Hi Everyone,

HUGE apologies for my silence over the past month or so.  We continue to have trouble with our internet at home and they are now saying we need a new modem.  *sigh*

Christmas was chaotic but a LOT of fun!  Things went as planned though and everyone indicated they had a lovely relaxing time which is great.

The kids had a blast!

I then had 2 days to recover, wash, pack and do a quick clean up of sticky spots on the floor etc before we headed down to the family shack.

Again, we had a lovely yet chaotic time down there with Farmboy’s siblings and their families.

The day after Christmas, we decided we would head to Western Australia for 3 weeks.  Farmboy’s dad agreed to keep an eye on the farm for us.

I had 2 days after our time at the beach to again wash and pack.

No internet to properly research where we would go and what we would do.

So, we are now in Western Australia.

Fingers crossed when we get home I’ll have internet and can do some more detailed posts about our trip.

We spent 8 nights in Perth - and it was hot and muggy most of the time.

We still managed to have fun though.

And lots of swimming.

Now we’re in Albany.  With some free internet at the Caravan Park we are staying at (hence my ability to do a quick update post).

If you’ve commented and I haven’t responded - my hugest apologies.  Hopefully I’ll get to those before I run out of free internet time.  Otherwise, I’ll make it a priority when school goes back.

Yesterday we drove from Albany back to the Tree Top Walk.

Today we went to Whale World.  I’m quite surprised at how interested the kids were in the whole whaling industry.

From here we go to Esperance then home a few days before school goes back.

Phew!  The holidays have simply flown by.  Not surprising given how busy we’ve been.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year and that 2012 is turning out to be everything you hoped.

Catch up when we get back!

Hi Everyone,

So sorry for the lack of posts or responding to comments of late.  We are having trouble with our internet so I haven’t been able to load my blog!

A quick update from me:

* Games Room has been concreted and carpetted!  Yah!  Hopefully getting wired today so we can have power and lights in there.

* We’ve moved the office into 1 corner of the games room.

* I painted the old office and we’ve moved Lleyton in there.

* Both boys are excited about having their own rooms.

* We emptied the Built In Wardrobe in Trailer Boys room and installed some shelves and drawer sets we bought.

* I managed to declutter 2 garbage bags of stuff from his room.

* He still has TOO MANY toys!

* Now I can finally concentrate on Christmas!

* We have 19 sleeping overnight Christmas Eve and Christmas Night and 23 here Christmas Day.

* It’s going to be awesome!!!

* As long as it’s not TOO hot!

* Now I’m working on food preparation, baking yummy treats and getting my house company ready!

Hope you all have a WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS and I’m so sorry I haven’t posted more.  I had lots of posts planned.

We have come to a new phase in my mental health treatment.

Heading away from the path that says “a few years of drugs and this may all go away” to “this looks like it’s going to be a lifetime thing and you’re going to have to learn to live with it”.

Not a path I EVER wanted to take.

While we always knew there was a chance, we HOPED for the best.

As you do.

When I first had a breakdown, my GP warned me there was a chance I’d pushed myself so hard that a part of my brain would be burnt out.

Irreparable.

You think you’re doing the right thing, struggling on, hoping things will get better.

I didn’t truly understand.

I didn’t ask for help early enough. 

I didn’t know.

Now I have to face the truth.

I’m brain damaged.

It sounds bad.

But it’s not the end of the world really.

I hope.

My Psychiatrist has referred me to a Mental Health Team.

This involves regular visits with a Mental Health Nurse whose job is to “teach me how to live with and manage my depression”.

*sigh*

I’m not good with new people.

I never have been but these days, I’m even worse.

So Farmboy came with me to my first visit.

She’s a lovely lady although she does talk a bit.  I’m trying to fill in forms and she’s chattering away.  Hard to concentrate when you’re brain isn’t fully functioning anyway.

And it does seem to be helping.

The things she’s telling me and suggesting seem to be sinking in.  And working.

Then last week, on our 3rd visit, she brings a STUDENT.

No warning (or I wouldn’t have turned up).  She asked me IN FRONT of said student if I was okay with that.

What was I supposed to say?  NO!

Said student didn’t sit there observing the session.  She RAN the session.

I wanted to RUN FROM the session.

Instead, I went into my “protective” mode.  Deflecting away from myself and telling myself I just had to get through an hour.

I did get through the hour.

But it cost me.

It cost me a LOT.

I was exhausted and in pain by the time I got home.

I feel somewhat cheated and betrayed by this nurse.

We had only just begun to form a trust bond and now it’s broken.

I’m supposed to ring her today.

Part of my “therapy” is to face things I avoid.  Like making phone calls.

I don’t want to.

Then again, I want to ask her if she’ll be alone this week.

But at the same time, I don’t want to talk about it.

I just want to run away.

What was she thinking?

Does she not get me at all?

I don’t know what to do….