Home Sweet Home

Well, What a week that was!

After dropping my eldest, Jordan, with his auntie to enjoy a weekend with his Dad in town on Friday evening, the consequences of the week really hit me and I felt so relieved it was the weekend.

As a result of my week, I had to miss a girls' night with Sunny Mummy and friends and cancel my own Kitchen Tea Tupperware Party on Saturday with great disappointment. I had to place the priority on my own little family, take a breather and recover and look after me. My exhaustion really set in and I could only be in the moment. On Saturday, Dominic went for treatment at the hospital and I bundled up the kiddliwinks and took Harley and Cooper to their swimming lessons whilst Lucia frolicked in the wading pool with pure delight and amazement. Was so lovely to enjoy some sunshine and soak up that Vitamin D. It wasn't long til I started to fade that we ventured home and hibernated and just quietly hung out together.
 Thank God for pizza night and no washing up!! and for Harley serving me lemonade in bed (bless him).

Sunday was also a day of recovery and preparing for the coming week. And so the show goes on ,never a break from the constant washing, I could relish in the sunshine and the blessing of getting it all dry. Sundays I like to plan. I'm an old fashioned girl at heart and I adore pen and paper ~ so I write and sip tea.....
Today I planned my menu for the week. I like to keep the mid week menu uncomplicated as we are at sports training 3out of 5 afternoons a week and I don't need to feel like I live in the kitchen!

Monday -  Chicken pesto pasta bake and garden salad
Tuesday - Marinated chicken,potato bake w fresh beans,broccolini and snow peas
Wednesday - Whatever goes * eggs, noodles, leftovers, tomato soup, breakfast cereal etc*
Thursday - Silverside in the slow cooker and vegetables
Friday - Home made pizzas with puff pastry
Saturday - out and about
Sunday - Roast beef extravaganza ( the night we play in the kitchen)

This is a great guideline to have, but believe me subject to change without notice, just look at last week! I plan this with what I have in the kitchen already and shop for the extras. I'm trying to have one home day where I have a cook up to make the busy days run a fair bit smoother. At the moment that day is Monday. So after dropping my big boys to school and running a few errands, put some washing on and set the littlies up with a few activities, I'm away and firing  - all systems GO!

This week is fairly basic with only Monday and Tuesday to sort which is great as Dom is back at the hospital for more treatment just to make sure all is running smoothly and hopefully back at work on Tuesday.

I have so many over ripe bananas in the fruit bowl so tomorrow there will be banana cake, bread and muffins all a baking. I'll freeze some so the kids won't get 'over' them but great for lunch box delights and unexpected visitors.

I can't really get into the whole Halloween thing. Don't mind pumpkin carving,dress ups, handing out lollies for trick or treating but the whole concept is quite dark,gloomy and scary to me and I have children that ask a lot of questions. We did have a few people arrive at our door and the kids enjoyed handing out the lollies as well as indulging themselves, then we decided to do something random and duck up to the local 7 11 store and indulge in ice cream for all. They were so excited. It was Lucia's first store bought ice block and she was pretty quick in working out how a Calippo works!

So now as i hear their gentle breathing, sound asleep, and the only noises are from this keyboard, I know it has been a great weekend, not what we had planned but still quietly wonderful.

~ Hope you had a wonderful weekend ~

Kate



'thumbs up Super Cooper'

What shall today hold

Well, I am quite the organiser and planner but lately in my life I have realised I can only plan things in pencil as we truly never know what is around the corner or what curve ball the world will throw at our little family and the people surrounding us. Just when I have my heart set on something BOOM, something happens and throws all plans out the window.

So people close to me know that my husband, Dominic, has Chroninc Kidney Disease and has his treatment of dialysis at home on a regular occurance about every second day for 4 -8 hours a session (depending on what else is happening in our day). He has a fitsula(a connection that has been made from his vein to an artery to allow more blood flow in his arm and this is the access point he connects two needles in, to connect to his machine ~ which actually has a name Angel. We've had to accept her as our friend rather than a hinderance as it keeps my man functioning and really is like a guardian angel watching over us from the corner of our bedroom. It cleans out his blood of all the toxins, what our healthy kidneys do naturally and helps him get on with his life as "normal" as possible. This will continue until we receive that blessed phonecall to come in and receive the ultimate gift of life ~ a NEW KIDNEY.

A couple of nights ago, hubby was violently ill ( actually lost 4 1/2kg in an evening) and as a result his fitsula stopped buzzing due to dehydration, which is critical for his need to dialyse. I could go on with more details, at the moment, it still all feels quite fuzzy, but as I begin to defuzz this situation, I realise I thought I was losing my man, as I witnessed his collapse, I have been really processing that our life together is just beginning, we have so much still to discover,see, laugh, play and dance together that it really hit me that we are dealing with a life and death situation on a daily basis and I am not ready for us to part yet. We have four children together and we are at the beginning of our journey to observe and guide their growing and their discovery of this wondrous world and I want us to grow old together.I want to be a Nonna and Poppa together!!

Last night he had his operation to get the fitsula working again, and as we wait to see if it works - and stays working and Dom recovers from his surgery, we have to deal with the aftermath of what just happened and continue life as normal. I still have the school run, lunches, sports, washing, dishes, changing nappies which I guess, really keep everything in perspective as I realise, Life really does go on. As I duck down the shop to get bread and milk and greet the little asian shop keeper who greets me the same everytime, she doesn't know how the event of two days ago, rattled me and ultimately changed me to the person I was the day before as I continually learn about this life - our lives and the importance of love and sharing it and holding those closest to you, a little more closer and reminding them what they mean to us.

I remind my older children, Jordan 10 and Harley 7, to really not sweat the small stuff, not to be worriers and let your mind wonder off into all the 'what ifs' but to embrace the what is now and deal with things one step at a time and remain true and real.  Then we have a moment - Miss Lucia says 'Harley' and 'uh oh' for the first time and we are reminded all all things wondrous again and a new day has begun with giggles.

Virgin Blogger

So here I am ~ the virgin blogger. Bear with me as I learn along the way.
I have been enjoying others blogs for a while now, and often get asked the question how I stay so positive when faced with so many obstacles. I thought I would rediscover my writing and share with you my journey.