Overdue

Thank-you, kind friends, for checking in and sticking with me! I hate starting off with apologies, but nearly two months since a post is just unforgivable. I am sorry to have neglected my duties as a blogger and have resolved again to try harder. In reference to the last post, we got sicker before we got better, there was much blubbering on the couch before we recovered. I found rejuvenation through acupuncture, which has helped immensely both with my sciatica and chesty cold. I think I'm the best that can be expected one month from my next due date. I feel much, much better, and am my mobile, agile self again.

Trying a bit harder at blogging involves squeezing more from my day and at this stage that seems like a huge task. My list of 'must do's' is as long as my arm including 'clear out and set up the baby's room', 'organise self for hospital stay and G for sleep-overs at Nanny's house,' along with the dumb things that I've let slide like changing addresses after we moved, cancelling redundant bank accounts, tax and related book-keeeping chores. No small tasks these, and yet the time to do it just escapes me.

I can't see why, since G, my darling, 18month old first born has adjusted to daylight savings before it's actually begun, and is now waking at 6am. I preferred it when he woke at 7. We were able to trick him by resettling him in our bed and getting another hour of peace. Not so any more. He's awake, he's hungry and he will not lie still. Up we get. By 9am it feels like the day is half over, when it's only just begun, and we still have 2 hours until sleep time (of one hour only, argh!), and then another six or so hours to fill. But by the time we do morning things, go to the library/pool/toy library/food shopping, snack, sleep, lunch, play, wake Dad and prepare dinner, it's 4:30, I'm knackered and it's time to wind up for the day. It is a relentless day, without relief.

But the upshot of early rising and my feeling better is that we have been spending quality morning time in the garden. G loves to 'help' and we have the makings of good vege patch and many, many strawberries coming this summer. We have put in a forest of aloe along the shady side of the house, and are hoping that they will love the crappy, dry soil and conditions there. My compost is humming, our lemon trees have taken root for future years of joy and I am very happy about it all. Just waiting to put in the tomatoes and basil, but we'll have to accomplish that post-new baby.

Another hurdle we've faced during my two month blogging hiatus was my Dad being diagnosed with cancer in his tongue and jaw (no, he's not a smoker, actually, just unlucky). Well, Mum and Dad's life has become a circus of hospital and specialist appointments with day long stints in waiting rooms and Dad is just home from almost a month in hospital after an horrific operation to remove the cancer and repair his mouth. He is not the man we sent in there. That man was mobile, agile, vibrant and just had a callous on his tongue that bothered him a bit. The new Dad looks like he was hit by a truck, bewildered by everything that's happened in the past month alone, and having actually survived this unbelievable operation, is now facing radiation therapy and chemo to finish all this business off, we hope and pray.

We've had to adjust to this life quickly. I went from having them as the other main carers for G to being a part of their care-sharing regime (one of my sister's is intellectually disabled, lives at home and needs a certain level of supervision most of the time, and my grand-mother is 82 and living alone with degrees of success.) Helping with this, where we could, was not an issue, at all, as family is family, of course, you know.

In terms of my life, it just means I've had less time to get to that 'must do' list, and much less time to blog. Furthermore, my mother-in-law, another helper for me, has just jetted off to Europe for six weeks.

Oh, and I decided that I must have to kitchen finished before the baby comes, so this weekend we are demolishing the cabinets and building new, shiny flatpack ones, chiselling the tiles off the walls, doing the electrics, and having a dishwasher installed. I suppose it's one less thing on the 'to do' list. It means that other stuff isn't getting done since I'm emptying and storing the existing cabinets of their contents, holding panels for drilling and generally fretting about whether or not we can pull it off. We have limited DIY experience and this project is an expensive one to cut your teeth on!

So, well, that's us in an short update. There will be more, and sooner than later, so stay with me!