Friday Check In -I’m Still Alive

Many apologies for my absence this week. It has been HUGE week.

This morning I am composing this post on my iPad. This means I can only use the silly beep, beep, bop window (I much prefer classic) and have access to whatever photos I have on the iPad as well.

This week has seen me working to a deadline. I have a course weekend this weekend and prior to attending I have had webinars to attend, pre reading, reflective reports and underpinning knowledge assessments to complete. I believed that over the preceding weeks I had broken this work into manageable chunks but as usual life generally intervenes and stuff still needs to be crammed into the final days. Last night I was up until after midnight. The night before was a little earlier finishing about 10.30. But I have done it! I can now head off in the morning to my weekend with all the required work done and know what it is we will be learning and exploring.

This week has seen some personal upheaval as well. Although I wasn’t the person struggling, there is a flow on effect. I have cried a couple of times. Sometimes with helplessness at not being able to fix someone I love and others because I have been overwhelmed with the circumstances of life and my study work load. Our of those times I have had to smile. My cat (the indomitable, don’t pick me up, I will grant affection on MY terms Diva) has been following me everywhere. She has lived up to her name of Smudge by smudging my glasses when she jumps up on the couch or sofa and rubs against my face. She has been winding around my feet and laying beside me on the floor of my study during late night stints. Yesterday, when the GG and I was upset,  she came over to him and sat on his feet. She then followed him and sat behind him on the back of the couch. What a blessing she has been!

However this week has not been all bad news, stress and despair. Much beauty has been found in the world also. This week I have been blessed by:

• A phone call with a happy mother who had just added to her growing collection of dolls, teddies and old store mmannequins
• A new kind of butterfly around my tree
• The Blue Wren and his Jenny that also visited the tree. They were so close I could have touched them.
• An early morning thunderstorm on Wednesday. We have a saying in our home that if a storm is going to hit, it is generally at school time. Usually it is just as the kids are getting out for the day. This time it was as they were all on their way. The Teen loves storms. She loves them even more if it makes her late for school and her mother has to drive her.
• My Teen. We have had a good week. She has been chatty and the other day when my back went on me, she stayed home from school to keep an eye on me and help out. It was a sign of things to come in 20 years or so as she helped me in and out of the car when I drove to the pharmacy for some Voltaren.
• Voltaren has blessed me. You don’t realise how much you use your back until you can’t use it! lol
• My morning meditation and journal times
• The love and trust in me that the Garden Gnome has. That man is one of the hugest blessings in my life.
• Watching my granddaughters play netball last weekend. They are so cute. It was funny because their teams played each other and all the girls on the teams are great friends because they train together. They found it so confusing working out who they could and couldn’t pass the ball to. They also had difficulty in remembering their positions and where they needed to be on the court. I took heaps of photos and smiled a lot.
• Chai Lattes. Can I just say that I love them?

So there you have my week. I won’t be around on the weekend either. However I promise that next week, after I catch up the housework and replenish the low food stocks in the house I will be back. (I might even reply to my comment back log).

My photo for today is one I found on my iPad. I have no idea why I’ve saved it but it made me smile. Have a great day and a blessed weekend. Okay I give up. The photo just wants to insert wherever. *sigh*