Friday 30th August

I was very glad that I had set the alarm and that for once I had set it right, cuz I didn’t wake until it went off at 5am.
It was freezing so I zipped out to have a quick spa to get my blood temp up.
Got myself organized and then woke Azzan.
Packed up all the cupcakes into various containers so they could be carefully transported to town.
We were all loaded and heading up the drive before 6am.
We stopped to pick up Marah’s mail and left them some cupcakes.
I had loaded some podcasts onto my phone so listened to Brené Brown all the way out.
I am gaining so much from listening to her talks on vulnerability, courage, worthiness and shame.
One quote to start the day –
“If you put shame in a Petri dish, it needs three things to grow exponentially: secrecy, silence and judgment.”

We arrived in Nelson bright an dearly so I drove straight to Placemakers to change the toilet fitting.
Also met up with the young lad who was buying four of Shoshannah’s birds.
It was his 14th birthday and they were his present so he was very happy.
I was also happy that they survived the trip!

We then headed back into the city.
I had time to do a few jobs, and then leave Azzan at the library while I had a meeting with our bank manager.
He was very helpful and I left feeling somewhat less stressed about things.
I was able to do a few more things and then picked Azzan up and met Nathan at Fashion Island for lunch.
It was good to see him and have time to talk a while.
He hopped in with us and we scooted out to Stoke to drop some things off at Phillipa’s for the wedding.
Had a quick chat with her and then back into town.
Nathan hopped out at the library and then I went to Manna topic up a book.
Found this coffee mug with a verse which I found very encouraging.
Two weeks ago Jennifer at our bank had told me very excitedly that Azzan had won a prize.
When we opened up the bank accounts at the BNZ they went into a draw and he had won this authentic All Blacks jersey.
In fact he was the only one in the South Island to win this.
She wanted me to bring him in to have photos taken when he was presented with it.
I never told him what we were going in to the bank for, except that whatever happened in there he was to show his appreciation cuz I just knew that when he saw it was a rugby shirt he would be like ‘I hate rugby’ etc!!
He was really funny.
Stood there with a big smile saying I really love the shirt, and I am so going to wear this – like NOT!
We were all cracking up.
He had his photo taken, found the price tag which had been inadvertently left on but proved it was a prize of considerable worth – and when Jennifer told him she didn’t want to see it on TradeMe next week, he asked ‘what about CraigsList?’
He was steps ahead of her, she didn’t know what that was!!

We had some time up our sleeves so I went to drop some things off at the hospice shop.
Azzan wanted to go shopping there so I left him to browse while I had fun playing with the babies toys in the Farmers sale – Nonna priviledge 😉
Wow, there are such a lot to choose from today and most of them make noise or music.
Specially designed for grandparents to give to grandchildren to annoy the pants off their parents.
Payback time – love it!!
He came back to tell me he had things I needed to go look at.
I finally got dragged there and found he had things lined up on the counter with his name on them.
I talked him out of them all.
After all I have spent the past months dejunking the house and bringing stuff out there and am not about to start bringing stuff back again!
So I got him to come help me choose a baby toy.
Of course I got the – ‘I can’t buy stuff cuz it’s junk but you can buy baby junk.’  😉

Then we met up with Chrissy & Asher.
Transfered Azzan’s bags into their car.
You would think he was staying there for a month with the amount he had packed.
Chrissy and I had a sit down and chat at Starbucks for 20mins before Asher’s music lesson.
Found the boys sitting upstairs outside a closed cafe discussing the ways of the world, we were told 😉
Azzan headed off without even a hug he was so excited about spending time with Asher – actually I think they were already demolishing cupcakes!!

I drove to Arrow Motels in the slow 4:30pm traffic around Rocks Road.
It gave me time to sight see and have a good look at some of the houses that I normally can’t see.
Unpacked my gear in to the house and then had a nice hot shower and freshen up.
Decided it was time to dolly myself up a bit.
I have been feeling so down lately that I haven’t spent much time on make up for ages.
Haven’t even been painting my nails
The family was getting together for dinner with friends so I painted Lucy’s nails a pretty dark pink before I did mine.
She told me she always feels very flash when she has colors like this on her nails 🙂

I mosied off to Crusoe’s Cafe to meet my dear friend Bethel who is over here in NZ from the Land of Oz, staying with her daughter in Picton.
They drove over tonight specially to see me – aren’t I so special 😉
It was just really neat to spend time with them.

It is ages since I saw Bethel.
And I hadn’t seen Dallas since Tim’s funeral.
I was so incredibly touched that she came all the way over to it to represent her Mum.

Anat & Rami looked after us well as usual.
Metisse and Edj got their food first – pretty spectacular fish and chips for a wee fella.

Dallas was pretty impressed with her steak sandwich too.

We had a lovely evening and finished it up with Rami’s ultra special GF Brownie.
Dallas took the kids back to their motel and we chatted some more.
Then after talking with Anat & Rami we rolled ourselves out to my vehicle.
More talk along the way and then more talk before having to say goodbye for another year.
Thanks for coming over Bethel, was uber cool to spend time with you xxxx

Back to John & Sally’s in time to hear that the fuel prices are skyrocketing over night.
Oh dear.
Signs of the times I guess.

Thursday 29th August

After a fitful time of trying to get to sleep, turning, twisting, trying to relax and finally crying myself to sleep in my large empty bed I did sleep until just after 5am.
Woke feeling a lot better.

I could hear heavy rain on the roof and southerly waves pounding the shore.
The expected storm had hit.
I got up and crept about the house not wanting to wake the children.
Lit the wood stove to take the chill off the kitchen.
It might be a bit of a struggle to keep the house warm today with only one fire.
But I am very grateful for that one fire, and that it is fixed and going well now 🙂

Checked the Met forecast and saw that the storm is supposed to blow over this morning so am hoping and praying that the roads will have time to dry out by tomorrow when I have to leave for town. 
Took the latest edition of Above Rubies and braved the rain to have my morning spa.
There is something very therapeutic about lying in a hot spa when a cold wet windy storm is swirling around your ears 😉

Remembered Azzan’s GO Skype session in time today.
Only problem was that Shoshannah had collared the computer first so had to bump her off so he could load his latest story.
If he hadn’t needed to do that he could’ve used my laptop.
So she then went off and spent more time talking on the phone.
Seems to be her main occupation at present ;-/
The connection was not great this morning plus Azzan was getting frustrated and flustered so I ended up sitting with him for a while to help him focus.
His teacher loved his story.
It is very dark and macabre but he writes it well.
He then went off happily to bake cupcakes and do the dishes.
Actually the cupcakes and dishes got postponed.
He got a load of wood down and began packing for town, which involved folding his washing and putting it away first.
He is a bit of a flutter bug!

Shoshannah made corn fritters for lunch.
I made leeks in a cheese sauce and deep fried wedges to add to it.
We had beetroot and tomato sauce and cheese.
A great, very warming, and totally unhealthy lunch

Graham helped Anson fix the hydraulics on the tractor and then Anson spent the rest of the day grading the road.
Graham grouted all the tiles this morning and then after lunch began work replacing the toilet.
Had a hiccup in the proceedings as one of the fittings in the kit was the wrong size.
So he took a rain check and headed home to light his fire and do some reading and resting.

I decided it was time to finish the wee carry for Eden before she grows out of it so I sat and sewed on the cute buttons Bri brought back from the UK.Aren’t they so sweet.

Azzan got to making the cupcakes after lunch instead.
He mixed up a double batch.
I found him in a real pickle.
He had carefully laid out the right number of cases into muffin tins and then mixed the mixture in the processor.
When I got to him he had a bowl of mixture with two rubber spatulas, a soup spoon and the processor blade all buried in sticky mixture!
He had managed to spoon about a dozen cupcakes but had stuff all over the place.
I took over  cleaned it all up, managed to salvage the rest of the mixture and spooned it in for him.
Finally got them baking in the oven mid arvo!
He was trying to do this plus talk on the phone to Asher at the same time.
I made him hang up and then proceeded to tell him that he must concentrate on the task at hand and only do one thing at a time cuz he is a guy and men cannot multi task.
He protested saying that I was being sexist.
I replied that I wasn’t because it was the truth and he had just proven it 🙂

Shoshannah worked away at her maths lessons for ages.
It is very pleasing to see her applying herself to it and progressing.
Last year she was hating it.

Azzan decided that as we were heading to town tomorrow he really needed to die his hair again.
I did warn him that Jesika would likely kill him if the purple hasn’t washed out before the wedding.
He assured me it will.
This is what happens when you take selfless on your mother’s phone.
She publishes them for all the world to see 🙂

I had to inform him that he had missed a large chunk at the back, but he was completely unperturbed, ‘because I can’t see the back and no-one else will take any notice of it there anyway!’

The sky tonight was lovely after the worst of the storm had blown through and the rain had passed.
There is snow way down low all over the South Island after the southerly front passed over us, even on the hills in the middle of Nelson!

I got busy packing up the vehicle ready for an early get away tomorrow.
Am still taking out curriculum I don’t need anymore, plus things for the recycling centre and stuff for the wedding.
As well as that Shoshannah sold some of her birds today so I am taking them out for the young lad who has bought them.
So their cages had to be securely fitted in the back too.

Azzan finally got to icing his cupcakes around 7pm.
It was getting really late and no dinner had been done yet either.
Shoshannah cooked up an apple & onion gravy for the sausages.
I made a large pot of veges and while they were cooking I bumped Azzan along to get the icing done.
He had found two types in the cupcake book that he wasted to make.
One looks like a poached egg and the other a toadstool.
As we had all the necessary ingredients it was relatively easy to fulfill his wishes.  We got them all done and then were able to serve our dinner.
I collapsed in my chair, utterly exhausted.
Gave Azzan a wee lecture about not leaving his baking to the last minute ever again!!!

So tonight, the job I got up early to do – cleaning the last bastion of mess in the house, my craft corner – is still not done.
It never even got started
I guess it will still be waiting for me on my return.
I am so wanting to be able to get it all cleaned up so I can pop in there and create when I feel like it.

At the moment it is such a mess I can’t bare to even look at it let alone go in there.
I need order to create.

I am absolutely physically worn out tonight.
Still have to go pack my bag so am going to call it quits now and do that and then fall into bed.
Not enough hours left till I have to get up again.

Wednesday 28th August

My late night early morning told on me this morning.
I didn’t wake till around 7am, and certainly was not too keen on getting out of bed when Azzan came to tell me the spa was free.
He had beaten me to it for once 😉

I took my new book out to start reading it.
‘Love Finds You in Lahaina, Hawaii’ by Bodie Thoene.
I was particularly interested in this book because it tells the story of Princess Kaiulani.
I had watched a movie about her a while back and was very taken with a very sad part of history I knew nothing about.

My morning was spent in the study.
I was wanting to finish up and go start cleaning in my art room.
It is the last bastion of mess to be attacked here at the moment and I just haven’t had the time or the energy to get into it.
But instead I received an email which tipped me over the edge into emotional distress.
I am trying really hard to keep my head above water at the moment, keep breathing, and not get stressed.
I have been doing reasonably well for a few days, maybe even weeks, but this morning I lost it.
I sat and sobbed uncontrollably.
Azzan came and rubbed my shoulders and handed me tissues but I couldn’t stop crying.
I finally sent him away and made a phone call to Bri to ask for some advice.
Then I got a call from Sunni.
She is helping me sort out finances and banking stuff at present.
Anson came to see me and we had a really good D&M which helped.
Sebastian was out on the water just in front of the house working on the lines, he called up about some mussel matters.
It is great that he is literally taking the helm of the business
I am truly blessed to have such helpful children young adults with so many diverse abilities who are pooling their strengths to assist me.

Anson took the two kids away to do firewood for a few hours over the middle of the day.
Graham was busy working on the wood fire hearth.
I love the Kiwi ingenuity on display again 🙂
Gotta hold up the chimney somehow!

I really appreciate the jobs that Graham is doing for us at the moment.
Just helping to fix up things around the house and make it feel more comfortable and tidier.
With an old house there is always something to fix, or maintain, and clean.

I cooked up some eggs on toast for us both and then sat and did a little bit of knitting while we talked.
I washed the huge pile of dishes as the kids had been pulled away outside to help Anson before they had managed to do them.
I also got stuck in and cleaned the fridge.
Obviously hadn’t been done in a while
Always satisfying to see the finished article afterwards.

I was so emotionally drained and physically exhausted that I was barely functioning so I took myself off to bed for a sleep.
Read my book and dozed for a few hours.
The kids came home and I played possum for a while until the phone went and I got up to talk to Rowena.
Spent some time trying to find her a photo she needed, was good to talk to her as we hadn’t caught up in a while.
Azzan made some roast potatoes and we heated up the leftover chicken casserole I had put in the freezer last week.
He and I ate our dinner in my bed and watched ‘Are we there yet’.
It was quite funny, and had a good message in the end.
Shoshannah did some more MathsBuddy.
She had already spent a couple of hours on it this morning.
She is really enjoying it and likes the way they teach so I am really pleased it is working so well for both the girls.
I just need to get Azzan to focus better on it.
He has a big black note book and is having fun doubling numbers.
He began with 1+1, 2+2, 4+4,……….and is now up into the trillions
I had to laugh the other day, Bri told me that –  ‘Halia was stressing out the other day when we went skiing because she hadn’t done her maths.  I told her that it was PE class that day.’   🙂
Thanks Bri – really value the extra curricula education you & Abby have provided for my two girls these past months xxxx
The PE skiing classes have been very much appreciated and enjoyed 🙂

‘

Tuesday 27th August

I was up before 6am so got busy in the study.
I have a lot of things I am trying to get through at the moment.
One important thing is my submission for the Coroners Office.
I needed to get it done today so have been busy collating information in some sense of non-emotive order.
This is my view from my study as dawn breaks across the bay.
My laptop and me reflecting against the window.
I do love this view – never tire of it in all its moods.

I managed to get some spa time once it got light enough to read.
Azzan was up at 7am getting himself all ready for his day out with his bros.
He packed enough lunch for Africa!
But he knows his big bro and it is better to be forearmed than go hungry 😉
Seb arrived up in Tardis and Anson walked in the door soon after.
I had insurance papers for them to sign so they congregated in the study.
Sorta makes it feel very small when they are both in here!
There was some confusion on my behalf as to who had to sign where so I had to go back to the broker to find out what to do.
That took most of the day as they didn’t know either and they had to go back to the original company.
Nothing is ever simple eh?
The three boys took off out to do mussel work for the day.

It was blissfully quiet here once they had gone.
Shoshannah and I looked at each other and breathed a delicious sigh of relief.
I carried on working in the study, trying to clear the paperwork which has built up over past weeks.
Graham arrived around to work on the wood stove and I still hadn’t managed to have my shower.
He wanted to empty the hot water cylinder so I hurried off to have my shower first.
Shoshannah was busy cooking up a storm in the kitchen so with no hot water the dishes from that process and lunch stacked up for most the day.
She made lemon slice and vegetarian nachos for lunch, plus some vegetarian GF patties which she can freeze and use when she needs to.

Marah came round with Eden so I could help her make her thank you letters.
We choose some cute photos and spent the arvo printing them out.
They have been wonderfully spoilt since Eden’s birth so she has a lot of letters to write.
The guys came back mid arvo.
Anson got his wee girl and was playing games with her outside.
Say hullo to Mummy Eden 🙂

Then he brought a wee possum to visit us inside.
While Anson & Marah had some late lunch I babysat.
Had a run of phone calls, typical – the phone is silent all day and then when I am busy it goes non-stop!

Shoshannah and I had eaten our main meal for lunch so Azzan deep fried some potato wedges and he and I made a platter each of wedges, baby beetroot & cheese slices with tomato sauce and sour cream.
So healthy – not!
But delicious much 😉
Azzan snuggled into my bed and we ate dinner and watched a movie together.
Akeelah & the Bee tonight.
A really good one for Azzan to watch – all about not being afraid of being yourself.
The quote in the movie is actually by Marianne Williamson.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Azzan headed off to bed.
It was already way after 9pm.
I banked up the fire.
So great to have it all back together – almost better than new.
Thanks heaps Grant & Graham for doing this for us.
It is brilliant not to have a wet fire and floor for the first time in I can’t remember!

I cannot tolerate a mess on the bench so I washed all the pots and pans and left them to dry on the stove and stacked all the dishes and left them for Azzan to wash in the morning.
Then I headed back to the study and it the peace and quiet of the late evening I continued working on my submission.
Finally got it finished and emailed to the Coroner’s office just before midnight.
Whew!
Then it was off to bed.
Read my kindle for a while to allow my brain to wind down.

Monday 26th August

Yeeha!
The beginning of my new month of internet.
I was awake really early, like bout 5am-ish – so I got busy in the study and sent all the mail I had done over the weekend and sorted the massive amount that had been waiting up in the clouds since Friday, till I could download it all this morning.

In amongst it all I received an email from my cousin in the USA.
I was moved to tears by his love and thoughtfulness.
Phil & Kathryn have recently climbed Mt Whitney, the highest peak in  the US.
They had taken a photo of Tim with them to the summit and held a tribute time there, then burnt the photo and scattered the ashes in his memory.
When I read your email out to the family Phil I couldn’t hold the tears back.
Tim loved the outdoors and was most comfortable out enjoying creation.
Hope you don’t mind me posting this photo Phil?
I love it and I love you both so much for doing this.
Thank you.

Sebastian arrived in Tardis at 6am to pick up Anson.
They had to go to Elaine Bay to collect ropes etc, fuel up and then head off up the Sounds to seed up a line.

At daylight I headed out to the spa with my book.
Then got myself a large bowl of fresh fruit salad and sat in the study and read some more while eating my breakfast.

YC & Shan packed up and cleaned their room.
They have been a great pleasure to have.
Very happy and helpful.

They loaded their bags into the Regulus and I took them up the hill to their car.
I insisted Azzan come with me as he was being quite argumentative with Shoshannah.
On the way back we stopped in to see Marah & Eden.
While Azzan played with Eden Marah & I had a play with the furniture.
We moved some around to try and make better use of the small space.
We also began cleaning a bit.
I left her to it around 11am and headed off home.

The banks are covered in daffodils at the moment.
They are so beautiful.

I had several things I needed to write up so needed time to think them over and make sense of my thoughts and present them in a factual non emotive manner.
Got one letter done, read to it Sandra before pushing the send button.
Always good to get a second opinion 😉

Graham spent the day working on the stove.
He got it all back together again.
Just has to join water pipes now to get it all functioning.
Shoshannah made pies for lunch.
Love putting together home made pies with our own choice of filling.
I sat and read my book while I enjoyed my pies.
I have shed a few tears today, tears of frustration and I guess some of anger.
Just been reviewing reports and seeing so many discrepancies.
So hard to trust those in authority whom we are taught to trust when I see so many mistakes and obvious coverups.

Azzan was being very stroppy, very morose.
He was supposed to be cleaning his room but he spent most of the time just sitting in the midst of it all watching Tim’s funeral dvd which was making him worse.
Shoshannah said to me that he was having a MDD day – Missing Dad Disorder 😦
I agree, he was.
He just doesn’t know how to communicate that to us, he gets angry and argumentative and lashes out at us.
I was working all afternoon at trying to get the second thing written as I need to send it asap so I pretty much left him to his own devices.
Sometimes when he is like this it is just best to ignore him or else I get sucked into a vortex of argument.

Around 5pm I found him watching a movie – again, so I called Shoshannah and we got stuck into his room.
Biffed heaps of stuff in the bin and cleaned it all.
Left him a pile of clothes to fold and put away.
He was totally unimpressed.
Mainly because I took his portable dvd player as retribution for not doing the job himself.
He was extremely unhappy with me.
Tough being a kid sometimes, but it is tougher being a parent

We had a short rain shower passover and leave this wonderful sky and rainbow behind just on dusk.

We made a very easy dinner, fried potato & pumpkin and salad.
I wanted Azzan to come join me and watch a movie with us on the big screen in my room.
But he was being so morose that he told Shoshannah that we may as well destroy his life  as he moaned  draped himself along the dvd shelves in the hallway – he really is a total drama queen!!
So we took our dinner and began watching ‘The boy in Striped Pyjamas.’
It did not take long before he was at the door, and then he was wriggling down into my bed between us.
He really just needed a cuddle but he was so prickly he couldn’t allow himself to give in and have one earlier.
Seb dropped Anson back around 7pm.
He came and sat and talked for a while, just winding down and recapping the days events before taking himself off to feed his dogs and go home.
Azzan got himself some dinner and when Anson left we finished watching the movie.
I had no idea of what it was about so the ending was absolutely gutting.
We were all floored with horror.
Good talking point though.
Azzan was lying there talking about the terrible Nazis, but I was able to bring him back to the fact that it could be any one involved in injustices against another people/persons.

The kids went straight off to bed.
I had a chat with Sandy, she has had some terrible medical misadventure happen this month so it looks like we need to find another hairdresser for the wedding!!
Help!

I’m not going to stress about it – yet 😉
Will go to sleep and rethink it through in the morning.

Sunday 26th August

I was awake well before dawn again.
I spent some time writing.
I am enjoying getting my thoughts down on ‘paper’.
The weekend at Writers Retreat has stimulated me into doing this and it is helping to relieve the thoughts that churn inside my brain.

 

This is the amazing scene that greeted me as dawn broke over the bay.
I never fail to marvel at the wonderful environment I am blessed to live in here.
It is always glorious, no matter what the weather or time of day.
It is always changing and always beautiful.

 

I spent some time out in the spa with my book.
Shoshannah was up early making pancakes cuz she couldn’t sleep.
She presented me with this incredible plate for my breakfast.

It was small pancakes with heaps of fresh fruit and berry couli.
Absolutely delicious!

Azzan was queuing for the spa so I hopped out and quickly got dressed then relaxed in the study with my book and at by breakfast – very spoilt I was this morning 🙂

 

Grant & Graeme were at work on the wood stove firebox quite early.
While I had no internet I made the most of catching up on mail and getting it all queued up to send once the new month rolled over.
I also sat and made a list of all the moneys owing and expected expenditure.
It is all rather daunting, but having it listed helps me to process how I am going to deal with it.
Graham got me out cleaning the top of the wood stove while it was disconnected.
It made it heaps easier to scrub.
I tried using Jif and then a pot scrub but still couldn’t move some of the stuff.
Graham is going to bring something else down for me to try later.

 

Marah arrived around with Eden in the buggy.
Anson took a while to get here as he was doing his dogs and possum traps.
They had arrived back home last night in a borrowed vehicle as the parts they needed did not arrive due to the plane from Auckland not being able to land in Christchurch due to fog.
We were frustrated and flummoxed that they had not been sent directly to Nelson
Seb whizzed Phoebe up in the dinghy and then got the 88 South into the wharf.
Loaded up Graham, Grant, Miriam and the kids and took off out fishing & scalloping which was a blessing to us all 😉

Ella was finally able to get started with Anson & Marah.

I carried on scrubbing.
I was really feeling upset, just felt overwhelmed with carrying stresses and worries and was struggling not to cry.
Scrubbing was good cuz the tears merged in with the soapy water.
I eventually went in and joined the crew.
While they did their CPR training etc I did some knitting and listened.
Eden was really good and stayed asleep all morning so Marah was able to concentrate.

I cooked up some eggs on toast with pasta for lunch and we all sat outside to eat in the sunshine.
Shoshannah made some gluten free pastry pies and Ella & I helped her eat them.

I caught some great family shots and these gorgeous ones of Eden during course intervals.
This is my favourite 🙂

The wee hoodie she is wearing is the one I knitted a few months ago.
Lovely to see it being worn 🙂

Then it was back into the classroom groove.
Eden was awake and a tad cranky so Phoebe & Shoshannah helped to babysit.

She was then was entertained by our accommodating tutor  for the last part of our course and then thankfully slept while we all did the final tests 🙂

We all passed thanks to our wonderful tutor.
Ella is a natural born teacher and loves what she is doing so that makes it so easy to learn.
I wanted all the crew to do this course and hopefully in a few months to do a more advanced one.
It is so important for us to be proactive as we are so far from help if there is an accident or medical emergency.

The fisherfolk arrived back much later than they had planned.
Graham & Grant got straight back into working on the stove.
We sat and chatted for a while.
Phoebe’s baby was very active so we all had to connect with it 🙂

Seb whizzed Phoebe back home and then took off out to harvest some seed.
Marah walked her babe back home again and Anson took off to do some work.
Grant finally got the wetback/firebox to fit.
He had to do a small adjustment but it is all sitting in there nicely now.
Thanks so much Grant – I so appreciate you helping us out like this.

Ella & Grant then packed up the vehicles and kids.
And eventually after getting a certain van stuck – again!
And calling Graham out to come help tow her out of her predicament they were finally on their way home somewhere around 7pm.
Ella, you might be good at teaching first aid but you sure ain’t no good at assessing risk 😉
Gonna be a late night kids!

I cooked up fresh fish and a couple of scallops for dinner along with some veges.
It was a most delicious feed.
Haven’t had a feed of fresh fish for ages.
Graham had dinner with us cuz he was working quite late here getting the stove sorted.

YC & Shan are getting ready to leave in the morning so we exchanged photos after they finished the dishes.
They have spoilt the kids this past week by doing most of the dishes.
Shock time coming kids!!
I went to tuck Azzan into bed but found him cuddled up talking with Shoshannah on her bed.
They were having a sibling bonding time sharing memories of their Dad.
I left them to it and carried on blogging in the study.
I am so tired that I am now going to head off and find my book and snuggle down in my bed.
Electric blanket is already on 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday 24th August

I headed out to the spa with my book just after 6:30pm and read for an hour.

Am into another Beverley Lewis book – ‘The Fiddler’ from the Home to Hickory Hollow series.

I got YC & Shan busy in the garden, they are doing a fantastic job getting it all weeded and tidy.

I made a batch of banana, kiwifruit, apple and chocolate chip muffins for morning tea.

Then we got ourselves all ready for the First Aid Course that Ella was running for us.

She came up and got organized around 9:30am.

Seb & Phoebe cruised over and we finally managed to make a start sometime before 10:30am.

We spent the whole day immersed in first aid training.
It was really great.
The kids joined in for a while when we did the cpr and defibrillator training.

Then they all headed off to play.

It was all a bit too much for Jonas 🙂

Grant was flat out trying to build a new wetback/firebox for the wood stove.
He was really wanting to get it all done today so he could go fishing tomorrow.

Graham was working between the wood stove and the bathroom.

When we stopped for lunch Seb helped Graham fit in the last large piece of wallboard.

While we had our break I sat and read through the Serious Crash Report of Tim’s accident which I have only just received.
I was feeling quite emotional afterwards, especially as the Police still cannot get basic facts right.
I was also upset because on reading the more detailed information it hit home that it was accident that never needed to happen.
It should not have happened 😦

After lunch we did scenarios.
The kids were very willing patients.
Ella got them all set up out on the deck.
This is what we found.

It looked like a train wreck!
We had to remember our training and assess and deal with what we found.
Some of the patients were too giggly to remember to stage reality 😉
I got to Elias first but decided he was too gruesome for me so delegated Shoshannah to fix him up.

That proved to be quite an amusing situation for Shoshannah!

I found Eden on the steps with a knife ’embedded’ in her chest.

She was able to tell me that a mental guy with black hair, a scar on his eye, only 4 fingers on one hand and a wooden leg had attacked her and knifed her in the eye!
Great imagination that kid 🙂
I assessed her, donut wrapped the knife wound and then bandaged the eye.
In so doing I covered both eyes but found out later that it was best to cover both eyes in a case like this as it prevents the damaged eye from trying to move in syncro with the good eye.

Phoebe had to deal with Azzan who had a serious hand wound with several amputated fingers and shock.
As you can see Azzan was in deep shock over losing several of his fingers 😉

Seb’s two patients were dealt to reasonably quickly and in a very matter of fact bloke type manner 😉

Once we had all done what we could for our patients we had a debrief to assess what we did and what we should’ve done.

The kids were al happy to go off and play after their fun ‘blood’ time with us.
We went back indoors and carried on with the remainder of the course.

I found my blood pressure monitor and we had fun taking our BP’s.
I was quite concerned to find mine was way higher than it has ever been.
I have always have very low blood pressure so was quite shocked.
We are going to monitor it and see what is going on.
Ella said that obviously stress will be playing a huge part.

Everyone was quite tired so we called it quits and headed to our respective homes.
We had heated up leftover pasta and poached eggs for dinner, plus left over desserts for the past two nights.
YC & Shan are so easy to have, they think that whatever food we put out is great.
I was exhausted after the busy day.
I lay on the sofa by the fire and read my book for a while.
So tired I couldn’t move.

I have completely run out of internet data today so am going to post this on Monday when our month is renewed.
Now I am off to bed with my book.
Am so tired.

Friday 23rd August

Once again I was awake far too early
I seriously do try to go back to sleep but end up giving up after tossing around for a while.
Had my spa while dawn was breaking this morning.
It began to gently rain while I was in there, but thankfully cleared up quite quickly.
I was on a mission to get rid of the massive piles of papers that have been accruing in the study for ages.
I have been trying to get them sorts and filed for far too long and it has been depressing me.
So I asked Shoshannah if she could direct the wwoofers when they came down for breakfast and I took my mug of hot elderflower drink and began the task.
I waded through some stuff, made some very necessary business calls that have been on my list for too long, had to wait till after 10:30am to speak to some folk.
Hate that, just when I get into a momentum and I have to put that job to one side for later.
It is so frustrating cuz I then am just paper shuffling again.
Graham arrived down around 10am and I vacated the study for a wee while so he could make some important calls.
Ella was busy baking, the kitchen was in a right state of busyness 🙂
I had found a recipe for a lemon slice so she made that and Shoshannah made it in a gluten free form.
It was delicious, but I loved Shoshannah’s the best!!
She had substituted coconut flour which really went well with the lemon.

The kids loved the slice and it disappeared very quickly.
Azzan & Elias were in the door, grabbing a piece and gone again, several times over until I hid the plate!

YC & Shan were weeding the front rock garden today.
The gardens are all looking so much better now.

Grant made an attack on my poor old sad broken wood stove.
The wetback has been leaking for ages.
So he came down equipped with the necessary tools to try and fix it for me.
I just love the Kiwi ingenuity – the log of firewood holding up the flue 🙂
He and Graham spend ages pulling it all to pieces.
They had to turn off the water and empty the hot water cylinder.
So no water to do the dishes at lunch time – kids were very sad – not!
Poor thing looks very sad and tired.
I was wondering if it was worth fixing, but cannot afford to get another at the moment.
Grant is rebuilding the wetback so hopefully it will last a few more years yet.

While Grant was working on the wetback up in the workshop Shoshannah got stuck in and cleaned the whole thing right out.
It is amazingly clean now so should go like lightening once it is all back together again.

It was a lovely sunny day so everyone ate their lunch out on the deck.
Ella made some spinach & feta pinwheels to add to the soup and other munch lunch foods she had brought.
The kids were hard out playing all day.
They spent most of the arvo down leaping around the mussel bags on the wharf.
It is so good for Azzan to have a friend a similar age and stage that he can get out and do stuff with.
He and Elias almost look like twins and get along so well.
Some of the kids went fishing and Shoshannah was roped into filleting the fish for them
Seb came and went a few times in the Tardis, doing more mussel seeding.

I brought all my filing out onto he kitchen table to make it easier to sort the papers.
Finally got them all put in the appropriate places in the filing cabinet.
I had several more phone calls to make, interspersed with Graham’s calls.
Am still dealing with the police mismanagement of Tim’s recovery, have a bit of homework to do over the weekend so I can send in my/our version of the events to get them considered and put on record with the coroner.
My desk is looking somewhat clearer, although the mailboat came with more papers to sort.
It is just never ending.
I am trying to get caught up and into a better routine and am biffing stuff out to lessen the load.
The hard part is when I am going through papers and Tim’s handwriting is scribbled all over and I feel so bad putting them in the bin.
It feels like I am losing part of him, but I can’t keep it all, it is only lists and notes, nothing special apart from the fact that he wrote it and it’s like all I have left.

Dinner was easy tonight.
Shoshannah had made so much last night she just heated up what we each wanted.
I made tapioca last night and Azzan had it for dessert tonight.
I am not impressed

The hot water is now heating by the mains power as the wetback is obviously not connected so the water was still cold when it came to doing the dishes.
I boiled several jugs for YC & Shan and they plowed throughout the pile.
Azzan & I played a few games of chicken foot.
He bemoaned that it was not quite as fun or challenging with only two of us playing.
I sent him off to bed after three games.
Then Ella, Grant & Miriam arrived up for some socializing.
Miriam is their new au pair from Germany.
Grant was interested in the dominoes so I called Azzan back to see if he would like to play some more games.
Dumb question 😉
So we enjoyed a few riotous games with 5 of us – much more fun than just two.

Miriam & Azzan went off to bed and we three talked some more over a cuppa.
Jonas didn’t want to watch a movie with his older siblings so he came to visit and crashed out while he was cuddling his Mum.
It’s been a big day for a wee man.


We talked over tomorrows first aid course and then decided that 10:30pm really was late enough for us all.
Night all.

Thursday 22nd August

I woke really early and tossed around for several hours.
Felt disgusting, couldn’t sleep.
Read my iPhone kindle for a while.
Then around 7am decided to go have a spa.

I felt yuck most of the morning.
Sat in the study and read my book wand ate a large plate of fresh fruit salad for breakfast and tried to hydrate my headache away.
Graham came round to do some more work on the bathroom.
He has got a major problem to work through at the moment.
Just seems that no matter what you do in life, no matter how honest or how peaceful, quiet and helpful you try to be, someone will always come along and create a drama

We forget today was Thursday and Azzan didn’t remember it was his 9am GO Skype session until it was 9:20am.
So he hopped on and joined in with his class for the last part of the session and then he spent some time writing a story afterwards.
t made a large pot of pumpkin soup then spent the rest of the morning painting a second coat on the bathroom vanity.
It is looking really good now.
Am so glad I decided to paint it after all.
Seb spent the day out doing mussel work.
He’s putting in some very long days at present while it is calm to try and get ahead in his work.
Shan & YC spent the day in the rock garden.
Shoshannah got the Cottage ready for Ella & Grant.
The she and YC went back down after lunch to shovel away the flood debris from the past few rain storms.
Anson called to say they were stuck in town as there was a major problem with his truck wheel and they had to wait for parts to be flown in.
Such a pain!
But very lucky they were able to get to town safely even if it was very slowly.

I was so incredibly tired that I headed off to bed for a few hours later in the arvo.
I read my book and slept and then after several phone calls I went back to bed and read for a while longer.
Shoshannah made dinner.
When I came out to the kitchen later she had made several try large pasta dishes, roast pumpkin and had some green beans ready to cook.
She had to head off to feed Anson’s dogs so I took over.
Managed to successfully burn the beans 😦
Shoshannah went down tonight the fire in the Cottage as Ella & Grant were late leaving town and didn’t arrive until nearly 7pm.
Ella got her van stuck on the road just before the house so while I waited for them to get it unstuck I made a large dish of Butterscotch Pudding which went down very well with the troops later 🙂
Our guys helped them unpack all their gear and then they came and had dinner with us.
They have their new German au pair with them.
She has only just arrived in NZ so the trip down here will be a real baptism by fire into Kiwi life!!

I went to say goodnight to the kids and found Azzan busy making his bed, and the room in a real turmoil.
I really do not know what to do with that lad!
It just seems to be a never ending battle for him to actually keep or even get his room to a state of tidiness.
Anyway, I noticed he was being a tad secretive of something so I went to investigate and discovered his portable dvd player lid was broken.
I immediately tore strips off of him because I have found it and other breakable objects laying about on the floor so many times in the past.
He retaliated angrily so I told him it was not me he should be angry at and to look at his own actions, left him to it and went to see Shoshannah.
He must have learnt from his previous days behavior because he met me at the door and was very tearful & apologetic about letting his temper get the better of him again.
We will win this battle – I am sure

I am now off to read some more of my book in bed.
It is by Beverley Lewis, called ‘The Guardian.’
Love her stories.

Wednesday 21st August

I slept in till after 7:30am.
Woke feeling absolutely awful.
Shoshannah had already left to help Anson cut down the beast.
Then he took the meat over to the WB chiller and left her up the hill so she could walk over to spend some time with her Dad.
I got up and made some bread and then went back to bed.
Azzan made me a hot elderflower drink.
Anson popped in to say goodbye – they are heading to town for a couple of days.
Then saw Tardis motoring past my window.
Lovely calm day for Seb to be getting some work done.

Azzan was bright and perky and helpful all morning.
He was cleaning his room like I had asked.
We had a wee chat about his behavior.
I was interested to know if the boys had said anything to him to prompt his apology.
But they hadn’t so I commended him for thinking it through and we talked some more about learning responsibility, initiative and character development whilst at home.
And that even if the jobs he does here are not what he wants to do for the rest of his life they are still training him in important life skills.
He was very receptive and thoughtful.

I had a chat with Margaret, realized that in my busyness, my fatigued brain hadn’t remembered to update her to not meet Mahalia at the airport tonight.
Mahalia was meant to fly in tonight but I changed her tickets last week so extend her visit with Bri for a few more weeks.
Then Valerie phoned up to see how I was so we chatted a while.
Shoshannah came back from her walk and then got stuck into her maths.
Graham arrived soon after 10am and started working in the bathroom.
I finally got myself back out of bed and pulled off the sheets preventing me from falling back in!
Started the loads of washing.
Got some lunch organized and battled to get the kitchen fire lit.
Anson popped in at midday to say goodbye but then left his phone behind so I got YC to run after him.
He was really tired so I was quite concerned about him driving out.
Shoshannah has been a bit out of it today and has spent most of it resting.
I am trying really hard to avoid carbs at the mo, gotta fit into my dress for the wedding!
Been doing far too much comfort eating and my weight has just skyrocketed.
So while the others had cheese toasties and fresh bread I enjoyed a lovely big lettuce salad with salmon, feta & beetroot.
It came over a bit showery so YC & Shan cleaned the kitchen shelves for me and then swept the floors.
Made a delicious chicken casserole in the slow cooker.
It had kumara, ginger and cranberries. I added some prunes and garlic.
Had it with rice and boiled pumpkin.
Did some MathsBuddy with Azzan on the computer.
I’m still assessing as to what level he needs to be at.
He flew through about 4 lessons and then on seeing that subtraction was the next topic decided he needed to carry on cleaning his room.
I finally had my shower at 3pm.
Azzan helped Graham with the wallboards this arvo.
Graham now has a plan so will be back into it tomorrow.
I spent some time in the study doing paperwork and trying hard not to get stressed about things.
Then, before dinner I gave the vanity a quick sand and painted it while watching listening to ‘Behind the Glass Door‘.
A true story of a family with an autistic daughter.
Most insightful.
Tardis’s lights were traveling across the bay well after 7pm.
Seb’s had a long day out seeding today.
Had dinner and then headed off to bed.