Two weeks ago she had the whole week off school because of weird tummy pains and high temperatures.  She could have gone to school on the friday, but it was their athletics carnival so I decided to keep her home.  After a whole week off school I didn’t want her first day back to have her sitting outside in the cold weather all day.

Last week she went to school on monday.  Went to school on tuesday, and then I got the phone call to come and pick her up – she’s vomited.  Right outside the front office.  Nice!  LOL!  Luckily she didn’t make it inside the office, at least outside it can be hosed off.

So I brought her home, dosed her up on panadol.  She had eaten breakfast on Tuesday morning, and didn’t eat a meal again until sunday.  Five days of just water.  Lying on the lounge or bed all day, sleeping, upchucking every time she tried to eat.  There were a few occasions where I nearly took her to ER.

On Sunday she said she felt better, so ate a pancake for breakfast.  Ate lunch.  Ate afternoon tea and played with the neighbour for awhile.  Ate dinner – well, half a dinner.  She had the steamed vegies and mashed potato.

It was a long weekend here so no school on monday and the kidlet ate all day, including a roast chicken dinner at night and went back for seconds!  So she’s back at school today and fine.  From lying there looking terrible on saturday to fully recovered by monday.

And the Chicken Pox?  That would be me.  For the second time.  I had it as a kid and gave it to my entire pre-school.  And now I have it again.  Not Shingles, but actual Chicken Pox.  It’s a mild case but still itchy and tiring.  So after being confined to the house with a sick child for two weeks and suffering from cabin fever, I now have to stay here for another week.

Thank goodness for the internet!!!

So far so good.  I’m also reading up on Chi Running, which is supposed to prevent injury and be easier on the body.  I’ve been incorporating some of the basic forms in my running and it’s certainly making a difference so far.

Will keep you updated.

Honey Facial Cleanser is a recipe from the book Bodyworks: Restoring Wellbeing with Homemade Lotions, Potions and Balms (Murdoch Books): Restoring Wellbeing with Homemade Lotions, Potions and Balms (Murdoch Books)

60ml runny honey

125ml vegetable glycerine

40 ml liquid castile soap

Mix all together and pour into a clean pump type bottle.  Keeps in the shower without needing refrigeration.

To use, simply rub over wet face and rinse off with water.

Note:  Liquid Castile Soap is true soap, not the liquid detergent you buy in the supermarket.  You may need to order it online from a Soap Making shop or might possibly be available from a Health Food Shop or organic supermarket.

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Almond Scrub is a recipe I made up myself.  It’s very loosely based on a product from Lush.  Works brilliantly!

2 Tblspn ground almonds

2 Tblspn clay (Kaolin, Bentonite, or similar cosmetic clay)

1 Tblspn vegetable glycerine

1 tspn sweet almond oil

5 drops lavender essential oil (leave out if you’re allergic, or you can substitute another essential oil)

Mix all together well and store in a plastic container (for safety reasons, you don’t want to risk dropping a glass jar in the shower!).  Leave for 24 hours before using.

To use, wet face, break off a small piece and scrub skin gently.  Wash off with water.

To be honest, the colour of this scrub reminds me of baby poop!  It ends up a yellowish khaki colour and the texture is, well, chunky….  LOLOL!

All made by me on the stove!  I think I now have enough soap for us for the next few years!  LOL!  It was pretty easy and good fun.

The basic recipe is a mix of oils, I’ve used all vegetable oils, with Caustic soda added to saponify the oils.  Then they have spices, clays, essential oils or synthetic fragrances added to make the different varieties.  I did have one failure, tried making a coffee soap and it ‘burnt’ when I added the caustic.  Smelled like a coffee pot that had burnt dry so had to throw that one out.

I started making them using tupperware as the molds, then swapped to using 75mm pvc pipe which works a treat!

Centre (grey) is shaving soap with bentonite clay.  Works better for shaving than plain soap.  I made a heap of this in plastic jars for DH to take overseas on his deployment and the rest of it I’m using.

Clockwise from top: Solid shampoo bar, spice (cinnamon, clove and nutmeg), chocolate, Eucalyptus (can’t smell it though), Sweet Vanilla Sugar, plain basic soap, a mix of some small bits and failures all remelted and molded.

For seven years she has fought cancer.  She has done everything she could to beat this revolting disease and in the end it has won over her body.  Her mind will never be conquered.  Even when I rang her and asked how she was she answered “Great”.

I heard that she went into palliative care last tuesday and flew down to see her on the thursday. Thursday was a good day/bad day. I started it on only about 4 1/2 hours sleep, which was not good but unavoidable.

I arrived at the Palliative care unit just after 9.00am I was able to spend about three and a half hours with Paula, just holding her hand and talking.  I went down there thinking that I had so much to say, and in the end what mattered was simply:

Thank you

I love you

I’ll miss you

I’ll see you again one day

And a lot of swearing and crying in private over how unfair it is. She’s only 52 and will never see her sons get married, know her grandchildren or any of the other things that she should still have time to do. And they won’t get to meet an amazing lady.

I didn’t fly out of Melbourne until after 6.00pm, so had a bit of time sitting in the Virgin Blue lounge (almost as good as Qantas Club) before the flight. I was emotionally and physically exausted by the time I got home and am still feeling quite wrung out for a few days.

Update: Paula passed away two weeks later on 22 Jan 2009.

The move….. yes, well…. here’s a quick run-down of the highlights of the last two weeks;

Tue 1 Jan, back home after holidays at the in-laws. Trying to clean Dian’s room, and her comment when told the removalists are coming tomorrow? “Nobody told me!” Argh!!!! Also I managed to flood the laundry, including everything inside the laundry cupboards! It was then the cleanest room in the house.

Wed 2 Jan, Removalists come in and pack up the house into boxes. Discovered my car is leaking petrol. Luckily Eddie found the leak, a loose clamp, and was able to fix it.

Thurs 3 Jan, everything went on the truck. Real Estate Agent rings in the morning to say that our final inspection, which I had booked a month ago for 3.00pm friday 4th Jan, was being rescheduled to the next monday because the Landlord wanted to have it then. I almost had a meltdown, it wasn’t even his appointment! Got nowhere, so now we have to leave the house and have the final inspection (with an extremely grumpy, picky landlord) without being present. Then the Real Estate agents says “Oh, you’re still in the house? I’ve got people coming through this afternoon to look at it!” Well, we’re moving, they can come and look but it’s messy!

Fri 4 Jan, Cleaned the house. Had in interim/unofficial inspection. Took photo’s of all the venetian blinds as the landlord had blamed us for bending the ends a few weeks earlier. Took the guinea pigs to the hotel with us for the night and sneaked them in to the room.

Sat 5 Jan, picked the cat up from the cattery at 7.30am. Drove to Canberra in convoy with Eddie. Stinking hot day. About an hour out of Canberra I rang the Cattery there to confirm when we would be there to drop Suzy off. Got their answering service! Major panic as I didn’t have their address, and if they weren’t there I had a cat and nowhere for her to go! Rang my friend who was going to look after the guinea pigs and went to drop them off first. The cattery rang back, everything ok, so was able to leave the cat there. Went and picked up Eddie from the other side of Canberra, drove all the way back and went to a hotel for the night.

Sun 6 Jan, drove 3 1/2 hours up to my mums.

Tues 8 Jan, received a phone call from the Real Estate Agent, the Landlord wants us to replace all the blinds because ten slats are bent slightly at the ends. She told him that was unreasonable, but he could ask us to pay for the damaged slats. I said I thought that was unreasonable, it should be considered fair wear and tear, and since the blind cords were damaged when we moved in no-one could say that they were in perfect condition. Back to negotiate…

Thurs 10 Jan, drove back to Canberra and picked up the keys to the house. It seems to be the only house in this suburb that doesn’t have air-conditioning or a dishwasher! Yikes!!!!

Fri 11 Jan, the removal truck turned up and 7.30am, unloaded everything and was gone by 9.45am!!!!! So far the damages are: a hole through the back of my china cabinet, broken crystal vase (all the cheap glass vases are ok, why did it have to be one of my crystal ones???) the top of the microwave is seriously dented, marks and scratches on most wooden and metal furniture, and our bed’s footpiece broken. It’s solid wood, how the heck did they manage that??????
Had my first decent nights sleep in over two weeks, which means that I managed to get more than five hours!

Mon 14 Jan, discovered that in this very high rent, McMansion, upmarket suburb only ten minutes from the nations capital, you can’t get adsl broadband. I actually cried, it was the last straw!!!!!! Found out a cheap wireless deal from the neighbour who is also very unimpressed! The Real Estate Agent rang to say that the landlord wasn’t happy, would we consider offering some compensation for the blinds? I said no, it was fair wear and tear, and if he wished he could take it to the Tenancy Tribunal. I’m expecting to hear from them soon.

Wed 16 Jan, Dian’s grandmother who we haven’t seen for over a year drove over three hours to take her out for the day! What a champion woman!!!!! She and Dian had a great day and then she drove the more than three hours back home!

Thurs 17 Jan, (today) Dian’s 10th birthday. I took her out shopping, had a great time. Had a car accident. I was coming up to a give way sign, and a car cut the corner in front of me. I was still moving and we connected. My front bumper and number plate are cactus, his driver side rear door and wheel hub are dented. Far out!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently I swore when we hit, although I don’t remember it! Picked up our wireless modems, yay!

We’re still surrounded by boxes, I have a client next monday or tuesday and I can’t find my files that tell me what day or time. I have a horrible feeling that I have double booked him with Dian’s birthday party on monday…

She thinks the infertility (we have had Unexplainable Infertility since we got married 2 1/2 years ago) is caused by very low levels of progesterone, which causes PMS, adds to stress and prevents any fertilised eggs being able to implant. So I’m on several tablets, have to exercise regularly, make sure I have time out and relax (me? relax? what a novel concept!) and thinks it should all right itself in the next few months/cycles. That’s really good news, except that I’m at the point of not really believing it until I see it. I pretty much don’t ever expect to see two lines on a pg test, I’ve seen so many negatives in the last few years that it’s going to be a huge shock when it happens!

When we did fertility investigations late last year I mentioned a few symptoms of low progesterone to the specialist, and was pretty much just brushed off and told it was all fine. I knew it wasn’t, but he really treated me like an ignoramus when I asked about it! So after $3,800 out of our pocket to be told we have nothing wrong with either of us, and our only options are either AI or IVF, we’ve come full circle with the Naturopath telling me that I was right all along, and it looks like it may be easily and relatively cheaply fixed!