Goodbye 2013

Wow 2013 is nearly over! What a year of change it has been; adventures and new experiences.  I can hardly wait to see what 2014 will bring.  More change for one thing and more adventures. 

This is going to be my new motto for 2014.  I have to admit that I am anxious about saying goodbye.  If I could whisk us both to Karratha over night and be settled, moved in and steady, I would be really thrilled.

The downside to that though, of course, is that I would not get the chance to say goodbye. So it's a no win/no win situation.  I would like to save myself the upset of saying goodbye but I don't want to miss out on saying goodbye.  Make sense??  No, not to me either.

Back to 2013, before it is too late and it is 2014.

We had a great year which included travelling through France and the UK for 7 weeks; getting to know Chris' new little grand daughter, Scarlett (who is a delight) and having some lovely visits from the kids.  In 2013 Chris got a new job;  I had some wonderful hours spent in the playroom making all sorts of lovely bits and bobs. We had a couple of mini breaks, Freycinet, Hobart and Melbourne.  I read a few wonderful books and a couple of shite ones and saw some great movies.

Some friends moved away; some moved closer; we made some new friends and lost some as well. All in all we have been blessed, looked after, loved and most importantly, cherished in 2013.  We have been sick, had aches and pains and a couple of infections between us but still lucky enough to say that we are in good health. 

In 2014 we are facing one of our biggest years of change yet.  It will be adventurous, challenging, unsettling and uplifting. As long as we are together, I am OK with that.

I am looking forward to a new job, making new friends, seeing new places and experiencing new fun things to do. Through it all, I trust that I have the faith to remember that we are in the place that we are meant to be, doing what we are meant to be doing at a time that is just right for us.

So as we draw the blinds on 2013 and open the cupboard to let the New Year out, I want to wish you all the very best.  Here's to a new year of good health, loads of happy times and the best of life that friends, family and love can bring to you all.

Thanks for reading my thoughts and ramblings over the last couple of months and I hope that I can hold your attention again in 2014 for a few minutes every now  and then.

Battling Back Pain

Over the last few days. Chris' back problems have been exacerbated, so much so that he now has three problems areas instead of just the lower back one.  This has been caused by holding his back too stiffly to try to lessen the impact.  Unfortunately the strain of holding himself upright has caused muscle spasms further up his back  and into his shoulders. 

So after three nights of sleeping upright on the sofa and sick to death of being in so much pain, we are off to the doctor again today. Please God may we get some relief for him.

The house is an absolute tip and nightmare! LOL - there is stuff everywhere as Danika unpacks and we pack to make room for her things.  It is a manoeuvre of mammoth proportions as we change beds, move rooms and try to do all this while making sure that we get Chris as comfortable as possible and plan an engagement party.

Danika says in a few years we will look back on this and laugh! I reckon it wont take that long, maybe next week :)

The three ladies in the house have all at some time succumbed to the emotions of it all, which was probably inevitable given the circumstances and what we all have just behind us and just in front us to contend with. 

It is all coming together nicely though, yesterday was the worst as we changed the beds over and that involved taking apart and moving three queen sized beds and taking two big chest of drawers down stairs.  Thank God again for Jonathan, moving that about. 

I slept on Danika and Shaun's bed (which was wonderfully comfortable); Emily and Farooq slept on our bed; Chris slept on the sofa; and Danika and Shaun slept in the sewing room.  Jonathan is the only one who slept in his own bed in his own room ! LOL musical beds :)

Today is another lovely sunny day which bodes well for tonight with the engagement celebrations. It will be a lovely time to catch up with friends and family members who are in from interstate. 

More about that tomorrow....or the next day :)

The No Title Post :)

Like all of you, we have been busy over the last few days. 

Last Friday, we decided to take Farooq and Emily to Hobart for the weekend.  Farooq has not visited our fair capital before and it was a great excuse to get away and have a mini break before the real fun begins with inundatedness of everything Christmas.

Unfortunately, Chris has come home very miserable.  He has had a back injury imposed on him by some half wit workplace assessor who clearly had no idea whatsoever how to conduct such an examination correctly or even responsibly.  The idiot was getting Chris to pick up 20 kgs of weights in a milk crate with his arms stretched out in front of him. Did I mention the guy was an absolute drop kick.  If I sound cranky it's because I am furious and trying hard to hide exactly how furious and frustrated I am !!

Poor Chris :( He has been extremely lucky to have maintained a great health rap so far, with no ongoing issues of any kind and now to be in extreme pain through no fault of his own  but due to someone else's incompetence! Well!

Plus we have so much to do and so many places to go that involve a few hours in the car, so you can imagine how much that is going to hurt. 

Anyway in the wee wee hours of Saturday morning, I had to get the ambulance to the hotel to take Chris to the A&E as he was in so much agony and I could not move him.  So, unfortunately, that kinda ruined our little trip to Hobart.  Thanks again Idiot Workplace Examiner!

So the kids went out and did stuff while Chris and I went to bed and tried to get a few hours kip.  They visited Salamanca Markets, which is of course a Hobart Institution and drove up Mount Wellington.  They took some great photos too.

They told us they did have a good time though, but it was not what we had planned and hoped for. 

Today we have cause for celebration however - Daughter D and SIL to be S arrive on the boat tonight!! YAY, wave your arms in the air like you just don't care! Can't wait. 

Daughter E is busy baking and  son  J and SIL have mowed the lawns and tidied up the garden a bit. So I think that we are pretty much ready now. If we can just get Chris right.

Tomorrow I will stuff  the turkey and get the lamb ready; get all the vegies prepared and make a couple of salads.  Of course we need to have pavlova and a trifle.  So may well start on those tonight. What isn't done by tomorrow, we will just have to do without.  As long as we have food on the table and everyone is seated and together ~ I think that is all that matters.  

So I want to wish you all the very, very happiest of Christmas Joy.  I hope that you all have a fabulous day and enjoy the company of people that you love  and care for.  May God Bless you all with the true spirit of the season. xxx <3 <3 <3

Something to smile about and something not worth the smile

First up I want to say THANK YOU!!

Thank you to each and every one of you who read my little blog posts.  Thank you for taking the time out of your busy days to spend a few minutes here.  This blog is something that I have been wanting to do and mulling over for a few years now but always put it off for a few reasons.

I thought that there would be very little interest in what I had to say and I don't mean that in a fake humble way, I just mean that not every one is like me and has a fascination with the ordinariness of daily life. Even though I find other peoples lives rivetting in their individuality, others may enjoy a more cosmopolitan view of things. 

The other reason is that I was always too busy and or tired.  But that will not change in the near future so best get on with it. 

I wonder too at the value of opening up to the general public a personal insight into my life.

Can it be too much? I do tend to wear my heart on my sleeve (my emotional reactions have always been on my face for all to see) and boundaries are there for the crossing.  Am I leaving a great big vulnerable gap open to inspection that may come back and bite me on the arse. Time will tell, I guess. 

However! Since I commenced to put my thoughts into this online journal, I have had some really encouraging feedback. Better than that, it has facilitated others'  memories of their school days or childhood. So we are both winners out of that.  Long time friends are also reporting to getting to know a side of me that they never knew existed.
Good or bad?? I don't know.

The blog also holds a record of this time; all the joy, the hard grit and what was going on during this huge time of transition for my family.

I started back in October thinking that if only the family reads it, at least they will have an idea of what we are doing. Then I started to digress - hard to comprehend, I know! Me losing track, no way.  Anyway after just 36 posts, yesterday turned out to be momentous occasion.

2000 page views in just under 2 months!!!

WOW! I am so happy; who woulda thought it.  So thank you all. I hope that I continue to write about stuff that you find entertaining and/or relevant. 

 Now for the bad news and disappointment:

As you know I have been looking forward to my husband coming home from Karratha for Christmas.  Well yesterday was to be the big day.  It is a 12 hour turn around from Karrratha to Launceston. It literally takes ALL day to get here.  You could fly into Hong Kong quicker.

So Chris arrives into Melbourne tired and achey (he has a bad back at the mo) to be told that his 7 p.m. flight with QANTAS has been canned because they didn't allow for a flight crew on that particular Qantas Link flight. He had to go over the aerobridge and stay the night at the Park Royal.

I was already tired enough to weep after a really busy day and then to get that on top of it all, I just went to my bed.

The upshot, and there is always one, isn't there? - was that he got to sleep in one of the most comfortable beds that we have ever had the pleasure to lay our weary bones on.  The beds at the Park Royal at Tullermarine are the bomb, divine! So lucky Chris with his bad back, at least he had a good nights sleep.

Today it is a gorgeous sunny, light breeze, blue skies kind of day ~ perfect for flying down the river. So with a fair breeze and a good handful of grace and hope, we will pick him up this afternoon some time, if Qantas can be bothered, I suppose :)

In other good news, Daughter D and SIL to be made their way safely to Coober Pedy last night, so they are getting closer each day.  It is an awful long way from Jarlmadangah in the far northern Kimberley to Launceston, Tasmania. They have sent home some amazing photos, thanks to Viber and Facebook - but that is their story to tell.  I am just thrilled that they are on their way. That first smooch is going to be a beauty!

I hope that all your Christmas plans are falling in line with your level of enthusiasm and time frame and that you are not too frantic in the Pre-Christmas rush.

My Son

My youngest daughter and her fiance arrived home for Christmas yesterday.  I have been so looking forward to her arrival.  I stood at the airport windows as the plane unloaded with the loved ones of Launceston's community, in anticipation, just like them.

I watched both ends of the plane, scanning for a tall, gorgeous girl and her handsome man. Panic set in a little as I couldn't pick out their faces - maybe I had the wrong flight?  So I went over to the doors and after a while, there they were! Oh Joy Divine. The house is starting to fill up with our beautiful family that we haven't seen for some time. My husband comes home tomorrow and next week Daughter D with her fiance. We will have three dogs and a cat thrown into the mix, just to make it even more interesting.

The last two months, it has just been my son and I at home.  We have settled into our own routine and comfortable, quiet co-existence. Between us we have managed to keep the chores under control and potter about in the garden and me kept busy mostly with the packing.  His strong arms have come in very handy though, taking all the boxes down stairs to await pick up (Sorry for packing them so heavy).

He has been a real comfort to me; just to have him around; someone to look forward to coming up the stairs each night and someone to cook a meal for or just share the day with. These last couple of months would have been a lot tougher without having him with me.

As I watched him go off to work this morning, my heart was filled with sadness and my eyes welled over. I am going to miss him so much and our little time together, just the two of us is coming to an end. It is sad but it is happy because that also heralds the arrival of his sisters and my husband, which is fabulous. But I will treasure these last weeks that we have had together, just us two.

It got me thinking ~ There is nothing to compare to the overwhelming emotion that comes with the birth of your first child. No greater joy, no more instantaneous love than holding that first little bubby in your arms, realising that you have brought a little person into the world and he is yours.  This is not to diminish the joy and wonder of consequent babies at all but there can never be another first, can there? My daughters will agree with me, one day :)

I was fairly young when I had my son, just 20. My husband and I didn't have a brand new house, filled with lovely leather furniture, gleaming white goods and big screen TV. There was no beaut new 4WD in the driveway and we certainly didn't have any money in the bank.  Everything we owned was second hand, except for the wedding presents that came into that little house in Dodgin Street with us.

The only new things that I had for that little baby, were a couple of blue Bonds singlets and the cloth nappies that Mum had bought. Everything else was handed down or I had made. We didn't care though. I don't think that impacted on his health, our happiness or the love that came to live with us through that child. We were blessed.

Over the years, of course, there have been rough patches, as there are with any child, big or small. I never wavered in my belief in him though and I hope that no matter what, he always knew and still knows, that the day he was born was the first Happiest Day of My Life. The first day that I came to know what true love is - the love you have for your child. Nothing can compare, no other love is measured against it and no other love will withstand the trials and heartache as the love for your child will.

He has grown into a handsome, beautiful man.  He has a loving nature, is kind and friendly, generous to a fault and loyal to his friends. He adores his sisters and no matter where they are, he would do anything for them. What more could a mother ask for in a son? He thinks about other people and is sensitive and has a great sense of humour.  No wonder my cup runneth over.

So just before we all get busy beyond sanity and before I am inundated with a houseful of people (as wonderful as that will be), I just wanted to take time to tell you and him, what a wonderful son I have and how much I love him.  I must have done something good for God to bless me so; just as his name says, Jonathan  - Gift from God.

My First (un) Fulfilled Wish

When I was growing up, we lived out of town on the corner of a very busy road.  It was the main highway that went along the northern coast of Tassie.  So trucks, tractors, lots of cars and the occasional bus. It was the main thoroughfare and in those days not very wide or accommodating for all the use it had. 

As I  have said previously, I was the youngest kid in our family.  That meant that a lot of the time I got the hand-me-down clothes and toys. Sunday School Anniversary and new year school clothes were probably the exception.  New toys at Christmas and birthdays of course, Mum and Dad weren't that mean.

In fact being the youngest had it's definate advantages as well.  I remember one Christmas Santa brought me a new Barbie doll, she was adorable and came with her very own designer wardrobe.  Mum worked a lot of night shift when I was a kid and she had obviously put those quiet, wee hours to good use.  She had always been a great sewer and indeed liked sewing, which is even better, 'cos then her creativity came to the fore. Being the youngest, Mum had time on her hands and the others were not in the right age group to appreciate such a unique and clever gift.

That Christmas I received a dear little brown school case full of clothes that any Barbie would be proud to own.  I can still picture it so very clearly.  It had little leather hinges and was only about the size of a Jodi Piccoult novel.  Inside there was a little tartan sunray pleated skirt with a ribbon waist band; a lovely white woollen strappy number, made out of a ladies glove that had been embroidered with pink roses  (Mum used the fingers of the gloves to make matching boots!!); a ballgown;  a soft as silk tan flannelette Indian Maiden outfit, made to look just like something Hiawatha would go trekking through the forests in, complete with fringing; a sundress, bathers and her own little beach towel. My Barbie was the best dressed Barbie at school.  Those hand made fashion accessories were to die for. I was in Little Girl Heaven.  

That little brown school case and Barbie gave me hours and hours of "making up your own stories" pleasure.  Needless to say, all of Mum's dedicated handiwork paid off for her too; nothing else was needed to keep me occupied for hours.  I would call that a Win/Win sitch. 

But back to that busy highway right on our front door step!  Our geographical situation was the bane of my life.  It meant that I would never know the pleasure in fulfillment of my first wish. I wanted a push bike.

I used to ask Mum regularly for a bike. I could have ridden into basketball, instead of walking; I could have ridden to my first job down at the beach instead of having to wait around for lifts or walking; I could have ridden around to Tracey W's house instead of walking across the paddocks and getting chased by  plovers! And I could have just ridden! 

Of course when I did get to anyone's house who did have a bike, guess what was the first thing that I wanted to do! Thank goodness Tracey's older sister had a bike as well :)

But to have my own bike was never to be.  Mum said it was too dangerous for me to be riding a bike of that busy highway  (not too dangerous to walk it though Mum??).  So early  in the day, I learnt that you don't always get what you want and boy has that been a well oiled lesson over the years. 

So my first wish that I can recall , was never realised.  Still that's life isn't it?

Another in the series of  Kerri Sackvilles First of .....blog posts 


http://lifeandothercrises.blogspot.com.au/

The Old House at Deep Creek Road

This morning as I walked Dizzy up to shop for the papers, I had a sublime deja vu moment. It was the wind rustling through the big pine tree on the corner that did it. There is a distinctive noise that the wind makes through a pine tree and it took me back about 43 years.

When I was a very small child my fathers parents, Grandma and Pop Archer, lived on a small farm at Deep Creek Road.  It was an old farm house set up on a bit of a hill at the end of a gravel road. The piece of land that the house was situated on had one of the best views in the area. It looked out over farm lands, to the town and then straight up to Table Cape.  A visitor once said to Pop, "Gee Mick, that's a great view you've got!"  Pop said in typical 'Archer, King of Understatement' manner, "You can't eat a view."

I only have a few clear memories of that old house, one is the smell and another is the long dark passage that led up to Pop's bedroom.  The reason that we used to venture up there in the dark, which was a bit eerie, was to pinch his XXXX  strong peppermints that he kept beside his bed.

Mum said that it was always obvious where we had got to because we would come back into the kitchen blowing and puffing because the mints were so hot! Serves us right :)

The passage was so dark as it ran up the middle of the house and because of the pine trees that flanked the house and kept out the sunlight. It is strange how such an incongruous kind of memory can remain so clear. What memories do have of your grandparents house?

As I am the youngest of six children, by the time I came along my grandparents were fairly old.  Dad was the eldest as well so that added to the age factor.  My grandparents were battlers, they brought up their children during the Depression and knew what it was like to make do and mend! I remember my mother telling me how Grandma would cut up a potato sack and throw it over her shoulders so she could garden in the rain.  She said that was the best time to be out in the garden.  That must be where Dad gets his love of gardening and his ability to grow almost anything.

The Hippeastrum that Angela gave me about five years ago, still blooming each summer 

My grandparents lived in that house at Deep Creek Road until the family moved them into town.  As I remember it, Dad and his sisters and brother, did all the shifting while Pop and Grandma went to Melbourne to visit Auntie Shirley. Once they were settled in Park Street, a whole cache of new memories were made. Like the back sunroom where Grandma kept an old kitchen dresser stocked with blackcurrant, raspberry, strawberry, blackberry jams, tomato sauce and relishes and all other kind of neat homemade delights.  I cannot eat blackcurrant jam now without thinking about my Grandma and that sunny back room at Park Street. 

Chris' Lilliums out the front of our house