Plans that went astray

I am constantly delighted as things as 'meant' to be are guided into our paths. I do try to find the glittering gems in every situation, and even now, a very dark time for both of us, I have faith that all is well.

Age and I took a leap of faith earlier this year. We both knew his health was diminishing and that our suburban lifestyle had become a prison. Don't get me wrong, I loved my home, I loved the  school the kids went to and our street, with its wonderful neighbours was incredible. I miss and mourn that time gone. But we had known for at least two years   that things needed to change and we needed to stretch our legs again ... But its that old rut. ... The complacency of comfort and the allure of just letting thing lay.  

It was such a blessing that we were able to sell the house so quickly, a bit of a heart wrenching activity for us to have to be apart while I worked and he trained for the Camino with Morgan, but one we knew would be worth it. It was the longest time in 24 years that we had been apart.... And then they went off to Spain... My heart was wrung out every day just waiting to hear or see a blog post from them. With Age off on his spiritual journey, I kept my distance - giving him space to find his path. gahh......... but enough of that.

We'd planned to come back from Europe and come straight into this house sitting role in Gympie just to rest and to reaffirm where we were going together and as a family. I had planned to work in supply teaching while up here - there are 7 school just in Gypmpie alone do I knew Id have no worries there. Age had planned just to kick back and enjoy the solitude of the trees and birds for the month.

 From there, we had planned to do  other house sits in areas along the Northern New South Wales coast to get a feel for different towns and where we might like to settle for a while. I'm a step away from getting full registration in NSW teaching.. I may still complete that process - its taken months already!

I guess that is still happening, with a few more complications thrown in for good measure.. But everything is possible..

 I obviously cant work as the kids are with me and no-one to look after them if I go off to work. I do worry about finances, but at this point at times, I struggle to find my way  round the house, so am in no position to be teaching in a classroom.

Despite all this....Feeling pretty blessed to be where we are in Gympie. Its a wonderful home with so much good energy. I'll do another blogpost with photos about it soon. The shame of course, is that its just over three hours drive one way to see Age in hospital. He can only manage ten mins or so before he flakes out. So.. The kids and I do alot of driving and I am getting to know this part of the highway well.

This post is a bit scattered.. Like my mind at the moment.

Know that I am ok.The kids are resilient and been such a support to me. I trust intuition and know Adrian is fine too. 

We will work through all challenges as we always have, with open hearts and souls, honesty and each others best interests at heart. 

As I have said before, there is no sides to take and no judgement. We have an 'is'. And all we can do is to work from there.

Thank you all our beautiful friends who have loved and supported us over the last  week. The depth of my gratitude for your understanding and selflessness runs miles underground. 

Age improving every day

Just a quick note to thank everyone who has called and visited Adrian while he is in hospital. He may be there sometime both healing and rehabilitating. While he is off the dreaded drips, he is still heavily medicated - which we have both agreed is not optimal - but necessary for recovery at the moment.

He enjoys the short visits - and his attention span is still only a few mins - the effort of talking really takes it out of him.

His physio is merciless - and we joke with him every day about all the training he is doing.  Adrian is bloody minded and if anyone is going to start running round the wards, it will be him. His presence and humour brightens the ward - even in his state.  I know the nurses will miss him when he (finally) gets discharged.

I'll post new info as it comes to hand - so if there isn't anything - there simply is no new news... as frustrating as that is...

Neither Age or I are under the impression that the next few months will be easy. Notwithstanding the emotional rollercoaster this episode has taken out on both of us, the ripples from Europe and decisions made there still need to be addressed. We are confident together we will be able to work it out and ask for support and understanding while we go through the processes necessary - for both of us.

Our wonderful home for the next month

I know I keep saying it.. But things really do happen for a reason. Though Gympie was not on our list of areas we wanted to check out on our search for somewhere to settle when we got back to Australia after our travels.... this house sitting job came up and it was hard to say no to the cutest cat around...


Mr Darcy is a ragdoll cat - who is obviously adored by his owner - and just as loved immediately by Morgan and Lilly.

The house sits on 20 acres of land - overlooking a creek and fields of pasture all round. ( they have cows and horses in there usually - but they are in different paddocks at the moment)

Its peaceful and very quiet - normally anyway. Though on the road to Tin Can Bay - there are only a few timber trucks which go through during the day and not much other traffic otherwise.

With a gorgeous wide verandah overlooking the gardens and lawns, we are looking forward to lazing our winter days away and soaking up the sun as it peeps out.

We do have our work cut out for us, with Mr Darcy, the cat to look after, a very energetic 10 month old puppy, Murphy - who is enjoying eating all the shoes and the couch out on the verandah, thee pens of chooks, a peahen, two peacocks and two parrots.... phew!! but its going to be great for the kids -who have emphatically said they want lots of pets... well... here goes - all at once.

Morgan has bonded immedialty with Murphy and is busy teaching him to fetch, sit and lay down.  Lilly just wants to spend all her time with the cat....oh no.. the chooks... no.. the parrots... darn it - everything!!

I love the enthusiasm they both have with the chooks and collecting eggs.  We had better start eating a bunch of them everyday is all I think!

Below is a picture of Peter, one of the owners before they left - showing the kids how to get the eggs and change the litter tray etc from the bantums chook tractor.

The kids have a bedroom each - such a luxury!! and I have a huge bed... all to myself.. not so great on long nights.

We will be homeschooling while we are here - and see how we go with the rest of travels around.

I've done up a schedule of things the kids need to do every day (5 days a week) and its up to them to ensure its done before 4 pm every day.  I have covered the main things - handwriting, English (stuff on grammar, word building, sentence structure etc) Science, Maths and reading. They have to reseach on the internet and blog about what they have learnt in many of the subjects and the science program I have even has little tests to complete..  I've looked into some web based maths and english stuff too.

On top of this - they have 30 mins of wii fit to do every day - and as much wii games as they want to afterwards... whats not to love about homeshooling?  They get to munch away on nuts and dried fruit as they go, stop for a wii game, pat the dog or brush the cat whenever they want.

I'm pretty confident that they won't be missing much from 'school'..

anyways - keep an eye out on their blogs... 

As for me... I'm just going to hang ten. breathe and get up every day. I don't think I have much else I can handle at the moment.