Sunday, 31 March 2013

Blessing Others

One of the mammoth tasks I've had with Mr Trifectagirl's passing is clearing out the storage locker.

The rental came up for renewal a short time after he got sick, and we paid a year in advance, so we didn't have to worry about it for a while.

Of course, that's about to come up again so we're madly trying to get it done so we don't have to pay for more than one more month.

We've nearly cleared out all the boxes that I had nothing to do with packing and putting in there.  These are the boxes that came from my mother-in-law's house when she moved into a nursing home, and that Mr Trifectagirl and his ex brought home from the UK.  There are still quite a few boxes I put in there, but most of the 'unknowns' are dealt with.

Yesterday, I sorted through the pile of boxes we took out last weekend. In them, I found some gems like Mr Trifectagirl's school report cards and leaving certificate.

What I'm most thrilled about is we will be able to bless a needy family, or new arrival refugee family with pretty much a full kitchen, apart from crockery.  It will be great to walk into a charity on Tuesday afternoon with a collection of boxes, and say 'you will be able to set up a family'.

Saturday, 30 March 2013

Anniversaries and Holidays

Mr Trifectagirl's birthday was on St Patrick's day, which also happens to coincide with the anniversary of him getting sick.  To observe this anniversary, a group of his friends and I went to the restaurant we were at last year.  I was apprehensive but enjoyed the day and the food is still fantastic.  This was the third year in a row we've been there for his birthday.

And I've spent most of the time since then sick, overloaded and just generally feeling like crap.  Not surprising since this is one of the big anniversaries, but I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired.  Today's Widow's Voice blog post sums it up well (this blog, part of the US based Soaring Spirits Loss Foundation, has been a fantastic resource).  

J still has sleep issues.  He generally sleeps through, which I'm thankful for, but "sleeping through" is between him going down around 9pm and up anywhere from 5am.  Which sucks if you're not a morning person.

Due to having a toddler running around in the evenings who requires a railroad engineer, story book reader and human jumping castle, I've struggled to keep up with my uni work, so have dropped my statistics subject.  Thankfully the census date, which is the cut-off for paying for the subject, is tomorrow so I made that decision just in time.

I was planning to travel to the US over the mid-year break to meet a whole bunch of wonderful women who have supported me through infertility, pregnancy, parenthood, and Mr Trifectagirl's illness and passing.  But the thought of travelling all over the continent, alone, with an over-active 2 year old for 4 weeks just did not sound like fun, so have cancelled those plans.

Now that I'm down to a hopefully more sensible load, I'll be able to cope with the 3 month run to the end of my job and the start of my time as a full time student again.

Sunday, 10 March 2013

I thought my kid would be able to do that...

Last night my sister and I took our respective little boys to Granite Island to see the fairy penguins at dusk.  Well, as much as a 2 year old and 5 month old will cooperate with that plan.

Visiting the island to see the penguins was a stock-standard of our childhood and school camps.  And the penguins were everywhere.  In fact one of my best friends and I spoke for the first time on the bus on the way back to our accommodation after the visit our class made for our Year 8 'get to know you' camp (for US readers, year 8 is the first year of high school in South Australia).

So N and I were expecting to see the hundreds of them that you used to see when we were kids.

I had heard numbers were in trouble, but was gobsmacked to hear they're down to 26 birds!!

Down from 2000 birds around ten years ago.

As J was not a happy camper while the guide was filling us in, so I didn't really hear the reasons, but apparently one main one is there has been an explosion of seal numbers.  And fairy penguins are quite yummy to seals.

On the drive home, N and I were saying we thought  this is one of those things we'd always be able to do with our kids at any time - turns out we may not be able to.