Wading Through The Crap

Has anyone seen the last five months? (Insert puzzled face here) Where the hell did they go?

When I woke up this morning I couldn’t shake the feeling like I had misplaced something!  You know that sort of feeling you get when this niggle eats at you like you’ve forgotten to do something really important but for the life of you, you can’t quite put your finger on what it is?

Yeah, something like that. 

Suddenly it’s bitterly cold and I think the stark awareness that the seasons have rolled on by and changed dramatically, without much notice from me until this morning, has hit me like an icy cold arctic blast epiphany.

I have concluded I am somewhat dazed.

What I do recall and failed to disclose in my last post (sounds like a confession) is that life has been a little exhausting and mighty unhealthy for some family members, with massive handfuls of groundhog days thrown in just for shits and giggles.

Peppered through all this eluded  to drama has thankfully been some beautiful family time and much humour. Despite the sprinkles of joy it has been a tough time though.

Light and shade people… there is always light and shade.

Just before Christmas I came down with Salmonella (food poisoning) and I was one sick little puppy.  During the five days I was hospitalised in isolation my Logical Lorraine brain disappeared down the toilet along with about 4 kilograms of my body weight and Anxious Annie brain moved in. Let me tell you that witch was as painful and relentless as my bowel movements.

NONE OF IT WAS PRETTY!

Too much info? Okay, let’s move on…

So, I make it home from hospital looking worse than a wrung out mouldy old dish rag and not feeling any better than I looked… and guess what?  Turns out I have cross contaminated my Mum somehow so off to hospital she goes. 

This is the part where it gets soooo NOT funny. 

My dear Mum has been in and out of hospital since Christmas.  It’s been one horrid, cruel thing after another for her and I really thought none of it was going to end well. 

She is one stubborn, resilient, strong woman is my Mum.  She’s not back to full health but geez has she given this chronic illness gig the finger in her own remarkable way.

The nights have been long and the days short and extremely full on.  Just quietly, I think we are winning… but don’t say it out loud because you know what happens once you say it out loud? Right?

In other news, I have been asked variations of these two questions a lot lately so thought I’d answer them here…

Are we settled into the new house? 

Not really.  We haven’t had the head space or the physical time and energy to sort ourselves out properly. The garage is still full of boxes with just enough room to squeeze my Mum’s car in.  We dare not sneeze when we get her in and out of the passenger seat because it’s a bit like a delicate house of cards out there.  Maybe this time next year our car shall know the same sheltered luxury (I’m dreaming obviously).

Do we feel moving to ‘rural suburbia’ from the quiet of the country was the right thing to do?

Without a doubt.  As much as we miss and grieve for our town, our view, our garden, our visiting birds and the lovely community, this move was the best decision for our family of frequent hospital flyers.  Only being a 3 minute drive from the hospital instead of 30 mins is so much easier.

Certainly came in handy when Doug decided he too needed to grace the hospital with his presence before the New Year rolled around. Thankfully not with food poisoning. Just so you know, the food poisoning was not my cooking (true dinks… I know, I’m amazed too). I would have definitely burnt my apron if that was the case.

The BIG bonus about the move is having family just down the road and that is THE BEST THING EVA!

There you have it – an abridged version of life lately. Which might help explain my absence from… well… everywhere! Sometimes you just need to be in your zone to get through, you know?

Of course there are many stories in every day of the last 7 months but not all of them are mine to tell in detail or to flesh out here.  So let’s just leave them be and appreciate the fact that we have survived yet another shit storm (excuse the pun) that took more than one season to roll on by… and also, but certainly not forgetting, surviving the black ant assault missions (notice the plural there) that engulfed the inside of our house with Armageddon fury.

I was adamant these invasions were indeed a sign that the end of the world was nigh. Or, at the very least and of course the most believable scenario, that they were plotting to feast on me while I was asleep.

So my friends we live on to dance in the rain of life’s storms and unpredictable seasons once again. Let’s hope that the rest of this year is not spent wading through any more dumps of challenging crap and the ‘ant-ageddon’ horror episodes do not return to the scene of their many crimes and eat me.

Stay safe now,

Sandra Xx

PS. How’s the first half of the year been treating you? I’d love to know how you are doing so feel free to leave me a note in the comments. 🙂