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Yesterdayhttps://www.sophieinthesun.com/post/possibly-a-broken-arm I was worried that O’s arm continued to hurt after a fall last week I took O to the minor injury and illness clinic we have not too far away (it’s like a mini hospital but for non serious medical things). There was a lot of waiting (to be seen by the nurse, for the xray, then to see the doctor), but O was so well behaved the whole time. When he had his xray, I could see straight away there was a break of some

Unfortunately O's forearm/wrist is still sore. If we hold his arm straight out, it can bend and flex without pain which is good, but when we try to gently rotate it, it hurts him alot. (Its fine if his palm faces down, but not up). The arm looks fine from the outside Given today is day 5 of the injury, without any improvement to the rotating related pain (the bending of the wrist etc is fine now), its time to take him to the medical clinic and probably get an x-ray. He's been

So I'm a couple of weeks into my third quintile for the year. I've organised my quintiles based on the four school terms in Australia, plus the 6 week summer school break as Q5. Which means that Q1 for me basically starts in late January, which I don't mind because I can spend the first few weeks of the year as an "on ramp" to my goals of the year - ha! Now that I'm trying out some daily blogging, I thought it might be good to share a Q2 review, better a little late than neve

I've decided I'd like to blog daily for a little while. I think one of the reasons I blog so rarely is because I feel like my blog posts need to be on the longer side. I'm hoping by blogging daily for a while, I can practice some short and sweet posts, that can build up the habit. Weekend writing So, here is a quick weekend recap. It was a low key one, which was very appreciated. It included: O fell off some play equipment last week and hurt his wrist, so we had to take it a

The two weeks of school break for the kids went well overall - they had a great time. There was lots of family time with grandparents (two nights staying with Al's parents in the first week, seeing my parents every day in the second week), one day of vacation care, lots of fun outings to parks, playgrounds, the beach etc. And the most important part - lots of COUSIN time. My brother and 6 year old niece visited from Melbourne for a week and stayed with my parents, and we saw

Today is the last day of school term, so they get two weeks break. Assuming we aren't going away or completely off work, its always a challenge to work out how to plan their time so that they have fun and a mix of things to do, while allowing Al and I to work. I have quite a bit to do for work (finishing off a research manuscript, writing a small grant, preparing for teaching next trimester, chairing a PhD student presentation). I also want to spend a couple of days with the

It was E’s birthday on Sunday. Loves her new Hello Kitty Plushy We just had a low key dinner with my parents on Sat night, Al was working Sunday so next weekend we’ll visit his family and then her friends party will be in a few weeks. She had a great time, and loved her “Nyan Cat” cake (her latest obsession). My dad made it and it wasn’t perfect (it was a HARD assignment) but he put a lot of love into it and she adored it. It’s funny how time works- in some ways 9 years has

It was a long weekend for me - I had Friday off from work, and it ended up being such a fun one. The kids and Al had school and work on Friday, so I took advantage and after dropping the kids at school, I headed out for a relaxation massage. It was a 60 minute massage with hot stones, aromatherapy oils, the works. So nice. My venue Then I went looking for a new outfit for the horse racing we were attending the next day. I had a dress I'd borrowed from my SIL, and it looked ni

I'm happy to report that this week is turning out to be more manageable and enjoyable than last week. Sometimes I need to remind myself that just because a week at work is crazy busy and perhaps a little frustrating, doesn't mean it will stay that way. Sometimes its just a week or two from settling down, but I can't quite see it until it happens. love spotting flowers like these even on a short walk During this time, there have been certain habits and strategies that have bee

Somehow it’s been two weeks since I last posted - I started a couple of blog posts during that time, but got distracted, got busy, and then didn't finish them. Oops. Any other bloggers struggle with this? The rest of May was a bit of a mixed bag. When I got home I was on a high, it was great to see the family, the weather was lovely, and work seemed manageable. Then O got sick, including fever and vomiting, work got stressful (a couple of unbloggable issues), the rain set in

I'm heading home from Adelaide today after the most amazing experience these past 5 days at my masterclass. Outside of special family events, this may have been the best week of my life. There were 14 of us in the Masterclass, led by Fiona McIntosh, a bestselling Australian author who writes bestsellers in crime AND historial fiction. It was such a friendly group, Fiona is SO knowledgabe (about writing and also commercial publishing), but also very funny, and we spent a lot o

After a whirlwind of To Do's and prep Monday and Tuesday, I arrived yesterday to Adelaide and have settled into my accommodation, ready to start my Masterclass today! Hard to believe its actually happening. My plane window view The week before I had felt totally overwhelmed and down about work/life responsibilities, and even had thoughts that maybe I needed to make some changes to cope better. And then my hormones changed, and this trip happened, and suddenly life was totally

Well, its been a couple of weeks, and honestly life has felt a bit overwhelming lately (I think I say that often lately, maybe its just this stage of life?). Just very VERY busy at work, busy weekends, and of course, parenting. Life might be busy, but Ive still been taking time to stop and be grateful for our beautiful weather and surrounds Parenting is getting easier in some ways - the kids don't need to be supervised constantly, which is great! But at 5 and 8 they need A LO

Time for a review of my first Quintile of the year (I divide my year into 5 seasons - the four school terms, plus the summer). We've just finished the first term of school which ran end of January until early April, so time for a recap of how I did on my goals so far. A pretty local spot for reflecting on the year so far. Paint O's bedroom - complete! This took a whole weekend plus an extra evening or two during the following week. Its exhausting so can really only do one roo

We are one week into the two-week break from school for the kids, and I am happy to report its been going really well, even though Al and I are not off for most of this time. I had the Easter long weekend (Good Friday to Easter Monday) off, Al only worked Sunday out of those days, and I then I also took Friday 10th off, to have two long weekends in a row with the kids. In addition to our days off, we've had a mix of paid vacation care and extended family (grandparents, Aunty)

The last few weeks I'd slowly been feeling more and more overwhelmed with life, the sheer number of work, personal, family, and life admin tasks have been stacking up. When I set all my goals in January, the kids hadn't yet started school or activities, work was quiet, and everything seemed do-able. Over the past couple of months, the calender has gotten more and more full. This is definitely a busy time of year, but over the past week, I've spent a number of early morning

I didn't intend to go more than two weeks without blogging, but somehow life got in the way. Nothing dramatic, just busy. Here are a few updates: 1) This weekend just passed was the nicest weekend I've had in a while . Two weekends ago O was sick (fever and vomiting) and I didn't leave the house all weekend. I DID get a lot of housework and a bit of decluttering done (more on that later) but I was very tired (fighting off the virus myself perhaps?) and overall it was not a fu

A few updates for Friday. I'm writing this next to a sleeping, sick 5 year old (more on that later). Painting. Last weekend we painted O's bedroom. This is the second room of the house we've transformed from the previous yellow and red/brown colour palate, to bright white. We did the Master bedroom in late November/early December, and now have tackled a second bedroom. E's bedroom will be next, but probably not for another month or two. Because even it looks so much better, h

How did the month go so fast? I need to remind myself that this February EVERY year, because I have a feeling that every year its like this, and every year I'm somehow surprised. Its the start of the school year, its gearing up at work after the slower summer, its only 28 days long! At work I had A LOT of meetings on the calendar . It seemed like every team, committee, and seminar organisers had picked February for their first event of the year (of course, because no one sch

Life has been very full lately , of everything - work, school, family activities, and this week, a head cold. Both kids and I have caught it, hoping it misses Al. Honestly, it has not been a bad one on the scale of possible viruses, just the usual symptoms, but it has made me feel TIRED a couple of days, so I've leaned into slower days and early nights this week. The kids really have just had congested/runny noses and have been able to go to school so far, fingers crossed tha