I didn’t plan to have so long between blog posts but this past week has been hard. Winter in Australia brings illness and a very busy time of year. But there’s also been good things too.
The view of the sky from my backyard is a good thing.
Hard things
Too much work - I’m still under the pump at work, writing grants to fast approaching deadlines (one was last Monday, one is this Wednesday, and the final one is next Wednesday). So many evening and weekend sessions recently to make these deadlines. This is not sustainable but I know it will be over soon. But still, right now I’m still exhausted.
A lot of parenting - the thing that makes so much work so challenging is that none of my parenting duties change at all during this period. Because of Al’s weekend work, I’m still the primary parent on the weekend, and my kids are still young enough that it’s a very hands on, physical kind of parenting - both kids love to climb on me, cuddle me etc, and I need to actively watch O whenever we go out still. There’s also a lot of bickering between the kids at times. So I end up overstimulated and just exhausted. Al does a lot during the week with them but they prefer me to put them to bed, and I’m up early than Al naturally so I’m also on early in the morning (they are early risers), so I really don’t get a lot of time to myself. Right now we have no family support, but this will change soon, which I’m so grateful for.
Unwell - Also for a chunk of last week I was unwell and fighting an infection. I’m better now but nothings as easy when you aren’t 100 % (that this happened now was also likely related to item 1 and 2).
Good things
The Olympics - We’ve really gotten into it this year. Al is a huge rugby fan (and loves most sports), so we subscribe to a sports streaming platform called Stan Sports. Usually I don’t love this cost every month out of our budget, but their Olympic coverage is fantastic and I’m loving it. Especially the swimming and gymnastics. Yesterday I watched Simone Biles’ documentary on Netflix and it was so great to hear her story, and then see how this latest chapter is playing out in real time. I’ve already decided we will go to lots of the Brisbane Olympics in 2032 - it’s 1 hour drive from here and the kids will be teenagers. Perfect!
Girlfriends - I really haven’t seen anyone socially in weeks (which has not been good for my mental state), but Friday night I took E over to my friends house. She has two lovely boys similar ages to E and they had fun and watched a movie. My friend had two of her girlfriends as well as me over too, and while the kids watched a movie, we all drank some wine and shared stories and laughed so hard and it was SO GOOD. I miss laughing with friends. I don’t have so many where we live now and I do miss my social networks. I’m grateful they are starting to grow here.
Beautiful weather - Winter where I live (in the subtropics) is usually sunny and mild, and gee has it been perfect lately. Early 20s degrees Celsius, sunshine, just beautiful. It’s lovely to walk in, and I’m glad because I love to walk (it’s hard in summer when it’s sweltering and humid).
Doing things with the kids is so nice in this weather
Kangaroos on my walk on Friday - do you see the Joey in mamas pouch?
My parents are coming! The purchase of their new house 10 minutes from us has settled (I collected the keys yesterday for them!), and they arrive on Thursday. I can’t wait! We all can’t wait. Our village is about to grow, and I can’t wait for the company, the support, and new adventures.
On that positive note, I’ll sign off.
Happy Sunday all!
Oh and that last comment was me- Jenny. Not "guest", ha ha.
So the 2032 Olympics are set for Brisbane- I didn't know that! I was also wondering how the summer Olympics work in the winter in Australia- but now I know. I've also been loving the Olympics- the Australians did well in swimming!
That all does sound hard, and I'm glad your parents will be there to help soon! It also made me feel good (along with your comment on my recent blog post) to know that adult children still need their parents.
I'm glad you're feeling better- I hope things get a little easier from now on.
I remember feeling SO TOUCHED OUT when my kids were younger. I rarely feel touched out, though I still sometimes get overstimulated with all the needs (and late nights since my kids now stay up much later!), especially when I'm solo parenting. But honestly I feel like I can handle that so much better than the physical presence. Having a child always on me or touching me or needing me in some way was exhausting. This feels hard and exhausting because it is SO hard and exhausting.
I'm so glad you have found some good things to celebrate and I'm so happy your parents will soon be living so close.
I’m glad you had some good things to offset the hard stuff. I can so relate to being touched out and frustrated with the bickering. It’s hard when you are also challenged in another area of life. So you don’t have the extra bandwidth/patience to deal with siblings arguments and toddler behavior, etc.
The kangaroo picture reminds me of my time in the university of Sunshine Coast campus. We saw so many kangaroos!!