Family, Fun and Frustration

For over ten years one of the small local Christian Schools has extended an invitation to the Capricornia Homeschoolers to their Athletics carnival.  It really adds a great dimension for the students who are educated mainly at home with their own families, and also gives good competition to the three small schools who attend.

We usually muster about 80 - 90 so we are a larger group than two of the schools!

About six years ago we decided on orange t-shirts for the children so they really look like a team.

On some excursions  we take the students also wear the shirts and it has helped build some

 team spirit and unity .

Our school days have been short and a little disorganized as I try to return to a little normality.  But hey, what is normal.  I am not sure here anymore :-(

Our area teacher with Groves has been very helpful.  I suggested using some curriculum on DVD to spare myself a little leg work as my boys still require me for pretty much all the reading/ writing stuff they do.  The teacher not only sourced out some material for me but also spend his own precious time in writing up worksheets for some of it.

I am very thankful as my energy tank is running very low.

This is my oldest grandson having a wonderful time with play dough.

(Mumma was aghast to find he had helped himself without the plastic cloth underneath :-)

Notice our very old, well used double school desks complete with ink wells and slate pencil troughs!

And here they are!

Our current household minus hubby and I.

Good times!  Good times!

"Tribulation works patience.

'

My frustrations are minor...and trivial.

I get quite frustrated at my seemingly very slow progress and inability to do everything I want to do.

I still feel very tired but not the bone weary fatigue I experienced the first couple of weeks at home.

For which I am very thankful.

Twins and Things

So here a few long awaited  pics!
Between our busy days, my lack of energy and the inavailability of the computer at moments when I might have got to it, I have not posted any before.
New look for Blogger too.  Do all you Blogger uses like it? I had a few issues with finding things eg old posts but now that I have that sorted I think I will be okay. It is very bright on the white background for me as far as reading.

.

God provided us with an eight seater in an amazing way!

Two little peas in a cot.

My sweet, one and only grand daughter♥

Sweet fourth grandson ♥

The usurped baby poses for Mumma.

Love those kids in their flannie jammies!

Health wise I am improving very slowly.

Most of my problems bring with them tiredness so

most of the time I feel absolutely whacked.

Thank you for all your lovely comments on my last post.

I appreciate your continued prayers.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Man makes his plans

But God......

directs his path.

Hello to any one who might still remember me and see this post come up.

It has been a long while and much has happened, but as I again attempt a post I am still quite frail and weary and so have decided to simply leave a quick blog about my past month in hospital and

then resume life rather than blog about particular things which have happened over this period.

You may remember back in May I had some headaches?  One morning I woke with a terrific pain in my head such as I had never experienced before.  I spent several hours in the emergency dept of the local hospital during which time my blood pressure sky rocketed.  I had a cat scan of my head but no sign of bleeding etc (to which I am at high risk).  However, while there I had pain medication through a cannula in my right arm.  This was to trigger a chain of events from which I am still recovering.

About ten days later this site became sore and swollen, infected and painful.  On being scanned at the hospital it showed I also had a clot from elbow to shoulder in the vein of that arm.  That was when I was first admitted to hospital.  My well being slumped over the next two days and it was feared I had suffered another heart attack but it turned out the triponin leak was due to the fact that a small bit of the clot had  moved to my lung and this was pressuring the heart.

After several days I returned home on Warfarin (a thinning medication) and tried to get back to our hectic life with my daughter's twins still two months off due date.

Ten days later again, I  presented at Emergency, this time with severe pain in the right side of my stomach and my right shoulder.  My liver was bleeding!  This meant ICU, first here in Rocky and then I flew on RFDS to Royal Brisbane.  Blood and plasma were necessary to reverse the effects of the Warfarin and thankfully surgery was avoided.

Because of my underlying health problems, namely Type 1 Diabetes, I already have renal impairment and some other associated problems so the next week was very traumatic.  Everything plummeted. A lot of pain, pain killers, lack of sleep and gibberish (from me!).  This was all exacerbated by the fact that I developed pneumonia as well.

I ended up spending the whole month of June in hospital, 

 being an inpatient during the birth of the twins

and only getting to meet them when they were home and thirteen days old.

I enjoyed many visits from Brisbane friends and family while I was there and was especially blessed to meet my blogging friend Mum-me.  Thankyou so much for coming over to see me!

And I do not think I could have survived without the faithful visits, encouragement and prayers of my dear friend, JF, who came up twice a week to make sure I was going okay.

Also thanks to her hubby and family who willingly sacrificed their mum for me :-)

What a precious friend I have xoxoxo

Sooooooooooo, all the well laid plans we had made came to naught,

I am not going to pretend I just took all this lying down :-(

I was devastated.

But I know that God never left me or forsook me.

He gave me strength to endure both the trauma to my body and the huge emotional

trauma of being away from my family at such a time.

My wonderful family cope magnificently!

My older daughter has been an amazing example of the self sacrificial love that mothers have for their children as she tends to the little ones.  They still wake regularly in the night at three weeks of age and her one and two year olds are as lively as ever.  She manages on very little sleep.

My hubby and the boys have been fantastic, undertaking much of mum's work during this time.

My sons have had a lot of practice in caring for babies and small children, that is for sure.

My younger daughter has been a tower of strength and given up many days to mind children and help out generally.
We are blessed with a wonderful praying and supportive family and friends who
have provided meals, cleaned our house and given unfailing encouragement.

Now I am home, but after four weeks of bed rest I am extremely weak.

It is going to take time.

The whole business has taken a great toll on me and I seem to have visibly aged alarmingly.

Praise God he has restored me to my home and family!

His  mercies are new every morning.

Great is His faithfulness.

They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength

It has taken me four days to get this post up.  Please forgive if I am longer yet before I get back to blog reading.  I have missed all your news.