One bite at a time!

Where to begin? It’s been over one month since I last posted! I have heaps to write about but very little time in which to do so. I could have logged on and just written quick snippets but I keep holding out for the time to write that long, descriptive, captivating, interesting, catch-up yet elusive post. So here I am today, not even bothering to attempt to catch up everything but just trying to get this first post out of the way so I can get back to my normal irregular posting.

We went away for Easter! Well most of us did. Miss R stayed here in Adelaide with friends as she had to work. She is an apprentice chef, have I told you that before? John, Miss A, Master C and I left late on the Thursday evening and arrived in Victoria 10 hours later. Yes, you guessed it- we were there for a softball tournament. Miss A played, I coached and John umpired. I think he worked harder than any of us as he did 4 games every day! Anyway, we had to leave Master J at home by himself on the Thursday night as he was leaving the next day on a plane to go to Puckapunyal. He had been selected to be part of a SA Fieldcraft Competition team for Air Force Cadets. Yes, we trusted him to stay by himself and lock the house up totally before leaving. ‘Twas a bit scary from our point of view but upon our return he had done a great job of locking up and doing a quick tidy before he left. He had a great time, learned a lot and his team came 2nd in the whole competition! WhooHoo!

We returned home on Easter Monday and life has been go-go-go ever since! Softball apparently winds down at this time of year but in doing so there are heaps of presentation nights to attend. Miss A received a few awards such as: A Grade Softballer of the Year for the club, MVP for the SA U/19 State team and was selected in the SA Team of the Year as Pitcher! (She was also the Captain for the SA 19 State team and they played in a premiership, although they didn’t win.) All in all a good season for Miss A, despite a dislocated thumb and nasty 6″ x 6″ gravel burn that got infected.

Miss A has been selected in the Invitational Team (U/23) to represent Australia. This isn’t the same as being in the Aussie Squad rather the aim of the event is to develop players at this age group to enhance their skills and give them a greater opportunity of stepping up to the senior state and potentially national level, which is what she is working toward. So, she is training daily and I’m helping her. It’s been a few years since I coached her and whilst I love it, it does take approximately 2 hours per day.

Since then John has been very busy at work, sometimes leaving home at 6am and getting home at 5pm… but I think the most tiring part of it all is the 1 hour drive to and from work. Master J has started his first ever season of football and he’s doing quite well so far. He takes himself off to training twice a week and the rest of us love to watch him play on Sunday afternoons. It’s quite different for us, just sitting, watching and cheering as opposed to being at softball where we’re always working. Master J also celebrated his 15th birthday yesterday and continues to eat us out of house and home. We are very proud of him and it is lovely to watch him maturing into a godly, mature young man.

Last night, over tea we recalled his birth story. He was born early in the morning (as were all my children) and he was pretty big… not my biggest but my second biggest at 10 pound, 7 ounces. From my waters breaking to delivery of that sweet little bundle was about 90 minutes. All went well with him except that I struggled to keep him awake long enough to feed so he was not regaining his birth weight. When he was 10 days old, the doctor was concerned about a possible heart murmur so sent us to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital where he had a load of tests done. All the tests came back fine but he still wouldn’t wake up, feed or gain weight. One experienced nurse listened to me as I shared about his birth and she said that he might very well just ‘wake up‘ on day 14 as she had seen it a few times before with big babies and quick labours. Well, would you believe it but exactly on day 14, my little boy woke up, started screaming for food and hasn’t stopped since!

I’ve been slowly getting better with my knee. I started walking and cycling on the bike but as typical of me I went a bit too gung-ho and set myself back a little… must learn to pace myself.

Other than knee recovery, softball presentations, softball training, homeschooling, football games, website development, enjoying family and home duties I guess that about sums up my happenings!

Now, back to my ever-irregular blog posts…