Hiya! it’s Me and Mister C…

Hello… We say a (mostly) cheerful ‘G’day’, while still living in the current ‘stay at home’ orders at present. Now going into our fourth week (our regional area), over ten weeks for my dear Sister and her family (so horrible!); what do we all have on our agendas for the week?! I know we have more home schooling (arrg!); I have to add though, Mister C has been very settled and working through his online home school work well (face to face two days in the week- due to my nursing). We are proud of how he is maturing, with his improved focus (so different from last year) and concentration (well done, my son!). The girls are working really hard (well mostly) to get their last assessment pieces submitted for the end of term. I can report, Husband and Widy survived their first Covid jab; their arms were both sore and they had a foggy headache, but they came through to the other side quite well, which was a relief. They are both booked in for their second jab at the end of the month, which should give our family some more freedom shortly (can only hope!). We look forward to not worrying about school work, with the upcoming the school hols soon; the big question at present is, will lockdown end in time- so we can perhaps catch a movie or go to IKEA? I am hoping for some good news (like you all are), but in my heart, I know it probably won’t end until the beginning of next term (or sooner in our regional area). It’s the little things that mean so much right now, like going on our daily walk and looking up at the first evening star- so divine. Let’s just keep on going…

A happy (belated) Father’s Day to all the Dad’s, Grandad’s and new Dad’s this year (Hiya J.B aka G-Dad). It was a tricky day for all families in the midst of the ‘stay at home’ orders; it was however, really heart-warming to see on social media, some lucky families spending some quality time together at the QLD and NSW border. During the week, Mister C asked Dad what he wanted for Father’s Day; Dad replied with, “Lots of hugs, ‘Toblerone’ choc, ‘scratchies’, rub off tattoos and Chinese take-away for tea, please!” Due to staff leave at my workplace, I was asked to work over the weekend and agreed to work the Sunday. Of course, I checked with Husband first (he was fine with me working); Husband understood my commitment to my dear residents and also knows (as you do), I ‘m not a big fan of Father’s Day, especially after losing both my dear Dad (in 1995) and my fix-it Dad (in 2017)- always remembered and so missed right now. Not discounting Husband, he did get what he asked for, with a fun afternoon tea and a yum take-away tea together. We made the most of it, by acting (just a little) silly (Mister C loved it!), with putting some weird hats on (whatever we could find) and applying lots of rub-off tats on our arms and faces and then taking some silly selfies (why not?). Thank-you Husband, for being you and for your support at home these past weeks- I couldn’t have made it through without you (always my rock- even if you can’t run very well anymore!).

Righto; I can now write, this is the final blog of all things 2019 (yay, I hear you say?). Now moving towards the end of the year, Widy’s fractured wrist had healed well and the purple fibre-glass cast was able to be cut off with a post check-x-ray, which went very well. Widy had been disappointed she couldn’t go on her year eight day trip, that had been arranged instead of a big camp that year, due to her wrist still needing care. Widy’s spirits had lifted when she began spending some time with a male friend, she had met through another friend at school. This friend had just finished year twelve and was working at Maccas, where Widy had also recently started working too. Widy did really well at her interview (and her resume was great!) and had received notification that she was able to commence employment mid-November (which was exciting for her- things were looking up after all!).

Mister C had been reminding us all every day, that it was his seventh birthday very soon. He had begun counting down the weeks, then days for several months (very amusing), until the happy day finally arrived. Everyone was in a good mood that week, after Husband’s Bro visited the weeks previously, having spent one night with us at our place and had fun catching up with us all. As a treat, Husband and his Bro then took Mister C with them, to visit their folks in ACT, for Ma’s birthday too (hiya all!); Husband then dropped Bro at the airport on their way back home. Mister C loves Uncle Bro, they are very similar in personalities and they just get each other (like Husband, I guess). Husband commented, “Having Bro over was excellent! Had a nice family party for Mister C last night, opened rest of his presents, loved his new white PS3 controller. I brought home a mountain of ‘KFC’, then Wife went live with her meandmisterc.com blog website at 10pm, to mark the moment Mister C was born.”

Mister C had wanted a party at our local club at Tabatinga’, like his other friends did the year previously. I had arranged the booking and party invites about two months before the date (after his actual birthday on the weekend), and we were all looking forward to the event. However, Mister C had been playing up at school again and in the playground, resulting in him having to stay inside with a teacher at lunchtime to avoid further issues for a week or so. We sat down with Mister C and had a good chat with him, about where he was at and positive behaviours needed to move forward, through to the end of the year. Mister C had expressed his sadness at being at school again, as were Husband and I (it did tug at my heart strings- I can tell you!). I rung the school to discuss the situation further with his class teacher, then made an appointment with the assistant principle (thank-you!). I was pleased to have had the discussions, but in my heart, I did feel Mister C had already been labelled as a ‘difficult’ child; where issues of more difficult behaviour exhibited from other boys, were not being addressed fairly. It was the end of the year, after discussing the issues with Husband, we decided to wait it out and see what the New Year would bring, with the prospect of new classmates and teacher for Mister C in year two. We had attended another review with Mister C’s Paediatric Specialist, who recommended increasing the ‘Fish oil’ (children’s dose) he was having each day (very helpful in calming the mind); we had asked for another review at school with the Occupational Therapist (OT), of which did not eventuate in time.

My journey to successfully setting up our blog site and commencing my first children’s book layout with illustration work, was really taking shape. I was lucky enough to have found a great writer mentor (my neighbour of all people!) who was (and is) an established and well known writer and author (Hiya M.A!). Along with the wonderful support from Husband and the kids (thanks heaps!), I was able to set up a great website page (so many hours of research done first!) and with the help from Flossy, I was able to build up the courage to draw and illustrate again (was SO empowering). Husband commented, “Wife has decided out of the blue today, she wants to host a blog page, paying Bluehost for three years upfront for hosting (a great platform- I ‘m not writing this because I have to!). Quite good that Wife’s blog site has had more than five hundred and seventy hits since 21st November!” (How exciting). The blog site was travelling well and after meeting with my mentor, I set up a business Face Book (FB) page called Me and mister C (Instagram came later, when I had more courage!). Having always been a private person, and never owning a FB page before; it was unfamiliar territory and it took me some time to work out the program and how to upload things (I did quickly work it out-thankfully!). With a few hiccups along the way, the pages worked out well and we are all proud of the blog, even if it is many hours work each week (still today too).

I recall Christmas was busy but a festive time, with the end of school events and Flossy becoming a ‘Prefect’ for year six at the end of year presentation- well done sweetheart! We had a pleasant Christmas day with Husband’s family, I ended up taking the girls to Sydney two days later, to see my dear sister and family for a full day’s trip. There was news of numerous out of control bush fires (about one hundred) near the coast and Nowra area. We had booked our special trip down coast at our usual happy place and we had been checking in with our park manager regularly to see how things were going. It was deemed safe to travel, so we packed up the car and had arranged our other neighbour (Hiya H.W!), to care for Duggie and the chooks while we were away. Unfortunately, the terrible bush fires worsened, and many parts of the coast shire were told to evacuate, to safety which in turn jammed most of the roads back up to Nowra on New Year’s Eve night. The smoke and constant noise from helicopters were everywhere; the next day, roads ended up closing and we were essentially stranded, being advised to stay put by the park manager-it was the safest place to be at the time. Husband commented, “Power went out throughout our park at about 1230pm and did not come on till 330pm the next day, a nice stranger heard my plight in the Newsagent and gave us candles, so we could have a bit of light in the Bungalow. We went to the local club for tea, it was a bit eerie, but the club had a generator, which helped everyone have a meal and a drink to see in the New Year.” What was meant to be a happy time to celebrate the New Year in with the kids, ended up being a stressful and quite emotional time; particularly having to drive back home days later (after the roads re-opened) to see the devastating burnt landscapes and properties along the way (so terrible); some truly sorrowful memories, we will never forget…

A Word from Mister C…

Mister C and Dad were in the kitchen, Dad was making breakfast for himself and for Mister C. Dad was making Mister C some toast with ‘Vegemite’ that he carefully cut into neat triangles. “Wow! I must be the best Dad ever!” Dad said laughing, as he handed Mister C the plate and a mug of hot chocolate. “Thanks, Dad,” Mister C smiled, then he looked at Dad and replied sternly. “Let’s look at the facts, Dad. One, you’re annoying and hum all the time. Two, you snore- very loudly. Three, you’re too big in the middle, with no six-pack. Four, you eat soup ALL the time! Giggling, Mister C then said, “So, maybe not now then, Dad.” He then reached over to Dad and gave him big hugs; “Well, maybe you are after all?” Both began to giggle…

Stay tuned…

For new stories heading into 2020. I warn you- it’s not a pretty year, rather a year of many hardships for all and some personal self-reflection on what is good in our lives; while what’s not- gets tossed straight into the bin!… Thanks for your ongoing support by reading our blog each week-nearly up to one hundred blogs soon! It means so much to us and Mister C sends out big lockdown virtual hugs to all. Night from Mister C… 💗