Wow, hello! It’s now the well-anticipated New Year of 2024! Me and Mister C love even numbers (I love the number two even more so), we have a strong feeling this New Year is going to be far better than 2023! We hope all of our avid readers and book fans have a truly fabulous New Year. May all of your New Year resolutions, dreams and future plans come true this year! I am certainly hoping for a better and hopefully soon pain-free year, while my family and I are looking forward to more certainty about life and where-to-from-here, while I am still recovering from our car accident that occurred in late 2022. What are you looking forward to this year?
Mister C is looking forward to his last year of primary school (year six-yay!) and enjoying the set orientation days at their local big high school, where his older sister also Flossy attends (Widy finished year twelve last year!). Flossy will be heading into the exciting year ten this year, and is looking forward to starting the year fresh and seeing her friends at school again in just over three weeks’ time. We are nearly halfway through the school hols at present, how time flies, right? A few months back, Mister C commented, “So, Mummy, will you be writing a story about me starting high school?!” At first, I thought the idea may not work and might be a bit silly (and somewhat awkward for Mister C?); but thinking more on the idea, it may not be such a bad one after all…
2024 is the Year of the (Wood) Dragon! What dragon-like New Year’s resolutions or changes are you going to embark on this year? According to Western Union, “In 2024, we embrace the Year of the Dragon. Alongside the animal zodiac, the Chinese New Year also associates each year with one of the five elements—earth, wood, fire, metal, and water. In 2024, wood takes the centre stage, making it the Year of the Wood Dragon.” Also according to Google, “The Dragon symbolises power, nobleness, honour, luck and success in traditional Chinese culture. The Dragon is a supernatural being with no parallel for talent and excellence.” https://www.westernunion.com/blog/en/us/chinese-new-year-2024-the-year-of-the-wood-dragon/#:~: 🐉🐲
Me and Mister C wanted to send our thoughts out to the areas affected by the horrid storms and mini cyclone, that came thundering through on Christmas night, to most of the East Coast of QLD and lower Northern NSW. We also experienced a bad storm on Christmas evening at our town area, losing power for just over an hour (it could have been much worse). Our dear Bro and his family (Hiya B & S) were also affected by the cyclone where they live on the Gold Coast. Sadly they lost power for many days and lost most of their outdoor furniture (so horrible), but thankfully their pool area and main house survived Mother Nature’s torrents. We are sending lots of love, care and thoughts their way. And also a big happy birthday to Husband’s dear niece for today! We hope the clean-up is as swift and pain-free as possible…
We have had a lot of rain in our part of NSW this week; we are quite happy about it- the gardens and grounds were calling for some fresh rain-water and much needed rain mineral nourishment. However, sometimes it can be too much of a good thing (right?). It’s always difficult getting around when the rain is very heavy, we can’t help but get really soaked! We worry about our pets and chook girls, checking on them often to make sure they are not flooded out- there is however, always mud- lots of squelchy mud as a consequence of the rain deluge! As seen on social media, many areas of Central Victoria, Northern NSW and some other areas of sunny Southeastern QLD have flooded again! Will Mother Nature ever get it right? Our thoughts are also with these affected towns and areas experiencing further horrid flooding- stay strong and stick together, you can get through this again…
I have had a break from my weekly physio and Hydro (therapy) sessions over the Christmas period (mainly due to the shutdown period). I have been very thankful for these sessions, but also pleased to have a much-needed rest, while still experiencing horrible ongoing right hip and leg pain, and my right shoulder pain is still persisting. I am relying on my trusty purple-coloured walking stick to go everywhere and has been a great support for mobility and preventing those falls. I had another check MRI at the end of December and will be having another review with her Neurospecialist early February. I did somewhat lose the plot yesterday morning and found it all a bit too much. Funnily (or uncannily), I received a phone call from one of the health centres, asking Me if I wanted to attend an earlier pain review with my Pain Specialist tomorrow afternoon! I quickly agreed and was very grateful for the earlier appointment, to try to get some much need help with my ongoing pain. Husband was there to take the brunt of the meltdown (thanks my rock), which was mainly centered around my pain and inability to do many things around the house and garden, while cope with the extra household workload over the school holidays. We love you so much Husband- our everlasting rock: and the girls and Mister C; thank you for all that you do for us, every day- and a special thankyou to the girls and Mister C too.
Let’s end our blog with another Word From Mister C?… Happy holidays everyone…
Making some lunch for Mister C on Saturday afternoon, we were both chatting about our upcoming book and launch in the ACT next Thursday. I mentioned we had to make sure we had everything ready for the event and had our happy smiles on for the day too. Mister C smiled and commented, “Well, you know, Mummy, if there’s a hiccup on the day (as there always is in life), we can only hope our event runs okay. We can only do our best, right?” I laughed and gave Mister C a big hug and replied, “Thanks for those encouraging words, my son. You always know how to make me feel better- your hugs are the best!” Mister C gave Me another hug and continued, “Well, you taught me those hugs, Mummy. You taught me to think positive with happy brain thoughts. We can… ‘fake it till we make it!’ Together we can get through anything!”… 🤗
A Word From Mister C…
Mister C was in the car going home from the markets with myself and Dad, who was driving (late 2022). Mister C moaned and said, “Oh, I really feel too hot, Mummy. Can we go to the new pool tomorrow? I’m SO hot! Please, Mummy? Please, Dad? Dad looked up into the rear mirror and replied, “We may be able to go, my son. Mum can’t go into the pool right now, with her neck surgery and shoulder injury at present. Mister C sat up and replied, “Oh, you could come in with us, Dad, please?” I looked over at Husband and sighed, “Well, maybe we can go tomorrow, if you’re extra good and help do some jobs for me this afternoon.” Mister C quickly nodded and replied, “Okay, Mummy. Yay! I will do lots of jobs for you and be the best shoe-boy ever!”
The next day Husband drove us all in the white car (Widy was at work) down to the new pool (aquatic) centre. I heard Mister C say to Flossy in the backseat, “I’m gonna jump straight into the pool when we get there!” Flossy smiled, “Yeah, me too!” Both giggled. I smiled and called out, “Remember to be water safe you two, when you have your fun in the new pool, today!” Both nodded and Mister C replied, “Yes, Mummy. We know, there’s fun, crazy and then there’s dead!”… 😜
Stay tuned…
Great news! Our author copies (finally-phew!) arrived last week. We have lots of signed copies to share at all of our upcoming events this month and into my favourite calendar month of February. We have put aside a few special copies for our editor and designer (sorry it’s quite late this time) and for our dear friend (Hiya S.M), for whom a little surprise is now waiting. Our special author and book event is coming on this Thursday! We also have our second author event at Gungahlin Library the following Friday (19th). We are excited and so honoured to be launching our latest seventh children’s book at both the Dickson and Gungahlin Libraries. We are of course a bit nervous about these upcoming events, and naturally hope both events go as well as possible. We are very thankful for the support we receive from our family and friends; as my dear nan often said to Me, “Ingy, you know there’s no use worrying about the things you cannot change, but to try to focus on all the things you can change”… 💗
