COVID Life Continues

I've been slacking on blog writing so apologies for the length. I started doing some quick journals in an app on a regular basis. My family also all got on Whatsapp so I regularly keep up to date with them. This has led to me not having a lot of motivation to put the time into a blog. Realistically though, I am more likely to review my blogs to remember how my life was so I guess I better get back to writing!

June 26 I became an Australian Citizen!

Pregnancy Updates

I am currently 19 weeks pregnant! Luckily in the 2nd trimester I stopped feeling sick all the time with a sensitive tummy. My favourite memory was puking in the car in the McDonald's drive thru, and was very grateful I found a bag in time. The best part was Sakura in the back going "Are you ok mommy?" 

Other than that occurrence, things have really calmed down. I really struggle to take my supplements, but most days I feel ok. Just a daily nap and making sure I eat often enough. My biggest issue is that my stomach doesn't seem to be satisfied with certain foods and therefore I feel sick. I have felt the baby kick a few times, but not much. In a few weeks I will get an ultrasound and confirm the gender - we expect it to be a girl. My mom and sister have planned to come for the birth January 5th so we hope they won't have flights cancelled. 

(P.S. Matt took heaps of photos and this was the best one)

School 

I finished my last semester of Psychology Honours and didn't do as well as I had hoped on final exams, but all things considered, I think I did well enough. The new semester has started now and it is so much better than last semester! This semester we are learning how to do psychological assessments and all about the ethics of being psychologists. We watched the video below in class :). We have a lot of great discussions and very applicable to actually working as a psychologist. It's a bit daunting though as we are learning how complex it all is. My friend Jared is also in class this semester with me so it is nice to be able to discuss topics further together. 

Work

Matt's business took a dip at the beginning of the Coronavirus situation, but luckily this allowed us to qualify for some government assistance. Now we are actually doing better than before for the most part! It has been such a relief to not stress about the business finances for the moment. I did start doing bookkeeping for my friend's psychology clinic In Mind Therapy Pty Ltd which has been quite difficult to get things up and running. It has tested my knowledge in many ways, but as of July I finally got all the books organised with the software program and am just trying to finetune things. They are a growing business so the books are much more complicated to keep track of than Matt's, but it feels good to help organise this stuff for them. It will save them so much time, money, and potential liabilities in the long run. Seriously, if you have a small business - get yourself a bookkeeper. I cringe when I hear people doing all their business finances manually in a spreadsheet. My consultant that helps me for tricky bookkeeping tasks is looking for more clients if you are near me in Australia https://www.invisionbookkeeping.com.au/. 

Sakura

Sakura is still the center of our universe and likes to take advantage of that. She has reached a stage in life where her demands are constant and in many cases telling her "No" can result in a 20-30 minute meltdown. Here is a recent example: At a playgroup in the park the leader came and told us we would do music time in 5 minutes. Sakura was very excited about this and told her best friend Cristiano "C'mon it's music time!" as he was on the swing. When he got off the swing a minute later she says "I need to go on the swing." When I told her we were going to go do music time instead she lost it and decided to scream and cry then began to run away. Running seems to be her favourite coping style so I just watched her as she ran down the bath circling the park. I have learned following her sometimes makes it worse so I wait for her to cycle back. She eventually went on a path that led to residential houses so I went after her just in time for her to trip and fall and cry harder. She calmed down after that. Another example: "Do you want eggs for breakfast?" Sakura: "Yeah I want eggs." By the time I start making them she has decided she doesn't want eggs and won't eat them. Sometimes she does the same things with multiple alternatives too. It is excessively draining. I have also discovered this girl is a sensory seeker and for whatever reason loves to be a little too touchy for my liking. To explain, she frequently will rub her face all over my face, likes to step on my feet, will kick and put her feet all over me while we sit next to each other, and plants wet kisses on my lips at random times. It's cute, but a bit overkill for me. Nevertheless, I love how she laughs hysterically as she watches Wreck It Ralph or tells me every time I pick her up from childcare that the lamp post is the moon. At the end of every movie she has a dance party so at least she isn't a couch potato. She's a bit addicted to watching movies right now, but with everything going on in my life I don't have the energy for her meltdowns when I restrict her movie time. Oh well. I will just own the consequences that come. Right now she only wants to wear one of her dresses (thank you Laura), refuses to let me do her hair, wear pants, jackets, or socks. I managed to make a dress for her, but the brown apparently wasn't a big hit - I'll post a picture next time when I get it on her. We have had so many fun moments that I figured the best way to highlight it all was in a movie so here you go!

Chickens

Matt has yet to finish the chicken run so our chickens roam the whole back yard. The result is a disgusting looking patio and I avoid going out into the backyard for anything. If we leave the trampoline net open they like to wander on that and poo too. Gross. One of our hens disappeared one day, and then Matt's favourite rooster "Ginger" starting crowing. We are not legally allowed to have roosters so we had to either give him away or kill him. Matt opted to get the maximum use and so one Sunday we said goodbye Ginger. I apparently traumatised some family members with posting the pics and videos I took of it all so instead here's the photo of them all prior. It was a good learning experience and although there was little meat the bone broth was very high in collagen. Soon after another rooster "Moana" took charge and had to go as well. We are now down to three and we know our gympie one is a hen, but not too sure about the other two. Time will tell. I refuse to get more chickens until Matt finishes their run so who knows when that will be. Sundays are his only free days right now. 

New Car

I bought a new car! This was a very difficult decision for me, but I learned a lot from the process. I really struggled to decide what mattered most to me so I missed out on some good opportunities because I took to long. It all worked out though. A Honda CRV with a perfect service history popped up and I organised to test drive it the following day. As I arrived someone was already out with it! I put a hold on it with a plan to purchase if all went well with my mechanics pre-purchase check. All went well. Unfortunately, the guy that test drove it before me offered to buy it if I didn't so I had NO negotiating power and could not get the price I hoped for. The result was paying about $1000 over market value, but considering how good of a condition it was in and the high demand of small SUVs I feel I did pretty well. So far I have been loving having more space. 

The best part was selling my old 2005 Honda Civic. Because it needed major repairs in the next while I couldn't get a roadworthy certificate (this makes it harder to sell). My mechanic said I might get $1000 and after some research I listed it for $1500 and was honest with the major repairs necessary. To my surprise I had multiple calls and e-mails within 5 minutes of posting the ad! The 1st guy that arrived was the best case scenario. He was a wholesale dealer so could just change registration to the dealership even though the car didn't have a roadworthy certificate. We couldn't find the back headrests and he didn't mind and paid the $1500 cash on the spot. He also registered it within a few hours of swapping paperwork. I was ecstatic. Apparently, lots of people buy these types of cars needing work, fix it up themselves, and then re-sell it. 

Social Fun

With easing COVID restrictions I finally got out and had some fun with friends. One night I went to a girl's movie night at a friend's house and we had delicious soup, snacks, and desserts and watched the newest version of Emma. It was hilarious! Another night I went to San Churro with two others. The best part of that night was I made a new friend. I had known Kelly before when we were in the same ward, but I never had much time or conversation with her. The three of us chatted so much we were just talking in the car well past midnight! This led to us later organising a girl's movie night to watch David Copperfield at the theater which had a surprising turnout of about 9 women and many I hadn't seen in a very long time! We went to San Churro's afterwards and stayed late catching up. It was after that experience that I reflected on how much I have actually been struggling because my social needs weren't being met.

I'm so glad there are other's out there like Jennis willing to make the effort to coordinate activities and bring people together. Additionally, it has been awesome making new friends like the Watersons. We had an amazing Mediterranean dinner with them and the Arderns one night and I was pleased to find the majority was gluten and dairy free! I went to an end of financial year work dinner for the psychology clinic and got to catch up with Brianna who I haven't caught up with in a really long time. Later we met up again for a belated 4th of July party at my place to watch 1776 - the musical I watched growing up for the 4th of July. I'm not sure everyone loved it, but I'm glad I was able share it with them anyway and provide a different part of US History rather than what the new musical Hamilton provides. Last night we had our first normal games night since COVID and had a blast. It has been wonderful spending time with amazing people! Sometimes it just takes one person to organise something. I just need to get better at taking photos when these things happen!

What's In the Pot with the In Mind Therapy masterminds

Pilpel Restaurant in Redcliffe with Arderns and Watersons