Things got busy for me quickly for the last few months. I also got very slack in writing in my daily journal and planner, so even if I wanted to, I couldn't possibly recall everything since my last blog. This morning as I pondered what I should be doing, I felt prompted that I needed to write my blog. I was reading in my scriptures, and they talked about the importance of writing down our experiences, so I will strive to be more diligent with this.
Third Trimester
Another Semester Done....or Not Done?
I finished all my courses for the last semester. This semester was awesome learning about how to do psychological assessments and ethics in psychology. Psychologists really are expected to uphold to very high ethical standards, some of which make running a business tricky. For example, psychologists (at least in Australia) aren't allowed to have any testimonials advertising for their business. The other class was also really interested as it repeatedly demonstrated the importance of understanding the core contributors to a person's problem to assist in coming up with appropriate treatment. For example, many people with sleep problems have depression symptoms. Instead of treating the depression, it may be more appropriate to treat the sleep issues first and see what issues, if any, remain. Here is a website with some good sleep suggestions. It seems to me, we could all use a lot of help when it comes to getting better sleep.
I was overjoyed my last week of classes that I would finally have time to catch up on house things I had been putting off. Unfortunately, the last week our marks for final assessments were released, and the results sparked a lot of frustration. Without going into too much detail, we had an assessment worth 40% of our final grade. I had studied a lot and felt confident in my ability to get a minimum of 70% on it, although the nature of the assessment involved some subjectivity. It was a shock to receive 47%. In truth, I wasn't that upset at first and actually laughed. I had felt the exam was a bit subjective, and my grade proved my point. Later, I was more upset when I discovered many others also did poorly, and it seemed nothing was going to occur to rectify the issue. For some students, such a poor mark and therefore, poor final grade will greatly reduce their chances of getting into a good post-graduate program to become a psychologist. There is not really a good system for making anonymous complaints, and many were reluctant to do anything fearing it would hurt their future chances. I filed a formal complaint, and another student anonymously collected all those that were dissatisfied with the assessment to make another formal complaint (2/3 of the class responded). Now we are waiting for the decision to be made. It's so unfortunate because I really enjoyed the class, but that one assessment has somewhat ruined the experience.
Work
This month I discovered that I don't value myself enough. Working for Matt's company and a friends psychology clinic as a bookkeeper and more I thought would be simple enough. I thought once I got things set up, it would be easy to work just one day a week, but that has not been the case. There are e-mails, phone calls, and other tasks like getting paperwork ready for new hires that pop up. It hasn't been overwhelming, but I was not changing my pay based on my actual workload. I finally rectified this when an HR company confirmed I was paying myself below the base wage for someone in my role. I am now recording my time spent and paying myself an appropriate wage. It's been such an interesting learning experience! Hopefully, we will be able to continue to find ways to systematise as much as possible so things won't always take as much time and thought as they are at present. If anyone is thinking of starting a business, I suggest you start doing your research now. There are so many legal requirements to be aware of from tax obligations, record-keeping, work health and safety, and other industry-specific regulations. I'm grateful I am learning all of this because these are skills that will be useful for life.
Sakura
Sakura turns three this week! I have been told 3-year-olds are the worst age. If Sakura's behaviour over the last month is an indication of things to come, then I can believe it will be a challenging year. Her tantrums have become much more extreme, and things are often 'it's my way, or the bomb explodes'. We have read and tried to practice positive discipline techniques as well as other beneficial parenting tips, but have not mastered anything. I am getting better at keeping calm, but it is never fun when your child has a 30-minute tantrum because you shut a window they wanted open. Or when it's time to go somewhere they run and hide from you. I have not found any means of predicting what will upset her, so I just have to try to listen carefully, acknowledge her feelings, and help her work through the issue. My least favourites are days and times where I can't take the time I would like to help her calm down, so I have to forcibly change her nappy or buckle her in the car seat. Mum life sure can be rough!
On a more positive note... this girl has really picked up on her communication skills and found many more ways to be absolutely adorable. She loves to sleep in and regularly will shut the door when I try to get her up early. Today she didn't get up till 9:30 a.m. even though she went to bed around 8:30 p.m. Some days she happily watches a movie while I take much-needed naps. She is also keen on helping with everything! It takes a lot of time and patience, but I enjoy her helping me cook, clean, fold clothes, and whatever else. She will only wear dresses and refuses to wear pants or shorts. Luckily, my homemade pattern from one of her other dresses has helped me create slightly larger versions. That's all she wears right now, and I'm glad it only takes a few hours max to make a new one for her. Half of them are badly stained already too. Someone needs to teach me how to get oil stains out of clothes because my efforts ended up slightly dying the material - whoops!
I have been taking Sakura swimming at a big heated pool lately and have been very impressed with her enthusiasm for swimming. The first time I took her it had been nearly 6 months I think since we had gone swimming in a pool. She was hesitant to swim without me holding her, but after about an hour, she was happily jumping into the pool and kicking and paddling to me. She kept yelling "Go Back!" for me to go farther away for her to swim to me. Unfortunately, she can't hold her breath as long as the distance would require so I meet her as far as I think she can hold her breath. I wish I had a video to document it.
Chickens
Out of six chickens, five of them turned out to be roosters. One mysteriously disappeared one day. We slowly started killing them once one started crowing. WARNING: Do not read the rest of this section if you are squeamish or against killing chickens. It sort of became a Sunday activity for a while as that was the only time Matt could do it. Ginger was his favourite, so that first one to go was a bit traumatic for him. Well, as part of our self-sustainable learning process, we learned how to go through the process of killing and eating your own hand-raised chickens. I killed two in the end because they were soooo annoying!! Rapunzel was our gympie legged chicken which turned out to be VERY aggressive once he became the alpha male (we only had two left at the time). Somehow he managed to travel very quickly and would peck at my legs. He bit Sakura once, and I decided it was time. It was a traumatic experience for me because I wasn't good at holding the stick at his neck with enough pressure, so I had to try 2 more times. Sakura was right next to me laughing hysterically as Rapunzel flapped around and she kept saying "Is it funny Rapunzel? Is it funny?". I also killed Tiana, the last one, who finally found a voice and would not shut up. That time I also cut off the head afterwards so it would be ready for Matt to finish when he got home. That experience taught me that I will never try to kill a chicken by cutting off its head. Tiana was already dead, but I can't imagine what that would have been like if the chicken was still living! We now don't have any chickens and won't get any more until Matt finishes building the chicken run (it has been two months and not much has happened on that regard). Next time we will get sexed pullets. I loved having the chicks, but I don't have the time or energy to devote to them like I did and if they aren't sexed it just isn't worth it.
Other Events
Father's day!
I have had a lot of other things going on, including social get-togethers. I think these experiences have really helped me with my mental health! I haven't had major depression or anxiety episodes in a while, and I think a lot of that has come from doing things with great friends. I have had some fun nights reading plays including The Importance of Being Earnest, and most recently The Puffs play. It has made it very evident that I am terrible at doing accents.
I had a girl's night out with strawberry ice cream cones and a musical with a large group of ladies. Then a cultural food night and played telephone pictionary (can't remember the actual boxed version name). It has been a lot of fun! COVID made it a little difficult because for a little while they restricted us to only have 10 gathered at a time, but now it is 40 people so all should be good for my Halloween party on Saturday!
Sakura and I had some fun outings and playdates. Most notable was our last trip to the zoo before my membership expired. She had a lot of fun, and I was so proud of her for walking the whole time.
I had some other big events like a fun camping trip and Sea World, but I decided those would be better to cover in a separate blog. So wait for the next blog to hear about camping, Sea World, and Halloween!
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