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

Chickees

Right now I am so tired but I felt it would be good to write something even if I don't finish.

Let's start with exciting news first.... I'm pregnant!
I'm just over six weeks and will be due in January. I have just been more tired than usual and today was the first time I felt any nausea, but other than that I seem fine. I'm hoping for the best, but expecting the worst (last time wasn't a walk through the park). At least this time I am working from home and don't have to take my toothbrush to work or sleep in my car on breaks and whatnot. Not much to say on the topic at the moment, but interestingly my blood test results came back with the wrong blood type so I have to do it again.

Our family has already grown with 6 new chicks!
I had no desire to put the work into owning chicks, but I felt prompted that we needed to. My reasons are purely for self-sustainability and not because I think it will be cheaper. We got approved for them by our landlord and the next day I picked up 6 chicks from a friend who just had her eggs hatch. It worked out perfectly. Another friend also had just gotten chicks and had more than enough feed so I was able to get some from her.

Mulan

Merida (Ginger)

Aurora

Rapunzel

Tiana

Moana

One (Rapunzel) had a splayed leg so I saw online to tie a rubber band to their legs and that seems to be helping. I'm glad I did that the second day because the other chicks would walk on the leg that stuck out and it likely would have died soon. All seem healthy except for our dark coloured one. That one seems to get poo stuck to his butt often. One night I also saw him sleeping apart from all the others. We also don't know which ones will be roosters and we will have to give any away as we cannot legally have roosters. So far it has been a lot of fun. For mother's day, we built the chicken coop and discovered a piece was missing - good thing they aren't old enough yet to go into it. Matt is also going to build a fence/run so they should have plenty of space that is predator-proof.

Coronavirus life updates
Life has continued to be busy for us. Matt has been overly busy. Things got tricky though because some residents complained that he was working after 5pm. The builder has now advised him he is not allowed to work beyond Monday to Friday 7am-4pm. This has made it harder for him to have the same turnover so we will see how things go.

I have been busy with assignments the last month. It has been quite stressful. In my last assignment, I felt very unclear with the criteria so even after I turned it in I still didn't feel confident I met the requirements. I'm keen to find out the results. I'm super grateful for the amazing people that have helped watch Sakura for me so I could get my assignments done! I've also been so busy with work as I took on bookkeeping for my friend's business. The initial set up is always the worst! It has taught me that I still have loads to learn as this business is so different and there are many little things that I have had to get help to organise.

I have managed to do many online games nights with friends and family at least!

Sakura and I have tried to make the most of it at least.

Short walk by the water

Swimming (once cast was off)

Sidewalk chalk

Bike rides

Yoga

We have been very blessed to overcome the drop we have had in income. Some expenses were deferred, the government provided assistance for childcare, I got help through my uni, we were able to get the stimulus from the US government, and the business was able to qualify for assistance to pay employees so we can now still pay ourselves. We also asked to get our superannuation released and after lots of discussions we decided to use as much as we could to pay off some of my student debt in the U.S. It's funny, but it wasn't until we were discussing this and prayerfully considered the best use of those funds that it finally clicked for me why you pay debts first. I kept thinking to invest would be more beneficial, but when calculating the numbers - paying off debts gives back more in so many ways. I'm so glad I finally get it! It made me regret not putting more of an effort prior to this, but oh well. I don't know what the future holds for us financially, but I actually feel more confident than I did prior to the virus chaos.

Easter!
Easter was great! Aside from watching General Conference, we got to celebrate Easter fun with Sakura. The night before I dyed eggs (we don't have white eggs here so they are more earthy coloured). Sakura woke up to hidden plastic eggs in the house and an Easter basket full of eggs and dairy-free chocolate. We also hid resurrection eggs to teach Sakura about Christ's resurrection. It was fun for her, but since she wasn't walking at the time I didn't enjoy carrying her around to get the eggs. We finished off the day with a roast dinner.

My neighbours banded together and did some landscaping for me! They hacked at all of our bushes in the front of the house and even disposed of all the branches at the tip. I gave them some goodies to say thank you, but considering all the work they did I felt it wasn't very much in comparison. I'm so lucky to have such great neighbours!

Not sure what else to share, but here's some other stuff and photos:

We made Argentine empanadas for Cinco de Mayo with gluten-free puff pastry. I need to find a better masa recipe that is gluten-free so they don't fall apart. Sakura had lots of fun helping.

One night I stayed up late to work on homework and found this on the bedroom door (see below) blocking my path. Harmless, but huge and scary looking I didn't want to risk going in. Because he was in the crevice of the door I couldn't see how to capture him to let him outside. I had to message Matt and wake him up so he could do it. As he opened the door the spider thankfully moved in a position where we could capture him and release him outside. 

This month's sewing projects included a ham and sausage (these are for ironing things on a curve), which I am just waiting to get wood chips to fill them with. And I sewed a shirt for Sakura but it is too small. I used leftover material so I'll just try again with more stretchy material.

Oh and Sakura loves singing. If you haven't noticed yet she also loves wearing particular outfits all the time.

Enjoy!!

World War 3

Matt likes to talk about the COVID-19 pandemic as World War 3. So here's what World War 3 has been like for me and my family.

March started out pretty typical with Sakura making her morning eggs and helping Matt complete his lego gift.

University classes were going well and I joined a group of student partners and leaders where we can plan how to help be involved and make the campus experience better. I had to take Sakura to one of my meetings on campus and had my friend Xen-Xen watch her while I was busy.

Gluten and Dairy Free Pizza!

One morning before uni I met up with my friend Jennis at a museum for some craft projects. The museum also displays her recent art project showing acts of kindness people submitted (including myself).

Sakura and I attended a council event where she had LOADS of fun and we decided she most definitely is going to be a gymnast :). The gymnastics people thought she was awesome and I was thinking I might go to their open gym sessions once in a while on Wednesday mornings.

I had a nasty cold that lingered for 4 weeks, which was uncomfortable when the Coronavirus started to spread. Luckily I was just stuffy, but everything else seemed totally normal for us until...

I was getting a hair treatment done Friday 13 March and during a pause listened to a message from childcare that I needed to call them - it was an emergency. I called Matt who was luckily off work and able to go pick her up. She had been jumping from block to block at childcare and jumped a little too far and caught the edge which made the block tip forward and her fall backward onto her back. Soon after that, it was nap time and she had calmed down. After she woke up though she was really upset and they decided to call us. She refused to stand up and we thought perhaps it was an internal bruise - everything seemed fine, not inflamed or anything. She would let me move her feet and legs but seemed to have soreness in her ankle. We just held her and watched movies.

The next morning when she wouldn't stand we were concerned. It wasn't until my sister reminded me we could just go see a doctor for free here that I decided better to get it checked. The doctor wrapped it and did not think it was broken, but perhaps it was soft tissue damage and recommend a CT-scan. Sakura would not hold still for the CT-scan so we did an x-ray instead. The guy there confirmed there was definitely damage. I was shocked when I saw the x-ray.

When I told him my next doctor's appointment was Monday he told me I needed to go back to them right away before they closed. So we went back to the doctor who gave us a referral to go to the emergency room. At this stage, people with flu symptoms were going to the emergency room so we had to keep a 2-meter distance from the person in front of us in line.

Sakura did really well in the emergency room watching things on her tablet until they finally came and put a cast on her. They did a quick bandage around it and set us an appointment for that Friday at the fracture clinic for another assessment. They were all surprised at her greenstick fracture and had to consult with a couple of doctors before confirming whether a cast was sufficient enough. Apparently, it's a very unusual bend in the bone. They heal fantastically in young kids though. So we took our girl home with a full leg cast on.

Coronavirus was the least of my worries for a while - would I be able to still put Sakura in childcare? Was I going to be able to get my homework done with her high needs? How long was this going to last? Sakura is SUPER needy, but she loves watching movies that don't require her to move around. Childcare was also able to still take her so I could work and go to uni. All things considered, it could be worse.

Then everything changed. Church meetings were canceled, university classes were all switched online and Matt didn't have work for a time. I wasn't going many places with Sakura anyway in her condition, but the circumstances put a lot of extra pressure on me. We weren't hurting financially yet, but I knew in a month's time things would not be pretty. My uni had a week break so we could transition to online material. This resulted in me having two weeks worth of homework in one week. I also needed to apply to get government financial aid amidst all this mess.

Things aren't terrible, but my stress is through the roof trying to do all that needs to be done. I envy the people isolated without kids. Although their future is likely just as uncertain, the demands on their time may not be as high. I'm also not sleeping well which doesn't help much. I'm trying to take things just one day at a time so we shall see how things go. On the bright side, I did really well on my statistics exam last week.

Sakura is none the wiser of the current situation. Within a few days, she was walking with her cast and is now able to run. She is really enjoying our temporary subscription of Disney+ and switched from asking for Finding Nemo/Finding Dory to the snowman movie Frozen/Frozen II. Both are favourites in this house so we have been happy with her constant movie choices. She also loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse which I like as it has a bit more of an educational element to it. I hate the excessive screen time she gets, but with my current stress levels, it is a blessing because it gives me room to breathe.

We have been actively doing other activities like building marble runs with a gift from my mom and sister, bike rides with a borrowed bike trailer from a friend, painting, drawing, music time, and more.

I've squeezed in a few sewing projects like a quick sock for her cast so she would stop ripping up the bandages, a bag to put my phone and keys in (perfect if I don't have pockets or for bike rides), and my first shirt. I'm trying to remember to always keep some time in my schedule for just doing something for me.

I'm an extrovert that actually also likes alone time. I'm totally fine with the isolation and lack of hanging out with friends, but only if I can still meet social needs in some other way. So we have now converted our game nights to an online system. I have done one successful online game night with friends, and two game nights with family in the U.S. I'm grateful for uni which gives me a premium Zoom subscription so I can easily host these things. We used up splurge money for game purchases so we have a decent variety and I'm glad we have found a solution that works. The main difficulty is that it requires me to use my computer and sometimes I have to run out to help Sakura. Still, it has been totally worth it.

Other things worth mentioning:
- I did another three-day water fast
- I've read or listened to heaps of motivational material and highly recommend The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan.
- We watched the Saturday sessions of General Conference yesterday
- Below is my favourite quote shared with me during the COVID-19 craziness

A friend shared this recently...
It was written by C.S Lewis, in 1942 during World War II

Satan- "I will cause anxiety, fear, and panic. I will shut down businesses, schools, places of worship and sports events."

Jesus- "I will bring together neighbors, restore the family unit. I will bring dinner back to the kitchen table. I will help people slow down their lives and appreciate what really matters. I will teach my children to rely on me and not the world. I will teach my children to trust me, and not their money and material resources."