Holding the ends together

@Determined @Shaz51 @Faith-and-Hope et al...

Heading up to my parents' place later today. My sister's got holidays from work, so that means at-the-moment is one of her two times each year that she can make a planned trip. (Emergency trips are another thing altogether...)

I've had another out of the blue health hiccup from about a month ago. I got an infection in my left ring finger... finger swelled, wedding ring had to be cut off. 😪 First lot of antibiotics didn't quite clear it, so it flared up again. A second lot did clear the infection, but there was residual pain and numbness in my hand. Haven't had a chance to get back to a doctor about that, but it has been steadily improving over time, so I'm assuming the infection did a lot of "micro-injuries" to assorted muscle and other tissues. Being a violin/viola player, I need that hand to be active and pain free for fingering, so I'm making sure I give myself lots of "hand therapy", doing little exercises regularly.

Older Son is kind of sort of settled in here. He's finding it hard not having his own space. Younger Daughter has also gotten used to being the sole sibling in the house, especially when we're away. But we don't know how long it might take him to find a rental in this current market, and he's not really coping with looking for one yet either (despite really wanting his own place again). But all in all, it's been a reasonably smooth transition to a larger household.

One other tricky thing though, we really need the extra space. The four kids fitted in back then... somewhat crowded, but we fitted... but now we've got stuff we moved back from Mum and Dad's place, and there's a few more major things that still need to come, and can't until we've got space. So we need to continue culling the less precious things. We did make a lot of progress in that regard while making room for Older Son. Somehow to continue.

We had a flood alert about two and a half weeks ago. The creek did rise fairly dramatically, got into the back corner of our yard, but nowhere near the house. However, given the difference between getting flooded and not can be one cloudburst, so we moved as much as we could off the floor and onto chairs, tables, card tables, plant stands dragged in from outside... A lot of it is still there, because the possibility of flooding remains until La Nina says goodbye to us. So instead of returning it to where it was, as much as possible, I'm sifting through it to get rid of excess. So while there's still lots of stacks, they're less towering than they were.

And all this (plus regular rain) means the weeds have continued to get higher, and have not yet been replaced with vegs and flowers. I have masses of tomato plants in my hothouse ready to go, and once we're back home, I'll start seeds for zucchinis, pumpkins, melons and suchlike. We managed to clear some of the weeds yesterday in a big clean-up drive before going away, so there's a few spots available now.

❤️ @Smc

👋 @Determined @Shaz51 @AussieRecharger @Paperdaisy

Sending you lots of hugs my friend @Smc , and sitting with you

Thanks for the update

👋 @Faith-and-Hope

😘 @Shaz51

Life is always full of surprises hey @Smc

That garden sounds great, i am jealous, we just got back into a house and its going to be a while before we can start our gardening again as well, but looking forward to doing cucumbers, corn and herbs again. Hope your finger feels better again soon and you can get your ring repaired and its not too expensive.

@Smc

Continue to think of you and family and trust all is as well as it can be.

@Smc

Trust all is as well.as can be for for you and family. 🧡

Hello @Smc thinking of you and your family lots today xxx

@Determined , @AussieRecharger , @Faith-and-Hope , @Paperdaisy , @amber22 , @tyme

@Smc 🧡

Hi Everyone... have been being invisible again, sorry for the disappearing act.
@Determined@Shaz51 @AussieRecharger @Faith-and-Hope @Paperdaisy et al.

We've had a few extra trips up to my parents' place over Christmas/New Year, largely because Dad's been very unwell. Unwell to the point that the aged care home has moved to palliative care mode, and we expect to be saying our final farewell to him within the next few weeks.

Feeling sad, but also spending time remembering the happy times with him. Jumping a bit every time the phone rings, in case "this is it". My sister and I visited him a couple of times each when he was in hospital a week ago, but we quite probably won't see him again. We're grateful that he was alert enough to know who we were and be pleased to see us, to tell us that he loves us and hear likewise back from us... but at the moment, he's asleep a lot of the time, and eating intermittently. So we were there when he was able to appreciate the fact, and that counts for a lot. xx