This monthly reflection is rather late due to Tocal Field Days, but now its an excellent excuse to stay in bed and blog rather than exercise, so here is my April!
I came back from Tassie so refreshed, that was an amazing holiday. On the Thursday I had a follow-up appointment about my Mirena, and we concluded that 9 months of it making my life worse = get it out. It made me have low level cramps and spotting and IBS for a few weeks a month, even at its best. So the doctor removed it, and talked about my decreased fertility and egg freezing and depressing things like that. I prefer to go along with my life not worrying about what might or might not happen. It was a bit of a downer. And also discouraging that I went through a lot of pain and sickness for that treatment and it never worked and now I'll be trying a pill.
Our church women's weekend away was then on the Friday-Sunday. I was feeling pretty low and not keen to be around a group of people, but very much wanted to hear some good bible preaching, and it was VERY good. This woman is gifted. I can't remember her name right now though!
I was so teary. So depressed at having a broken uterus and surrounded by babies. I wanted to cry every 30 minutes. And then I realised that I was probably all hormonally messed up from having the mirena removed and the progesterone being cut off and it was a full on crash until my body got back into normal hormone production. My period came unexpectedly on Saturday and I wasn't prepared for it, it was a worse period than normal. So it was a rough, sad week or so after that doctor appointment and all my holiday joy was washed away.
The weekend was good though, because the bible teaching was challenging and deep, and when I set myself up on my own to knit and listen to things, I was joined by one woman and I enjoyed the one on one conversation. I had a lot of lovely caring conversations with different women.
One of the grass experts at work offered to do a lunchtime guided walk and that was fantastic, although a little depressing to learn about Coolatai Grass. This pink grass is blooming on the roadsides at the moment, I love it.
The low-slanting sun and dust and clouds are creating beautiful skies and landscapes again. I might start painting again when I've got May out of the way.
Amidst the busy stuff, I made time to go to Sydney one Sunday with AH from work, to see some botanical illustration at the botanical gardens. A lovely day, inspiring garden and art, and fun times. We caught the train, it was $2.70 return! So cheap!
Being a tourist is one of the happiest things.
I received an easter bunny from Nathan's family at work. So heart warming.
My cyclamen seeds that I planted actually grew! I am now nursing 3 single leaf babies.
Work was busy because we were heading towards the Tocal Field Days and I had a lot of printing to organise as well as the tent setup. More on that next month.
The other big event on my plate is the Women of Truth conference band. I can't say that's going well, I really don't know how its going, but it'll happen somehow. I've had a couple of frustrations. Finding a percussionist has been nearly impossible, and a lot of stress, and then the guitarist isn't on facebook so doesn't get the info I share in the message group and I forgot to remind her about practice separately. So our April practice was without a drummer or a guitarist. Our "second" practice in mid May (the week before the conference) will actually be our first whole band practice. So who knows how this will go, but nobody else seems to want the job so this is it.
I rearranged my house to fit a band in.
I really enjoy how moving furniture around makes rooms completely new! I love this room, its completely different now. I actually decluttered my sofa to Julia's house where it can join the rest of the sections, which helped with making space.
We had a housemate breakfast on the carpet because we love it so much.
The easter long weekend was amazing. It really helped me take a breath and rebalance myself and push off the stress and depression that was clouding over me. I took some extra days off and had a full week, at home, chilling, forgetting about the field days, catching up on my life, feeling better about things, finally getting my Autumn gardening done. This is my haul from heritage gardens! Some flowers, rosemary, spinach and some pots to grow my melbourne tulips etc in.
There's some family things happening at the moment, one of which was, Mum started to get investigated for breast cancer around mid April. 2 May this was confirmed as cancer. Now we know it's a primary cancer and hasn't spread, so should be OK, but we're looking at a time of chemo and surgery and things like that. We're also expecting and praying that a baby will be born in 6 months! The first grandchild for my parents.
I went for an evening walk once, and I realised there are suddenly roses everywhere! Such beauty. I'm anticipating my own coming soon. This weekend I'm going to prepare the garden for them.
I discovered facebook marketplace for myself and got these 4 cute chairs for $20 for the field days tent. Love them.
Trying to decide about this chair. Give it away, or refurb it? I think it's doable as a sewing job. I'll have to tackle it in the second half of the year if so.
Elsie came up because she got a lift with her friend. She stayed with JK, and we had a lovely Saturday jaunt shopping in a warehouse and an op shop. Weird thing to do but very fun and good bargains. Because of health-issue-body-changes, I needed new pants and E needed new dresses, and the lady at Archer and Paige let us visit her warehouse and buy things for $60 each. Loose linen pants are my new best clothes, and I also bought this checked shirt which I didn't need but I am really into blue now for some reason.
We went to newcastle foreshore for a walk and some lunch and ice cream, then prayed together at JKs.
Shopping has been a highlight of the month actually! As well as the new pants and shirt, I finally replaced my oldest most loved brown sandals, with new yellow sandals on sale at Ziera ($150 so still a serious purchase).
I also replaced my black work cardigan with this grey striped coatigan.
Now I feel better without the Mirena I have been able to stick to my old workout 3 times a week plan, and get back into lunchtime walks as well now its cooler. I've got a lot of achy joints this year, but can't have everything. My iron is better, my stomach is better, I'm starting to get fit again. New clothes too, even though they are shallow external things they are good for your mood. I'm thankful for this new season.
