some weeks are just freshly squeezed fantasticalness

Greetings all,

Another week done & dusted as the year races towards the finish line.  This year has been full on, with my husband in Afghanistan for the first half, countless children's activities & slowly closing down my business.  Wrapping up this year is tying up a lot of loose ends on a long list.

A big ticket item on that list was the 12-month-check-up at the optometrist to see if this far sighted girl needed to continue wearing glasses to read.  She literally burst out of the chair with the news that her eyes have adjusted & she no longer requires them.  After following the optometrist's instructions on when to wear them & why, it has totally paid off. 

 Mid week i took my high schooler to a VIP Country Road soiree in the city, it was lovely to have personal shoppers & spy the new range.  We picked up new coloured jeans, Summer tops & a pair of pretty yellow stitched linen pillow cases.  Yellow = happiness.

 In Canberra, we have a lot of logging, hay & cattle trucks passing through this regional city (albeit, the nation's capital!!)  I posted this image on Instagram this morning & sparked quite the interested debate on logging.

 Summer to me is platters & lunch boxes loaded up with watermelon.  All 4 of our children were born in the tropics, so this brings happy memories of our wonderful life in Darwin.  I know we eat watermelon ALL over Australia, however, mangoes, watermelon, pineapple (& frangipanis) just scream Darwin to us.

 Often Fridays find me madly juicing up all the fruit left in the house before the Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings!!  Apples, pears, carrots, tomatoes (we'd eaten all the celery) with some chia seeds, delicious!! 

Other fantasticalness things this week include . . . discovering our chickens have been wandering into our German Shepherd's yard & they all get along swimmingly . . . i started swimming . . . i saw Sky Fall . . . a delicious lunch with my husband . . . pavlova triumph . . . we planned a fun Christmas party . . . i've been running up a storm . . . i'm still losing weight . . . some surprise gifts from lovely friends . . . great shopping & just a general overwhelming feeling of happiness. 

Gosh i'm loving the colours in my photographs lately.  Thank you iPhone 5, you make me so happy.  Have fantasticalness weekends folks & don't forget all the great giveaways currently on the blog.  Love Posie

wordless Wednesday . . . 'first glasses'

Greetings all,
My littlest girl picked up her reading glasses on the weekend.  

 She's smiling now, my darling quirky one, wearing them at school to read & at home to sew.

I'm so proud she's coping so beautifully with being the only child in the family to need glasses.  She even wore her Converse sneakers to match her new cool frames.  For Wordless Wednesdays, check out Faith Hope & a Whole Lotta Love.  Love Posie 

i'm grateful for . . . 'medical advice'

Greetings all,

Thank you so very much for the kind thoughts & comments about my hand issues over recent months.  Story goes: i was diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in both hands while pregnant with my son, i used splints instead of surgery & now, 8 years later, with hands getting worse, i sought out a confirmation diagnosis so i could have surgery.  I'm not taking drugs, it's a dull throb not pill-popping-agony.  I saw the neurlogist on Thursday.  I was so excited - reconfirm the CTS & book me in for surgery, end my days of useless, clumsy hands & sleeping in metal hand splints . . . only . . . I don't have CTS.  What??  Seriously?? 
So, back to square one.  I am numb & disappointed.  Was my initial diagnosis wrong??  I probably did have CTS, typical while pregnant, but why all the persistent symptoms since then??  RSI maybe??  Friday my hands were quite good, i started to wonder if i had hysterical CTS or was it psychosomatic??  Trying not to dwell, i'll keep resting my hands in the meantime.  I was frustrated that the neurologist was there to confirm CTS ONLY, nothing else, fine point of the needle specialist attitude, no consultation or advice, just my $275 for 15 minutes in his office, thank you very much. 

This week i took each of my children to the optometrist.  My son gets headaches & last year was squinting, so he had a thorough check (all good) & my 2 eldest girls were fine, then my 3rd girl had her appointment on Friday morning . . . cut a long story short, she is super far sighted & requires low script glasses. 
Just to refresh your memory, this is my sensitive soul, my Nina, who skips through life & curls up on toadstools, she loathes that she has mild asthma & eczema, she likes her fashion style to be left of centre, not her health.  When the sweet optometrist gently said she'll need glasses for 'reading & computer work' my daughter mouthed to me "i'll just stop reading", i could feel her freeze up.  She held it together, we chose some cool blue Converse frames, $598 later (phew $280 back from private health insurance) we left & then the tears started rolling.  I suggested her long distance eye sight was too good & made Six Million Dollar Man sound affects, she was not impressed.

 I distracted her with a mini shopping spree at Seed.  Ok, she won't wear fabulous designer frames which will benefit her eyes, but she'll wear cow glasses??

 So i bought her a plastic gelato fan too, plus mini paint set, piggie bank, headband, sticky notes & bird whistle - you know, stocking fillers!!

My little lamb, or calf, she's certainly made my hand worries melt away.  She's 10 years old, getting glasses is a HUGE deal.  When i took her to school after her appointment i bumped into her cool-young-guitar-playing-gorgeous-maths-teacher who said she had to wear glasses as a child & she tried to forget/ lose/ leave them behind but soon reaslied glasses helped her & there was no escaping them.  Then my son's pro-ice-hockey-teacher said his youngest daughter needs glasses & she can't wait to wear them.  Of course i wear glasses but i don't count!!  I saw all her friends crowd around her, saying how lovely she'll look in glasses, they are beautiful friends & she has many.  Tania McCartney, the fantastic children's author, offered to write her a letter (email) & confessed that she too needed glasses when she was 10, she was nervous, then realised wearing glasses was special, made her feel smart & helped with her work.  Then Tania said cute things like "if anyone can rock a quirky pair of glasses, it's you!!"  She even attached images of celebrities who wear glasses, yay!!
So she's calmer now, still demanding she won't wear her glasses but also asking questions of how she'll care for them between classes.  I smell a breakthrough, absolutely thanks to all the instant positive feedback.  The glasses might only be required for a year, to prevent future eye issues & she has asked if she can bury them in the garden after 364 days (yes, one day shy of a year, that's my girl!!)  She'll have them for the last week of school, then holiday light reading to get used to them.  It's all about how you approach this situation, the atmosphere, the wording - i said "oh reading, & you know, craft, stitching, drawing & art" all the things she holds dear, or i would have lost her!!  Last thing she heard as she fell asleep tonight was "i'm so proud of you".  Bless her heart, i love how she always lets me know how she's feeling, internalise & implode otherwise.
Thanks Maxabella Loves, i'm grateful for medical advice, in all it's forms, love Posie