2 years absence!

Wow, I didn’t realise how long it’s been since I wrote on here. I was talking to a friend who I had met through the blog and she had said that she went to show a friend and it was gone! I realised that I hadn’t given my new email address, which I’ve had for about 2 years and it had all lapsed. Panic stations and being told that it had all gone, deleted, kapoof. I contacted my old school friend Paul who had set it all up for me. He guided me through the dummies guide to getting it all back and yippee here it is! It panicked me so much that I have now vowed to get back on track and update our life with Beth again. Thanks Jo for the reminder and thanks Paul for helping me, a woefully crap internet person!

One of the reasons I hadn’t written on here is that I’ve gone back to work. I now work in a Post Office 5 days a week, 5 hours a day. I really enjoy it (after the initial ‘I have no idea what the hell I am doing’ – still there sometimes!) and it’s put everything else in my life on the backburner.

The other reason is that I’ve found our life a little sad at times as far as Beth is concerned. She had lots of problems at work, which we’ve all persevered through, and is having lots of hangups that we don’t seem to be able to get a handle on. We upped her medication which made her put on a lot of weight. I know that’s not the be all and end all but it’s not good for her health or wellbeing and she doesn’t have a lot of energy or even seem particularly happy most of the time. She has real problems with her dad. She has had a bee in her bonnet pretty much since my Dad died which is nearly 6 years now. Where the hell has that time gone? Around about that time Paul developed quite a bad cough and it really hasn’t gone away. She went from being worried about him dying too to now constantly telling him to go to the doctors and to take medicine and to drink water, and I mean ALL the time. It’s just horrible as she shuts herself in her room and if she hears him cough she starts crying. Yawning or any other noises other than talking set her off often too. We’ve seen various specialists and it doesn’t seem to help. She saw a psychiatrist who neither of us particularly liked, who tried her on a medication that made her lactate! So no more of that. I really want to try medical marijuana but it’s still a little taboo. I believe if her anxieties could be lessened then it would help. She’s a bit like it at work too, telling people to turn their music off or something on the tv because she can’t cope with certain noises (still the laughing) or whatever else they’re doing that’s annoying to her. The last thing is that we’re now in the process of changing her medication. A) because it doesn’t seem to be working anyway and B) because she’s put on so much weight in the last year because of said medicine.

This year I decided to check out some tafe courses for art for Beth. She really isn’t keen on being with others with disabilities and I figured her funding may allow for somebody to take her to a mainstream course. It’s in the city which means that they catch the train from home and go to 1 class a week. She seemed to enjoy it but then Covid happened and I had to cancel it. They were doing remote learning which just wasn’t suitable. Her support worker couldn’t come here because she was home schooling her kids and isolating and I was at work. Even if not, the whole point was for her to be independent of me. She needs hands on, not working from home. She did an art class once a week from home for a few months which was wonderful but that stopped and she really misses it. Anyway, we’ll start up the tafe one again probably in 4th term if restrictions are eased then.

Beth turned 21 this year! It was a bit sad because we isolated her due to her predisposition for getting asthma whenever she gets a cold. I was so worried about Coronavirus as she is in the high risk category. So she was home for much of the time that the other kids were home remote schooling and Paul was home working. So the year has been a bit of a nothing really.

I finished my personal training course at around the time that coronavirus hit so haven’t been able to start seeing clients yet. I have a gorgeous young girl lined up to work with but with isolation it just hasn’t happened yet. Plus, I am working 5 days at varying hours so never sure of what times I can commit to. I have signed up to learn Auslan so I’m excited that I will hopefully be able to communicate with my non verbal clients if they know any signing or any deaf clients. I am doing some online life coaching if anybody needs anything! My new website is www.changeofhabitfitness.com.au There’s not a lot on it at the moment because I’ve not done much yet, but I will track my progress as I go.

I’ll let you all know more often how we are all going. Sorry it’s been so long! Life does indeed get in the way at times. I hope you are all well. Stay safe! xx