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Sienna Update

Okay, so I realise that I’m not the first parent to have a child break a bone but, you know, I grew this child myself, so she’s special to me, and when she breaks, it’s a big deal. And lots of people have asked, so I thought I’d just give you a little Sienna update…

Nenz broke her arm a week before we were meant to go camping for ten days in Coral Bay (near Exmouth). In the emergency department, I asked a doctor, “so what happens now?” and she said, “you’ll come back weekly for check-ups.” Leigh and I just gave each other big panic eyes. Maybe the holiday would have to be cancelled. I started thinking who I could offer our van, equipment and our booking to (Jon Bergmann, it was going to be you…) But we prayed hard. On our knees. The surgery went better than planned and the ortho doctor said we could wait two weeks before the next checkup.

I planned lots of activities for Sienna to do while the kids were at the beach. Her cast was a regular plaster one and it couldn’t get wet or sandy. I was a bit bummed because I love the beach, but also willing to take one for Team Cherry, so the others wouldn’t suffer. Besides, how hard is it to lie on the grass and read a book while your five-year-old plays? Not very.

But two days before we left, a friend mentioned a product that she’d seen another kid using on a canoeing camp. A giant balloon type thing that stretched over the cast. She got the name of the product and I looked it up.

Made in the UK. Ships in ten days.

That wasn’t going to work.

I tried ‘Gumtree’. There were only three for sale in Australia, and one of those was just around the corner from us. On Sunday while I was out preaching, Leigh went and picked it up.

With this cover, Sienna was able to swim and play in the sand, as well as shower. In the end, the only way her broken arm affected her holiday was that she could only have 5 cheezel rings at a time.

When we got home the doctor tutt-tutted that we’d been to the beach. He was only about 12 years old though so he probably didn’t have kids. X rays showed that Nen’s bones had shifted slightly out of proper alignment so they didn’t want to risk taking her original cast off. That was a bummer because she vomited on it during the long car ride home. The nurse was able to cut away a lot of the manky spew covered parts and rewrapped the whole thing in purple bandage.

#Fitby40

I’ve started a fitness campaign. #fitby40. I’m not 40 for another 20 months, but I think if I start now, I might get to a place where I am fitter, healthier and more svelt at 40 than I was at 26. (Note, I’ve only been svelt for about 5 minutes in 1999, so that might be beyond me.) I did a similar thing before I turned 30. I freaked out that I was getting old and decided to get healthy. I lost 17 kilos and did a lot of exercise. But two more babies and 17 000 chai latte’s later, I’m not in good shape.

Fit by 40 goals= jog 4 km without stopping/ feel comfortable to wear shorts above knee length/ break my sugar addiction/ do something about my skin.

I’m super good at shaping up when I decide to do it. I am a self-disciplined person with a lot of drive. I just don’t usually allocate any of the self-discipline to health. But I’m doing it. Say goodbye because you’ll be seeing less of me soon. Literally.

50 Books in a Year

As part of my #fitby40 campaign, I’ve been getting up early to go for a walk. I’m only doing 30 minutes and will need to increase the exercise for #lifegoalshortshorts, but it’s a start. I’m on a bit of a Jen Hatmaker fest, so I’ve been wearing my wireless headphones (let’s face it, I rarely take these off these days) catching up on the podcast episodes I missed. Currently, she is in a series where she interviews amazing authors. Yesterday I cried my way around my walk as I listened to Jen talk to Jodi Picoult about her latest novel ‘A Spark of Light‘. They talked about pregnancy termination and all the complexity, and if you know me a little bit, you’ll know that’s a subject I can cry rivers about. I even messaged Jen Hatmaker to say thank you for the interview. (I don’t know if famous people check their messages but I figure famous people need feedback too.)

This morning I listened to Jen chat to Jessica Turner on the topic of ‘Busy Moms Stretched Too Thin‘. In the interview, Jessica talked about her love of reading. She said a good test of whether she is having “me time” is the number of books she is reading. She said that on her worst “stretched too thin” year, she only read about four books. She set a goal for herself of fifty books in a year. Well, challenge accepted, Jessica Turner. I’m going to do it.

I just found out (via my friend Heather, who commented on my last post. Heather, btdubs, also told me about the 5:2 diet and therefore is responsible for Leigh looking so great) that I CAN BORROW E-BOOKS FROM THE WA PUBLIC LIBRARY!! I don’t really love e-books because I like to hold great novels up to my cheek and stroke them gently, but I can’t afford to purchase 50 books in a year, so this is really good news.

On my list to read next:

  • Jodi Picoult’s new novel, ‘A Spark of Light‘.
  • Sarah Bessey’s new non-fiction, ‘Out of Sorts
  • Memoir, ‘Fight Like a Girl’ by Clementine Ford (note, might be angry feminism, so I’ll give it 20 pages and then decide whether to press on.)
  • Novel ‘Boy Swallows Universe’ by Trent Dalton
  • Novel ‘Force of Nature’ by Jane Harper
  • Non-fiction, The Very Worst Missionary by Jamie Wright (I’ll also give this 20 pages to decide. I like Jamie but I don’t like F-bombs.)
  • Non-fiction, ‘Busy Moms Stretched Too Thin’ by Jessica Turner

So, 50 books before October 2019. Can you recommend any?

Love,

Yvette

p.s I spruced up my website a little. Do you like my homepage? I’m adding to it slowly. (Tweaking my blog is my favourite thing to do while procrastinating. I have an assignment due…) If you’d like to, you could also go up to the top right-hand corner of this page, under my photo there, and subscribe to my blog. Then the articles will come to your inbox. I won’t take it personally if you don’t though. Inbox clutter is annoying.