Stress Level Overload!

I last posted about the long trip up to Gauteng from Cape Town and since then it feels like I've been climbing Mt. Everest, stress level wise.

Robynne worked hard last week, the whole day and into the night, coming home late every night from Tuesday until Friday, from the exhibition where her company had a stall. She lifted, carried and slogged and enjoyed the experience thoroughly but still the week took its toll and her resistance took a pounding. By Thursday afternoon, she had picked up the same bug that Dael had been suffering from for the whole week. The kids still had to work and me trying to direct medical care from hundreds of kilometres away was no joke! They felt better by Saturday evening and went out to a friends Halloween party. They had a grand time and even getting lost on the way home because the GPS battery went flat was handled with good humour. On Sunday, the whole family went through to a weekly market in Pretoria but by the evening Robynne was down again with the stomach flu. She is still ill and Dael seems to be relapsing with it. Dael and his dad also have issues to resolve with regard to working together, expectations, understanding and payment for work done but I cannot get involved in this as any direct intervention by myself seems to make matters worse. Obviously this is also stressful to me as a parent because I cannot just switch off my protective mother instincts because my kids are out of sight. I still know they're suffering. I have to back off though and let matters resolve themselves without my input here.

On the local front, the following is happening:

My poor unfortunate cat had kittens again - 3 this time. I would have had her fixed earlier in the year but my neighbours dog very kindly wandered into my yard and bit my dog on the mouth which required a procedure under anaesthesia and she fixed him at the same time. Vet budget for the year gone in one fell swoop!

Bradley seems to be getting higher marks for work completed and getting work finished without too much prompting. The Ritalin seems to have kicked in. Thank goodness but I hope not too late to turn his year's marks around.

My mom had a birthday last weekend and Brad and I went with Mom, Dad and my brother, Greg out to a local coffee shop for tea. Everybody ordered waffles but Brad wanted a full breakfast as he had slept late and hadn't eaten breakfast. I said no and Brad had a little tantrum. I was irritated because although he is officially a teen he likes to resort to toddler behaviour every now and then. Mom turned 67 and today was the parents 46th wedding anniversary. Mom's parents wouldn't let her get married before she turned 21 so she did and then waited a week before tying the knot! And the rest as they say is history!

Oh and my car broke down last week again. The oil clogging its system story again and I had to ask dad for a loan of R1700 to get it out of the garage. I'm still not too happy with it. Just observing it at the moment!

Now if I can just get my stress levels down to a manageable level! When I've been too stressed, I get weird pains in my chest, my breathing rhythm gets messed up and I feel breathless and I feel like my overactive thyroid problem is playing up. Its all a mind game - mind over matter. Think I just need to stare at some scenery or stroke some cats or something!