Little / Big

Almost every evening this week I’ve sat and worked on my mural images, altering, adapting and gridding up some native flora inspired images I found online. The next step will be working out the colours, so each image becomes a bit like a paint-by-numbers, so that they can be then gridded on to the mural surface. It’s challenging and frustrating but so satisfyingly fun at the same time.

And tonight is art class - which fills my cup being surrounded by a group of amazing and supportive women, plus we get to draw / paint. Last week’s unfinished Tasmanian devil (I might work on him more in tonight’s class, or I’ll just start the next thing):

F went back to school on Friday. He was exhausted Saturday and slept til 10am, and was ready for bed again by 7pm. His knee is still in a brace and he’s still on crutches, he can’t weight bear still, and if we remove the brace the lack of stability (even just laying on his bed) is painful. He had an MRI done Friday afternoon. The images came through yesterday (no report until we see the doctor) and from best I can tell, there’s definitely bone bruising on both the tibia and fibula, and something going on in the joint but I don’t exactly know what. (As an aside - we haven’t had to pay anything at this point - ED visit, crutches, brace, xray, CT scan and MRI have all been covered by Medicare. The Australian health system is far from perfect but it gets some things right).

I signed up for a 4-week pottery short course, and hopefully my wheel throwing will develop a little further from making tallish ramekins. I spent another 2.5hrs on Saturday afternoon practicing the skills I learned last week, and it definitely helped make things click. Having a creative outlet is so necessary for me - it keeps the mental health demons at bay, and helps me learn over and over that the goal isn’t perfection, the goal is in the doing and focus and clear mind.

(From my Sunday constitutional aka silly little mental health walk aka walking up and down hills with a backpack of full water bottles in lieu of spending money on a weighted vest).

The husband and I went to the hardware store and picked up some wall paint, and a few other bibs and bobs. (Trying to decide on a shade of white for the walls… who knew there were so many whites!!! Think we’re going with Dulux Snowy Mountain Half).

Then it was time for F’s Saturday basketball game - in the last three minutes of the game, he took a charge. Both F and the kid that ran into him went flying and hit the court. F’s knee was not great, he couldn’t weight bear at all. Initially thought we’d take him to urgent care but when he was in agony driving with every tiny bump in the road, sobbing hysterically - we went straight to emergency. Xrays and a CT scan and seven hours later, no obvious breaks but definite bone bruising and a referral to the orthopaedic clinic. His knee is in a brace and he’s on crutches. No idea how he’ll manage at school. Going to see his GP today (Monday) to see if we can arrange an MRI privately rather than waiting for the ortho clinic, having them tell us an MRI is required, and then waiting even longer.

I was a zombie Sunday morning and all I wanted to do was stay home, but I had a five hour pottery wheel throwing workshop to attend. It was good, but also very technical - I have a much better idea on what I’m meant to be doing now but can’t always quite do it. Managed three pots in the end:

Now that I’m a bit more confident (& have a bag of clay to use up), I’ll book some casual studio time to see what I can manage to make.

My phone’s screen protector is giving a weird filtered look and these glasses are forever sliding down my nose but here is me too early on a Friday morning (but at least I’m working from home!).

Thanks for the tag Lori @rockingred52! I’m smiling on the inside, I swear!

I bought a pair of Altras on Friday night as my ASICS were literally worn down to nothing, and I never want to take these shoes off. I want all my shoes to be this comfortable (& my podiatrist also confirmed that the fit is good for my feet).

F’s team won on Friday night, and he played well including hitting a 3; and then his Saturday team (playing for the first time together) also won, with F scoring another three 3s!

I was moody and grumpy Saturday evening and put myself to bed early. Got over 10 hours sleep and that helped everything.