Thursday 29 January 2015

Small miracles

A question I have been asked many times over the years is how do I manage to stay so positive? Trust me, there have been plenty of days when I've found it impossible to drag myself out of bed and just wallowed in my own self pity and negativity.  I think the record was something like three weeks! I'm also an absolute pro at hiding myself away from the world.  Before I started my job at the club I could literally go for days at a time without talking to anyone except my boys and my mum.  Even when I did start working in town, nobody could believe I had been living there for four years as they had never seen me before!

The thing is, no matter how often or how long I feel like crap, life has this habit of (to quote Dr Evil from Austin Powers) throwing me a fricking bone.  No matter how small, all of a sudden something or someone will make something absolutely wonderful happen which can completely change my perspective on the world and restore my faith in human nature.  Even the smallest thing can make an enormous difference and when that happens (which it unfailingly always does) I take that as a sign that the universe is telling me not to give up yet.

Take my $6.35 week for example.  One of my dogs has an auto immune disease.  She shouldn't even be here really but thanks to the vet being completely brilliant we have managed to keep her alive for the past four years.  He knows what's wrong with her, what she needs when her health starts going downhill and rather than demanding to see her so that I have to pay megabucks for a full consultation each time, simply has her medication prescribed in her records so I can go in and grab some more as and when she needs it.  Brilliant!  Except last time she really needed them I couldn't go and get her any because I already owed the poor guy $600 from taking our other dog's teeth out and he had already been waiting forever for me to clear my bill.  Understandably they weren't going to let me add any more to it!  I felt like a terrible mother.  Minnie was my little shadow, my most loyal companion and nurse maid whenever I was sick.  Now here she was waddling around with more snot coming out of her nose than a two-year-old and there wasn't a darn thing I could do except watch her get worse and worse.  Which was very hard to do when I knew the problem could be so easily fixed if only I could clear my debt!

One morning I could take no more and in desperation started rifling through all the drawers and bingo!  I found a little bag containing a small supply of Minnie's antibiotics from a year earlier.  On further counting it added up to a week's supply - enough to help her recover!  You cannot imagine my relief, I was almost dancing round the kitchen!  To top it off my good luck, I unexpectedly found enough tomatoes and beans in my garden to get me through the last two days of my super frugal week without having to resort to buying vegetables.  Such small things but all of a sudden I went from not coping to coping.  And that's the way it always goes, I find.  Thanks to Mum and Peter for planting those tomatoes and beans for me a few months earlier and looking after my future self - in the end they proved themselves to be even more valuable than we had envisaged!

As it is, my little garden at Nawtypoo Heights (the affectionate name for our house if you didn't already know) is now literally throwing food at us!  I feel so fortunate to have so much free food, even if I can't lay claim to growing most of it.  One of the things I loved most about my house when I bought it 18 months ago was that the garden was so beautifully established and looked after.  Check out all the things I have to look forward to!


Baby 'nanas!  I have two huge bunches of these!


Baby apples!  I don't know about anywhere else but you CANNOT buy apples where I live at the moment.  Fortunately I don't have to worry as I have three trees of them to pick!


Grapes - bunches and bunches of them, all hanging merrily over the fence from our absent neighbours.


Black Doris plums.  I have to admit I am not much of a fruit eater at all but oh lordy these are to die for!  I have two plum trees and I don't know why this one didn't have any fruit last year but it's certainly making up for it this year!

I'm still getting the odd handful of beans and the main crop of tomatoes is yet to ripen but there is still so much more to come!  I'm looking forward to sharing them with you as they arrive on the scene. So you see, with blessings like these always managing to come my way right at the exact moment I need them, how can I be anything else but positive?

I don't know where the school holidays have gone but Ali goes back to school on Monday and get this, he's going to a new school!  Well kind of, it's an old new school - it's the one he used to attend before changing to another two years ago but he's been offered a job at the local fishing shop (for anyone who knows Ali, can you imagine how perfect this is for him!) and needs to be closer to his workplace so he can work after school.  This decision was very sudden and unexpected (thank God I didn't list his brother's uniform for sale on Facebook last week, I almost did!) but has me doing cartwheels as from now on we will be saving an incredible $4,800 a year on transporting him two and from school!  Yes you heard right, no more struggling to find $80 for the school bus (which runs a brilliant service and is still the cheapest option for getting to the school) from now on it's going to cost absolutely nothing!  I can hardly contain my excitement!

I hope you have a brilliant weekend and if you're not already looking after your future self please remember to do so!  I've put a couple of steps in place already I'm looking forward to sharing with you soon.  Also for those of you who have written to me with regard to insurance wrangles keep an eye out for Rob Stock's feature on insurance in this Sunday's business section of the Sunday Star Times.  More to share on that very soon too!

No comments:

Post a Comment