Exhaling

A little bit.  I admit to waiting for the other shoe to drop.  I had cause to go over some old blog posts looking for a recipe last night and read some of the stuff I wrote about the dramas of trying to get Emily to school a couple of years back, and all that went with it.  I felt a bit sick remembering it all.  She got up again yesterday and got herself ready and made her bed, had breakfast and tidied her room and went off to school where she stayed for the whole day, I didn't even have to go get her at lunchtime, she just walked down the street and got some lunch and returned to school and I picked them both up at home time.  As I sat in the car and watched them walk down from the school gate I once again marvelled at the startling turn of events, I honestly never thought I would see the day when she would be walking towards me, happily, in her school uniform after a productive day of learning.  If I was religious I would be thanking God, but it is Em who really should get the credit, and me to a lesser extent, for going with my instincts and just trusting she would be okay in the end, and just loving her through this past year or so, and the worst of her troubles.  It's hard to explain how I feel about Emily.  I love her because she is my child, of course, but she is the child we had after the devastating loss of our first baby, she gave us back our family, our normality, our confidence as parents, our happiness after so much pain and sorrow.  While I love all my children equally, she will always be extra precious to me, to both of us, I know Phill feels the same way, although it's unspoken between us, but I just know he does. 
Josh finally finished his course of medicine, little trooper he is, it made him sick and was so hard to get down twice a day, but he did it.  I need to ring the medical centre to see when he can be tested again, I just hope we got that bug the first time around.
We said goodbye to little Violet on Saturday.  I had put an ad in on the IGA (supermarket) notice board, and one on the Gumtree website but we'd had no calls and I was wondering what we would do, as there is no way we could have three cats.  Then someone rang and came to get her within about fifteen minutes.  The kids were sad to see her go but I was glad she'd found a good home, with kids who desperately wanted a cat.  I have Scout booked in for Friday to be desexed and then Harley will be done the following week.  Scout is just the most delightful little man, we got lucky with him.  Harley is still a bitch of a cat, but she's our bitch for better or worse.
I made satay chicken last night, and made up my own marinade and sauce after some research.  I cut up chicken thigh fillets and marinated them in some sesame oil, soy sauce, with turmeric, cumin, coriander and chilli.  They would have been great just like that, cooked on the griddle pan, but I also made a sauce out of coconut flavoured light evaporated milk, with some red curry paste, fish sauce and peanut butter and simmered it till it thickened.  It was okay but I will tweak it next time I think to make it better.  I am so much more confident in making up my own recipes these days.  I am making my Vietnamese Pork Balls for tonight, I lost the recipe when my old laptop broke, it was one out of a slow cooker recipe book I got from the library, and I can't get down there today as I have no car so with the help of old blog posts will wing it and make it from memory.  I have the doings for a big Asian style salad, and some rice noodles.
Kids will get a taxi to school today, and I'm going to do what I need to do in the house,  and spend some time out by the pool reading and relaxing.  No school for Em tomorrow, seniors have Wednesdays off (half of it is sport) and Thursday is the swimming carnival so the kids and I will go shopping in Wagga.  Em needs clothes and Josh and I need decent haircuts.  I love my hairdresser here but the last couple of cuts Josh and I have had with her have been a bit dodgy.  I wouldn't dream of going to anyone else in town lest she found out but Just Cuts in Wagga never fail to do a good job. 
Duh!  I knew I had the Pork Ball recipe somewhere, just remembered it was on my Kindle, so therefore now on my iPad.  I will put it on my recipe blog today so I won't lose it again.
I was restless and bored on Sunday so I drove up to Young on my own and had a bit of retail therapy.  Got a pasta maker finally, I've wanted one for ages.  So this week's lasagne will be made entirely from scratch.  I got some good Italian flour as well.  Looking forward to playing around with all of that.
Bought myself a new top, an iPad "lounge" thingy to rest it on when I'm in bed.  Got a blow up mattress for when Sindy sleeps over.  Em gives her the bed and sleeps on a pool float which can't be very comfy.  Got myself a little coffee plunger, I threw the old ones out as they were broken and "someone" would use them and just leave them on the bench for me to clean out, pain in the arse.  I've hidden this one, I don't drink coffee very often but when I do I like it to be halfway decent.  And I got some lipsticks, I always feel guilty spending money on myself for some reason, must get out of that habit.