Project Life: Week 30

I’m back again with another week from our life… (July 20th to July 26th) and this week was pretty life changing.  This week I went back to the doctor again and we’ve finally figured out what’s been going on with my health and wellness and in essence it’s pretty simple… after 18 years in the teaching profession I’ve hit professional burnout.

Apparently professional burnout happens to a lot of people and I’m just the latest statistic but right now it’s pretty intense.  It certainly explains all the little colds, and aches and pains etc… it was my minds way of telling me that I needed to take a break.  Unfortunately just having a week off work isn’t going to fix it this time and after a LOT of thinking, talking and discussing I made the decision to resign from my teaching position.

At this stage I’m ‘unemployed’ and I’m taking some time out to look after myself and figure out what I want to do from here.  It’s scary but it’s also incredibly necessary.

Here’s an overview of the week:

This week I was lucky enough to be able to spend some time with Krystal and along with coming with me to the doctor she also took me out for afternoon tea which was wonderful.  She’d said quite often that she thought I’d like a little place in town called ‘Be Rude Not To’ and she was absolutely right.  We shared a Banoffee Muffin and it was delicious.

Krystal also shared some wonderful photos with me that she and Chris had taken.  They bought some brightly coloured fabric and made their own Brady Bunch inspired photos.  I’ve seen the entire series of photos they took and they’ve used loads of props and colours with stunning results.  Luckily for me Krystal shared some of her favourite photos in a collage so that I could include it in my album.

Love the photos with the umbrella!

Here’s a close up of the first part of the week:

While I’ve been at home I’ve been doing a bit of baking and cooking.  This week I made some lovely herb bread and some chocolate chippie and M&M cookies.  I’ve also made some treats for Mike to take to work and share with the others at morning tea time which has been very popular!

Toby has been loving having Mumma at home… especially since it means that he’s able to be inside by the fire all day.  He gets quite excited when Daddy comes home from work because they go down to the woodshed together to fill the wood basket.

Speaking of gathering fire wood… Mike and Danny spent Saturday morning chopping up wood in our backyard and they’ve completely filled the wood shed.  Toby wasn’t too keen because Uncle Danny had the axe going and Daddy had the chainsaw making a lot of noise so Toby decided he would be much safer staying inside where it was quiet and warm.

It would seem that my computer is also suffering from burnout because it’s decided it doesn’t want to work anymore.  We tried everything and luckily for me I had most things backed up on my external hard drive before it completely crashed on me.  Krystal’s partner, Chris, is now trying to see if he can save it for me.

Here’s a closer look at the rest of the week:

On Saturday we took Toby for a lovely long walk at the dog park and he was in heaven… smelling all the autumn smells and chasing leaves.  It was a really lovely way to spend some time together and the fresh air did us a lot of good.

On Saturday night Mike decided he was going to ‘help’ me wax my legs.  I’ve never done it before but I figured it couldn’t be that difficult.  Mike said I’d need some fabric strips so he quickly found an old sheet and ripped it up.  Then he heated up the wax and covered a big patch on my leg.  Next he applied the fabric strip and told me to ‘hold on tight’.  He ripped the fabric off and… NOTHING happened!  The wax was still there but it hadn’t stuck to the fabric at all.  Turns out that this particular wax doesn’t need fabric and Mike had done it all wrong… epic fail!  It was quite funny though!

One thing Mike didn’t fail at was making his fabulous hamburgers.  He’s discovered that he loves experimenting in the kitchen and he’s getting more adventurous too!

Mike is also getting more adventurous with his DIY skills too!  He’s been busy sorting out the garage because he got an ‘idea’ that he wanted to try out.  It turns out that he wants to build me an ‘art studio’ in the garage so he’s going to halve it right down the middle… half as an art studio and half as a man cave/workshop.  More news on that next time!

Meanwhile, Carey gave me a call on Sunday afternoon and invited me to join her for afternoon tea.  We did a couple of jobs in town and then headed to Capers for a coffee and chat.  I had a delicious brioche treat and a wonderful hot chocolate and it was great to catch up with Carey and all the news.

So that was our week… thanks for dropping by xx