cowes week · seaside

How NOT to visit an elderly relative…

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Leaving Cowes

Sublime Science

Before I get into the title of this post, I just have to tell you about my Sublime Science training! Last Saturday I had the pleasure of attending a young boy’s birthday party with the intention of learning to be a Sublime Science Presenter! I’m so excited to add this extra job. I mean there’s slime, and sherbert, and noise, Bob the Water Balloon, and sometimes even Rockets!!!

Just. Awesome. How do you like my name – Jetpack Jan?!!!

I also had the pleasure of collecting my very own Sublime Science kit this week.

Yeah. That’s where things get a little rough. As I already have a yarn collection.

And a paper collection.

And a paint collection.

And a rock collection.

And boxes of photos, albums and scrapbooks.

Plus socks, fabric, thread…

Of course, there is zero space in my ‘hobby room’…

So my Hubby is NOT happy at the appearance of 4 boxes, 2 of which are extra large! :0 I could barely fit them in the car. Hmm… maybe it is time for a bit of a clear out of my hobby room. Do I really need all this stuff?

My creative heart cries out ‘Yes!’ very loudly…! 😉

The Visit

Anyway, after our lovely break on the Isle of Wight and bringing Nanny home with us, we had to visit my hubby’s Aunty in Surrey. We can’t take the kids. This is because she’s extremely vulnerable to infection. So we dropped the twins off to my amazingly wonderful step-daughter and made our way to Surrey.

As is customary, I have to make the call to let her know we are nearly there. (Get the kettle on!) Answering with a very weak and gravelly ‘hello?’ should have been a warning sign to turn around and go home, but that would have been rude. So we pull up in the car, and climb out, to be greeted by a weak old lady barely remaining upright. This woman, who has been old in the age sense since I’ve known her, has never been ‘old’ in the spirit sense. A strong willed and popular character, a proper leader in whatever endeavour she deemed worthy throughout her life. And so active, always out and about, always on holidays. Just as retirement should be! Right?

And here she was, flopped in the chair. It was shocking. It was unnerving.

I really think this is probably one of the worst things to happen to her. To be grounded by the body. Spirit and mind all there, body not.

And I was furious. I can’t explain it. That’s just how I felt. I didn’t want to be here. I didn’t want to see her in this state. We had planned to go out for lunch, I still wanted to, thought it was better than fussing in the supermarket and the kitchen, but it wasn’t going to happen. And it seemed like it was inevitable.

Eventually this woman dragged herself out of the chair and forced her body into the car and into the shop to do some much needed food shopping. Please understand, we offered to get the shopping for her, offered to bring her lunch!

Once the warm chicken salad had been prepared and eaten, my hubby’s Aunty was (almost) on top form. Taking twenty tablets on one slice of toast was most probably the culprit of the drama! Phew! There followed a constant barrage of talk, without room for getting a word in ‘edgewise’! I think I got asked one question. One. So I maybe said four sentences the whole day.

So, my tip for ‘How NOT to visit an elderly relative’? Don’t be furious. If you can help it. It makes the whole visit impossible. I am a Relax Kids Coach. I practice mindfulness with meditation. And yet I could not shake off this feeling. It felt like such a waste of time being there. It didn’t feel like she cared whether I was there or not.

That shouldn’t matter though, right? It should be enough to be there, listen, be good company. It’s not all about me. These visits do help her. Being along for the visit helps my hubby and my mum-in-law cope too. I couldn’t see it at the time. In the future, I will remind myself of these facts. And school myself in not being furious!

Do you have elderly relatives? How do you cope with family visits?

Sweet

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The rest of this week has been sweeeeet. My car passed it’s MOT (phew!) on Tuesday, while I indulged in a danish pastry and tea. Lovely to have time to myself.

Wednesday I enjoyed talking to kids and parents about Code Club at the library.img_3689

The programmable micro:Bit car was very popular! I have now been loaned a soldering iron to fix together another car… just hoping it comes with instructions…

And Friday we got together with friends for trampolining and swimming! This play date worked out the best for me as I managed to extract some bad feelings that had been festering! Thanks to my friend for listening.

Get Rich Book

So here we are, another Saturday. Last night I downloaded the ‘Couch to 5K’ app and this morning I went running :0 <shock face> (Hubby thought I made it up!)

This is shocking for a number of reasons. Most importantly, I don’t DO running. I really do not know if I will keep it up. It killed me. However, it did feel empowering. I meditated using Calm and had a cup of tea when I got back. Read for 10mins. All before anyone else was awake. Moving in the right direction.

This book is all about manifesting wealth, and in order to do that it’s necessary to change my mindset, so I’ve been working on that while reading further ahead. Part of that has been writing my money goal for a year’s time everywhere I can! I love writing it in the steam in the shower!

Crowd out the negativity with as many positive messages as possible. You can’t overdose on the good stuff.

There is a 5 page chunk quoted from Leonie Dawson’s book ’73 Lessons Every Goddess Should Know’ entitled ‘You have Permission’. It is just what I needed to read.

Dearest Goddess,

Today, and every day, you have permission.

You have permission.

I have permission. I have permission to be me. I have permission to say bugger off to anyone that has ever told me that I’m not good enough, I’m not worth it, I’m not beautiful or lovable. This is gold.

I am good enough.

I am beautiful.

I am lovable.

I am worth it.

And so are you.

You may be wondering if there has been any results from reading this book yet? I feel like there is – I’ve been offered more work! (From September I’ll be delivering STEMKids after school club once a week until December.) My car passed the mot without extra costs. And another of my eBay items sold! Yay 🙂

It all adds up, and there’s more work to do. Have a good weekend, talk to you next week!

Janx

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