A week of woe ... but it's swings and roundabouts!

I can't say it's the most joyful of weeks in our household - infact, it's been stressful, at times frightening and a little confusing too. But hard times can be wonderful in helping you remember what's really important ... so I suppose I must count my blessings, not my troubles and be grateful it's not all a whole lot worse! To explain, in the wee hours of the morning of January 26, my partner Kirk woke up and was shivering badly. He appeared to have a fever, which I confirmed by taking his temperature, and despite being rugged up in winter pyjamas and two doonas, he felt freezing cold. I suggested we go straight away to a 24 hour medical clinic, but being a man (!!), he said it could wait till morning (later on we determined that he didn't recall any of this conversation though - he "lost" a good hour). Then later and very suddenly, his condition took a turn for the worse. He began to make an alarming, guttural noise, fell from the bed and began to convulse. I was extremely scared, and as I called the ambulance I couldn't help thinking that this could be bad ... very bad. The paramedics arrived and they were at a loss to give a diagnosis. They loaded Kirk on to a stretcher and took him to hospital in a weak, delirious and groggy state. I woke bubba Edie and piled her into the car. Her sheer delight at being woken at 4am to go on an outing gave me the first cause to smile in quite a few hours! I'll fast forward to now ... Three days later, Kirk is still in hospital, and after a lumbar puncture and no end of tests, they're still not sure what's wrong. Various suggestions have been put forth: encephalitis, meningitis, a strain of virus picked up from overseas by someone and passed on ... it's a case of "stay tuned ... we're working on it." But I now feel more confident Kirk will be OK, and besides, life goes on and I have an important job to do. The focus of that job went to the park with her grandfather yesterday to play on the swings, and he snapped these gleeful shots.

So it's not all bad, is it! While it's been a  week of woe, (the icing on the cake was locking my keys in the house this morning and calling on a locksmith ... Yes, my thoughts were elsewhere and no, I didn't have a spare set!), it's also reminded me who, and what, is important in my life, and to stop and smell the roses a little more often. It's showed me that we have wonderful, caring friends & family, and that writing about all the fantastic people and products associated with Mathilda's makes me happy and cheers me up! Anyway, I hope your week is a bit brighter than mine, and that all those you treasure stay in good health this year.

Peta x

Mathilda's Market blogger