Family Of Four

We kicked off this year with enthusiasm and excitement for our new blog and sharing our adventures. But, as usual, life had some other plans and our little blog got very sidetracked for the last 7 months while we focused on some other more pressing things in our life.

Rewind back to January 2022, all was well until the end of that month when Jason’s dad had a severe heart attack resulting in Jason spending the whole month of February 2022 with him helping him recover. He ended up having a second heart attack a few weeks after the first which stunned doctors on how he survived and a few months after the first heart attack saw him have 2 strokes a few weeks apart. We do not know how this man is still alive and living almost as well as he was prior to the initial heart attack in January with only a few remaining symptoms. Earning himself the nickname of ‘cockroach’ with the grandkids.

I had the task of manning the veggie patch which seemed like an easy task, so I thought, but the extra warm and dry February here in Tassie had me shifting sprinklers every 30 minutes to get enough water across our 2 big veggie gardens to keep them alive. Which was very successful and in between the watering had me on my toes picking crops of tomatoes, squash and zucchini yielding so much that I can no longer stand the smell, taste or texture of either of these 3 things and the thought of even touching a tomato makes me gag. Our Pumpkin crop was our best so far and we still have some stored for future use. 

March came with a bout of the spicy cough. Only some of us caught it, not sure how that worked out, but those that did barely even got symptoms and if we hadn’t been ‘looking’ for it (close contacts so already quarantining luckily) then there would have been a very high chance that we wouldn’t have even realised we had it.

Suffice to say the 2nd and 3rd months of the year were rather busy and quite stressful. We also found out we were expecting our 3rd child making the remaining months of this year so far very busy with doctors appointments, lots of scans, and lots of tests (due to previous miscarriages, gestational diabetes, low lying placenta, and my pre-existing heart murmur). Currently everything is going well, baby is doing great, placenta has finally moved out of the way, and my gestational diabetes has been managed with just diet and regular BGL checks (4 times a day). Credit to my Antenatal/Obstetrician team and my Diabetes/Dietician team for helping me stay on track. We are on the count down with only 8ish weeks until baby Barker #3 arrives and extremely excited to meet him.

Our oldest spread her wings a little further in July this year and moved back to QLD for her own new adventures, chasing sunshine, and is enjoying catching up with our family and old friends, experiencing big city life and working in a different industry, learning new skills after being offered 2 job opportunities within a week of moving up there. 

That brings us to September when Master 11 will become Master 12. I can’t believe how fast this year has gone. I hear people say pregnancy drags on but I can assure you mine has flown by and I can’t believe within 2 months Baby will be here with us. Hopefully the remainder of 2022 is smooth sailing and we can get our regular blog posts up and going sharing our adventures. If you haven’t already jump over and follow us on facebook or on instagram or leave a comment on our blog. Until next time xx Tennille – Barker Family Adventures