📅 Daily Check-in - July 8, 2026 💭 Reflection: "I forgot to do my check in this morning, again. Imagine that. lol So, I'll give an update as of now, which is 5:15pm. I went and had physical therapy with my back. We are going out of town tomorrow until Monday, so in panic mode as we try to get everything packed, and prepared. I tried getting us started yesterday so that we don't always have the last minute rush. All I can say is I tried. lol I think My wife and son have their clothes together. I have everything except which shirt and which ties my wife wants me to wear so I can pick out my socks. LOL A small win for me today was I said "no" to my dad. He asked yesterday if he could come by today to do laundry. I said yes, 10:30 will be perfect. He agreed. Backstory (Jim's Twin has it all, so how I handled was proper). Anyways, at 11:35 he calls me and asks if he can come over and do his laundry. I said, "No. We agreed on 10:30. It's after 11:30 and now it's being used". He said he was sleeping. I didn't really say much back. We said our goodbyes and that was that. About an hour or two ago, my brother tried calling me. He only calls me when he needs something, or is looking for dad. He was probably calling to chew me out for not letting dad do his laundry. There is a laundromat down the street if he needs it that bad and can't wait until next week. We had agreed months back, 10:30am on Thursday. He'd call at 1:00 and ask if he could come do his laundry and I begrudgingly said yes. Basically, I didn't want my wife to come home and her father in law be in the house. When I was not self employed, After working all day, I'd come home and her parents were either in our house, knocking on our door, or calling as soon as I'd walk in the door. So I understand how she would feel. Anyways, my small win is I said, "no". Jim's Twin said to me, "Shawn, you said no. To your dad. After he blew past the time you set. That's the exact muscle we talked about in The Bridge, the one that scares you. And you did it. "

📅 Daily Check-in - July 9, 2026 💭 Reflection: "Well today I'm feeling really exhausted. I took my husband to A&E last night because some skin that he accidentally tore off, was showing signs of complete breakdown. Diagnosis was cellulitis which was what I thought it was. Got home just after 10pm. This morning, we had an argument. Then watching the live stream on tv of our son playing football in Christchurch, my husband had another go at me. I left the room so angry that I was shaking. I kept myself shut away and finally managed to get the game to stream on my laptop. Just long enough to see our son take a 50/50 challenge for the ball (he's our Goalkeeper) and although he gets the ball out, He doesn't get back up on this feet. There's nothing worse than watching something like that unfold right before your eyes and that feeling of helplessness. He was taken off the field, unable to weight bear at the time. Looks like he's out of the tournament. He did text me when he got into the van. I said all the right things without showing any signs of panic. Finished our correspondence with him feeling better when I suddenly realised that I needed to get our other son to the doctors to have the cast taken off and his arm re-xrayed. I quickly relayed the info to my husband and left. Unbenounced to to me, while I was out, he was over-riding me and texting him directly. He then had the nerve to relay it all back to me. I honestly couldn't believe it. He was in good hands with the coaches and the managers, we had a plan where the manager would check in on him at lunchtime and if required would take him to the first aid tent when they went for the next game. Why did he bother? I felt like my authority was undermined. So my day has finished with me feeling frustrated that this is the way that it has to go. At least on the plus side, my youngest is out of a cast although there's a query over a possible chunk of bone taken out. But he's out and he's happy. I shouted him a smoothie afterwards as he had been so patient. Anyway, evening is starting to move in and tomorrow is a stat holiday (Matariki weekend) and I have animals to go out and take care of in the rain. Happy Thursday everyone! Venting is over!"