My week: just when you think things can’t get any worse …

four-leaf-clover — I’m collecting these …

Just when I thought I’d had all the possible bad luck … a little more came along.

Last Sunday I wrote a blog called “Don’t let the turkeys get you down”. It was about how they DID get me down (and OUT for the next few months). While trying to restore order in our backyard after a bush turkey rampage I tore the ligaments in my sacrum. I spent most of last week hobbling around like a granny. As someone who spends their life making dashes for the bus, the lights, the pedestrian crossing … it was quite a readjustment to see the flashing red man and realise I’d never make it across the road in time and would just have to WAIT.

Many hundreds of dollars in physio later I am on the mend. Aching, but on the mend. A very sloooooooow mend.

Feeling moochy about my recovery, I wrote a post called You Know You’re Getting Old When … which included cheery dot points such as “The bits of you that require plucking quadruple.”

And then, stupidly, I wrote a tempting fate post called “Bad things come in … fours?” It speculated as to whether since four bleak things had happened – Husband having an operation that put him out of action for 10 days last month, the bunny eating all our electrical appliances, Husband’s grandfather’s terribly sad funeral, then my brush turkey accident – I’d had all my bad luck, or whether since bad things are supposed to come in threes I might be working on my second lot and still have two to go.

And then I pondered what they might be – such as a divorce over my secondary pets and … hmmm … Husband rear-ending a school mum’s car on his way to collect me for my emergency physio treatment, possibly.

But it turned out they weren’t it. IT was my youngest getting chicken pox.

I’d just sent Husband a pep-talk quote:

“Rules for Happiness:
something to do,
someone to love,
something to hope for.”

― Immanuel Kant

When he replied with: “Ava has chicken pox!!! She has to be off school for five days!!!”

Sigh.

Which led me to write a post called Jinxed.

So I tried to cheer myself up with a Flashback Friday about the time I partied with Sly, Bruce and Cindy at Planet Hollywood. It didn’t do very well in the viewing stakes so that didn’t really work.

Meh. What has cheered me up more have been all the lovely people who have called and texted offering their assistance in my time of need. I’ve felt quite buoyed by it. Thank you so much to any of you who are regular readers …

I’m also on a bit of a work high this weekend. A brilliant post called “When I have kids I’ll never” went a viral on us. On Friday alone more than 100,000 people read it. Yesterday, more than 170,000. Have you? Click here to see why it’s struck such a chord.

But there were plenty of other great reads that deserved to go viral too.

Here are a few of my iVillage favourites, just in case you missed them …

>> Does vernix belong on Facebook? The argument for not posting your birth photos on social media >> http://bit.ly/13dfLbq

>> Apart from providing inspiration for attempts to “fly” off the shed roof, this is why superheroes make great role models for kids >>http://bit.ly/1eDg13j

>> How young is too young for children to fall in love? Here’s what I think – Jo >> http://bit.ly/1a6xzYd

>> If you’re a middle child or know one, Middle Child Day is your chance to be celebrated. Well, kind of… it was on Monday… Click here to read more >> http://bit.ly/19ulxII

>> This mum was determined to breastfeed her adopted baby – and this is how she did it. Do you know someone who has done the same? >> http://bit.ly/1cHRTRo

>> And this shocker – the proud mum who was watching her son perform on stage when a man yelled: “If my son wanted to dance I would kill myself” >> http://www.ivillage.com.au/if-my-son-wanted-to-dance-i-would-kill-myself/

This week’s tear-jerkers …

>> A teen mum writes: “I knew right that this child deserved everything and more – a lot more than what I could provide at 17.” >> http://bit.ly/17kRD3U

>> “One minute we were laughing – 35 minutes later I was being asked which of my husband’s organs I was willing to give away” >> http://bit.ly/167DLgH

>> There are two words this mum swears she’ll never say to her daughter again. Click here to read why >> http://bit.ly/17OhekK

>> I sobbed over this video of a panda mum being reunited with her baby after a month-long separation. I must be hormonal. And the pics of the little tyke are adorable. See them here >>http://bit.ly/14abrVs

My favourite silly stuff …

>> Forget the sprinklers – THIS might be the best way to keep the kids cool this summer. Click here to read about the latest baby fashion trend in China >> http://bit.ly/1d1pmUH

>> Whether it was Wham! or The Spice Girls, we all remember Dad taking us to a concert. These hilarious photos of bored dads at One Direction concerts will bring back fond memories… Click here >> http://bit.ly/1cvwkn6

>> Forget about your embarrassing uncle – THESE are the folks you don’t want invited to your wedding… Click here to see more >>http://bit.ly/17i5TKG

>> If there’s one thing this dad knows about dealing with five young children, it’s that a sense of humour will see you through. Click here to see his hilarious version of “Sexy and I Know It” >> http://bit.ly/126kWr3

>> It was International Left Handers Day last week. So we posted this meme to celebrate for all the lefties out there (like me). We’re in esteemed company – Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolie, Diane Keaton, Jerry Seinfeld, Lisa Kudrow, Oprah Winfrey, Sarah Jessica Parker, Robert DeNiro and Whoopie Goldberg are all south paws.