~Girls Days/Nights Out~or It's All About The Food and ~P A R I S~

Friday morning we went up the Clyde Mountain and into Canberra
The weather was wet......cold......bleak

even some melted snow I spotted

but that didn't deter this group of girls from catching up!

This bunch of schoolfriend gals have been friends since we were under 10 years old

And a couple of us since babies......Hi Kerrie!!!!!!

In the pice above is Angela......me......Kerrie......Lynn and Kathryn

And what did we do

We ate......talked......laughed

The next day we did it all over again 

Started off with Breakfast

Went shopping at Canberra DFO (Direct Factory Outlets) and I happened upon Provincial 

Of course I stopped when I saw this sign P A R I S

You see......my Son had offered me a trip to New Zealand next year for my B I G birthday

and then also gave me the choice of  ~P A R I S~

Holey Dooley!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where to start????????

First up the obvious.......yes of course, let's pack!!!!!

Then the reality......what to do with JoJo

There is no centre based respite here

Perhaps she can go to DS and be helped by his Partner's Mum

but they have full time jobs...

So much to think about

It may not even happen at this stage due to the logistics of it all

but then again I can keep dreaming......can't I?

If you look at my side bar the essay by Emily Percy Kingsley (a Mum of a child with a disability) describes it all beautifully!!!

Emily Perl Kingsley is a writer who joined the Sesame Street team in 1970 and has been writing for the show ever since.

Her son Jason Kingsley was born with Down Syndrome in 1974.  Her experiences with Jason inspired her to include people with disabilities into the Sesame Street cast, including an actress who uses a wheelchair, Tarah Schaeffer, and even Jason himself. Jason's story was the topic of an hour-long NBC television special in 1977, titled "This Is My Son," and with co-author Mitchell Levitz, Jason wrote the book "Count Us In: Growing Up With Down Syndrome."

source ~Wikipedia~

Back to Provincial

a white dresser for crockery

the same in black

and then timber

We went back to our room and sipped some bubbly with strawberries

Went out again

and ate some more

Sunday saw us off to the fabulous Kingston Markets where I had a Hot Spiced Apple Cider

Check out the size of the Cinnamon Bark for the Hot Mulled Wine

Yep, that's right......more eating......Breakfast

lots of wool on sale

Got talking to the lady of this gorgeous stall Provencal Chic

Check out these gluten-free Florentines made by Divine & Delicious

Mr Armchair and JoJo came to pick me up  

and of course trust JoJo to find the musician playing at the Markets

Jazz Latin Guitarist Gavin Rene Libotte from Urban Gypsies

Thanks so much Gavin for your time and we love your CD!!!!!

Now back to the real world for me

A one where people our age are contemplating retiring/kicking back/travelling

we are still doing bedtime and bathtime
 Having said that we wouldn't have it any other way as JoJo teaches us so much and continues to do so

And like Emily says in her essay
There are also beautiful things in Our World!

20 years in the making...is this a record or what!!!

Out of the dim darks comes my quilt...would you believe started in 1985 and finished in 2005!!! It must be a record of some sorts I figure!!! What started off at a local Playgroup just for fun...turned into this as I started to learn all about Log Cabin, Churn Dash, Dresden Plate, Cathedral Window, blocks...etc At first I thought I would just make one block just to be in on it with the other Mums...I hadn't done much sewing at all... Then I thought, okay that wasn't too bad, I'll do another...then another. I thought all right then I'll do three and turn it into a wallhanging as a welcome to our new home...we were due to move in a few weeks. Three turned into six, the move happened to small acres, I became caught up in therapies, programmes, new schools and the rest of it.

Some years later I came across them and went to a local sewing group and one of the ladies said ...why don't I turn it into a quilt!!! I went what??? Slowly but surely...time passed...I got it all together, then we moved...again!!! The move happened, the quilt top re-emerged...a quilter was recommended to me...off I went, had it quilted and here 'tis...

This was all done in the days before the rotary cutter...how much easier that would've been!!!

...showing the underside...


...Log Cabin...

...close up of the quilting...
Have started another quilt...hope it doesn't take another twenty years!!!

Blogging For A Month Now

I have been blogging for a month now!!! Who would've ever thought that if I just press this little button that says 'Create Blog' just to see what would happen - and presto ... wow, enter a wonderful new world of the Blogging Community ... lots of stories to share, beautiful stitching happening, recipes to share and many other of life's moments, all well and truly inspirational and much cherished by you all. Thank you for all your comments ... it has made my re-cuperating so much easier and not so isolating when in that situation, and also when raising a daughter with a disability...as you can see in the little verse in my prior post, how true it all is for us...
I have thoroughly enjoyed your visits ... and thank you for calling in.

I think a celebration is in order now ...
Any Excuse Chocolate Pate : (from Choosing Happiness, Life & soul essentials - Stephanie Dowrick)
. 300g good quality bittersweet chocolate
. 1 cup cream . 2 cups fresh raspberries
. Chop chocolate and place in bowl over hot water
. Stir chocolate with cream until melted
. Place cling wrap directly on to surface of pate and refrigerate until firm
. To serve, scoop pate onto plate and garnish with fresh raspberries ... very decadent. Enjoy - perhaps with a glass of pink champagne ...

Flowers - and a Meaningful Poem

Here are the beautiful flowers I received from my gorgeous sister - they were waiting for me when I came home from hospital, they are just soooo divine!!!

Today I'd like to share a poem I came across in a little publication entitled The Country Web - a poem I can fully relate to as we bring up our daughter with a disability ...

Welcome to Holland - written by a Mother, Source Unknown:

I am often asked to describe the experience of rasing a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this ...

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Colosseum, Michelangelo's David - the gondolas of Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, 'Welcome to Holland'.

'Holland'? You say. 'What do you mean Holland? I signed up for Italy! I'm suppposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy'.

But there has been a change in the flight plan. They have landed in Holland, and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, filthy place, full of famine and disease. It's just a different place. So you must buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while, you look around, and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills, Holland has tulips, Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and they are all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say, 'Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That is what I had planned'.

The pain of that will never go away, because the loss of a dream is a very significant loss. But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.

And how true every word is - sometimes I think it would be lovely to meet this very special Mother ....

Late entry - Kate Morton whom I emailed a couple of weeks ago about how I thoroughly enjoyed her book The Forgotten Garden replied to my email ... how cool is that!!!

New Writing Desk?

Very exciting - we saw a sweet little desk and chair yesterday, took measurements and came home to see if it would fit in a little timber nook in the dining area ... stay tuned to see if when we go back tomorrow if they still have it.
This re-cuperating time has been sooo good, doing extra things that I normally wouldn't do eg. set up this blog. My Hubby has been exceptional ... we have a daughter with a disability and he has been doing everything ... and I mean everything, looking after her, the house ... and me. I am truly blessed.
Now wondering about this TAFE course, whether I should push it and go back and do it or take it easy and let healing well and truly set in ...