A Lovely Weekend

It's late Sunday afternoon, I have my glass of wine and I'm ready to tell you about my weekend (if you don't want to read about it, it doesn't matter).

Yesterday, after doing a few chores in the major attempt to get my place back to normal after it was severely neglected over the last three weeks, I had a shower and tidied myself up for the barbecue lunch I had been invited to. Our neighbours Graeme and Julie are a lovely couple and have three sons, who were there, plus their two so cute little grand-daughters, Sam and Libby (Samantha and Elizabeth).

Their eldest son, Doug, has a severe form of ADHD and had been on six(!) dexamethasone a day for the disorder. After running out, he left it a day or two then went to renew his script. His doctor had a long talk with him, asked him pertinent questions and told Doug that he didn't need the medication. Julie, his mum, said that the change in him has been remarkable. His marriage has just broken up (Sam and Libby are his daughters), he has started a new job which entails a lot of training in things he knows nothing about and he's coping admirably.

Their second son Lachlan just had behavioural problems as a child, which required Julie and Graeme to be very strong so that he wouldn't get away with things, and he is a lovely young man.

Simeon, the youngest is about 16 and has Asperger's syndrome. He's a lovely boy and it's just so sad that this beautiful family have been so tested.

Anyway, we had a lovely time. Julie had gone to a lot of trouble to make different salads to go with the barbecue steaks, lamb chops and sausages. For dessert, she had the most enormous pavlova topped with cream, passionfruit, sliced strawberries and bananas.

I had only slept for three hours the previous night, no particular reason...it happens sometimes...and was wide awake at 5.30 am. Consequently, after about four hours of dining, drinking wine and talking, I had wilted. So I made my farewells, thanked our genial neighbours and wandered back home. I dozed for about an hour then watched TV for a while.

At around 9.30, I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, went to bed and slept like a log until 6.30 am. I was full of beans when I woke, jumped out of bed and put the kettle on. While that was boiling I stripped the bed and flung the sheets into the washing machine. After the wash cycle had finished, I took them out to the washing line and proceeded to hang them up.

Fred yelled out wanting to know if I'd had breakfast. I hadn't so he asked if I would like to have bacon and eggs with them. (This has happened several times in the past). He and Mitchell were at the barbecue cooking up this wonderful delicious smelling breakfast. Jane and I cooked toast, made tea and coffee and took it outside to the table. Ken wandered over and we all sat down for breakfast.

What a lovely start to the day. At about 10 o'clock I ambled back home to get ready to go to my eldest daughter's for lunch. It was lovely seeing little Cooper again. He's nine months old and already starting to say words. Funnily enough, he can say "no!" very loudly. He's pulling himself up and starting to walk around the furniture and has heaps of teeth, which he can use very effectively on different parts of our respective anatomies. He's not biting as such, just teething and wanting to bite down on something. That's fine, as long as it's not a part of me he uses as a teething ring!

Toni had made a beautiful lunch...a warm smoked chicken salad...yum! After lunch we had a walk around their garden. As they have their own water, the garden is so lush and green...really beautiful. They have cottage garden flowers such as petunias, snapdragons, salvias and things of that ilk. Then we went through the gazebo to the mini rainforest, which has really grown. They have a pond that's full of goldfish, kept safe from the kingfishers and kookaburras by chicken netting. Darryl has made a stream with a reticulated water supply which they turn on for special occasions. He has made a firepit by the gazebo and that's lovely to sit around in the cooler weather. They have eight acres and when they have finished, it's going to be like a park. They have put so much work into it and it really shows.

At about 1.45 I said my goodbyes and drove the 10 minutes to my youngest daughter's place. They have been trying to renovate and it has been really hard with them all living there, so they have rented a place in town and during the week, my daughter and the three kids will stay there and then in the weekends, because the youngest two will be with their father, my daughter and her partner can carry on with the renovation work. He will also be able to do some in the evenings. When the house is finished, they will sell it and either build another or look around for something else to buy.

I arrived back home at 4.30, well pleased and happy that I had seen my family and caught up on all their news. I'm tired but pleasantly so and feel a lot better in myself now that I've had my family "fix"!

Have a good week.