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With age comes wisdom. The senior recipe tester is older than I. And therefore, I assume, wiser.

For instance, he was recently faced with a challenging situation. He took the eldest  junior recipe testers to swimming lessons. One was able to change in the boys change room, a place where the senior could render assistance. The other had to change in the opposite gender change room.

Only one junior needed assistance.

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I don’t usually disclosure information of quite such a personal nature. So, if you are prone to embarrassment, I give you warning to look away now.

…I can’t hold it in any longer. It’s time to come clean; to make a full confession. I feel like a cheat. I’m so ashamed…

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...today, big excitement
Was happ'ning at school
We rushed to be part of it,
Downing our tools;

A stellar performance
... Well, it wasn't quite Wembly.
One junior and class
They were running assembly...

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    This week I had the great privilege of attending a lecture given by Dr Marjorie Aunos. Marjorie is both a colleague and friend, from the West Montreal Readaptation Centre in Canada. She has made a huge contribution to what we know about people with intellectual disability (ID) who are parents, and is a world expert in the field of parenting with ID. In January 2012, on her way to work, Marjorie's car slipped on black ice into the path of an oncoming truck. In a quarter of a second she became a paraplegic. And her life changed. There were skills to learn, and skills to relearn. There were long weeks in a hospital bed as her body recovered....

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I am glad that I'm able to write this. I might have been unable. This afternoon I narrowly avoided a karate chop. From someone I love.

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In a former, and much younger life, I sat in a lecture theatre with about 150 other undergrads learning about body awareness and how it develops in children. In short, body awareness is the sense of where your body parts are both in space and in relation to other objects. Children notoriously suck at it when they're little. That's why they fall over things, and get themselves jammed in things so often. Body awareness improves with age.

For most people.

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The night before school starts back there's always a little pressure. I feel it incumbent upon me to give the junior recipe testers the best chance of a good start for term. So last night it began. Nutritious meal, check. This was expertly prepared by the senior recipe tester. I was in the big kitchen preparing your nutritious meals.

Next, not too late to bed. Check.

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The week that's been has been one of ups and downs. We had a child in hospital (down) who was completely fine (up). The end of school for the term (up) and a redundancy, which means loads of time as a family (up), a dinner celebration to mark the occasion (up) and a small issue of income (you know).

A dear friend once told me that I unnecessarily sweat the small stuff. At the time, I disagreed. In the intervening 25 years I have come to suspect his character assessment may have been right. I will here add a caveat: I do not count buttercream amongst the small stuff.

 

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Today I reflected that throughout my working life, I have been most fortunate to have jobs that have required me to write. With my Dinner on the Table hat on, it is my joy and privilege to write these posts every week about the daily juggle that we all do.

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