We had a special day today in the kitchen, as we were joined by two clients of Northwest Disability Services who came to volunteer their time in the kitchen. They helped us package your dinners, wash up a myriad of pots and pans (you should see the mountain of washing-up we create each day) and they also found time to make you some choc chip muffins.

These muffins don't look like our ordinary muffins. And that's because they aren't ordinary...

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Learning, I've come to realise, occurs in stages. Whenever one starts working with new tools, for instance, there is that stage in which you're stretched until your functional knowledge and proficiency catch up to your skill need. Psychologists call this stage "conscious incompetence": a point at which you have at least recognised a deficit in your understanding or skill.

This week I have made some inroads to stemming my incompetence:

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The week just gone was National Carers Week in Australia. It's a chance to say thank you to those who provide care in all sorts of ways, and to recognise their valuable work. Informal carers save government in this country over $1BILLION each and every week: over $60billion annually. That's a lot of dollars in anyone's language.

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Photo: Sue Stubbs

"If we’re not seeking to serve each other, then where have we got to go?" 

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I recall writing about new tools at the beginning of last year. It was when we bought our first refrigerated van, and there were just a couple of teething problems. Recently I wrote about our excitement regarding another new tool: a much, MUCH bigger vehicle, in which to fit your dinners so we can get them to your place.

Now, this being the second vehicle, I consider myself an old hand at logistics. I surely would not succumb to the difficulties of last time. Lesson learned from that fiasco: the one when all the veggies ended up in the driveway. No; no such mistakes this time.

Did I mention that the new vehicle is MUCH bigger?

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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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