"Mum" by Catherine

Three More Weeks

Three weeks until we move! Catherine has been cutting one number off our tape measure every day to keep track of the countdown, and this morning we're down to 21 days. All the books we're taking are packed, apart from my textbooks. Christopher's room is already quite bare, with only homeschool and medical equipment remaining. He has been the main motivating force behind all of our packing and preparation, as he loves to watch us at work.

Catherine's room is still underway, as she needed to do some extensive cleaning up before we could start packing. She has been such a delight. Her daily jobs now include feeding our cat, washing up the breakfast dishes, and keeping her room clean. She also enjoys putting on a load of washing for me some mornings. Her latest achievement, of which she's very proud, is that she can cook 2-minute noodles without any adult help.

Yesterday, Christopher (in his walker) and Catherine decided to clean the whole house. They dusted, swept and mopped floors, vacuumed, cleaned windows and scrubbed the toilet. Don't forget I'm talking about an eight-year-old girl, and a 10-year-old boy in a wheelchair here. Now, some of our windows have new smudges, but it's worth it to see them doing this for enjoyment. I could probably learn something from their approach!

Eternal Echoes

"The sacred duty of being an individual is to gradually learn how to live so as to awaken the eternal within you. If you can awaken the eternal beauty and light of your soul, then you will bring light wherever you go. The gift of life is given to us for ourselves and also to bring peace, courage and compassion to others."

John O'Donohue, Eternal Echoes

My Library Thing

As part of our move, we are drastically culling our book collection. I am also creating an online catalogue of the books we *are* taking with us. You can see a random sample of that catalogue on the right side of this blog site, and there's a link to our full library there (just click on "my library").

Keep in mind that we're only part way through the process, so there are many more books to be added! The thing I like about librarything.com is that you can attach various 'tags' to each book, which allows for really easy searching on a topic (or for an author).

Warning! If you are keen and decide to try this yourself, don't be caught out as I was. When I'd added 200 books, and was finally getting quick at the process, I found out that adding more than 200 books required a membership. Let me tell you, by the time you've done this much, it's easier to simply pay the membership than it is to admit that you've just wasted all that time - so I paid up (LOL). I'm mentioning this here so no-one gets caught out thanks to me!

Schizophrenia

I feel as though I've been immersed in the world of schizophrenia recently. I've been writing an essay about this topic for university, which has meant focusing heavily on the clinical aspects. In addition, our book group is reading "Tell Me I'm Here" by Anne Deveson this month. This has provided a very personal and heart-breaking account of one family's journey through the hell of mental illness. Finally, my husband Garry is a support person for a family friend who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia for many years. I've been able to talk with his mother about their experience in recent weeks.

It has been good for me to face my ignorance about mental illness. It was also very helpful to be reading Anne Deveson's book while researching schizophrenia. It's easy to become blasé about something when all you're dealing with is impersonal studies and books. I was struck by many things while reading "Tell Me I'm Here", not least by the way certain parts of their journey parallel our journey with Christopher's cerebral palsy.

Thankfully my essay is now finished, which will allow me to focus on other (slightly neglected) parts of my life. Back to packing boxes and decluttering - lucky me!