The weekend's antics

The biggest news is that the Oldest is now in a womanly way... and she's only ten!! We had a Woman's Day on Monday and went clothes/shoe shopping, had morning tea at a posh cafe and I bought her her first pounamu... I was going to wait until she was thirteen, but this seems appropriate. She's dying to wear it, but she has to wait til the local kaumatua bless it for her.

I got a dreadful shock later on on Monday afternoon - I was sitting outside enjoying the sun with the GF and the neighbour and a couple of children running around. Except the Smallest. She was apparently riffling through my bedside drawers, as she came out outside saying "Mu-uum, what's this?" She was merrily waggling my vibrator around. I was out of my lounger faster than God, mumbling something about it being a funny sort of torch.

She said she'd been looking for batteries.

Blonde comment of the week

The Smallest: "Mum, Mum - I can't see!"

Upon turning around in the car, I saw she had a bucket on her head.

I made that.

I've been away... sorry.

To try and put it delicately, my lunar cycle had a dampening effect on my mood toward the end of the month, so I spent a few days in the MH ward. I wrote while I was in there; some excerpts written here are from my observing the other patients, so I have to edit it heavily (which is why it will appear broken, or in little parts). Otherwise it's just my semi-reflective ponderings.

"- The person who intrigues me most is the scariest-looking one here. He looks like a black Bin Laden with his beard. He sits all scrunched up in his heavy coat and his beanie. He stoically nurses his cigarette, whilst coughing his guts out the whole time. I watch his mouth moving and I imagine him chanting little mantras to himself. He looks terrifying, but he has this unnerving vulnerability about him that - incredibly - makes one want to hold him.

- I painted today. I am overjoyed at what I created, because I didn't think I had it in me anymore. D. instantly recognised the black hole in the middle as my own.

- You can find beauty everywhere you look here. Not in things.. in people. Beauty of the human spirit. I watch young S. offer G. his arm to lean on whilst she walked her arthritic hips down the hall. I saw unshed tears in G.'s eyes when I gave her my Women's Bible to keep. What held no importance to me anymore, became a gift that touched her deeply.

- How bizarre that I am going to miss these people. It only took them five days to show me you can find the grace of humanity in the strangest places. Without even trying."