Happy 40th Ben

Today is my son Ben's 40th birthday and of course my thoughts turn to Peter whose birthday is tomorrow. 

When Peter turned 40 we had been back living here for over twelve months, and he was entrenched in his third career change; when I turned 40 I had had three children, was working part time and had just started studying again.Somehow Ben doesn't seem as old or experienced as we were, but I know that he has had many more varied life experiences than either of us at the same age.

When Ben was born I was 24 years old and Peter was one day off 27. We thought we were so worldly wise  ready to take on this new phase of our lives. In reality we were dreadfully under-prepared and our lives were never the same again.

The day that Ben was born was a cool November day, very similar to the weather we have been experiencing lately. I now know that we went to the hospital way too early, but I was unsure of what to do and impatient to meet my first born child.

As a result, we spent most of the day walking on the edge of the lake and waiting for labour to set in or risk being sent home. That would have been the ultimate humiliation, to have to go home and come back another time!

Fortunately my friendly GP decided to intervene in the early evening by breaking my waters and Ben was born just before 8 pm that night. Our family began with the birth of my parents' first grandchild, my grandmother's first great-grandchild and the fifth Kendall grandson

Day 30!!!! Fond memories of Paris

So I have made it to day 30 of the 30 Day Blogging Challenge where I undertook to post once a day for 30 days. I have surprised myself at the persistence I have exhibited and I am hoping that it has not been too tedious for anyone who has been reading my blog posts.

I was planning to do another post today with more pictures describing the next stage of our trip to France in 2014, but with all the sad, sad news coming out of Paris today I think I will just post a few of my favourite Paris photos and send heartfelt loving energy to everyone in that beautiful city.

Week 4 roundup

This week I managed to again post every day to my blog, although I wasn't able to get through my planned sequence of travelling through France. Doing that should see me through to the end of the 30 Day Blog Challenge and then I can decide how often I plan to regularly post if not every day.

Here's a brief run down of what you missed if you  haven't yet discovered my website.

Day 22: Week 3 of Grandmarg's blog
Day 23: Travelling from Sydney to Hong Kong on the way to Paris 
Day 24: Day 2 - Arriving in Paris and exploring alone
Day 25: Neighbours - how much I loved our neighbours, and why
Day 26: Going to school - how I continued to hate going to school
Day 27: Misunderstood - addressing a writing prompt
Day 28: July road trip - some photos from my solo road trip

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July road trip

In July of this year I went on a solo road trip where I met up with old friends, went to a family reunion and explored several places I had never been to. 

Misunderstood

The eight year old girl never felt that she could tell her Mum or Dad how she was feeling: her mother always seemed so busy with the younger children at home and she didn't want to bother her any more than necessary, and her father was always so tired and distracted when he came home long after dark that she didn't talk to him either.

She continued to ask herself for many years why she always felt she could never talk to her parents about what mattered in her life, what frightened her and what didn't, what she was proud of and what she was ashamed of. 

Finally the answer came to her: as the eldest child she was always told that she was the big girl, older than the others, able to cope; but all she ever wanted was for someone to get it, to understand, to say, " I know how you're feeling."

If only someone had sat her down and asked some questions about how she was feeling and what was bothering her, she may have learnt to cope with change more readily at a much earlier age, because sometimes she didn't feel so grown up and just wanted a little babying. 

She wasn't looking for someone to fix the situation, just another person who could understand and let her know they understood.