Hello my dear friends,

With what is happening in the world, my problems are nothing compared to the misery we are all witnessing.

It's Saturday 30th April 7.30am as I write this post. It's going to be a gorgeous day and can you believe it's the end of April already?

Well, our church closed last Sunday evening and I've had such a busy week looking after Mum and helping set up the church now for our Op Shop.

Yesterday, I did an Inventory of the things that we have to be either sold or put into archives. It's amazing how much 'stuff' we collect.

Today someone from Nelson Bay (the other side of Newcastle) is coming to take all the crockery, glasses and cutlery. Obviously someone who works for a community club or something.

I've got members from our three other parishes coming on Friday to take anything they need, we have numerous robes from previous priests and stoles, banners, Altar frontals, Lectern frontals, girdles etc.

The church looks so empty now, only the altar table is in situ, but we are going to use it as the desk to have our computer, cash register, telephone set up on it.

I will be attending Belmont Church (my old church from when we first came to Newcastle) with Mum tomorrow morning as their new Priest Peter Tinney was commissioned on Wednesday evening. The service is at 10.00, so that gives me a bit more time to get Mum organised.

Speaking of Mum, her Commonwealth Homecare Package Scheme (CHPS) was granted and her first service started yesterday (Friday). Mum gets someone coming in 3 times a week, to shower her (she says she doesn't need help doing that, but she does!), get her breakfast and then another person comes at lunchtime to ensure she has something substantial to eatl.
Once a fortnight we have a cleaning lady and also someone who can take Mum out for 2 hours for a social outing. It relieves me of the pressure of having to take her out every day.

I'll still have to go over every morning and make sure she takes her medication. She doesn't like taking her meds as she has difficulty swallowing them down. She has reflux and it sometimes bothers her.

With regards to the showering, I told her -
"Mum you don't have to have the carer in the shower with you, but she needs to make sure that you put the right taps (faucets) on to get the water the right temperature" That seemed to be ok with her, well I hope.

Yesterday when the girl came to do that, Mum said she'd already had a shower - she hadn't! I went there at 8.00 to make sure she took her tablets and she said the lady had been and she had told her not to worry as she'd had a shower - I went down to her ensuite and it wasn't wet!!!!!!!!!!

I had had a bad day with her on Thursday and left in tears, tried ringing my sister, no answer, I couldn't ring my girls as they both work, so I rang a friend from church and we had a lovely chat (she'd been through the same thing I'm going through with her Mum).

So I've not done any sewing this week, but have bought some beautiful FSL designs from EmbroiderybyTM - They are beautiful lace bootees that I hope to make for one of Amy's friends who is having her first baby - actually twins, in July. She is going to be 40, they've had a lot of difficulty in trying to have babies and now twins, wow! They are so excited.

Well, my dear friends, enough of my venting, but I'm so happy to be able to still come on here and visit, give out flowers and praise everyone who has done marvellous projects. God bless and I'll come on again soon. Love Chris