Today is my youngest daughter Madison's 22nd Birthday.
I woke up this morning a bit out of sorts and feeling apprehensive not knowing which way the day would go. It will either be wonderful or I could be in for a very tricky day indeed, had my fingers crossed for the the first option.
Although after I had completed my morning chores I felt more at ease. I really do enjoy my morning routine, it starts my day feeling grounded, in control and I already have that feeling of accomplishment, it is also a big tick off my to do list first thing in the morning.
We keep egg laying hens, ducks and a couple of fluffy silkies, there is also our "not so much a" farm dog, Ruby Rose, she is a King Charles Cavalier and Madi's companion. Each morning no matter what the weather all of our flock get let out of their secure homes just after sunrise, light enough so hopefully the pesky foxes are not about. The girls need to be fed their grain and the waters need cleaning and filled up with fresh water for the day. The ducks have a children's wading pool as a pond and that also gets emptied on to the fruit tree's in the orchard, perfect for fertiliser as the duckies love to poop in their pond.
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Hattie & Izzy – The Fluffies |
The Silkies, Hattie and Izzy (Isobel) live in the orchard with the ducks and have their own seperate enclosure under the peach, peach cot and nectarine trees which are all out in beautiful pink blossoms at the moment. Every morning this week I am greeted with the comforting hum of the bee's busy up early doing their work. Our egg laying hens are up the little hill at the back of our property and the mini orchard is at the opposite end of the property so I start the day with a bit of exercise first thing in the morning as well as getting to be in my favourite place which is the garden. I also am very privileged to be able to enjoy all the beautiful diverse bird life we have here as they tend to be waiting for me as well needing their breakfast too.
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| Our egg-laying hens |
We have a one acre property and I find that is big enough for me to care for. I always had big dreams of lots of land with cattle, sheep, goats, alpacas and a house donkey, I wanted all the animals but I am content with our one acre. This will be our forever home for Adam and I and our girls, this place we call home is our safe place in our world and I will always be forever trying to create a cozy nurturing place for us to be who we are and live a life that is meaningful to us full of love and acceptance and hopefully lots of laughter, fun projects, good home cooked food and I'm very sure we have room for a few more animals!
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| Barbara, Margo, Miss Molly, Delilah & Daphne |
So Madi woke up very happy on her Birthday which is a great relief to me. Birthdays can be tricky as Madi always worries an awful lot about getting older and death. She doesn't like to talk about it and will always say she wants to stay younger. It is a really hard topic to explain with Madison as her disability impacts her life in so many different ways. She will often get stuck in a loop going round and round ruminating on things. The truth is always best I find, she is the youngest of our two daughters so I tell her that she will always be the youngest in our family and that she is young at heart.
It turned out to be a fabulous day, the girls Grandma (my mother) is here visiting from New South Wales, Australia. I should say we live in the South East of Queensland in the hinterland of the Noosa shire. Madi has not seen Grandma for at least two years as Madison doesn't travel well and it is also difficult for mum too, so it is very special that Grandma has travelled all this way by train for her birthday.
The celebration was just the six of us, Jaimee my eldest daughter and Matthew her partner, Grandma, Adam and myself and of course Madison. It was a very stress free day, got to celebrate that, hooray! We made her favourite chocolate Gluten/dairy free cake and Jaimee helped Madi decorate the cake with the sweet little pink flowers she loves. The table was laid with the special birthday table cloth that Madison has each year, flowers from the garden, roses and snapdragons of all colours and her gifts, very pretty indeed. We put on the fairy lights we have in our living room and kitchen and the wood fire was going and of course the french cafe music was playing in the back ground, perfect!
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| Jaimee & Madison ready to decorate the Birthday Cake |
It really was truly lovely.
Madi does not talk, communicate much, she is non spoken and it is extremely difficult for her to get her words out and then for her to be able to process information coming in, it is again very difficult. It is so very important to really listen when she is trying to communicate as it is such a gift.
Madison loved all of her gifts and was excited about the day. It has been a long time for Madi to feel comfortable enough to spend the day with us in the main living area, our house is small and cozy so even with just the six of us it can feel rather full and the noise of chatter can be overwhelming. She did stay out with us all until around 8.00pm, which was amazing. As it was her special day she chose one of her favourite youtube channels to watch on the big tv and it was lovely to sit in front of the fire relaxing all together watching the same video over and over.
This hardly ever happens so I cherish these moments in time.
I do wish there were more of these times, hopefully as birthdays go by it will get easier for my beautiful girl. It is very fatiguing for Madison at any type of event small or large so she will now need a few days of down time to decompress with minimal contact from the household, its important that she has that time to recharge and process the events of her special day. Even though it seems the simplest of family events for some families, for our family living with disability looks very different and when moments like this happen you stop everything and give life your full attention, the washing up can always wait.
It really was the best day for all of our family. To see Madison happy, at ease and enjoying her time with family was a blessing.
Stay Cozy
Stephanie x
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