G'day for Saturday.
Sharon/WO, I hope you have a relaxing Saturday, difficult child-free.
mother in law is being a difficult child at the moment. We sprung her from hospital for the day today to take her to "Wicked". It was the entire family today - all four of our kids, the partners of the three that are married, us two plus mother in law. We'd booked the tickets ages ago and it was beginning to look like mother in law wouldn't be able to go, but we set it up at the beginning of the week with the hospital. mother in law didn't want us to set it up because she was certain she would be home in time. But we set it up, arranged for the loan of a wheelchair (because she's still badly bruised and unsteady) and today it was all go.
The show was wonderful - even difficult child 3 loved it and he hadn't expected to. We got there early, miraculously got a parking spot right out the front of the theatre (being early plus having a disabled parking permit for the disabled parking space helped) then headed around the corner to our favourite Chinatown "where the locals eat" restaurant for a fast lunch.
Our table grew - we began with me, husband, difficult child 3, mother in law, easy child & SIL1, but then the others began to arrive. easy child 2/difficult child 2 & SIL2 came in fairly close behind us and helped finish off the food we'd ordered. difficult child 1 & daughter in law came along a bit later (daughter in law still in a cast with broken foot) so I headed off to go with her to find food then get back to the theatre, while difficult child 1 & difficult child 3 did a bit of window-shopping they'd planned.
It was stinking hot today. Not sure exactly how hot it got in the city, but our shady outdoor thermometer got to 41 C (106 F) and outside at midday in Sydney, it sure felt like it.
As we came out of the theatre a cool change was blessedly coming through - a few drops of rain began, and a very strong wind. Still hot, though. Then just as we dropped difficult child 1 & daughter in law back at the railway station, down came the rain. difficult child 1 mimed holding his breath as if swimming, as they headed out into the rain to 'run' for the train, poor daughter in law limited by her broken foot.
We headed back to the hospital, stopping off for coffee at a Turkish coffee house on the way. mother in law isn't eating much at all and keeps convincing herself that she will be allowed to come home in a day or so. She kept telling us this and we would head in to the hospital ready to collect her to bring her home, only to discover she wasn't coming home that day after all. Finally we have talked to the nurses who were shocked when we said she keeps thinking she's coming home today (or tomorrow) and said no, it's not happening yet and the doctor hasn't said she's coming home.
She is expected to come out to her home on Monday for a day visit, with the hospital's Occupational Therapist. easy child & SIL1 are staying for the weekend but had planned to head home tomorrow; now they're staying until Monday so easy child can talk Occupational Therapist (OT) stuff with the hospital's Occupational Therapist (OT) at the house visit. But mother in law is going back to the hospital afterwards and has been told this, even though she keeps saying that the doctor said she could go home on Monday to stay.
husband & I are going to put a call in to the doctor to arrange for us to meet him and talk to him about mother in law... if/when mother in law comes home, we need to be in the loop in order to look after her the way we have been doing and will increasingly need to do.
Tomorrow won't be quite so unpleasantly hot - 26 C is forecast. That's 79 F. It should be warm enough for easy child & me to have a swim - living in Canberra, she doesn't get much chance to swim, the nearest beach is three hours' drive away! SIL1 never goes to the beach, he will probably stay home and read a book. I might try and get him (and easy child) to visit one of our local artists' galleries tomorrow too. Then tomorrow night easy child 2/difficult child 2, SIL2, difficult child 1 & daughter in law are all coming here to our place for dinner. We actually may go down to mother in law's place for it, her dining table is big enough to fit everyone, ours is not. We need to have a family party to celebrate two birthdays - husband's & difficult child 3's - plus difficult child 1's birthday is just over a week away, easy child & SIL1 won't be back for that so we should include him.
It's a busy time at the moment. But today was wonderful, with the family all together. mother in law is miserable to miss tomorrow night's dinner, but as I said to her, at least she had lunch today with just about everybody. And we want her to get well and come home, because we need her home and well for when everyone visits at Easter, including her daughter and family from the other side of the continent.
Enjoy your Saturday.
Marg
