This morning I attended my first encouragement breakfast for homeschool mums at Hudson’s Cafe, in the Canberra Botanic Gardens. I arrived early, but realised too late that I had, yet again, forgotten to bring change for the parking metre. I did find two dollars after a quick ransack through my bag, but I would still need to come back and add some more later. I think I rely too much on plastic; I never have change for the metre box. Just the day before I had to travel into Civic for my nineteen year old daughter’s orthodontic appointment, with no change for a ticket I had to sit in the car so I could move if a parking inspector came along. Fortunately the orthodontist doesn’t need me to be present.

I don’t know what it was with yesterday, everywhere we went it was really busy. Maybe everyone was stocking up for the public holiday in a few days. This made getting a park almost impossible, so I tried another carpark nearby and as I drove around the corner, there was a spot just waiting for me. I stopped the car and a man came up to my window to give me his ticket with forty minutes left on it. Thank you Lord; another unformed prayer answered.  

I may have been early to the breakfast but I wasn’t alone, one of the other mums was early too, so we went for a walk along some of the garden paths. It was raining earlier, which added a certain freshness to the morning. We stopped under a tree and witnessed a Currawong (a cross between a magpie and a crow. I don’t know why a magpie would want to breed with a crow; they usually aren’t very nice birds) feeding its baby with a worm. It didn’t seem worried that we were onlookers. If it was a full-blooded magpie it probably would have swooped us.

Our resident magpie attacked one of our children recently, resulting in a very bloody head wound.

The walk was a pleasant start to the day. A couple of the other ladies were waiting when we came back to the cafe, I was surprised to see some faces I knew very well.

The morning turned out to be as close to a book launch as I will ever get. On mention of my book, there were a few people interested in having a look. So I made a quick trip back to put more money in the metre and grab a few books for the ladies (I always have copies in the car). The response was humbling and at times embarrassing, especially when I was asked to autograph each one. I have done this for family members, but I didn’t think anyone else would want a signature copy.

The breakfast was true to its name, I came away feeling very encouraged; thank you Ladies.

Love

Amanda

http://www.griefandgrace.net/

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Posted by naturalpaths

Sounds like a lovely morning and congrats again on your book!

I don't know if you have these same commercials in Australia, but the ones that show the crowds of paying patrons paying by debit cards in various stores and then someone comes along and pays by check or cash and throws everything all out of whack - that's me! LOL I haven't made it into the days of debit card use yet. I'm not trusting enough of the system I suppose. I've heard of far too many people having their checking accounts debited two and three times for the same purchase.

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