My Wonderland

 Well… bear with me folks, I have updates😂 First of all, the first two weeks of high school have been wonderful!! Kaedyn has made some gorgeous new friends, he’s feeling calm, settled, and we’ve noticed such a significant shift in his mood that afternoons are no longer a full stew of stress. Last year looked very different... Home and therapy became Kaedyn’s safe places to let everything out,  sometimes becoming his punching bags too. School just wasn’t lighting him up anymore; he was ready for something that felt more mature, more his pace. So the rest of us learned to step back and let him work through that defiance… He’s even been willing to negotiate his scale of niceness towards Kal… (and to be clear, Kal is the absolute nicest — Kaedyn just happens to find encouragement deeply suspicious.) He's been loving his new OT, Sam, and is quite happy to kick me out and lay all the goss on her... It's my guess that he's talking shit about all of us hahaha Of course, there h...

 Well, today was chaos… the good kind. The kind where you're sprinting between appointments like a travelling circus act, but somehow it all works out. And by the end of it, your heart is full, your kid thinks he’s a rockstar ( he is ), and you’re somehow still functioning despite running on absolutely no caffeine. But let me backtrack. Because before we talk about the magic of today’s new OT session, there’s a shadow that deserves its own spotlight first... On the way to Little Bodies, Kaedyn asked me a question about his old beloved OT. “Mum, why do you like Julian so much?” How do you explain a person who didn’t just do their job? They changed your life? Julian wasn’t just Kaedyn’s OT. He was part of our family. He still is! We all hold so much love for him, his wife, and his kids; they are every shade of warmth and brilliance. He showed up. Not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, practically. Kind. Grounded. Generous with his time, his memory, his spirit. ...

At sixteen, I handed my English teacher a diary written from the perspective of an ANZAC soldier. It wasn’t polished. It wasn’t even for a grade. But it was real . I wrote it like I was in the trenches, mud on my boots, grief in my chest. She read it, looked up at me, and said, “You should keep writing.” And in that moment, I believed her. But life moved fast... really fast! I worked. I partied. I made choices, good and bad. And then I became a mother, and everything changed. I had two babies under two. One needed me in every possible way, physically, emotionally, endlessly. Therapy became our routine. Hospitals became more familiar than playgrounds. I gave every ounce of myself to my kids, but somewhere in the chaos… I stopped hearing my own voice. Then, one night, I had a dream. And the next night, it came back. So I borrowed one of the kids’ iPads, tapped out the first scene, and something I thought was lost inside me, cracked open. I was 24 or 25. Exhausted. Lost. But I was w...

Firstly, thank you. To every single person who came to celebrate Music, Magic & Courage ,  you turned Kaedyn’s book launch into something unforgettable. That day wasn’t just about a story; it was about showing Kaedyn that his words matter, that he matters. Watching him light up in front of a crowd who believed in him was one of the greatest joys of my life. But while that launch was all about Kaedyn’s courage, a different story has been unfolding in the background, one that’s deeply personal to me. Blood of the Titan is the kind of book I once dreamed of writing as a kid. It’s filled with dragons, broken kingdoms, elemental power, but underneath all of that, it’s about a girl who was abandoned by the people who loved her. A girl who doesn’t just ask who she is… she demands to find out. Writing Aliera’s story forced me to look at the pieces of myself I often keep buried, childhood wounds, complicated family ties, and the ache of never quite belonging. Her journey mirrors ...