426 + 322 Weeks

It was Father's Day this past weekend, so we tried to spoil Jeffrey rotten.  He was able to have a hands-off day with lots of down-time (a rarity around here), and then we had Lolo and Dida over for afternoon tea.  I had made chocolate brownies for Jeff, as well as scones, and we had afternoon tea outside on the patio, because spring is also finally here.  The kids were in good form, and it was a pretty chill day.

I took the kids back up to Nowra to see the doctor on Friday.  Beforehand I took the kids to Flip Out, the trampoline place, to get some of that energy out.  It was a good move, because the doctor's appointment was an hour long.  He gave us Arley's prescription for anxiety meds, and warned me that he might be more aggressive for the first two weeks.  Well, of course that freaked me out, but he has surprised us.  The first two days he was extremely calm.  And then for these past four days he has been typical Arley.  We're not supposed to notice any difference in his anger/anxiety for 2-3 weeks.  But so far so good.

On Monday we went to horse riding, and then out to lunch before going to a homeschool meet up at Mollymook.  Only one other family showed up, but the kids made three new friends, so it turned out well.  The kids have been on fire at horse riding.  I asked them if they ever get scared up on a horse, and they both said no.  They must feel completely natural now.  I took some good videos this week, so I'll add one below (after all, it's been two weeks since I showed a gratuitous horse riding video!)

The kids had tennis and social skills class on Tuesday, before going to Lolo and Dida's for a sleep over.  I got straight to work, and then I was back at work at 8:30 on Wednesday morning, pretty much working through to 11pm.  I had to get this large painting finished - not only was it doing my head in, but I was using 11 different colours along the bottom, and it was taking me so long that my paints were getting gummy.  While I was working, the kids were with Lolo, having a reading morning, then lunch, ice cream and a walk on the beach.  I had asked the kids to collect nature things like bird feathers, so Arley came back with a massive bag of fish bones, and one giant bone from some unknown animal.  I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to do with all these bones!

Today we had a park play with the kids' friends who used to homeschool but don't anymore.  We have been trying to meet every Thursday, but it's been cancelled for a month due to bad weather.  I don't know if it's because it had been so long, but Carmie was having a hard time this afternoon.  She was super mopy and sad because she thought no one wanted to play with her.  It was so hard to snap her out of it, I had to go organise games for the kids to play and then play with them all.  She eventually got over herself, but she's a tough cookie sometimes.

Anyway, it's late, and I'm so not ready to post this.  I'll add photos tomorrow and then post.

Here is that horse riding video I promised:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrobM34D4ik