565 + 461 Weeks

I completely forgot about my blog yesterday.  I've only been posting every Thursday for ten and a half years...

It has been such a busy week, I am very overwhelmed.  Normally I can juggle everything just fine, but the QLD home educating unit has contacted me to ask for work samples and our plan for the year ahead, for both kids.  I knew this was coming, but I am completely unprepared for it!  We are scrambling to do school work and I have to figure out plans for each subject for both kids.  I have done this for five years, but this one has sent me around the bend.  This is the price I pay for homeschooling!

The kids have had a good week.  We have found a tactic that works for Arley.  Every day that he doesn't shout or be rude he gets an iPad dinner, and it is actually working!  He still loses the plot, but when he starts, saying "iPad dinner" is enough for him to get control of himself.  I just hope it continues long enough for him to make good habits.  Yesterday Carmie was messing around and accidentally hurt him, and she got scared because he screamed at her.  I thought he was chasing her into her room to hurt her back (he is very big on 'revenge' and he has always retaliated, always), but instead he ran into his room to calm down.  This is a first!!

Jack and Abbey, the kids support workers, came on Tuesday and managed to get both kids out of the house for a play at the park, some bubble tea and then a trip to the supermarket, and I got time alone for the first time in ten months!  OMG, I instantly felt a weight lifted.  It lasted over an hour, and the thought that I might get this every Tuesday is such a relief!

Carmie is doing well.  She is sleeping great, except for one night when she only got a few hours, but that is because before bed Jeffrey read the kids the book The Giving Tree, and poor Carmie!  Before the book even finished she was crying, and by the end she was inconsolable!  She started hyperventilating and couldn't stop crying.  It was awful.  I knew she'd be sad, but didn't expect that reaction.  Jeff was crying too, and Arley was looking at them like they were crazy!  Haha.  And Carmie didn't fall asleep until 2:30am :(

I'm taking a deep breath before I get stuck back into this homeschool paperwork.