625 + 521 Weeks

I am exhausted!  I spent the afternoon at the mall (during school holidays - ugh!) buying some last-minute gifts for the kids' birthday on Sunday.  I am pretty set now, except for making their cake and getting ready for the lunch that we are having.

We've had a pretty chill week.  It's school holidays, so a lot of our activities have been cancelled.  Carmie went to an afternoon girls' hangout which she loved.  They are a group of friends now, and they were surprised to hear that she is turning 12 on Sunday.  They thought she was older, I guess because she is so tall and speaks like a little professor sometimes.  They seem to be a nice group of girls, all neurodivergent.

Arley surprised me by opting to go to a fishing group that Clint was holding, with a bunch of other kids, and he even let our support worker, Savannah, take him on his own.  There was no hesitation, which blows my mind!  However, after 15 minutes of no bites, he decided to pack it up and asked Savannah to bring him home again.  Haha, so not a real win, but a win all the same!

On Monday I took Carmie to her friend Ada's house for a play for an hour before her physio.  It was a test run, and it went well, the girls got along great!  Afterwards Carmie met her new physio, and he gave her new exercises to do.  The kids went to their chiropractor this morning.  Other than that, we have been real homebodies this week.  I have been painting and loving it.  I've also been sleeping 9-10 hours a night, with Jeff having to wake me and drag me out of bed in the mornings.  I think I'm making up for weeks of not sleeping from being sick.  I still feel tired in the day, and even now I'm sleepy.  This parenting business takes it out of you!

Arley helping his dad put up his new business sign :)

At Ada's house

At physio

Not quite finished, but close!

624 + 520 Weeks

It has been quite a good week, albeit a seemingly fast one!  On Saturday we had a family picnic with Lolo and Dida at the botanic gardens.  It is so beautiful there, with a sculpture garden, a kids organic play area, and beautiful bushland.  I definitely need to go there unencumbered because quiet time there would be lovely.  There's only so long we can stay at those kind of places with Arley.  I think slowing down makes his brain hurt!

Not much else happened this week, beyond our regular therapies and activities.  At horse riding Carmie had an accidental canter on her horse Chilly, but she handled it well.  Arley refused to ride at all so he spent his lesson grooming and taking care of Dakota who had a sore eye.

Arley had a dental appointment on Monday.  Next time he goes the dentist is taking more scans of his mouth, and then making him an appliance to start flattening his palate and bringing his teeth forward.  I am dreading it, but also can't wait, because his teeth are a disaster (see photo!).

Today after the kids' chiro appointments I took them a nearby park.  Other than that, it has been a very standard and unexciting week!

Carmie cantering

Arley's teeth and high palate.  See the tooth that's growing behind his front tooth :(

Lolo and me

At the botanic gardens

My charming boy

Park play today

623 + 519 Weeks

We have had a good week.  My cough has slowly gotten better and I actually had a good night's sleep last night.  Such a relief.  I went to Taekwon Do today for the first time in weeks, and Mr Kelly sprung a surprise grading on me and I passed, and received my blue stripe on my green belt, which means I'm halfway to black belt.  Stoked!

Last Friday I took the kids up to Mum and Geoff's so they could have a sleepover, and Jeffrey and I could have a much-needed date night.  We went out to a restaurant called Elixiba, and it was awesome.  great food and ambiance.  Afterwards we came home and stayed up late watching a movie.  On Saturday morning we rolled out of bed and went off to a farmer's market, and that was lovely too!  We had breakfast there in the sunshine, and bought some fruit and veg, gluten free bread and some plants, and also ran into some friends.  Afterwards Lolo and Dida brought the kids home, and they stayed for a catch up.  Jeff and I had such a nice time together, and it felt like Saturday was Sunday, which meant when Sunday came around, it felt like a long weekend.  On Sunday morning Jeff and I went down to Mooloolaba and I rented an electric scooter and followed Jeff around on his electric unicycle.  It was so fun, and so good to be out at the beach in the winter sunshine.  Such a good weekend!

On Monday the kids had chiro, and then Carmie had taekwon do (I stayed in the car because at that point I was totally sleep deprived).  On Tuesday morning our private lesson was cancelled, so we went down to Alex Head and saw Nicky, Lexi and Felix.  It had been ages since we had seen them, even though they are only 10 minutes away.  We couldn't stay that long, because it was a bit of a sensory nightmare for the kids, but it was good to see them.  Afterwards we went up to horse riding and the kids had a great session.

Wednesday was Clint and Wolfpack, and then this morning I took the kids to the movies to see Across the Spiderverse.  It was so good.  It was a little too fast-paced for Arley to keep up with with his auditory delay, so he didn't get as much out of it as we did, but Carmie and I loved it.  It was also nice to do something fun and unexpected with the kids.

So, all in all it was a great week!

Here is a video I made of Carmie at equine therapy this week:

https://youtube.com/shorts/saNGCvpf-nc?feature=share

Jeff and his unicycle

622 + 518 Weeks

I'm still sick!  GAHHHHH!!!  I had three nights of not so bad coughing, but then it was all back with a vengeance last night.  The kids' chiro did an adjustment on my face (ouch!) on Monday to help my sinuses, and it really helped for a few days...but now I'm back to grossness.  I'm so over it!

Because I've been sick, we've been taking it easy.  Jeff took Arley out for ice cream one day.  We've been going across the road to the park a fair bit, and quite often we come across a group of kangaroos there.  The kids tend to fight over the swing, by we still try.

Carmie finally graded up in Taekwon Do on Tuesday at our private session.  She missed her grading the week before, but she was ready so Mr Kelly put her through her requirements and she kicked but.  I missed my grading on Monday, so fingers crossed I'll be testing privately next week too.

We had horse riding on Tuesday afternoon, and the kids did great.  Arley got to ride, but Carmie didn't, because the big arena was too wet, so instead she learned how to care for horses, by doing things like taking the horse's temperature (rectally!).  She was not amused!  I was though.  Haha.

Carmie went to her wolfpack group on Wednesday.  There are five girls there now, including Carmie.  It's such a great group, I am so glad she has it to go to.  I tried to take the kids to an indoor gym/workout for homeschool kids this morning, but it was way too noisy and busy for my kids, particularly Carmie, and we left after two minutes.  One of these days I will find a group activity that suits them.

There's not much else to add, I'm afraid!  Such a boring post!

620 + 517 Weeks

This is going to be a short post because I am so very tired.  I started getting sick on Friday and it has continually gotten worse, culminating in only three hours of sleep last night because I was coughing so much.  Ugh, it’s been a pretty crap week.  I haven’t had the energy to be the mother I usually am, and it became really apparent that the kids rely on me too much.  Two days ago I lost the plot and created new rules for the kids around helping out around the house.  This meant there was a whole lot of drama since the rules changed, but they since then they have been quite good.  They are both willing to help out a lot more, which is really nice.  They need help in the helping, but at least it’s a start!

On Friday I took Carmie down to teach her Procreate class to the other kids, and I took Arley with me so we could go out to lunch and then for ice cream.  It’s what we used to do a year ago, and Arley was very excited for our lunch date.  It was very sweet.

On Saturday Jeff and I took the kids to a new (for us) park that is about 15 minutes away.  The kids loved it, and it was a really successful outing, which we really needed.  By Sunday I was definitely sick, and on Monday I spent the day on the couch, and missed my Taekwon Do grading that night :(.  On Tuesday I took the kids to horse riding but I stayed in the car so as not to infect anyone else.  And since then I’ve been taking it easy.  The kids saw Clint at Chambers Island, and Carmie went to her girls’ group.

Jeff’s guitar school is growing and growing, and I couldn’t be more proud of him.  When he quit his job last year to do guitar teaching, we figured he would need 20 students to make the same money.  Well, he has more than 20 students now, and we have some advertising that we have already paid for coming up over the next few months, and we expect quite a few more students.  It’s been really great for him :)

That’s it for me.  I’m going to go cough now. :(

Naughty Bella