Eventually he decides on how he will earn some extra pocket money, but when he turns the vacuum on , it makes an unexpected loud whistling noise. This sends him into a complete panic and he lies on the rug with his hands over his ears, crying and in distress. This in turn makes our youngest dog go in hyper vigilance mode, because he believes we are under attack. By the time Blokey and Owen get home things look perfectly calm, Sam has done his chores, the dogs are asleep but I am still feeling more than ragged around the edges. My steroid course isn't making the stress any easier to deal with...*swallows loudly*.
We decide to go and visit my parents in the afternoon to give us all a change of scene. It's also an opportunity to take the 'new to us' car out for a spin to Shrewsbury. The children have a lovely time at my parents and Blokey and I get an hour alone at the shops as a little break and to buy some household stuff. The last 7 days have felt particularly tough for the children. Later, back home we have family board game time and the boys tell us they have had a great day.
Sam is enjoying playing 2 Dots again, he is working though the levels and asks me for some tips. This is a great planning and strategy game on the iPad.
I didn't get much sleep, about 3 hours, so instead of feeling miffed about it, I decide to use the extra time to keep busy. While the boys sleep I bake and cook. Spinach tortillas , a smokey Mexican sauce, bread rolls and pancakes, all in the hope I can tempt Owen to eat breakfast. He hasn't had much of an appetite recently because his anxiety has been problematic.
When the boys come down they eat breakfast and tease each other relentlessly. Somehow we manage to get through it but I was grumpy and things were spilt, knocked over in the free for all.
Owen decides he wants to try a new number game:
We attempted this last year but found the rules unfathomable. I decide to set up an example and we both realise how it works better. First of all I just get Owen used to working with the tiles and number rules. We have a few attempts and he starts to pull it together. Finally we were able to play against each other, it's actually quite good once you grasp the principle, so we are both pleased we managed to crack the directions at last.
The boys were excited to get out of the house early today. It was Animal Lady day, organised by the NSAAA.
It was frenetic but they loved the experience.
A Skink
Ball Python
Sam touched all the animals too..he loves wild life but is usually scared he may harm something if he handles it incorrectly. He managed onto over come that fear today and really get the most out of the experience.
Beautiful
This was SO heavy!
We all fell in love with the Chinchillas
The Bearded Dragon was very prickly, 'even underneath mum!'
We got so see some of our friends too.
Sticky tree frogs.
The Skink fell asleep on Owen.
More tree frogs, doing what tree frogs do...
We made bread too.
Owen asked me to dye his hair,
Despite 3 attempts we couldn't get it to show up very bright on his hair.
We looked at a mad scientist who lives on a house boat today. She makes crazy ( often useless) inventions. There was much laughter .
Sam talked about an experiment, a circuit system, that he wants to build in Minecraft, using Redstone. He explained what he thought the possible outcomes would be. Owen read some of his books.
Sam discussed his favourite animals and danced round the table.
We took a lot of deliveries and later attended our swimming lesson with the lovely Rob. I feel rough as anything and have had little sleep all week...so I prepared tea, played a little with the boys and stared vacantly into the abyss of pain and confusion.
Another rough night for me but the children were happy and raring to go. Blokey is home so we decide to go into town and drop some items off at the charity shop. After buying a few items and Owen spending his pocket money, we head back, stopping off at the next village to ours to visit the library and have a meal. It's been a lovely morning and we arrive home happy and with full bellies.
Owen asked me to spray one of the hair colours he'd bought. He looked cool with the black..we still have red and blue to try out.
After a brief rest Blokey and I decide to do some garden work. We have a ton of chippings to landscape the garden with. I can only do light work , so help with clearing, weeding etc. Sam is very keen to join in so I show him how to help his Dad. They worked SO hard, Sam kept checking if he was doing things how we wanted. It looked really good out the front in the beds, we need another ton for the side beds under our trees, but I need to order it for when Blokey has his rota days off again.
After a few hours we had finished as much as we could do and I put a very achy, dirty, happy, boy into a warm bath.
I had a bad night again, so feeling pretty rough today. Blokey and Owen popped out to exchange some games but Sam wanted to do some research into video editing software. He's saved up enough by doing extra work around the house this week ( life skills) but is taking his time before he spends his money. As Sam has had a lot of difficulty with impulsivity we are enjoupying watching him be more thoughtful about his decisions. Letting him make some mistakes and not so great purchases seems to have paid off and he's realised he needs to think carefully about what he needs.
I bake some gluten free pizza and a loaf whilst they are all busy.
Blokey has psoriasis, both Owen and I have eczema , mine and Blokeys skin conditions are quite bad at the moment. I have heard that a gluten can aggravate it but I have never found a GF recipe for bread that anyone will eat here. This recipe worked well and all the pizza was demolished ..I am feeling hopeful.
Today Sam spent a lot more time researching editing software he's still not decided which one is best for him so will see if he can try some demos first.
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