Juggling, Organising, and Holding it All Together - 2011

Triggles

ASD support meeting this morning. Second one I've been to, first time for DH. He got the chance to talk to another dad that has an older child with SNs. I think it was good for him to be able to get another dad's view on it all and talk freely about it. It's not something that is easy to talk about sometimes, especially for men. So that was a good morning. And DS3 got to toddle around and play with the other children and all the toys, so he was certainly happy about being there.

No post today. I have to say since starting our DMP, "no post" seems to make for a good day. How silly is that? I guess it just means no harassment, no threatening letters, no "okay we're going to do this now" kind of letters that just cause upset. So happy to report a no post day today.

I've been sidetracked from my usual household stuff, so now today and tomorrow I've got to play catchup! The dining room and kitchen need desperately to be swept and mopped. The laundry needs to be caught up (got a load washing now), and the ironing pile is beginning to take on a life of its own! So a bit of ironing tonight may be in order. I'll just set it up in the living room and iron while Emmerdale is on.

Our area is incorporating the new recycling practices in March or April. I'm a bit nervous about it. We already recycle some, but will get a container to put in the kitchen for food wastes and some other stuff. How much room do they think we have in our kitchen to do all this recycling? I understand it's important, but I also have to fit all this in the kitchen in a place where the boys can't get ahold of it when they're in the kitchen with me. :mad: It's very frustrating!! And I've heard the food containers are rather smelly in the summer, and I'm a bit worried about that.

Just when I thought our schedule was slowing down again, I see the appointments are stacking up again. Dentist, family group at ASD centre, OT appointments, school teacher appointments, follow up surgical appointments for DH. :eek: Living by the diary yet again!

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I had a nice day out with DD today while DS2 was in school and DH was with DS3 at home. It was rather odd to be out and about without a pushchair or child in tow! A couple small purchases (at Poundland, so nothing expensive!) and then lunch out (ok, not very MS, but sometimes you just want to have a nice lunch out!).

Unfortunately tonight I'm fighting a rather nasty headache and can't sleep. Headache medications aren't touching it, and I suspect I'll be awake for awhile. I considered doing the ironing (yep, that ironing pile is still growing .. sigh), but discarded that idea pretty quick. So just trying to relax a bit as I just can't sleep (even though I'm tired).

Heater inspected by gas company today, so that's that done for another year. Have always thought it's the wrong time of year (shouldn't it be BEFORE we use it for a couple months??) but I guess as long as it's yearly, that's the main thing!

I think tomorrow is actually a day without any appointments (just the school run), which is great, because next week is packed with appointments we have to attend!! I did manage to get the kitchen and dining room floors swept and mopped (with DH's help), so at least that's done! Did some spot cleaning in the kitchen and bedroom as well. So I am making progress - slowly but surely.

We bought a nice pork roast for Sunday at the supermarket (on sale 1/2 price), so tha will serve as roast dinner on Sunday, and then Monday for tea we will make sweet and sour pork with the leftovers! Yummm!

Tomorrow I'm going to spend about 30 minutes moving older files to the back of the file cabinets (in the desk) so that they are basically "out of the way" when I'm working on current stuff. And, of course, more cleaning......

Triggles

We had a lovely roast pork meal tonight. DS2 has actually tried 2 new foods this week - very pleased!! It's not often he tries something new and he tried garlic bread the other night and applesauce today. Liked the garlic bread, but didn't like the applesauce (which is odd as he is a massive apple eater!!).

A quick run to Farm Foods to get milk, bread, and yorkshire puddings this afternoon. Yes, I know they're really not for pork roasts, but DS2 & DS3 love them, so we made them today.

More cleaning and organising done today. A quick update of the finances, put together a letter for a DCA. Finished organising all the paperwork finally. Didn't think I was ever going to get it done! But now I've got the older stuff put away and out of the way, and the current stuff where it's available when I need it.

We've noticed that little bits of money seem to "escape" on too many last minute trips to the supermarket, so planning on knocking that on the head now. And used coke points to pay for a few things so no money wasted. We bought the soda when it was on sale, otherwise we wouldn't have had the coke points. :cool:

Boys are due to get haircuts soon. Trying to delay it as long as possible due to expense, but won't last much longer. They have hair like mine, it grows extremely quickly. Which can be good, but means more frequent haircuts. Plus, girls can get away with it somewhat as to some extent it can be pulled back with barrettes or hair bands. Boys don't really have that option. :rotfl: And DS2 does not like it when his hair gets shaggy, it seems to bother him.

Still haven't won a £10 voucher for Iceland on that free bingo, but we persist. It's free and even if we eventually just win one, it's worth it. LOL

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Well, now. Isn't that amusing? I was saying we hadn't won an Iceland voucher, and DH just won one last night! A £10 voucher will be in the post with us next week. Very very nice!! Free groceries! Love it! And I won a free fiver for a bingo site. Don't mind playing free money. :j

DH off work another 2 weeks, as doctor saying his leg is still not healed enough to go back to work. He's trying to build it up again to longer periods of walking and being on his feet, but simply not up to 8 hours worth of it yet and his job is physical.

New garden waste collection service in our area has started. We haven't bought into it yet, but will soon. It is good for a year from the date you buy in, so we're putting it off as long as possible. No point paying for it right now when we aren't going to be doing much on the garden for about a month. THEN we'll get it and put it to use. The new refuse schedule (and food recycling bins) start up in April. I'm really dreading that, as they will only be collecting the regular bin once every 2 weeks, and ours can sometimes be fairly full. I'm sure we'll sort it and get used to it. But always nerve wracking. And dreading the smell of the bins in the summer! Hope that doesn't mean there is an influx of rats in the area. I'd heard that some areas had that issue. Although to be fair, how can they get in a bin? Oh, feeling blonde on this one....:rotfl:

This week is "appointment week" in our house. DH had his appointment for his ankle today. I have a consultant follow up appointment tomorrow and a school appointment in the afternoon. A dentist appointment Thursday. And DH is supposed to be called for a consultant appointment later in the week. :eek: Not making any plans - we won't have time between those and the school run twice a day. And then school break time from Friday through next week! busy busy busy! MOT next week, hoping the car does fine - although no reason I know of that it wouldn't pass, there's always that worry isn't there??

Sorted through a stack of books yesterday. I had a "stock order" last year from Usborne Books, as I sold them for awhile. But did a nice discounted stock order just before Christmas (I'd been saving for it). We now have a bunch of nice books for DS2 & DS3, plus a good supply put aside for birthday and Christmas presents for birthday parties or grandchildren and children. So saving a bit of money on that as well as I got them all on discount plus some free books. :cool:

Well, off to get a few things done while DS3 is napping.

Triggles

Oh good grief, the house is freeeeeezing this morning! Perhaps it's just me, as DH doesn't seem to be bothered by it. Thank goodness for big bulky jumpers!

DS3 has decided that he likes to sleep with his bedroom door open now, just like DS2. It makes for an interesting night (and day during his nap), it really does! But every time he woke up and the door was closed, he screamed and shouted. As soon as the door was left open, he was fine. sigh. Okay, we can take a hint. LOL

Got most of the free bingo games done for the day. Still have a few to go here and there. Checked the bank. Updated a couple debt things on another site. Found out the default notices sent by the creditor for 2 of our debts were incorrect, which I rather suspected.

I have a few pieces of filing to do, but will wait until DS3 is up from his nap, as he is just across the hallway and I don't want to wake him up opening cupboards and such. So just having a bit of relaxing time online instead.

I may take a wander through the competitions board just to see if there is anything I might be interested in. :cool:

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Heh. From freezing to roasting today. Heater off for the day. Related, but not a cause of turning the heater off is the email I got saying "time for meter reading"! So will be doing that and sending it in online, and then the dreaded bill for gas/electric! :eek: This is always the worst one of the year for us. But we're prepared for it. I compared what we used (just yesterday in fact!) last year with what we'd used so far this quarter, and we're about the same. We actually made some changes that should have cut our bill somewhat, but after discussing it, we think that because we had all that extreme cold which required more heat over the last couple months, those potential savings are probably the reason we're looking at a similar bill from last year instead of a much larger bill! So I'm alright with that.

We got our £10 Iceland voucher in the post. Hooray! And I see there is no expiration date on it, so we may save it for a bit, and use it during July. July is one of our expensive months - car tax due that month, as well as 3 of the children's birthdays!! So we'll keep trying to win more Iceland vouchers and any we win will get put aside for July to help offset the grocery bill to free up money for other things. We're doing the same with Tesco vouchers as well, as they're good until 2013. So far we've got £10 Iceland, £6.00 Tesco. Not a huge amount, but it'll add up hopefully. And I see that British Gas is doing something with Nectar card now, so I'm going to be browsing their site today (the Nectar part of it was down yesterday) to see if it's Nectar points for gas/electric bills paid. Because if it is, I'm going to make sure our Nectar card is on there BEFORE I pay this quarter's bill! :cool:

Well, off to do my bingo freebies and get my free tickets in for tonight's Iceland draw. I've already done some cleaning in kitchen, DS3's room, our room, and got a load of laundry washing, so I'm feeling pretty good about today so far!

Triggles

Ah, nice day, but busy as well. I went with DD and DGS1, and took DS2 & DS3, on the train to visit their nan (MIL). Normally we drive over, but as the train tickets are not very expensive at all and MIL lives fairly close to the station, it was a nice walk up to the station and nice walk to MIL's house, plus the walks back. Okay, DS2 is not great with walking and it can be a struggle sometimes, but for him today it wasn't too horribly bad anyway, so I'm happy with that. MIL was pleased to see us, and we had a nice chat and tea before coming home. DH got some cleaning (sweeping, vacuuming, washing up) done while we were gone and had tea ready for us when we got home. So all in all a pleasant day!

I've gotten the paperwork today for DS2's statement for school - I have to do another full blown informational write-up to answer all the questions much like the DLA paperwork. :eek: I'm not thrilled about it, obviously, but it has to be done. It will most likely take awhile to complete. I think I have six weeks, but I will try to get it done over 2 so that it's done and dusted as soon as possible. I hate having paperwork hanging over my head.

Groceries are back to cash here. We've been spending too much. So back to cash we go again. Always helps to remind us how much we're spending. :rotfl:

Triggles

Whew. MOT done and dusted. It's silly, but even though our car is fairly new and has no reason NOT to pass MOT, we still get edgy waiting for it to be done. But it's done. And £35 paid for it. Not bad. It seems so cheap to me, but mainly because the last couple cars we had were older beaters and always seemed to need something repaired to pass MOT. :rotfl: But I had booked it online to get a good price at Kwik Fit, so I was pleased with that.

DH likes to play on Pogo, which is an online site. Rather than pay for this (£5 per month), we have found that he can use "coke points" to pay for it. We buy the coke when it's on sale (plus DH's discount), and use the points to pay for 6 months membership for pogo. Free! Yay! 6 months of £5 per month is £30, but 45 points meant 5 10pks of coke at £3 each, so £15, minus DH's discount is £13.50 = savings of £16.50, plus we have coke to drink, and with cold soda in the fridge, less likely to pick up wine or cider, so potentially saving some there as well. We can put some of the soda aside for family barbeques in the summer as well. Another thing that we enjoy but can be expensive if you're not careful.

Shouldn't have mentioned barbeques. Now I'm hungry for potato salad. :rotfl: And I'm not sure if I have everything I'd want to make it! (will have to prowl through the kitchen later to check!)

We've discovered that instead of buying expensive gammon for our potato soup, it's much much cheaper to buy some of the "on sale" ham at the deli counter in the supermarket. We only need a few slices of it to chop up for the soup, and there's always boiled ham quite cheap. And it tastes just as good in the soup as the expensive stuff. :j

DS2 has been singing "yellow submarine" all over the place lately. He learned it from DD and DGS1. Hmmm... thanks, I think! LOL But now he's taught it to DS3!!! So we're hearing it constantly. Wouldn't be so bad but it's just the chorus over and over. :rotfl:

Extra free bingo on this week, so will be playing that when I can. And still entering every day for the Iceland draw.

We had to replace cot sheets yesterday, and sheets are something I'm not keen on buying secondhand. So ouch! paid £40 for 8 cotbed sheets! I'm thinking now we maybe should have shopped around a bit, but wanted them now and wanted a particular type (jersey material as DS3 doesn't have any problems with that material from his eczema). I'm going to make a point not to look as I don't think I want to know where I could have found them cheaper and how much I could've saved! :eek:

Tomorrow we're visiting MIL and going to an ASD family play time. We're looking forward to it as DS2 hasn't been to the centre yet - only DS3 has been there with us as the meetings are usually during school time. They have a nice soft play room and sensory room, so it'll be to see what he makes of it.

I mopped the dining room floor last night (can't say I'm fond of mopping - but don't have the money to hire someone to do the floors!), and have done a couple loads of washing today. Now I'm relaxing a bit while DS3 is napping. His schedule's a bit thrown off as we went for a walk while the car was having the MOT done.

Freecycled a few things today, so nice to get rid of some things we're not using and someone else can use them.

Triggles

Today is obviously a "coming unglued" day. I am struggling dreadfully and having difficulty coping with being hit with a number of things at once.

DH is walking around like a wounded bear, growling and snarling at anyone in his path. To be fair, he has an appointment next week and there is a concern about colon/bowel cancer. So obviously, he is worried. So am I. But when confronted about his behaviour, I get the standard "so I'm not allowed to be worried and stressed?" Well......... yeeessssssss, you are. But "worried and stressed" is different than "verbally abusive and ripping everyone's heads off around you"... but he doesn't get it. :mad: I literally went up to our room early last night because he was being so verbally aggressive that I couldn't tolerate it (previous DV in a prior relationship and simply cannot cope with the shouting and swearing). I am of the opinion that you CHOOSE how you react to things. I'm worried and stressed - I have a TON of things I need to sort, plus housework, kids, my own health, everything else - but I don't go after everyone verbally. I cannot get him to understand that it's just an excuse for his behaviour. He's depressed (on meds for depression), worried, stressed... I get it. But that does not give you carte blanche (sp?) to be a jerk. I told him if he needed to, then go stay at his mum's house for a few days, but all I get is "don't tell me what to do." okay...... fine.... just more stress for me to deal with... not like I don't have enough. :mad: Don't get me wrong, we ALL have bad days, but this is just constant and wearing... this is NOT the person he really is... he asked the GP for anger management or some type of "in person" counselling, but was told they only have phone counselling and even that takes months to implement (and he's done it once, it was literally NO help at all - the counsellor was less than useless - told him to write it all down and email it to him... how is that helpful? then DH was just freaking out over computer problems and trying to get it all written down! just ADDED to his stress - and mine!).

It's this type of atmosphere that almost always leads me to spending money stupidly. I am really trying to be careful what I am doing right now. I have tons of paperwork that I am slowly wading through. DLA has given us medium rate of care for DS2, however, he easily qualifies for high rate of care, so I'm asking for a reconsideration of that, which means I need to write up a statement explaining why. And I'm in the middle of putting together the write-up for his school statutory assessment, which is extremely difficult and time consuming. Add to that the pressure that if I don't make sure I'm clear enough or put the information exactly how they want it (why does it need to be so complicated?) that he won't get the help he needs and it will be all my fault.

I was going to take DS2 out today with an ASD group and meet a friend of mine and her son, but had to cancel as I just can't cope with going out. I cannot spend time chasing DS2 down and the stress of constantly holding him out in public, when we at least have some safety set up at home so that I don't need to be physically holding him back all day at home. Plus the activity was bowling - not sure how DS2 would have coped (would obviously had to wear his ear defenders the whole time) with the extra children around us and the noise, lights, and activity level. I probably would have ended up taking him out of there within 10 minutes anyway, I suppose. But I wanted to give him the opportunity if I could... but just can't do it today. Maybe we'll go to the next activity.

Living on diet coke today. The boys have eaten normally, but personally nothing looks good. I'll have to eat something at some point today, I suppose or I'll end up with health problems myself. I don't want to give in to takeaway, which is always the first port of call when I'm stressed.

We were supposed to go over and visit DS1, DIL & DGS2, however, they cancelled at the last minute due to some car problems they have to get repaired. Much as I was looking forward to seeing them, it's less stress for me today, so I'm okay with that.

I've gotten a couple loads of laundry done today as well as the washing up. Was going to mop the floor again in the dining room - it's sticky again, can't even begin to imagine why - having a 1yo that can fling food makes for a messy floor that needs to be cleaned often! So will have to do that tonight, otherwise everyone will just walk all over it and make it dirty right away again.

Triggles

Thankfully, DH has made a huge effort to be more like himself and less like Oscar the Grouch today. It's made a big difference in the atmosphere in the house. He realises that grousing at everyone around him is not the way to get support, so hopefully he'll continue making the effort.

DS2 went to the dentist today for the first time. Dentist was very good and patient with him, checking his teeth and counting them. Very short appointment, but was rather just a chance for him to make sure all teeth that are supposed to be in are in, and that everything generally looked okay. DS2 wouldn't be able to tolerate anything more extensive.

We had chicken curry tonight (late in the evening) for tea from leftover roast chicken from yesterday. And the boys had fish and peas for tea earlier in the evening. We're trying to use some of the food in the freezers as they are jam-packed with food. LOL

Suppose I should get some sleep soon....late late late... waiting for DS2 to go back to sleep... yawn....