Twenty Two

Here I sit at home on my own, my Cherub is with his father now for the next week, and I really am looking forward to a bit of a break. We had a lovely first week of the school holidays, we did something every day and enjoyed these things while we did them. The rest of the time (ie the being at home doing the 'everyday' stuff) was quite a challenge, as my Cherub showed more signs of being agrieved, angry and downright impossible to live with. I look forward to some changes as we travel down the path of visits with the Psych that we met late last week.

Sometimes it is so hard to deal with....but enough of that, I do not want this blog to become a venting area (well, not ALL the time anyway), so instead I will talk of the awesome times we had in the first week of these holidays.

Monday evening saw us attend the Drive In with the lovely SL and her offspring. SL and her two (plus two of her daughter's school friends) had pizza dinner at our house, then we packed into our respective cars and headed to the Drive In to watch The Smurfs. OMG, worst movie on the planet, but very affordable (thank Goodness, else we would have been kicking ourselves at the waste of money!). The girls in the group decided that the movie was way too boring for them, and spent most of the time running around the cars. The boys watched it in their family's car (SL's son in her car, my Cherub in mine). SL's son is seven, so he quite liked the movie and we didn't hear peep from him the whole time. My Cherub looked at me during the short time that I was in our car and said "It's not as funny as I thought it would be". The mums (myself and SL) stood outside drinking coffee, smoking the occassional ciggy and conversing. Thankfully it was a nice evening weather wise, else we would have each been stuck in our respective cars suffering through the Hell on Earth that was The Smurf movie. Even more thankfully, Monday nights at the Drive In are cheap as chips - we each only had to pay for ourselves, the kids were free. SL and I decided that next school holidays we will pack the bedding for the kiddies, watch their movie (or at least socialise while THEY watch it), then let them fall asleep while we watch the grown up movies that are on next.

Being quite tired on Tuesday after the Drive In night, we had a mostly quiet day, but did attend a tryout for a sports group called 'Time Out For Sports" (TOFS for short). This is a sports clinic specifically set up for kids on the autism spectrum. My Cherub didn't want to go (of course), but once he was there and taking part, he actually loved it. They did soccer skills, footy skills, cricket skills, hockey skills and basketball skills. This is a competition free zone, which is majorly important. We have signed up for the regular Tuesday after-school clinic now, and we are really looking forward to it. Myself? I found out that one of the mums that I became friends with when my Cherub started at the autistic school has signed her little boy up as well - I am ecstatic about this, as our friendship kind of dwindled as I moved into longer hours at work and was unable to collect William from school. We have stayed in contact via Facebook, but haven't been able to have a good chat in literally years now. I am so excited about seeing another school mum just once a week - it is something that I have missed ever so much, and is a really good support source. I also met two other mums at the tryout group who seemed nice and we all cheered each other's sons on as they achieved something new at tryout day.

Wednesday was a big one, we had lunch at a restaurant with the lovely CD and her two boys, and wow was I proud of all three of the young lads. They sat lovely at the table and ordered their own food from the waiter. It fills my heart with pride and joy when my Cherub has the confidence to do this. In the evening we picked up an old family friend (who was visiting from WA and staying in town) from the train station and he came back here for Chinese food for dinner (I was very honest and told him that I simply am not a very good cook, so takeout it was). Cracked open a bottle of wine and reminisced about 'the old days'. He told me how much my parents had meant to him when he was a young man, and the impact that they (especially Mum) had had on his life. I think he really liked being back in our house again - he used to stay here on weekends while he was based at the Cerberus naval base in the 80s - and to look around and see so many aspects of this place that were still familiar to him. He had to catch a taxi home....I was too intoxicated to drive him even as far as the station, and besides, William was in bed a long time before our visitor left.

On Thursday we travelled up the Hume in shocking rain to my sister's place in Benalla. They were actually down in Melbourne for the day so we let ourselves in and made ourselves at home. They live on a lovely property 8kms from town. We lit the wood fire, let the dogs out, let the chooks out, collected the eggs, let the dogs inside to get warm by the fire, had dinner and flopped into bed. The next day we travelled to Beechworth (our favourite spot in the whole wide world), ate icecream and lollies, went to Brown Brothers Winery and Milawa cheese, spent money on luxuries like good wine and good cheese, then headed back to my sis's house for dinner. Lit the fire, let the dogs out, let the chooks out, collected the eggs, let the dogs inside to get warm by the fire, had dinner and flopped into bed (this time accompanied by a belly full of the aforementioned good wine and good cheese). It was so nice to see my Cherub enjoying some of the simpler things in life like collecting chook eggs. Yes, he still played his DS and sometimes complained of being bored, but on the way home he looked at me and said "I loved yesterday", which was nice to hear.

Headed home on Saturday morning, arriving back in Melbourne just around lunchtime and in time to half watch (but only out of a sense of Victorian obligation) the Grand Final. My Cherub had a HUGE tantrum, no doubt the result of being tired and realising that the 'fun of the farm' was now over!

On Sunday we visited our friends P&W, just to have a chat and some lunch. It was nice to catch up with them - had some serious stuff to discuss with them regarding what happens to my Cherub if I die (not a pleasant conversation, but a necessary one), but also managed to have some laughs.

Now for the other stuff.....

On Wednesday, in a valiant attempt to give up the evil ciggies, I 'put a patch on'. I'm serious in my intention to give these bastard things the heave ho, so bought the patches on Tuesday with Wednedsay as my 'day'. Within an hour of having the patch on I had the WORST headache ever and had to take it off. Made it to just before lunch at the restaurant and then succumbed.

The good news is that my work colleague, the lovely MW, decided to give up the evils on Saturday, so today he was on day three. When I did our usual "Come on love, is it time?" he turned to me and said "I don't smoke anymore", so there was my motivation. "Bewdy", I said, "we shall do this together". He was ready to rip the eyes out of anyone who crossed him by the end of the day, and I do admit that I didn't go smokefree for the entire day, but I managed to limit myself to one at lunchtime and that was it until I got home. This is from someone who used to go out for a puff every 90 minutes or so, as the stress of the workday built it's way progressively up and up and up.

MW and I decided that we needed some sort of replacement therapy during the day, so we attacked a couple of Chuppa Chups. At one point we were both walking around the department with the white stick hanging out of our mouths while we sucked away at the sugar laden bubble on the other end. Must have looked hilarious, and I commented that we could write a scene for an office sitcom based on our real life attempt at substituting Chuppa Chups for the Naughties.

Anyway, I have decided that if I can go five hours without a Naughty Ciggy (and actually when I went that long and then had my lunchtime Naughty I have to say that it didn't really taste all that good), then I can go six hours. And if I can go six hours, then I can go seven hours. And so it goes. This is going to happen for me this time around, my Cherub needs his mother and I cannot risk taking that away from him any longer. I will just wean myself slowly rather than go cold turkey, which has not really worked for me in the past. I went for a walk tonight, and the aim is to walk every night now that daylight savings is in place, so that I don't put weight on as I give up (I have made a pledge to be one of the few people who actually LOSE weight when they give up the Evils because they are able to exercise more).

I will just make sure that I have a constant supply of Chuppa Chups to see me through the challenge.

Talk later

Janeane
xx