Friday, March 20, 2009

It's so strange how different it feels when one of your kids isn't here....

My eldest, Mr14 has been away on his year 9 school camp for the past two nights and is due to come back this afternoon. He would have to be the quietest one out of the 4 boys and yet there is a strange silence in the house with him not being here. It is so strange!!

He is the sort of kid that doesn't enter into arguments, is the peacekeeper in a lot of situations and the all round good guy who always tries to help others out. Yet while he hasn't been here the other three who usually have daily squabbles have been unusually calm. I feel like the house has entered some kind of time warp or something lol.

Does anyone else feel major differences when one child is missing from the day to day scenarios??

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

So exciting.....

We have finally decided we are definitely going to take the boys away for a holiday to the Gold Coast. I can't wait!!!! We unfortunately can only take my 4 boys due to problems with hubby's ex but we will have a blast and it will be alot easier not having my Hubby's autistic son to have to control all the time too. I would have loved to have taken them all, but the more I think about it the more I know that it would have been a real drain on us trying to control him and stop him from destroying things in the house we are renting.

We have paid all our deposits and bought most of the theme park tickets and booked the flights. This will be the first time any of my kids have been on a plane so that will be really exciting for them and they have never been to the Gold Coast so I think they will just be blown away by the stuff we have planned.

Today Mr14 left on his Year 9 school camp. I know its ridiculous but I always feel a sense of loss when the kids go away for a couple of days. I feel like a bit of a control freak because I worry when I'm not there to watch over them. School doesn't bother me but anything else I turn into a real worry wort lol. I know he will have a good time, although adding to my worry is the fact that he has no friends going on camp with him. He didn't seem too phased by it as he does at least know a few of the others but I worry for him anyway. It is only a 2 night camp so he will be back after school on Friday.

A while a go I tried the "no shampoo" method for my hair. Well it didn't last more than a few days as I found my hair felt very limp. I have read that you need to give it a couple of weeks to settle in but by the 5th day it was starting to really annoy me, so the shampoo came back into play. One thing I have kept up with though is the no conditioner part. I am now using half a cup of vinegar in a 2 litre jug and I just top it up with water. As I have long hair I have always needed to use quite a bit of conditioner just to get the knots out after I wash it, but now I simply dip the longer part into the jug and let the vinegar/water mix penetrate for a few seconds. I then run a wide toothed comb through my hair which loosens any knots, then I pour the jug of vinegar mix over my head slowly, followed by another comb through and its done. I have found that the knots in my hair come out really easily and my hair has felt so much softer and bouncier than it ever did when I was using conditioner. It seems to also help with the knots I would normally get throughout the day too. It is really amazing. I certainly won't be going back to using conditioner (unless of course I am away from home unexpectedly lol). I may even try the bi carb soda shampoo mixture again in the school holidays when I won't be having to go out so much lol.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The "I have no friends" dilemma

Right now I am feeling so sad for my little boy. Mr8 who's friend shifted house 4 weeks ago has absolutely no friends at school and is just sitting all alone at recess and lunch. He doesn't mix in easily and therefore he won't just walk up and ask his peers if he can join in. He is turning into a very angry little boy lately but I know that it is stemming from him feeling so lonely at school. His older brother has confirmed to me that he does just sit by himself or just wanders around aimlessly. I asked him last night if he would like to have a birthday party this year and he said he does but he doesn't know who he will invite because he has no friends. I just about cried for him.

As his mother I want to just hold him close and make all his worries go away, but as his mother I also know that there isn't alot I can do to help him in this area either. He doesn't play any sport as he doesn't want to, I even tried to get him interested in scouts since that isn't a team sport, I thought he may like that better, but after attending two sessions he refused to go back because he thought it was boring.

The other day he told me at lunch time he walked around the pit (a square area where the kids play handball) 28 times before the bell went.

I wonder what kind of day he will have today :(

Monday, March 2, 2009

Weekends go by so fast

Here we are at Monday again already, just where do Saturday and Sunday go????

We had Hubby's two younger children here for the weekend, and my boys were with us too. Mr8 went to his best buddy's house for a sleepover on Saturday night. These two miss each other so much. His mate recently moved house about 40 minutes from here in a country town, neither of them are settling into school life without one another. They seemed to enjoy their time together. Thankfully he was picked up by them and then we went for a trek out to their house, for a bit of a stickybeak lol, to pick him up on Sunday. It is quite a nice house, much bigger than the one they had and on a bigger block. It is nice a peaceful, with just the sound of birds singing, so unlike my street that is quite noisy with the sound of traffic. If I was to move out to the country though, I would have to have a big block of at least an acre and feel like I was living in the country I think, they are in a suburban part of the town so it is like a limbo land to me lol.

On Saturday I baked 2 batches of my pizza scrolls and a batch of my jam scrolls.......yummo!! The first batch of the pizza scrolls were demolished for lunch while the latter batches got put straight into the freezer ready for school snacks. This morning they were all packed off with a jam and a pizza scrolls in their lunchboxes on top of their normal sandwich and variety of other snacks they usually have,,,,,,I shouldn't hear "I'm hungry what can I eat" when they walk in the door....well at least I hope lol.

I took photos of the scrolls, so I will be making up a recipe card for each of them and will post it on here once they are done. Well I had better scoot and get the lunchbox snacks sorted out and then go and pick up the boys from school.