Im moving!

One of the coolest things about my current course (Diploma of Website Development) is that what I'm learning is so practical in my life. I use it every day, and I find it so interesting! 

I have decided to use my new (and still developing) skills to improve my site, and for this reason I am moving to a new platform. You will now me able to find me at A Diary of a Mum (it's a link, click it!).

I am so excited about this move! I really do hope that you guys enjoy my new site. 

As I am still in the process of moving, you will find that some posts I post there may be duplicates of a few here that are important to me, or maybe a version of something you have read here. Please be patient with me as I make this move. I will try to do it as quickly and smoothly as possible but as we all know, life can get in the way sometimes.

If you want to get in contact with me for any reason, head over to my new site. You will find a contact form that just requires your name, email and comment. Your own site is optional but please, if you do have one, put it in there so i can check it out!

I hope to see you guys move with me as I really do enjoy having you all around!

xx

Lazy: My new busy

Opening this "write new post" window is feeling so weird, so weird and yet strangely right too. Weird because it has been so long since my last post, but right because that's just how it has always felt. Like home. Like when you have been off on holidays and then you come home and it feels weird but strangely comforting to be there. "Weird and Home". or "Weird Home". In fact what home isn't a little weird? So I guess maybe just "home". Yeah, opening this window feel like home. 

Anyway, it's good to be home!

I can't use the "I've been busy - oh so busy" excuse for not dropping in for a while because let's face it.. I've not been busy at all! Between the migraines that give me, well, 0 motivation to do anything, and my MacBook having not yet arrived (meaning I can't study) and Bay being at daycare (because if I take him out for this small amount of time that I'm not studying I may lose his spot), I've done pretty much nothing! A little cleaning here and there, but mostly just laying around soaking up the empty hours and filling them with Lazy. 

I'm not used to being lazy, it is not because I am not a lazy person, but simply because I get so bored so easily. I usually do my best to fill my hours with things that matter; cleaning, studying, shopping, organising, helping people when I can, and when I can't be on my feet I like to do crafty things, this is where my Quiet Books and Felt Masks and All The Rest came from. Because I can't even watch T.V without doing something else at the same time. But I have just not wanted to leave bed these last two weeks. I'm beginning to really enjoy bed. I sent this email to my tutor this morning:

Hey _____,

Any news on my Mac?
Don't get me wrong, lazing around has its perks, but I'm worried I may get used to it.

Sami :-)

And it's true! I'm really starting to wonder how I am to go back to college daily and miss out on all this lovely resting time?! My migraines have certainly gone a bit easier on me while I have been lazing around - that is, until my lovely loud children come home after school anyway. 

But it seems lazy time is close to coming to an end. My lovely tutor replied that my Mac is currently at HQ. Hopefully this means I will be playing with the sexy new device by next week! :-D This is cause for celebration!!

It is Izzy's 7th birthday on May 28, just 9 days to go. She is having a sleepover on Friday the 30th. She has chosen to have just 2 friends over which has worked out wonderfully as Logan and I have come up with a lovely way to spend  the afternoon with the girls. I can't wait to share our plans with you all!! I am still trying to decide whether to share it as I move through the planning stages or to wait until it has all happened. I have always been terrible at waiting. So impatient I am. I bought Izzy's main birthday present the other day and it is killing me to hand it over already!

Anyway, it was lovely to be back and to share with you all a brief update, but I have more planning to do (from bed of course) before it is time to pick up the children from school.

Chat soon (I'll try not to leave it so long this time),

Sami :-) x

All the Things to go to the Salvo's..

So here's the thing. You know how the Salvos Stores accept our stuff? The stuff that we don't want anymore? Well today I came accross this on their website:

"Please note that in some instances, because of government regulations, we may be unable to accept white goods/electrical items and mattresses."

Well I'm excited! I have a whole list of things I want to get rid of. Being that it doesn't include White Goods, Electrical Items and Mattresses, it seems that they must accept them. Yay for me! Want to see my list? Of course you do! Well here it is;

1. Migraines

2. T.V Adverts

3. Bedtime Tantrums

4. Dinner time Tantrums

5. Supermarket Tantrums

6. All Other Tantrums

7. Blisters

8. Wee on the Toilet Seat

9. Bad Drivers

10. Crappy Daytime Telly Shows

11. Bills

12. Cold Coffee

13. Empty Gas Bottles

14. Dirty Washing

15. Bullies

16. Rapists

17. Pedo's

18. Pimples

19. Cramps

20. Terrible Three's

21. War

22. Displaced Guilt

23. Vacuuming

24. Huntsman's

25. Bad Smells

26. Hiding Places of Lost Bobby-Pins and Socks

27. Hair in Unwanted Places

28. Sweat

29. Fat

30. Toilet Training

31. Waking Up before 8am

32. The inability to build a Fully Functioning Time Machine

I could continue, but I suppose that I, at some point, need to take responsibility for the crappy things in life. Boo to that you guys, boo to that!

You know what? I'm going to add one more thing to the list:

33. Chocolate Chip Cookies

Because I should show some appreciation to the poor people at the Salvo's who will have to accept and deal with my crappy list of things. Sorry Salvo's Volunteers.. But maybe next time you will remember to add Crappy Things to your list of things you won't accept.

Just doing my bit to help :-)

Just an update

I finally had my appointment today to find out the results of my MRI. It turns out that I have an absent diaphragma sellae. As far as I can understand it, this is a lid over part of the brain that is supposed to be empty, but because I am missing the lid, it if full of whatever fluid is in the brain. 

Yeah, I don't know much about it and I think I will be happy to keep it that way. I have a few friends, not naming names but you know who you are - that google health related things all the time and they always end up totally freaking themselves out so I know to stay away from google.

Anyway, the doctor told me that she doesn't know the significance of this, or where we go from here so she is sending me to a neurologist. Apparently this may be a big wait, like a few months. Great.

In other news, I stopped by a health shop today and spoke to a woman there about Zay. I told her what Im trying to do and how I'm having such a hard time doing it. I ended up buying some calm strawberry flavoured tablets and fish oil. Following that I went to the supermarket and ended up decided that for now I'm just going to try to cut out all preservatives and a lot of the sugar. Cutting all sugar doesn't seem like a possibility.

Oh and also.. I get my MacBook Pro soon! It has been ordered :-D I'm THAT excited! Until it arrives I'm sort of on a study break. Other than a few knowledge questions, there is nothing else I can do because I need my new Mac to start on the database units.

I really don't think I've got anything else at the moment. I started this blog as a way to get everything out, and I had a LOT to get out at the time, but as time has gone on, my migraines have gotten worse and just taken over. Everything else has taken a back peddle for me. 

I haven't worked on my quiet books since last year, I hardly am able to cook from scratch anymore and between my migraines, study, housework and the kids being off at school, daycare and friends houses, kids activities have become a bit of the past too. It actually really sucks. I want to go back to getting excited over coloured rice and felt food and stuff like that. Can I just quit everything else maybe?

Sometimes the kids growing up is an awesome thing. Sometimes it just sucks.

ADHD?

For a long time, as long as I can remember really, we've had a lot of trouble with Zay's behaviour. We have thought, since he was 2, that he may have ADHD. I never took him to the doctors though because I figured that it could just be a bad case of the terrible 2's. 

A few days ago Zay turned 5. I took him to the doctor finally and he gave us a referral to see a paediatrician. For the last 3 years I've really been back and fourth about the idea. I guess I just wanted to believe that he was acting up, but as he gets older it just seems more and more like ADHD is the only possibility. 

He is loud and hyperactive, he can't sit for long or stand in one place for long. If we are in line at the store he kinda hops around like he needs to pee. When watching a movie he moves seats every few minutes, gets up and jumps around the room while trying so hard to keep watching but usually failing. He has a hard time concentrating, he gets bored of things so quickly, even school work despite his love of learning. He gets angry quickly and just loses control completely. I can see it, I can see him fighting to regain control, I can see how hard it is for him. His emotions are magnified significantly compared with Izzy and Bay and other children I know. He hates being alone, he seems to need almost constant attention. He cannot entertain himself often and when he does play alone, it is usually an activity that I have encouraged him to do and will last just a few minutes.

On Friday at lunch time I got a call from the Vice Principle at Zay's school asking me to go collect him. When I got there I was met by both Principle and Vice Principle who directed me into a room with Zay. I sat down and the Vice Principle started reading off a list. 

"He kicked a child, unprovoked, He threw the puzzles and games all over the floor, He called Mrs C (his teacher) a Bloody Arsehole, He kicked the teacher aide..."

By this point I was in shock and had just stopped listening. As she started reading from the list, Zay crawled under my chair and lay on the floor, by the time she was done, he was crying so hard I was worried he was going to make himself sick. After they chatted to me for a bit longer and had agreed to collect some work sheets for him to work on while I studied myself, I took him outside for a cuddle to try to calm him down. 

I have to say, the meeting went a lot different to the way I expected. I thought I would be leaving the school feeling quite upset with Zay for his behaviour. Instead, I left trying hard to hold back tears. Not because I was angry or disappointed or anything like that, but because I felt terrible for my little man. It breaks my heart to know that he loses control the way he does. It breaks my heart to not be able to help him.

I have spoken to Logan since then and we are both convinced that his teacher and the teacher aide handled the situation wrong. We have no information what-so-ever on how they handled it, but we know already, because Zay would never lose it that badly here, because we know how to handle him when he has a melt down. Because we know never to try to force him to calm down, never to grab him or raise our voices after he has lost control. 

For this reason we have decided to see if we can make a time to speak with his teacher on Logan's RDO on Tuesday, to try to find out how they handled the situation the other day and try to make sure they never do it the way they did again. 

Also for this reason, I am scared at the idea of him going back to school tomorrow. I am scared because I don't want to put him back in that position again, with people who clearly don't yet understand him properly. I feel that once he has lost control he needs the adults around him to understand him and to help him to calm down. I feel like if he has lost control of his emotions and actions and he has adults grabbing at him and trying to lead him off to a corner or office or whatever when he is not ready then that may be scary for him, and I don't want to be responsible for allowing him to be in that situation again.

We have also decided to attempt the hard task of cutting sugar from Zay's diet. Today I started the process. I made Rolled Oats with sultanas for breakfast, scrambled eggs with mixed veg and herbs for lunch and a mandarin and rye corn cakes with natural peanut butter for snacks. Tonight I will make Spaghetti with a home-made sauce for dinner and in replace of garlic bread I will give him a slice of whole grain bread. After a trip to the supermarket today and some time spent in the health food isle inspecting food packaging, I have seen just how big a task this is going to be. 

I had a chat to him about the new diet today and he is excited about the possibility of it making life easier for him. After extensive research I have decided I am also going to look into fish oil too.

Fingers crossed it all works wonders for my little man.