Getting to know the newest member of the family
Lazing in front of the heater
A pretty little bag for pretty little things
Two quirky cats made by my big girls for two precious little girls
Rainbows all over my living room walls from my sun catcher made last week
I have a confession to make. I actually started my Xmess shopping a month ago, before any of the toy sales started.
I just didn’t want to be the first to mention the dreaded ‘C’ word. 
I won’t say what I’ve gotten so far because my children often read my blog, but suffice to say that one of them will be looking super smart!
With the youngest now 11 the toy sales are no longer a focus for us. Sure they are useful if we are planning a bigger purchase, like the Wii a couple of years back, but we are leaving the era of toys behind. Now everything is clothes, and shoes, and accessories, and CD’s, and DVD’s, and I-tunes vouchers, and books, and Wii games, and DS games, and the like – most of which can be purchased closer to December on better specials that what’s on offer at this time of year.
But still, I have made a start and after years of developing the habit of getting started at this time of year, I feel some sense of relief at that.
Now I just need to find a good hiding spot to stash the goodies as I accumulate them…. I wonder if my mum has room at her place!
As a result of some research and our meeting with the school principal last week we have a starting point.
Yes, Lou is being pulled out of school. That’s a given.
The question then was “What is her best option?”
We don’t believe that putting her in another school when we are planning a move is a good idea – she wouldn’t even be settled in before having to pull up stakes and doing it all over again somewhere else.
The question then becomes “What is her best option for learning at home?”
We have basically have three options here -
Firstly I could just home school her as I am doing for CJ. I have no problem doing that, but when she’s approaching year 11, and given that we are still finding out feet with this, I’m a little under-confident in my ability to prepare her for year 11.
Secondly, we can apply for her to study through a distance education secondary school or through OTEN. This could be a good option for providing her with the curriculum content that she needs and saving me from more programming.
Thirdly we can have her transferred to the local TAFE. Study there is flexible delivery – a combination of assignments, distance ed and face to face learning. She’d only be required to attend the TAFE campus for 1 1/2 days per week and do the rest of her work at home, but she’d need to do further work to prepare for year 11 and would probably not be ready to start it next year. It does however, give her the flexibility to join in with CJ for things like jewellery making classes, and gives her time to pursue her own learning interests.
Our preference is to enrol her through OTEN to complete year 10. It has the options for doing preparatory units for year 11 and will offer her the most flexibility. We also think that the adult learning system might play more to her strenghts and help increase her confidence.
The only hiccup is that we have to have a form giving permission for her to leave her current school because of the new laws that made the school leaving age 17. The principal hasn’t had to do one before so doesn’t know anything about them. He also doesn’t understand the difference between regular TAFE and OTEN which is causing some delays and misunderstandings in trying to get the process started.
We do know however, that the local TAFE is more than happy to take Lou. She has already had an interview and assessment with them. The department head has offered her a place in their course starting next term, explained to us the problems we are likely to encounter trying to get her enrolled with the changes to the system and who to speak to about getting past them.
So now we just wait for the school/TAFE/OTEN to sort it all out. Hopefully it will all be right for her to start one of the alternatives first thing next term.
Late, yes. Typical me! lol
So, menu plan for this week goes something like…
Tuesday – Chicken and Corn Soup that we didn’t have last night
Wednesday – Steak and Veggies
Thursday – Shepard’s Pie
Friday – Crumbed Chicken and Wedges
Saturday – Slow cooked roast beef and veggies
Sunday – Sausage Pie, mash spuds and Veggies
Monday – leftovers
Going to try to get some baking done this week too
Perhaps some Double Choc Chip Muffins
Go see Laura for more menu planning ideas this week.
In homeschooling this week we are finishing CJ’s friend’s birthday present. The front and back pieces are cut, assembled, and sewn. Now the fringe just needs cutting and inserting so that the outside edges can be sewn together and finished. Because I have Lou home as well and at a bit of a loose end until we sort out what form her future schooling will take, we are going to start on Shakespeare looking at Romeo and Juliet. This week we are just going to familiarise ourselves with the Elizabethan time period and Shakespeare’s life with some reading and DVD’s. While Lou does some more in depth research, CJ can wrap up her Chinese Cinderella work. She still has enough of her text books to continue on with work in other subjects as well while CJ does her work, so that will see us through to the end of the term.
So what’s on your agenda and table this week?
A groovy new sewing box
Making a gift for a friend
Stitching funny faces
is what the secondary coordinator of Lou’s school told me yesterday evening after I told her I wanted to pull Lou out of her school.
A small group of girls set her up at school by letting Lou think she was joining in their mucking around when the whole time they were laughing at her. Then, from comments made on facebook, it would seem that they secretly videotaped her with one of their mobile phones and one of them suggested posting it to youtube.
Lou is devestated.
I am furious.
The coordinator swears black and blue that she’ll deal with it, and doesn’t want me to pull Lou out of school. She thinks it would be unwise, that there are lots of things coming up that Lou would really benefit from, that all her teachers say she’s going really well, that we shouldn’t let them win.
We shouldn’t let them win.
How many times does she have to cop this kind of shit before we can say enough is enough?
The school and all her teachers know that Lou has an anxiety disorder and is on medication for it. They all know she still regularly sees a psychologist. Hell, the psychologist was working with the school to help set up management strategies for use at school. She may be coping a lot better in the classroom, but they aren’t seeing what happens in the playground.
I realise that Lou doesn’t always understand when other people are genuinely joking with her but on the flip side, she doesn’t always understand when other people are not joking with her, but joking at her expense… and sometimes you just can’t explain that you don’t think what she has taken as joking with her was other’s taking the piss or setting her up for their own amusement.
Being very literal and trusting doesn’t help either. She takes people at their word so often doesn’t see when they are being facetious, duplicitous, or are just plain lying to cover their arses or insulting behaviours.
A few weeks ago when she was miserable and in pain from her broken elbow the boys poked at her, threw leaves on her and put banana skins in her hair for their own amusement until she lost the plot then tried to say they were “just trying to cheer her up”. *shakes head* She came home not only miserable from pain, but angry, teary and stressed after being told that she needed to address her pain issues when she complained.
A banana skin in her hair? Really? That wouldn’t cheer me up.
We shouldn’t let them win.
Well my faith in the school’s ability to deal with the situation is shot given that we have still not heard of any resolution to our written complaints made at the end of last term. These kids have already won because they keep getting away with their behaviour without any real consequences.
We explained to the principal at the beginning of the term that we were increasingly concerned about Lou’s ability to keep taking this crap and felt that the time for pussy footing around the issues was long past. They had kept fobbing off taking any definitive action by saying that they didn’t want the fall out to come back on Lou and make things worse for her… we told them that we felt things couldn’t get any worse from Lou’s perspective and still, no action of any actual consequence has been taken so far as we are aware.
We shouldn’t let them win.
At what cost? The barrage of thinly veiled insults, exclusionary tactics and jokes at her expense have a price – her mental health. How many more tears does she have to cry? How many more days of feeling insecure, unsure, ignored, undermined, insignificant and useless does she have to have so that “they don’t win”?
She is picked at for the way she looks, for her wild hair, for the unusual accent she places on some words, for trying to join in, for not trying to join in, for reading, for sitting with them, for not sitting with them, for speaking up, for staying silent, for having psychologist appointments, for not being at school after breaking her elbow… She can’t win. She has nothing to gain from staying in a competition that she can’t win. And when did it become a competition anyway?
We shouldn’t let them win.
At what point do we get to wave the white flag if not now? My girl is already defeated. Do we have to wait until she is also again in crisis? Until she is once again so worn down that she is also depressed and convinced that she and everyone else would be better off if she was dead?
I don’t think that my child’s mental health and this school are compatible. I know my child’s mental health and her school peers are not. I do not believe that pulling her out of this school is letting “them win”. These kids are not going to learn anything by my leaving Lou in school apart from new and more creative ways to torment her, and the cost to her is not one that I’m willing to pay.
Just because I couldn’t be arsed yesterday.
So this week I’m thinking …..
Tuesday – Chicken with fried rice
Wednesday – Rissoles and vegies
Thursday – Pasta bake
Friday – Crumbed fish and wedges
Saturday – Roast chooken and vegies
Sunday – Sausages, mash and vegies
Monday – Chicken and Corn soup
Also CJ wants to have a go at making a large tart of some description too.
Go see Laura for more menu planning ideas this week.
And also we need a bit of a moving plan… I needs to get everyone’s arses into gear or this move just ain’t gonna happen.
*Update hub’s resume
* Sign hub’s up for all the employment services I can find that are available to people not on the dole
* Research costs/needs for transferring car rego, licenses etc
* Find out if we’ll need to swap electricity and gas companies
* Find out costs for animal registration and relevant by laws
* Buy two plastic storage crates
* Declutter my wardrobe
* decrapify the bathroom
* make list of things am hoping to buy from hub’s current work at staff cost before we leave
And I guess while we are going…. major items on the homeschooling agenda this week are
* designing and making a cushion for CJ’s friend’s birthday
* making a bracelet in jewellery making
* doing background research on China as part of our ‘Chinese Cinderella module for English
* Start of new science and maths modules
* continue with current HSIE module and AMEB music exam prep work
And I’ll suppose there’ll be some uni crap in there somewhere for me to do too.
Oh and don’t forget that you can get a $10 Menulog voucher here too.
I haven’t posted a menu plan for a while – I haven’t really done a menu plan for a while, however with things so tight right now I should be. I know it saves us money.
But first lets have a giveaway!
The giveaway is a $10 discount off your first delivery order for every Australian reader from Menulog.com.au
Menulog is Australia’s newest and most comprehensive food ordering and eating out guide offering features such as:
The voucher is valid till Dec 31st 2010 and can be used on your first delivery order from any participating restaurants on the site that has “accepts voucher” sign. Minimum order value must be at least $20 to qualify for the discount and only one voucher per household.
Simply leave a comment on this post and I’ll send you your voucher code by email. It’s that simple. Menulog have generously offered a voucher for every reader.
———————————————————————————————————
Unfortunately there aren’t any restaurants in my area on Menulog just yet so the family will have to make do with my/their own cooking – our menu for this week –
Monday – Rissoles and baked vegies
Tuesday – Home cooked fish and chips
Wednesday – Chicken, mash and peas
Thursday – Quiche or some-such concotion to use up some eggs
Friday – Home made hamburgers
Saturday – Slow cooked roast and vegies
Sunday – Chicken and corn soup
Monday – leftovers
Cheers and happy eating
Head over to Laura’s at orgjunkie.com for more menu planning ideas
60g Butter or Margarine
1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Essence
1/2 Cup Castor Sugar
1 Cup of Self Raising Flour
1/3 cup of Milk
1 Egg
1 teaspoon melted butter
Cinnamon Sugar to taste
Soften butter/margarine and beat into castor sugar. Add vanilla essence and egg and beat well. Alternate adding portions of milk and flour, beat until smooth. Pour into small round cake tin or loaf tin and bake in moderate oven for 25 – 30 minutes.
After turning out from tin, brush melted butter across top of cake and sprinkle with cinamon sugar. Let cool and enjoy!
Note – I usually double the quantity for a better size cake when using a large cake tin. The original quantity is best used in a small round tin.
‘big fat hairy donkey’s balls’ as my friend Anja would say. From beginning when I sprained my freakin ankle, to end when we had to have Lou’s arm plastered up, it just sucked.
*whining warning – if you don’t want to hear it then click away now*
My sprained ankle seemed to start the spiral of disaster. I’d rolled on it a few times already that day, but that’s pretty normal for me. The last time I rolled it though, I was wearing shoes and it flexed that bit more and it HURT! A few days of rest, ice and compression didn’t help much and after a couple of weeks of hobbling around I found myself with my leg in a half cast and on crutches to rest the ankle completely. My back cannot handle crutches so they were discarded fairly quickly, but my casted foot did mean that my family allowed me a couple of weeks of only needing to get myself too and from the loo to give my ankle a chance to heal. It’s a lot better now, still a little sore, needs some support and re-strengthening, but at least I can get about my normal business again.
Then the same day it was decided that I needed cast and crutches Lou broke her elbow. Like me she has some extra flexible joints, and like me she can poke her elbows out the wrong way. Unfortunately this is not a good thing for your elbow to do while throwing a javelin which is what she was doing when the joint over extended and one bone hit another causing a crack at the head of the radius. Yup. It is as painful as it sounds. So she is now casted up, in a sling, in pain, not sleeping well, and has a sore back from the sling and not having as much freedom of movement.
And over the past few weeks all the kids have had a bug. Nothing dramatic, just headaches, upset tummies and fevers, but still. CJ copped it the worst with her run down system being sick on and off for over two weeks. Lou had it for around a week, TJ and I both copped it for a couple of days. No problem. Except that TJ’s asthma also flared and since having that bug he has developed the typical barking seal cough that usually signals the onset of croup. Yes croup. Yes I know that is supposed to only affect younger children, and he is 11 years old, but the symptoms have not changed and it still all ends the same every year – with him on prednisone. Sigh.
Meantime I have to let you know that a sore, sleep deprived Lou is a very unhappy Lou. And an very unhappy Lou means an unhappy household. Being in pain and not sleeping properly has left her less able to keep her anxiety under control and she has been increasingly emotional, snappy and paranoid as well as less able than usual to correctly judge the tone, intent and actions of others. I’m sure you can imagine the resulting arguments and confrontations.
Oh and PSLS has been trying to quit smoking. 
I don’t think any more needs to be said really. We all know what that can be like.
So there you have it in a nut shell. May sucked. Big fat hairy donkey’s balls.
June had better be better!
