coping Archives - Raisie Bay

Maybe last week I was a little too optimistic. I can’t seem to pull my family out of this slump of misery. The little ones are okay, in fact they’ve just had a fun weekend. But the adults are all grumpy and sad. We are in proper ‘Bah Humbug’ mode.

Maybe it’s the onset of winter that’s caused it, maybe it’s because Christmas is creeping up. It’s always been a difficult time of year for us.

I Go Up!

I am flitting from one mood to another. I’m happy because I have Christmas shopping done, even the food, including the turkey, is ordered. The kids are going to be overjoyed and I don’t think they’ll mind that they won’t have tons of presents to open, the ones they have are fabulous. The adults have also been bought some lovely gifts, I don’t think anyone will be disappointed this year.

I Go Down!

Then I’m sad because I can’t seem to help anyone feel happier. I am always trying to be positive, it’s important to start each day with a positive attitude otherwise you are just setting yourself up for a bad one. But am I really burying my head in the sand and ignoring the problems just so I can say I’m positive?

I’m not ignoring the problems, but I do feel as though I’ve exhausted any solutions I may have had. We go around and around in circles, the poison has been fed and I just can’t cleanse it, it won’t go away. It’s a ghost that haunts us forever.

Life is a roller coaster, you’ve just got to ride it! (Thanks Ronan.)

My cold is better, yay! I’m so glad to be rid of that. Sadly, all the illness I’ve had over the past couple of weeks have totally outed the good results I get from my IVIG treatment. Roll on next week for my next dose.

We haven’t had any more car accidents! Graham has his confidence back and is driving well but I’m still avoiding going out if I can. I’m a nervous wreck. I feel like I want my car back so I can drive myself again. That makes me nervous too, but at least I will be in control and it just might help me get over my fear. But the car is still in the garage and it looks like we may not get it back for a few more weeks.

We have the decorations up! Star and the Little Man really enjoyed putting the decorations on the tree and I haven’t changed it, it’s their work. Sadly, Boo was really upset we put it up without her. She’d gone for a fun day out with her friend and her Mum.

We had a fabulous day at Inflata Nation, a huge inflatable theme park which we were given tickets to review. It really is a lovely place and the kids were so excited. Sadly, Graham has started his neck hurting again from the bouncing (yes, adults are allowed in too!) And Star has hurt her foot, it was a risk taking her, but we can’t let her miss out on everything. She will heal, she generally does pretty quickly.

This is all just the daily stuff and already you can see the roller coaster is affecting us. I guess it’s just life, but I would like to get off for a little break now please.

Tales From Mamaville

I will confess, it has a been a difficult couple of weeks. A difficult month actually, when it just seems that everything that could go wrong has gone wrong in the most drastic way possible.

This morning we were faced with something we really don’t deal with very well in our house, a change of routine! Graham had to get up early and take Ash to the vets for his operation. We tried so hard to change the appointment, but 8am is the only time they take the pets in for ops, so there was no option. The vets is 40 mins away by car which meant that Graham would not be able to take the kids to school.

The girl’s should really be able to walk themselves to school but for two problems, a very busy road and Autism.

The Autism looked like it was winning for a while, it’s a good job I set the alarm early to make way for a 15 minute melt down. But, we still managed to get ready and it was Big sister that saved the day. Not only did she get up early to help them across the busy road, but she also instilled a calm in the house which helped Star recover and actually leave the house on time.

The Little Man had to wait for his Dad to return home to take him to school, it’s just too far away and big sister doesn’t even know how to get there (I don’t even know how to get there!) But being at primary school, a quick phone call to tell them he was going to be late and all was okay.

Turning a Corner!

Maybe this morning is proof that we can function (almost) normally as a family? I guess to some people it sounds rather strange me saying that, but the kids all managed to get into school and no-one was killed on a busy road, so I’d say it was a success.

Ash has already started to wake up from his operation and I’ve been told he’s doing fine. So now we just have to get through the rest of the day.

And while I’m feeling positive I can also report that yesterday went quite well too. Another day of disrupted routine, the girls had an inset day, the eldest son had an appointment that I had to attend with him and it was my birthday. Autism (son and daughter’s) almost took over on two occasions but we got in there quick and stopped it. I had lunch out and a take out for dinner, which was way too much food.

I had presents, lots of presents and cake and beautiful designer cheesecakes, and chocolates.

Three individual cheesecakes, cookies and cream, strawberry and white chocolate and Baileys. — Three individual cheesecakes

I had a friend come to visit in the evening and we watched ‘I’m a Celebrity Get me Out of Here’ while making pom poms and catching up.

For the first time in weeks I feel like the bad stuff will go away. We have hard fought for appointments coming up to ease health issues. The stressful things are done and dusted. Now we just have to survive until Christmas.

We can do that can’t we?

Tales From Mamaville