Keep trusting

Yesterday had a sort of 'What's the point of my life?' day and yes I know, I know there's a lot of point to my life and God has a plan and a purpose for me and nothing is impossible for Him. I know that but sometimes I lose the plot. However today I feel more positive. It's another beautiful day. J is still in bed coughing and groaning. Hope he's better soon.

When I was reading my Bible this morning I really felt the verse in James about 'the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well' and I thought wow.

Bonfire night

Fun day?

I had my hair cut a lot shorter yesterday. Can't decide if I like it or not.

Lovely sunny day. 

J  off school with another cold. Was going to go into town but stuck indoors with piles of washing & a sniffing teenager who says I annoy him but expects me to wait on him hand & foot. Yippee.

A difficult school run

A lovely sunny day today. Had chaotic start to the day as J needed to sort out recording equipment for an English assessment and ended up borrowing my mobile. I think leaving it until ten to eight was a bit last minute. Had one of those journeys where it's just one hold-up after another. As I was waiting behind 3 coaches coming out of school one of the Dads whom I know came over and said my front driver side tyre was really low. As I went up the road the petrol light came on. So I could potentially have a flat tyre and run out of petrol and I hadn't got my mobile. Great. I made it home and managed to pump a bit of air into the tyres. Hope it hasn't got a puncture. I honestly feel we get more than our fair share of tyre and wheel problems.

J's week currently goes: Monday lunchtime Steel Pan club, Monday evening Scouts, Tuesday evening Mandarin class, Weds lunchtime Art Club, Weds evening Piano Lesson, Thursday evening Art Club, first Friday in the month Youth Club. Keeps him off the streets I suppose but I'm finding it so hard to keep track that last night I thought Scouts finished at 9.15 when it was actually 9.00. One of his friend's mums phoned me and asked if I wanted her to bring him home - a sort of tactful way of saying 'I'm waiting here with your son where on earth are you?' Oops.

He has a piano exam in a few weeks. Believe me J and piano exams is a very stressful combination, stressful for all the adults concerned that is.

Visit to the opticians

Yesterday J and I went to the optician. His sight had been gradually deteriorating over the last few years and last night he'd reached the stage where he has to start wearing glasses. He chose some snazzy black and green ones but I don't think he's very keen on wearing them. I can totally understand how he feels, I went through the whole of senior school needing glasses and not wearing them. This did have the advantage that I developed quite a good memory as I had to memorise what the teacher was saying as she said it. I really hope J wears his though.

I have to have a pressure test on my eyes once a year as my Dad now has glaucoma. My result was fine - better than average, but this horrible thing happened during it. The optician made a joke and laughed and his spit went all over my neck! Seriously yuck.

A nice evening

My brother arrived eventually and we had a nice time together. P had made a chicken dish with chickpeas and almonds - yum. My brother brought me some chocolates - I love you little brother. Half of them had toffee pieces in them, such a shame that P and J don't like toffee. My brother and I stayed up late doing the quizzes on the 'embarrassing bodies' website. ( I can never understand that programme - you've got a problem which is so embarrassing that you've had it for years because you can't face going to the doctor so what do you do - you go on TV and display it to several million viewers). Anyway according to these quizzes I'm depressed, dyspraxic, got mild OCD, poor hand-eye co-ordination, a medium risk of developing diabetes and kidney disease and a geographic tongue. Yikes. Apparently a geographic tongue is where some of the little hairy bits are missing so if you eat spicy foods it hurts and even toothpaste can cause you pain and that's true for me - toothpaste does burn my tongue. So now I know why. However it isn't serious. Not sure about all the rest of the stuff though.

Sunday

Remembrance Service this morning, went very well. J was one of standard bearers for scouts. Very moving, I was fighting back tears during Last Post etc.

J went off to cinema after lunch to celebrate friend's birthday then on to Pizza Hut. He saw 'Johnny English' which he says was very good & he had a large (ie huge) popcorn & orange drink then most of a Hawaiian pizza & a load of ice cream. Feeling a little bit under the weather now, surprisingly.

We went to a local history exhibition which P found very interesting & I felt a bit bothered by the number of people invading my personal space - it's just a wheelchair thing, ok, they sort of squeeze past too close.

Then we drove home the long way to look at the Autumn colours which are so beautiful. 

The last few hours I've been tidying up & P's been cooking a special meal because my brother's coming but he was meant to arrive an hour and a half ago & he hasn't because he's stuck in traffic. Sigh.

J is doing German homework which he's left to last minute because it's a review of a film he's recently seen & he said he'd leave it until he got back from the cinema except he said he'd got to have a 'relax' first when he got home. 'Your life's one life's one long relax' I said.

I'm hungry.

School

I'm just about coming to terms with the whole bullying thing. I don't feel good that my son was bullied and beaten up and I certainly don't feel good that he lashed out and hit the bullies nor do I feel good that he didn't tell anyone. I keep wondering if I was too hard on his head of year and I did apologise to her for having got so emotional but I still don't feel that initially she handled it well.

Now we just have to work on preventing such a situation arising again. He has a 'bullying diary' in which he's meant to write down any incidents in which anyone does anything unpleasant to him and show it to his head of year. He doesn't feel very comfortable with this understandably. He's only had one 'incident' so far when a boy thought he was sitting on 'his' stool and pushed him off so his head collided with his friend John's head. He says that boy just 'tends to be violent' and he doesn't feel it was personal. Anyway the boy's going to be 'sanctioned'.

I'm praying that everything will settle down and there won't be anything else to write in the diary.

Apart from this J is happy at school. He's been invited to join the 'gifted and talented arts props club' which paints the scenery for the school plays. As a reward he'll get a free ticket for the play and a mention in the programme. Wow!

 

Brrr

J has spent the day lounging around looking very sorry for himself. He's not coping well with havibng gone to bed at 3 am. Still he did enjoy the night hike. Early to bed tonight I think.

Had a trip to local large hardware store with P to get some plumbing pipes and paint. Exciting! (not)

P has made a cake, just gone to the oven to get it and there has been an almighty crash. Apparently when he tried to get the cake rack out of the cupboard everything stared falling out. Apparently it's my fault cos I put the stuff in the cupboard.


Because I don't feel our house is as warm as it should be I've been doing some research into heat loss and am wondering if the metal ties which loop round the roof panels are acting as 'thermal bridges' and conducting some of the heat out. P is going to try spraying round them with insulating foam. I'm also insisting that everyone shuts the outer door before opening the inner door and vice versa. I really would like to be a bit warmer. Watch this space.

I actually struggle at this time of year when it first turns cold as my body thermostat doesn't seem to work very well. While I'm currently wearing several layers of fleece P is in shirt sleeves.

My son stopped by the police

Last night J went on a night hike with the scouts during which they played a cops and robbers game. While their team were hiding in the bushes from the 'cops' a torch beam suddenly shone on them - it was the real police wanting to know what they were doing. Thankfully they believed them and actually checked up the road to see if the pretend cops were lurking in a parked car.

11/11/11

We will remember

Ampersand problems

I've just realised that every time I've typed an ampersand in the last few posts something strange has been happening. I've gone through and changed them all to 'ands'. Wonder if I can contact Blogger about it.

Shopping trip

On Thursday P and I went to a new shopping centre that's opened near us. It's sad but I really like going round new shopping centres. We tried some Indian sweets (not sure about them really), bought a fleece and trousers for J and a shirt for P and then had a Caribbean lunch. I wasn't very adventurous and just had barbecued chicken and 'rice and peas' as I don't like 'hot 'spicy food, but it was very nice. Then I bought a new pair of brown shoes and hunted desperately for something to wear to the wedding. I found what seemed to be a long top/short dress which was quite a pretty fabric and had long sleeves which I really want as it's winter and it was really reduced. When I tried it on it was really strange, I couldn't get my legs through it. Then I realised the bottom part wasn't a skirt - it was shorts. How strange. As it was so cheap I've bought it and am going to try cutting off the shorts and also take in the top which was a bit baggy. If I can manage to do that and get some smart trousers I think it will look ok.

Other other church

This morning we went to another church which is a 'plant' from 'other church' and is in a village near to us. It's very small. I don't think there could have been more than 20 people there. To my surprise the first person we met was the lady who used to do my ironing and whose daughter worked at J's pre-school. I had no idea they went to church. We also met a couple of other people we recognised from Faith Camp and the man sitting next to me was a friend of a friend. It was quite an informal service with the children happily running/crawling round until it was time for Sunday School. The worship and sermon were very good. Although J wouldn't say so I think he actually quite enjoyed it. There weren't any older children/teenagers but apparently there usually are some. We'll give it another try sometime. They do a cooked 'mega-breakfast' once a month. Perhaps we should try that sometime.

Bonfire night

Last night we went to a firework display/BBQ. P took some awesome pictures. When I can get on the other computer which is almost impossible when P and J are at home I'll upload some of them.

We were mentioned on the radio

When I was sitting at the Woman to Woman conference I was sitting in a row with other people in wheelchairs and there was this woman next to me who had come from Leicester by train. She had come with a friend who had to leave early and wasn't quite sure how she would manage to get back to the station. When P came to get me I asked him to push her out to the front and she said she'd phone for a taxi. When we got out she was saying she couldn't hear what they were saying on the phone so I phoned up the taxi firm for her. We decided to wait until the taxi came which was quite a while and then P helped her into the taxi. I was worried about her but couldn't see what more we could do and was really praying that someone would offer to push her from the taxi to the platform.

Anyway on Thursday P was listening to Premier Radio in the car and there was this bit about 'good deeds' and this woman came on and said she was from Leicester and she'd been to the Woman to Woman Conference in a wheelchair and her friend had had to go early but this woman next to her and her husband and son had helped her and got her into the taxi and then the taxi driver had pushed her to the platform and how thankful she was. Wow! Actually the best bit was knowing that the taxi driver had helped her to get to the train ok. Thanks Lord.

What's more, she won a box of chocolates for her contribution.

Phone call

One early morning phone call from head of year. One emotional conversation (emotion being entirely on my part), what amounts to as close to an apology as we'll probably get and she says she is going to find out what's really being going on and she and special needs teacher are going to see what more they can do to support J.

Right I'm now going to leave all this aside and enjoy my day.  

Another bad day

I'm feeling better but today have been upset.

Lsat night J's head of year phoned & said while she sympathised with what had happened J had hit the other 2 boys with his badminton racket so she felt he had to be sanctioned. Being sanctioned meant going into solitary confinement today ie working in room with just a teacher there. Ok, if he hit someone he should be ' sanctioned' fair enough. Then I asked her if they were going to deal with the bullying situation & she said she was dealing with each boy in turn & J was first. 

Then this morning I got all panicky re his special needs & had they taken them into account & they said they'd get a laptop but I still wasn't happy about it. I was feeling really unhappy about J having hit someone which is so unlike him then I thought 'it is really unlike him'. Tonight I said to him that he really had to tell us exactly what had been happening & when he did it is just so upsetting & has been going on such a long time & he put up with it without telling anyone then it all just erupted. I am so unhappy that the school had put him into isolation all day without first having properly found out what had driven him to it & my son had been treated like a criminal when he is really a victim of long-term bullying for whom it finally became all too much. If they wanted to punish him a little bit ok but they've gone over the top. And what's annoying me as well is that the boy who punched him will presumably be excluded which ok isn't very good on his record but will he be shut up in a freezing cold room & not allowed out for lunch? No, he'll be at home playing computer games.


And also if you were in a court of law they'd gather all the evidence before sentencing anyone. Wouldn't they? Ok Boy 1 might have put in his statement that J hit him with a racket but he just might have omitted to mention the song he made up about J's hair & got all his friends to sing along to. Every time they saw J. Since last Christmas.

So this evening I wrote a long email to his head of year telling her what we thought, well not the computer games bit. I tried to word it very nicely & I showed it to P & J to make sure they agreed with it because it says on the anti-bullying website that you shouldn't take action without making sure it's ok with your child.

So watch this space.

Actually I think in a few weeks time I'm going to delete this page because I just don't want to look back & remember this.