Hi all

This week has been a bit weird to be honest.  Not sure if I'm going down with a bug, but Monday and today I have felt exhausted and really achy.  I spent most of Monday asleep on the sofa only getting up if Callum needed me for anything, eg, food, drink or to look at what he was doing on the computer.  I have to admit that now he is older I don't need to be running around for him a lot and that, gratefully, I am 'allowed' to feel under the weather, but he still has issues with using knives for cutting bread or spreading things (he's a bit cackhanded to be honest) and he doesn't like the look, smell or consistency of marg or butter so he won't use it at all, but some things like a marmite sandwich are almost impossible to make without having at least a bit of butter on them.  Guess what he fancied for lunch on Monday....yep, marmite sandwich!

Anyway, Tuesday I was feeling all fab and glorious again; full of energy, although not full of brain power.  We went to the Faversham group, but took our time in the morning so didn't rush.  The group was really quiet this week, but to be honest it suited me.  Unfortunately, because it meant Callum's friends weren't there (the friends he goes off to the computer room with anyway), he sat with me most of the time.

I have no objections to this at all, except it does mean that he gets bored and I get poked and prodded a lot!!!  Am actually rather surprised I'm not covered in bruises on my arms as I get poked and prodded on an almost daily basis.  He doesn't mean any harm and he doesn't do it to hurt, it's his way of getting attention and his way of showing his affection; weird though that may sound.  I'm normally ok about it, but I must admit I wasn't really mentally up for it Tuesday and I own up to the fact that I did eventually snap!  I didn't shout at him, but I did do a huge sigh and faced him with an 'enough now' look and a "please stop it" voice!  I don't think he quite understands how infuriating and, sometimes, painful it can be.  There you are trying to have a conversation while someone is prodding you constantly with a finger.  When you ask what they want, they reply with "nothing!"  "Why are you poking me then?" "Don't know, just am!"

I wish he didn't have so much trouble with socialising sometimes.  I wish he could, occasionally, be like other kids and just go off and do something; try something; speak to someone; ask someone something; but I know he can't or doesn't want to (that's what he normally tells me anyway), but there are some days when I'm really just not in the mood to be his sole form of entertainment.  Some days I would just like to have a conversation by myself with my friends.

Right, that's the I'm feeling sorry for myself bit over and I'll now get on with the rest of the week.  Sorry about that!

Wednesday we seemed to do loads.  His sister spent the day with us as she normally does on a Wednesday, but we managed to achieve rather a lot and I don't mean that we can't normally, we just don't seem to.  We finally got around to the Quex House write up, included some photos and some background which we copy and pasted from the internet (I made him read it first though, so he knew what it said and made him decide what bits he wanted that were relevant and which bits he didn't and that weren't).  I also managed to find and print off a one page little geography questionnaire about Africa; simple stuff like how many countries made up Africa, which was the largest, smallest, etc.  He did that by himself looking up the answers he didn't know using the computer and when it was finished we added that to the write up.

He decided he didn't want to paint his pot, but he did stick some feathers on his mask so we completed that as well.

Then, as we had some time spare, we got out all the work we had done so far since September to see how much we had.  At first I didn't think there was a lot there, but then I remembered that we had a purple box full of ongoing stuff that needs completing and we have some science kits that need doing, so I don't think it will be as bad as we first thought.  Phew!

Oh and I forgot we planted up his new alpine garden; he now has two!  Did that when we returned from Faversham on Tuesday.

In addition this week we have played in the garden; he's helped me with some weeding; he made up an experiment using his treadmill and some of his cars, trucks, etc to see how fast he needed them to go and what speed the treadmill needed to be in order for them not to fall off.  I will mention that these were radio controlled or battery powered cars/trucks.  He's also helped me make cakes and done a bit of tidying in his bedroom.

Today I felt lousy again.  Really achy, really tired and kept feeling sick, so we haven't done 'schoolwork' today.  We did make cake this morning although I just wanted to get it done really quickly so Callum helped with getting things out and putting things away rather than going the whole making thing.  He has made me cups of tea today, bless him.  Plus we had a brief visit from a friend this afternoon (my fault it was brief as I forgot I had osteo at 4pm - sorry about that Carol).

Tomorrow, hopefully is iceskating!  I'm just hoping I can clear whatever this is that I appear to have got.  Can cope with the aches and pains, but the feeling sick is horrible and the feeling tired is just...well, tiring!

Anyway, that's it, cya folks