Monday Menu 14 March

Here is my menu for this week,  I am linking to the Organising Junkie

Monday   Steak n Kidney with vege crockpot

Tuesday  Chicken sausages with baked potato and mixed vege  (easy meal as we arent home to prepare anything.

Wednesday  Spaghetti Bolognaise

Thursday  Curry Crockpot

Friday  Falafels with cucumber salad

Saturday  Sweet potato, corn and bacon quiche

Sunday  Leftovers

Sometimes it is really hard.

As we all know sometimes life is really hard.  For us with Hayden life can be harder than for most people.  His life impacts on us all mostly in different ways.  For Andre it impacts on his behaviour.  As Haydens behaviour is in the severe end when it comes to ADHD .  Andre has decided that the way for him to get attention at home is to behave similarly to Hayden.  Oh my gosh you really dont want to know what that means.  I have tried many things to help Andre overcome this need to behave this way at home.  In fact it make me very sad and brings tears to my eyes everytime I think about Haydens impact on Andre.

I look into the past hoping that wonderful bubbly little boy will return and become a wonderful young man.

I created this page expressing this and hope each day that as Andre grows up he stops what he is doing and realises that there are other ways to gain attention from the people around him.

The credits can be found here at Nuts4digi

New 52 Week 9 Never to be done again.

So another week has passed and life has suddenly got really busy.  I needed to go running after work this week which just so not a me thing to do.  Why....because I often feel really tired at the end of the day and that makes it too easy to make an excuse not to hit the pavement.  So to my surprise I sprinted my little route at 6.30pm in the last of the evening summer sun.  Of course today when I went out after work today I was feeling rather sluggish and plodded rather than spritly.  Personally I am putting that down to the fact that it is friday and I worked 4 days out of the last 5 as well as the getting up in the middle of the night to tend to haydens medical needs.

So when Hayden discovered he could ride his two wheeler bike it became inevitable that that he would want to go riding the pavements.  Hmmm I am thinking Hayden riding while I run...not good.  But I gave it a try anyway.  Now I have experienced this I know that I am not fast enough to run while Hayden is riding.  He is certainly not capable of making rational decisions at 4pm thus making him really unsafe.  So all in all this is not a choice I will be making again.  So it is back to the buggy and me running while pushing 33kg. I do this every weekend that my DH is away.  I guess though I cant call it a run....it is a walk run thing that I do.

I am linking this post to Fabulous Adventrues of Listgirl

Wordless Wednesday 9 March

Wordless Wednesday today.  I am linking to My Little Drummer Boys.

Here is DD and DS1 spent some fleeting summer moments playing an imaginary game.

Monday Menu 7 March

So I am still emptying the bottom of my chest freezer so the odd ball group of recipes.  Plenty of stewing steaks and corned beef hmmmmm.

Monday  Steak n Kidney stew in the crockpot

Tuesday  Lamb Chops, baked potato and salad

Wednesday  Zucchini Loaf and salad

Thursday  Hoisen pork in lettuce cups with rice. (I am only using pork for this recipe)

Friday  Vegetarian pizza  homemade

Saturday  Lemon chicken with broccoli and rice

Sunday   Leftovers

You Just have to Keep Believing

be·lief (bĭ-lēfˈ)

(Source)
noun

1.The mental act, condition, or habit of placing trust or confidence in another: My belief in you is as strong as ever.


2.Mental acceptance of and conviction in the truth, actuality, or validity of something: His explanation of what happened defies belief.


3.Something believed or accepted as true, especially a particular tenet or a body of tenets accepted by a group of persons.



Every parent has belief that their child, right from birth, will achieve their milestones.  You know the ones, the first smile, the first word, the first moment sitting and so on.  When Hayden got ill and became disabled those beliefs of achievement disappeared.  Sadly the prognosis was such we were told he would never walk or talk again.  After that intial period of grief a stark reality set in and the goals for Hayden were ones of recovery always thinking how much.  Right from the moment he remembered how to sit up he rode a bike.  The foot propelled variety he managed before he remembered how to walk.

Fast forwarding 5 years and Hayden still loves riding bikes.  Luckily he is very small for his age and has been able to ride our tricycle for many years.  He also has riden a bicycle with stablisers but sure was not very stable but let him ride it too. 

So that brings me to last week.  He, unencouraged, unaided decided he would get the little bike with no stabilisers out of the shed and ride it.  I don't know how much trying or how many times he fell before he came riding around to me getting dinner to show me.  He was laughing and calling out to me while riding the bike.

Naturally there is never a learning to ride a bike moment without the successes.

and the odd backwards step or two
 

and disaster (luckily the plants were very forgiving)

 

So off the bike shop to get a new and more robust helmet to prevent any potential new head injuries.

 

Finally the message for us as a family is that we should remember that for Hayden this was a new skill.  It was something he was unable to do in the before times.  We should provide him with opportunities to continue to learn things and never stop believing that he can continue to discover new skills and talents.

New 52 Week 9

This is were I put my hand up and say I am vein.  I look in the mirror only as I step outside the door on the way to work but as my sunglasses broke last week I became increasingly conscious of the laughing lines(ha ha you know what I mean) on my face and the fact that is summer here and I was spending all day squinting, I became paranoid at the thought I was not helping my aging process in any way even though I was using sun screen and a hat are necessary. 

So I was very pleasantly surprised when DH said off I go to my favourite sun glass shop and get some new ones. He knows I like good quality glasses and I usually spend just a few dollars to look after my eyes a face.  Then I need them to be multi functional... protection, to exercise in, not too fashionable and then a little fashionable at the same time.  It is such a difficult task.

Thank you DH I went shopping and now have this new pair of sunglasses that hopefully will do the job I paid for them to do.  Oh yes and help slow the aging process.

You can see the older but broken glasses on the left and the new model there on the right.

Wordless Wednesday 2 March

He is the first photo of my son Hayden riding his bike by himself.  He spent the next half an hour laughing at his success.

I am linking this to My Little Drummer Boys

 

Just One Week

Christchruch New Zealand suffered a second, but more deadly earthquake a week ago.  This time an estimated 250 people have lost their lives, infrastructure has been destroyed and lives have been forever more changed.

(image source from twitter but unknown.  Please let me know so I can acknowledge the photographer)

This photo was taken moments after the quake hit at 12.51 pm on Tuesday 22 February.  

Today, a week later bodies are still to be recovered and essential services are still being restored. 

My thoughts go out to those people who have been effected.

Monday Menu 28 February

Here is this weeks menu.  I am linking up to I'm an Organising Junkie

Monday   Sheppards pie from the freezer.

Tuesday  Tacos  with salad on the side.

Wednesday  zucchini patties with salad

Thursday  Duck Noodle Salad  (we will use chicken instead.)

Friday  Pizza on thin bases

Saturday  Cold meat and salad

Sunday Leftovers