Surviving Summer (E19)

Almost there! School is back in T-8 days. AND I'M ALIVE TO TELL THE TALE! Knackered, bruised, scratched up and with even fewer fucks to give than six weeks ago, but breathing none the less.
And actually, despite it being eight days, for four of those I'm unashamedly leaving the kids to their own devices (with Dad and carer supervision, of course- I'm not wholly insane just yet) while I jet off to deepest darkest Dorset for a festival. Festivals are my favourite and my best. You know how everyone has those things in life; the things that revive and energise..... The stuff that feels like home? For me, it's live music, adventuring and nature. Festivals are all of that. Incredible live music. People adventures. And all in a field under star-studded skies in the arse end of nowhere.
As you might have guessed, I'm super excited. This point in the holidays is rough; I'm exhausted from crap sleep, no routine, and the brutal physical effort of keeping B safe. All my muscles ache like a bitch, and I could genuinely put forward a case to use some of our B-budget on a spa day and sports massage. But beer, music and mates is an excellent substitute.
Today was fun too. The British bank holiday weather has, for once, been stellar. The sun brought out all the tourists, so we avoided those beaches like the plague. The B-boy also hates traffic, so we ended up discovering a beautiful new almost-green-laning route down to the lesser known Worbarrow bay. It's stunning, and although still busy by B standards, a thousand times more doable than Tourist Central. The water also gets really deep a couple of metres out, so you can properly mermaid there. This afternoon there were boats moored up, so I swam out with the girls and we pretended to siren. For those of you unfamiliar with ocean myth, mermaids used to lure the sailors from their ships with beautiful siren singing, before dragging them to their watery graves. Pretty dark stuff, but fun to reenact on a sunny bank holiday Monday. The B-boy enjoyed rock throwing, one of his favourite activities, and sharked it up with the most excellent anti-drowning device in the shape of a fin. He has zero fear and all the love when it comes to water, so although he can pretty much swim, we always need to be on him in the sea.
So yeah, an exhausting day, but a good team effort all round to get down there and enjoy the sun. Sea swimming. Kid fun. And with my escape just around the corner (Thursday people, THURSDAY) I'm all round feeling the joy of life today. Now all I need is a bestie that works in Lush. Then every day would be a spa day... ðŸ˜‰

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Disability 101

First up, apologies for the length of time that’s passed since my last post. The summer was crazy, my youngest has since started school and we’ve tackled one small family crisis after another for the last few months- as you do. Business as usual then. Excuses aside, I’d like to put a disclaimer out right here. This topic is something close to my heart, and is in no way meant to insult or guilt trip you lovely people; but rather inform and educate from the perspective of those of us living in the parallel universe of disability. The biggest hurdle we face as parents of special kids is an ignorance and lack of education on behalf of the world. These barriers infiltrate our everyday; irksome diversion signs on this long haul journey to destination unknown. Take a walk in my shoes for a while … . Five things you should never say to a special needs parent … .. (and a few things you should) 1. God only gives special kids to special people, and God never gives
Read more

Dear Mrs May

Half term sucks. It is not a yay-we-get-to-lie-in-and-laze-about scenario. Not when you have a B, who, from the moment he wakes up to the moment he goes to sleep, needs line of sight supervision. His favourite activity at the moment is posting. All the shit, in all the places. I am done with fishing tiny random lego pieces out from behind the radiator, un-wedging books from the miniscule gap between the DVD player and the unit, and risking my actual life by blindly groping around for toy cars amidst the wires behind the TV. The most annoying thing? The posting of random items IN the bedside lamps. Why? Sweet Lord, why? I have no idea what runs through that boy's head. All I know is such obsessive chaos does not a chilled half term make.  One thing that often escapes the radar of typical families is the complete lack of childcare for kids with additional needs. As in, regular childcare that we can ring up and book onto does not exist. I'll just let that sink in for a minute, i
Read more

Inside-out knicker-trousers... and other tales of joy

Image
So I've been wanting to write about this for a while, and I have a feeling it may be a touchy topic, especially amongst my fellow parents of kids with special needs. First up, I'll let you know where I'm at, since I haven't blogged in a while. Life is still chaotic- nothing new there. Raising four kids is fairly full on; my life is spent mainly removing knickers from inside-out trousers that have been left to walk themselves from the bathroom to the wash basket, spending hours cooking meals that are wolfed down in minutes, practising my ninja-reflexes since B's current favourite activity is throwing every toy he can get his hands on after playing with it for approximately three seconds, and attempting to maintain some sort of sanity during the dreaded GCSEs. I was working for a few months as an SEN planning co-ordinator for the local authority while applying for educational psychology training-which almost killed me, by the way- the whole process was brutal. 
Read more