Busyknitter

Thought it was time to establish my knitting credentials. I have been knitting on and off for over 30 years now. My first effort was a teddy bear that I made in junior school. I have knitted sweaters for myself over the years, but I’ve been moving gradually towards smaller projects (I have completion issues…..). Teaching myself how to do socks at the moment.

I don’t tend to keep finished garments, they usually end up as presents. But here are a couple of my favorites that I have kept, both knitted for T.

I have no faith in the value of the National Curriculum Tests (SATs) to assess a school’s worth and I think it’s really crappy that the nation’s 11-year olds have to spend almost an entire year being drilled for exams, crowding out so much else.

Nevertheless, they exist. My older NT son has worked hard and deserves the confidence boost that his results have given him. Level 5 for Science and Maths (best score in the school – apparently he gets a prize!). But more importantly, he scraped a Level 4 for English and I am so proud and pleased for him for this. He has mild dyspraxia and finds writing and handwriting very, very difficult.

So, Well Done S!

Just to keep the balance (don’t want you all thinking we are some super family, coping with ASD without strain)

Yesterday was awful. I hardly ever go out in the evenings, it’s not fair on P who has looked after T all day. But I had a commitment yesterday evening, which meant I was out at work from 8 till 6, then out again from 7.30 till 10. When I got back, P was catatonic with stress. Nothing particularly bad had happened, but the cumulative effect of 14 hours on duty was too much for him.

Bloody hell, we need some respite care! Our reserve tank is getting dangerously low.

Every now and again, a lovely day comes along and takes you by surprise. And yesterday was one of those days.

Church in the morning and I was on the rota to lead the dreaded Infants Junior Church group. For some unaccountable reason, the little darlins were calm and co-operative and interested in the activities that I’d planned for them. I’d go so far as to say……….I enjoyed the session. Afterwards, the rest of the congregation collectively kept an eye on T buzzing about the church hall, while I tidied up and chatted.

S seemed to be having a decent time in his group as well, which is also unusual, as he is very anti-church at the moment. T always enjoys church. He usually just stands and gazes adoringly at the cymbals (being played by the vicar who doubles up as drummer in the worship group) or alternatively pootles up and down the aisle, which everyone is thankfully relaxed about him doing. P (husband) enjoys church by never actually going.

Then we had some friends over to lunch, people we’ve known for years . Highlight of the meal was the ritual breaking open of the coconut that S won at yesterday’s school fair – the best method we found was to throw it hard onto uneven flagstones! S now spent the rest of the day using the hollowed out shells to make like a Monty Python horse around the house.

Friends left around 3pm, but another friend cycled over with her two boys. So we all loaded up onto our bikes and went off to the park, all except P, who was thrilled at this unexpected opportunity for peace, quiet and uninterrupted PC-gaming. T of course cannot cycle yet (and may never learn), but goes about in one of these

Home for another bite to eat. Then T’s bath. This can be a bit of a war zone at the moment. The little fella doesn’t like actually getting in the tub itself, but prefers to stand on the bathside and perform death-defying acrobatics to amuse his audience. However, tonight he was grubby and not only did he need a proper wash, he was [roll of drums] due for a hair wash as well. This could have been World War 3. But again, for some reason, t was calm and co-operative. I can’t say he actually enjoyed his wash, but at least I didn’t spend half an hour engaged in greco-roman wrestling with a very strong, wet boy.

Then children went to bed without too much palaver. Some Sunday evening chat with the ASDfriendly crowd, an episode of Buffy and bed.

So why was this such a great day? Nothing amazingly special happened. But it was a day that the whole family enjoyed and no-one got stressed or upset, not even once. And in an family dealing with ASD, that doesn’t happen all that often . I even got to do some reading for goodness sake (Alan Bullock’s biog’ of Hitler and Stalin)

I changed my route slightly this morning and was running past the local baptist church, when I saw this cheery sign:

“Jesus says, ‘Whoever believes in me will not be thirsty’ ”

Help! Our house is being invaded.