Life is good :)

We've had some pretty rough times over the past decade, and particularly over the past year. So now I am thrilled to say that life is pretty good just now. I'm taking time to appreciate things going well, and I'm not about to start taking it forgranted!

 

The kids are all settling into school really well. It's different with Matt away at school - but I can't deny it's easier. I keep thinking I've jumped into someone else's life by mistake! I was talking to a friend the other day, who has a son with autistic spectrum and other complex challenges. She mentioned that her nose was sore where he had managed to punch her (not deliberately). When she said that, I realised that for the first time in years, I had gone for 2 weeks without being hit!

 

Reading that back I realise it may sound self pitying, or accusatory, or victim-like. I am none of those things. And the reason that I was the person being hit is because I am the constant, the safe one that is there to absorb the overflow of frustration and stress that are part of every day life when you are assaulted by your own senses and trying to comply in a world that works with unwritten rules that you don't understand. That's not to say that I don't try to teach him not to hit - it's a work in progress. And the school he is at will help in so many ways - not least by reducing the underlying overstimulation - and by teaching him strategies to route his frustration in different ways.

 

This has turned out to be a different post to the one that I set out to write. But that's probably not a bad thing, the other (very excited) post can wait.

 

Life is good. How cool is that???

 

Speak soon xx