Word of the Week 30/7/2021 Expensive #WotW

Our bank accounts have never had so much exercise as they have this week… Hubby finally called the RAC to get his car going. It has sat on the drive since March last year. On Tuesday we took it to a garage for it’s service/mot and there it has stayed. Hopefully we get it back today but oh my, the bill is expensive.

Madam turns 14 on Sunday! starting off a month of birthdays including Sir and Hubby. To be fair she hasn’t asked for a lot but she did want Nanny and Grandad to come over for a birthday lunch, and could she have a buffet. The resulting food bill was expensive.

The kids and I went to Actual Shops yesterday. Sir wanted to go into a well known craft shop and I ended up spending more money… then Madam wanted to visit a toy shop.. they spent their own money in there!

We found out that when Sir turns 18 he will technically be responsible for his own money and that if we want to look after it we will need to apply to the Court of Protection. A quick Google search reveals this is rather an expensive process.. so I’m going to contact various agencies and people for further advice. A post ranting about stressful, pro longed, complicated and expensive processes that need to be followed in order to help learning disabled people will follow I’m sure.

Oh and the ensuite loo has broken. Hopefully that won’t be too expensive to fix….

Word of the Week 23/7/2021 Scorchio! #WotW

Reading back over the replies to last weeks post Anne suggested I could have used “scorchio” for my word then but it seems more fitting for this week so thank you Anne!

I don’t mind heat (to a degree boom boom) but this week really has been far too scorchio for my liking. El Scorchio was the word of choice for front page newspaper headlines any time the mercury in England went over 25c.

It’s not so much the temperature as the humidity, there has literally been no air. Hubby invested in a tower fan, it has been a life saver. It sits on the landing blowing air around the house and has made sleep a little easier.

I have stuck my nose outside in the morning, our garden gets the most sun in the afternoon, even sat out with my friend having coffee yesterday, and on Tuesday I did a little pruning. I also decided to hoover the whole house since everyone was out.. very bad idea. The sweat was running down my nose. Too much information I know.

Today seems a little cooler at 24c (I’ll get a cardigan) we were forecast thunderstorms but they have yet to materialise.

Hope you have all been okay in the heat!

Word of the Week 19/07/2021 Summer #WotW

I know the point of WotW is to sum up the events of the past seven days in a word or phrase and then write a post about it, but so much has gone on that I’m not sure where I’d start and anyway I’m reasonably sure you don’t want to hear me moan about the lack of staff at school or the fact that Sir threw his shoes onto the school roof.. we have them back now.

As I write I am sitting in my back garden with a cup of tea listening to the sounds of summer. Birds, a light breeze, boy racers, sirens…

The school I work at finishes today for the summer holidays, my two break up on Tuesday – a whole two days to myself!

The weather is supposed to be scorchio this weekend and into next week so maybe summer is finally here. We do have a holiday booked (fingers crossed we can go..) apart from that I have no plans to go anywhere or do anything. I shall catch up with family, sit out in the garden and celebrate the mass of birthdays that come in August.

On a side note I’d been searching the house for a gardening book that I *knew* I had but couldn’t think where it was. I found it the other day, in the garage, so I’ve put it with my collection of Monty Don books and shall be reading those too.

Hope you all have a lovely summer

Word of the Week 10/7/2021 Isolating #WotW

I’m sure I am not the only one choosing Isolating as my word for this week, but like so many others that’s what it’s all been about.

Madam’s bubble closed last Friday, she’s done a PCR test which came back negative, and she’s been having teams lessons. To supplement her learning I have also given lessons on How To Do A Food Order, How To Put The Shopping Away, and Folding Clothes For Beginners.

Several of the ladies I work with are also isolating – not related to the school I hasten to add- so we’ve been rather short staffed.

Needless to say I’ve kind of been isolating myself as a result, one trip to the supermarket and going to work is about all I’ve done. Caught up with Gardener’s World instead.

Sir has been at school, he didn’t mind that Madam wasn’t going in, according to him she was “in a meeting”

Back to school for Madam on Monday, fingers crossed we can complete the last week of term!

Word of the Week 3/7/2021 Bubbles #WotW

Photo by Anni Roenkae on Pexels.com

This week started so well… I had two coffee mornings, got my food delivery, a few other bits (mainly for the garden) turned up, I ordered Madam a Freddy Fazzbear face mask from Ebay having never used that site before (I know right) She loves it. We went out for a meal to celebrate my Dad’s birthday and a young lady walked in wearing one, soon as Madam saw it she wanted one! I got to see Dad on his birthday, took him his presents, everything was bubbling along nicely (see what i did there)

Until it wasn’t.

Bubbles are bursting all over the place here ever since the England/Scotland game – can’t imagine why…

With cases rocketing throughout the schools all the kids have been asked to take a PCR test. I didn’t fancy taking Sir to a test center, however I found out you can have test kits sent to your home which you then send back via designated post boxes. So that’s what I did. Waiting for the result, no one has symptoms by the way.

Then on Friday the inevitable happened and Madam’s bubble burst. The school had sent home work packs as “a precaution” a couple of days beforehand so they can jump straight into online learning on Monday. She’s home till the 12th unless anything changes. Sir can continue going to school – in his own private taxi since everyone else is off!

As the weather was so nice last night we sat out in the garden, the kids came out too and Sir was very happily blowing bubbles 🙂

May and June 2021

There were lots of reasons I didn’t do a post in May which I won’t go into, so I’ve done a double update instead.

Everything is looking very green at the moment especially the tomatoes and potatoes

Today I took delivery of a blackberry and a blueberry bush. I think we may get a few fruits from the blackberry!

There is some colour peeking out!

And my salad “bowl” is getting into it’s stride too, a mix of lettuce, radishes and rocket

Can’t believe we are halfway through the year and soon it will be time to start harvesting stuff! At the moment though I’m all about enjoying the garden, there isn’t much for me to do apart from feeding/watering – and the rain has done most of that!

Word of the Week 25/06/2021 Productive #WotW

Aided by the lovely weather at the start of the week I have been very productive lately. I have hoovered, laundered, dried, ironed, filled out forms, wrapped birthday gifts and delivered cards – so many birthdays this month!

I’ve found that by starting my jobs when the kids go out I get more done. I’ve also been working slightly different hours this week, so I get home a little earlier. It’s only fifteen minutes but it makes a big difference.

There have been lots of phone calls this week too, various reviews for Sir and Madam’s parent’s evening. All good I’m pleased to report.

Hubby had been productive too. He has a new toy. A cordless electric lawn mower! He got it on Prime Day saving himself quite a bit of money. He’s already done the back lawn!

He’s gone into the office today, the kids are at school so I HAVE THE HOUSE TO MYSELF ALL DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I also don’t have a car so I’ll have to walk to work but still!

I am being very productive making myself caramel lattes 😀

Pathway to Adult Social Services.

Back in March, after much discussions before then, we finally started the process of getting a Social Worker for Sir. It always seemed a slightly scary prospect to be honest, we don’t need one we thought, but everyone told us we *should* get one.

We first applied to Child Services as he’s under 18 and still in school.

The whole thing moved quite quickly to be fair. I later found out that when the young person gets to about 16 and a half is the right time to be start the ball rolling.

School sent a report off and then I received a call from the First Contact Center. A very lovely lady who explained the steps necessary for getting things organized. This was followed swiftly by a Teams meeting, during which we talked about Sir’s needs and what we wanted from Social Services. I’d been warned don’t tell them everything is okay or they’ll close the case (isn’t that always the way?) but in this instance I was asked “are things so bad you need us to take him off your hands for a while now or is it just help with planning his future such as college?”

Er no! help with planning his future will be fine thanks! but putting it in a straightforward way like that made things easier. It also meant that he could be put on a “pathway to adult services” which means one less form.

A phone appointment was made for the following week (I think) to fill out the necessary forms. Mostly it seemed to be a tick boxing exercise, however, and this is the scary part, the lady clicked the enter button and the computer said NO. What!!! we both cried.

Turns out that even though Ms Nice Lady fills these forms out every day, she’d missed a box. Once she ticked it the computer was happy and Sir was eligible.

Can you imagine if that was a parent filling out the form? who didn’t realise they’d missed a box? One tick is apparently the difference between help and no help.

Anyway, everything got sent off, we received copies, and a few weeks later we had a letter confirming Sir had been referred to the Adult Learning Disability Team. To date he hasn’t been allocated a person but that might not happen until after he’s turned 17.

Overall our experience was quite straightforward, I know not everyone’s circumstances are the same. Pre Covid we would have had a visit but everything was done by phone/teams.

Advice wise, I’d say get in touch with school first as they will be able to get things started, don’t tell social services everything is fine if it isn’t but also be honest about the help you want -if that makes sense. Lastly check your form filling at least three times just to be sure you ticked all the boxes

Word of the Week 18/06/2021 Life Goes On #WotW

It’s been an odd week. My Mother In Law’s funeral was on Monday, we had lovely weather, beautiful flowers and a simple service. Then people went home, Hubby and I went back to their house for a cuppa and got home in times for the kids being dropped home from school. Sir and Madam didn’t go – their choice I may add. It would have been too much for them. Instead Madam planted a Jade plant at school in memory of her Nan. It’s sitting proudly on the kitchen windowsill – all my plants love it there.

The rest of this week has been normal things, food delivery, coffee mornings, Sir threw his shoe up on the school roof – don’t ask – hubby and I are back at work.

My friend’s parents gave us some tomato plants that would otherwise be destined fot the compost bin – they’d grown too many!

I’ve cleared the tubs the tulips were in and put some other plants in there.

It is the Summer Solstice on Monday, the year just keeps ploughing on regardless.

One of the women I work with is leaving today having got a job closer to home. I’ve got flowers and a card to take in.

I have a ticket to a live stream concert tomorrow night, Mum and Dad are coming over to watch too.

Life goes on.

(I will try and be more cheerful next week I promise)

Word of the Week 11/6/2021 Flowers #WotW

There are the wild flowers (well weeds with flowers but they look pretty) that have overtaken the meadow that is our lawn.

There are the flowers that have started to bloom in my containers.

There are the new flowers I bought to replace the tulips.

There are flowers for my Mother In Law – I had no idea such flowers could spark a debate! a nice debate, there are so many designs, so many prices… all sorted now though.

I’m not so keen on the hay fever though.