#study #mock #exams #family #newlockdown #birthday #Halloween #emotions

Hi everyone hope your doing well? This last week I was off work just my little family and me, I missed the others but sometimes everyone else has to to a back seat so I can focus on my own little family,.

Study for mock exams

The nature of my work means I am always hands on, striving to make life better, striving for them to have a beautiful quality of life.

Yes taking holidays away from work is not an easy thing to do, for many reasons , I love my job, not just a little bit but a lot.

I always feel some guilt not working, just because I am part of their furniture for so long now. I bring the fluffy , the laughs, the positive.

Stability of care, nurture. It’s how I work now and how I have always worked I guess. I never do things by half’s I give my all.

Where to start , I really should be going to sleep right now but it seems I am still wide awake, we are heading into another lock down here in Uk I believe it’s meant to start on Thursday till December the 2nd , sometimes you just have to take each day as it comes , right now that is what is going to happen but schools will remain open and my work it will continue, I am back with Hayley tomorrow.

I have so much to right about and share of my week off, but I want to focus a little on the main reason I took this particular week off. First school holiday’s ,I wanted to focus on Niki and Jake, but particularly Jake. He has his mock exams starting tomorrow and his anxiety was building.

So the last week of school term their was after school study, normally not something Jake would take part in but this time he went to everyone.

We had one night where things could of ended badly , the study session had not happened only no-one told Jake because he had to leave class and go to the base as he had some anxiety and needed a moment of calm , I was due to pick him up at 4pm , Niki however finished at three so I picked her up popped to shops before I took her home, only Jake had messaged several times to come get him I was driving so didn’t her my phone, when I got home the phone was ringing it was Jake saying he was standing out side the school since 3pm, now this is where communication isn’t passed on properly sometimes by the school, the weather was wet and cold. And he almost left the school to walk home. Thank goodness he did what we practiced and stayed where he was.

Still no harm done , except some anxiety , Jake has worries about me and gets a little panicky if I miss his calls or am ever late which isn’t very often normal if I am late I will phone him. But this time I was expecting and told to pick him up at 4 and was notified it got counseled.

Anxiety really does play apart because Jake’s anxiety tells him something bad has happened he things in worst case scenario’s it isn’t something he can help it is just part of him.

So kind of got off the topic of last day of school he came out very stressed I think one of his practice test results wasn’t what he wanted to achieve. So we started having a chat on the way home. His words were impactful because he revealed something that one teacher had said , that he used to be a bratty kids with bratty behavior. He carried on saying he had ruined his whole life by being bad and refusing school back in middle school.

This went on until we got home, then I sat him down gave him a drink because he got so worked up he was almost in tears.

So I reminded him he wasn’t bad, naughty bratty at all , and that he had suffered trauma then at that time, and he his behavior them was due to what he had experienced and his real fear of school. That it was the schools job to have endured he had a safe place to learn, it was his schools job to keep him safe and fairly deal with the bullying. You see this went on on through his 5th and intensified in his 6th year when he was taking his SATs tests, on the day of one of them he was strangled in the play ground by another kid. Which left him traumatized, and that time wasn’t the first time or the same person. I guess he suddenly got all of the feelings flooding through him and reminding him of before the teachers words just brought it back. So after a big hug and talking through that trauma , he got out his first practice paper and set his timer and just worked.

We took the weekend off and we’re going to begin his study’s on the Monday but we hit a technical hitch when we tried to go on to school website , and Google class room to see what study had been set , it was blank for every subject. We said we would try Monday morning again but still couldn’t get on so we improvised. We set up a study chart laying out times colour coordinating it for each subject the plan was laid out. he had all his Geography books so first lesson he studied was that. We took a break after to go pick up some physically study books from the shops maths science Macbeth for English health and catering. Got a brand new set of stationary so he was ready for exams.

He came home and got stuck in , the one thing I learned from this study books are very expensive , 70 pounds it cost for them all, Jake doesn’t like spending money but for his education and fitting it around his needs at a the time I think it was a very wise investment. Always good to have a non digital back up.

But literally this worked out well , it kept him off the computers which are very distracting to kids sometimes, we set up on the kitchen table he had his calm favorite Japanese music softly playing good lighting and food and drink .

I set myself up to for studying , so we each did our study, plus he liked the company and he could talk through things he didn’t understand and could be redirected if distracted, I am a proactive mum I will always find a way to adapt things to his needs. Keep a calm environment. Tell him when he needs breaks this went on all week , by the end of it over 40 hours study. Because he wanted to.

The study seems to have payed off , 2 exams done today and a happy confident child came out of school today,This is what i hope continues for him for the rest of his exams, this is going to put him on a good standing for his main exams if they go ahead in the summer. I actually pray they do and they get the continued teacher time, so all the kids can reach their full potential.

Hubby’s Birthday

Have you ever tried to keep a surprise going with your kids, and the person you want to surprise is their, not an easy thing to do but the kids were super enthusiastic about making his birthday special for him, we couldn’t have our oldest son home or his family round as they are not in our bubble, but as my dad and Hayley is and they only bring our home to 6 people they came for dinner and were part of the surprise, my hubby and dad get on really well and I think they both like spending time together they like talking about the same things. the preparation’s had to be done he day before as I had the night shift with the kiddos , have you every tried to blow up a 100 balloons without getting dizzy, or laughing hard because they fly around the room making blow off noises that have the kids screaming with laughter, we put a sign or the door no dad’s allowed or I’m telling Mum so he didn’t go sneaking while I was at work, I left the kids in charge of the no dad zone.

Then their was the cake to decorate I always like to give cakes the personal touch a little bit of me. The elves joined in Jake disappeared some where in the balloons at one point. The theme of the cake was music and Dj that has always been the biggest part of my hubbies life and how we first met. I finnished work about 11 and the kids were waiting up for me when i got home to set it all up. I think we all got a real late night around 2 am It was the holidays anyway and guess i knew they would sleep in the next day while I prepared the meal.

whilst prepareing the food the next day was also talking to my dad about what time he would come so i could time the time to perfection. also speaking to our Josh on phone he had to wait for his pressies till kids got up.

I also was sorting out when I would face time his mum so she could be thier when we sang happy birthday alit the candles

I choose roast lamb , potatoes rosted veg, stuuffed peppers, salade and some greek trimmings houmos Olives peppers , with some fruits to nibble on.

It was a fun day, we opened presents just before dad and Hayley arrived.

His face when his mum and dad facetimed. This is the children’s Greek grandparents, lovingly know as Yai Yai and Papou.

He kept asking if I needed him to do anything but I shooed him away, absaloutly not on his birthday that’s my job to 100% focus on him. Every other birthday we hold at our hoime he takes over the cooking and cleaning duties so I can just enjoy the day. I Just loved seeing him smile.

Halloween

Even Hayley popped in to do a pumpkin , no one gets left out we actually did them on the wednesday, before. had to get the decorations out of the attic , if you have been following the blog for a while you will remember we normally go all out at halloween to make it a fun experience for the our children and Hayley, Bjut also for all the kids that come but this year. Their was no other children , no trick or treating a sad reality of living in a pandemic, we have our bubble like all other families, we have to be more cautious because of the special needs and health issues of everyone.

We done the best we could and today if it will let me i will share our halloween sweet hunt with you all we are a slightly nutty family so the clues were down to my hubby a privious fun pub and night club DJ.

We set it all up before getting creative with costumes the boys choose not to dress up but me and especially Niki love this part the most every year, she even let me use her dress and one of her wigs she uses for cos play.

So the outfits well Niki had one but she changed for photo’s just because I wanted photo’s that i could share with her in them . She helped me choose this year I could of do a differnet variation of bat girl agian but she thought draculars bride i let her style wig and do make up. it was really special having that moment with her we used to do it alot when she was younger but now she is super perticular about things she likes to do it herself.

I kind of look like my mum in these photos when she was in her younger days , she had long dark hair.

We all sat and had dinner together before we sent kids off while we finished writing the clues for sweet hunt and hid the sweets. i had to take the wig off though all them lit candles made it way to hot .

We all got in to a little the roll play that is halloween. the hunt was just so funny and age apporiate for older teens and young adults.

Here is our sweetie hunt, there is something different this time i actually forgot about my issues with talking and getting my words mixed and actually jumped at the chance to read the clues out for the hunt . I think that is the most comfortable I have ever felt on video.

So before i finish my blog tonight , with what hayley got upto on my week off from having her i would like to say thanks so much for visiting our blog.

We really do appriciate people who take the time to share our journey’s and adventures, while we take on the world one day at a time, while we reach new hights achieve more things asa Family, parent’s and as childre more importantly as indeviduals. we don’t have all the answers, we don’t always get things right or have the picture perfect life what we have though is real , caring and loving, with every thing we face with every step forward and those moments where things stay in the same place and the days that or not so good. WE are just an ordinary family with extraordinary minds. we see things differently, experience them differently, and love differently that is us and that is my perfect.

Hayley and Dads project they worked together on last week, you know they braked together now, go shopping, do crafts and her tablet spur each other on to excersize , i love seeing that they are doing that together.

Hayley’s special intrest is Mickey Mouse, so she was making it to sit on the window ledge in her Gym. My dad when he worked was a talented decorateter and carpenter since he was young. retired now though.

The finished product

They did such an amazing Job , so proud of them both.

Have a beautiful night.

Much love Faye xxx