According to my calendar, today is officially the first day of spring here in the UK. The sign that spring has arrived in our garden is always the blossoming of an old plum tree.
One week ago::
Today::
Last year it suffered the loss of a major bough but it seems to have survived and hopefully some of the blossoms will yield some juicy plums for jam making later in the year.
Even Toby has been noticing that the trees are changing on our regular weekend walks!
Tomorrow (friday 18th March 2011) heralds a day of silence for bloggers around the world as a mark of respect for the victims of Japan's recent disaster so I'm joining in and will not be posting. The organisers are also hoping for donations to the Shelter box relief fund. It's great to see that the target of $5,500 has already been exceeded but those folks need all the help they can get, so every extra penny will count.
The following is a quote from one of the organisers Utterly Engaged
The aim is just raise awareness and respect and acknowledge the devastation going on in Japan.
The guidelines are simple.
1. This coming Friday, March 18th, no posts at all on your blog.
2. Please post a blog post about what you will be doing this Friday whenever possible in hopes to spread the word and whoever else would like to join in. You all can check out what Lydia of Ever-Ours did for her’s here or how we did ours here and do it your way if you’d like. We’ll be posting a reminder post on Thursday evening on my blog too.
3. Tweet and Re-Tweet the shiznit out of the link to http://www.forjapanwithlove.com please.
4. Encourage your readers to contribute to donate shelter to Japan.
Whatever anyone can contribute will be appreciated.
Every little helps.
If you have a blog and want to join in and spread the word please write a post and leave a comment over on Utterly Engaged to let them know you're taking part. Thanks for reading x
Firstly I want to say a humongous thank you for all of the kind and compassionate comments I've had recently. When I'm feeling a bit low I'll read through them all again as I know they'll always lift my spirits and I do feel very privileged to have such generosity and warm-heartedness sent in my direction. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Our half term break was over relatively quickly - probably because we made the conscious decision to keep very busy. The plan was to exhaust Toby by day in an attempt to get him to sleep through the night but boy is he stubborn and he still hasn't slept a full night this year. We're tweaking dosages on the melatonin and continuing to try out everything we can think of including amended bedtime routines and weighted blankets.
Anyway, in the course of half term keeping busy I did a lot of driving and during a particularly bad traffic jam on the M25 Amy and I decided that our car was not really properly equipped for long journeys - there were no sweeties in the car, not even a three year old, dust covered toffee lurking at the back of the glove compartment! Obviously this needed remedying quickly and we headed off to our local Mr Simms Olde Sweetie Shoppe - what an emporium of delights!
I got all nostalgic over chocolate limes and aniseed twists as we always had a sweetie tin in the car on childhood holidays. We finally settled on acid drops, fruit rock, butter mintoes, sherbert fruits and butterscotch and we found the perfect sweetie tin (part of a set) so we're now properly equipped for our next road trip.
Have a sweet weekend won't you x
I've been reading blogs for 6 years now and I thoroughly enjoy it. I'm especially drawn to creative blogs as I love the mix of real life and crafting that makes each of my favourite blogs personal and unique. I've never though felt the need to leave any unkind or callous comments anywhere - it seems un-necessary because if you come across a post you don't agree with you can simply click out and visit somewhere else, after all reading a blog or leaving a comment isn't compulsory is it?
I wonder then what compels someone to reach out with bitterness and leave a spiteful comment like the one left for me last week? I think I'd have felt rather ashamed at having written something like that in the attempt to shovel a little meanness into someone else's day. My personal view is that such comments always reflect far more badly on the commenter than the person that they're aimed at.
Anyway, let's not dwell on the crappy side of blogging.
Here I've been feeling foxy, although I still haven't managed to knit a whole one - I seem stuck on heads but the bodies will no doubt follow along. I'm feeling impulsive in my knitting at the moment and I think it's something to do with having that lovely new yarn to try out - it's hard to leave it just sitting there waiting to be used!
On the Toby front much is unchanged but I'm filling in lots of charts about sleep patterns, ABC behaviour charts to record and analyse his frequent meltdowns and lists of what worked to calm him at a particular time. This will all help in an upcoming meeting with the educational psychologist and it makes me feel better too because I feel like I'm doing something positive to help him.
I'm signing off for a week or so as next week is half term break. Hopefully when I come back spring will have sprung and I'll find you all feeling happy and frisky! Have a good week all!
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*An 'ABC' chart can be used to record behavioural concerns. 'A' stands for antecedents, ie what occurs immediately before a behavioural outburst and can include any triggers, signs of distress or environmental information. The 'B' refers to the behaviour itself and is a description of what actually happened during the outburst or what the behaviour 'looked' like. The 'C' refers to the consequences of the behaviour, or what happened immediately after the behaviour. It can also include information regarding other people's responses to the behaviour and the eventual outcome for the individual. In addition, it’s a good idea to keep track of where and when the behaviour occurred to assist in identifying any patterns.
All of the meetings to try and get some help for Toby have now taken place and we have some new strategies to implement - things that give increased structure and predictability to Toby's day which will hopefully lessen some of his anxiety. Our appointed social worker is lovely and very easy to talk to and she will continue to see us over the next few months and monitor our situation before deciding whether respite is appropriate or not. Toby's teacher and speech therapist are continuing to provide daily feedback and ideas and the paediatrician recognised that Toby needs some help to manage life at the moment and has prescribed melatonin to hopefully help him settle and get a good night's sleep. This is potentially the most impactful development for us right now as we're all exhausted from almost a month of only a few hours of sleep a night punctuated by extremely stressful episodes of tantruming from poor Toby. The prospect of a full 8 hours is pure bliss right now and I'm looking forward to getting the prescription through (hopefully in the next day or two).
So life here is looking more hopeful again and things are starting to feel manageable once more. Even my little hyacinth bulb is echoing the mood of optimism and is now in full bloom.
In terms of feeling postitive and optimistic, a little retail therapy never goes amiss does it? I'm normally drawn to shoes of a reddish nature but it was love at first sight with these spring green ones and I'm liking the thought that they're walking me back to happier times.
Thanks so much for all of the kind messages and sorry to everyone who is still waiting on a reply from me. I'm slowly working to catch up a little and things will hopefully speed up further once sleep has worked it's way back into our schedule!