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Housejunk (5 unread)

August 29, 2008
21:11
Outer space
» ‎ Housejunk

John is going to a conference tomorrow and he is taking my friend, the wireless router, along with him. I will be disconnected from the whole world for several days while he is gone.

I was nearly going to say something foolish like, “I wonder who I will miss most” but we won’t go there.
21:06
Slings and arrows
» ‎ Housejunk

Today at Toy Library I saw a notice taped to the desk about a local family who we know of (friends of John’s family) and just couldn’t believe it. Three out of four children in the one family have unique, “one-in-a-million” medical conditions, but there is no linked genetic component. They are all rare events that are entirely unlinked.

Basically at the moment they are juggling a 6 yo just diagnosed with a terminal condition; a newborn (4 weeks old) who has life-threatening issues, plus the normal 2 yo. There was also another child, about 4yo, who was born severely disabled and is not living with them. The dad is a self-employed tradesmen trying to come up with the funds for treatment for all this.

I have just never heard of a such an unusual case or so many blows within the one family. There is a small local campaign being co-ordinated through the School and Kinder to raise funds for the family. It would be nice to be able to put a link up to some central website but there isn’t one as yet. Hopefully things may gain more momentum as they go along.

It does once again re-define what is worth worrying about and what isn’t.
8:42
The fabulous plasma screen
» ‎ Housejunk

The fabulous plasma screen

Originally uploaded by Fiona32

I’ve never really understood the appeal of the giant plasma screen taking over the room. Initially when giant TVs first came out it almost seemed like “come on over and meet the family and also I’d like to introduce you to the giant screen”.

However John hired one for a conference he is going to. After last night in the company of the plasma, the old TV looks chunky and cluttered and passe. The plasma is slim and modern and decluttered. It makes our giant pine TV cabinet look so 90s.

Anyway we are not getting one, they cost money.

We also noticed last night that we have recorded almost 200 hours of television on the HDD. I think that is mainly because we miss lots of things and don’t actually watch much TV. So if I could just get 200 straight hours of TV viewing in I would be all up to date.
August 27, 2008
15:09
Play Time
» ‎ Housejunk

It seems a lot of people are sick which is no good at all. My sister has two sick little ones, one with a burst ear-drum, and she has been up every hour overnight. Sadly I only just found out now but we are off there tomorrow to try and help out.

I wanted to put up some of parent session info from our ‘Friday Playgroup’ just in case anyone else is interested. This is some info and homework we have been doing all this week about ‘Play Time’.

parent_child_play_time
play_time

The kids have been given ‘homework’ as well as the parents. They have been talking continually about ‘feelings’ and ‘empathy’. So they were given four sheets, one with a picture of a ‘happy’ face, one ’sad’, one ‘angry’ and one ‘worried’. We have them on our kitchen table and have been making a list all week of the times when these feelings happen. In their Playgroup session they also have done many games about feelings, craft about feelings etc.

I’m really quite blown away at the impact of this. James is suddenly constantly saying things like “Mummy - I’m feeling really, really cross. Can we talk about this?” (which certainly beats just running around madly or having an outburst). Combined with the Time Out Method and the Goals of Misbehaviour info it is all starting to come together into a picture that makes sense. I am getting far more confident with knowing what on earth is going on with bad behaviour and how to handle it effectively. Very glad we are doing this group!
August 26, 2008
21:14
Pampered Pooches
» ‎ Housejunk

James has just taken a great shine to using the digital camera lately and basically I let him do this because it keeps him occupied and silent for lengthy periods. The silence is worth the cost of replacing the camera should the need arise. He is required to use the wrist strap at all times and he does this very responsibly.

Tonight after a lovely visit all day out at Grandma’s I discovered that he had taken approx. 200 photos of the dogs. He was tinkled pink that he got a photo of Bonnie ‘winking’:

Then of course there was Snip, staring balefully through the glass back door with Patch peeping over his shouder:

Then finally, a picture of the two of them in their kennel:

I don’t think I use the term ‘pampered’ lightly. The two dogs are brought to work every day so they won’t ‘be lonely’ at home. At work they have a well-kitted out kennel with an electric dog blanket for the winter.

Apart from the dogs he also took about 50 self-portraits, most of which look like giant alien balloon heads. A few did turn out to include actual people:

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Housejunk (5 unread)

Outer space

Slings and arrows

The fabulous plasma screen

Play Time

Pampered Pooches