FFS Friday - Cropped

I have a funny story to tell. My MIL loves to bring us gifts. She's always bringing stuff for the boys and sometimes brings things for Tiger and I. She does most of her shopping at op shops so some of the things she brings are interesting. 

 

It's been a while since she bought anything for Tiger and I, however a few weeks ago she decided to send us presents. Brand new presents. She sent a gym bag for Tiger. It's huge and he already has a gym bag so he's going to use it as an overnight bag. She decided to get a top for me. I tried to talk her out of it as I didn't want her spending money (she's a pensioner), however she insisted. I told her I'd need a medium.

 

She went to the sports shop and bought me a tshirt. When it arrived and I modelled it for Tiger he laughed. When I showed Mum and SD they both laughed. She bought me a small crop top. Hahahaha!

 

I think she forgets that Tiger and I are not kids any more, we're nearly 50. This almost 50 year old does not wear crop tops. The sad thing is that it's brand new and there's no way I'd wear it. I'll give it to a friends daughter otherwise it'll just sit at my house collecting dust. 

 

Not a good look

I sent this photo to a friend and she told me to definitely not wear it out of the house hahahaha.

We thanked MIL and told her that I love it. I just hope she doesn't expect to see me wearing it next time she visits.

 Have a wonderful weekend beautiful people.

 

 

Galen Leather

Something you probably don't know about me is that I love stationery. I've loved it since I was a child. Now that I have children I don't have much time to write and I really miss it. 

When I was contacted by Galen Leather asking if I'd like to review one of their products I jumped at the chance. I couldn't decide what I liked best so sent them a list of items I liked and let them surprise me. 

They made the perfect choice. I've wanted an everyday travellers notebook for about five years now. I have a fancy once but not one that I'd use every day. 

 

This is the Crazy Horse Forest Green leather and it's beautiful. The leather is soft and the colour is gorgeous. 

You can customise everything about the notebook. You choose the size, leather colour, elastic colour, brass charm, leather tag and you can even have it embossed with your name or initials.

I got plain paper, it's very thick and feels luxurious. As it's nice and thick the ink doesn't show through to the other side, even when I'm using texta's.

This would make a gorgeous gift. The whole package is an experience. It's all packaged beautifully and unwrapping and putting it together was an exciting experience for this stationery lover.

They even included and evil eye charm!

Galen Leather ships internationally. They have a lovely range of stationery, bags, pen cases and notebook covers. I'll definitely be ordering from them soon!

 

Thoughts of the week

1. You know when you do someone a favour and it bites you in the bum over and over again, like the gift that just keeps on giving? That is happening to me at the moment.

 

2. The weather is cooling down. I'm so glad winter is on the way.

 

3. Who shopped the Sephora sale? I stocked up on our WelleCo Supergreen powder and that's it.

 

4. I was very tempted to get one of the Espressoh lipsticks but it's pointless at the moment as I'm only wearing lip balm. I'll get it once the mask mandate is over.

 

5. I start regular casual work next week. It's going to be fun (I hope).

 

 

FFS Friday - Hunting

Hello beautiful people. How are you all? I hope you are well and happy and life is wonderful. If it isn't, I hope things ease up soon.

So. School goes back next week. I've enjoyed the holidays. I like having my boys home. 

Over easter my Step Dad came over and painted our main living area. He even painted the ceiling! 

Our house was built in 2007. Back then taupes, creams and feature walls were popular. It was painted cream with taupe and cool dark brown feature walls. I was glad to get rid of it. It's now all white with no feature walls and it looks so much better. 

 

Tiger didn't want white, but SD agreed with me so we painted it white. Tiger is now sold on the white, it's fresh and bright and looks so much better. 

 

It was also a good chance to get rid of some stuff. This house has no storage at all, so crap accumulates easily. As much as I fight it there's always crap accumulating. I'm the only one in the house that tries to clear the clutter, when it's one against three I have no chance of winning. 

I saw Chai's psych last week. She asked me to come in without Chai so she could tell me how worried she is about him. She thinks he needs a whole new assessment because she suspects that he might have other, undiagnosed conditions. FFS. We do not need this. 

I wasn't going to say anything to Chai but my cousin told him. I'm not happy about that at all. Thanks to my cousin, Chai and I discussed it. He's not fussed so that's good. (I didn't tell him what conditions the psych thinks he has).

We're going back to his Dr today to try to get some help. We have an appointment with his paed at the end of June but I'm going to get referrals to two more paediatricians as I suspect our current one won't be around much longer. 

It's so frustrating trying to get answers. Not having continuity of care doesn't help. We've seen so many different health professionals. I'd love to find one good paediatrician that we could stick with, it would make things so much easier. 

 

Seeing my little boy struggle is awful. I feel so bad for him. He has so many challenges, it's heartbreaking to watch. He's at the age where he's really noticing the differences which is so tough for him. I just want to cuddle him tight and fill him full of love and joy. If only the world could be more understanding of peoples differences. 

Added to that, getting help is really expensive. A reassessment will cost around $5,000 and we'll get back $70 back from medicare. We paid for his last assessment with our credit card, I'm not sure how we're going to pay for the next one.   

 

We're currently trying to pay off our credit cards. One will be paid off and closed soon, then we're going to do the same with our other card. The last thing I want to do is use the credit card again, but we might not have any choice. If it's a choice of debt or my child's health I'll choose debt every time.  

 

I know we're lucky that we have the credit card option, a lot of families don't have that luxury. 

 

So once again I'm on the hunt for answers for Chai. As exhausting and demoralising as it is, I won't stop searching and fighting for answers for my boy. I'll eventually get the diagnosises and treatments he needs. When I do all the stress will have been worth it. 

 

You know what's good about all this? After all these years of struggling and fighting for help and answers I'm being proven right. I've said all along that things are not right and I've been correct. 

The moral of the story is, don't accept answers that don't seem right to you. You know yourself and you know your child. If you think something is wrong then it is. Keep on searching and fighting until you get the answers that you need.

Have a wonderful weekend beauties.

Thoughts of the week

1. It's school holidays! We get a break from having to be up and out of the house first thing in the morning. I get a break from having to be organised. 

Chai is happy about the holidays, Eljay is not. He'd much rather be at school.

 

2. We still don't have Lancome Juicy Tubes in Australia. I messaged Lancome last year and they said we'd have them by the middle of the year. Nearly 12 months later we still don't have them.

 

3. I've found a job that I really, really want. There are two problems. It's full time and it's based in the city. I wish that everything wasn't based around the capital city. I don't understand why more organisations don't branch out to the regions. Land and rent is cheaper and the workforce is available.

 

4. Bon Maxie have released a phone wallet. It sold out within hours of it's launch. I want one. I've decided it's going to be my birthday present. Hopefully they'll be back in stock before June.

 

5. That's all I've got.

FFS Friday - Blank

So. The Will Smith thing. I'm not going to talk about that. But I am going to talk about what triggered him. Rude comments being made about his wife. Not okay is it? But if we pretend it's a joke then it's okay? I've never understood that. Why should people accept something awful being said about them or their loved ones because it's said as a joke? It's still not okay. 

 

I can't watch shows where they roast or make jokes about people, it just seems cruel and unkind. Even worse when that person is sitting there listening and the camera is on their face to get their reaction. It's so very cruel. Expecting someone to sit there and laugh whilst they're being humiliated is wrong.

 

Perhaps it's time for it to be called what it is, cruelty. 

Cruelty is not funny and should be called out. Just not with violence, that doesn't stop anything. Now, instead of the attention being on the cruel act, all the attention is on the reaction. 

 

It happens a lot in society and it's not kind. People say awful things then pretend they're joking. Joke or not, it's still not acceptable. 

The world will change with kindness, not with cruelty.

 

That's all I have to say today.

 

 

 

 

  

Thoughts of the week

1. I've only done four days work so far, but I'm really enjoying it. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy working.

 

2. It's also helped me remember that I'm ambitious and I want a career again. It's not going to be possible for a few years more, but I'm okay with that.

 

3. Here's your reminder to wash your make-up brushes and unsubscribe from email lists.

 

4. Sol de Janeiro has a new body cream out that looks interesting.

 

5. I've discovered Heardle, it's much better than Wordle.

FFS Friday - Well

Parenting Chai is the hardest, most difficult part of my life. He's a gorgeous boy but life isn't easy for him and that breaks my heart. I wish that I could make his life easier. I'm constantly searching for ways to make his life easier. 

 

Tiger is not doing anything to help. He took eight months to read Chai's diagnosis report, has done nothing to educate himself about any of Chai's conditions and does nothing to help make life easier for Chai. 

 

I gave up trying to get him to be involved in managing Chai's therapies years ago, he's just not interested. Truth be told, he was one of the many people over the five years it took me to get Chai diagnosed, who said that there wasn't anything wrong. He regularly told me I was wasting money when I was trying to get help. Clearly I ignored him.

 

I've accepted that I have to deal with everything myself, but what really annoys me is when I make a decision and Tiger criticises it. As far as I'm concerned, if he chooses not to be part of the decision making process, he has no right to criticise any decisions I make. That's not how it works. Either we make decisions together or he keeps his opinion to himself. Simple.

 

A few months ago Chai and I decided to try medication. We've tried in the past and it has failed badly, but Chai wanted to try again so we did. 

As usual, the medication didn't work, it made things worse, so Chai is no longer taking it.

 

Tiger won't stop carrying on about what a mistake it was. Every time he brings it up I shut him down. I tell him he refused to be a part of the decision making process so he doesn't get to complain. It's not stopping him. I'm over hearing about it. 

 

I had an appointment with Chai's psych yesterday and it's left me feeling even more worried than I normally am. She confirmed everything I was thinking which is not a good thing. 

 

The discussion went like this:

Psych: He isn't going to cope at a mainstream high school.

Me: I know.

Psych: But there are no other options.

Me: Yep.

Psych: He really needs to be under the care of a psychiatrist.

Me: I know. 

Psych: But you can't get in to one.

Me: Yep.

Psych: You really need the care of a good paediatrician.

Me: I put in 19 applications, got 11 rejection letters and the other 8 never got back to me. I'm going to see if I can find practitioners in Sydney or Melbourne who'll do telehealth.

Psych: That's not ideal for him but it'd be better than nothing. They've all got long waiting lists though.

 

How the f@ck am I supposed to get help? How am I supposed to make things better? There are no services, I can't get in to a paediatrician, I can't get in to a psychiatrist, I can't get an OT, I can't get to see the Educational Psychologist, I can't get any of the services that we need. WTF am I supposed to do? Move to another country where there are services available? I can't get help through the public or the private health system. We pay a small fortune in private health cover, yet I can't access the help that we need. 

 

I am so very worried for the future, especially next year when Chai starts high school. Without the help and support that he needs I don't know what's going to happen. 

Swift action needs to be taken to ensure that people can access the services they need. It won't though and people will continue to struggle. Families will continue to be broken, parents won't cope and children will be raised with so many issues that they wouldn't have had if they were able to access the services they needed.

Enough whinging. I hope you are all well and have a beautiful weekend.