Autistic Children Blog

I was so nervous this weekend. Beth had her first weekend away since she was on primary school camp. It was a fair distance too, I came upon this organisation when my sister introduced me to her neighbours, and she lives 3 1/2 hours away! Beth and I went to visit though and we discussed with her if she wanted to try a couple of days stay there.

I think it’s a bit of an introduction to her not being at home. A fun one that I obviously wanted to be a positive experience. From all accounts it was.

Beth was picked up from home on Friday . I had already left for work and got a panicked phone call from Paul to say she’d left her phone behind. OMG! I was madly scrambling to find their number and he saw them pulling back into the driveway! Disaster averted.

Saturday they were to go horseriding. I had my fingers crossed for good weather and luckily they got to go. Then some of the group went to the football. Beth politely declined when offered on the phone on Friday. Instead she went to a chocolatier which by all accounts went well. What a fabulous day, horses AND chocolate!  There’s lots of great photos that I’ll share too. Those of you on my social media will have seen them no doubt, I’m like a new mother oversharing her baby photos!

Today she fed a few of the animals before heading home. It’s such a lovely couple who run the retreat. I’ll pop a link on here for anybody wanting to check it out. Beth excitedly told me that she’s keen to go back, and also to some other places. I’ve had a look at a few a little closer so I’m so pleased that she enjoyed herself. It’s called Wattle Tree Country Retreat. Here’s a link to their facebook page too.

As for me, I felt a little lost without my girl! In a good way though. On a Saturday after work my youngest now comes to meet me so she can drive home and get some learners hours up. Usually I like to get home and see Beth but as she wasn’t home I didn’t have to rush and had a leg massage! Both Bill and Bridie were out last night and it was weird just having Paul and I home. And when I did think how nice it was, I had a pang of guilt for thinking that way! I think there will be more of these coming, it’s been good for both of us! I’ve popped in a photo of Beth’s new sloth earrings bought on her trip. First time we’ve changed them since she got them pierced!

Have a lovely week everybody! x

I’m so excited that Ashleigh is back! We think she’s ace anyway but I’m always so impressed at her guidance to get Beth to create such beautiful artworks. Sometimes they can be a little quirky or off kilter but that makes them all the more Beth! Here are some she did this morning. The horse was done from Ash’s phone and the cocky was done for one that is stuck in the backyard as we speak. The wildlife people are coming to save it and Beth wanted to do a picture of it to show it so that it didn’t feel too sad. She’s named him Puffy. She’s so bloody gorgeous!

We’re very sad as we are no longer having Caitlyn coming over. Last week she took Beth to the library and had lunch again. She is fantastic with Beth and Beth just adores her. Sadly she’s moving to another job and, as she was the reason we were using that company, we shall be moving on too. I love the dynamic with them so am looking for another young lady to take Beth on the outings she enjoys. I have her name down at a couple of places. I shall be removing the tags to the organisation she worked for as for reasons I won’t go in to I’m not keen on using them anymore.

We have other big things in the system though! I went to see the exercise physiologist at the gym this morning for myself to get back into exercising. He is now doing work with the NDIS and is happy to do a weekly session with Beth! He’s a lovely young man, and very knowledgeable about what is needed so he’s going to start sessions every Friday morning. Beth has really missed her sessions and misses Mel terribly, as a trainer and as a friend. (We must catch up Mel!) Taylor is a gentle, nice man and I think would be an excellent fit for Beth. I must warn him though of her penchance for asking spunky young men out!

The other big thing is that Beth is going away this weekend! She’s going on a farm stay weekend, being picked up on Friday and dropped home on Sunday. We’re rather excited! It’s the start of giving her some time away from family. Hopefully it will be a positive experience. It sounds wonderful. She’ll be going horseriding amongst other things and there are lots of animals to see. I figured if we start off with 2 or 3 weekends a year she’ll start feeling a bit more adult and independant of me. I don’t know what the future holds housing wise yet but it’s a start to a scary prospect. For me at least! Have a great week everybody! xx

We’re so excited, Ashleigh is back!!! For long term readers you would know that Beth used to do an art class with a gorgeous girl called Ashleigh. She did some amazing artworks and we even created a calendar for that Christmas as there were heaps of lovely pictures.

For various reasons, covid being of course the main one, we stopped doing the art class. Beth did try one in town but it wasn’t as casual as this one and it soon stopped when lockdowns took effect. I had still been in contact with Ash and let her know we’d be keen for her to come back and a few weeks ago she messaged and said she was ready. We started this week but Ash was so excited she turned up last week as Beth was getting ready for her movie date with Caitlyn! I felt terrible but she realised and all was good.

This week Ashleigh brought different mediums and they had a good play of blending colours and some animal stencils. And of course the morning tea came out of scones! We’re very happy to have her back. Next time I’m joining in to finish some artworks that I was doing in my old art class, I just need that eye of experience to guide me.

Hope you’re all having a wonderful day! xx

We’ve had a lovely week. Starting off with a nice long weekend and will be finishing with another long weekend, can’t get better than that!

Beth had a couple of things on this week. Not working on Monday, she had a quiet day. Tuesday I went back to work and I write a list for her of things she has to do. Nothing too major but there’s usually an actual job or two. I plump it out by including things such as having a shower and cleaning her teeth.  So for example Tuesdays list had unpacking the dishwasher, shower and teeth, making her bed (a fairly new chore), picking up all of Lola’s soft toys (our golden retriever who always has one in her mouth) which is a brand new job, taking a photo and sending it to me, putting the spa on, reading on the couch for 1 hour and being awesome. She has a little box to tick. Sometimes Bridie shitstirs and puts something on the end like ‘clean Bridie’s room!’ And Beth says to me that she didn’t get a chance to do that one!

On Wednesday Beth and Caitlyn went to the movies. It was good because I had to take Bridie to the doctors so I had bought the tickets and gotten Beth ready. I sent Beth’s number to Caitlyn in case she didn’t answer the door. I love going to the movies with Beth but she wanted to see a second movie these holidays so I was happy to hand over the reigns this week! Here’s some lovely pictures Caitlyn took of them!

I reckon Caitlyn enjoys herself as much as Beth does!

On Thursday Beth had work. Last time her and Caitlyn went out Beth was up until all hours, wired as anything. Paul said he got up to go to the toilet and Beth was on her tablet about 4am! So not sure if she stayed up all night or woke up early. Either way, she was complaining of a headache and I chose not to send her as she wouldn’t have had a good day and neither would they I’m tipping! So Wednesday night this week was nice and peaceful and we had a big talk about getting a good night’s sleep before work. Looks like she had a great day , here she is enjoying one of her favourites.

Next week will be exciting too, our lovely art teacher is back! I felt awful, Beth called me at the doctors saying Ash had turned up on Wednesday morning, we had the dates mixed up! I had to say sorry, it’s next week. Beth is really excited, she’s really missed doing her art work! Have a wonderful weekend everybody xx

just wanting to apologize for all these test posts coming out. There has been weird things happening with the blog and I’m not quite sure what’s going on but they are not from me. Hopefully haven’t been hacked somehow!

It’s the long weekend! I know because I’ve been comatosed most of the morning after eating a lindt bunny with my coffee while watching true crime. And now I’m stuffed because I’ve been shopping to replace the lindt bunny that I ate this morning with my coffee. Because, you know, it’s actually still only Saturday!

Beth has this week off. It’s hard when you don’t have young school kids because it was really easy to keep track of the time when they were all at school. Now Beth is working, Bill is at University which has different breaks and Bridie is in year 12 but still doing her placement hours through the holidays. So all over the place. And of course it’s different with me working. I look back on those years when I dreaded the school holidays. Beth was so hard and at times Bridie was even harder. Then there was the nicer years when the playdates did the entertaining for me and I loved those times. I don’t particularly like children, especially needy ones! It’s gotten worse as I have gotten older. I’m loving their ages now. They have nice, respectable friends (with a lovely dose of sarcasm) who I enjoy speaking with and I know that they behave the same at other people’s houses. All of Bridie’s friends are driving, and she will be soon enough, it’s a whole different ballgame now!

I sometimes wonder to myself if Beth thinks of the things that others do at her age. Some of the girls she was friends with at primary school have one or two children of their own. Most have tattoos, most are living with their partners or at least moved out of home. She’s never brought up thoughts about having sex or any other grownup things. If she did I would talk about it (prudish as I am) as I do to Bridie and her friends at times. I like to think I’m open minded about most things, even if sex talk makes me feel uncomfortable. My kids all know that nothing is taboo and that I’m perfectly comfortable with any choices (for want of a better word) that they make. I love that in this day and age, people can express themselves more freely and I find it incredibly brave for them to do so. It takes a lot of guts in this world of judgement that we have created. Beth occasionally asks questions about such things but not in reference to herself.

I find that the spa is an excellent place for us to talk. Beth is very good at saying ‘I don’t know’ when she can’t be bothered thinking of the answer to a question. Similarly if asked what her favourite anything is she’ll say ‘all of them’ because she doesn’t want to choose. When out of the spa she’s more often than not got headphones on so it’s even worse as I’m bothering her. In the spa she has no choice to listen to me and we end up having some good chats.

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter! It feels so good to be back on track with this blog, I absolutely love writing it! I know we’ll be eating lots of chocolate and slothing around feeling sick! How silly! Then Monday is a holiday so the diet can start again on Tuesday! xx

Here’s one of my favourite pictures of Beth, with one of the snakes at work. She has no fear when it comes to animals! x

Beth had a good day at work today by all accounts. I’m trying to make everything nice and cruisy in the mornings as she has been having a few shitty days. She gets worked up and over tired at times and it builds up to a not very nice day I think. So this morning I told her if she had a good day she’d have a treat when she got home. I changed her sheets and made the bed with nice clean linen and popped a new book on her pillow. After the movies the other day we went to the bookshop to spend her money from Grandma and Grandpa. She picked some books by Neil Patrick Harris and then we found books for the movie The Bad Guys that we had just seen. Of course buying them in the set of 12 was much cheaper so I went with that option! She had 2 to start with and really enjoyed reading them so I said the others would be as a reward when she’s been good. (Also trying to stop rewarding with food!)

Here’s a very cute photo of her with a lizard today. She always looks happiest when she’s cuddling an animal, even if it’s not a cuddly one!

Now she’s got a week or so off. It’s nice to reset. I’m also excited because I work on Saturdays and this weekend I have 4 days in a row off. So I’m sure we’ll find some fun things to do!

Have a wonderful week everybody! xx

Sorry it’s been a few weeks since I wrote. I was stuffing around with the website as the subscriptions weren’t working. It’s still a work in progress mind you but I don’t want to hold off on writing all the time.

We’ve had a busy few weeks. Beth ended up not being able to go on her weekend away because the lady who runs it ended up with covid! Bloody thing has a lot to answer for, it’s ruled everything for the last 2 years! We’ve rescheduled until the second weekend in May so she’s still excited. It’s the next step towards a little bit of independence from me so I’m pretty excited too.

Beth has also been out with her new friend and support worker Caitlyn. They seem to have a love of animals and fast food in common so having a wonderful time!  They went to the zoo on the first day. Then the second week they went back to the zoo because they didn’t get to see it all the first time. Then on Wednesday they went to the library and had fish and chips for lunch. And when they came back they took the dogs for a walk. It’s been really lovely. I’ll pop a link to the facebook page of the agency here that we are now using if anybody is looking for support workers. We’re really happy with them.

Beth turned 23 a couple of weeks ago! She was 10 when I started writing this blog. When Dad was still alive he often talked about making it into a book. One day I’d like to do something like that with it. So, if there are any talent scouts for writing out there, hit me up!

It’s hard to know what to buy for a 23 year old who’s not that fussed about fashion. We went to the Van Gogh exhibition at the Lume which was great, and they had a DFO across the road so we did pick a couple of tops for her and some cool wizard of oz pyjamas. She also orderered various books. Now she’s rich in books, she picked up 10 from the library!

Last week we went to the movies. Beth’s birthday always falls around school holiday time so we can usually see a good kids movie. We saw one called The Bad Guys which was actually really good. Then we had lunch at the Pancake Parlour. I really enjoy going to the movies, that’s our special thing we do, that and our pedicures. And it’s so nice that Beth can still do the other things that she loves so that it gives her an outing and me a break.

And the last exciting thing is that Beth’s art teacher is coming back! She’s been busy with other things and of course, covid got in the way! But she’s happy to come back and teach Beth again. And maybe me too! So I have big things planned for this year.

I am thinking that I will start up a little shop for prints of Beth’s artwork. So stay tuned, there’s lots of exciting things in the works! I’ll pop a couple of pictures of Beth when we went out for lunch with her new birthday jumper on and of us in Van Gogh’s bedroom. Speak soon! xx

so….. this one is for all my fans and air conditioners who were subscribed to my blog and stopped receiving notifications! I’m so sorry, I didn’t realise this was happening until a friend said she wasn’t receiving them any more. You must have thought I’d stopped writing! I wasn’t writing as often but I still wrote fairly frequently and lately have been writing a lot.

There was a change of host for the blog and a lapse on my behalf and then, when it was back up and running, I typed away and shared on facebook which people could still see, but no posts were going out to subscribers.

So, you’re in luck. The fabulous duo of Sarah and Beth are still around and as amazing as ever! If you get this and feel like it, go back and check out the last couple of years. I am tempted to start either another blog or add another name to this one to make it more about Beth as an adult and how it effects me. I’m thinking autism and me. But, I don’t want to lose all of this as I’ve been writing this one for years. Even though Beth is now an adult, there are people out there who would still benefit from our early years posts and my witty and scintillating banter.

We have new challenges as I’m sure you can appreciate, and more ahead. But fun things going on too, and lots of new experiences for our girl. So please stick with it for me, and share if you fancy doing that too! Welcome back! xx

In case you missed the hint, Beth went to the zoo today!

Last week I asked on facebook if anybody knew of people who would be wanting a job taking Beth to social outings. She’s been quite ratty lately and part of it is because she’s probably bored, and part of it is because she wants me to do things with her ALL the time and I just can’t. Timewise or energy wise! I had several people respond and spoke to a few lovely ladies. One of them is a friend from school’s daughter Caitlyn. As another lady pointed out (Thanks Vicki!) it was probably best to have somebody who is a disability support worker because, things can get a bit unpredictable at times. Usually if Beth is happy it’s really cruisy. She’s good natured and easy to be around. But… if something happens, your average Joe may not know how to handle it. Somebody with experience is better at dealing with these times and knows what to do in difficult situations. So…. we met Caitlyn last week. And she’s wonderful! We do know that she is possibly not going to be Beth’s support worker for the whole time but she matches staff to the participants and will know what Beth wants. I particularly wanted somebody who is young so that instead of it being like a mum figure she’d be like a friend.

Today was the first outing they’ve been on and of course Beth chose the zoo! They just got home. Caitlyn said they saw about half of the zoo, so they’ll have to go back another time. They saw the elephants and even saw some behind the scenes things such as medications for some animals. I might even tee up a visit where they can properly go behind the scenes as I’m pretty sure they have those too. Beth loves it there and the bonus was that they had kfc for lunch, perfect for my girl!

Next week Beth has chosen the Van Gogh exhibition in the city. She’s making the most out of having a new friend to take her out! I’m so happy for her. And me! Here’s a photo of Beth and Caitlyn (and Maggie and Lola) before they went out today xx