Wild Life

Hi all, just a quickie as I wrote a long post and loaded all the photos and lost the lot! grrrrr!

Today I took my younger son to the lake to feed the ducks, there were two huge geese that wouldn't stop hissing and spitting and were quite scary, but after a few stern words they quietened down and my son hand-fed them, lovely!

There were also pelicans on the mud-flat in the lake, they are such beautiful graceful creatures. There were about a hundred or more brown ducks on the mud-flat too, but they didn't come over to be fed, just the black ducks, seagulls, magpies and geese.

This is a blue-tongue lizard that slithered across the playground in town last week when we were there. I yelled to my boys to come quick and we raced over and I picked it up. I showed them and before I knew it I had a small crowd of kids and parents all patting it and taking photos.

We gently put it in the gardens away from the playground afterwards so it didn't get hurt by any kids running around and accidentally standing on it.

Yesterday we had VERY hot weather, the caravan was unbearable as we haven't got air-conditioning yet, the bugs were out in force! This is the big gas tank in the caravan park covered in bugs, they are a orange black and brown beetle type thing. They are about an inch long and really ugly, but harmless.

The tree behind our caravan is loaded with them swarming around it and all over the annexe roof! Ugh!! This was the best place to take a pic.

I get bugs like this all over my flyscreens at night too trying to get inside for the light, I'm burning mozzie coils like crazy. The bugs are taking a little getting used to but we're coping well.

 And this is a 3 foot long (highly poisonous) brown snake that my 6 year-old son found near our caravan!! This happened a week after we got here. He came inside after riding his bike and said, "I'm being a good boy mum, I saw a snake and I came inside to tell you!"

Well I mumbled something about it was probably just a stick but I'll come and look anyway..... out I went and there it was..... FUCK!!

Needless to say snake has been removed!

I cannot express strongly enough, if you go anywhere in the bush, TALK TO YOUR KIDS about what to do if they see a snake. Both of my boys have autism and I am SO grateful that they both know what to do, and my younger boy did it.

A bite from one of these can kill. Since then there have been 2 more in the park plus two Tiger snakes, which are even more deadly and one killed a dog.

Because we are situated over the road from the wetlands, and there's been huge floods this year, there's tons of food so there's zillions of bugs, who feed the zillions of frogs, who feed the zillions of snakes.

I'm not scared of snakes, but I'm terrified of my boys being near one, so we do lots of talking about it.

Some people have been horrified that we'd want to live in a place where there's snakes and bugs and all, BUT this is pure heaven compared to the concrete suburbs we left behind!

Life is great!!

My Changed Life (see previous 3 posts)

So, I'd like to share some photos of where we are now, and our lifestyle:

This is my little garden.

This is our river right in front of our caravan, this is where I sit to think or write or paint. This is what we look out our front window at. 

And this is a few metres upstream.

This was tonights sunset, I sat with a drink after our barbeque and watched the sun go down, pure heaven!

And this is my favorite sunset picture from when we were first living here.

Why I Changed My Life - part 3

I had a small 3 bedroom home packed full of stuff. For those of you who know me, I love art and craft and my house used to be filled with yarn and fleeces and spinning wheels and tools and art supplies by the boxful. Plus all the stuff that I made for friends and our home.

My boys had bikes, scooters, green machines, skateboards, cubbie houses, outdoor building stuff like nails, hammers, saws, wood, homemade bike jumps and tracks. They had numerous electronic gadgets, computers, game consoles, water toys - kickboards, donuts, lifejackets, balls, frisbees, footballs.

We had pets, furniture, whitegoods, clothes, books, plants and all sorts of gadgets.

I had already been decluttering for months, but now it was time to get really serious. I decided I would not pay for storage for anything, if it didn't fit in our van, it was out, gone. I LOVE all the stuff I read about minimalism.

I sold a few things on ebay, gave away a ton of stuff on Freecycle, took a couple of dozen stationwagon loads of stuff to all the op shops near the house, had the biggest hard rubbish pile we ever had, and made two trips to the dump.

My boys sold a few of their things on ebay too and made a good amount of money! They were thrilled watching people bid.

We went to the van twice and cleaned out all the stuff in it that we used for holidaying, and took it straight to the op shop.

It was then ready to be filled. We took two stationwagon loads up to the van the week before we moved, and then had two cars full on the day we moved.

My friend (with my son 15) towed the van in his 4wd and I followed behind with my younger son and all our animals.

My friend brought up the spare barfridge (that I will give away as we got given a bigger fridge for the van when we got here), my barbeque and a guinea pig cage up for me in his trailer, the following weekend when he visited.

We went back to the house for a couple of days to clean and finish up, then handed in the keys on the 8th of November and here we are!!

Do you know there are SO many wonderful things about living in a caravan??

- I NEVER have to mow a lawn again
- I NEVER have to clean a toilet or bathroom again
- housework takes no time at all
- as long as you don't let clutter in it's really quite easy
- I bought some pots and some flowering plants and have my own mini-garden next to the drawbar which doesn't even need weeding
- because we cut back on so much stuff, what we have is what we love and use

We are mostly unpacked but still have a few more boxes to go. And I'm still organizing where things go, I'm learning where to keep things used most often and store away those used not often.

My boys have settled in amazingly well. They are loving the freedom to ride their bikes all around the caravan park and getting to know all sorts of people and kids.

We have been out to all the local small towns exploring and taking lots of photos. We've joined the local library and got a huge pile of books on the local area. We are right near the high country mountains and keen to go exploring all through ther in my friends 4wd on the christmas holidays.

We go to the local pool a few times a week and the botannical gardens playground a few times a week too.

My older son was a bit of a mess about starting his new school but they were fabulous with making him welcome. I drove past and saw him playing footy with the other kids on his lunchbreak on the first day, and stopped in. He was happy and smiling, and when he got home he said how much he enjoyed it, and even likes it better than his old school. (He loved his old school before the bullying).

I think he was so afraid he'd be bullied again, but all went really well and he's settling in really great. His two teachers have been incredibly supportive and have kept me updated. I feel really happy he's happy, things were really rough for a while.

to be continued....

Why I changed my life – part 2

So I knew of a particular country town where I had spoken to the principal of the special school a number of times and she seemed lovely. I did some research and had a number of positive reports from other parents and professionals about the school. I was happy with that.

So, the next thing would be where would we live? I certainly didn't want to be paying out hundreds in rent and I couldn't get another housing commission house as there weren't any available.

So we had lots of family talks and decided to move into our 30 ft caravan, as long as we could find a caravan park where we could at least keep our cat. Keisha is only about 5 years old but is almost blind and doesn't hear too well either. She's happy to eat and sleep and purr and be cuddled, so is happy to live inside in comfort.

I researched caravan parks and came across one that I really fell in love with. It's right on a river, it's ALWAYS been my dream to live near a river, I find them so calming and healing and peaceful.

We came up here three times for a weekend, looking around at all the services, the schools, hospital, shopping centre, playgrounds, etc etc. And it had everything we needed.

Then we came to the caravan park and asked about becoming a permanent resident. Yes we could! AND yes we could keep our cat, and then son 15 asked if we could keep our guinea pigs, yes I suppose so!!

We walked out of that office with a handful of paperwork skipping and squealing like crazy people!! It was now all go ahead, if I had the guts to do it......

You see I have no family support, know NO ONE in this town, didn't even know my way around, and am solely raising two boys with autism. Was I nuts!!

I was terrified. But life is too short to stop doing what we want to do due to fear. I wanted our life to be better and I was determined to make that happen.

So this is what we did....

to be continued....

Why I Changed My Life - part 1

Hi all, it's a while since I've been here and I have loads of news.

I completely changed my life. It was time. I've been wishing and waiting for years for things to happen. I put all the right things in place, but I was still stuck where I was. It came to the point where if I didn't DO something, I was going to be STILL stuck where I was in another five years time.

Life is way too short.

What I am talking about, is that I was trying to move away from the suburbs (and a very difficult ex) out to the country. I've always been a country girl and I've been stuck in the suburbs in a housing commission house for the last 15 years.

I was grateful for my house, don't get me wrong, but there was so many painful memories there, plus the maintenance on the property was pretty much non-existent and it was really showing.

Things came to a head when my son (15) who has autism, adhd and an intellectual disability was bullied at his special school. The bullying went on for months, in 6 months I contacted the school in his diary, by phone or in person MORE THAN 16 times, and nothing changed.

I was given answers like, "why doesn't your son take public transport instead of the school bus?" It was easier for them to suggest moving my son off the school bus than deal with the pack of bullies who traumatized him relentlessly almost every day.

He was punched, kicked, shoved, given a black eye, punched in the head, bruised on his arms and legs, had food thrown at him, called names, spat on and more. This happened on the school bus and in the playground. I saw and photographed the bruises.

One afternoon when I was waiting to speak to his teacher over another incident, one of the bullies walked right past my son IN FRONT OF ME and called him a fuckwit!! I was stunned.

His teacher didn't believe him and said things like "M is a crybaby and goes home telling his mum stories."
"M is having a bad day today because he's off his medication," to another teacher in front of the whole class.

At the second last meeting with the school vice principal I was promised that my son would be moved to another class away from that teacher, the bullies would be dealt with, and that my sons school diary would be returned to him. His teacher comveniently lost it when I started making a fuss. All the evidence of all the bullying incidences was in that diary. I had proof that I had TOLD her all those times. It was never found.

A week later I went back to the school ready for my son to start back in a new class, (he'd been sick for a week with another dose of the flu, he was continually getting sick from all the stress) and when I met up with the vice principal to find out which new class my son was going into, NOTHING HAD BEEN DONE!!!!

He had done nothing, no new class, no dealing with the bullies, no sorting out the school bus bullying!!

I remained calm and walked out of that school with my son and vowed to NEVER go back!

My complaint letter to the Education Dept is in progress, but I've heard dozens of other stories where they don't really give a damn and other parents are even sueing after their children suicided.

My son talked of suicide too, from that day he never set foot in that school again.

DISGUSTED is not a strong enough word.

HOW can this happen in this day and age with all the school bullying policies that are out there now?? How come children and teenagers are DYING because they can't cope anymore?? Why are teachers, principals and other professionals not listening to our kids?? What the hell is WRONG with the system??

So it came time to make some big decisions, it was time to move and begin a new life away from the stress and the heartache.

To be continued.....

Crochet & Knitting

The big cleanout has stopped for the moment whilst I use up some yarns. I had a couple of balls cotton yarns so I crocheted a pile of dishcloths. There was about a dozen altogether. These are wonderful to use and last for years.

I also had a pile of handspun singles yarns so I put them together and made up some easy knitted scarves on big needles. They were perfect carry around projects for when ds6 had his swimming lessons.

The two on the left are knitted and the two on the right are crocheted. The two on the right are beautiful shades of purples but that hasn't shown up in the photos. The blue knitted scarf has sparkes that also hasn't shown up.

And this is some pure mohair yarn I bought a few years ago and hadn't a clue what to do with it. I unskeined it and wound it into balls and then started a crocheted shawl, but it's really not looking too nice, so I will be undoing it and making something else. It's lovely soft yarn and very pretty purple/lavender shades, but I really have no idea what to do with it as yet.

Delilah & Lily

This is Delilah (left) and her daughter Lily (right). We bought them two weeks ago at a Cavy Show we went to and they are the sweetest natured little creatures.

They bring our guinea pig family to ten. We have them all cosy and warm inside and very spoilt. My boys just love caring for them and cuddling them, and so do I.

A Walk Around the Lake

Today I took my boys for a walk around a local lake. We've been stuck at home for a couple of days and I was starting to feel a little fidgety (okay a big bit fidgety) but I didn't want to go near the shops and spend money just for the sake of it.

The weather man had forecast lots of rain today, but mostly the day was sunny, when we got to the lake it had gotten quite cloudy, and half way around we got some light rain.

I really enjoyed the walk as we have been very slack about any kind of exercise, plus I have medical issues. I was surprised at the amount of people also out walking.

I was disappointed at the amount of dog shit along the path, it's all been done out so lovely to make the walk around the lake a really enjoyable experience. Lazy dog owners annoy the hell out of me, there's nothing worse than dog shit in the grooves of your childs shoes UGH!!! Luckily we didn't step in any but it was annoying to be on the lookout constantly.

The boys enjoyed a play in the playground afterwards and then we came home for dinner. They were ravenous!!

The walk around the lake is 2.5 kilometres, so I was pleased with all of us for walking the whole way. I said that next time I will bring ds6 bike for him.

Hard Rubbish - SO Glad it's GONE!!

We had our twice-year hard rubbish a few weeks ago. I've been decluttering like a mad woman for months now and I've been to the Op Shop a dozen times or more dropping off a stationwagon full at a time. I've sold a pile of stuff on ebay and given some stuff away too.

FINALLY I am seeing a difference, and my friends are making comments about my house being 'more open.' It's SO lovely!!

I still have a ways to go, but it feels SO good around here, and I don't miss anything!

When I get a bit further along, I want to give this house a really good spring clean, yes I know it's not spring, but the place needs a good thorough clean and finally I'll have the space to do it without falling over stuff or having to move loads of crap around to do it.

I'm getting there and it feels good.

Here is our hard rubbish piles!

The whole length of our property is filled with rubbish..... where the hell does it all come from? I'm sure it breeds......

Do you have hard rubbish where you are? Do you use the service?

Low Sugar Diet & Researching What's REALLY in Our Foods

About a month ago, I noticed that my boys behaviour was getting icky, they both have behavioural issues but I had noticed it didn't seem to be letting up. It seems to come in cycles but this cycle was ever-lasting....

So I decided to put ALL of us on a low sugar diet and see what happens. I know that MANY other mums of autistic kids swear by these types of diets and I felt I had nothing to lose.

Over the past few weeks I've gradually made small changes. I went from 3 Sugarine (like Equal) tablets in my (decaf) coffee to one NatVia (a natural sweetener from a plant), and I've cut back my coffee intake by heaps.

Aspartame is TERRIBLE stuff and I've been using it for over 20 years!! It is linked to all sorts of neurological issues.... argh!!

I weaned the boys from unlimited cordial to one a day, and now they've gone two weeks and haven't even realised they've given it up!! They are drinking tons of water and a little more milk than they used to. And they aren't even asking for cordial anymore even though there's still half a bottle in the pantry, I think their taste buds are adjusting.

I cut back the sugar on cornflakes to the lightest sprinkle, and in my baking I halved the sugar and sometimes even less. I have also changed to wholemeal flour, the first lot of baking I did was half and half (white and wholemeal) and the next when the white was used up, I went straight to all wholemeal flour.

Surprisingly the boys have loved the baking I've done and not complained about the lack of sweetness. I chopped up apples and added sultanas to give the sweetness and they are VERY morish!

Muffins - yum!!

I've also stopped buying white bread, we have mostly wholegrain breads, those ones with all the seedy bits in them.

I've cut out cold meat from the deli as I read that some of those have the worst preservatives and icky stuff in them.

I'm trying to stick to lots of fruit and veg and foods that are not processed.

Now in saying that we still have take away about once a week/fortnight and I still have things in the cupboard that once they are used up I won't be buying anymore, such as 2 minute noodles. I won't waste things, I just won't buy again. It's a long and gradual process.

I have definitely noticed a difference. The boys are a lot calmer but in particular they are enjoying the healthy foods and when we do have take away, I see the effects immediately. For example, I rarely let them have Coke, but I have noticed they also react to Fanta, yet when they have lemonade it's not as bad, it must be something to do with the orange coloring.

So when we have take away it's only lemonade now, not anything flavored.

One of the biggest things that have shocked me, is that once I started reading and researching about what goes into our foods and how they are made, it's no wonder kids are out of control and people have all sorts of health issues. It's really shocking. Just get on YouTube and see the way our meat animals are treated, animal cruelty goes hand in hand in many cases with being a meat eater.

And I also looked into products tested on animals, again, just look on YouTube, it's shocking!

I can't save the world BUT I can do a little bit for my boys and me. I can make US healthier which will have a small flow into the community around us.

I love putting out my bin each week and it's barely half full some weeks, that's because of the less packaging from all the crap foods I used to buy.

I think that'll do for today, I could sit here for hours and type about what I've learned, but that will do for today.

Lucky Kids - Mid-term Break

The kids have it pretty good this week, tomorrow (Wednesday) is an Expo day at my sons school, so no students required.

Thursday is a teachers strike, no students required, although if you are desperate you can send them they have a mini staff working.

Friday is a Curriculum day, no students required.

Monday is a public holiday, schools closed.

I wish the weather was better, we'd go away for a few days. It's miserably wet and freezing, ugh!

A Cold Sunday drive

On the weekend we went for a drive, stopping at Gembrook Market where we had yummy sausages in bread and Mexican hot chocolate for lunch. DS6 was thrilled to see Puffing Billy arrive. I'd love to take the boys on Puffing Billy but I just can't justify nearly $100 for a train ride.

We continued on and managed to get lost in a national park where we did some 4wd-ing and got muddy, then ended up on the Warburton Hwy, so we headed for Mt Donna Buang. The boys were thrilled to see snow.

In a few spots on the road up the mountain, there were landslides where trees had come down. With all the rain and the huge winds we had late last week, it's not surprising the poor ground had had enough.

There were some very pretty little waterfalls along the roadside too.

And here's my latest handspun crocheted scarf. It is colored handspun yarn plied with black crochet cotton.

Did you have a good weekend?