Day six, commonly known as Saturday . . .
Today was always going to be a relaxed day. Normally we play a family roleplaying game - called Pathfinder - but we knew that by the end of this week everyone would be tired and short tempered, so we planned a day to stop.
With two Autistic children in the family we have learnt that we need to build "down time" into our schedule. The boys both get overwhelmed by spending too long with other people, and even to an extent by spending too long away from home. With the exception of Legoland on Thursday all of our forays into The World Beyond The Front Door have been medium length, and as such taken on their own none of them was "too much." But really, the cumulative effect of all those days out and with Other People got too much.
Saturday was our pro-active attempt to redress that balance. We placed no expectations on the children, and everyone just pottered along doing what worked for them.
Well, almost everyone. L had invited a friend over, and therefore had some pretty major room-tidying to do. To his credit it did get done with very little input from parents.
When L's friend arrived there was a bit of kerfuffle, because J and M like this particular friend a lot, and can't see why he doesn't spend all of his time here playing with them. But that settled down very quickly - I don't think they had the energy to be too annoying TBH!
I began making some plum leather - which the children all enjoyed munching last year - it's still not done, so I think I need to tweak the method just a little ;) but the whole house smells fab, so I'm not stressing :)
After a little tidying we all ate a late dinner whilst watching Dr Who - L's friend joined us - and I think the children are finally warming to the new Doctor.
Bed followed dinner, with more chapters from "Our Island Story" - we've reached Bonnie Prince Charlie now :) And so day six drifted aimlessly by, recharging batteries and soothing stresses, in just the way I had hoped it would :)
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