Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 54 Comments

Decibels

Currently the mad dog is being completely bonkers. It’s a kinda let’s bark at everything type of day. Currently the apple tree is getting it. But as the decibels rise my mind wanders to that quiet little pup. What happened…..

Son is not impressed. If you look closely at the photo you will notice that the duvet cover is Peppa Pig themed. It’s a perfectly good cover so is still used today when his Jurassic Park one is being washed. Son doesn’t really see the practical benefits.

“You do know Peppa Pig is for little kids. It’s not as if I’m watching it. I know you do when you get the chance, but not me. I was watching about the Black Death last night..”

I do have to admit that a quick bit of Peppa Pig, or the Clangers or In The Night Garden is strangely therapeutic. And yes I can’t remember the Peppa Pig episode which featured the Black Death.

All my parenting waffles are subject to a major caveat. As statisticians would say – it’s based on a very limited sample size. Like one child. One child on the autistic spectrum with dyslexia. So when I see something I can’t be sure if that is just particular to our son or is a common thing. The only other benchmark I can use is my childhood. That seems a long time ago…..

Son has a lot of areas where he is more developed and refined than his Dad. Seemingly way beyond his years. But also in a number of areas he probably still reverts back to the Peppa Pig years. Cuddly toys. Not wanting to leave the safety of the family nest. Mr Men stories. Petting Zoos. Toy cars….

Maybe it’s a fear of growing up.

But I can relate to this. Not wanting to completely forget your early childhood days. Now where is that Peppa Pig dvd….

Speaking about not forgetting things.

It’s the Great Bloggers Bake-Off this Sunday. It’s all about having a bit of fun. Pop over to Mel’s blog – Crushed Caramel (Learner at Love). She has done so much work to set this up.

Our special judge is A Jeanne in the Kitchen.

Let’s go Sunday Spongecake mad.

Please send photos of your creation(s) to crushedcaramel@gmail.com

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 83 Comments

The Black Hole…

I could look at these flowers all day. Stunning yellows with one sneaky violet crashing the daffodil party.

The school bus was late. Very late. Our son went into meltdown. Panic attacks over detentions, expulsions and all the associated ever increasing butterfly effects. All today’s carefully constructed plans are in tatters. It’s part and parcel of being a child with autism. We now have a plan for this type of eventuality. A hand written plan we keep safely by the front door. When I say plan it’s actually an old food shopping list. The plan Z list was pulled from the wall.

Tell me 5 things you can see.

Tell me 4 things you can hear.

Tell me 3 things you can touch.

Tell me 2 things you can smell.

Smile once and breathe.

Plan now says Dad get the car keys and drives you to school.

Thankfully today Plan Z worked. Distraction and switching to another orderly plan. It’s funny as a shopping list it was poor (I remember it missed off non essential stuff like bread, milk, pet food…. but as a go to plan in times of crisis – it has been a winner. It’s so flexible the actual words on the paper are irrelevant. It adds credibility to any plan I come up with in an emergency. Because that plan must be good as it’s the plan on that piece of paper – it’s Plan Z. As we reached the school gates order was starting to be restored in his soul. He made me smile with some of his responses.

“I can see bird poo on your car. I think it must have been a big bird.”

“I can see a couple of blue flowers in the Daffodil patch. Maybe they are mutations. Definitely beautiful mutations. Flowers are very welcoming.”

“Dad I can still see that cake you made yesterday. It was so funny how you got it to collapse in the middle. After all these years and still it messes up. The cake was so like a black hole. It was both a thing of wonder and a piece of terror. It’s a special talent Dad.”

As the great Terry Pratchett once said “Wisdom comes from experience. Experience is often a result of lack of wisdom“.

So yes my sneaky practice run for this Sunday’s GREAT BLOGGERS BAKE-OFF didn’t go so well.

Hopefully you will join in the fun on the 24th.

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 15 Comments

Great Bloggers Bake-off

On the 24th March the Great Bloggers Bake-off takes place. The wonderful Crushed Caramel (Learner at Love) is doing so much hard work to get this going.

The special judge is A Jeanne in the Kitchen.

Think of it not as a baking competition. It’s an online family fun day. It’s open to anyone YOU, your family, your friends, your personal chef, Gordon f***** Ramsey, your pets, the Ghostbusters, Thanos, Wallace & Gromit, the milkman, Fox Mulder, your accountant, Harry Potter, EVERYONE. Any ability level. I am having a go and I’m a weapons grade chef. My entry will have to be monitored by the UN Chemical Weapons team.

Have a go at the baking challenge, take a photo and send it in. Simple as that. If you can’t bake or you don’t fancy baking THEN you can add you comments and support the people taking part.

Look out for more details this Sunday.

As a start it might be an idea checking you have the following ingredients (or alternatives)

  • Flour
  • Eggs
  • Sugar
  • Butter, Margarine or oil
  • Baking Powder

I’m going for a Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Sugar Free entry.

Just have fun with THE GREAT BLOGGERS BAKE-OFF CHALLENGE.

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 78 Comments

Bake-off

When I told our son about the Great Blogger Bake-off he smiled and said

“Oh dear Dad. It’s a good job they haven’t perfected actual food tasting over the internet.”

Very true. I remember the attempts which even the garden birds refused. We call it Weapons Grade cooking.

“You had better practice.”

Good idea.

So tonight we had a practice. And what a practice…

Sticking to my current dietary fad. My attempt is going to be Gluten Free and Dairy Free. AND now Sugar Free. It’s a good job every food cupboard has at least 3 jars of out of date honey…. Also found 2 jars of out of date pesto – probably not much use in baking.

“Wow Dad is that supposed to be a cake. Or is it a pancake.”

Sadly son it’s not a pancake.

“Is it ok if I don’t try it. Better not give it to birds – just in case.”

We will be publishing posts detailing what the challenge is

for THE GREAT BLOGGERS’ BAKE-OFF all of next week.

Look out for future posts!