Sunday has come around quickly again. This week has been pretty good, helped by only having to do school runs for 4 days (this half-term didn’t start until Tuesday).

Was hoping youngest would get to meet up with one of his primary school friends on Monday, but they were away on holiday. He’s been asking why he hasn’t seen anyone from his old school and the truth is that they’ve basically moved on to their respective high schools and the distance means we just don’t get to socialise by nipping to the park anymore. He’s making friends at the new school though, so hopefully it’s just a matter of time before he gets to meet up with them. One shares his taxi and is only 15 minutes up the road from us, so it would be fantastic if they became pals.

Eldest seems to have had a good week, aside from the emotional meltdown I wrote about a few days ago. Letting it all out seemed to help I think and he’s now ready for his mocks to start tomorrow.

I must admit I’ve been having some dark thoughts which have not been helped by eldest’s anxiety and the passing of a Year 9 student at his school barely a month ago. While we’ve not been told the details, it has been rumoured that they committed suicide. This has always been something I’ve been terrified about – eldest has sometimes gone into a state where I fear he could accidentally harm himself, but thoughts of him intentionally doing something creep into my head at night. I don’t know how long it will be for the wellbeing hub referral to go through, but it can’t come soon enough. The autism assessment will be at least 12 months, and that’s via the “faster” right-to-choose pathway as opposed to the standard NHS referral which apparently takes 3-5 years!

Anyway, that’s all doom and gloom and I don’t want to focus on it. Eldest has his sixth form interview on Tuesday, he’s understandably nervous but I’m sure he will be OK once he’s there. We’ve reiterated that he doesn’t have to go with the options he’s chosen if he changes his mind and that can happen right up to GCSE results day next August. Whatever he wants to do, we will support him.

I took my mum to physio on Tuesday. She had a nasty fall a few months ago and has been having pain in her back and knee ever since. They’ve given her some exercises and she has to return in 3 weeks. Then we went for lunch, but she wasn’t feeling herself and didn’t eat her favourite jacket spud and cheese. Turned out she had a tummy bug, which revealed itself later that evening.

Wednesday was the dreaded universal credit review, which wasn’t actually bad at all. I just had to answer some standard questions and upload some additional bank statements. Not heard anything since, so will assume no news is good news.

On Thursday, I went to a parent focus group at youngest’s special school. The aim was to provide feedback on the PSHE curriculum, with particular regard to relationships. There was a good turnout, with lots of engagement – a better result than the focus groups held at eldest’s school, which seems to want to do the bare minimum.

Had an Iceland delivery on Friday and husband went to Lidl on Saturday, bringing us home McDonalds as a treat. We tried some of the limited edition “World Menu Heist” offerings for a change. Eldest had the Pineapple McSpicy and unfortunately regretted it as he didn’t like the sauce. The Garlic & Black Pepper McNuggets were enjoyed by all however. I traded my usual cheeseburger for the crispy Fajita Chicken One wrap which was very nice.

I forgot we would also be having burgers and hotdogs that evening, so took a cheat day with my dieting. We enjoyed a fire pit on the patio along with some budget fireworks that were perfectly exciting but lasted all of 10 seconds at most. The catherine wheel was pretty good though (and lasted a whopping 40 seconds!). It was a balmy 13C which is crazy for this time of year, but at least we got to enjoy fireworks night without freezing our tits off like normal.

Next week is a busy one, with eldest’s mocks and his interview. I have a PTA meeting to discuss the upcoming Year 11 prom and husband’s car is going in for MOT and service. I suppose I ought to think about Christmas presents!