Its a challenge!

Thank goodness for good friends and great husbands who have helped me pull through this last week. Working 3 jobs is such a challenge, let alone the committee meetings and reports that needed to be done for Rainbow club and the school council.
I am so lucky to have a great friend Maree, who has helped me with childcare this week. She is so wonderful! She picks the kids up from their respective schools and comes home and helps with what housework needs to be done and by the time I get home, the kids are settled and the house is quiet. She said she will help out until I get a nanny. Yes, we pay her but its great to know she is there. She sometimes gives us a weekend away, looking after the kids overnight. Sometimes people are sent into your life for a reason, and I really feel that with Maree.
Steve has been great too. He is very supportive of me building my career and is doing a fair bit to keep this house going.
The next few weeks are a challenge. There is the adjustment with starting a new job, and the pressures of finishing off my old one properly. With only 3 weeks until the shop is taken over I felt that I could not abandon them with any conscience. I will help them until the job is complete. I know I could have just handed in my notice and not given a damn, but I just couldnt do this. I would have felt that my job wasnt finished. My new job is challenging, not because I struggle with the work, but my trainer had her last day yesterday officially, which meant she trained me in two days on software that I hadnt used and they do things slightly differently to my previous employer. Of course she expects me to do the job as fast as she does, but I dont think I will ever be able to as my mind just doesnt operate in quite the same way. I am ADHD, I need to complete a task fully before moving onto the next one otherwise the leftovers bits just keep piling up. She jumped from halfway through one task to the next one every couple of minutes. Like she would get on to do a settlement (a 15 minute task), and halfway through would then check her email box. I know that I need to schedule in tasks like the email box and the inbox, and do the settlement in one foul swoop so I dont leave any bits out. Yesterday I found it frustrating when she kept interupting me every two minutes. AGH! I found that it was so unproductive. I guess once she has gone I will find it easier.
The kids are all doing well.
I have noticed in the last couple of weeks that Stef is coming out with more words. I put this down to being very conscious of teaching her how to say new things. Getting down to her level, getting her to watch my mouth while I say the word over and over. She then copies me. When its not quite right, I show her again until she says it with the right sound. I think the major problem with autism is that because the kids cant maintain eye contact, they dont look at the face long enough to mimic the mouth shapes. Her aide at Lara is also doing this. Also, she is playing with her Nintendo DS more which is great. Next week we may get the program on it that she can use for speech facilitation. At least she has worked out how to use the DS and has claimed it as her own. That is always a challenge when the other kids play with it sometimes too, that she knows she owns it. In the past, if she got a present for instance, if Melinda played with it, Stef wouldnt as she didnt consider it hers.....I think she is now understanding ownership a little better.
Brent is doing ok. I spoke to his aide last week and Brent has again picked up his work level to what it should be. He had a lazy couple of weeks at the start of term.
Jack is being much better at getting his homework and reading done too. He realises now that I can't be the one to remind him all the time, but he needs to remind me....self reliance!!!
Melinda...she is improving on the whole self reliance bit, but still I havent seen any homework for the term. I think I will need to work on this a bit harder. Maybe take away personal computer time?
Anyway, onward, lots to do today.....but when isnt there. Working at the supermarket today and have got a list a mile long for that. Calling into the accounting office with documents for them (hopefully won't take too long) and then sit down and do a fair bit tonight. The washing is already on for the day and the dishes are done......Today will be a good day!