Like every year we had a quiet remembrance day.

It was odd to see that on the official list victims of the bombing of our town, only two family members were left.
Where have the other 3 gone?

I know someone is delving into the family history, on his own way.

He told me, when I said he'd made a mistake about the date of the wedding of my parents, that I was wrong.
No, I'm not wrong, not is my mother and nor are other family members who were present and are still alive.

He didn't make changes in his paperwork though. Didn't even bother to put me in.

I guess it's someone who thinks highly of himself, and I'm afraid he's the one who ordered to erase the name of the sister of my mother and two of her nephews.

May the 5th was a nice day.
It was warm and sunny and some of the boys went to the free concerts in town.

It's a pity I missed the freedom concert on TV.
I thiught it was beginning, but it was just finished.

So I missed: "we'll meet again", Vera Lynn used to sing.

The song is getting a bit of a different meaning, as less and less veterans are able to come to The Netherlands.

But I heard many are preparing to come over in 2010.

I hope so.

The year started out as bussy as always.

I don't know why school plan reports at the beginning of the year.
The girls only get two reports... one now and one in the summer.

The meetings with the teachers was spread over two evenings.

Our dyslectic girls was given a very positive evaluation.
She's persistant in wanting to learn things. So eager.
She's not afraid to ask questions.
In a way she's very mature, so we all feel confident she'll do well in the future.

I can remember putting up a fight at school there as all teachers said nothing was wrong.

The youngest girl (as far as youngest applied to twins. LOL!), the youngest is doing fine, considering she's a bit behind in things.
I don't like the teacher that started this month after getting a baby.
She's the same who made the last year of our autistic son a hell.
The teacher who worked before her this year lives only a couple of doors away from us, so I had plenty of chance to ignore the woman as much as possible. Not very polite... but when it comes to my children..

In my country it's not easy to get the attention on learning difficulties.
It's better than some years ago, but it's still  a struggle to find recognition.
And I want her to be seen to.
"She's only a couple of months behind...and she's so playfull and still so young. There won't be a problem to extend her stay at school for a year."
"Yes, but the fact that you suggest that makes clear that she's not following at normal pace. And being slow at the curriculum might mean learning difficulties. She's bright, so she's trying to compensate"

Today a heavy, unusually heavy storm is expected here.

I'm going to prepare the garden for it, the first signs are already clearly in the air.

I'll make my round of visits later.

Enjoy your day!

 

I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas

We've had a very intense year.

Lots to look back on.

Rules were changed regarding support at school. So we had to do a lot to get the proper support for the children.

With the oldest (20) we went through a long way of diagnosis with a rather incompetent psychiatrist.
Couldn't get rid of the woman.
When she had her report finished it turned out to be unacceptable for the grants he need to get support at school, so we filed a complaint.
Took ages, and ofcourse a lot of stress.
I know my complaints were grounded. I know the profession and what to expect. But I was told it was a matter of clashing opinions.
After more pressure from me, they decided to have the supervising psychiatrist ( filed a complaint against him to, concerning bad supervision. Amongst it: bad timemanagement).. to have the supervising psychiatrist redo the diagnostics.

He told us that he had to conclude that the aspergersyndrome is far worse than he thought.
Yea... told him that before.

He's not finished yet, but will be soon.
After that we have the paperwork to get my oldest support at school, (at last...), and we're able to apply for a place of protected living. That'll take at leats 2 years.

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The second boy finally agreed to get psychological support, and now he's diagnosed too.
He's very difficult to live with, and the cycle of good and bad times is much faster than the oldest.
I think hell get diagnosed PDD-NOS or something else. He's not showing as a clear picture as the other boys.

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The third is dealing with los of puberty hormones.
That's interesting when you have a bad case of ADHD and Dyslexia and the school doesn't care.
Recently I handed out for the somaniest time information to school. People think that if they know the meaning of the letters of ADHD, they know it all.

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The fourth son just functions as he always did. He does well at school, but his autism prevents him to be part of the social system.

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The girls are doing great.
They deal with matters different than boys and that's refreshing.
They're still loving their balletlessons, and they both have started bagpipe lessons.

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So did I.
I just got my smallpipes, a little version of bagpipes.
The highland bagpipes are ordered.
It's hard to study an instrument like that with a bussy and complicated family like ours, but I really like it.
Especially my first group was great.
We were only three, with a very good teacher.
We studied hard and overhauled the next group.

We're merged with them now.
The new teacher is great too, but one of the group members is a pain.
I feel he looks down on women... and bet you, he feels threatened by two women who are studying half a year less and overhauled him. Yoohoo!!!

I've saved hard... have half of the money of the highland pipes.
I hate debts, so I'm trying to find a sponsor for the reswt of the money.
I'm also looking for a hostess skirt for the Burnes night, held in january.

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But first let's celebrate christmas.

I wish you all happy days, and that you will feel the spirit of peace in your hearts.

Huggggss