Glimpses of good

We have had an appointment with the nurse practitioner at the surgery to help her fill in a referral form for the FH to attend a local Sue Ryder hospice for pain management care.  I have also had a community occupational therapist on the phone to check a referral he has received and ask for a bit more information, so hopefully they will visit soon to advise on the things that the FH is struggling with, like the bath and shower....he had a bath last night and then I heard this little voice [good thing I was sitting on the bed], "I can't get out!" which was heartbreaking to hear.  Luckily, I managed to engage several strategies with towels and chairs to lean on, and we got him out.   He probably won't dare go back in until we have some better arrangements in place...showers all the way for now!

A conversation at gym tonight and a small disagreement over something have triggered an emotional dam breaking down in the YFG and the poor girl has sobbed for nearly an hour tonight over all sorts of struggles that she has got tearing her in all directions, and making her feel overwhelmed.  She is going off on her actual Duke of Edinburgh expedition in the morning and I have to say that I am worried about her emotional strength to get through it.  We were all piled on to our bed tonight, trying to talk with her and reassure her, but it took quite some time before she felt able to stop.  It was hard, and made me cry to think that she had been bottling all these things up inside - we have promised that at least one of the things she is doing can be stopped this term, and we offered her the chance to have a break from her piano lessons, but she wants to carry on with those.

My dad has offered to take the girls away again this summer, but his partner isn't completely in favour of the idea - he rang me up this afternoon and told me about two cruises that he has found on offer in the paper today: one to the Fjords again and another to the Baltic.  Neither are really suitable in my mind because the Fjords is a repeat of the last one, and the Baltic one is for two weeks - and I am totally selfish and don't want the girls to go away for two weeks, not in the last summer that we will be together before the EFG is off.  I offered an alternative which I thought was an ample compromise: renting a house for all 6 of us in Suffolk so that we could spend a week together, but have some flexibility - my dad could keep the FH company if they didn't want to go out so much, and I could take the girls and MB out, or my dad could take the girls and MB out for a meal, etc.  It would also be close to the end of the A14 if I needed to get the FH back in this direction to hospital.......we are looking for suitable holiday cottages as ideally we need it all on the level as my dad's now used to living in a bungalow.  Suffolk would be great as we have never taken the girls to Suffolk, the FH wants to visit Adnam's, and my dad loves Southwold.....

Frugally speaking, I haven't been very focussed on the cash lately, and need to get to grips with it in all seriousness, as we have plans afoot for a downstairs wetroom....