I'm baaaack... :-)

[jakodai]

Hi Everyone, I've been MIA for a while, and I apologise for disappearing. I've had a lot going on lately, and I've just been trying to keep on top of things. I really had spread myself way too thin. My contract at work is up at the end of next week, and I've decided not to renew it, but instead concentrate a little more on my studies and DS, who has having some behavioural issues at the moment. He's been referred to the Children's Hospital again, this time for a behavioural assessment - it's possible that he may have Aspergers. That in itself is in incredibly long-winded, frustrating story (one of the staff members at his child care centre thought that there was something wrong for a while now, but didn't tell me about it until the kinder teacher told me to 'get him assessed because he doesn't listen'), but the main thing is that it's being looked into now so at least we know. Early diagnosis / intervention is key.

Anyway, now that I'm finishing up at work, and I'll have some more time, I'm hoping to rediscover my love for cooking. My poor thermomix hasn't been used as much as it should have, but I'm hoping that will soon change. I want to do now what I wanted to do when I got my thermomix - eat as naturally as possibly, with minimal (if any) processed or packaged foods. I made chicken stock yesterday, and I have beef stock in the pressure cooker at the moment, and if I can my university assignment finished tonight I'm going to make caramelised garlic paste, caramelised onions and maybe even Tenina's chicken stock powder tomorrow.

So I really wanted to just apologise to everyone, because I do feel rude for just disappearing the way I did, but I'm sure everyone knows that sometimes we need to prioritise, and we don't always like the order that the priorities need to go in.

[obbie]

Glad you are back Jakodai.

Hope all goes well for your son.

[mcmich]

Welcome back Jakodai, you've been missed. 

[jeninwa]

Glad you are back Jakodai, we missed you.
hope all goes well with your son.

[Emme]

Welcome back and hoping all goes well for your DS 

Marie

[judydawn]

We all need time out Jakodai and yours was obviously for a very good reason.  Sending my best wishes for a good outcome for your DS and there is no need to apologise, we all understand.  I am so pleased you have found the time to return though, just being on here is bound to brighten your day.

[Aussie Brenda]

Welcome back Jakodai, all the best with your DS and fingers crossed it isn't Aspergers , my GS has that and no they don't listen they can't process a lot of things being told to them at once, best to give just one precise order or message at a time.  Could tell you lots of stories about him 

[jakodai]

It does JD - I need a bit of a social outlet in my life, I don't know anyone in the 'real' world who enjoys cooking, so everyone gets pretty tired of hearing about it from me... I don't have that problem here.

I've actually been seeing a psychologist for a few months now for depression and anxiety, and she thinks that I might have Aspergers. I'd been thinking about it for a few months now, but haven't really don't much about it, since it was bought up about Brett though I thought I'd follow up with it. It does make a lot of sense and explain things and a lot of peoples that I have experienced in my past.

It explains a lot with DS, too. He is an angel (for the most part) at home, there's structure and routine here, and things are always calm and relatively quiet. As soon as we out out somewhere, to the supermarket or to kinder, he turns into a completely different child. To say he would be hyperactive is an understatement - he goes crazy. Runs, yells and just turns into that child that everyone says to themselves 'I'm glad he's not mine'. As soon as we're back home again, he's back to the angel. I'm convinced everyone thinks I'm a liar, because very few people see that side of him - they all see the devil. Since this was bought to my attention, I've done some research and I now realised that a lot of the things that I've assumed were normal, are actually not so normal after all. For example, when he plays, it's not creative play, but rather reenactments of things that he's seen (he likes watching youtube, and he's seen some videos of a little boy playing with his Thomas the Tank train set, he will then do the same thing), his toys are always organised and lined up - when he plays with his cars, they're all lined up together, and when I play with his cars with him, I get all the yellow cars and he'll get all the red cars for example.

How old's your GS Brenda?

[Kimmyh]

Hello jakodai. Looking forward to reading your posts

[droverjess]

Welcome back Jakodai. We missed you, and we all have times like this.
Life is a journey and we never know which way the road will take us and what we may find out about ourselves and our families.
Hope you get some help with DS, and start to enjoy cooking again.

[Halex]

Welcome back

[gertbysea]

Thisis thebegiigofwhat may be a long journey and I am sure some of us  here have experienced the same of similar. No doubt in my mind t you will get plenty of helpful advice here. We will be thinking of you.

Gert

[Cornish Cream]

Welcome back

[Katiej]

Welcome back Jakodai!

Best of luck with everything, hope you get some answers for your DS soon.
Dust of your Thermomix and have some fun cooking 

[jakodai]

That's what I love about this forum, everyone is always so friendly and so helpful. I tend to isolate myself when things get difficult because I convince myself that no one wants to hear my problems, but I really need to start doing the opposite. I always feel a million times better when I get on here. :-D

Hopefully it's nothing, and it's just a phase that he's going through, but it does make a lot of sense - we'll just have to wait and see. He's still my amazing little man regardless of what happens. I think I'm a little worried that I'm jumping to conclusions, so I'm trying not to do that until I know for sure.

I have a bit of an obsession with soup at the moment, so I've been bookmarking like crazy!

I'm glad I'm back!