Today was Finn & Ivy's 5th day at the Cottage. They are doing OK, not great but not badly. Finn had some tears this morning when I told him I would leave soon, he clung to me & begged me to stay & begged me to take him with me.  Then Helen pulled out a big tub on legs full of boats & water toys & filled it with water, heaven!  I was off fo a couple of hours. They are playing happily when I'm not there but hate me leaving. I get away a 2nd time for about 1.5 hours in the afternoon. I'm hanging out for the day that I can drop them & have some guilt free time to myself. I want to get involved in building this house, it's near impossible for me to get anything done when they are with me at the block, one of them needs something most of the time. 

We are struggling to shake colds & a lingering tummy bug. I think we're just totally run down. A holiday would be nice! 

Sunday I took the kids to a BBQ put on by the Mountains Autism Support Group. It was pretty overwhelming with about 40 kids including siblings. It was nice to meet other parents living with what we live with, & see other "normal" looking kids like Finn who are challenging to their parents. Finn threw a wobbly when we were leaving & it was so nice to be surrounded by understanding people who didn't blink an eye at his behaviour, not having to make excuses for him or explain what's going on was refreshing.

We've been overwhelmed with the news that Brody's circus trainer, a 28 year old man, has been sleeping with one of the girls in the circus whose family he has been living with. She is only 14 & it's been going on for over a year. Our whole community is in shock. Lots of tears & talk in our house since we found out last Thursday.  Awful, awful, awful. Brody is devastated, this man was a role model he looked up to & adored. He has been teaching our kids circus for 4 years & everyone loved him. He has vanished, so there is a sense of loss in more ways than one. The girl won't press charges because she believes he loves her. We are so, so sad. 

Tomorrow I'm going to photograph a friend's little boy aged 2.5. I've photographed him about a year ago.  I want to start doing other kids to hone my skills & hopefully lead into getting some work through it. It's a long way off but I've got to start somewhere! One of the highlights of my weekend was Chelsea's boyfriend Daniel downloaded Photoshop CS3 for me for free!! I haven't had a chance to have a play yet but I've finally got it! You gotta love computer savvy teenage geeks (sorry Daniel!). 

Kim is putting in the 2nd window tomorrow, my work room. it looks fantastic, a bit better than the 1st I think.  he took a frame with him today when he went to the timber mill to arrange more timber & showed the owner & it looks like he might have his 1st window order for next year. e has been hoping to offer custom made timber windows to people once the house is finished & from how they are turning out I think he'll get plenty of business.  

Once that window is in we'll start work on enclosing the gables as we're having a bit of rain & water is blowing in every rainfall. We have 2nd hand hardwood weatherboards for the gables, they need paint stripping off them 1st though & then oiling. They are also ironbark. 

One thing I didn't mention in my post about our first window is the glass. Becasue of the  building regulations  in our high fire danger area we have to use toughened glass in all our windows. Not a bad idea when you have kids in the house anyway! it costs about $140 per m2 though, & with big windows that adds up fast! So we watched on ebay for about 2 years until the right sized glass came up, & the right amount. Our glass was 6 mm balcony balustrading from a high rise building on Darling Harbour. We bought 17 sheets for $300. We love our bargains!

I'm having another garage sale this Saturday to continue to declutter of the house. I'm slowly making progress & it's feeling good. it is SO good to not have to work every day, although people keep buying things from my store & I've become a bit behind in the posting while we've been sick. Something sells every day, most days a few things, so I have to keep up with it.