Blimey its almost Christmas.

Hi all, Erin here. Just dropping in to let you all know that Bill is doing as well as can be expected at this point. Still eating and talking well, but requires someone with him 24/7 now. No. 3 son has finished school and stays at home with his dad while I am at work. I so wish we could afford for me to stay home to be his fulltime caregiver, unfortunately the reality is, we can't. So our daily routine is I get up around 6am, wake the kids and get them organised for school around 6.30ish. Breakfast etc etc etc by 7.30 and kids are out the door around 8ish....give or take half an hour depending on how grumpy we all are.....
Then I get myself organised for work, wake No 2 son up to get himself off to Polytech, wake Bill and No 3 son up just to wake them up hehehehe. Start their breakfast for them before Pat and I leave for polytech and work around 8.15-8.30ish.
Pakura then helps his father out of bed, get dressed, washed and what ever else Bill might need help with. (some days he can do more than on other days, just depends really from day to day). We have to sort of judge when its best for us to intervene and help out because it is important that Bill remains as independent as he can for as long as he can.
I phone home around 11.30ish to make sure Pak has his fathers lunch organised, if not I'll shoot home (I'm only 2 minutes down the road if they need me)  I don't have to do that very often though, good thing about Pak is, he likes to eat.....so generally he's got something cooking all the time. Bad thing is, I cop all the dishes when I get home.....ah well, can't have it all I suppose.
I get home from work just after the kids get home from school around 3.30, spend about half an hour with everyone just catchin up on the days news, Pat arrives home from Polytech around 4ish, and sits with his dad while I get dinner started, throw the washing on and all those everyday chores that every working mum has to deal with. Pak has the afternoons doing whatever he wants to do once I get home. Kids will make themselves an afternoon snack. We usually sit down to dinner around 7.30 because thats what time everyone is home, then I'll get Bill prepared for bed, toileted, showered and/or washed, which can be a time consuming excercise, he hasn't quite come to terms with allowing our kids to help him with his ablutions at this point, so again, depending on how he's feeling on a given day, this could take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour on good days and more if its a really bad day (happily there haven't been too many of those). Then our youngest 2 will shower and get themselves ready for bed etc, Bill usually in bed now by 9pm at the latest. Then I'll do the housework, my house is usually spotless from 10.30pm to 7am......lol. Pat helps out wherever he can, mowing the lawns when he gets home from polytech. On a Friday night our big son arrives to take his younger brother and sister for the weekends, (most weekends), Pat and Pak do what teenagers do all weekend....DONT ASK......and Bill and I work together around the house doing the odd job or two.

Don't know if either of us will get on here before Christmas, if not we want to wish you all a wonderful holiday season.

The Gardiners....