Bah Humbug...

...feeling so miserable. Today was going to be our last "fun holiday day" before school went back. Bonnie was going to get a hair cut, finish getting her school supplies, we were going to post some goodies off to friends, take the scooters to a local park with a huge track, have morning tea there, maybe visit another park in the afternoon...

...here I am with a horrific 'sinus nose' & I couldn't get into the Drs either.

You could say I'm really really bummed out. Especially as the kids are back at school next week - for a whole term. I'll be teaching & busy.

You never know what's around the corner. I wish I'd done these things earlier.

Pizza for tea. Mumma off to bed.

Under the Weather...

...sore throat, runny nose - you get the picture.

Staff went back to work today...D went off around 7am. His gut does not like arising early in the morning. I wish it would. Yet another post-transplant reality to get my head around.

I am going back to bed with a cuppa...kids are plonked in front of TV. Weary mumma...

Back to school soon...

Been out shopping for school stationary (drool) so there's not a frantic rush when school goes back. I didn't buy fantastic quality but I have this incredible love of stationary. If ever I am near a stationary shop I find it hard to restrain myself from buying a pen or something in there. I love all the paper & cards & sketchbooks etc. Sigh...my husband dropped me (pre-kids) at an Officeworks outlet while he had to go & pick up something nearby. The guy in his shop was saying "Blimey mate, you'd better go & pick up your wife, you've been here 4o minutes!" He smiled & said "Oh no, she's probably only just in the first aisle!" LOL!!! We've got pencils & glue & pencil cases & contact & paper & all manner of great things stacked up near my desk...AND our blue shelves for art things is EXPLODING. I must sort it out. Of course I am putting off tidying my own desk area...however, I DID clean up my wardrobe. If I am bringing home clothes from the local thrift shops then I need to gain some equilibrium & toss out things that no longer fit etc. It's the most liberating feeling...I'm not even sure why some things have been kept over the years? Guilt? A memory? There were things in there I HATED - why was I keeping them? All gone into a HUGE garbage bag now...

Back to Pilates this morning. I feel all stretched & happily weary...like a cat after a morning stretch in the sun...

The kiddlets are sitting on Bonnie's bed listening to Charlie & Lola on CD. There are some great audio books around in our library & we've really been enjoying them. Bonnie worked through the first Harry Potter book (all 7 CDs) in TWO DAYS! It's great.

We just all watched "Ponyo". Sweet movie!!!

And of course I am snuggling the kids just that little bit closer after watching the news about the devastating earthquakes in Haiti...surreal, shocking, awful, horrific...my eyes always well up with tears as we watch. I'm trying not to watch too much TV as Eric can't cope with things like that when he walk in on the news. Fair enough too...I can't watch much either. So I've tried listening on the radio, but even that overwhelms as people describe the total horror...& to be honest I feel grateful & relieved that I live in a country like Australia sometimes. We get excited when our unemployment rate is about 5%...theirs is 50-70%. So many people, so much suffering over the years. Soulemama & many others have some great ideas on their site about support...

Prayer

I love this beautiful image I found this morning.

I'm rostered on to pray this Sunday morning...I look forward to joining with all those people - some I know & some I don't - to come together before the God we are all on our own journey with, individually & with each other too. There is something about unity, about praying as a large group that can be very moving...

I have so much to learn...

Libraries are GREAT!

Our local library runs things in the holidays (as well as a reading club) so the kids are excited & returned their first set of 5 read books today. Bonnie chose some butterfly stickers as her prize & Eric chose a lollipop. Their choices sum them up pretty well...

Next week they are having a mask making morning so I booked Miss Artist into that. Eric has a morning tea on at the same time for kids that are going into Kindy this year. I'll be dashing from one to the other...

Bought some big chunks of chalk on sale last week. The kids made some great hopscotch areas out the back on our flat concrete area. Great to see all their art skills in overdrive...I vacuumed yesterday & the poor vacuum FILLED UP SO FAST. If vacuum cleaners could speak ours would probably say: "What's with all the glitter, & teensy shreds of coloured paper & pom poms & sparkly things instead of the usual dust?"

On the news tonight they were interviewing Clint Eastwood - he turns 80 in May. How wonderful to still be working & enjoying your work at that age? I remember a lecturer telling me that she was at a party & this elderly couple got up to play piano & violin...I wonder if the current youth will be like that in their 80s? How amazing to live that long!

Reading some very interesting books full of interesting truths at the moment.

Loving holiday time. Good to have time to read. D took some time out this afternoon to be alone & went & sat near some local bushland to think & work. Have totally LOVED thrifting for old clothes & books lately - but have to restrain myself. I know that I have to get some school shoes very very soon...

The Stepmothers' Support Group - Sam Baker

Just read this great book...one of those can't-put-down-until-you-find-out-what-happens-to-the-characters type book! Sat up until about 1am last night trying to finish it. Have thrown Gameboys at the kids this morning to keep them happy while trying to finish it. (Totally selfish I know!) It's just a book from the local library. Nice to read some fiction - not related to work etc. Actually it's great to read & finish a book. To take a peek into other peoples' lives...pretend lives.

Trying to get my groove back these holidays. Feel like I'm treading water. The house still needs cleaning, the ironing is breeding & we've hardly done anything much...feel like someone has stolen my energy to do anything. I told poor D to get pizza last night as I was too stuffed to cook (plus a nasty headache coming on)...

Thanks everyone for your lovely comments about the kids. They are lovely. Bon has been a sweetheart this week. Eric comes out with funny little comments...today's was: "I need to charge up it" instead of I need to charge it up. (He was speaking about a game of course. I splurged on eBay & bought the kids a game each.) We have a list on D's white board full of funny comments from him. The other day Dad said after Eric came out with something insightful & clever "Hey Eric, you've got lots of brains in there haven't you." He looked back & said "No, I've just got ONE!" LOL...

I have cleaned up both kids rooms - getting rid of teensy bits of half broken toys, artworks, half made things from old boxes etc. THAT is something that's been great to do. We bought a HUGE bed from bunkers a while ago which has just been too huge, too tall, too hard to make, too dangerous for me to climb around on, so we are selling that. When it's all gone then I'll buy a bookshelf & sort out Bonnie's room a bit more. I want it all sorted before school goes back. (She's trying to lasoo Eric in the background as I type...sigh...) The stategy these holidays is to give them some time apart I think. They need a break from each other...D took them all out to the movies last week & gee it was wonderful to just breathe & think in the quiet.

I've bought some new music books, thinking about doing a little bit of piano teaching this year. That will be good - after a 3 year break. I stopped all students after D got cancer. It just would have been too hard. I've missed it though...thinking about teaching. Casual is soooooo much harder than having your own classes. Building up relationships is that much harder, so many new families I don't know. When you teach for a while you get to know families, you get to know the kids strengths & weaknesses, you get to know how the ebb & flow happens in a class. As a casual you have a list of things the teacher wants you to do (if you're lucky) & you have to think fast on your feet. (Something that is that much harder since Mrs Mum/Post Baby brain has settled in after 8 years.) You don't know what's come before, don't know where the subject is headed, don't know what point to focus on...& then there's the whole discipline thing. With your own class you know that so-&-so has been having a hard time with their father, that Miss Bossy just lost her grandparents...none of this can be known as a casual. I don't think I ever really appreciated how hard it might be for the casual that took my classes on the very rare occasions when I wasn't at work. I certainly left plenty of work, plus extra extension work, plus a class seating plan, plus anything extra they might need - set up/pack up routines. Now, I'm lucky if I get a scrap of paper with the room number & a page number from a text book...but I guess that's all in the nature of the job. Casuals are a necessary evil & they work them hard because that's why they're there. At the end of every casual day I've gone home thinking about those kids though & thought "I want to do better next time!"

Well, time for a shower, for lunch, for some milk & cookies with the kids while we read some more books as part of the local library summer reading challange, perhaps some ironing, perhaps a drive to the local thrift shops to try to find some bookshelves? And of course, we are in dire need of some shopping but I can't think about that now...too overwhelming. I might even BAKE some cookies instead.