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...

Happy Birthday Bonnie

My little one turned 8 last Friday. 

It is very surreal that the little baby who rested in her Dad's arms as the sun came up after her birth is now 8 years old. When people used to say "time flies" I'd roll my eyes, but it really feels like it does... especially when birthdays come around. It seems like the time is slipping through my fingers...

We spent Sat with friends in the lower blue mountains & we did lovely marbling & sketching (while the guys worked on fixing up our camping trailer outside in the cold), then yesterday Nan & Pop came for a visit & Bon was given some beautiful sketch pads & pencils so she spent the whole afternoon drawing & copying images from a Faber Castel DVD teaching kids how to cartoon...this is her picture called "Crazy Cows". She is getting into art so much. (I've been doing big pictures & posters to try to help one of the Librarians at school that I'm friends with too - it's fun!) I know that she is very much her own person, yet I see so much of myself in her. Her gentle ways, her love of music & art, her clumsiness at times, her compassion for others, & her caution at trying new things...I can't believe I have a living daughter who is so wonderful. I stare at her sometimes & get a glimpse of that baby I nursed so many years ago...

I worked 2 casual days last week & I still feel exhausted. Some aspects are like riding a bike. Some things are all so new. It's a different school since I was there...some lovely kids, some disrespectful kids, staff that need lots of love & encouragement....you'll laugh when you hear what I've taught. Food tech, Yrs 1, 3, 6, Yr 7, 8, 9, 11,  Geography, Computers, Special English, GERMAN (lol) & Music...& good old playground duty...a bit of everything. Although I haven't had to teach Yr 10 year - those boys just look so huge...& look like they're ready for a fight at any time...

Well...back to the daily chores. With so much rain I'm STILL trying to catch up on all the laundry. 

Crossing my fingers & hoping that in a week or so I'll get to visit Queensland...not holding my breath though as we always have to expect the unexpected...