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#blogjune momentous events

Blogging June

This is the thirtieth time I’ve posted on my blog this month. I’ve done it! I’ve managed to blog June! Admittedly, not every day had its own post. In fact, well over a third of the month I didn’t manage to post at all. But thanks to an easier workload in this final week, I have been able to catch up, adding numbers of posts per day. (Deciding to finish that short story that’s been bugging me for a couple of months helped, too! Otherwise I think I may have just been filling in countless numbers of memes…)

So, today’s a day for congratulations. My final post in what has been, at times, a bit of an epic challenge. From family illness, through to a massive assignment load, then to worrying over being so far behind with it all, hence to memes, and then to Devilish Detail, it was been quite a bit of a journey! One I’m glad to have taken… but happy also to have finished. And yes, I think I’ll join in again next year – maybe I’ll be more practised in blogging by then, and can aim for greater consistency?!!!

Thanks, dear readers, for taking this journey with me.

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#blogjune

Reality blues meme

Thanks to @jobeaz for inspiring this post.

What I would like to be doing:

1. relaxing

2. writing

3. re-arranging my home to suit my current family life, rather than the family life I like to think I have

4. enjoying being with my kids

5. reading a book while sitting in the sun

What I am doing instead:

1. worrying about money (well, lack of it, actually)

2. yelling at my kids when they interrupt my sitting in front of my gorgeous Macbook Pro, in the sun

3. listening to the birds, and the breeze through the trees (man, it’s wonderful living in paradise)

4. thinking that I may have to get up soon and fix some lunch. And then maybe think about doing some marketing work that I said I’d do today.

5. preparing to console Miss 3, who’s currently on the losing end of an argument with Miss 6 in the sandpit. This could get sandy. I should maybe think about running a bath for them as well (refer number 4)

… actually, I may be one of the fortunate ones, whose “What I would like to be doing” isn’t too far from the ” what I actually am doing”. Thank you, Lord, for that revelation!

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#blogjune Random thoughts

Collage goodness

At 6.15 this morning, I called the childcare centre. I wanted to check what was meant to happen over school holidays.

Whoops. My younger two kids were expected, and I was going to be charged for the day. So what the hey – I’m paying; they like going; so let them go!

Upshot: Miss 6 and I get six hours together. Alone. (Wow. That hasn’t happened in, like, a millenium!) So. Movies? No. Shopping? No. Her choice? “Let’s do some collage, Mummy!!!” (Great…)

I couldn’t be bothered driving all the way home, only to drive back out to pick up the younger two again, so “doing some collage” involved buying cheap craft stuff from the closest $2 shop. We then wandered over to Caboolture Library, where Miss 6 chose for us to sit in side-by-side carrels for our collage creating.

  

Hours later, she was happy. I was happy. We headed off to collect the younger two, trailing paper covered in glue, matchsticks, butterflies and flowers.

What an unusual day. I wonder what tomorrow will bring?!

(All photos were taken by Miss 6 on my iPod. They’re un-edited. Not bad, hey?! I especially like the way she chose to do an extreme close-up of the chair cover. I guess the pattern, and the colour, intrigued her?)

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#blogjune Random thoughts

Weird things that can kill you…

I read recently in a friend’s blog that in France, 1518, 400 people died in a ‘dance plague’. Yes – they danced til they died, of heart attacks, exhaustion, and the like. Apparently they didn’t want to, and were pleading for onlookers to help them. Strange.

It got me wondering. I wonder what other ‘normal’ activities have been known to kill people, en masse, like that? Have there been cases of mass plagues of ‘harvesting’? How about ‘washing the dishes’? ‘Skipping’? ‘Nagging?’ I wonder!

Anyone out there know of any?

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#blog12daysxmas #blogjune Random thoughts

And again…

I find myself unable to blog on a daily basis due to illness and busyness.

What is it about this month that has caused my inability to keep this blog happening on a daily basis?!!! Looking back, I know it’s been filled with both illness (that vomiting bug in the first couple of weeks wiped me out!) and busyness (Uni assignments, work deadlines etc) but has this month been more trying than the others or is it just run-of-the-mill reflection of how my life is at the moment? I’m not entirely sure. Maybe taking this #blogjune challenge was not as realistic as I thought it would be. It’s funny – I did the #blog12daysxmas challenge with no hiccups, in spite of floods keeping my family stranded in 1770 where staples and petrol ran out within days, and prices of ferry rides to Bundaberg (ha! Where THEY were flooded worse than us!) skyrocketed. I even managed the #octshowntell last year. So what is it about this one that I just couldn’t manage it? Is it that 12 days, or one story a week, is do-able, but 30 consecutive days is not? Hmmm…?

Well, I’m not particularly impressed with myself. At church this morning, we were regaled with a delightful reading from “Reuben Ramsay OR The Boy That Nobody Wanted”. A 1849 tale of a boy who looks into the mirror after deciding that nobody wants him, and then realising that he doesn’t even want himself. The Christian influence enters in the form of a lady, who tells him that what he was looking into when he realised that he didn’t even want himself was actually the ‘mind’s mirror’. As in, he wasn’t looking at the reflection of his physical person, but his personality. It was this – his personality – that he didn’t like, and he could change this by giving his heart back to Jesus, who made his heart in the first place.

An accurate reflection of us all, I would suspect, when we truly self-reflect. Well, it is an accurate reflection for me, anyway. I’d prefer to see something a lot nicer in there. Someone who keeps the commitments she makes, for example, to blog daily for #blogjune. Someone who doesn’t keep on stuffing up, publicly, and having to apologise and start over. Wouldn’t that be great. Maybe I should re-read that book, and take the advice offered.

 

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#blogjune Random thoughts

Se7en

And this’ll probably be the last for today, I think… (Disclaimer: the contents of these lists are not necessarily in order. They probably change in priority according to my moods anyway!)

Seven Things that Scare Me:

  1. Australia’s worsening national debt
  2. Preventable mistakes
  3. Becoming the victim of eye-dentity theft
  4. Horror movies
  5. Not being the mum that my kids need me to be
  6. Loss of people / relationships I hold dear
  7. Spiders

Seven Things I Like:

  1. Hubby and our three little ‘uns (d’uh!)
  2. Cheesecake. Oh, and Raffaello.
  3. Holidays
  4. Plane trips
  5. Singing
  6. Teaching
  7. Friends

Seven Random Facts About Me:

  1. I got my motorbike license before I got my car license.
  2. I’m very comfortable sitting on the floor. In fact, I often prefer it to furniture.
  3. I’m rather conceited about the metabolism I inherited from my mother. I show this by eating dessert while watching The Biggest Loser. How bad is that!
  4. I’m not particularly good at keeping fish alive. In a tank, anyway. In the fishpond, they seem to be completely fine. For ages.
  5. I smoked for a while when I was 19. I killed the cravings (when I stopped) by eating a snickers bar each time I wanted to light up.
  6. When I was in Uni (the first time) I wanted to get a large tattoo on my upper arm. A panther. I’m glad now that I didn’t.
  7. I used to be in leadership in a cult. SOOOO happy now that I’m out!

Seven Things I want to Do Before I Die:

  1. Hang-glide
  2. See my favourite places with my own eyes. Israel, Rome, the Kimberleys, the Daintree.
  3. See my kids grown and happy in strong, positive relationships
  4. Be published. On paper. (Better hurry up with that one, hey!)
  5. Ride a camel
  6. Learn to ski
  7. Umm… it was stretching it to get to six!

Seven Things I Can Do Well:

  1. Multitask
  2. Bluff
  3. Proofread and edit
  4. Explain concepts so that others understand
  5. Comfort my children
  6. Play violin
  7. Organise

Seven Things I Can’t Do But Wish I Could:

  1. Turn back time
  2. Forgive myself more easily
  3. Be about a zillion times more patient
  4. Be just a little taller
  5. Break through glass ceilings. Been there, tried that. It hurt my head.
  6. Fit more hours into my day
  7. Win first division lotto. Still trying though…

Seven Phrases I’m Known to Use:

  1. Seriously?
  2. Just wait…
  3. Could you please…
  4. You’ve got to be kidding!
  5. Oh sh*t.
  6. No, sweetheart. It’s not your turn for Mummy time.
  7. Oh my God…
Categories
#blogjune Random thoughts

The naming meme

Thanks, @fionawb – all the different #blogjune variations of this meme made me laugh! Here are my additions…

1. Your real name:

Ceridwyn

2. Your Gangsta name:
(first 3 letters of real name plus izzle.)

Cerizzle
… hmmm… interesting…

3. Your Detective name:
(fave color and fave animal)

Orange platypus

4. Your Soap Opera name:
(your middle name and street you live on)

Hanah Bells

5. Your Star Wars name:
(For your new first name: first 3 letters of your 1st name + first 2 letters of your surname; For your new last name: first 2 letters of your mother’s maiden name + first 3 letters of the city you were born)

Cerbl mobri

… hey, I like this one! It sounds quite Star Wars-y!

6. Your Superhero name:
(your 2nd favorite colour, and favourite drink).

Rust Punch

7. Your Iraqi name:
(2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your last name, 1st letter of your middle name, 2nd letter of your mother’s maiden name, 3rd letter of your father’s middle name, 1st letter of a sibling’s first name, and last letter of your mother’s middle name)

Eohoyj

… huh?!!! What’s up with that?!

8. Your Witness Protection name:
(parents’ middle names)

X Glyn

9. Your Goth name:
(“Black”, and the name of one of your pets)

Black Aksel

10. Your Ninja name:
(First two letters of your first name added with “ruto”)

Ceruto

hmmm… well, I guess that’s not too bad…

11. Your Pirate name:
(Your middle name after the word Captain)

Captain Hanah

Categories
#blogjune Random thoughts Uncategorized Work

A-Z Meme

This seems an easy one to start with. And hopefully it’ll be quick because Miss 6 will be home from school soon, and Miss 3 and Master 2 are due to wake up from naptime any second… Thanks, @katreena, @flexnib et al for the idea!

A. Age: 37. And slowly getting used to it.
B. Bed size: King. Gift from in-laws.
C. Chore that you hate: Housecleaning. Were I to win lotto, employing a full-time housecleaner would be at the absolute TOP of the list.
D. Dogs: 12 month old German Shepherd and 10 year old Labrador. Don’t visit without prior notice.
E. Essential start to your day: Hugs from kids. Miss 3 especially.
F. Favourite colour: Orange.
G. Gold or Silver: Gold. No question.
H. Height: Average to tall? I’m not sure exact measurements, and I’m too comfortable to get my driver’s license and check…
I. Instruments you play: Violin. Voice. I can also pick out a tune on most instruments. Played Bass Guitar for a few years.
J. Job title: Mummy. (The best word in the English language). Plus I “look after” the marketing for St Paul’s Lutheran in Caboolture, but I haven’t given myself a title for that. Yet. Suggestions welcome!
K. Kids: Three. Plus hubby when he’s sick…
L. Live: Paradise. Better known as the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.
M. Mother’s name: Rehanah.
N. Nicknames: C – but only my best friend and her husband call me that. It’s weird, cos they pronounce it as ‘see’ but my name has the initial sound ‘K’
O. Overnight hospital stays: 3 x childbirths.
P. Pet peeve: “Austraya”
Q. Quote from a movie: Not a favourite, but always cracks me up: “You have bewitched me, body and soul. I love, love, love you.” Mr Darcy to Elizabeth in the latest mangled ending of Austen’s P&P.
R. Right or left handed: Right.
S. Siblings: Two. I’m a middle child.
T. Time you wake up: 6 am would be nice. Generally at least one child will wake me around 4.30am.
U. Underwear: Yes.
V. Vegetable you hate: Capsicum
W. What makes you run late: Me. But I try to get away with blaming others…
X. X-Rays you’ve had: Umm… teeth?
Y. Yummy food that you make: Coconut Ice

Z. Zoo animal: The otters at Australia Zoo. But not when they’re asleep.

Categories
#blogjune Random thoughts University studies

Biting the bullet.

I posted earlier that I was too chicken (what is it with animals today?!) to look at my stats for #blogjune cos I’d missed so many.

Well, I manned up (ha!) and checked. According to WordPress, I missed Days 9, 10, 11, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22. So by my count (and you’d better check it, cos my maths SUCKS bigtime) I’ve got 8 more posts to catch up on after this one. (Cos this is my second post for the day, right? LOL)

I read earlier today, “It’s easier to quit. It takes faith to go through.” (Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer and yes – I’m reading a book, not a journal article! Uni must be over?!! Yay!)

And that got me thinking about how often I ‘quit’. As in. get a bit bored of the same old, same old, and change direction. So I thought I’d bite the bullet this time. I know I’m quite a few days behind, but I’m determined. Plus we’ve got all those lovely memes that have been popping up everywhere on #blogjune, so that should help a little….

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#blogjune Random thoughts

Sheepish

Why does ‘sheepish’ mean ’embarrassed’? I mean, I get why ‘wolfish’ has connotations of slyness, being cunning and all that jazz. But since when were sheep so worried about their social standing that they could feel embarrassed when they didn’t quite measure up to their own expectations of themselves? Really?!!

Long story short, I’m a little disappointed in myself concerning this whole #blogjune thing. I knew that I’d miss a day or two, here and there, but here we are on Day 23 and I feel as though I’ve missed more days than I’ve posted. And I’m loathe to check the stats in case my suspicions are confirmed.

So yes, here I am, doing my best impersonation of an embarrassed sheep. Or whatever. Sorry!