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11/52

I know, this year I decided to challenge myself on the blog by taking photos and posting them here – in an effort to shame myself into taking better photos. So this post is a bit of a cheat – the photo was taken by a colleague of mine.

It’s my son. 9 years old, on school camp where he was away (by almost 200 kilometres!) from home, for a whole school week.

He has autism, if you have been reading this blog for a while.

So this was hard for me.

His first ever more-than-one-night sleepover away from me.

And here he is, on a giant swing, and having the time of his life!

I’m so incredibly proud of him.

And also teary. It’s a bittersweet thing.

How about you, dear Reader? What made you emotional this week?

– KRidwyn

10/52

Kids grow up. So slowly you don’t notice when you’re with them

Minute by minute, hour by hour, day after day. But then you lift your head out of the trenches and realise that years have flown. Suddenly it’s not sleepovers, it’s Youth Group; it’s not The Wiggles, it’s Beyoncé. And you sigh and ask ‘what next’?

I had one of those moments recently. I knew one cherub had switched from Minecraft to Ark, but the change several months ago didn’t impact me until she told me one evening, “What I really want to do is teach you how to play Ark on the (Nintendo) Switch.”

Huh. Hold me back.

This game, from what I could tell, seemed like Minecraft with dinosaurs, with a dash of the breeding from DragonMania thrown in. Not really interested… especially when my Nintendo Switch time had to that moment involved learning Splatoon – badly – and playing Zelda, death of the Wild – also so badly my children loved watching to laugh at me about how slow I was to do anything. (And how many times Leaf died, but that’s another story.)

So I sighed, and said ‘okay’ and watched her face come to life.

And it hit me. THIS was her passion. At the moment, it’s this game. And she wanted to share it with me. Instant transportation back to her younger years when she’d bring me a dandelion flower or a lizard she’d caught. The same light in her eyes, the same grin; the same joy flooding through me because I am so incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful daughter who loves me and wants to do stuff with me.

So Ark? Yeah. Not the biggest fan – but now I want to play it when she asks, so I can play it with her. Because she’s an absolute angel and I love her to pieces.

And that – doing stuff you’re not really interested in because the benefits so clearly outweigh any other objection? – that’s my thought for the week.

Have a blessed week yourself, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

7/52

I call Miss14 my ‘bird whisperer’. She has several budgerigars in an aviary Hubby and I converted from the cherubs’ old cubby house. Trouble is, it’s not 100% secure – as evidenced by all bar three managing to pull a Harry Houdini and escape.

But this is where the ‘bird whisperer’ comes in: even though they have released the selves into the big wide world, she manages to encourage them back home again! Crazy, huh?

Anyway, this is one of the escapees: Cracker. A cutie, yes?

Have a wonderful week, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

5/52

Last week, a falling gum tree branch took out the power to my house. I wasn’t there at the time, but others were, so it was all made safe, and fixed, by the time I arrived home.

Meaning that I never got to see the live power wire sparking its danger on my front lawn; I could only imagine the culprit branch lying beside it which had aimed for the power line in its efforts to cause maximum hassle and annoyance.

Imagine my surprise then, to find this:

That tree branch, at its base? Easily 30 centimetres diameter. That’s not a ‘branch’, it was a whole ‘tree’! No wonder it took out the line – it came precariously close to goring my writing studio (okay, gardening shed) there too!

And it was a whole lot of fun to clear up, too. Just sayin’…

Have a wonderful week, dear Reader!

4/52

I’m so glad it’s a public holiday here in Australia today. I’ve done seven days straight of work, and another four start tomorrow, so I’m very happy indeed that today is a work-free day.

On the up-side though, the last two-and-a-bit days were spent looking at this view here:

2019 Student Leaders Retreat, preparing them for the year to come. It was a good (albeit long and exhausting!) weekend.

Here’s to a great week ahead, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

3/52

So I finally decided: the iPhone X(R). The first night, I fully charged it before switching to flight mode (with one brother in New York and the other in London, if I don’t use flight mode each night, I sleep with the risk of Viber pings waking me). But I didn’t leave it charging. The following morning, it was on 99%! If I’d left my 6S off charge for that long (6 hours-ish) it’d be as dead as a doornail.

But the new phone is taking a while to get used to. Lucky I have Master9 on my lock screen to keep me cheerful as I navigate this similar-yet-different phone ownership experience…

Have a cheerful week yourself, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

2/52

Last week’s photo showed one of my favourite places: this week’s is another. Kings Beach has a outdoor community swimming pool, built next to natural rock pools my cherubs love to explore.

This was Miss10 and Master9 the other week:

And check out the crowd on the beach behind them! It was a sweltering day – that photo was taken around 10am.

Have a great week, dear Reader 🙂

– KRidwyn