Phew! What a term! Glad it’s over.
and I’m ecstatic that this just so happens to be my view right now…
[and it’s only just now I remembered I hadn’t posted the photo yet… whoops!]
Have a wonderful week yourself, dear Reader!
– KRidwyn
Well – kinda.
It’s still me writing, at my desk, putting words onto the little white rectangle on the computer screen in front of me.
But it’s not Monday morning, the 17th of September, 9am.
It’s last week (well, it will be last week, by the time you read this – and I know that this sentence isn’t grammatically correct from when I write this, but it’ll make sense when you read this later… I hope!) and yes, there *is* indeed a very valid reason for this cheating post, which I’ve written and scheduled ahead of time.
I’m in Canberra right now. Or Sydney. Or en route to one of those places. At this point in the planning of the event (because it hasn’t happened yet) I’m still a little fuzzy on the details.
But Hubby is at home with Miss10 and Master9 and my mum, keeping the house fire burning (although maybe not, because the weather’s starting to warm up nicely and it might be too hot by the time this post is published, to need a nightly fire) because Miss13 and I are with sixty-nine other 12- and 13-year olds, enjoying (ha! hopefully ‘surviving’, at least) a week-long camp to our nation’s capital and other ‘worthwhile to visit for educational purposes’ places.
Hence the need to post ahead of time. I have absolutely no idea where I’ll be at 9am on Monday 17th September, but I *do* know that multiple kids will be there. All with pre-teen and early-teen needs, which is to say MULTITUDES!
Sigh. I’m tired now, even just thinking about it. And I haven’t even started packing yet.
So. That’s what my week’s going to be like. How about you?
– KRidwyn
What feels like aeons ago now, but was only decades (ha!) I played violin in an orchestra. The South-West Regional Youth Orchestra, as a matter of fact, which changed its name during my time there to the Brisbane Regional Youth Orchestra. I was a member for the majority of my teenage life, and made friends there who not only came to my wedding but with whom I’ve kept in contact for the many years since.
Which brings me up to recent days – in which I received an invitation. To join their massed orchestra, with all their other alumni, for their 35th anniversary celebration concert.
Aiieeeee!
I’d love to go, to play… but I haven’t played (truly ‘played’, as in, played well, with technical proficiency) for well over a decade now… and I’ve never been to a reunion in my life!
Hence the apprehension.
It’s this Sunday.
By my next blog post, it’ll be all over.
Wish me luck!
– KRidwyn
I’ve been talking to my Middle School students quite a lot about habits recently. How often they’re unintentional, a routine formed over time, often because we ‘accidentally’ make a decision to suit us in the circumstances we find ourselves in, and then the next time that situation occurs, our mind/body combo decides ‘let’s repeat the decision, because it didn’t kill us last time!’ or something.
However, if we unintentionally form habits that we see in others and would prefer to NOT have ourselves, then we have a problem. English poet and literary critic John Dryden is said to have coined the phrase: ‘We first make our habits, then our habits make us.’
What habits am I forming at the moment? Are they intentional or unintentional? Because whatever habits I allow myself to form (couch potato in front of the TV; Hubby and my kids’ worst critic; lazy housekeeper; workaholic) that’s the person I will become.
until 2020, anyway! The CCC musical, Conundrum, was an absolute blast… and now the adrenaline is wearing off, I’m realising I’m the most exhausted I’ve ever felt in my life. And my back is SORE!
But it was worth it to see the smiles on the kids faces. And I learned heaps too 🙂
And check out these beauties!!!
Very blessed.
See you next week… I’ll have managed some sleep by then!
God bless,
– KRidwyn
My first ever 🙂
So I took a break from creating the sets for the musical I’m directing (opening night just 4 days away, tickets available on 07 5436 6777) and took Miss13 and Miss10 to the Sunshine Coast Womens’ and Girls’ chess tournament. They begged and wheedled, so -for the first time ever – I entered myself, as well.
It was scary! But I’m glad I did.
Miss 13 earned 2nd place in U18 division.
Miss10 won the U13 division (her sister’s title from 2017).
And I came 3rd in the Adult division! Woot!!!
Here’s praying that you have a successful week too, dear Reader!
— KRidwyn
I keep telling people how amazed I am at my quick recovery from the evil back injury I suffered recently.
Monday 25th June, 10am. The last Monday of term. The doctor who was treating me said he thought I’d be immobile for two weeks, and he’d be able to get me back to ‘normal’ (mostly pain-free) mobility by the end of 5-6 weeks.
Shock doesn’t even remotely describe how I felt. But then again, I was also in childbirth-like agony at the time, and my brain cells weren’t firing anywhere near their usual capacity.
I left the doctor’s office and called my boss, relayed the news, emailed my colleagues. Put the diagnosis out on Facebook. Then I received message after message after message, from friends and family near and far, who offered their support – and their prayers.
I was touched. (And in agony. And tears – many, many tears.) But determined to do everything I could to aid the healing process. The doctor had said ‘ice’? I’d be the ice queen! He’d said ‘horizontal’? I wouldn’t move a muscle!
(Admittedly, the phrase ‘off work for the rest of the week’ did *not* mean that – ask my Mum, who watched me plough through marking paper after paper, responding to email after email, proofing and writing report after report, all in a horizontal position either facedown or face up, ten minute interval changes, non-stop, from 5am until 9pm-ish!)
And wouldn’t you know it, but by Friday 2pm I was back at school. On crutches, but vertical. Yes, you’re probably thinking, ‘stupid!’ but I’d missed the kids terribly and wanted to see them before they left on two-and-a-half-weeks holiday, pray with them and for them, and testify to them just how amazingly their prayers for me had worked. That I was vertical, and walking on crutches, and was amazed at my recovery – but SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN!
Because I’d been holding fast to James 5:16. Especially the second part:
“The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
Because I knew what the doctor didn’t – that the God who had made me, and who had let me go through this experience for His own good reasons, was able to heal me as well, for His own good reasons.
And He was doing exactly that! I should not have been able to be mobile – and yet, I was. And now, two weeks later, I should be starting to achieve pain-free mobility – and yet, I have it! Sure, sometimes it’s uncomfortable, but I’m just happy to be upright and without crutches 🙂
And in conversations with many, many, many others since then, I’ve been telling them how amazing my recovery has been – and then realising, over and over and over again, how amazed I should NOT be by this.
Wow, our God is an incredible God, isn’t He?
I hope you too, dear Reader, are having an AMAZING day today 🙂
And see you next week!
– KRidwyn
I work at a Christian school. The pastor of the church which established our school has a saying: “The LORD has blessed me so much, my cup is overflowing (taken from Psalm 23) and I’m sipping from the saucer.”
I like the visual, so I’m using it here, in this month-long blogging challenge focusing on the blessings God has poured out on me.
Today, blessing #6.
It’s my birthday today. I love that I’ve managed to make it to 44 without too much damage, physically or emotionally, to myself… and hopefully also, to those I’ve interacted with over the past 40-something years!
Anyway, yesterday after work, I arrived home with my cherubs remembering what state I’d left the house in, that morning. Knowing that Hubby would be leaving during the day for a three day conference, I’d done only the ‘most-urgent’ of the housework that morning (plates into the sink, not even rinsed) because I’d be able to complete the rest of it in the afternoon, at a more leisurely pace, without feeling as though I was a ‘bad housewife’ – because of the lack of a Hubby to witness just how lazy I could be! (And how slowly I could get it done…)
So I unlocked the house and walked in – and found the kitchen and dining room clean, a HUGE bunch of flowers on the table, and a box of chocolates and note with them!
“Happy birthday my love!!! Sorry I’m away. See you soon. Love Ian.”
I must admit, I found it difficult to read through the tears in my eyes. What a sweetheart!
And if Hubby isn’t a blessing from the One who created me, I don’t know what is.
I hope you have an awesome day today too, dear Reader!
– KRidwyn
I have a weak left ankle. I’m not entirely sure why, but if I’ve ever hurt an ankle, it’s always been the left one.
Last Wednesday was no exception.
I’d been digging out a sapling in my front yard, and – surprise surprise – it had left a hole when I’d finished.
Silly me decided to fill in the hole ‘later’, after I’d delivered the sapling to the fire pit.
Whoops. Rapidly rethought that plan immediately I’d felt the agony and heard the sickening ‘crunch’ as I fell.
But of course, by then it was too late.
The upshot was: at the ripe old age of 43, I found myself on crutches for the very first time. And boy! Did I ever learn some lessons about the difficulties inherent in not having two working feet!
Everything got problematic. And I realised that for any similarly-hobbling Middle School kids I have, trying to negotiate a three-storey building, carrying books, pencil cases and devices, hats, water bottles and so on – it must be REALLY HARD!!!
So I’ll be changing some things at my school this year, as much as I can, to make it easier.
And I’m kicking myself (not literally; my ankle is still too idiotically painful for that) that it’s taken me until now to realise the problem.
Better late than never though, I guess.
Have a great week, dear Reader!
KRidwyn
So I’m pretty up for a challenge, no matter the occasion. (Not sure what that says about me, but oh well…)
So at the end of 2016, when I completed my Goodreads challenge (2 books a week, meaning 104 books in the challenge, and I read 107) – I thought to myself, “No sweat! Let’s try for 3 books a week in 2017!”
Dumb move.
Really, really dumb.
I went back to full time teaching in January – but decided to not take that fact into account.
Whoops!
So here I am now, Monday the 11th of December, and there’s 20 days left to get the remainder of my challenge books read. 156 books in the challenge. 63 books read. Leaving 93 books to go.
Yup. That’s doable. Between 4-5 books per day…
Perhaps…
Wish me luck, dear Reader! (At least I’ve got access to well over a hundred Middle Grade books I’ve never read…)
And have a great week!
– KRidwyn