momentous events – K.Ridwyn

It’s fast running out…

My middle child graduates from Primary School in a few weeks. I’m not ready for this to happen.

She’s ten. Young for her grade; she was bright enough to be accelerated a couple of years ago, and she’s been blossoming ever since. And I’m immensely proud of her for that.

But I’m also aware of the potential problems. She’s small (and cute! Mummy bias here) and possibly more naive than her peers. And yet, mature, for all that. She continually surprises me, with her reactions to events and the considered approach she takes to life. She’s an amazing kid.

And she’s graduating Primary School. Entering the big bad world of High School. Although not really. She’s entering the Middle School which I’m Head of, so it’s not too bad. And it never will be, as long as I have something to do with it! I’m looking forward to having her in my school, even though it means I personally will have more offspring in secondary than I’ll have in primary school, and I’m not particularly comfortable with what that says about my age! But I’ll need to suck it up, I guess. Cos I can’t stop it, no matter what I do.

Sigh. Carry on, one day at a time. Realise that there’s a milestone here to be celebrated… one that’ll never happen again.

Enjoy, and remember. Be like Mary, the mother of Jesus, who “treasured these things in her heart”.

Amen, LORD.

And have a memorable week yourself, dear Reader!

— KRidwyn

Best night EVER!

Friday night. The not-too-distant past. Sons of Korah, Australian Christian band, playing at Lifepointe Baptist church at Buderim.

SOOOOO worth the almost-20-year (yeh, you read that correctly) wait to see them live.

They were BRILLIANT! Their technical expertise was beyond compare. Such timing, such accuracy – they were so ‘tight’, it was – truly – incredible. As in, the “real” meaning of that word. Beyond belief.

It’s been years since I’ve been so ‘swept up’ in the moment. But that concert did it for me. I was alive 🙂

[I wonder if that’s how God feels, looking down on us with such delight?! A beautiful thought!]

Anyway, I just wanted to share this memory with you today. And if you’re interested in their music, try here. I’d recommend their initial album, ‘Light of Life’ as a great starting point!

And here’s praying that you have a inspired week, dear Reader 🙂

– KRidwyn

A little apprehensive…

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

In which I contemplate how amazed I shouldn’t be

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

Sipping from the saucer #24

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 #24. And yes, it’s super late because on Saturday last, when I picked up the heavy washing basket full of wet towels, I felt my spine ‘give’ and thought to myself ‘Great – not – I’ve thrown my back out again.’

But the truth became more clear with x-rays on Monday late morning. Nope – it was a herniated disc. Hmmm.

But back to the blessing: between the pain and the x-ray, guess what Hubby went and bought for me:

What a good man I have – and what a relief to be able to live in a country and have sufficient funds to be able to purchase pain meds!

Here’s hoping you also had a blessed day, dear Reader 🙂

— KRidwyn

A boat has arrived

So it’s been a few weeks since I’ve been able to enjoy my morning routine – up soon after 4; get to the gym; leave by 5.15 to get to my favourite writing place by 5.45 then home soon after six.

So it was beautiful this morning to reclaim my routine, and – although the first gym workout in a while left me aching more than I’d like – I arrived at my writing place happy with myself and the world, eager to write for the first time in what felt like literally months.

Only to discover: I wasn’t alone. My view of the creek was not what it had been. A yacht had arrived and had moored itself smack bang into the middle of my writing view.

(Yeah, okay. In this photo it looks tiny. But in real life it looked much bigger. For real. And I was Not Happy.)

What an intrusion! A defiant attestation of the proximity of human habitation – when I wanted to see God’s creation and it only!

True, I see the hypocrisy in my annoyance and frustration. How dare I complain when I’ve been busily driving myself here, and happily inserting my own human-ness with all its noise and pollution and disturbance for months now… suddenly to be upset at the presence of another?! Shame on me!

But it still saddened me. Selfish, I know. Silly too. To be upset by the inevitable.

Dumb, even, to be surprised by it. To have not realised that it would happen one day… and seeing the rate of sub-division development close by recently, it was bound to happen sooner rather than later.

But saddened anyway. I wonder if that’s how God felt when Adam made an axe and chopped down a tree for the first time ever? I wonder if he sighed and thought, ‘Well, there goes the neighbourhood.’

Or if He saw it as an opportunity for something else. Something different. I don’t know what, yet… but I guess I should remain open to the opportunity for finding out.

Change doesn’t have to be bad, I guess.

So with that thought in mind, we should probably head into this week. Here’s wishing you a great one, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

Getting older…

My eldest child became a teenager on the weekend. My second eldest had reached double digits 5 days earlier. Hubby had turned 46 the day before that.

Yup. Third week of January. Birthday week.

The difference, this year, was that for the first time ever, Hubby and I have more children in double digits than in single.

That made us feel old.

Then, just two days ago, when Miss12 became Miss13? Surreal doesn’t even begin to describe it.

How can I be a mother of a teenager? Seriously? Am I old enough? Responsible enough? Where’s the training manual for this section of my parenting life?!!

We spent the day together, doing things that would make memories for the two of us. She’s an awesome kid. So gentle, so caring. Love her to bits.

Not entirely appreciating though, how her milestone forces me to attain one as well.

Never mind. It was bound to happen eventually, I guess.

Have a great week, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

Of beachworms and psychology

Fraser Island, in Queensland. One of my favouritest spots in the world.

Hubby and I have visited dozens of times, and explored pretty much everywhere, however we’ve never managed to get past Ngkala Rocks, and so have missed out on the view from the northernmost tip of the largest sand island in the world.

Not so on our most recent holiday. There with close friends, we made it past Ngkala Rocks, and kept on driving.

And made it! Photo below as proof!

On the return journey, we stopped to catch some beachworms for bait. Miss12, who’d been snarky all day because she’d wanted to go south to Eli Creek, instead of north to Sandy Cape, was surprised to see the length of the first worm Hubby caught – 80cm, at least.

She and I were sitting in the car, with everyone else outside, when I thought I’d try a psychological trick.

“I reckon you’d be good at that,” says I. “You’re good at catching lizards – catching beachworms is kinda the same thing.”

Cogs whirred. The arguments poured out ‘they’ll bite me instead of the pipi’ ‘it’s cold’ ‘I don’t want to get my feet wet’ but meanwhile we watched Hubby catching more – all a similar size. The focus of the arguments changed. ‘There’s no point now; there’s not much time left’ ‘I don’t have a pipi’ and then I let loose with the clincher.

“I’ve only ever caught maybe one or two beachworms in my life. I’m not very good at it. Oh well.”

I know my kid well. There was nothing for it but Miss12 was out of the car and into it. She even let me teach her how to get a pipi out of its shell!

Close on an hour later, the beachworm hunters returned; Miss12’s face wreathed with smiles.

Clever Mummy, says I. Perfect day indeed.

Have a great week yourself, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

New traditions

Happy birthday to me,

Happy birthday to me!

Happy birthday dear Ceridwyn,

Happy birthday to me!
I started a new ‘tradition’ this morning. I was all snuggled up in bed, and all three of my cherubs visited me for birthday snuggles, hugs, kisses and tickles. (Tickles with the younger two, of course: Miss12 is too refined for *that* sort of thing.) If I can get the same treatment next year, that’ll be a family tradition for sure!

Then a cooked breakfast from Hubby, followed by chocolate. As all good birthday breakfasts are.

Winning so far today!

Wishing you a great day too, dear Reader 🙂

– KRidwyn

B is for ‘bissextile’

Go on, guess. What does ‘bissextile’ mean?

And what on Earth is this ‘B is for’ business?

Well, this marks Day 2 of my attempt at the ‘A to Z challenge’ – where bloggers write daily, using consecutive letters of the alphabet, for the month of April (with Sundays off for good behaviour). My theme in 2016 was ‘God’s metaphors’. This year, due to a new job and an insanely crazy-busy last three months, I’ve gone with ‘word for the day’. Easy enough. Yesterday’s word was one I have a pet hate for: A was for ‘always’. And today, perhaps a new word for some of you: bissextile.

So. Did you open up a new tab and google it yet?

My Dad’s the one in the family for discovering new words and researching their etymology (I’m just as likely to look up ‘entomology’, which is really rather different…) and yet I don’t know if he’s aware of this particular word. I’ll have to ask him when he returns from New Zealand in a couple of weeks. Funny, really, because the kids and I are house-sitting for him at the moment, courtesy ex-Tropical Cyclone Debbie which is currently wreaking havoc on the Eastern Australian coast. Thus Hubby is at home, powerless and with no running water (from the taps, that is) while I’m checking out ‘B’ words in his dictionary and blogging at his desk.

Hence ‘B is for bissextile’.

And no, even though it has those three letters in the middle of it which would cause any self-respecting school internet blocking program to flag it – no, it’s NOT about sex.

Actually, ‘bissextile’ is an adjective, which refers to the extra day in a leap year.

How cool is that!

(Oh, and by the way, the ‘sex’ bit is from ‘sextus’, or ‘sixth’, because it was the sixth day before the calends of March. And away we go down another tangent…)

So – have fun working *that* particular word into your next conversation! What a pity I didn’t use this theme last year, which *did* just so happen to include a bissextile day…!

See you tomorrow for ‘C’, dear Reader! And until then, stay safe and be blessed!

— KRidwyn