Tag: Child

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Life places to visit teaching Work

[This post is a cheat]

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

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#blogjune Blogging challenges Christianity

Sipping from the saucer #23

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 #23. Check it out!

And I pray that your day is just as blessed, dear Reader 🙂

– KRidwyn

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#blogjune Blogging challenges Christianity family anecdotes

Sipping from the saucer #17

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 #17.

Here on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, it’s suddenly become winter. It’s as if the temperature lever has suddenly been pulled down, because the temperature has dropped 10 degrees overnight – at least!

So as I drove home yesterday, I was thinking ahead to all the washing I’d need to do, to get three sets of jumpers (the heavy woollen school ones) and three sets of sports tracksuits, ready for wear this week.

Imagine my surprise, on arriving at home, to realise that Miss10 had washed and dried a full load on Saturday and another full load on Sunday, and that there was nothing left for me to do!

What an incredible blessing she is!

I trust that you, too, can have a blessed day yourself, dear Reader 🙂

– KRidwyn

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#blogjune Blogging challenges family anecdotes

Sipping from the saucer #12

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 #12.

Miss13 and I have an… interesting relationship. I love her, and she loves me (I think) but we butt heads more often than not, and have ever since she turned, well, 7.

She turned 13 in January – which meant a later bed-time, significantly later than her siblings. Which also meant plenty of ‘Mummy-and-me’ time was there for the taking, should we want it.

And the thought hit me… Gilmore Girls!

A way to introduce ‘teenage’ concepts to my daughter in a way that she could (hopefully) relate to…

And it’s working! We’re now, mid-June, at the beginning of Season Five; and after a bit of a rocky start – the first few discs in Season One were a bit of a slog – she now asks to watch them each night, and we snuggle and watch and chat about the ideas and situations it presents, as ideas and situations which she may encounter at some point, now she’s a teenager and going-on-25 🙂

So today I want to acknowledge the decades-old American TV show, for the blessing it is to my relationship with my eldest.

And I hope you day today is a blessed one too, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

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#blog12daysxmas Blogging challenges family anecdotes

Blogging #12daysXmas – Day 2

So I’m continuing my annual #12daysxmas blogging challenge this year, and my theme for 2017 is ‘gratitude’. Each day for 12 days, I’m explaining one thing that occurred in each month, that I’m grateful for. Today’s month? February 🙂

In February, I was grateful that Miss 12 was invited to her first birthday party at her new school.

She was anxious about making friends, seeing as she had been in her last school for eight years. However, within two weeks of attending her new school, she received her first birthday party invitation. I was super happy about that!

How about you? Have you ever received an unexpected, welcome invitation?

And here’s wishing you a great Boxing Day, dear Reader!

KRidwyn

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family anecdotes

Persistence pays off

Hubby and I recently enjoyed the longest holiday of our married lives. It was a whole ten days, in the one location: Rainbow Beach Holiday Village.

It’s a cute little town; just a couple of main streets, a beach with multiple shark protection nets, a huge sand dune for climbing up, and – best of all – the place where we stayed boasted a 25m swimming pool.

You see, my kids aren’t the best swimmers. But Miss9 is determined to do better in her school’s 2018 Swimming Carnival, the one held at the end of January. And because we don’t have a pool at home, she made the most of the opportunity and used her holiday to learn correct freestyle stroke, breaststroke, diving, and even on her final day, tried tumble-turning.

Not bad for a kid who, when we arrived, could barely swim ten metres!

Think three hours worth of belly-flopping until she got the dive right. And multiply that same determination for all the other ‘challenges’ she decided to conquer. She’s my persistent one, all right! Just one of the many reasons why I love her 🙂

Have a great week, dear Reader!

KRidwyn

Categories
family anecdotes Life momentous events places to visit Uncategorized

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

Categories
family anecdotes

Uniquely Australian

I’m fortunate enough to live on a fairly large block of land, away from suburbia. Pockets of natural bushland dot the region – one of which is right at my front gate.

There was a small area of bushland near the house of my childhood too – and favourite memories include the multiple times I looked for, and sometimes even spotted, the koala among the high foliage of a eucalypt tree.

You always knew they were there because of their distinct smell, uniquely eucalypt and mammal.

Since moving to our current home in July 2006, there have been only two occasions where a koala has taken up residence in one of the eucalyptus trees near our front gate. From memory, they stayed for a few weeks, and then disappeared again – I didn’t much notice.

But a few days ago, leaving for the gym early in the morning, when the wind was still and the pre-dawn around me heightened my senses, I smelled koala again. It wasn’t an overpowering fragrance, but enough to know one was there.

Such instantaneous joy! And wonder, that a smell can evoke such delight! I smiled for hours.

I love that a koala has taken up residence in one of the eucalypt trees outside my front gate.

Now to just catch a glimpse of him (or her) resting up in the branches during the warmth of the day!

Wish me luck 🙂

– KRidwyn

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#blogjune Blogging challenges

But who said my hands were idle?

I mentioned in my last post that I’ve spent countless hours sitting on the lounge recently, watching TV with my girls. Actually, I *could* count them: 24 episodes per season, at 40 minutes per episode, and we’re now just finishing Disc 5 of Season 4… umm… that’s too many hours than I actually want to admit to…

But that’s not the point of this post. It’s actually a ‘craft’y  one. Going well so far, don’t you think?

*ahem* yes, well…

So I’ve been crotcheting this blanket for Miss9. It’s the same pattern as the one I crotcheted for she-who-is-now-Miss12. 28 squares, joined together, with 3 rows of chain stitching to hold the outsides even.

I was hoping to finish the blanket before winter. That didn’t happen. So I’ve been pushing myself hard, trying to finish it off as soon as I can (the weather’s definitely getting a LOT colder at the moment!) and so, during each episode of Once Upon A Time, out comes the blanket and I do a little more. The 28 squares are now done. Last week, I chain-stitched the vertical seams, and this weekend just gone, I started the horizontal seams.

Man alive, but there is a HUGE amount of chain stitching in this blanket!!!

Anyway, I’ll take a photo when it’s done. I can’t wait! I’m thinking it’ll be by the end of June… I hope!

And then Mr8 will probably start asking about his… sigh…

Have a great day, dear Reader!

— KRidwyn

Categories
#blogjune family anecdotes teaching

touching wood…

#blogJune, for me, meant that it was vomiting bug season. Weird, I know, but last year was the first year since 2011 – when I started #bloggingJune – wherein I was *not* dealing with my cherubs deciding to catch said bug. I held my breath (metaphorically) throughout the whole month, and was glad that not once did I need to clean up after a child.

This year, we’re now almost halfway through the month, and again it would seem that we may not *touch wood* have the ‘pleasure’ of a vomiting bug visit.

I’m okay with that.

I *was* at home with a sick Miss9 today, however her racking coughs and running nose seemed to clear significantly from the good food, bed rest, and Mummy company, so I’m hopeful she’ll mend quickly. She’s my healthiest, strongest kid, so it wouldn’t surprise me if she’s up and running around as per normal by tomorrow.

Which is good. What with the amount of plates I’m juggling in the new job at the moment, it’s kinda needed that I be there, rather than at home, at the moment!

Anyway, that’s where I’m at, at the moment.

Have a great day, dear Reader!

— KRidwyn