Author: KRidwyn

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Life momentous events teaching

47/52 And it’s clearing out time…

New job next year: I’m back to Nambour Christian College… which was the school that I moved to the Coast for in the first place! Head of Library position, replacing an amazingly talented man who’s retiring.

So, for the first time since 2016, I find myself on Christmas holidays with one job finished and the other not yet started. It’s a weird feeling. I’ve ALWAYS done work over the Christmas break. But I can’t right now. There’s nothing to do for CCPS and I can’t start anything at NCC! So I guess by default that means it’s “clearing out of stuff” time.

And check out my inbox! I can’t remember the last time it was at less than 20. And yes now I’m down to just 13!!! I wonder if I can get it to zero by New Year’s?

Wish me luck! Have have a lucky week yourself, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn
Categories
teaching Work

46/52 Morning mist…

Work duties are done and dusted for the year… it’s morning walk time!

And through the mist? It looks heavenly, doesn’t it?

Happy holidays, dear Reader!
⁃ KRidwyn

Categories
Life Random thoughts Reading Review

45/52 on my Goodreads challenge for the 2024

This year, I decided to try a different style with my Goodreads challenge. Ever since I started, the ‘target number’ I chose was based on a specific number of books per week. So in 2015 it was one book a week (ie 52 books) which I obliterated by reading 73, then I upped it to two books per week (104 total) in 2016, for which I managed the exact 104, right on the lead up to midnight on December 31, from memory!

For the next three years in a row, I aimed for three books per week. 156 books! Okay, sure, I only achieved that goal in 2019, reading 168 books, but still! It was a pretty good goal. And reading 81 in 2017 and then 126 in 2018 is not really to be sniffed at either, when I think about it…

I must have been pretty impressed with myself because the following year I upped it again. 2020, the year of ‘four books per week’, for a total of 208. Which I achieved, reading 210… but I’m pretty sure I added that year’s shortlisted BookWeek books into that record… which included 12 picture books!

The following year, 2021, I set the challenge back to three books per week (156 total) and even though I made it, reading 157… the following two years I stepped it back again to just two books per week (104 total) and achieved it again, each year, reading 115 and 114, respectively.

Fastforward to this year. 2024, the year of one book per week again. There were a few reasons for this: not the least of which was that I was back in the classroom, teaching, instead of in the library as librarian, and the planning / reporting / marking workload would leave significantly less time for reading. And also, I wanted to ensure that every book I recorded was a worthwhile, 250+ pager, rather than the picture book or Bible book, just to bulk out my Goodreads challenge record (I try to read my Bible each year, which in itself contains 66 books… but I don’t record these in my challenge as this is a recurring thing for me!).

Currently, I’m on 46 read out of 52. And in the main, I’m happy with that. The most recent is ‘The Space Between Worlds’ by Micaiah Johnson – a book I co-read with my bothers, so we could chat about it. Quite interesting Sci-Fi, and what made it more interesting was to pull it apart with my brothers and work out what we liked / didn’t like, and why. That one before it? Passive income? Don’t bother. It’s really short (I didn’t realise that when I downloaded it) and it’s pretty general in nature. Still, it was a book I read, which is why it’s in there. And the other 13 in the image continue the ‘reverse chronological order’ thing 🙂

The book I’m partway through right at the moment? (again!) is ‘The Brothers Hawthorne’ by Jennifer Lynn Marnes… because my local library contacted me on Friday to tell me that the fifth and final book in the series is sitting there, ready for me to collect… which I’m planning to do, tomorrow! So reading Book 4 this weekend seems the most sensible course of action 🙂 Even though I only read it, 10 books ago…

Anyway, that’s my reading so far this year. How’s yours going this year, dear Reader?

  • KRidwyn

 

 

Categories
Christianity Life momentous events

44/52 on success and worth

So this week’s been a pretty huge one. Miss 16 is no longer a school student, and my Dad’s dementia is moving apace. So I’ve been – in amomgst the emotional rollercoaster – reflecting on ‘what is sucess’ and ‘what is worth’ in equal measure.

Who defines success? Are the kids who walk across the stage to receive Speech Night awards any more ‘worthy’ than those who remain seated and applaud them?

And is the elderly person who remembers past events better than recent ones, less ‘worth’ spending time with than one with whom you can share your news with, and never need to repeat it?

I have no answers, just questions.

I’m glad the God I believe in knows, though! And I’m glad it’s a Sunday today, so I get to go be with others who worship Him too, and can help me out a little more in this crazy thing called ‘life’ 🙂

Have a happy Sunday yourself, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn
Categories
Random thoughts Work

43/52 Christmas decorations and my exhaustion levels

This came across my feed today, and I screenshotted it. It’s something I could probably handle, given my current exhaustion levels:

How about you? How are you coping, this close to Christmas / end of year / silly season?

Here’s hoping you can have a week full of ‘coping’ yourself, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn
Categories
Random thoughts teaching

42/52 Recent funny stuff

I watched ‘The Union’ with Hubby yesterday. Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry. It had exactly the right amount of humour for an action flick, I thought.

And then last night Miss 16 and I watched the Season 6 Grimm episode ‘Blind Love’ and we laughed ourselves silly. It was SO good! (And teaching A Midsummer Night’s Dream to my Year 8 English last term made it all the more relevant…)

So today, I thought I’d share some screenshots I’ve taken from my social media feeds recently. Things I’d saved because they amuse me. Hopefully you’ll get a smile out of them too?

I’m thinking I could so use one of these walkers when the time comes! And:

Not I throw punches (very often) but the timing of this phrase is very clever! And thirdly: I wonder if I could make one of these for my next online video call:

So was I successful? Did you smile? And if so, at which one?

And just to round this post off: back to Shakespeare. This final screenshot is not so much ‘funny’ as ‘clever’ and ‘I want one’. Does it remind anyone else of the bard’s play Julius Caesar? Not that he made it into fighting stance before being cut down, but for some reason it reminds me of this, nonetheless…

Anyway, here’s hoping you can manage a smile sometime this week, dear Reader – and maybe even more than one?

God bless,

KRidwyn

 

 

Categories
Life Random thoughts Review teaching Work

41/52 Huh! Catching up… and aliens because sure, why not…

So we *do* have a new government. And Miss 16 has completed three of her four external exams, with her final this coming Wednesday, and Master 15 has recovered from his very successful Work Experience week, and I’m marking the Year 10 English (real) exams, ready for them to start Year 11 work next week.

Phew!

Oh, did I also mention I’m finishing four Halloween ‘inflatable alien’-but-without-the-inflatable-bit costumes for my year 1 Innovate class?

Long story.

“Innovate” is what my school calls the amalgamation of the two curriculae ‘Digital Technologies’ and ‘Design and Technologies’ and in 2025, it’s taught from Prep through to Year 10. And yours truly is the Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 teacher. The Year 1 class is studying ‘wearable costumes’ and – rather than just deisgning them – I thought it’d be fun to help the children actually *make* them.

The idea quickly paled though, when I was absent the lesson where the children decided on their costumes… and the relief teacher let some of them choose ‘inflatable aliens’. As in, this type:

Now, inflating a costume is something I’ve never done before. So that was never going to happen. Sewing though: I’m not great, but it’s do-able. So that’s what is currently happening. Four of them. And the kids are stuffing them with foam and adding eyes to the heads and enjoying the process.

Here’s hoping it’s all going to get done before this Thursday! Wish me luck!

  • KRidwyn
Categories
Life teaching Work

40/52 this time next week…

Who knows, but this time next week we could have a new State government. I must admit, I’ll be quite happy to see the signs gone from the roadsides, and to have my phone back from all the un-wanted texts from politicians and political groups and stakeholders who somehow got my number. Not to mention the phonecalls from those poor unfortunates who get hung up on when they call asking your opinion on the political scene!

The freedom from political advertising (until next year at least, when we do it all again but nation-wide) is going to be amazing. And the thought of this freedom is keeping me going in amongst all these Year 10 English mock exams I’m currently marking.

On the upside, the topic is Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away, so that’s pretty nice, you’ve gotta admit.

All the best with voting this coming week, dear Reader! (If you’re a Queenslander, that is…)

  • KRidwyn
Categories
family anecdotes momentous events

39/52 And a different milestone…

Last week I wrote about Miss 16 and her final term of High School. This week we shift to the youngest cherub in my household: Master 15 and the fact he’s not at school next week.

He’s at Work Experience.

This has been a ‘thing’ in Queensland schools for as long as I can remember. During Year 10, the kids all take a week off school and head to a place of business for a week.

Back in 1989 when I was in Year 10 (wow, that even SOUNDS like a century ago; it doesn’t just feel it!) I spent the week with my Violin Teacher. We travelled in her car to all the schools she taught strings at, and I met all her students and helped teach them violin. Considering I’d been teaching my own violin students for over a year by that stage, Work Experience wasn’t as daunting a week as it could have been.

Fast forward to this century though, and my own cherubs. in 2020, Miss 19 was set to spend the week at a Bird Sanctuary… but then Covid put paid to that idea. In 2022, Miss 16 spent the week scanning books in my Library. And Master 15? He’ll spend the coming week at the local Neighbours’ Aid Community Stores, learning how to sort and price and all things Op Shop.

I’m super-hoping that it goes well! If you can, spare a thought and a prayer for us!

And have an amazing week yourself, dear Reader 🙂

  • KRidwyn
Categories
family anecdotes Life momentous events

38/52 The final stretch…

It’s been a what feels like a marathan-and-a-half, but my Miss 16 has finally entered her last term of High School. It’s crazy to think that in just a few short weeks she’ll be sitting her final exams, and then graduating!

It’s been a LOOOONG time coming (well, seeing as she skipped Year 4 it’s actually been fewer years than what it would normally have been) but I’m thinking that the emotional rollercoaster that has been the last four years might be coming to an end.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s been a wild ride and I wouldn’t have exchanged it for the world. We’re in a good place now, and I’m super-enjoying Bingeing Grimm with her (we’re getting through the seasons faster than I thought we would, but she’s enjoying the series and I’m enjoying rewatching them) so this is a beautiful thing.

But the end of her ‘schooling’ chapter is hurtling towards us and who knows what’s on the other side? (Well, God does, but no-one living here on His good green Earth does, that I’m aware of) so I’m looking forward to seeing what’s in the next chapter. We just need to get through this term, and exams, and graduation first!

Bring on November 15, is all I can say 🙂

Have a wonderful term yourself, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn