Category: More about me

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#blogjune family anecdotes Technology

#BlogJune Day 26

“Second star to the right then straight on til morning”

These instructions, given by Peter Pan to Wendy Darling, are the directions to Neverland. And my Miss16 was given the challenge of animating them. “What would be seen by the children (Peter, Wendy and her younger brothers, Michael and John) as – with the help of Tinkerbell the fairy, of course – they fly there from London?”

And this was what she created. By herself, by hand. No AI here, folks!

Enjoy 🙂

914137D1-A036-42C0-9738-63D80E03C60A

– KRidwyn

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#blogjune family anecdotes momentous events Random thoughts

#BlogJune Day 25

Yesterday was a red letter day. I finally succeeeded at something I’d been unable to do: finish dessert at The Pancake Manor.

Eating there is a pleasure I share with my Mum. Not sure why, but whenever we’re in Brisbane for the day we make a point of eating a meal there. And although I ensure my stomach is growling prior to entry, I’d never yet made it through a meal AND dessert due to the huge meal sizes.

So yesterday, Brisbane bound with Miss16, the challenge again was to consume the entire dessert. And we did it!

(Admittedly, we shared one dessert between us, and both of us were wise enough to only order the ‘entree’ sized meal… but we did it!)

And it was DELICIOUS!!! and so decadent 🙂 🙂 🙂

In case you’re intereseted, I had the Chicken crepe (chicken and mushroom filling on a bed of mashed potatoes) and Mum the seafood crepe, and our dessert was the Macadamia Madness. And even now, writing about it, I can feel my tastebuds watering behind the smile playing around my lips.

It was truly a memorable day!

Here’s hoping yours is as well, dear Reader 🙂

  • KRidwyn

[Also, sorry for the shocking photo quality. But we all know how badly I take photos…]

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#blogjune Life places to visit

#BlogJune Day 22

Today was meant to be a shopping morning, followed by a party tonight.

But Miss16 decided that shopping could wait for another day, so it was ‘just relax at home’ before party instead.

De-cluttering happened. Organising happened. Numbers of Gilmore Girls episodes happened, and now I’m with Kiya in her favourite spot. And I have to agree with her, it’s one of my favourite spots too.

Here’s wishing a relaxing day for you too, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

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#blogjune family anecdotes momentous events Random thoughts

#BlogJune Day 13

I missed a day! Sad 🙁

but a friend I hadn’t heard from in simply ages replied to a tweet and also commented on here (hi Snail!) so: happy!

Reason for missed day: my Mum had had a car accident on the 11th (hence the cryptic post because I was too emotional to write coherently) and – although she’s okay and in fact, better than okay, she’s remarkably good praise God! – I spent hours (literally) on the phone with the insurance company and that chewed up good blogpost-writing time. Sigh.

I *had* intended to post this photo (taken yesterday, when I discovered its existence!) as I found it so amusing:

I guess I’ve reached the age whereupon (ha! Check out that old word!) I receive birthday cards from politicians by virtue of not dying yet. Ummm… not sure how that makes me feel, really, but… okay?!

Have a ‘not dying’ day yourself, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

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#blogjune family anecdotes Life

#BlogJune Day 10

So my Miss16 has 6 months left of school. And what does she do? Join in with the Senior Assassin game, of course!

Wear goggles? You’re protected. Floaties on your arms? Also fine. On school grounds (school bus seats included in this definition) or heading to or at your place of work? Also unable to be eliminated.

Anything else? You’re fair game for being eliminated (shot by a water gun, the evidence caught on video) and no longer able to win the hundreds of dollars in prize money awarded to the winning team.

My girl’s latest obsession: looking over her shoulder anywhere we go. Oh, and the goggles wearing, of course.

Let’s see if she’s a few hundred dollars richer by the end of the year!

Have a goggle-free day yourself, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

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#blogjune momentous events

#BlogJune Day 7

Today was a huge day. I turned 50. It was also momentous for my kelpie pup.

1) I did something I never thought I’d do, and bought dog clothing. She’s been cold at night… even Hubby mentioned that she’s not built like our (now passed away) German Shepherds! And

2) I bought her a new toy. And I swear her eyes widened when she first saw it. It’s bigger than she is! Check it out on her bed:

 

anyway, I hope momentous things (good ones only, of course) happen to you today, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

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#blogjune Blogging challenges momentous events Random thoughts Writing

BlogJune #1

Better late than never, amiright? Truth be told, it wasn’t until the early hours of June 2 that I decided I was going to do the #blogJune challenge again this year. And 2024’s theme? Daily photo.

So apologies for being several hours late, but here was June the first’s:

Hope your day was similarly festive, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn
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family anecdotes

18/52 Thoughts on parenting and creativity

It’s been a week. Hard to really get a grasp on just how much has happened in the past 7 days, however as I said to a friend just yesterday: priorities. Get these right, then everything else falls into place.

When I consider my own responsibilities, my first priority is to my three kidlets. (Hence the ‘parenting’ in the title, btw). They didn’t choose to be born, so I’ll try my darnedest to ensure they have the best life I can give them. Now absolutely, there’s times – many, many, MANY times – when we don’t see eye to eye, but again, I’m the parent and I need to shoulder what needs to be shouldered to ensure that our relationships are as good as they can be.

The way I see it, that means taking an interest. Miss19 in our roadtrip last year wanted to talk ‘The Owl House‘ for 12 hours straight? Sign me up. She convinced me to watch it and was so glad to be able to share her passion with me. And really, who could pass up a conversation about King that cute little Titan?!

Then ‘The Owl House’ finished and interest morphed into ‘Arcane‘ and – via Schnee – Studio Ghibli.

Recently, it’s become ‘Purple Hyacinth‘ with Miss16 – check out this artwork! –

 

and (of course) Fortnite with Master15.

I regret nothing. For realz. Both my daughters want to work in the Art sphere – you know, the one being taken over by AI? – but I don’t care. I’m going to support them and their choices and their decisions no matter what. Because I’m their Mum. And because this post I shared on Fb the other day is *really* how I feel:

Screenshot

Have a great week, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn
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momentous events Random thoughts

15/52 On milestones

Today marks my 15th weekly blogpost. I’m pretty stoked with myself for that, because I’m not as successful as I’d like to be with creating intentional habits. But every Sunday I wake up and think ‘it’s blogpost day today’ and, so far this year, I’ve liked that thought 🙂

It’s both scary and humbling though. Externalising my thoughts, to be read by whomever wants to… but also realising that my thoughts are – quite likely – not particularly interesting enough for others to read!

Still, it’s a commitment I decided I’d make to myself, back in January, and – so far! – I’ve kept that commitment. Hopefully I’ll continue to. I’ve made it to 15 weeks! That’s more than a quarter of the year, after all 🙂

And milestones, after all, are best celebrated. Who knows when (or if?) we’ll get another one?

I’m counting down to another milestone, too. 50 laps around the sun, coming up on Friday 7th June.

50!

To tell the truth, I never actually thought I’d live this long. When I was a kid, I couldn’t see myself getting past 26. Living past the year 2000 seemed just too incedible to even believe.

Yet here we are, 24 years past that, and I’m going quite strong still, it would seem. (Well, my back’s feeling decidedly weak at the moment, but that’s probably a direct result of the burning of Hubby’s hedge annihilation pruning earlier in the week, and the cubic metre of crusher dust I’ve shifted [one metre down, one to go… note to self – get less in future!] in the last two days…)

So, that’s what I’ve been ruminating on this past week. Milestones, and how I’m blessed to have them. And I think I’d like to need to remember that!

How about you, dear Reader? What are your thoughts on milestones?

  • KRidwyn
Categories
family anecdotes

14/52 On social media memories

In spite of my not liking it, Miss 19 uses the BeReal app. For me, it’s the ability to potentially track someone through the app that I hate. I love my daughter, and the idea that someone could be finding her by her location – because she’s telling them! – is just plain ol’ foolish, to my way of thinking. However, she’s an adult, and if she chooses to get and use BeReal and TikTok (which she doesn’t use much, I’m glad to report) then that’s on her.

It *was* interesting though, to hear that she uses the functionality of BeReal as a form of online diary. ‘Where was I / what was I doing six weeks ago?’ Scroll back to that date and ‘bam’, there’s the answer. So that was a less-nefarious way of seeing it, I guess.

And let’s face it, who doesn’t smile when the “Your memories on Facebook” posts pop up. Here’s one of mine from the other week:

 

And reading it took me staright back to that day. Eight years ago, my middle child, determined to find the tooth which she’d just discovered was no longer ‘hanging by a thread’ in her mouth. We were at Kings Beach as a family, and it was farily heavy surf that she’d just been swimming in, with Hubby and the then Master-7.

She was so earnest! She would find it, she was sure…

Needless to say, the tooth was never found.

Have a memory-full week yourself this week, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn