As in, full of thoughts.
It seems as though the majority of children these days have ‘coped’ with the separation of their parents. And it appears as though I’m joining their ranks. At the age of 49.
I’m too full of thoughts, it’s difficult to write them all down.
Sorry, dear Reader. I’ll try again next month.
I hope yours is a good one.
Busy is an understatement!
On the flip side though, there’s this:
Isn’t she a beauty?!
See you next month, dear Reader!
So… I did it!
Not quite on the 16th, admittedly, but on the 25th. And that was pretty much all because I was directing a production of The Velveteen Rabbit, whose opening night was the 16th. Yeh, I didn’t particularly time that one very well, did I…
Still, the querying started on the 25th, and I’ve averaged 2-3 queries per day since then. So I’m happy with that. Some fairly immediate form rejections, which is sad but par for the course, I know.
And I’m enjoying learning LOTS. Last time I queried (years ago now) it was *way* too early. Now I’m feeling a lot more ready, but I’ve revised my query letter twice, my biography about five times, and I’m not even going to mention the numbers of times I’ve reworded my answers to the ‘target audience’ and ‘similar works’ questions! Hence the spinning hamster wheel. Am I doing this right? Should I be writing this? Or this? Or even… this?
I’m quite liking the Query Manager / Query Tracker side of things though. It’s a very impressive site! And researching agents and agencies is also fun. I’m constantly wondering ‘who will I be lucky enough to end up working with’?
So that’s my “Ceridwyn is now an #amquerying writer” story. It took a while to actually happen, but it’s happening now! Praise God 🙂
And speaking of God, have brilliant Easter weekends, dear Readers!
Yours,
KRidwyn
Yes, I know. It’s been a while. Life, you know?
On the homefront, Master12 started High School this year, meaning all three cherubs are at the one school again. What a relief! The school notes, the synchronising of term calendars, the transport issues – all cleared up! But yes, settling him into High School was more problematic than I’d expected… but that’s more my excuse for the dearth of blogposts, rather than the reason I’m putting fingers to keyboard today.
Because check this out!
Yup, that’s me! Third on the list of ‘Top Contributors’ for the conference I attended, the last two days. #NESB2021 – the National Educators Summit, Brisbane, 2021 – was absolutely brilliant, and helped me get my tweeting mojo back again, something I secretly hoped for.
Plus, oh! The learning! Getting back to a space where I can hear latest research on issues from Evidence Based Practice to ensuring diversity in the Library collection, not to mention the joy in listening to authors Aleesah Darlison and Peter Carnavas, and (of course) the networking opportunities presented – wow! So it was a stuff-as-much-information-as-possible-inside-your-brain kind of two days, and now I’m exhausted and happy and eager to start planning what ideas I’ll be implementing first. Because there were just SO many!!!
Thank you to all the presenters for giving up their time and sharing their cumulative wisdom; thank you to the organisers ensuring it all ran smoothly, and also a huge thank you to my boss for covering my classes on Friday, and agreeing to the cost from the PD budget. It was well worth the money 🙂
And now, let’s see if I can keep up this whole ‘blogging’ thing which I’ve wrestled with for over a decade now. Hopefully more regularly than has been, so far this year!
Have a wonderful week, dear Reader 😀
– KRidwyn
So it would appear that the last three weeks of December slipped by without my blogging. Whoops! And we’re at January 4th already, and the holidays are waning quickly. Sigh.
I’ve spent a bit of time at the beach / out in the sun in my garden over the past several weeks. I’m browner as a result (I had photos of both these but for some strange reason WordPress is declining to upload them.) and I also found out from my hairdresser that I should part my hair on the other side. One: it covers the greys and faded hair in my normal part, and two: it still has colour on that side, so I’m looking younger! On the down-side though, it feels REALLY weird and I’m not liking it much at all.
Well, that’s me. I’m off to work out why photos aren’t uploading, because I was planning on using them a LOT this year.
Wish me luck, dear Reader!
Years ago, prior to children, I couldn’t imagine myself as a mum. Truth be told: I still can’t! And yet, I am. Muddling through as best as I can, and making mistakes left, right and centre. Sorry, kids.
But time passes and things get easier (or, at least, more routinized) and then you realise you can’t remember what life was like before the kids were around. Or in primary school. Or in high school. Or university, et cetera.
Me and my family? Well, Master almsot-12 – my youngest – is about to graduate Primary School. Seven scant weeks after, he’ll be the only pre-teen in my house. And just 16 months after that, all three will be teenagers (and yes, I’m already noticing the grocery bill…) and the eldest will be driving and in her last seven months of school.
Wait, what? Seriously?
Life’s going too fast!
Yup. Breathe. It’ll all happen, and it’s all survivable.
*deep breath* *take a moment*
Well, back to my point – because it’s been quite a rambling one this morning – my little man graduates from Primary School in two weeks. Hip hip, hooray!!
Well done, little man. Congratulations – you made it! I love you.
Hubby started gym first, several years ago now. Initially, it was a ‘lose weight’ thing – but then the endorphins kicked in and he quickly transformed into a gym junkie.
It took a couple of years listening to his convincing and cajoling for me to try it before I joined too… but for me, it was the early-morning kid-free time that I got hooked on. I took time off when redundancy meant uncertainty, July 2019 – but then rejoined several weeks ago when I was blessed with permanent work again.
And now Master almost-12 has joined me. He’s done three sessions now, and is happy to continue. In spite of the 4.45am leaving home time! So that’s pretty impressive.
Not only that, but Miss15 is clamouring to go, and Miss almost-13 is making some noises along a similar vein too. Sigh for the loss of kid-free time… but as they’re quickly getting older, I’m going to enjoy these last few years while I still have them.
So I collected two more membership application forms this morning, and the gym owner mentioned setting aside an hour for just my family on a daily basis! I’m pretty sure he was joking…
Anyway, we’ll see how that all pans out. Have a energetic day yourself, dear Reader 🙂
– KRidwyn
My house is surrounded by trees. I love it! But sometimes it can be a little dangerous. When the tree which is closest to your house dies and then falls over, for example. Which is exactly what happened last week.
Fortunately, we had an angel at my place when it fell. No, we have no human witness to this fact, but I’m convinced of this fact nevertheless. The tree, you see, hit the ground.
As in, just the ground. Not the house, not the large green water tank nor the small one behind it, not the clothes line behind the tanks, not even the garden! There was one angle and one angle only at which this tree could fall and not hit anything – and this angle is EXACTLY where the tree fell.
It hit the ground in the best possible place. And our dogs and birds got to enjoy the show (and weren’t hit either!)
So, THANK YOU Lord for the angel who was at my house… and have an incident-free day yourself, dear Reader!
… to me!
It was last Friday, a celebration worldwide – apparently – of teachers and everything we do. Check out the colourful, covid-safe meal and card (the large poster-sized card signed by the all the students didn’t fit in the photo) and especially the PERSONALISED BISCUIT which I was given on the day! Woohoo!
Have a celebratory day yourself, dear Reader!