Tag: Family

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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
Random thoughts teaching Work

On the generosity of my cherubs…

I’m athsmatic. It’s only slight, but it’s enough to be annoying, depending on the season and the generosity of sick family members.

So with the change of job this year, I thought I’d better get jabbed with this year’s strain of fluvax. New kids at the new school equals new germs, and all that.

So it surprised me when, three days ago, I got sick. I’d just been congratulating myself on an illness-free year! (Whoops. Pride before a fall and all that… wonder when I’ll learn…) It’s November. Summer’s just two weeks away. And I’m the proud owner of a headcold, courtesy my lovely family!

It started as a sore throat. I’d forgotten just how painful a sore throat could be. It’d been probably at least 18 months since my last one.

Enter Hubby with his juicer. He juices daily, two litres at least, a mixture of oranges, lemons and the occasional grapefruit.

And that, combined with Codral, Panadol, and chicken soup, has knocked this on the head. Mostly.

I even managed to make it to the gym over the weekend! Not strenuous workouts, to be sure, but some activity at least.

And that’s made me feel even better. All those endorphins whizzing around and smashing into each other, having a massive party inside my body. What a wonderful thought!

So. Illness, begone. It’s two weeks til holidays, and I do NOT want you gatecrashing my free time!

How about you, dear Reader? How’s your health been this year?

And have a great week!

_ KRidwyn

Categories
#blogjune Blogging challenges family anecdotes

Once Upon A…

I’ve managed to get Miss12 and Miss9 hooked on the TV series Once Upon A Time.

Yeah, I feel a little bit guilty about that.

But only a little. Deep down, I really like how they want to watch the story unfold, along with me. We talk through character motivations, discuss plot twists, and to tell you the truth, they’re better at finding plot holes than I am!

For Mother’s Day, *they* bought me Seasons 2 to 5 of the series. We’re just gone halfway through Season 4 now. Frankly, that’s a lot of episodes. A lot of time, snuggled on the lounge, with my girls.

And I love that.

Have a great day, dear Reader!

— KRidwyn

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#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

 

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#AtoZchallenge Blogging challenges family anecdotes

D is for ‘determination’

When I was a teenager, my mother regularly talked about ‘Grit and Determination’. They could get a person anywhere, she said. Perhaps her constant reminders were indicative of my ‘lazy, good-for-nothing’ character at the time, but be that as it may, they certainly made a lasting impression on me.

And my mother would know. Born somewhere in the latter half of nine siblings, she was the only child to win a scholarship at her village’s Primary School, allowing her to attend the English speaking secondary school in her country’s capital. That’s where she started to learn English. And she learned it well enough, studied hard enough, that by her matriculation, she was the only student in her country to win a scholarship to attend University – in New Zealand!

I’m glad she went. That’s where she met my Dad – and the rest, as they say, is history…

albeit, interesting history. After having three children, Mum raised us then went back to full-time work, as a teacher, while we were in primary school. After a few years, she decided to study Japanese, and became a LOTE teacher. At one of her schools, she had a overwhelming number of visually impaired students: so my Mum decided to learn braille. And yes, not just English braille. Japanese braille, to teach to Australian students.

Fast forward another twenty-something years. She’s retired, however her determination to not be confined by past achievements still defines her. Not only has she mastered Japanese, Chinese and Hindi, she’s well on her way to mastering Latin – and receiving an iPad for Christmas last year has inspired her yet further, with the language apps she now has easy access to.

‘Grit and determination’ can get a person anywhere. She’s living proof.

Me? I find her an inspiration. Now that I’ve given up trying to keep up. My determination tends to be time specific. As in, it’s 7.20pm and I’ve been up since just before 4am, but only now am I finding the time to sit in front of my computer and write this blogpost. I *had* hoped to have these ‘A to Z challenge’ posts published at 9am each day. Obviously that didn’t happen today – but in spite of yawning profusely for the past hour and a half, I was *determined* to not let my head hit the pillow before I wrote this post. I know, I know. Piddling, in comparison to my Mum. But that’s my story on determination today. What’s yours?

And have a great day, dear reader!

KRidwyn

Categories
#AtoZchallenge Blogging challenges momentous events

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

Categories
family anecdotes teaching University studies Work

One week in…

I posted late last year about my new job for 2017. Well, I’ve been in it a week now. And what an INCREDIBLE week it’s been!

You see, the position I’ve just started, Head of Middle School at Caloundra Christian College, is the position I held nine years ago. I absolutely loved it; of all my teaching jobs over the years, it was my absolute favourite. I resigned from it at the end of 2007 because I was heavily pregnant with she-who-is-now-Miss8. Yes, I *could* have just taken maternity leave, and resumed work after a period of time, but I didn’t know how many more children Hubby and I would have (he-who-is-now-Mr7 arrived just 14 months later) and I felt it wouldn’t be fair on either the school or the Middle School students, to have an on-again-off-again Head of School. Not with 11 to 14 year olds. At that time of life, they need stability, not more uncertainty and inconsistency!

So I resigned, had Miss8, and later Mr7, and started my Masters. Ran a business. Taught contracts. Raised kids. Finished my Masters, closed my business. Scored permanent part-time work.

And then I saw the position advertised. *My* position!

Went for it.

Got it.

And am LOVING it!!!

Plus, now that the child-bearing thing is done and dusted for me, this position is what I’m planning on being in for a very, very long time. I’m smiling broadly about that one. Feel free to smile along with me!

And have a great week, dear reader 😀

-KRidwyn

 

Categories
family anecdotes Random thoughts Reading

On New Year’s resolutions…

I posted a few weeks back about one of my 2016 resolutions: to read through the Bible throughout the course of the year.

Well, I did that 😀

 

I must admit, it’s been a few years *cough decades* since I’ve actually kept a New Year’s resolution, so I shan’t be brave and recount my 2017 resolutions here for you now.

I’m just going to share one of my favourite images with you all: fireworks over the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Every New Year’s Eve, I wake up the kids at 11.50pm and we watch Sydney’s fireworks on TV. We love it. I love the hope that comes with the new year, the thoughts of the journey ahead with all its innumerable possibilities. The world is our oyster, and all that jazz.

Here’s hoping that the resolutions you make are ones you can keep too, dear reader!

And Happy New Year 😀

KRidwyn

CC image courtesy miquitos on Flickr

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#blog12daysxmas Blogging challenges family anecdotes momentous events Writing

Six years on

It’s the beginning of a New Year. An auspicious time to make new resolutions and new commitments; to gently blow the burgeoning flame of new hopes until they become habits… well, that’s the general idea, anyway.

This time of year also reminds me of the time I started blogging.

December 25, 2010.

It was for a blogging challenge started by @FiFYI -#blog12daysxmas – and I’d thought, “Well, why not?!”

And that was that.

Day 1. I’d decided to be literal and write a post a day on the Christmas carol ‘The 12 days of Christmas’.

Day 2. Two turtle doves and questions of ‘devotion’…

Day 3. And I’m stumped as to why we have mundane hens on the list. French ones, at that.

Day 4. My humble thoughts on the differences between blackbirds and crows, and how many blackbirds might comfortably fit into a pie…

Day 5. And I bet you thought that the ‘five gold rings’ meant jewellery, didn’t you!

Day 6. Six geese a-laying. That’s a lot of eggs between now and the end of the song. And a lot of ankle-biting, too!

Day 7. Swimming swans are given by the True Love to the singer… and several hundred years later, the family and I escape floodwaters and arrive home to relish the feeling of dry clothes and mud-free sheets 😀

Day 8. The singer is given eight maids a-milking, and I ruminate on what it is that defines a person.

Day 9. Nine ladies dancing – and a quick tally of what the singer now has at her house. It’s getting crowded in there!

Day 10, and I’m in awe of the sheer organisational ability of this ‘True Love’. Honestly, it’s incredible!

Day 11. In which bagpipes enter the cacophony, and I speculate on what the ‘True Love’ may actually have been devoted to… and

Day 12. The inevitable conclusion to the challenge; and one in which I find my opinions of the carol quite at variance to what I thought I would be thinking!

I always find it fun, going back and re-reading stuff I’d written years before. Remembering what it was like: Hubby and I stranded in our caravan at 1770 with three very young ones, no bread, little milk, and no spare petrol, in the middle of the craziest floods so far this century. Remembering how my opinions of the song changed dramatically, but my desire to blog, and my love for writing, deepened.

Well, that was a look back. Now it’s January 2nd, 2017, and it’s time to look ahead. Here’s hoping that the coming week is a brilliant one, for you and me both, dear reader!

Yours,

KRidwyn

Categories
Life More about me places to visit Work

It’s almost here…

Hubby is a Business Manager. Each year, all the BM’s in his organisation have a end-of-year event, a mini-conference somewhere nice. Last year, it was the Gold Coast. Jet boating was more fun (and wetter) than I’d imagined. And that night, thirty floors up, we could hear the Surfers Paradise revellers as if they were right outside the door. Their cacophony finally settled down at around 4.30am.

This coming weekend, the BM’s end-of-year event is on Moreton Island. I’m ecstatic! Hubby and I have never, in twenty years of marriage, been there together before; in spite of my regular, and strong suggestion, that we go and snorkel around the Tangalooma Wrecks – something I did once on a staff retreat and have wanted to do, with Hubby, ever since.

But this weekend, we’re going! Grandma will be collected Thursday evening; both work and school have been notified of absences, and the weekend is ours! (Well, mine, anyway. Hubby will be attending conferency-type things while I’m sure there will be a pool there I’ll be able to sun myself next to…)

It should be absolute bliss. I cannot wait. Now, all I need to do is pray for fine weather!

Have a wonderful week 🙂

— KRidwyn