Tag: friends

Categories
momentous events teaching

Excuses and a photo

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

Categories
family anecdotes

31/52

And… it’s August.

And before I start on ‘where is the year flying to?’ and ‘I can’t wait for the winds to kick in… NOT!’ I should focus on the topic of this week’s post: competition.

You see, the first weekend in August is also the weekend of our local Women’s and Girls’ Chess Tournament.

Back in 2017, Miss now-14 won her division and the whole kit-and-kaboodle, with the massive perpetual trophy name plaque and everything. Last year, she placed second.

Miss now-11 was U10 champion in 2017 and U13 champion in 2018.

I entered for the first time last year and placed third. The 2019 tournament was held yesterday. Miss14 won the U18 division, Miss11 placed 4th in U13, and I won myself a red-ribboned medallion. And great fun was had by all!

Here’s hoping you have an enjoyable week this week too, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

Categories
Life momentous events teaching Work

25/52

I wrote last week about my operation… well, kinda.

So I had surgery on the Tuesday, and had Wednesday and Thursday off work, and returned Friday – which also happened to be my birthday.

One of my incredibly wonderful colleagues decided she’d make me a cheesecake – both to cheer my up after the operation and for my birthday.

Made.

From scratch.

Using Oreos – SOOOOO scrumptious!!!

And all for me 😀

Wasn’t it pretty? And it tasted even better than it looked! I am so lucky!

Here’s wishing you a blessed week too, dear Reader!

Categories
Life teaching Work

And… it’s all over :)

until 2020, anyway! The CCC musical, Conundrum, was an absolute blast… and now the adrenaline is wearing off, I’m realising I’m the most exhausted I’ve ever felt in my life. And my back is SORE!

But it was worth it to see the smiles on the kids faces. And I learned heaps too 🙂

And check out these beauties!!!

Very blessed.

See you next week… I’ll have managed some sleep by then!

God bless,

– KRidwyn

Categories
Random thoughts teaching Work Writing

in which I contemplate the joy that is Beerwah Writers’ Group

Back before I was working full time, I joined my local writers’ group. It was fantastic, the fortnightly face-to-face interaction with people who shared my passion for word-smithing.

But the constraints of my current day job meant that I haven’t been able to attend a meeting since January of 2017 – and even though some meetings fell on school holidays, at no point was there a meeting I could attend, due to family commitments, being away, or meeting cancellations.

That is, until the meeting just gone. Friday 13th. I walked in, surprising many people, and it was as if I’d never left. It was fantastic!

I love that idea – that I could be part of a supportive group of writers who, in spite of my 18 month absence, are just as continually supportive of me and my writing as ever before 🙂

I look forward to the next time a meeting aligns with a school holiday – because such a wonderful group of people are a joy to be with.

Here’s wishing a close support network for you too this week, dear Reader!
– KRidwyn

Categories
#blogjune Blogging challenges Christianity family anecdotes

Sipping from the saucer #14

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 #14.

On Tuesday this week, I was driving from school to collect Mr9 from his CrossFit class, when two ambulances hurtled past me, sirens blaring. A police car followed – and as I gradually made it to the scene of the accident, where a fire engine was also on scene, I noticed that traffic had started to pile up quickly – far more quickly than I had anticipated. The accident, although not a major one (minor injuries only, from what I could gather) had occurred on a roundabout which was a major thoroughfare for the area, meaning that the ‘rubber-neckers’ (as Hubby calls them) – people who slow down more than is warranted, so they can stare at the action – were holding up traffic more than usual.

Now this wouldn’t normally have been too much of a problem, except that on a Tuesday afternoon, I’m on a pretty tight schedule. Leave school at 4. Collect Mr9 at CrossFit by 4.15; head back to school to collect Miss10 from her private Dance class at 4.30.

And, judging by the traffic jam, that was not going to happen!

Cue phone calls. To the school’s Outside Hours Care. To the Dance teacher. To my parents, who live quite close to the area, and who were able to look after Miss13 and Mr9 for me while I doubled back to battle the traffic and collect Miss10 from the school.

And – HUGE blessing! – everyone was able to accomodate me (and Miss10, Miss13 and Mr9) – with zero notice, with zero fuss, and with care and consideration all around. How awesome is that?!

I’m surrounded by so many who care for me, who love me and are willing to help me and my kids when I need that.

And I’m so blessed to have these people in my life.

So thank you, people! I appreciate you and want you to know that 🙂

And, dear Reader, I hope you too can have a truly Blessed day today!

– KRidwyn

Categories
#blogjune Blogging challenges

Sipping from the saucer #11

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 #11.

I logged into Facebook on Sunday night , for the first time since early Thursday morning last week. Thursday was my birthday, and it had slipped my mind that I might be getting birthday wishes on social media.

So my surprise was quite great indeed, at seeing so many notifications due to birthday well-wishes from friends and family near and far.

Youz guyz are AWESOME!!!

Which is why you’re my overflowing blessing today. Thanks, my friends, for being you. I love you all to bits!

And here’s praying that you, too, have blessing-filled days today 🙂

-KRidwyn

Categories
More about me

Kinda convenient…

A friend came over for Afternoon Tea the other day. Feeling adventurous, I baked a sponge cake (the making of edible food and I do not go hand-in-hand).

It was once the cake pan was in the oven and I was going to pack away the butter that I realised the butter’s lid was missing. I checked everywhere: bench, fridge, sink, pantry – to no avail. Then it hit me; I had rested the inside circle of the cake pan onto the butter’s lid for a brief minute, before picking it up again and inserting it into the the outside circle of the cake pan.

So I pulled the cake back out of the oven, and sure enough – there was the lid of the butter, stuck in between the inner and outer circles.

Dumb. Yeah, I know.

So I had to remove the inner circle, the cake mixture all the while leaving residue up the cake pan, and down along the inside, retrieve the butter lid, re-insert the inner circle (leaving yet more cake mixture residue everywhere) and then plop the whole mess back into the oven.

Arrghh!

By the time my friend arrived, the globs of cake mix which had fallen from the bottom of the cake pan had burned, giving the house a delightful aroma of burnt food and embarrassment.

The cake, I’m proud to say, tasted quite fine. Sure, it hadn’t risen quite as I’d originally intended, but then again, with large proportions of cake mix adorning not only the outside of the cake pan but also the inside of my oven, this was to be expected.

And just so you know, my food-preparation skills are second only to my oven-cleaning skills.

Sigh.

So it was kinda convenient that Hubby had already arranged to have our house cleaned today. I arrived home with the kids at almost 2pm to a beautifully smelling house – and a clean oven!!!

Now the only embarrassment I’ll feel is when I need to ask our cleaner back next time…

Hope you had a lovely day too, dear Reader!

— KRidwyn

Categories
#AtoZchallenge Blogging challenges Random thoughts

Z is for ‘zany’

Lucky I choose this word ahead of time, before Hubby wanted help in the garden. Because I’m outta time and need to get this post written!

Zany. I love, love, LOVE this word! I think it describes me… although it probably doesn’t, unless you know me really, really well. And that’s only a couple of you.

I *can*be zany. Extremely comical, clownish; slightly crazy, fantastic or ludicrous.

Yup… that’s me. But only if I’m comfortable around you. And not when I’m in my ‘I’m a responsible mother / teacher / person’ mindset.

Just out of curiosity… is it just me, or is everyone kinda like this to some extent?

Have a great day, dear Reader!

— KRidwyn

Categories
Reading Review

My take on the latest, greatest picture book…

I was given a stack of Picture Books recently, asked to read them, and give my opinion. Smiling, I agreed. Who doesn’t like picture books?

And although there were a couple that I recommended the library in question *not* purchase, one of the books in particular hit me as not only extremely well-written (and illustrated, of course) but with a clear message, subtle yet necessary, and BRILLIANTLY executed.

I don’t review books often – not because I don’t read (my 2016 Goodreads challenge is sitting steady on 77 books completed, of the 104 I set myself) – but because I don’t want to embarrass myself again with a recommendation for a book I’ve fallen in love with… which I later find out to be pretty much a blatant rip-off of an earlier novel which I’d never read. [This situation occurred earlier this year, and boy! was I mad when I discovered the original…]

But back to the picture book: my latest, greatest, most favourite of all picture books that I discovered this week is: THE FABULOUS FRIEND MACHINE by Nick Bland.

screen-shot-2016-10-19-at-9-06-21-pm

Yes, that’s a chicken, looking at an iPad. No, I won’t give away any more than that.

If you’ve read this book already, you’re smiling right now; I know. Me too.

If you *haven’t* read it – go find yourself a copy and READ IT NOW. You won’t regret it, I promise. In fact, if you’re like me, you’ll probably say to yourself after, ‘I know people who need to read this book’. And you’ll tell them. The way I’m telling you.

Please, please, please, if you know of any parents, or teachers, or librarians, please let them know about this book. I can’t stress enough how much they’ll love it. Try it, and see. Bet you I’m right!

And, as always, have a lovely week 🙂

— KRidwyn