Tag: Holidays

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Christianity family anecdotes places to visit

The importance of air

Hubby took the kids and I camping on Fraser Island last week. Yes, in a tent. Yes, it’s barely just out of winter, and we all know how cold temperatures and I don’t see eye to eye.

But he wanted me to come (and lets’s face it, looking after three excited cherubs is always easier when there are two adults instead of one) and so I did.

screen-shot-2016-10-02-at-6-11-20-pmIt was a better holiday than I had expected it would be. It was warmer, for a start! I was mentally preparing for ‘freezing’ and so to not reach below zero was rather pleasant. Yes, the nights were chilly but only one of them was decidedly uncomfortable. One is manageable.

But the title of this post is ‘the importance of air’ and that’s exactly what we had too much of.

In the tyres, that is.

You see, driving up the western beach on high tide, on the world’s largest sand island, towing a VERY heavy trailer, isn’t easy at the best of times.

And Hubby decided to test how well our Pajero could do it with 30 PSI in the tyres.

Needless to say, the soft sand got the better of us. We bogged. Up to the axles, with the incoming tide lapping at the tyres.

There was LOTS of praying happening, let me tell you!

Within a minute, good Samaritans were there to help. Giving advice, helping lower the air pressure, and even snatch-strapping us out of the soft stuff before the tide could get us any more than it already was.

Praise God for answered prayer!

Moral of the story: don’t try running the beach at anything less than low tide, and if you have to (as we did) for goodness’ sake, LOWER THE TYRE PRESSURE TO 15 PSI!!!

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#blogjune Life Random thoughts

Time flies…

… when you’re having fun. Or so they say. But my days are FLYING past (I can’t believe it’s been a week since #blogjune finished) and I’m not entirely sure that it’s because I’m having fun. So does that mean, then, that if I *were* having fun, that the days would be going past even faster than they seem to be right now? I wonder…

I’ve been doing some intensive decluttering of my house over the past couple of weeks. A truckload (yes, a truck was involved!) of un-used stuff has been donated, and the rubbish bins have been full-to-overflowing the last few pick-ups. And there’s still more to go 🙁

Moving three children, with their stuff, out of three bedrooms, has certainly been an exercise in patience! But it’s been a needed activity, and I’m glad I’m sorting through items that had been ‘stored’ (read: undealt with) for several years – with some items, over a decade! And my runny nose is back, courtesy of all the dust… but I’m excited that in the not-too-distant future, the cherubs will be back in their own rooms again, with a LOT less stuff, and the twenty-year-old carpet will be replaced with easy-t0-keep=clean-and-dust-free, tiles 🙂

Yes!!!

Have a great day, dear reader 🙂

-KRidwyn

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#blogjune

sore

We extended our house recently.The new section was tiled, and Hubby and I had always planned – once the extension was finished and we were in – to tile the original house to match. So the first week of the school holidays was decided upon, and the tiler booked, the tiles ordered and the deposit paid.

The tiles arrived at 5.13pm on Friday. The tiler came over this afternoon (Sunday) to drop off some glue, tools etc, ready for tomorrow. And we opened a packet and checked the tiles. Only to find that we were looking at 95 square metres of the wrong tile. Not happy! Not happy at all!!!

Fortunately, the tiler is very easy-going, and has other work that he can go on with tomorrow, while we get this mess sorted out. And that’ll also give me another day or so to continue moving the furniture (man oh man, do we have a lot of it!!!) and rip up the carpet and the vinyl.

Yay for sore backs, is all I can say.

Here’s hoping that the tile-sorting-out-mess goes smoothly tomorrow – and you have yourself a great day too, dear reader!

— KRidwyn

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#blogjune Random thoughts teaching Work

four days behind…

And I was so proud of how I’d been going with #blogjune this year, too! I guess I hadn’t really realised just how incredibly busy I would be this week. And how little time I’d get to blog. And I’m sad about that.

On paper, this past week seemed a fairly normal week. Sure, I’d have our school’s semester one performance night on Thursday night, but then I’d have Friday off, so I’d be able to recuperate while the kids were at school, and get myself ready for the two weeks of school holidays 🙂

But the reality didn’t match my expectations. Two days of sports carnivals and not-as-helpful-as-I-would-have-liked colleagues meant that although I had *planned* that the performance program order was finalised by Tuesday 9am, so that programs could be written, printed, photocopied, and the powerpoint made… in reality, the program order was only finalised at 12.45pm on Thursday. Dealing with this caused numerous headaches – and the sleepless nights caused by a sick child, and stress over other work issues didn’t make things easier.

Cue swearing and throwing of inanimate objects at other inanimate objects,  (discreetly, of course, where there was noone within earshot, no witnesses, and no harm came to any of the inanimate objects involved,) and a crazy-busy period between 12.45pm and 4pm on Thursday where I managed to get an insanely huge amount of work done WHILE running a choir rehearsal then two Year 3 lessons where the classes were learning and playing recorder (and, of course, fielding several phone calls during this time too) and also collecting two children from their various excursions that had happened that day, and getting Mr6 off to a doctor appointment with Hubby while Miss10 also decided to do a disappearing act on both Hubby and I… just thinking about it, two days later, makes me shake my head and wonder how on earth it all managed to happen! Still, it did, and by 5.45pm, Miss10 and Miss7 and I were fed, ready, and they had also helped me to set up the venue (including supper area, of course, and it was at this point that I realised that I had NO tea, coffee, milk or sugar organised. Whoops.) Cue more swearing (inside my head because students and parents were arriving for the 6pm performance) and some immensely helpful parents, and then it was 6.02 and I was on stage, welcoming everyone to our major evening for Semester One.

Home and collapse by 11pm. But you know those nights when you have so much adrenalin you can’t sleep? That.

And then Hubby couldn’t do the school run on Friday, so the kids stayed underfoot all day. But 95 square metres of tiles *did* get delivered at 5.15pm that day, ready for laying starting 7am this coming Monday, so from then til this minute, I’ve been attempting to empty 95 square metres of furniture out of my house so that the tiles can be laid. And that particular task hasn’t been anywhere near as successful as I’d like it to have been.

So. Four days late for my 24 of June #blogjune entry. Whoops. But I think my excuse is valid, yes?

Have a great day, dear reader!

— KRidwyn

 

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Life Random thoughts Uncategorized

Zoo day

On Saturday, “Baby Bob” Irwin turned 9 years old. And judging by the crowds of people who were at Australia Zoo on the gorgeous sun-filled day, he had a very happy birthday!
We were there, the three cherubs and I, sunscreened to the max and with full water bottles weighing us down. It was a beautiful day!
I had hoped to follow our family favourite – the 10am otter feeding – with the 10.30 Feed the Elephants session… but I had not realised that they’d moved the Elephant feed to outside their enclosure, all the way on the other side of the zoo. Oops! Oh well. Tea cup rides and time on the Jumping Castle soothed Miss 4’s extreme disappointment, and time in the sandpit near the dinosaur ‘cave’ was in order, prior to feeding the baby farm animals and then the midday Croc show. It being Robert’s birthday, he came and fed a croc, as did Bindi; and Terri tried getting a uncooperative Mossman (the Zoe’s largest Salt-Water Croc) to eat a feral pig. We sat up the back, and got a good view of the birds, with a lizard for company next to Miss 7.
Then it was kangaroo feeding time, pony ride time, and elephant feeding time…

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Life

Extended family visits

(LOL ‘Extended family visits ‘ as in ‘cousins’, ‘uncles’, ‘aunts’ etc, not ‘close family members staying for extended periods of time’!)

So I mentioned on Wednesday that my cousin is coming to stay with me. He arrives later today, and I’m really looking forward to it, seeing as I last laid eyes on him around 32 years ago, when I was 5 and he 7 or 8. He lives in Kent, and is travelling to Oz not to escape the Olympics but because his fiancé has just discovered her father (she’s been looking for him her entire life) and he lives in the Whitsundays. So my cousin, his fiancé, and her two daughters, will be here in just a few hours, and will stay for almost a week with us before heading north for a few more weeks.

Just SOOOO excited!!! (Better go and clean the kitchen, hey!)

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family anecdotes Life

The weekend that was

One of my Facebook updates yesterday afternoon spoke of how this Easter long weekend has been by far the best I’ve had in years. And I don’t really know why, but then again, I don’t really care why either. I’m just pretty stoked that it was so darn great!
Thursday (yes, I know, Thursday wasn’t part of the weekend, but hey – it’s my story, and I want to start on Thursday, okay?!! LOL) I took the kids to Pioneer Park at Landsborough for the morning. For those of you who don’t know about Pioneer Park, it’s probably the best kids playground (free, outdoor) on the southern half of the Sunshine Coast. It’s fenced (a huge plus for a mum of an escape artist son – apparently quite a few autistic kids are like this!) and its playground equipment is specifically designed as ‘all ability’ ie. those with wheelchairs / specific physical needs can use the equipment too.
But I hadn’t just taken the kids there for something to do; I’d arranged to meet Richard Bruinsma there too. I’d met him a couple of times before, in his role as Media Adviser to Peter Slipper MP, but this was different. This was an appointment with a purpose. And I’m excited to report that Bloxham Marketing has acquired the expertise of a extremely experienced journo (he was several years with Channel Seven prior to working for Mr Slipper) – and I’m ecstatic about that!!!

Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday was also awesome. Time with Hubby and the kids at Kings Beach Pool, then Kings Beach itself, playing ‘Where’s my Water’ with all three kids at the same time, church with Miss 4 who wandered up onto the stage while I was playing violin in the worship team, playing in the cubbyhouse with Mr 3, jumping on the trampoline with Miss 7, gardening, more gardening, baking cookies, watching movies, making curtains and yet more gardening, and exploring the worlds of tumblr, paper.li and google plus (again). Oh! And I also created my first ever A4 flyer -in Russian! And organized its printing and collection on Easter weekend (the manager of CCC’s international program was flying out at 3am this morning, and only got the translation of his text back, late Thursday! MASSIVE kudos to John Sherrard-Smith of Middleton’s Printing, Morayfield!) so that was pretty cool too…

All in all, a brilliant weekend. Now it’s back into what will hopefully be an even more brilliant week… Full of appointments that will hopefully get me (and my family) the outcomes that we need…!

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Life places to visit

Paradise

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I am a very, very, very blessed person. I live in a free country, and in a very beautiful part of it. I have a wonderful husband and three gorgeous kids. I have a house to protect me from the elements, a vehicle to transport me and my family, a brilliant and fulfilling (although exhausting) job that helps to pay the mortgage and keep food in the fridge, and best of all I have a Saviour who considered me worth dying for.
Thank you, Lord, for blessing me so abundantly. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

(Photo taken this morning, at Kings Beach Pool, Caloundra)

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family anecdotes Life Random thoughts

Happy Easter! (maybe)

Miss 7 brought home a few Easter chicks last week – Easter presents from teachers and friends, craft activities on the last day of school. Her favourite was a tiny pink fluffy thing, which she didn’t want to put away in her bag, but insisted that ‘she needed to be safe in her uniform pocket’.

Unfortunately… tiny pink fluffy chick, safe inside the uniform pocket, didn’t take particularly well to her rendezvous with the washing machine and dryer.

Whoops!!!

(On the up-side, Easter holidays leave more opportunities to visit gorgeous places with our dogs…!)

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momentous events

It’s party day…

I mentioned in last night’s post that hubby and two daughters had birthdays in the past week.  So today is party day. Yay – I think! (The rain’s just started, and it looks like it’s setting in.) Wish I’d had more sleep last night, rather than waking up every few hours, having dreamt about (yet more!) ant invasions.

Still, the point of this post is to reminisce the fifth momentous event in my life to date. And that was another celebration – much quieter though. MUCH. Internal, as a matter of fact. That ‘want to jump out of your skin because you can’t contain how happy you feel’ kind of celebration. And the reason? Gaining full-time employment for the first time ever.

From memory, it was January 27, 1996. I was in the Principal’s office in Chisholm Catholic College, Cornubia. I had spent the better part of my mental and emotional energies over the past fortnight being concerned that schools were going back. I had been offered the position of Music Coordinator of Mt Isa State High School since finishing my B.Ed a few months earlier, but, being only a few weeks married to a NAB Lending Officer based in Brisbane, had turned it down. So now I had found myself unemployed, with the schools going back. And with nervous energy to burn, had applied for and been given an interview for the position of Music Coordinator at Chisholm, a Term One replacement for Peter Shaw, who was on Long Service Leave.

So I sat in Mike Ashton’s office, explaining who I was and trying to demonstrate how enthusiastic I was to have the opportunity to finally have my ‘own class’, rather than the classes of supervising teachers. I guess it must have worked, because Mike asked me to wait outside while he called my referees. Then he called me back in and offered me the job. I could hardly contain my excitement! I was engaged to start the very next day, and he took me for a quick tour of the school.

I think I may have impressed him that very first day. The students had returned, and he hadn’t yet organised the relief for the Music classes that would start that afternoon. So I offered to take them. To start that day. He agreed, surprised yet probably relieved. And so my first day’s (well, half day’s) work was that same afternoon. What a ride! And what an excellent school! And when I left at the end of Term Three, (a Maths / Science teacher had taken maternity leave in Terms Two and Three, so Mike had rearranged the timetable so the classes were covered internally, and so I could stay there, teaching English and Music classes,) I couldn’t have asked for a better start to my career. I learned so much, grew so much, and gained far more than I thought would have been possible. Even now, I’m smiling.

I’ve been thinking about that quite a bit this week. Again, I find myself in the position of being ‘unemployed’, with the schools going back. And again, I find myself with huge amounts of nervous energy to burn. I need a job. No, really, I NEED a job. Know of one I could have?