Perseverence

I thought I was back.  I wasn't.  You all know what it's like when life just really gets ahead of you, right?  The last few weeks have been stressful in a variety of ways.  When I get really stressed I get quiet, and so I have been.  Stressed and quiet.  My challenging subject is nearly over - one more week.  I feel like maybe there is light at the end of that tunnel.  Miss Mischief reminded me it's nearly her birthday.  And she needs a haircut.  And she now has no jeans which are still intact.  There is no light at the end of that tunnel!

In the middle of days where it feels hard to breathe and like things are just too hard there are little glimmers of sunshine and calm.  The kids are doing really well at school.  We've just had parent-teacher interviews and heard beautiful things about our children.  Although I've warned a Secondary teacher or two that Mr Busy is not like his sisters in very many ways.  Gorgeous...but perhaps not studious.

And we are now the proud parents of a learner driver.  Miss Sunshine took her test yesterday and came out glowing.  Not only did she pass very, very well - she beat a friend's score.  The victory is all the sweeter for it!  So.  Now we need to give this child of ours 120 hours of varied driving experiences before she turns 18.  I drove home after dropping her off at school and thought "Oh my goodness.  She'll be driving me around VERY soon".  I swear she was just a bubbly little 5yo only yesterday.  When did it happen that I now have a child old enough to legally take control of a motor vehicle???   

I have but four more days with students....and one more day off all by myself.  And then it's school holidays.  Bring it on!  I might just make it that far.

When Children are a Blessing

My precious niece playing with playdough.  Even little people are amazing.

You know you have amazing kids when they let you have a cry on their shoulder and make you a cup of tea.  And then steer clear of you. 

And when your children organise themselves to supervise the inexperienced one when baking, which is required for homework, and leave you out of it, you know you've got amazing kids.

And when they forgive your unreasonable outbursts quickly and seek to comfort you as their response....yep, they're amazing kids.

I had a little meltdown yesterday as a result of pretty severe study stress.  That semiotic assignment I offered up to anyone interested (and no one took up!!!) has come back to bite.  Now it's a unit of work "showcasing what you have learned".  Uh oh.  Fortunately for me the unit coordinator has taken pity on us and provided an example of what the assignment would look like if she were required to do it.  She had fun.  I am not!  But I am managing to get through it little by little with more hope than I had last week!  For the first time I am thinking perhaps a mere pass would be quite sufficient.  Miraculous even.

And for light relief Miss Sunshine and I have undertaken online IQ tests.  She's looked at them because she's doing Psychology at school this year.  Guess what?  I'm smarter than her.  YES!!!!  According to the test I took I'm pretty smart.  I'm not going to try any others, I like the result from that one.  On weeks like this one a girl needs to reminded that she's no dill.

Returning ... with a little less brain

I'm back.  I've still got a big yucky assignment to complete in the next three weeks as well as a much nicer one just before that.  So I'll probably still be posting very irregularly.  But I am still alive.

In the last week I've made many remarks about the attractiveness of a hotel room that includes room service.  I suspect the tent above might be the reality for one study-weary mother.  I had a student for 18 months who would use this as his brain-space place.  There's a bit to be said for that!

Whilst I've been absent from here I've submitted 2 assignments and an exam, and have nearly finished a 3rd assignment.  I attended a student engagement day in the city last weekend and took Miss Sunshine to visit the Deakin Uni open day.  Wow - what a fantastic place!  If only their course was exactly the same as mine I'd be so tempted to do a subject on-campus  The girls have been magnificent at being thrown curve balls like "I haven't been shopping.  There's mince.  Figure out what to do with it", as an instruction for making dinner one night.  The revelation of the weekend was a comment from one of my fellow students, who suggested that every time you submit an assignment you hand in part of your brain along with it.  Trouble is, the same thing is said to happen whenever you deliver a baby.  I'm in big trouble!

Oh.  And I completed my first hook turn.  Ever.  Successfully.  I tend not to drive in the CBD because it's a little bit overwhelming.  But I had to go in last Saturday when things are quieter and it's much quicker to drive.  Plus, I found parking for a flat rate of $9...cheaper than a train ticket!  I figured I've been driving into Docklands now for over a year all on my own, so I came into the city at that end of Collins Street (the street I had to go to) and getting to the parking venue required a hook turn.  Here's a really funny YouTube clip of how it works.  The girls and I killed ourselves laughing at the lady...but seriously, it's a very weird turn to do - so counter-intuitive.  And for you out-of-towners, here's a google map image of the city.  If you enlarge the picture I you can see the left hand bottom corner is where I entered Collins St.  It's nice and easy down that end of town!

image credit:  google maps

Have you done anything new lately?

Study Leave

I'm sure you've noticed my posts have been irregular at best, thin on the ground is probably more accurate.  I've got three assignments due in the next 2 weeks and one about two weeks after that.  I'm going to take a short break from posting.  More to the point, I'm letting myself off the hook completely.  No "hmmmm haven't posted in a while, what should I talk about?" kinds of thoughts.  I'm just going to get these assessments done and then I'll come back.  Eng of August at the latest.

See you then.

On Giving and Pilgrimages

screenshot from 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'

After our series at church about stewardship and making a decision about how I would respond to that I figured that would be kind of 'it' for now.  After all that thinking, angst and finally a decision, I have received the very thing I wanted at the beginning of the year!  Just yesterday I was told that some extra funding had come through for one of my students, so as of next week I will be working four full days a week again.

Which brings up another issue - cleaning.  It's one of those things that doesn't require any great skill or knowledge, just time.  Because it doesn't take skill or knowledge I balk at the idea of paying someone else to do it.  But I don't have time.  Nor a love for the doing of  it, truth be told.  It seems I have passed on this genetic trait to all of my children because none of them have a love for the doing of it either.  Then again, perhaps Mr Busy would like to earn some extra money.  Lawn mowing through winter is not terribly lucrative.  And it's tough when you're the only one who isn't legally old enough to get a job and earn some money.  Especially when the lure of hot chocolate or the best hot chips you've ever had are dangled before your nose each Sunday.

A thought to ponder this week came from Sunday's sermon.  Life is not a journey, it's a pilgrimage.  And it takes a great deal of responsibility.  It's amazing what happens when that responsibility is absent. 

By the way....and completely off the topic....have you ever seen Penny Dale's 'Ten in the Bed'?  It is the cutest version ever and perfect for teaching kids to count backwards.  I see a maths assignment in the making!  For Prep children what's more .... way more fun that analysing semiotics!

Monday....

screenshot - 'The Cat in the Hat' (2003)

I've spent the entire day thinking it wasn't Monday.  But it is!  Perhaps when you spend too much time with Dr Seuss you lose track of time?  I've watched both 'Horton Hears a Who' and 'The Cat in the Hat' in the past week in preparation for an assignment.  And above is my favourite screenshot.  I didn't know this, but the direction of the image tells us that this poor fish has now power in his relationship - and after watching the movie, 'they're' right!  No one listens to the fish.  Ever felt like that?  Yep, me too.

The girls have been pushed into service this week, because I need to focus on some assignments.  They've each been given opportunity for input to what they'd like to cook and when and we've come up with a very workable plan:

Monday:  roast chicken, vegies (Miss Mischief)
Tuesday:  pasta carbonara (Miss Sunshine)
Wednesday:  nachos (Miss Sunshine)
Thursday:  osso bucco, mashed potato (me)
Friday:  chicken & rice noodle stir fry (Miss Mischief)
Saturday: honey soy chicken, rice, vegies (me)
Sunday:  homemade pizza (Miss Sunshine & me)

Anyone want to do a semiotic analysis of texts/images and how they create meaning?  No?  I guess that means I'm on my own!  I think a cuppa before bed might be the way to begin this one.

Menus, Learning and Balance

I've just realised Thursday is well on its way out and I've not posted a thing since last week.  I wonder how that happens?  Let's begin with the week's menu plan!

Monday: chicken schnitzel, vegies
Tuesday:  tomato and bacon pasta
Wednesday:  sweet & sour pork, rice
Thursday: lasagna
Friday:  osso bucco, mashed potato
Saturday:  roast chicken, vegies
Sunday: chicken wonton soup, salt & pepper calamari

I had two thigh fillets left on Monday night so I put those aside and made my nephew's curry coconut soup again, and with glass noodles that made a perfect lunch for me for two days.  I'm going to have to plan out lunches a little more carefully next year.  Miss Sunshine is already looking forward to having access to things like a kettle, microwave and sandwich toaster at school.  She is sure to become quite inventive after enduring 11 years of sandwich eating.

I've spent the day with Dr Seuss today.  It began with an assignment task description.  I thought I was going to use 'The Cat in the Hat', but after a day with him I've decided the 2003 movie version really isn't all that appropriate for Year 2 students - thanks very much Mike Myers.  I think I've settled on 'Horton Hears a Who' instead.  It is a beautifully engaging story with themes that are really appropriate to 7 and 8 year old's.  The second assignment requires us to create a unit of work around the text/movie so it needed to be wholly appropriate!  Besides that, the movie is gorgeous.  I've seen bits of it - I need to get a hold of a copy to watch it.  Did you know you can view 'A Cat in the Hat' in its entirety via YouTube?  Amazing.  I wish that one had been appropriate.  It would have been so much simpler!

I've also learned to use my 'snipping tool', something I thought was a HP feature but apparently it's a Windows 2000 gadget.  It makes copying an image from anywhere oh so simple...a wonderful thing in the midst of complexity in other areas of life.

 screen shot from the 2003 movie 'The Cat in the Hat'

I suspect the coming few weeks will be filled with the frenzy of preparing for an exam and assignments, as a full time study load demands.  With that frenzy comes a lack of balance in life that just seems to be necessary for a short time.  I think I need to re-institute plans for the girls to cook dinner.  They've gotten out of it so far this year.

What do you do to help keep your equilibrium when you have no choice but to be out of balance for a while?