Would You?

I was in Aldi the other night, ignorantly minding my own business.  That's what I do when I'm grocery shopping.  I do it at the end of the day and I just kind of go into my own brain and, whilst I know other people are around, I tend to ignore the fact that they are there.  Getting the shopping done does me in without crowd-watching or sticky-nosing into other people's trollies.

So I had all my shopping on that conveyer belt thing at the cash register and was waiting my turn behind the person being served when this man comes along behind me saying "excuse me can I get through".  Now people do this in Aldi, if they've nothing to buy.  There is no other way out and if you're not buying anything you don't want to wait.  I get that.  I let them through.  This guy, however, had two items in his hand.  So as I am authomatically moving my trolley thinking he was someone without anything to buy, I noticed he has two things in his hands.  And as I notice he says "Oh, I've only got two things so can I just squeeze in here?".

I was stunned.  What I wanted to say was "NO!  You may not, you rude, arrogant man.  What makes you think your time is more valuable than mine?".  What really happened was that I let him through because by the time I'd noticed he needed to pay for something I'd already let him past me.  And I was cross because I felt like he had put me in a position where I would have appeared to be the rude one if I'd said no.

So I have two questions:
1.  Would you have pushed past two other people because you only had two items to put through, or would you have waited your turn like everyone else was doing?
2.  Would you have let him through.....or not?

The Secret Life of Pillows

Either I've been watching too much Cosby Show or I have a weird sense of humour all by myself.

This morning when I went to wake the children for school Miss Sunshine and Mr Busy both had me laughing.  Miss Sunshine had two pillow sitting on her head, with her face smooshed into the mattress.  In the midst of waking her I insisted she needed to get out from under the pillows which seemed to be holding her down.  "It's a hold-up" she said.  She has a funny sense of humour too.  Meanwhile, Mr Busy's pillow had dropped off the bed when he was waking.  There I am, between two bedrooms....one child with pillows holding her down, one with pillows running away.

Miss Sunshine came out after having dressed rather quickly.  "Had to get away from those pillows," she commented.

Yep.  Too my Cosby Show

Just Quickly

Sorry I've been so absent.  As I suspected, I needed that deep breath before diving in to the term.  I'm still struggling to overcome feeling a tiny bit overwhelmed at the time required for Uni this semester.  Everything just seems to require more than reading and thinking....which is the kind of learning I seem to prefer.  The hands-on stuff has always been a little more challenging to me and I am being reminded of that at the moment.  Perhaps it's just the different formats some units are taking.  In any case, my brain is on the settling-in overload....as opposed to the overload associated with writing four assignments at once!

So....I'm off to papier mache a flower mask.  In front of the TV.  Surely there must be an upside to all that goey, disgusting mess.  I suspect my learning through art is going to be to get comfortable with being icky.  And I'm not.  Comfortable, that is.  I hated finger painting as a preschooler (yes, I do remember finger painting incidents as a 4yo!) so you can imagine that 36 years of being uncomfortable with goo is going to be quite a hurdle!

Taking a Deep Breath.....

....before beginning another term.

Today has been a lovely deep breath.  I took my day off today, so the kids have had their last morning of watching MacGyver and The Brady Bunch.  We've had our last sleep in and slow start.  We've had our last 'interesting' (meaning, not plain old sandwiches) lunch.

We had one of Mr Busy's friends over, with his Mum this afternoon.  The boys have been wanting to have a play but this family is new to the school and rightly feel a little concerned about sending their precious young man off to someone's home whom they do not know.  We experienced the same thing when we arrived at Our School.  So us Mum's got to chat and get to know one another.  The boys had their play.  And I think we both feel more comfortable sharing our precious children with one another.

Incidentally this friend of Mr Busy's is a lovely, gentle-hearted young man with the kindest, most innocent face and the brightest blue eyes.  It has taken Mr Busy all of his 11 years to find a second boy to be so insistent about organising a play with.  He has chosen a wonderful friend. 

And so the term is about to begin with all its activity, action and excitement.  My how I have appreciated some time to slow down in between!

Celebrating the Non-Stereotypical

As I have headed back to work this week, and as the children have tagged along with me....As I have ramped back up to the hours of full-time study and close to full-time work... I am incredibly grateful for the amazing children I have the privilege of calling mine.

They are doing a great job of breaking through the stereotypes so often pinned upon teens and tweens.  That's not to say we don't have door-slamming and foot-stomping around the place.  That's not to say we don't have eyes being rolled at us or being told we are being unreasonable because someone didn't manage to convince us to their way of thinking.  But you know something special is going on when Mr Busy can come and ask for a hot chocolate at 'recess' time, receive the answer "no" and still give his Mum a kiss before he trots off to find something else to do.  Secretly I think he knew the answer would be no, but figured it was worth a try anyway.

I am conscious of how gentle they are on us, considering the mischief teens can get themselves into and today I'm celebrating and appreciating them.  

Monday Menu Plan: Week Beginning 18 July

We're back to almost normal.  The kids have another week off school....but the poor things have to come along with me.  So we are at school.  Later than normal in the morning, allowing for some sleeping in.  Less structure for the day is involved because noone rings a bell.  And there is lots of time to just catch up with fellow staff, many of whom I haven't seen for four weeks because of placement.  The kids are doing lots of playing and watching DVD's with other 'staff' kids.  Ahhh, the blessing of other kids in the same school-on-the-holidays boat!

Before I go and watch a little bit of TV with a textbook on my lap, here is my menu for the week:

Monday:  Chinese corn soup, yum cha morsels

Tuesday: Recurrant beef, vegies
Wednesday:  Morroccan chicken, vegies
Thursday:  Nigella's quick chilli with corn chip/cheese stacks
Friday:  Beef curry, rice
Saturday:  Chicken noodle soup
Sunday:  hmmm..will ponder further!

This is a photo I took when we were out and about visiting the snow last weekend.  The little town of Woods Point is entirely as quaint as this now disused petrol station.  The school and the police station shared the same yard.  There was no one about.  We know they must have all been in the Pub, due to the amount of noise and carry-on coming from in there!

The only living thing about to greet us at all was a dog that barked its way around town with us!