waking up to craft.

Bless... The kids woke early and wanted to help me out this morning - making juggling balls for a circus skills class I am going to be taking.

they made a much bigger mess than this - and to their credit tried to clean up.  Sigh.. its just.. its still a mess.... and rice goes every freaking where.

Breakfast by the Squeek

Its mornings like this that you are so filled with love for your offspring that all the bad stuff just falls away.

Morgan had carefully prepared cut fruit and an apple and cinnamon rice cracker - with a special glass of water with a squeeze of lemon in it for Age.  Coupled with a good morning I love you Daddy note..

Ahh the lad is a thoughful little squeek thats for sure.

A dojo to be jealous of

I attended a training session today at a dojo I was completely gobsmacked by.  What a dream place to train and to teach... sigh...

Enormous double length hall with mats, wall of mirrors and stretching poles; organised administration centre, change rooms, a first aid room and upstairs.. well... a full gym.. I am sick with envy..

Marking... urgg

Just one small task today - marking spelling words from a test.. never ends! but the bright side being that I get put put a cool sticker or stamp on every one!  brings a smile to the face ( mine anyway)

Last day of Submissions for Cats

Coming up to the last day for submissions for the Cats with Thumbs publication I am assisting with.

So in love with submishmash and blessed to have found it - and to have been able to pass on the knowledge to others who have used it and love it too.

I've blurred the shot intentionally and deleted the authors names for confidentiality.  So pleased with the amount of submissions we have had! Now down to looking at the ones I have said yes to!

colours against slate

Part of the bits and bobs I carried round half of today were these two tubs of colours. THey are sitting on the bench against the corrugated iron, waiting for their 'turn'.

My bubble of peace

This is a shot of my other home - in the Junior School.. Its a bit different than the middle school!  I have a whole ROOM!  delightfully airy, full of all sorts of 'stuff' to help the kids with.

Sailors - the tiny ones.

So proud of my two!  They went out by themselves on a cat for about half an hour.

Morgan is quite a sensitive sailor, picking up the tactics quickly. This is a shot of him getting his first lessons.

Moonlight on Surf

Gorgeous view about an hour ago with the moon rising - blood red over the sea. This was taken with my iphone - just reminding me of what a beautiful evening it was.

Ahhhhh - Relax!!

I think I  have a 'thing' about these sorts of shots.. me.. relaxing  while the rest of the fam are out in the water or whatever.

This is a shot overlooking the lake - the kids are out on the water trampoline and jumping off it like loons.

This is the life huh??

Ths

The Goddess in us all

I was entranced to see this as one of my 10 year old students reading selection.

Its old school stuff - but so beautiful.. I want a copy!! Must hunt one down.

Setting up Dinner

Morgan and Lilly hamming it up a bit - but they are setting the table outside and lighting the candles.

tools of torture

One of my supervisions today was at the local gym for the PE class.

I'd never been to this gym before - its huge! With banks and banks of these torturous machines, designed to extract every bit of pain it can from you.

Punching Bag

Thankfully the punching bag is not me!!

I've never had a go at one of these - but seen the boxers on TV hammer them.

The ones at the back are stuck on the roof - but this one is stuck in the middle - elastic at the top and at the bottom.. so you need to have a very straight and even punch and a good rhythm as you roll them.

Its obviously harder than it looks and I was secretly pleased that mine were textbook perfect, while others having a go were chasing the bag all over the place.

My Desk

My little corner of sanity.. my bubble of tranquility.

My desk at school.

FIgs, food for a goddess

Rediscovering how good fresh figs are. Yummm

My Mending Pile Overfloweth

My mum used to have us put our mending into a cupboard in the spare room.  As a kid, I guess we just forgot about that item.

Years later, I helped her clear out alot of things and found the cupboard stuffed with  clothes - all needing a stitch or two, buttons or a hem fixed. Clothes dated back 30 years - and more - I am not kidding.

There is wisdom in that though - as I look at my mending pile - here is my URGENT stuff.. uniforms and the like - which need to be worn this week.

I have a large wooden box ( 4 foot high) which houses ....... material and alot of mending.  hummmm

am sitting down today to try and do just the ultra urgent things.. Urgent will just have to wait a bit longer

Its official

nothing like an official feeling than to have the keys.

I am an official part of the teaching staff at Calamvale now - with my little name badge and keys!! oh boy!! I have keys - which means I won't get locked out of my classroom - or have to wait for someone to let me in on the mornings!

just a bit excited

Don't judge a book by its cover

And boy did I do that with this one.

I am fortunate that I get sent books by newly published authors to review.  Its cool and I am really grateful - truly.   This one turned up in the mail yesterday. I flicked through a few pages and caught some key words ( which by the way did not represent the book at all) and immediately made a judgement.  I dreaded opening it and reading it.

I was at a swimming carnival all day today and reluctantly brought this along.  Boy.  I wept and wept within a few pages of it and couldn't put  it down. Am over halfway and wondering if I should just sneak off to bed now and finish it.

I'll be posting the review up on my cultural blog 

Games

I have very fond memories of hours spent playing board games with my family.  I feel sorry sometimes for Morgan and Lilly that they don't have more siblings to play with.  However, they get on fine and I caught them in Morgans room playing Monopoly.

My land mogul Lilly was a sharp negotiator with Entrepreneur Morgan not far behind.. They'll be fine in life I reckon!

Reflection

I struggled to find something to represent today, until I went to karate training tonight.

It was our official opening night - which has a Japanese name  - but I can't remember it! It simply means reflection.

We look at our past year and look towards our goals for this year. Sensei talks about our club and style history and roots. We train hard and then we eat all sorts of goodies.

During our feasting time, there is a Japanese mirror on display. Its a set which fits into itself - you uncouple it and look into it and then put it together again - to close the circle.

I only had my iphone and it was dim light - so I hope it does it justice.

Miss Lou - a stale 5

Lilly is now a stale 5.  She is so longing to be six, its nearly killing her.

Only 6 weeks left, but it seems years for the poor little mite.

Such a little princess she is turning out to be too - in the best possible way. So delighted she is a girly girl.. and I get to play out some of the stuff I never got to do.

So life is full of dressing up, hairdos and make up, matching shoes and bags and lots of bling.

One must be best dressed - even when walking around the house after school!

Tea for Two

Favourite Uncle Max came over for the afternoon and as always, persuaded to have a tea party with Miss Lilly. He is such a good sport.

So - a shot from the very elegant tea party, poolside.

collecting shells

My day today started off with crap, so I quickly decided to turf all plans and bugger off to the beach.  What better way of spending the day escaping communications than in the sun collecting shells?

Well - to be honest - Lilly collected. I was  a grump, but was cohered into the water and was in a much better mood by nightfall.

typical....

I think this sums up my day today.

Got my old PC back and all my programs had to be wiped - so downloading them on again.. except - now I am so spoilt with apple and how easy things are - I get frustrated with having to do stuff for Microsoft and then find it doesn't freaking work or talk to each other - two Microsoft programs mind you ( my blood pressure is building just typing this) plus one of the drivers doesn't want to work even after its been totally over hauled.. ANYWAY - frigging Microsoft can shove it.

I went to  shoe sale desperate for some new shoes - but of course the only shoes that fit my huge hoof ( size 11 female - or US 42) are ugly flatties and grannie shoes. Sighed as I lingered past the size 8 shoes with their bling, and heels, and nice fabrics and designs.  Only place I can get decent shoes are places that sell to transvestites.

my darling hubby put on a load of washing and I'd forgotten to say not to put my new dress in with it all - as the colour is likely to run.. it did.

So Lilly now has a bunch of pink socks to wear; and I need to buy more white socks for school.  Adrian's kaki shorts have gone an interesting beigy brown.

Its stinking hot, most of Australia is either under water, on fire or being blown to crap.... and I am a cranky old bag.

trouble uploading

I have been having issues uploading my photos to this blog.. I DO have a photo a day.. but just can't - regardless to the size I make it or format - to load it..

* your normal transmission will return shortly.*

Orchid

I spoke at the Samford Writers Group today and was given these as a thank you.. so sweet!!

A day at the Office

Welcome to my office... and my newest toy - a gift from my wonderful Hubby..

( she says squeaking with joy!)

Lunches

Its nearly midnight and I still haven't got the lunches done for the kids tomorrow. Am a bit over the whole thing already especially when my carefully cut carrot sticks and celery is returned every day.  I try and put 5 different fruit and veg in - but it gets very disheartening when they don't eat them and come home 'starving'.