living on the edge

We have had a trampoline with no padding, no sides and positioned on the concrete patio for all of my children's lives.  I am just that wild. 

Am I ignoring modern health and safety warnings?  Am I flirting with trips to emergency with broken wrists?  I let them climb to the top of the tree, and our treehouse only has fences on two sides.

And then I let them put the hose on the trampoline.

Maybe it is because I am the mother of two girls who know their limits.  I might look at it differently if I had a daredevil child.

But they have learnt to jump in the middle.

And Scooter gets cuter.

She loves the water and spent ages mucking around with the girls running through the sprinkler.  Ahhh puppy.

the dancing bun

No.  Not a bread product doing a salsa.  The dancing bun is what is required for Ballet Exams.  Which is what Gab had yesterday.

She was up from 5.30 am excited about her exam, but for some reason she only started to get ready at 8.45 - we had to leave at 9.  I think she was mentally preparing. 

Part of the preparation is doing the dancing bun.  The best way to do this with Gab's curly hairs is to wet it thoroughly, then put hair gel in it, then do the bun.  As I was doing this yesterday morning I was up to the gel part I reached into the cupboard and pulled out gel. 

Unfortunately it was bath gel.  Her hair started to froth and smelt wonderfully like strawberries.  Back in the shower while I found the hair gel.  Hee hee hee.  I told here if she forgot to smile in her exam just remember she had bath gel in her hair.

 
She was happy and confident going in, and happy and confident when she came out. 

I think the ballet exam was good.

take a breath....

I can feel it coming.  Like a summer storm that has been building, the air seems heavy and tense.  Where one wrong look or glance can be interpreted many different ways and blown well out or proportion.  Where the ice is thin and most mortals fear to tread.

Teenage girl alert.

at school this morning - 96five radio station visit

Apparently they are re-oganising their sensory systems at this age, as well as coping with hormones, friendships, self-value, and mothers who do not understand them.  It is a perfect storm.

When she was born I was so excited to have a baby girl.  So precious and beautiful.  My second thought (my SECOND thought after giving birth) was - I am going to have a grade nine girl.

So even though that is still a few years off we are getting the advance guard of hormones now.  Just testing the waters, scouting the territory, testing the zone limits.

I know some wonderful teenage girls.  I know some wonderful grown up women.  How did they get there?  And how can I get my girls there?

Pray.

Ask my friends.

And take a breath.

big grub alert

Long service - where the days pass by in list-ticking, friend-catching, child-homework-supporting and gardening. 

While gardening today I bumped a branch and with my superior strength it broke it half.  Or maybe it was because it was weakened by this

By the time I had run upstairs to get the camera it had retreated halfway back into the branch so there was not a good glimpse of it's yellow bigger-than-both-my-thumbs body.

I showed the grub alive looking sausage to a guy who had come over to give a quote on tree pruning.  He also took a picture with his phone and said he had never seen anything like it.

When Chris arrived home he pulled it out of the branch.

It does look a bit like he was just about to chuck it on the barbie.

Entomologists - please identify.

thinking and inspired

I have spent a lot of time in the garden in the last week.  Mostly because I am hanging around waiting for a puppy to tinkle.  And while I am standing there for a wee time, I look at my plants and plan away.

So far I have planned the new improved chicken run, the hedge along the bottom fence (lemon scented myrtle - apparently a mosquito repellant), the garden under the mango tree and several vegetable herb garden projects.  In my imagination.

With green thumbs blazing I popped into the Brisbane Green Heart Fair at the showgrounds today to get free plants, free herbs and a free electrical board.  And had a very long chat with a weed management guy - where I found out that much of my green garden consists of noxious weeds that need to be painted with poison.  I need to go to the council website and do a bit of 'what weed is that?'.

This corner of the garden needs some work.  I am thinking I will fence it in and let the new chickens do the weeding.

Gardening.  Lots of weeding, pruning, planning, tending, watering, prickles and joy.

Much like a life lived with God.

gratitude attitude

Am I getting old?  I am about to embark on a blog post talking about 'those young things today'. Possibly.

Today was my first day back teaching grade three RE.  Exciting times talking about Judges - chariots stuck in the mud, tent pegs, and numchukkas (of course the discussion entered the zone of what weaponry was around for the Israelites to use).  I then told the kids a bit about our trip to China.  They listened fairly politely, but their ears only pricked up when I said I had brought back a present for them all (a small one - I had to buy 100 and they had to fit in the suitcase).  At the end of the lesson I distributed little gifts for them - hair clips and little erasers, and chopsticks that are also pencils.  Such fun. 

I have rarely heard such bickering.

(Except of course from my own children).

Can I have something different?  Why did Alana get that one?  I don't want this I want that.  She got more than me.  I missed out on a giraffe eraser?  Mine isn't working.  All the boys took everything.  I want another one.  Did you bring anything else?

I didn't hear an unprompted thank you.  Not that I got them little gifts to be showered in thanks.  But the attitude of expectation that they would be given 'stuff' was very high, and the appreciation was low.

It reminded me to be grateful for small things, and to teach my children to have an attitude of thankfulness.  To treat kindnesses as a gift not a right.  I hope I can practice having more of an attitude of gratitude.

On that note, here are today's things I am grateful for:
- having time in the day to spend thinking, praying, reading God's word and reading a John Piper book about thinking - yay long service leave!
- a fun nearly toilet trained puppy
- old friends who help your daughter with French with a smile and a servant heart
- husbands who cook dinner
- spotting the termite nest under the house before it is a termite mountain
- the opportunity to teach RE at school and the wonderful supportive teachers

Thank you.

same same but different

Being back in Brisbane after spending some time in wild random Asia is slightly surreal. It's like my ears have not popped after the plane and I am in a slightly muffled bubble. I can drink the water from the tap here, and walk across the road when the green man goes beep beep beep beep. I know what to buy in the shop and I didn't bargain with the check out person at Woollies today. Everyone stays in the one lane on the road and we are wearing seltbelts again. I might need to go down to the Asian shops in Sunnybank, buy something random and eat some awesome food.

In other news our puppy is so fun. She is still getting used to living here and we are getting used to her. Her name is Scooter - as a kind of Muppets/Vietnam homage. She does not whinge and is a curious bold sort of dog. She is also very trainable. I am hoping to teach her some cool tricks. After she learns to wee outside (she is currently using the bathroom - which makes sense...).

I don't go back to work until January next year - long service leave. Yay! There is a list building of ideas and projects I want to achieve, as well as much catching up with people. And supporting the girls through what is looking like a very busy term. Such fun. Such fun.