A new life form has entered the house

in the form of two rodents guinea pigs.  After several months of requesting and a carefully constructed persuasive text (thanks NAPLAN) I relented and we went and picked up two little rats guinea pigs from a 13 year old breeder this afternoon.  It set us back $20 for both.  From their pocket money.

 They have escaped already and we have had to chase them through the neighbour's backyard.  They are a little feistier and not as cuddly as the girls expected.  But I am sure they will be cuddled into submission.

They have been named Willy and Zeke.  The dog is very interested in them.

The girls are entirely responsible for them.  We will see how this goes....

it has come to the point in my life where

the only fashion they seem to stock is beige three quarter pants.  The mid thirties mum style. I seem to have about seven million pairs. 


I try to branch out and wear funky clothes - but I keep snapping back to beige pants and a mum top.  Is it because I have let myself go?  Once I have got everyone else ready it is a super achievement to get out of the house and beige pants can transfer easily from school drop off to work to shopping to coffee with friends to home group.  


Walking around the shops a bit today I got fatigued looking at the clothes.  The choices.  The drama.  I just do not care enough I think.


I also noticed on our recent beach holiday that I have transformed into total mum-on-the-beach attire.  There is no pretending anymore that I have ever been trendy and young.  It was 30+, boardies, rashie, sunnies and a hat with a large bag of water bottles, snacks and towels.

the only attempt I make towards grooviness is with scarves - but even that is more in a 'look at my pretty scarf not at my lumpy bits' distracting kind of way.


Some girls have 'it'.


I get dressed in the morning.


In beige pants.

running!

Cross country was  yesterday.  I passed this advice onto Annika - 'don't run too fast or you might get into districts and have to do it again, jog past the teachers and have fun'.

She out did all my expectations and came 18th out of all the grade 6 girls.  I was mega proud.  And pleased with the placement of out of the top ten but in the top quarter.  Excellent work my girl.

 Cross country is fun when you have mates to do it with - even if they are in different houses.

 Gab running the course!

BFFs.  Who spent the time in the cross country race having a chat and a bit of a jog and came in the bottom ten.

I hope I have not passed my loathing of cross country when I was a child onto the girls.  I tried to mask it well.  I cheered for them.  Quietly.

God's economy

 
Inspired by this book in January Chris and I decided to give away the part of our income that we don't need after we budgeted for living expenses.  It was okay for a while because we had some buffer in the bank account, but after three or four months it has started to bite a bit.  We still have more than enough to live on - but I have been rethinking a lot of purchases, and making wiser financial decisions, going to the markets to get the veges and visiting the op shop.


On Saturday I was sooking about this grumpy grumpy and genuinely not being a cheerful giver.  I wasn't able to buy something straight away that I wanted and had to SAVE.  I agreed in THEORY about giving money away, but not when it affected me and I had to sacrifice.  We had always given money away and been what I think generous - but I don't think it was until it hurt.


Then on Sunday we were unexpectedly financially blessed by a couple at church who didn't know any of this, we got puppet show jobs at the libraries in the June/July holidays, I was asked to tutor a boy in speech therapy, we got a bag of clothes for the girls, three more puppet jobs at schools have come in and my kilometric allowance from last August came through my pay.


You cannot outgive God.


It has taught me (again) a valuable lesson that our money is not our own, and the more generous we are with it and the more faithful we are, the more we are looked after.  It's hard to explain - you need to give it away without any expectation it will come back.  But the longer I do it the more I realise God loves to give back in ways you never expect.

the easiest party yet

This year was a party year for Gab.  We have a party for the girls every three years - 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, on your own.  And it was the ninth year for Gab.  She invited 3 friends and some family to her party (very different to her extroverted mother and sister!).  She requested pass the parcel and an orange alien cake.  And she wanted to take her friends on a horseride.

It was a lovely morning and a fantastically easy party. And Gab loved it.  Happy birthday my lovely sunny girl!

three mates on a hammock

pass the parcel - I forgot to count the layers...it worked out

new helmet, jodhpurs and boots for her birthday. 

oh yes - I got to ride as well

she loves the pony!

the dog park

As a new dog owner I have been discovering the joys of the dog park.

please please can I go to the dog park please please

My favourite time to go is when there is no-one else there.  Then Scooter and I practise the obstacle course - well she runs it and I tell her to run it.  She can now go all around the course as soon as I say 'do the course' as long as I throw the ball for her at the end.  She is very motivated by the ball being thrown for her.  She is not interested in food rewards AT ALL.  Someone told me  that offering a food reward to a border collie is an insult - they wants jobs, they want to please you, they want to herd something and put it into a gated small area.

Anyway, when I go at times when there are other patrons of the dog parks there with their dogs it is very interesting.  There is the fat lady with the massive greyhound, the two guys with the labrador, the old guy with his white fluffy thing, 

and the Weird 3 Whippet Woman.

She is always there with her three whippets - offering advice to everyone else on how to train their dogs.  She has a bum bag full of treats and a critical eye for other dog owners.  Her whippets take it in turns to be subservient.  I had been 'advised' by her on a few previous occasions on how to train Scooter, and it was getting a bit irritating.  So today when she started towards me, surrounded by the whippets with an earnest expression on her face I countered with a cheery 'hello, it might rain today what do you think okay Scooter get your ball let's go!'  and pretended to run across to the other side of the park.

Avoidance?  Possibly.

But there is only so much not needed advice I can listen to on a glorious Friday afternoon from the Weird 3 Whippet Woman.

in the right job

The last couple of days I have had such good sessions with kids at work.  I am working at a couple of special schools at the moment - so what I am aiming for with a lot of the children is communication, engagement and relationship.  I have been using interactive storytelling a lot - call and response repetitive poems and stories around a stretchy piece of lovely blue spandex.  I lead the kids in a story with repeating phrases and actions, and they help with the characters and responses.

Just in the last day there have been responses from kids that I have never heard verbalise before - one girl said 'help' and 'oh no' today - first thing I have heard her say in three years - we nearly all fell off our chairs - one lovely very autistic five year old boy did all the actions to the story (The Gruffalo) and replied emphatically 'NO' when asked if there was a giraffe in the story, and one ten year old boy with Down's Syndrome said 'thank you' at the end of the session - the teachers have never heard him say anything - and it was caught on video as well!.

My job is awesome sometimes - I get to be creative, catch the joy, hear their first words, build up their vocabulary, play with rhythms and rhymes, and talk all day.  It takes a bit of planning and thought, and laminating and resource making, and trial and error.  It takes teachers and teacher aides who are willing to go along with my craziness and practice language every day with the kids.

There is research and background knowledge and rationale behind all the strategies I try.  I use the spaghetti method of communication therapy - throw everything at the wall and see what sticks - signs, symbols, talking, technology.  But the moment you can't plan for is when the kid peeks out at you from under a parachute and smiles, and finishes the poem 'Connor is someone that I know, but not as scary as the ....... 'u-o-o' (gruffalo).

God certainly had me in the right place at the right time today.

thanks for noticing but....

A conversation I had the other day:

Not Me:  You look like you have lost some weight
Me: Why thank you (inwardly preening and gloating, and thinking how good it was I have been on the 'no snacks' regime again since the beginning of the year)
Not Me:  Around your jawline
Me:  My what?
Not Me: Yeah - around your face - you look thinner.

Around my jaw!!  I do not want to lose weight around my jaw!  I want to lose it around my tuckshop arms, or my tummy, or my butt, or even my calves so I can get high boots.  Not my jaw.  My jaw is quite chiselled enough.

Sigh.

Maybe it is starting from the top down.  The next area to look thinner will be my neck.  Then I will be like a big round apple with a tiny stalk on the top.  Or like a modelling balloon that has a bit left at the end to make the poodle's tail.

Makes me want to eat a bag of chips covered in chocolate.

holiday with Granny

 There was a cupboard at the holiday house.  I opened it up and.....


Granny received her birthday gift from Chris - he had made a frame and mounted her Dad's war medals

 Cricket on the beach

 Happy Birthday Gab - she turned nine on our holiday! NINE - that's nearly ten.  My baby is growing too fast - wahhhhhhh

Focused luging from Gab. Silliness from her Mum.

Obligatory Big Banana photo of the cousins

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the beach the beach the beach

 
Out the back of the holiday house was some bush - enough to build a cubby house and make up secret rules and start a club.  I am not sure they solved any mysteries though.

 BMX track! Aunty Katie is in the lead!

 Check out my new photography skill.  It is called Panning.  I don't think I will remember how to do it - but I am happy with these bike photos.  They look like I Know What I Am Doing.

Granny taking the kite for a walk

Chris and Annika made a treasure hunt through the rocks for everyone

We found a stick teepee on the beach.

Searching for geo-caches on the Sawtell headland.

 A rare photo of me on the holiday - I was there - just behind the camera lens.

Dinner on the last night - eat anything you like with something from the second drawer.

  
Games, chocolate and wine.  Every night.  Excellent

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Thanks for the holiday my lovely family!