craft for year 3 RE

So I have been teaching RE (Religious Education) to grade threes now for about six years, and I have almost cracked the craft needs of this age group.

Apart from the origami disaster of term 3 2014.  But let's not speak of that.

The craft has to be:
- fitting in with the theme or story for the week - even if it is a very long bow being drawn...
- cheap (I need to purchase about 90 units for the grade - and the budget is...well..as much as I am prepared to spend...hopefully about 25c per kid)
- easy to do in 10-15 minutes
- yet complex enough to engage interest
- yet with differing layers of complexity for kids who just want to GET IT DONE and kids who want to pretty theirs up a bit (Can I use my textas Mrs Pine? Yes.  Can I use my highlighters Mrs Pine? Yes.  Can I give him blood and fangs Mrs Pine?  Probably no - it doesn't fit in with the story)
- easyish to prepare in bulk - we have a lovely group of older people at church who will cut out craft for me - but sometimes I am not organised enough to get it to them in time...
- I often try and write a memory verse or some of the story on the craft as well - just so when it is kicking around the playground or in the bottom of someone's bag the kids will know it is from RE

I have no illusions that I am making crafts to stand the test of time - but they may last long enough to go home and get talked about.  And so the story of the good news spreads.

So here are some photos of some crafts I have done this year.  I can't do a craft every week - it would do my head in.

And I will never try origami again.  I don't even have a photo of it...

Fishing game - tied in with the story of Jesus calling Peter the fisherman - long straw sticky-taped in half, string, small sticky backed magnet (I found these in a sheet of fifty), paper, paper clips - kids cut out their own shaped fish and wrote on the words

I do heaps of paper plate craft - this one was for Naaman being healed by Elisha by dipping into the river Jordan - used paper plate, long paddle pop stick and pre-cut cardboard man

Spinner - the Easter Sunday story - piece of card, two elastic bands - draw a picture of the tomb and then an angel on the other side - spin it round and round and it will BLOW YOUR MIND

Creation story clock paper plate craft - two paper plates joined by a split pin with a wedge cut out - we drew in the order of what God created in each wedge

Parable of the camel going through the eye of the needle - found a camel image, sewed two of them together with wool and pipecleaner needle

Story of the Holy Spirit like a dove coming down on Jesus - felt dove, scoobidoo string, googly eye

 Random little cardboard people that are useful for heaps of stories

Rainbow paper craft for the story of Noah - different coloured paper cut in increasingly smaller strips then stapled, says 'God keeps His promises

I thought I would also show you the cards I use to show the kids what we are doing each lesson.  We don't do everything every lesson - but it helps keep me and the kids on track, and know WHEN THE LESSON IS EVER GOING TO END

So, even though I am not a particularly crafty person, I do like problem solving about how to do craft with the kids that they will enjoy.  And that won't have me in sobs.

Except for the origami boxes.

That was poor craft decision making and planning on my part.  That day, my friend, I single handedly made 80 origami boxes.  The kids got steps 1 to 7 fine.  Step 8 was the killer.  I did everyone's step 8.

Warning to rookie craft RE teachers.

Don' decide that origami boxes with eight year olds are a good idea.

Stick to paper plates and pre-cut paper people.

haven't been here in a while

All my intentions of blogging fell in a heap of just doing stuff and not writing about it.

Soz about that.

So it's October already!

In August I went to Fiji with my mate Katy and her kids.  Someone had to help her have her holiday.  I shouldered the burden.  I'm helpful like that.

mocktails at sunset.  That's mocktails.  Shmocktails.

I had to sit and wactch the sunset and contemplate things.

Scuba diving in the pool.  I am too cheap to go in the real ocean.  And probably too scared.

We got covered in mud by that tall Fijian strolling around behind us.  His job was to walk around covered in mud all day.  We reasoned that since the mud had healing properties, the Filian had started his working life as an arthritic-ridden seventy year old man, and the mud has transformed him into a tall young strapping Fijian.  He didn't it was as funny as we did.

On a boat with some wine.  Lucky we were wearing our most attractive life vests.

Thanks August for being pretty good.

September was also good...I will try and catch up on that soon.

Although my 2014 track record is poor...

perfect cadence

I have been having some excellent communicative moments at work lately.  Which is good, because that is pretty much the core business of my job as a speech pathologist.  Reflecting on it, I think it has a lot to do with persistence, consistence, relationships, risk-taking, trust and perfect cadences.

persistence - I have kept going with these little people with complex communication needs.  Sometimes it does not happen at that minute.  Or that day.  But each time I talk with them, or model something with them, or listen to them, or watch them carefully, another dot is filled in in their painting of their communication and relationship with the world.  Each time I encourage others to see how their kids are communicating it fills in another tiny piece of their puzzle.  It is definitely not all up to me - I would say my job is like a tugboat gently nudging the big ship along a course, a multimodal communicative course.  I speak goals around the kids - 'I am going to love having a roast dinner with you at graduation (to a little person who has trouble eating anything)', 'I can't wait to get an email from you (to another little person who is just starting to learn letters for her name on an alphabet chart)', 'You are going to make a great speech one day' ( to another little person who is just starting to explore sounds).

consistence - turning up is really important.  The rhythm and expectation that you will come builds a trust, and you are ready to communicate more.  Today, when I was feeling less than well and not quite on top of my game for most of my sessions, turning up was the thing that was most important for one boy.  He was happy to see me at the same time, in the same place, and he concentrated for such a long time and we had such beautiful moments with playdough play.  Mostly because I turned up.  Not because I had a flashy session planned.

relationships - it's hard to explain to the university students that do prac with me, but hanging out is really important.  It is the 'hot air' of relationships, the chatter, the stories, that underpin most of our communication.  This counts for the people I work with as much as the kids.  It's hard to write notes on, and hard to write SMART goals for, but the hanging out time is one of the most important things I do.

risk-taking - sometimes communication is all about risks.  And if it is something you are not good at, and have failed at a lot, and you have complex communication needs,  there needs to be a lot of trust with your communication partner that they will understand you and will not let you down,  If you are going to have a go at saying it, whatever way you can, you need to be sure you will be understood.  Building rhythms and rhymes, and s p a c e , into the conversations helps the kids take risks.  It's ok.  I will wait for you.

which leads me to

perfect cadences - that sense, in music, that you want something to resolve well. To not leave it hanging, discordant, but that you want it to finish with a 'ahhh' that strums in your heart.  Sometimes communication happens like that - I send out a question, a comment, an unfinished sentence, a gesture, a picture model, and the student finishes it for me with ...........whatever is needed.  Ahhh.  That's what I was hoping for.  That we would connect, and join in the moment together.

So I have had so many of these moments lately with students.  Their steps are tiny but so large at the same time.  It warms the cockles of my speechie heart.

my pretty girls

My children are enormous.

I know that it happens.

But it HAPPENED.

I must have fed them or something.  Or given in to the constant 'I'm hungryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy'.

Proud of them.

Now to put bricks on their heads so I don't end up the shortest one in this family.

just say yes

I don't even know what happened to May. Let's just make it non-blogging month - because I maybe was just too busy saying yes to doing cool stuff.  Here's some of the things I said 'yes' to:

- being in a choir concert with the QLD Pops Orchestra where I got to fire a CONFETTI CANNON during the 1812 overture .  Yep, I was allowed to shoot confetti all over the audience at QPAC - I was nervous I would get the timing wrong but the conductor was very clear - da da da da da da da da da daaaaa BOOM

- walking and walking and walking in preparation for the Bridge to Brisbane - I am not going to jog it but I am going to walk it.  Unfortunately my walking has not eventuated into Less Of Me yet....

- going to the very cool and inspiring Spectronics Inclusive Technologies conference - I presented on the first day in the first session (best conference timeslot ever) on working with Boardmaker in villages in Kyrgyzstan - and then spent the rest of the week soaking up knowledge and ideas from like minded people from all over the world - I have so many ideas to implement at work

- talking of work - saying 'yes' to having university students on prac with me - I never realise how much of my job is chatting and relationship building until I have a student standing next to me, probably drumming her fingers in her mind

- saying 'yes' to being in another choir performance of Boadecia - all about the Celtic Warrior Queen - lots of intense singing, blood and drama

- working towards our mid year holiday program at church and writing scripts for dramas - let's just say I managed to get a stampede of teenagers in animal onesies into the script.  Writing songs to record for the kids holiday program

- teaching every week with my wonderful grade threes in their RE lessons - we are working our way through the Old Testament stories.  I like to make their eyes go huge when we do the stories about how cool God's big plan is.

- becoming a sporting mum - Gab has started playing hockey this season.  I am now the one that screeches across the field GO GABBY.  Although most of the time I have no idea what she is supposed to be doing.  They all look so tough with their shinpads and mouthguards and sticks...

- cooking and eating and participating in Bake and Share (possibly one of the reasons why there is not Less Of Me - see above)

- hanging out with friends, hanging out with family, partying, joining Twitter

- reading books for bookclub and for myself, learning from 1 Peter about being brave and kind with the gospel

- making sure I watch every episode of Orphan Black

- music concerts, music practices, homework, washing, ironing, cooking, tidying

Why doesn't the bathroom clean itself - doesn't it know I have Confetti Cannons to Fire?!

This is one of those times where I feel I am grabbing the opportunities as they come up.  Saying 'yes'.  Giving things a go.  Because it doesn't have to be perfect all the time.  If you wait for the right time, it will never happen.

Just say yes.

an autumnic wedding

Last week we made the trip south to a picturesque Armidale for a special wedding - for my mother-in-law. It is not really my story to tell of their autumn romance.  But it was a happy occasion.  And I can tell the story of our trip to see it.

We got all dressed up in our bestest best best.  This had involved MANY discussions and preparation.  Gabby had even packed a plastic snaplock bag in her suitcase called 'Granny's wedding outfit'.  I learned how to do a fishbraid.

This is another bit of the family all dressed up.  Hanging our with cousins rocks.

I had optimistically packed a sleeveless silk dress to wear to the wedding.  I didn't really think through the coldness of a brick cathedral in Armidale in autumn.  I wore my back up outfit (because I definitely didn't pack light this trip as we were driving down - I had a couple of back up outfits).

And they got married.  To the lovely liturgy of the old Anglican wedding service.  The rhythms of the words that have been said for centuries.

We surprised them by singing a song that all of their children had practised - in a four part arrangement.  It was an achievement getting everyone together to practise without the wedding couple finding out.  We had to be quite sneaky....

And now we have a super big family - kids, spouses, more kids, cousins, in-laws, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunties, daughters, sons.  One granny.  And new relationships.

It was such a good week of meeting and playing with everyone.  Remembering new beginnings at Easter.

They had a BBQ tea reception and twin croquembouches.  I am wiping a little piece of drool off thinking about those delicious custard filled pastries drizzled with toffee.

 On Easter Sunday we went on an Easter picnic after church.  Kass (my exceptionally creative sister-in-law) had created this amazing pinata.

Ella made short work of it.  Easter eggs flew everywhere.  There was a flurry and a scramble from all the cousins to grab the eggs and avoid the patch of stinging nettles.

Where there is a creek boys will chuck rocks into it.  And judge each other's performance.  And be competitive about it.

Victorious easter egg hunt competitor.

Where there is water kids will get into it and fall in.  Even when it is a chilly Armidale afternoon.

It was such a good week with family.  Thankful.

BBQ Stories - trying to set up an Easter Egg hunt...

This seems a good time of year to tell the story of when I tried to set up an Easter Egg hunt for my children.

Chris was away for the Easter long weekend (maybe at EasterFest...can't remember - important part was he was away).  I was looking after the girls at home - they would have been about five and seven years old.  I decided that for Easter morning I would make an amazing Easter Egg hunt.

(WARNING: STOP READING NOW IF YOU THINK THE EASTER BUNNY LEAVES THE EGGS AND THE TOOTH FAIRY LEAVES THE MONEY AND CLOTHES MAGICALLY WASH THEMSELVES AND MONEY GROWS ON TREES...)

I made clues to follow and left little puzzles for them.  I even drew a MAP.  I placed about 16 medium sized eggs out in the garden late on Saturday night.  I cunningly hid them in the treehouse, under the stairs, in the letterbox, under leaves - not too tricky, not too easy.  My girls could sniff out chocolate with their eyes closed (I like to think that is a genetic trait from me).

We woke up excitedly on Easter morning.  I wanted to do my AMAZING treasure egg finding eggstranvaganza before we went to church.  I gave the girls the map and instructions.  And let them run outside.  I was listening for the shouts of laughter and happy giggles.

What I heard was disappointed moans.

I went out to investigate, trying to subtly check if the eggs were still in the right place.

No eggs.

Anywhere.

I did find little scraps of foil wrapper hidden in the treehouse and scattered among the leaves.

All I can surmise is that somewhere in a treetop was a very ill chocolate filled possum.

And the girls had no eggs from us that Easter.

13 things I have learned being the mum of a picky eater who now eats

While I am in reflection mode I thought I would remember the years of dealing with my picky eating second daughter.  The things I learned and the parenting fails.

1. Eating is so emotionally powerful.  If they couldn't control anything else in their life they could control where and when they opened their mouths.  I have (mostly) learned not to take it as a personal rejection if they refuse the meal I had spent ages over.  My identity as a mother is not around whether my children praise me for every morsel I feed them.  My job is to consistently serve up healthy balanced meals and model how to eat it.

2.  I just needed to BACK OFF.  I have found that if we had the expectation that she would sit with us at mealtimes, and presented her food, then merrily eat around her and talk about different things, most of the time she might try what is in front of her.

3. Telling her about research helped.  I informed her that most of the children around the world, regardless of country and age, take about 20-25 minutes to have a meal.  Beyond that it is mucking around and wasting energy.  So mealtimes became a 30 minute routine - washing hands (sensory getting ready), eating together, and cleaning up your plate.  This completely took the pressure off sitting and waiting for her to finish eating.

4.  Having a stable posture really made a difference.  My child would spend half of the dinner time upside down, running around the table or swinging on the chair.  Giving her a 90-90-90 (feet, knees, hips) sitting position helped unbelievably.  I used phone books under her feet and/or the little step Ikea stool.  She didn't have to worry that her body was swinging around in space and could concentrate more on the different textures in her food.

5. We changed most of our meals to family style serving - when you put out all of the food and let her choose what she would like to eat and how much.  And we included a safe food that we knew she would eat.  For example, when I made slow cooker stew (which she hated) I served bread slices with it (which she loved).  She gradually started dipping her bread into the stew and trying it.  And I didn't say anything or force her too, but just modelled how to do it.  We eat a lot of wrap meals - tacos, burritos, lamb wraps, rice paper rolls etc.  And I hide some vegies in sauces (eg minced zucchini in spaghetti sauce).

6.  She was involved in the cooking - both at home and at school.  They have had the Stephanie Alexander program running at school, which has been amazing.  The flavour combinations are complex and the things they eat straight out of the garden are so fresh.  My daughter has started eating recipes she has done at school that include all sorts of things she had never tried before.

7. We have a meal plan.  She can see for the week what I am planning to cook and plan for it in her mind.  If it is something she doesn't really like she has a few days to work up to it.  I have been cooking my way through a Jamie Oliver cookbook - so some of the flavours are really different for her.  But with warning she copes really well.

8. Dessert night - we have dessert once a week on family night.  If you finish your meal or not you still get dessert.  On other nights if you finish your meal or not you don't get dessert.  Finishing her broccoli has not become dependent on whether you get icecream.  And we have made pretty good desserts.

9. Having both parents model good eating and be calm about food intake.  I have learned this the hard way about not getting emotionally attached.

10. Recognising that sometimes I was getting her to try the most sensorily difficult food at the times when she was the most tired eg stir fry for dinner (all different textures and tastes mixed in together).  I give her more veges and meat earlier in the day when it is calmer - leftovers for breakfast, celery and carrot sticks for morning tea, beef burgers for lunch

11. Encouraging her to try something at least 15 times before she knows she doesn't eat it.  For example, she never really liked fish/seafood. In fact hates them. I kept offering it, until she threw up some dumplings that had prawn in them.  I am fairly certain she may be allergic to seafood (like her grandad).  I work around it now.  Although I kept offering tomatoes in different formats, and now she eats cherry tomatoes and chopped up tomatoes in a salsa.

12.  Letting her pack her own lunchbox and choose what to eat out if it.  I made a list of all the options she could have in her lunch box and gave her the control.  Of course all of the options I gave her I was happy with her eating (eg fruit, crackers, some home baking).  When she was a toddler I used to pack her lunchbox and say to her - 'you can have anything you like out of there, I don't mind'.  She controlled what she ate and when.  I controlled what went into the lunchbox.

13. Kids learn to eat by eating.  All that messy-food everywhere-putting anything and everything in their mouth-experimentation stage is building up their sensory system to try different tastes and textures and get their mouth ready for eating.  Some kids, like mine, take a while to get used to new things, so building up their tolerances slowly, carefully and calmly, possibly over years, is really important.  Being persistent and consistent pays off. It may be just sitting at the table while the scary despised food is there.  It may be being able to take her to someone's house for a BBQ and knowing that I didn't have to bring a separate meal.  I needed to celebrate the wins.

Of course, I have only had a picky eater, not a true fussy feeder.  I work with some kids who need such support with their eating due to major sensory and physical difficulties.  It is a long road for some kids - but I am there to support them.  I will never ever say 'they'll eat when they're hungry'.  Some kids just don't.

I have learned that stand-offs at mealtimes are no fun for anyone, and we descended into power struggles that nobody won.  We have still not got there totally, but our mealtimes are a lot calmer and more enjoyable. And I don't dread cooking, fearing it would be left abandoned on a lonely plate.

Although I have well-fed chickens and a satisfied dog.


NB I have attended a SOS Picky Eaters and Fussy Feeders course with Dr Kay Toomey which is where a lot of this information comes from - it kind of changed my life with eating a bit.  I also really recommend the book 'Child of Mine' by Ellyn Satter.

when your baby is positive and all you are is negative

This is a bit of a flashback blog.

During my pregnancy with Gab, when I had the 28 week blood tests, I got one of those phone calls from the GP - 'can you please come back, there's something not right about your results'.

Gulp.

Heart in my mouth I went back to my wonderful doctor, who had picked up that my titre levels were rising.  At that point I had no idea what that meant.  I nodded, went uh huh, and went off to have another scan of my growing little baby.

I learned that Titre Levels Rising did not mean I was eating way too much chocolate that was good for the baby (as I had suspected), but that my body was creating antibodies against my baby.  I was treating her like a foreign object in my blood.  My body was trying hard to expel her.

She had positive blood.  I am RH negative (here's a definition).

At some point between 12 and 28 weeks in my pregnancy there had been a bleed/some kind of blood transfer between her and me.  I have never really got a full answer on this, but sometimes it just happens.  Usually it is okay (eg positive and positive), but positive and negative blood mixing is BAD.  I had had a needle to prevent further difficulties after my first baby - but somehow it didn't work.

Basically, Gab was in danger of my body rejecting her.

So then came the scans and blood tests every week.  Testing the level of antibodies in my blood, and testing her development of heart, brain and lungs.  The balancing game of keeping her in utero as long as possible to develop and bringing her out before my body attacked her too much.

I remember so clearly the afternoon it was decided that she needed to come out.  I had waited for my blood test results at the Mater, and the doctor said - 'levels too high.  Go home, pack your bag, she's coming out this afternoon.'  I had made it to 36 and a half weeks.

I was induced.

Nuff said.

Then I met my beautiful little surprisingly red haired Gabrielle, got to hold her for about half an hour before she went off to the intensive nursery for severe jaundice.

Here she is having her UV treatment.

She had to wear little baby sunglasses and be tube fed for a while.

That's one jaundiced baby.

When we bought her home (after a two week stay in the hospital) she came with her own glowing bili-blanket to continue to help get rid of the jaundice 24/7.  She slept with me in bed, and it was like sleeping with a little glowworm.  She became our Gabby Glow-worm.

I had to leave her in hospital and come home before her.  I was remarkably well physically.  Leaving my little baby there and having to go and visit her to express milk was a dark dark time.  Expressing milk at the hospital is really not fun.

There were lots of things to be thankful about however.
- clever GPs who picked up on the initial diagnosis - if I had carried her to term there may have been severe consequences (illness, stillbirth)
- amazing hospital staff who cared so well for her and me
- the scientists who researched about this condition and came up with a simple resolution for most people (a preventative needle and UV treatment)
- Gab didn't need blood transfusions when she was born
- a wonderful husband who was a calm rock through all this, and dealing with an older toddler
- a now beautiful healthy slightly crazy girl

Now I carry antibodies in my blood.  If I got pregnant again I may have to have inter-uterine transfusions, or I might have miscarriages, or have a very pre-term baby.  Chris and I decided (after talking to a genetic counsellor - what a cool job) not to go for baby three.

The blood bank loves me to the point of stalking me. I have O negative blood with the antibodies in that they use to make the needles for other Rh negative mothers.  And I can pump out 600ml in five minutes.

I am so grateful for the gift of Gab.

 

Thanks God.

keeping the chickens happy

My chickens have turned their space into a barren dirt wasteland.  So I decided to use bits and bobs from around the house to make them an on tap gourmet green pick area for the days when I don't let them out into the yard (when I am at work, or out, or lazy, or have just mulched the garden and do not want it kicked everywhere).

I started with some spare bricks and made them into a little square.

I also had an old bath and a wheelbarrow full of dirt and chook poop.

I put some chicken wire over the top and planted some grass seed.  After about a week (in which it fortunately rained quite a lot), the seeds sprouted, letting the chickens peck the top of the grass without being able to pull out the roots or kick the dirt around.

Design features I might change in the future are using 'stiff' wire rather than chicken wire so the chooks can't walk across it and trample all over the growing grass.

But they seem pretty happy with their new green area in their enclosure.

Happy chooks.  Four eggs a day.  Yum.

BBQ stories - read the price at a restaurant...carefully

Time for another story that I often tell at BBQs - mostly when the conversation turns to restaurants and expensive meals.

When we were living in Krygyzstan in 1999 Chris and I gave ourselves a budget of about $30 a week for food - which was entirely sensible considering the markets were really cheap, and you could have a meal out at a cafe for about $2 for a drink and noodle soup.

So some American friends we had made invited me out to lunch at the new sushi place in town.  I got really excited to come, as we had been living there for about five months, and I had no had sushi for a while.  So I took 40 som with me (about $4 at the time), ready to have lunch with my friends (Chris couldn't come for some reason....maybe this story would have turned out better with his eye for detail..).  Funnily enough three were no locals at this restaurant, but we put this down to Krygyz possibly not knowing about how yummy susih was yet.

When we looked at the menu it had a whole range of delicious options, set out like this:
Little bit of Sushi                  30
More sushi                           50
Platter of sushi                     100

No monetary symbols next to the prices.  I assumed the prices were in som.  We ordered a platter of sushi between three of us, and gobbled it up.

In going to pay the bill it was discovered the prices were in American dollars.  I had just spent our whole month's food budget on one third of a platter of (not very good) sushi.  And I only had $2 cash on me.

Fortunately my American friends were walking around with wads of cash (?!) and were able to pay, and I had to shrink back home, find our emergency American dollar cash, and pay them back.  Embarrassing.

But I learnt my lesson.

Always take Chris and his budgety nose for detail out for lunch.

bake and share

Why has this not happened before in my life?!

This is between myself and four of my friends.  We all have children.  We all need to feed the children school lunches everyday (these so-called "children" are so needy with their eating).  We all like to feed the children food that is not processed very much/more on the home baked style.  We all need a bit of incentive to cook.

Hence...

Bake and Share.

Every fortnight I bake a double batch of whatever I am going to cook for school lunches, then divide it into five.  Everyone else does the same.  It means you get five different varieties of lunchbox edibles baked by awesome people.

Your freezer is filled with this:

The rules (after four swaps) seem to be:

- you get about 20-24 little pieces of something
- it needs to be freezable
- it needs to be fairly kid friendly - the children it is going to range in ages from 2 - 17
- there is a mixture of sweet and savoury - but it is a surprise as to what turns up
- there is total honesty whether the baking has been eaten or not...

Fortunately none of the kids have allergies (although there are a couple of picky eaters and a no nuts policy for school).  I feel like I am the weak link a bit with baking, but it has made me explore slice recipes a lot - as these are easy to cook in bulk and easy to divide into 100 pieces.

I love it.  I must admit I have been taking some Bake and Share to work for my lunch, and maybe pulling out a few biccies when guests pop over.  The girls love having different foods for their lunchboxes, and love knowing that their friends' mums have cooked for them.  It is giving a real sense of community with our families.

And I can't help thinking.....

Dinner and Share
Housework and Share
Garden and Share....

almost two laps of butterfly

I have taken up swimming squad again.  After a short break of 30 years, I decided to hit the local school pool and do squad with the grade 6 kids at 6.30 in the morning.  This morning was even raining as I trained.  I felt completely HARD CORE.

It has not taken that long for my body to get used to swimming again.  I also swim much further with the subtle peer pressure of the kids and the coach.  So I am averaging about two kilometres each training session - MUCH further than I would swim on my own.

I set myself the goal of swimming two laps of butterfly (in the 25m school pool).  I look kind of like a drowning person flailing about - but this morning I nearly made it.  With flippers on.

Not like this

More like this

But I am nearly there.  I am so competitive and determined like that.  If there is a ten year old to beat in a lap of butterfly, I say BRING IT.

There are four more weeks of squad for the season. I hope I can reach my goal.  Then I will have to find a winter sport...