A timely reminder

Was talking to Mum on Skype last night and she told me off for not having updated my blog, so seeing I'm currently on my lunch break (but working from home), I thought I should use the time productively (rather than playing spider solitaire that is!).
So, after my last blog was our mid-year conference, which was an absolute hit. We didn't get quite as many students as we hoped but all who were there had a throughly enjoyable time and the speakers were excellent.
However, I feel that all that hard work is starting to catch up with me as we are currently in week 6 of semester and my whole brain and body feel like they want to grind to a halt! I think the gym and all my running is catching up on me too as today my calf muscles feel like they were cramping all night, ouch!
Anyway, I promise I will try and become a regular blogger again so you can keep up with all the news and my constant ramblings!

A quick note

We leave for our week long mid year conference today. It starts with a leaders camp for two nights and then the rest join us on Monday morning. I'm excited because I know that it will be a really great time, but also scared because as organisers there is so much to think about and there's a part of me that thinks there should be no way possible that we could pull this off. Organising the music has been a mixed blessing. It's been more time consuming this week than I anticipated and yet we have a group that are really passionate about worship and are good musicians. This makes the world of difference when practicing, but again there's the little voice inside my head telling me "you can't possibly pull this off" and yet, by God's grace, we will. I better run, we have a car to pack and some long-term food to buy for the fish! Thanks for reading my inner thoughts ;-)

New additions to the family

Well, for some time, Tom and I have been thinking that it's time to increase the size of our little family, and seeing that our rental agreement does not allow pets - we have bought some fish! We've had them for a week now, there's four, and they're tropical freshwater fish (which means the tank needs to be heated), their proper name is serpae tetra and they're black and orange and transperent. There's one who is a bit larger than the rest and he seems to chase the others around the tank quite a lot. Anyway, must put up some photos on the blog soon, I should say that I find them quite distracting when I'm working as I can just look up from the computer and there they are! That big one really is a bully! We hope to get some other kinds of fish to add to the tank, hopefully we'll eventually have around 15 in total.

School

We're on holidays from CU this week and next week, so I've taken the liberty to go back to Brentwood where I was teaching last year and do some relief teaching, much to my surprise I've enjoyed it way more than I thought I would, now that I no-longer work there full time it's giving me an oppotunity to get out of the house and earn some good money and I've loved catching up with my old teacher friends and even some ex-students. It's also helped me to realise a number of things about why teaching is so rediculously stressful and how nice teaching can be without all that stress such as:
- Not needing to prepare for classes (or think of something on the spot because you've been doing report writing/proof-reading/collating).
- No marking
- No reports
- No meetings
- No need to follow up student discipline all the time
I feel like I'm hardly working at all and yet I'm getting paid for it - it's lovely!
I've been amazed at the number of students who both remember me and want to say hello and seem genuinely glad to see me, while I do love student work, I did invest a lot of time in some of these students over my two years of teaching and I feel like (much to my surprise) that I really did make some sort of impact (because you're so busy and stressed, you rarely get to either ponder on or reflect on the difference you might be making).

Relief work is giving me a whole new perspective on teaching, or perhaps confirming the perspectives I already had - it's hard, it's stressful, the hours are long and some of my friends look like they need 6 weeks to recover from the 12 week term, not that other professions aren't hard but I realised even more that when I thought I was going crazy last year, I probably was.

Thank God for teachers and good ones at that!

Remodelling

Tom and I have spent the better part of the last 3 weekends remodelling our home. It was either that or move and moving is too expensive so we decided to swap our study with our master bedroom in order to give us more working space, seeing we are at home all day everyday at the moment, space is vital to keeping us both sane.

Speaking of sane, we are babysitting Ruby, Matilda and Jemima this afternoon, hopefully we'll have plenty to do with them so that we can stay busy, it includes bath time and dinner! A real test for the two of us, but we should be right for 3 hours! It's Jemima's 1st birthday this week! Tom and I are very excited as her godparents!

Tom's cooked nacos for lunch - yum!

Going to the Theatre

When was the last time you went to the theatre? Yesterday I went to see Romeo and Juliet with my friend Katharine from Brentwood. The performance was by the Bell Shakespeare Company who always put on energetic performances with modern flair and this play was no exception. It was great to see the whole of Romeo and Juliet performed live on stage although it was hard to watch at times without comparing it to Luhrman's movie. It made me realise again how easy it is to understand Shakespeare when it's performed and when the actors know how to interpret the text.

The biggest shock came when the "Finish" guy from the Masterfoods sauces adds came out as Friar Lawrence. Katharine and I were sitting there with our shoulders moving up and down and we restrained our laughter. He was quite good too!

Anyway, it was nice to be sophisticated for an afternoon and go to the theatre - I highly recommend it.

Happy Birthday Dad!

A picture so typically DAD! Bow-tie, powt, it has it all! And Mum looking at him so adoringly (cool photo huh?)

Sorry the blog isn't actually on your birthday but I hope that you had a really great day! I have a feeling that the next year for you will bring many challenges but lots of excitement and fun as well! You've been a great dad and even though you are now half a world away, I have heaps of good memories of all the fun times we had together living at home (playing "guess the composer" with Tom doesn't really feel like real competition) and I look forward to hearing about all the amazing things you will do in Basel! Lots of love, Glenda
Disclaimer:
To those who are not my parents I apologise for all the recent blogs regarding them, but seeing that they are in Germany and I am in Australia I need to make sure I say these things loud and proud!

30th Anniversary Congratulations

To my darling parents... Do you remember when I used to ask you to promise me that you would never divorce? I think I was about 8 at the time, you would never promise and I used to get so annoyed. I think I understand now - life is always full of surprises, good and bad. But I've loved the priviledge of growing up in a stable family home, with parents who love and adore one another. Now you have come to the 30th anniversary of your marriage and I think (though it's a bit werid to say) that you are back to the "honeymoon period". No children to worry about! (Well, that's the theory anyway...)

Congratulations, what an amazing feat - may God enable you to stay married and happy for another 30 years!

Work on the Weekend

I'm waiting for our slow computer to print out my bible study for Tuesday afternoon (Mark 16 if you're interested) and thought it had been so long since my last post that I should update while I wait! There's nothing more annoying than doing work on the weekend, but I do it every weekend anyway, so I don't know why I'd bother getting annoyed!

Mondays are so often a hectic day for us that it's almost impossible to get away with not doing work on a Sunday. I still have to finish reading the chapter on "Knowing God" I said I'd do to report back to staff meeting tomorrow - arg! It's about propitiation and gee it just gets my head in a muddle, despite that however, I also know how important it is to get my head around it all and be able to grapple with the issues involved. Six years ago I used to get so frustrated with Christians sitting around talking about the deep issues - now I understand that if I'm not forcing my faith to push forward beyond my simple regions of understanding then my faith won't grow, and I always want to be able to believe bigger things of God - even to the extend that he'll grow my brain to help me understand the tough issues!

All that aside,

Happy Mother's Day Mum!

I love you loads and wish I were able to sit down and share a coffee with you this afternoon, maybe even some cake too! You are a magnificent mother, even from afar. Your never-ending love and support for us is amazing. I love that we are such good friends and thank God for the last few happy years we spent "hanging out" at home when I was at uni. You are and always will be an inspiration in my life - I love you, your daughty xox

Facials and Pampering!

Oh I love Ella Bache. Hmmmmm. Today I went for a facial - my first ever. It was a kind of birthday present. My auntie had sent me some money for my birthday "to pamper myself" and because I'm on the Ella Bache mailing list I also received a $20 voucher for a facial there. Put the combination together and you have one hour of bliss. It is so nice to be pampered! I almost missed the date for the voucher (considering my birthday's in March and it's now May!) but I got a letter from my auntie this week saying "enjoy that facial" so I thought I should comply, being the dutiful niece that I am.

So I'm feeling beautifully relaxed this afternoon as I look outside at the wet and contemplate the fact that Tom and I are going to the football tonight! I suppose that Mud baths are a form of pampering, right? Oh well, it should be a laugh - if we win! GO CATS!

Blogging Frustrations!

So I'm starting to set up my own blog right and I wanted to display a picture of me on the block, no rocket science huh? But no, first the URL name is too long, then the file is too big, grrrrrrr. Don't you just hate computers sometimes!

On a nicer note, I'm sitting here writing my blog while Tom is making us dinner... I have such a great husband! Though no thanks to you mum, not being able to send the recipie and all! It's alright we found one on the Internet (curried sausages for your information, Dad would be so glad he's missing out on it).

Oh well, there's a gym to go to and we haven't been in a while as we've both been unwell, in Sydney, in Adelaide ect. Aren't we the young jetsetting couple!

Welcome to My Blog

Ok, so I really should be doing work, but I'm rewarding myself after two absolutely hectic days by creating my own blog, how's that for logic?!

Anyway, welcome to my blog, I hope that you find it interesting and decide to visit here occationally, I have no idea whether I'll acually be able to keep up with the posts but I'll give it a shot.

I should really get back to work now,
Cheers xo