Where are we?

It is so good to be back in the classroom with my kids! They are so fun, encouraging & inspiring. They almost made me forget about the billions of paperwork I had to do these holidays... almost. hmm.

Today I gave them a pre-test to see what they already 'know' about space before we start our unit next week. I love seeing how they see things. Here are some of my favourite responses:

"Mars - in Earth there is a chocolate called Mars Bar."

"The sun gives us heart. Black clouds give us rain. Satilight give us power. The moon shines at night."

"Stars are yellow. Stars are a star shape. Stars can be more than others. They are bright. They float."

"We can live on earth, the moon & other planets. But we would die because there's no air."

"When a cloud goes over the moon it is called a eclips."

And my favourite....
"The sun is probably the hottest place on earth. You wouldent be able to touch or even get close enough to the sun to be even two metres away from it. Cause you would melt, that's how hot it it."

Ok, so I obviously did have some time to play these holidays.

Hello Internet world,
Here I am.
Today was the last day of holidays! It's back to work tomorrow! Eeek! Where did that time go?
So because I haven't blogged in ages, here is a wrap up of the last 2 and a half weeks!

So straight after the last day of school Lou and I headed to Sydney for The Script.

 

They even sang my song (If You See Kay...) AAAAAAAND they even had pretty pink lights! How did they know it was my favourite colour? (yes this is a reeeeeaallly dodgy photo. But just look at the prettiness!)

After the concert it took us over 40 minutes to get out of the carpark. This is my panic-face...how will we survive here on the 5th floor when I've already exhausted our water supply? On the up side we did have a substantial amount of Easter eggs thanks to my cute kidlies!

The next day was off to Steamfest to celebrate my dad's and the foster kid's birthdays. Basically there are alot of steam trains and other train/steam related things. it was pretty fun.
This is me on the Steam train. It took ages to get all of the cinders out of my hair.

My dad was like a little kid in a lolly shop. Oh look a steam tractor!
How perfect was the weather!

A few days later I spent the day with two of my most amazing friends. We went pampering, had a yummy lunch and wandered around the beautiful Japanese Gardens and Art Gallery.

Then it was off to Adelaide!
I stayed not far from this chocolate factory. The tours were full so I got to take myself on a tour. It was really cool seeing the (is it politically incorrect to call them oompa loompas?) at work, making yummy treats... but at the same time I'm am super glad my work doesn't have a viewing platform and hoards of people walking by all day. Oh and there was taste testing too. mmmmm!

Adelaide is really pretty and Autumny.

And they co-ordinate their vespas with their chairs.

I loved these cute arch ways and alleys.

So many vespas. If I lived in Adelaide I would get a vespa.

I sat in this park for ages...

...but then I got distracted by the prettiness and got lost on my way back to the lodge... I walked off the map & even ended up walking in a triangle... dumb sense of direction!

The reason I was in Adelaide was for this wedding. It was sooooo beautiful! The ceremony was in a massive pear orchard. There were tractor rides in the in-between bit and then the reception was in the packing shed.
Ryan had even written a beautiful song to sing to his bride. maw! so beautiful!

It was a great few days in South Australia & I got to catch up with some great friends who I haven't seen in ages!

Back home again and some lovely friends and I went to see some fantastic bands! Shawn McDonald, Article One and New World Son came all the way from the US and Canada. Such a great night!

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Week two was mostly school work...
With a visit to my grandparents, babysitting, two picnics, a movie night and a sleepover thrown in.

Easter started early with the Sunrise service by the lake. I think it's one of my favourite traditions, even though it's early and cold.

Anzac day. It was weird not going to the parade this year. But we did each Anzac biscuits... does that count?

Katrina & I went bowling with Leah, Jase and cute Morgan. Katrina and I even wore matching socks by accident. How cute are we!

Tomorrow is back to work. I've done... not nearly enough work (even though I feel like that's all I've done). But I am looking forward to hanging out with my kidlies again! We have a fun term ahead!

The post that's not really here.

So I'm not meant to be blogging (self-imposed ban, because I have seven million things to do these holidays... and they are all taking way longer than I thought. And even though I want to share about The Script and Steamfest and Adelaide and the wedding and hanging with friends and babies and Shawn McDonald, Article One, New World Son and visiting my Grandma and knitting a zebra and Space, I can't let myself because I need to get my work done. I've even written up a schedule (which (brackets inside brackets inside brackets) I am quickly falling behind on)...blogging shall recommence next Tuesday). So consider this post 'not really here' (said with weird spooky voice and spirit fingers which trick you into not even noticing I am breaking my own blogging ban). I just need to share something and there's no people at my house. Even the cat isn't home...(actually I wonder where that cat is...)

So tonight, as I was eating dinner and watching Parenthood, I was reading through the 'home port' section on facebook (my facebook is in pirate) & I noticed a few friends had commented sympathy type messages on a mutual friend's wall. Of course I checked out the wall and found many many similar "praying for you guys" kind of messages & scrolled down to find a link to a news report that reported that said friend's (ok friend as in ... I haven't really seen this girl in 5 or so years, she used to come to my church and home group and we did some uni stuff together and both got jobs at schools that met up once a year...then she got married, had kid (maybe kids?), became a pastor and moved to tasmania... we're facebook friends, but not tight) husband went missing on a bushwalk on Tuesday. Apparently he was an experienced bushwalker and had all the right equipment, but something went wrong.

While I was reading this, the comments on her facebook wall started to change... no longer were they messages of hope of finding the husband, but they turned into messages of "I'm so sorry to hear..." A spot of googling told me that her husband's body was found this afternoon.My heart broke. I have never met this man and as I said, I'm not particularly close to the wife. But as I contemplated how her life has changed since Tuesday morning when she said "see you tonight" to her husband as he set off on another hike, I cried. Life is so fragile! I bet that earlier this week her concerns were based around Easter church services... now, aged 31 she is a widow. The man she thought she would grow old with is no longer here.

I know this is not the end of her story, God's plan for her life is not finished. I know her husband is celebrating Easter with Jesus.
There is hope.
But it is still horrible...

The other thing that really struck me about this is how quickly the world knew about his death. Instantly her 512 facebook friends can share in her grief. There is no time for her to mourn with those closest to her, everyone knows. Technology has changed things so much. Condolences are not shared privately, but written publicly for all to see. I don't know what I think about that... it's so cool that the community can gather round someone like that so quickly, but at the same time... where is her time to process it for herself? (not that she is necessarily on facebook right now...maybe i'm overthinking this...I just know that I've be burned once before by premature facebooking...)

Anyway that's my thinking this evening, thank you for letting me share with you... not that I did... you didn't see anything. I'll be back on Tuesday, hopefully.

Now to get back to writing my text types unit.