So, I'm wondering why housework has suddenly become SO appealing?

cos i have a day off today - and had sorta thought i might totally chill out and watch a wee chick flick and do a bit of pre-school planning (you know, incase i actually get a job with little people that lets us choose what we learn rather than panickedly following someone else's lesson plan which makes absolutely no sense to me and so i completely stuff the whole thing up and end up apologising to the kids. more than once. and it makes me look rather fraudish. but who cares? cos we has such a lovely trip up the garden path. well i thought we did. not sure the kids were convinced. there's a heck of a lot of twink on those pages.) and perhaps sew something while drinking endless espressos, but INSTEAD i have washed clothes, towels, floors, bathrooms, AND cooked tonight's dinner, AND tomorrow night's dinner, AND even the next night's dinner:

AND raspberry muffins.

AND i made myself some scrambled happy eggies

all before two o'clock. and i am not even pregnant.

we're jammin'

it seems to me that the most therapeutic thing to do after a day at the chalkface is to stir a big saucepan full of delicious sweetness:
there's three and a half cups of pure white and deadly sugar sunshine in that there jam jar. and seven hundred grams of plummy goodness. or it could be plummy rockness. i can't tell just yet. but it looks pretty gorgeous for my first attempt, yes?
no idea what the foamy stuff is, and am hoping all that condensation on the side of the jar does a disappearing act. but the top of the jar is indented, so i get super jammy points, right there. i'm off to do the ironing now. pffft X

ain't no sunshine when he's gone

he is so beautiful with her and they've spent the whole summer together as she has tagged along with him and his gorgeous friends. gotta love the friends. and now he's flown the coop again. it's a little easier than the first time. a little easier than even the second time. but we're still gonna miss his all around goodness every day.

Q&A. oh ok, just the Qs then.

1. how do i catch three separate teachers' vibes and keep each of their classes happy and focussed in each different classroom each hour times five in one day? (and does that sentence even make sense?)

2. how do i pitch one lesson to thirty separate individuals when only five of them get what i'm saying, twenty of them want to talk loudly about the weekend, and five are sneaking lollies from their schoolbags?

3. why do these teenagers seem to prefer me standing at the front of the room, didactic-styles, instead of getting in their faces and provoking conversations between groups and individuals?

4. why do they freak out when i ask them to talk about the answers to their neighbour/group before they write it down in ink? or freaker outer when i ask if anyone would like to share opinions with the class?

5. why do some think it's so funny to say unrelated words at double decibels as an answer to a question about the text in front of them? (ok, it's kinda funny - once - more than once is like telling the same knock knock joke over and over. oh, i do that. maybe funny then.)

6. why do they want me to spoon-feed them the answers rather than rejoicing in the quest of finding it out themselves?

7. why must i micromanage the pens down, eyes this way, please move to a different chair stuff?

8. will i actually ever teach anything? inspire inquiry? cause passion? or just babysit?

9. what is the point of the revised curriculum if it ain't manageable?

10. how do i cultivate mutual respect without donning my policeman's hat, or bribing with jellybeans? (and how many beans make five?)

11. what the heck is wrong with my philosophy of teaching? and why do i feel like such an idiot for wanting to trust the learning journeys of beautiful souls?

12. am i wrong to expect skooly-teenagers to still love learning?

13. am i cut out for this?

14. why is the skin on my little finger peeling off?

sunshine daze

well, we're half way through week two of the skool year and i think i might've discovered the perfect pace of life: i have been hanging with danny in the mornings and teaching swimming in a sunshiney outdoor pool with sam's and mick's classes in the afternoons... then arbitrating the after-skool homework scene (what is it with teachers and homework? just play, make dinner, and read together, i say), and gym class, followed by eats and the usual family buzz.

nice.

oh, i have two more whole days PAID TEACHING on thurs/fri this week. i still find it so hilarious that i actually get paid for doing something i've done for FREE all these years. ooooo but a momentous thing has happened - a teacher actually asked specifically for ME to relieve her class when she has a professional development course for a couple of days this month!!!!! woo woo kangaroo. feeling a bit spesh, and not so much of a fraud after all. i wonder when i'll start believing in self? i think i'm still getting over the intensity of last year. not that the above pictures show much intense study - i think i have a glass of something in my hand (or hidden behind my back) in nearly every shot!!!

right - washing to hang, happy chicken to magic into a yellow curry (thank you asian home gourmet sachet), and then heading into town with danny to jshjsh up his wardrobe... and a wee sushi lunch together!

oh, totally looking forward to saturday morning - am taking raych and danny and one of raych's friends from her french class to un petit café and we are gonna parlons français for an hour or two!!!

happy happy sunshine X

limbo

this abrupt halt of summer holidaying feels weird. the kiddos are all suddenly at skool. there's no uni to gear up for or breathe a sigh of relief from, and i am vascillating between glee and guilt. the house is tidy (and has stayed tidy. totally freaky.) and i have made a tall chocolate cake with buttercream icing, and i even ironed Bulldog's shirts. temperature check, comin' right up. i've filled the week with coffee dates so that i don't go mental listening to my own voices. i've printed out three soooped-up-CVs to drop off to the local yokel universe (when i find my brave gene. firstly i probably need to remove a few of my hippie bracelets, put on some shoes, and look respickable.)

oh, news. i have a teaching arvo (paid. with money. how strange.) booked for friday. so i need to hit these scary fairy vibes firmly on the head and make like nike. oh, deep breath, come hither.