Busy, busy

Went to do a write up last night and the server is down upstairs!! To Recap - Tuesday began with an inservice from the same guy who did the Catholic Accreditation day. This time it was on the 'Fruit of the Spirit (and Virtues). Most people seemed to know what he was talking about - the nine fruits of the spirit being: love, peace, hoy, kindness,patience, trudfulness, self-control,goodness and gentleness.. (I do not recall ever hearing about the above as a group with the Anglican lot or may have been away on the day they were being taught, LOL). It was an excellent morning as we looked at the work a teacher from a Catholic primary School in the diocese has developed a way of using the fruits of the spirit in her classroom practice, which in turn has made a difference to the way the children interact with each other, which in turn has been adopted by other schools and classes in our area. All good values based education!! We did a quick look at virtues - there are too many to mention LOL. They sort of underpin working with the fruits of the spirit - so I think the next step is to see if we are going to adopt this program has a whole school.

Tuesday afternoon was spent racing round doing last minute things to set the boarding house up. We had tradesmen in until the day before so there was dust everywhere but we now have a new hotwater cylander so all good. It turned out to be netball that evening so most of the girls stayed in town and came back later that night, hence I was able to have my fix of "All Saints" before helping to settle everyone when they got back later that night.

Did the vegie run on Wednesday - started here at 8.30am and got back to my place at 10.10pm. Had a reasonably light run so managed to get my hair cut during the day and to do a bit of shopping (missed the giant toy sale in Target by one day as it started the next day!!!!!! so was very restrained, LOL). I was told I had a boy to pick up at the airport at 6.30 but by the time no plane landed. I asked at the desk and was told the plane was in fact landing at 7.30 - and then an announcement came over the speaker system that the plane was further delayed by 20mins due to bad weather!!!!. Fortunately, I had a new library book with me, picked up earlier in the day, so it was actually bliss to be able to sit and read. When the plane landed, the boy I was to pick up had come accompanied by his Guardian, so again lucky for the light load so I could fit them both in the ute with their bags. It had been raining most of the afternoon but thankfully it fined up once I left the airport on the way back. I came the closest yet to hitting a kangaroo just past the school turnoff to Wandalgu. I was talking and not paying the strictest attention to my side of the road when the guardian yelled out "Kangaroo" which promptly led me to hitting the anchors. Luckily the road had been recently graded and there was no metal on it, so never spun out but it all happened so fast - note to self - practice stopping in a hurry without brakes until it becomes 2nd nature LOL.

I had my first night on duty properly last night with only half the girls back yet for a variety of reasons. It is shearing time so five girls each morning have been getting up at 6am for breakfast with the shearers to go out until lunchtime to work in the sheds. Everyone seems to have settled back in OK - just a small amount of retraining required to get back to where we were before the hols LOL.The WM and I are going to try and work weekends about this term to have a proper break so we are looking for someone else to work as well.

When I got back from the holiday one of the first things I did was to see if my 'garden' had survived. Not only has it survived, but I have flowers on my tomato plants and I picked the first leaves of my spinach yesterday!!! I put 1/2 of them in my soup bowl and poured boiling soup on top and they were just perfect - nicely wilted but with none of the goodness missing. Will have the rest today. I scrounged round the ground and found some very thin dead branches to use as stakes for the toms as they are leaning fwd to the sun, then found some old pantyhose (purposely saved) to tie them up with. There was more rain out here Wednesday night and when I put some new basil plants in yesterday, the soil in the planters and the ground was damp to several inches down. Am keeping fingers crossed this lot grows as my last lot of basil withered and died. Parsley, chives and coriander all thriving.

I have the opportunity to go riding again tomorrow so am just working out feasiblity of pain ratio to enjoyment. Do I need to do some stretching beforehand, LOL. Watch this space. Had better get on and do some paperwork so I can get home for a few hours. Have another birthday call to make. It has been a trifector this week with one of the nephews turning 21, and Mum yesterday (somewhat older LOL) and Clive today (see earlier brackets heh, heh).