kid time

This afternoon I entertained a couple of kids for a couple of hours while their mum was seeing one of the family workers.
We played with playdough, ate vast quantities of vegemite sandwiches (well, one of us did), played popping frogs, jumped on a little trampoline, rolled around in a giant plastic ball with holes.. I tried to tip Mr.6yrold out. A lot. He found that very exciting.

The soccer ball only went out of bounds four times:
-once playing soccer (I kicked it out)
-once by the 12yrold throwing it as high as she could
-once playing piggy-in-the-middle (6yrold)
-again by Mr 6, over the fence.

Managed to retrieve all balls (except for the one I kicked out, oops). The most interesting retrieval involved me standing on the giant plastic ball waving a broom around the roof, being directed by the children standing on the other side of the yard (they could see it, I couldn't). Teamwork, that's what I like to call it (shh don't tell the OH&S people, pleeease.)

Day 1 of my now-busy life

First day of prac today!
It began rather early (3am), as I was paranoid I'd sleep in and miss the bus.. so kept being jolted out of sleep in a panic, checking the time, then dozing off once again.. Finally it was 6:30, so I got up. I got to the bus stop 15min early - mostly because I was ready and couldn't think of anything else to do!
Caught the bus.
Caught the next bus.
We drove into town, and I was looking out for the BP station which 131-500 told me the bus stopped at. All of a sudden the street I was meant to walk down went flying past! Thankfully the driver was nice enough to let me off when I realised.. Still don't know what happened to the BP.

Anyway, arrived half an hour early, but discovered a gorgeous bit of wilderness opposite the service HQ, so I hung there gazing at the trees & spying on the little wrens hopping about, till it was time to go in.

Finally, the time came and I stepped through the door. Next thing I knew I was out again! Helped run a couple of mobile playgroups - painting and cutting and glueing and puzzling and chatting and watching and playing games and hearing stories.

Then back for lunch, a tour of the premises, some reading, and some data entry.

It all went pretty quickly really. I think I'm going to enjoy it :) The staff are great and they seem to do a lot of great stuff there!

Ooh and I was waiting for the bus after finishing when who should pull up but a lovely friend from class to offer me a lift home! sah-weet.

And tonight: zumba with mandible, roast by embutt, and icecreams :D

Goodnight!

feelin' the love

Something about tonight just felt so sacred. People sitting and talking, being real, being passionate, wanting to really love and help out and share life and goodness with others..

I feel so lucky to have found this God, adventure, community of faith.

It's not about rules and regulations and structures.

It's about grace, trust, freedom, relationship.
Working for something bigger than yourself.

Discovering Raya

A couple of us got invited along a to a Raya open house thing tonight with some malaysian friends. What happened is that Ramadan, the muslim month of fasting has come to an end, so now they spend time celebrating! People go around to lots of other people's houses, eat and catch up and drink tea and take photos of everyone..

So we came to this friend-of-a-friend's place, and ate delicious chicken sate skewers with real sate sauce, and amazing beef rendang and soup and tea and other good things.. Everyone knelt around on the floor to eat and talk. The women wore pretty dresses, some of them headscarves too; and the men pants and shirts with traditional skirts over the top! There was a lot of malay talk but some english chatter as well, thankfully!

Whenever more people came in everyone would ask where they had just been and how many people were there and what food they had, to gauge whether or not it was a good time to go and visit there also! One of our friends had been around to 6 different houses already that day, and so this was number 7!!

It's cool to picture these little circles of homes scattered through the suburbs, people trotting from one to the next, eating and laughing together (and maybe even watching Fast & Furious #5 in the background, as they were at ours).

Had another food win this morning in class. We were doing a group presentation which was a promotion event or activity on a mental health disorder. We did a community walk, to encourage social inclusion, awareness, and general health & wellbeing. We had personal stories, pictures, a mythbusters section, and even tai chi! Then we met back in the classroom for a great morning tea :)

The other groups were cool too. One gave little goody bags with info, a homemade stress-relief ball (mine's called Henry) and sweets. Nice job.

itsy-bitsy life..

"There is always an enormous temptation in all of life to diddle around making itsy-bitsy friends and meals and journeys for itsy-bitsy years on end. It is so self-conscious, so apparently moral, simply to step aside from the gaps where the creeks and winds pour down, saying, I never merited this grace, quite rightly, and then to sulk along the rest of your days on the edge of rage.

I won't have it. The world is wilder than that in all directions, more dangerous and bitter, more extravagant and bright. We are making hay when we should be making whoopee; we are raising tomatoes when we should be raising Cain, or Lazarus."

- Annie Dillard.

Man, the stuff this lady writes makes me go crazy inside. I reckon I'd go running through the streets throwing my hat into the air if I wore one!

the end..?

Well, I believe I've come to The End. Of my 30-day blogging challenge - yay!

Actually, I'm almost disappointed. Almost. I won't miss the nights where I was about to go to sleep and then remembered I hadn't posted yet, and dragged myself bleary-eyed to the computer.

But it's been fun writing about stuff that happens, or that I think or read or find.... It's been a good way to reflect on the days and weeks. Imagine how much I'd just have forgotten if I hadn't written about it!

and I think now I'm in the habit, I'll probably keep spamming you all a bit more than I used to :)

I'm sitting here enjoying the exhausted ache of a well-fought (and WON!!) soccer game, and the fragrance of freshly baked cake wafting through the house, and the mug of lady grey tea by my side, fast growing cold.

But I have class at 9 tomorrow, so goodnight all, and thanks for coming on the journey with me!!

Of snot and other tasty things..

Superfun night with the girls tonight.

We made (and ate) tacos with gusto.

Read some colourful bits from Mark's gospel.

Talked about life friends family the universe and everything.

I smashed the top off a bottle of cider trying to open it. Still good!!

I've gotta say tho, the highlights would have to be a certain someone doing an almightly impression of a tail-wag, and another certain someone acting out "snot" in an unexpectedly graphic way. Both while playing Pictionary/charades. haha.

Then when I came home there was a red-headed dragon in my living room!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay for old friends and suprise visits.

And yummy brownies.