Chickafinty ~ A Life in the Laundry

Today in pointform

• tutoring Mr L 8
• tutoring Miss M 10
• tutoring Mr N 8
• Chickabid to the doctor
• me to the therapist
• Mister Bear at a team building day (spare me!)
• both kids working on assignments
• trying to sort out all the tutoring stuff before the holidays
• running out of paper in the printer (again)
• going to bed early, but maybe not because assignments

Around the traps

Preparing for the awful but inevitable; first, Hyde Park Corner, then Tay Bridge (the Queen Mother), now London Bridge.  Please God may it be a long way off.

There weren't any chemical weapons...until there were.  Disturbing content.

Private conversations may be coming to an end near you.  Well that's if the AHRC gets her way.  

 

Not what we expected

Ended up having to go to the hospital last night with Chickabid.  He had an asthma attack in the middle of our regular Monday night dinner with Batman and Co.  We ended up only needing to be there for about 2 hours, but he had me worried for a minute or two poor kid.  The change in the weather has been massive in the last few days and it always triggers his asthma.  Hopefully he'll be ok for camp on the weekend.

Up for today

Tutoring Mr K 4

Tutoring Miss E 10

Tutoring Mr J 11

Tutoring Miss S 9

Chickabid is making stuffed tomatoes for lunch

Mister Bear is working from home today

Laybaby is knee deep in Romans 1 and finding out that it could have been written in 2017.

No homegroup tonight as Equip is on at the church.  Mister Bear and I can't make it as I get home from work too late.

Roll on the holidays...I need to stop the world and get off for a minute or two

On today's list

• tutor Mr  J 4
• tutor Mr. D 9
• tutor Miss K 10
• help Ladybaby with her technology assessment task
• figure out Chickabid's humanities assignment (documentary...eek! due on Thursday)
• chase both kids about their maths for the end of term
• audit their work to make sure it will all be finished by Friday afternoon
• get all the washing done so they are ready for Camp on Friday
• prep for all the tutoring this week.  It's all planned but not prepped yet

Mister Bear has gone to work today.  He probably shouldn't be, but he has a meeting at 1pm and his annual flu vac at 10.30.  I wasn't organised enough to get his lunch today so he's going to buy it at the cafe.  Not a great plan but at this point there's not a lot I can do about it.  It won't be too bad if it's just one day this week.

I have to chase Chickabid about his piano practice.  He's basically not touching the piano from lesson to lesson which means progress is absolutely minimal.  If we could get into some kind of practice routine it would help.  Routines really do cut down on the decision making process and make it easier to get stuff done.  Don't quite get why it's taken 46 years to figure this out.

Mister Bear's mum and dad are coming for dinner on Saturday night so I have to put some thought into what we might have.  The kids will be away at Camp so there will be only four of us.  I think one of those marinated beef roasts from Woolies might be the thing.  Nice and easy.

J&E gave us a gift voucher for the cafe at a local gallery.  I'm wondering if that might be a nice treat for the two of us while the kids are away.  I've been to the cafe before and the food was great.  Neither of us object to sitting and drinking coffee in a beautiful setting.  The cafe is outdoors. So long as the weather is nice it should be lovely.

Day the second

Had a quiet day.  Chickabid and the Ladybaby went to church.  I stayed home with Mister Bear as he's not doing very well at the moment.  Hopefully as the days pass he will improve.  Right now he's under instructions to work from home as much as possible and stay close to his support base - which would be me and the kids.  I'm not complaining about that one.

Work is chuntering along nicely for me.  I'm just about to have a much-needed two week break.  Thirteen students a week is a big ask, especially when two of them are under 5.  One of my four-year-olds is ceasing tutoring at the end of the term and I've decided to stop pursuing that market unless the child is basically ready for school.  The amount of work needed for each session far outweighs the pay for the session and it's simply not worth it.  I'm glad I discovered this before launching full-on into the under 5 brigade.

I'm looking into getting this blog printed into a book.  Chickafinty represents 15 years of our life, but in its present state it's quite ephemeral.  I want something concrete that I can hold in my hands.  Also the blog costs money, around $156 a year.  While that's not very much it's money that could be quite useful.  Sooner or later we're going to have to make the big decision to shut Chickafinty down.  When that happens I'd like the record of our life to be preserved.  It sounds like it should be a fairly simple process however it seems not.  There are over 2000 posts on the blog which equates to a massive (and expensive) book.  The blog to book sites that I've found do allow date selelction, but only within certain boundaries i.e. they don't go back further than 2007, or the latest date you can choose is tomorrow which rather defeats the purpose.  I'd like one that will allow me to print multiple books in year groupings like Oct 2002 - Dec 2004; Jan 2005-Dec 2007 etc.  I don't think such a thing exists. 

It seems that TypePad blogs can be converted to blogger (FREE blogging platform, but also owned by Google, so is it really free???) however I don't know about formatting and photos.

Big things to think about.

 

Notes to self

• step away from Facebook
• keep your focus close: God, Ian, the kids, our home
• keep your eyes above
• practice contentment, I mean, REALLY, practice contentment
• rest in God's sovereignty
• remember: 

  Isaiah 26:3King James Version (KJV)

  ³ Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

Wise words

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.

Ecclesiastes 5:1

Very wise words given that I am way too quick to speak, and not quick enough to listen.

Balm for my soul today

Psalm 43:5

Why, my soul, are you downcast?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise Him,

my Saviour and my God.