21 February, 2014

Friday Fragments

"Ancient History"
This morning I was surprised to find a photo of my 3rd grade class up on Facebook. It has started an interesting collection of comments from my long-ago classmates. Like a mini-reunion! 

Like the proverbial Pandora's Box, it opens up a space in my memory that I'd almost forgotten: names from a dim distant past, and situations that were distressing at the time but are now just ancient history. 

My youngest son is now in 3rd grade. In some ways this photo helped me to remember that the little things that distress now aren't as important as we like to make out. Someone pushed you at lunch, or you didn't get selected for that part, or your friend was absent today. 

Viewed from the distant future, it isn't such a big deal. Which doesn't mean I should become callous, but it does mean I shouldn't take things too seriously and personally (like him yelling at me when I didn't let him into the house within 20 seconds of him knocking yesterday afternoon).

Make-up Weekend
This weekend we're making up some of the events that were cancelled due to last weekend's snow storm. Two performances of the school musical (Little Women), and a Home Schooler's event at school. We're also doing some childcare tonight for a 4 y.o. boy whose parents are going to the musical without him. 

I'm looking forward to the musical and a quiet Saturday morning tomorrow when three of my four "boys" will be at school. Seeing how well my boys cope with "babysitting" tonight will also be interesting.

Work catch-up
A good portion of the start of February was sacrificed to my cold, so I haven't made as much progress on my usual work as I'd wished, especially the Japan Harvest work. So the last week or so I've been playing catch-up on that.

The projects uppermost in my mind at present are 

  • editing articles for the magazine, 
  • the 31 Days of Prayer as we try to get it to the printer by the end of the month, 
  • the Writer's Workshop/Retreat that I'm leading in the first week of March, and 
  • preparation for home assignment
So, it's been heads down (trying not to spend too much time on Facebook, or looking at old wrestling videos).

March is nearly here
I can't believe that Mad March is almost here. It is the month when:
  • I'm away for five days at the start (writer's workshop/retreat and women's retreat, same venue), 
  • David's away in Thailand with the CAJ Seniors for nine days in mid-March, 
  • our youngest is away at Soccer Camp for three days just after that, and 
  • we're all away at our mission conference for four days at the end of the month
Then we take a deep breath and plunge into the last run of school before the school year ends and we move back to Australia.

Yowch, I can't believe it. God give me strength!

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