Lets have the day off!

Its been a long 2 weeks since the holidays ended. So we decided on an impromptu 'Family Mental Health Day'. The weather is perfect - clear skies and no wind. We head up to a kauri museum not far from home that has a cool bush walk through a kauri forest.

When we get to the carpark we meet a very friendly couple's child dog called Opal. She was looking longingly out the window at us as her mummy & daddy owners were about to leave, and our girls were looking just as longingly back at her. So they got her out again for cuddles with our kids.

So sweet. They tell us she'd be a great guard dog if she could just cull the habit of taking her soft toys with her every time someone knocks at their door.

The kids pose for photos on this wagon and felled kauri tree.


We head off on the loop track through the kauri forest. What an amazing spot.















Imagine having this image on one of your bedroom ceilings...
how cool!










I take way too many photos.



But I can't help it.


We're about 3/4 of the way around when Dreamer pipes up "Mum my legs are tired. I think the cafe is calling my name!" How old is this kid again?

One more photo, I say, bending down to get a better shot.

And then, out the corner of my eye I glimpse a toppling Cheeky, losing her balance. In that split second she tumbles backwards off the path, almost in slow motion, straight down the bank. By the time my brain registers what is happening I can only grab onto her ankle as thats all I can reach. Crazy! Dreamer stands, dumbstruck, on the path. The camera lays dangling at my side. We soon realise she is fine - just a little freaked and a bit muddy down her back. Then I get the nervous giggles. You know the ones...that you always get when you SO should NOT be laughing but if you don't you'll cry. Then DH starts too. We did manage to hide our giggles from Dreamer though.

Here's a pic of the said incompetent parents.


We head on. Through countless kauri, rimu, rewarewa, kahikatea, ponga, nikau palms. Right at the end of the walk we see the 'daddy kauri', almost right next to the carpark we started at. Its named the McKinney Kauri and its 800 years old.

We set the timer up for a family photo. We 'tree hug', marvel at how long its been there and how absolutely HUMUNGOUS it is :-)

I can't help but think, someone, 800 years ago, planted a baby kauri tree. Eight. Hundred. Years. Ago. They didn't know and never saw how majestic and incredible that tree would become 800 years later. Their job was just to plant it, but it grew and grew, and 800 years on its a living legacy. Just take a moment to think about that. Incredible really.

It made me think. "What kind of legacy am I leaving for after I'm gone?" I'm reminded that I'm not necessarily here for a long time, but every day what I do MATTERS in the long-term. My role as mum, teacher, husband, aunty, MATTERS. I sooo don't want to waste my time focussing on stuff thats not going to matter SQUAT after I'm gone. And I'm not meaning that in an airy-fairy, dreamer kinda way. I just know God wants me to be focussing on the eternally significant stuff, not the materially significant stuff... and its challenging. But kinda cool.

Just like that kauri tree, I think we need to keep reaching UP as we grow. Looking UP as we struggle.

Who knew that big old kauri tree would speak to me so strongly.

What a great day. Totally spontaneous, fun, and refreshing. Just what the doctor ordered.

Noise

I look forward to my kids bedtime like you wouldn't believe. Seriously.

Don't get me wrong - I do love my kids. HEAPS. Its just that, well, they don't come with on/off switches, and some days that'd be nice. (Did I just say that?)

Not that I need to justify myself, but here was my day today.

* Wake up too late due to 3rd night of insomnia in a row (turns out this is a 'sign' of the rest of my day, but anyway).

* Struggle with Miss 5 (who I'll call 'Dreamer' from now on) in almost every capacity from getting out of bed to getting dressed to eating brekkie

* finally get to work and spend the day teaching 30+ over-excited, lovely but very LOUD 10-year-olds. And I am not their normal teacher, which generally adds a bit more chaos to the mix. It was fun tho. Love what I do.

* after school pick up Miss 2 (who I'll call 'Cheeky' from now on) and drag them to the supermarket. Five minutes in, Dreamer decides its her cue to start nagging for a 'treat'. Quickly weighing up "She is super-tired so will have a meltdown of massive proportions" with "Should I try to be super-mum given we're at the furtherest point from the exit doors", I decide she can choose a flavour of mousse to make for after dinner. Crisis averted. Off we go.

* get home. Constant whining from Cheeky who wants to eat 'chipEE' (her word for biscuit) while waiting for dinner. So she has 1 but of course 1 is never enough. So she cries. I visualise my happy place...

* crazy blur of dinner, homework, book reading, hubby and I trying to negotiate who gets to go to the gym first, trying to get on here and check emails, FB (anything for some distraction), folding washing, hanging more up, etc etc.

* And their bedtime comes. And I retreat. Straight to the computer. The dishes can wait. This is MY time...YAY.

Then I hear it. The TV. For the first time all night.
Extra noise I can't be bothered with.

But I don't switch if off cos hubby is now at the gym and it makes me feel like its not just me and sleeping kids in the house. Ironic huh :-)

So I potter around, procrastinating all the stuff to do before school tomorrow and thinking really zone-out, surface-level thoughts about, well everything.

I wish I was still here.





On holiday in a slice of Godzone paradise...

Ahhh...

I'm sure the 'noise' wasn't half as loud there.

Amazing how we fill our lives with so much 'stuff' and so much 'noise'. And it just makes us absolutely craaaaaave 'quiet'. Then when we do finally get 'quiet' we don't know what to do with it so we fill it up again with 'noise'. Like Facebook. Emails. TV. Music. Blog surfing. It satisfies for a while, then we realise its 'noise' again, and not what we were actually after, so we go to bed.

Or maybe its just me. I dunno.



He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul...

(Ps23:2,3)

Well well well

I had a feeling I'd be blog-creating-illiterate. Just goes to show that us teachers aren't always that clever. And I guess that countless hours on FB don't increase your IT IQ in blogland. Anyway...

After much pressure from a certain blogger who I won't name and shame (I'm soooo much bigger than that) to start my own blog, I've been lured out of the blog-stalker world. Somewhat sooner than I'd anticipated I might add. Think I might need a counselling session before we go any further. Can I cope with all this excitement.

But you know what? After spending 4+ hours getting this thing 'live' I just remembered that other thing called 'work' tomorrow. 31x 10-year-olds calling my name...don't think I'll tell them about the new blog (for obvious reasons, namely that I don't really know how to do anything on it yet). haha.

anyway...outta here....at least I can't be labelled a blog-stalker anymore :-)

Don't think I'll be hitting the gym in the morning either. Oh well.