the end of a busy week...

it's been a busy week. we made it to school and child care. missy is learning to sleep amidst the noise of the nursery room, and i am learning to be firm with students who are pushing me as hard as they can. after claiming to be anxiety-free when it comes to school, nervousness crept back in on friday morning. but i'm thankful for opportunities to serve others, even others who take their shoes off ten times a day and who thrash around and would rather cause trouble than take part in my lessons. i met the mum of one of my students yesterday - she is a kind lady with a difficult life. i admire her a lot. sometimes i wonder how the parents of my students carry on and on and on like they do. i am grateful to send the students home at the end of the day and be reunited with my delightful daughter, who is easy to love.

blogger seems to be having trouble loading my pictures, so i'm afraid my words will have to do for now.

take care,
em

when over-photographed babies attack...

i feel like i'm the paparazzi and i've driven this girl crazy (i'm sure husband would agree that i am, in fact, the paparazzi):



now she's refusing to smile (but doesn't she look warm in the sleeping bag thing that came with our pram?):



ah, she's come around... (and so has the sun - look at that blue sky!):



take care,
em

tinkling the ivories...

i was slightly disturbed to hear our piano being played (well, keys being pushed) this morning after husband had gone to work, but it turns out missy's repertoire is expanding:



take care,
em

what a shame...

i shouldn't be able to write this post - i'm supposed to be at work - but unfortunately missy's sniffle has turned into conjunctivitis (which i'm pretty sure she gave herself from rubbing her eyes with dirty hands) and so she's not welcome at childcare this week. sigh... i was actually looking forward to going to school, which is a great and surprising blessing - my teaching rounds and even the first two terms of school last year before missy was born each began with me feeling very anxious and looking for ways to get out of going to work, but that hasn't been the case this time.

so instead of teaching, yesterday and today have been filled with tissues, eye drops, humidified air, canceling appointments, cooking hearty vitamin-c filled food, warmth, isolation, and cake made from the oranges we picked on the weekend at my in-law's farm:



this was supposed to be shared with my mums' group and a visiting friend, but now husband and i have to eat it all ourselves. what a shame...

take care,
em

entertaining missy...

a quick update: school and childcare went really well last week - i had a teary after dropping missy off on thursday but she didn't! she loves being with the other kids, which is a great relief to me. my snakes and ladders game was a hit at school, though i'm going to sew the snakes and ladders down properly (i had just attached them with a few well-placed stitches) because my students look for anything they can get their fingers under and want to pull it off!

we spent a lovely weekend with husband's family on their farm - missy loved the calves and chickens and went crazy for the kittens! we're not allowed to have pets where we live, but i made her a frog using tante j's pattern (and frog fabric on the belly) which seems to be filling the void for the moment:



now that missy's a pro-crawler, we've started to make things more interesting (there's only so many places you can crawl to in a small house) by building obstacles and tunnels:



take care,
em

getting ready for school...

i've spent the last few days getting ready to start school again tomorrow. i'll just be teaching 2 days a week, and this year i'm teaching bike-riding(!), maths, computers and an inquiry unit about india. to weave a bit of the inquiry unit into my maths sessions, and to trick the kids into practicing counting while they think they're playing a game, i made this:



(don't look too closely! it's my first attempt at quilting and i should have actually consulted some kind of expert. anyway...)

snakes and ladders was apparently invented in india. i made this using an old skirt (black) and an old shirt (white). the numbers were painted using a fixative medium in normal artists paint, and i used freezer paper (the special american kind) to make the number stencils. i love peeling the stencils off when the paint is dry, to see how well the stencil has turned out. the snakes and ladders are made of felt. the aim was to make the game as user-friendly for my visually-impaired student as possible. it's a very feely game - you can feel the numbers if you trace over them with your fingers.

i've also been checking out you-tube clips of classic sesame street number songs that i can play to support the students' counting - so much fun! these things make the thought of going back to work and leaving missy in child care less scary.

take care,
em

sunshine and woolly jumpers...

we found some sunshine on the weekend (can you see it, way over in the back there?):



and our woolly jumpers (thanks beppe!):



take care,
em

the homecoming...

from a land where warmth and daylight reign from 4am til 11pm...



to our homeland, a land of bare branches and beds three-blankets-heavy.



it's good to be home, though a little cold and lonely after living with others for the past few weeks. we also miss the quiet and closeness of the freisian countryside, but we look forward to catching up with our immediate families and friends soon.

take care,
em

the last days...

i'm a little too tired right now to write something witty or insightful about our last days in the netherlands, so i'll just post a bunch of pictures instead...

missy learning to share with husband's cousin's son (whatever numbered cousin that makes him to missy!?!):



missy playing in the grass while meeting my father-in-law's oldest sister and her husband on their farm:



cruising the canals of wommels and bolsward, two towns in fryslan - just after this pic was taken, we sailed down the main street of bolsward, past all the shops:





missy having a splash-fest during the recent heat-wave (it was warm, but it's not quite like melbourne in february):



sailing in the harbour near makkum, on omke's boat:



we fly home tomorrow at lunchtime, so this will be my last post from overseas. hope all is going well with you!

take care,
em