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In my last post I mentioned how busy life has been around here in recent months. I was kind of hoping that this term things would slow down a little. But it was not to be. Despite my son finishing his summer sport of cricket, he still has basketball, which takes up alot of our time from Friday night until Tuesday night. We are actually having a quiet weekend this weekend, as his team did not make the grand final in the domestic comp. He also plays at rep level, so that is still happening – even on Mother’s Day this mother will be taking her son to training.
The girls also keep us busy, with their basketball, calisthenics and swimming. Then there are the various school activities. Each week this term we have had Parent Teacher interviews, except for last week, when I spent the evening at my school anyway, for our Open Night. It proved to be quite useful, as about half a dozen of the maths teachers (myself included) received some impromptu Professional Development, but the evening still took it’s toll, with me being exhausted by the end of the week. Oh, and the parent teacher interviews at my school? They were on my birthday! So I spent more than 12 hours on campus that day.
So with the extreme exhaustion I have been experiencing, my writing mojo appears to have left me again. I have all these wonderful posts written in my head, but by the time I get ready to type them, I am too tired to think. I really need to set up my iPad so that it uses the WiFi network at work. I can do that, because I also use my personal/business iPad for school purposes. (There are some great apps for education.)
Although on the sporting front, we have less to do, in reality this weekend will be no slower. I need to pack the car tonight ready to spend the day with the shop up at Emerald, at Mrs Martin’s Quilt Shop. It is my way of participating in her Winding Ways shop hop without having to be open for business 6 days a week for the month of May.
If you are in the area, pop by to see me. The details are on Karen’s blog …
I want to get off…
This saying has been running around in my head for the past week. Although I was on holidays for 2 weeks, it did not feel as though anything had changed. With 3 kids, 2 of them teenagers, one of these being into sport in a big way, the business and my day job, there are times when I feel as though I am running in circles, chasing my tale! I spent the first week of the holidays focused on the study. Finally I feel as though I can work in an uncluttered space. Though the pile on my computer desk has grown once again.
I still have some old paper work to finish sorting and the book shelves are still quite empty, but I am looking forward to taking the next few weeks slowly so that I can move books from the front room down here where they belong. I am also planning on putting new bookshelves in the front room, but that needs to wait awhile.
In one of my posts, I mentioned that our darling dog keeps escaping. Because of this, I took him to work one day, and one of the students mentioned that it may be related to his age and his desire for company when we are at work and school. So we made the decision to get ourselves another dog. After careful thought we decided against a puppy because we don’t have the time to train one, and have just picked up a gorgeous little two year old. Of course, we are having to train her, but it is not as bad as it would be if she was a puppy.
Despite demonstrating to us that she is also an escape artist, going missing for a good 10 hours on Friday – we think she hid in a neighbour’s yard, and regularly peeing on the floor, Miss S has quickly made her way into our hearts, and we have basically decided that we will keep her. She gets along really well with Mr S, an is proving to be good company for the boy.
Now that the holidays are over, I have stepped back into my normal life and am already feeling exhausted. 
For some time now I have been unhappy with the state of my study. I promised myself that for a significant birthday, I would have everything organised and put away properly, but I was never really happy with the layout of the study. So over the Christmas break, I emptied the study of everything in it, changed the bookshelves from the Ivar ones we had been using for years to the Billy Bookcases (also from Ikea), and moved everything about.
At the moment this room is still a work in progress, and I can see a room that is a pleasure to work in happening here, but for the time being, I still have more paper STUFF to work through.
The white desk is almost how I want it to look. I would love a different chair, but I don’t want this room to be too cluttered. I still need to work out how to position the printer. It would be great if I could set it up wirelessly, but at the moment, that does not look like it is going to happen. The bookcases are partially empty, as I go through the paper work that was removed from here, but it is looking like I will be able to move the business related books I have collected over the years into here from the ‘library’.
Do you see the filing cabinet sitting in the middle of the floor? It has been here since early January. The reality is that it has rarely been used since we moved home. I have come to the conclusion that filing cabinets and I do not exactly work well together. P is planning to use this filing cabinet in his shed as a secure, dry place to store some of his tools.
I have a couple of Tullsta arm chairs (also from Ikea) in the front room. I want to replace these with some linen covered wingbacks, but the Tullsta chairs will make their way into the corner of this room, making it a nice place to sit and read, maybe I can get it done in time to read my Hello Soul, Hello Business coursework here.
Like many, I tend to look at the decorating blogs of many talented home decorators, but one talented home decorator who has inspired me for far longer, is my good friend Wendy. It is her desk vignette that has inspired me with setting up a working room.
