A Bit Snowed Under

I am currently trying to clear a snowball. It is a rather large, cumbersome snowball called study. A week with Munchkin and I with colds was enough to just about wipe me out, and I am still not recovered (I'm blaming lack of decent sleep but that is another story). I now have two assignments due in the next two weeks, as well as normal study. So I'm afraid I will be taking yet another break from blogging. In all honesty I just don't have the energy, even if I had the time. Study and baby are taking up all available brain space at present (which I do admit is not much to start with!).

We also have big adjustments happening in our household, which doesn't help my brain space. We feel really good about this decision, but it is not easy living it out day by day. He is in class all day Mondays and Tuesdays and half of Wednesdays and Thursdays. He's also currently still working 27hrs a week, while we sort out student allowances and such...at which point he can drop his hours. But I need to work too, a day or two a week. Not fun. But we do need to feed ourselves and pay rent. We are hoping that things will be this complicated only for this year. I can't withdraw from my study without losing my scholarship and potentially damaging my chances of graduating (due to changes to my degree program), so we carry on. Not that I really want to stop studying as I do enjoy it, I just want things to be a little bit easier.

So that's me at present. I have still not done anything about passing on the blog award I was given. I don't really know where to start. Tell you what, I read very few blogs. I liked the ones Lizzy's Letters highlighted, but have only read them once. I read Rhonda's blog at Down to Earth (periodically these days), and she just received the top NZ/Australian blog award! Otherwise I really don't get 'out' much.

I did manage to write 7 things about myself to share with you all. How about I post it here, at least then you will actually get to see it!

I hope to rejoin you all in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, take care.
Amy
Wednesday, 9th March, 2011


7 things about me:

I had pet snails as a kid. My brothers and I collected them from the fennel near our school, and kept them in icecream containers with gladwrap (plastic clingwrap) over the top (holes in gladwrap for air). We fed them greenery, and raced them frequently. To tell them apart we would put twink marks on the big snail’s shells before a race began. Did you know that snails can eat through gladwrap quite easily? We had various escapees and would periodically find a dead snail on the ceiling or behind furniture. Opps. Hours and hours of fun. I still have trouble squashing snails in the garden. Slugs are not a problem, but I find myself apologising every time I feel I need to get rid of a snail!

I love giving gifts. Always have. I enjoy thinking about what the person might like, and organising to get it, then wrapping it and doing the card. This is why I so enjoy Operation Christmas Child. I get to give gifts that are really meaningful. One year when I was a child, we didn’t have enough money for each of us to give presents so my parents told us kids we were not to buy presents that year. I just couldn’t handle not giving a present! I went out and picked flowers from all around the gardens and put a posie for each person in jars under the Christmas tree, with a little note.

I want 101 children. Yes, you did read that right. People are usually a bit shocked when they ask and I say one-hundred-and-one. But I don’t really plan on having any more biological children. 101 is the number of children I would like to parent, to influence, and personally touch with my life. Most of these will probably be sponsored children, I guess some might be my son’s friends, or maybe children I teach? I don’t know, just that I want my life to count for something this big.

I have terrible hand-eye coordination in sporting arena's (it is okay making cards and knitting!). I used to think I just couldn’t play sports at all. I ended up hating sport and by high school would avoid it whenever possible. But, I have no realised that I can play a few things. The main issue is that I have to keep the ball in front of my face. If it goes down the side, I end up swiping and missing by a mile! The other issue is that it needs to be a sport I am not scared of getting hurt in. No rugby or softball for me! I like to play badminton and table tennis. I am pretty happy to discover that there are some sporty things I do enjoy, so I’m happy to leave it at that!

When I get a cold, I sneeze copiously. All day. Multiple times. To the point that there’s not really any point in saying “Bless You” for less than 5 sneezes at a time! It can be rather frustrating, as the sneezes just keep on coming. I guess it would be amusing to watch, provided you are at a safe distance!

I am a strategic thinker. This has always felt like a bit of a nuisance in my life. It has never really been used, and just gets in the way. For instance, I see things that I know would work better another way but rarely am in a position to do anything to change them. I would see that this action would result in this consequence, but being at the bottom of the food chain in my work, thus any suggestions I made would not usually be taken seriously. Anyway, I have recently decided that I want this gift to be actively used in my life. I want to see it as the gift that it is, and use it! After all, God gave me specific giftings for a reason – He must have things in mind for me that require them. Being able to use the strategic is why I loved my last admin job so much – it constantly required thinking ahead about our next training days, how to get more people on our telephone counselling rosters, and so on. And being at the stage in life we are currently, with a baby, no capital to speak of, and both of us needing to retrain, Boyo and I really need to start living strategically just to have a free hold home by retirement (and we want to do so much more than that!). We’ve never done it before, and you can so tell!

I don’t like swimming in the ocean. In fact, I don’t like swimming anywhere I can’t see the bottom. I did swim quite a lot as a child and teen, but have avoided it in my adult life. You see, there were a few incidents with crabs. I know, silly, they are just little crabs, what harm can they do?!? But that was enough for me. You can imagine my thoughts about the charms of swimming in North QLD – box jellyfish, crocodiles, sharks, sting rays, and assorted other dangerous animals and there was absolutely NO WAY I was getting in that water! Boyo paddled. I refused to do even that.