Eeeeeek!

I have just signed up for this ....

I made the mistake of complaining about my post-sickness weight and loss of fitness to my PT today, and she talked me into the beach bod boost. What it means for my fitness schedule is I'm going to have intense bootcamp sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays with a PT session sandwiched in the middle, which means going into schools on Thursdays and Fridays and smiling at the little angels, pretending that every muscle in my body is not screaming out for hospitalisation. Ha! However, I will see great results if I stick to the menu and exercise plan and forbid anyone from bringing chocolate into the house on pain of death. So ... I will bite back the grimaces and the desire to scream "Oh my effing heck, I'm a lunatic" and happily view the receding numbers on the scales each week. Wish me luck :)

Chickens!

About 4 months ago we became the proud parents (and sister) of two little Pekin chickens. They are absolutely delightful, though it would be even more delightful if they could be toilet trained. Most days I'll don the chicken-shoes and hang out with them for a little while. They make cute little noises, love to dig, dust-bathe and forage, have eaten all the weeds in the back garden (yay!) and will probably eat all the vegie seedlings I plan to pop in when it gets warmer (not yay). They both laid yummalicious eggs for a couple of months in winter, but Pekins are known for a short laying season so we're having to go back to store-bought eggs until they start laying again next winter. Check out their feathery feet and big boofy bottoms!

In other news ...
Kylie

• I've finally been accepted into the education system as a casual teacher, so I'm madly preparing resources for that. It's been a long process to get into the system and I'm hoping it won't affect my chances of getting work.
• Unfortunately I've had a very sick winter so my fitness has suffered again, as has my weight. It's all very disappointing, but onwards and upwards right? :)
• I've recently taken up playing percussion! I've been musical for most of my life, having played flute, piano and guitar at various times, but never percussion. My very talented musical Mum was conducting the orchestra for a recent season of The Magic Flute when her percussionist walked out. In desperation she asked me to play timpani, which I did. I even managed to hit most of the right notes at the right time by the last performance! Well done Kylie! I enjoyed it enough to agree to play for Brigadoon which will be performed by the Queanbeyan Players at The Q in October. 
• I'm still enjoying playing with art supplies. Earlier this year I joined an online workshop by Flora Bowley, who teaches students to let go of needing to control their paintings and to tune into their intuition. This is one of my works-in-progress. I've taken out the bunny since this photo was taken, it just wasn't working for me so I found him a new home :) My apologies for the glare from the phone's flash ...

Miss H

• Miss H recently showed off her work during her school's Learning Journey to her parents and grandparents. We all had a great morning, and loved seeing Miss H's progress with her school work. She's continuing to enjoy learning and being at school, which is fantastic. Here's some of her work that she showed off to us.

• I just realised that her skeleton picture needs a hip replacement. Ha!
• Miss H is continuing to thrive at swimming and has moved up two levels this year. She can now swim independently and is working on her strokes.
• We made a kite a little while a go, to Miss H's specifications, and decided to try it out recently on a very windy day. It did actually fly, which I think surprised me more than her. The phone camera does NOT do motion very well, but I think this photo captures the essence of the moment.

• Guess who's riding without training wheels? It's been a relatively painless process, which makes me think that with all the swimming and swinging etc that she does, she's probably got a pretty strong core.

James

• James is the more settled one of the family and so there's not much to report except that this gorgeous, clever boy got his promotion! We're all very proud of him and hope he can continue to find work that he can really sink his teeth into and enjoy.