Tis the calm before the storm.

Monday is a study day i.e. no lectures. So, last chance to get things in order before things get busy tomorrow… with reading lists and assignments and so on.

We’ve been to see Jo Ryan who has an attic on the third floor at Knox College. The kids had a great time playing with her type-writer! And Katarina went out to the Leith Valley youth group on Saturday night – Kodak Kapers! She went with her friend Hannah Flett from up the road and had a great time apparently. Chris went to pick them up and “got talking” with the youth leaders there…old habits die hard!

Chris and the children went to Kaikorai Valley yesterday; just happened to be the day they inducted their new youth worker. The School of Ministry students were invited to Opoho church so I went there in the morning. Sunday evening Chris checked out Student.Soul with some of the other ministry students – the music was great he reports so I am going to have to figure out a way to get there myself. All our potential baby sitters will be there of course, same problem as usual!

We’ve just had a curtain lady around to deal with some of our mouldy curtains and I am just listening to the demo CD that Trev has finished working on for me. We are going to try to get to some reading and assignments today but I can see the day is just going to disappear – again!

First Day of Lectures

We've survived!
More than that, it was all very interesting although I am wondering how Chris and I are both going to find places to preach twice between now and April!

Zachary has been elected to the school council! He said the other week that he was aiming to have more friends here than he had in Lower Hutt. Nothing like having goals!!!

We are enjoing having my brother Tim to stay for the next couple of days. He has brought a bunch of sound gear with him so the front room has been transformed into a potential sound studio. We even had a jam session with the older girls this evening! So, I'm all set to start recording... if only I didn't have so many assignments to be working on!

We've also enjoyed having our niece Anna up for the afternoon. She popped in to help Katarina perfect her origami technique and stayed to borrow some books for a New Testament course she has squeezed in to her health science studies. She even brought some biscuits she had made which puts me to shame - although I am blaming the oven for my lack of baking attempts...And we did have fresh bread for tea!

And it's only Thursday!

We’ve finished for the week, having had introductions, interviews, Myers-Briggs interviews and shared the stories of all the other ordinands. The lecturers are all characters and we are looking forward to working with them this year. Two in particular jumped up and down with excitement when they found out about my passion for worship leading which I am a little worried about!

Zachary has been swimming all week and is absolutely loving it! He is making wonderful progress and is trying so hard. The other big news was the hatching of a butterfly in their class this week; the kids are all enthralled and enjoying the opportunity to enjoy some science up close and personal.

Hannah is still eating like a horse and happily scooting off to Montessori each morning. She arrives home and eats two sandwiches, yes folks, we are talking FOUR slices of bread here! And that is after a reasonable, if vegetarian, lunch and still manages a decent sort of tea.

Janine has glasses now – turns out she is short sighted also and has chosen nice purple flexi frames. Big Eeek money wise as we hadn’t budgeted on that particular expense! Katarina also needs new lenses but we will wait a month or two to ease the pressure on the purse.

I’ve been trying to get to the WINZ office in Dunedin which has just moved – to a site with no signage (So they are Really Hard to find) and no parking ( so they are really hard to get to). No wonder the unemployment rate is so low – no one can find the offices! Earlier this week a 6 month review form arrived for the childcare subsidy we have just started to receive. We are talking 3 pages of detailed information here, not just a simple – has anything changed? Bit of a worry really. I rang my “case office” who said I could ignore it, so I will. But it leaves me wondering things like - If I find it difficult, how do people in really problematic circumstances get on?

However, these are all minor worries and we are looking forward to getting into classes next week.

Some ironic bits and pieces

We are safely home again after enjoying Kat and Jono’s excellent wedding celebration. We brought some extra gear back from Auckland with us for Anna, our niece who is studying at Otago. One of our bags has not yet made it to Dunedin as 100 KG from our flight had to be off loaded in Christchurch as the plane was too heavy. Apparently all the students heading for Dunedin are placing too much strain on the system; yesterday, Air NZ had to freight 1 000kg from Christchurch! We thought it was quite ironic that it was our gear that got taken off! Happily we don’t need any of it in a hurry and we were still back in time, despite the delays! to do the final piece of today’s intro to the school of ministry, the Myers-Briggs personality test. We will get the results of that tomorrow.

Mum and Dad went to the inaugural lecture as it happens, not that they took notes for us! And they said they enjoyed it and didn’t seem to be too tired after a weekend of minding the mokapuna. They are away back home now but it won’t be long before we see them again as we have Abagail’s dedication soon.

Dinner and dessert

We had our first “gathering” last night, dessert for a bunch of Wellingtonians freezing together in Dunedin. We enjoyed having Naomi and Alastair Lane for tea and then Laurie Christian also popped in for an hour. He left loaded up with bits and pieces, mostly books, for folk at Knox in Lower Hutt - and some photos, so look out for those, Knoxites.

Mo Mansill and Kathryn Grant are down for faith festival and it was great to see them, plus Jo and Jeremy and Chris Purdie dropped in. Fantastic to see our new house being well used although we really are going to have to see about some more comfortable chairs.

I hate to say it but the temperature has dropped significantly. Brrrr. Looking forward to some warmer temperatures this weekened. Yay for weddings.

Dinner and dessert

We had our first “gathering” last night, dessert for a bunch of Wellingtonians freezing together in Dunedin. We enjoyed having Naomi and Alastair Lane for tea and then Laurie Christian also popped in for an hour. He left loaded up with bits and pieces, mostly books, for folk at Knox in Lower Hutt - and some photos, so look out for those, Knoxites.

Mo Mansill and Kathryn Grant are down for faith festival and it was great to see them, plus Jo and Jeremy and Chris Purdie dropped in. Fantastic to see our new house being well used although we really are going to have to see about some more comfortable chairs.

I hate to say it but the temperature has dropped significantly. Brrrr. Looking forward to some warmer temperatures this weekened. Yay for weddings.

Feb 16

I’ve been working on some assignments for my block course, getting lost around 579 BCE, which will have significance only to OT scholars. Apologies to everyone else.

Hannah and I scooted to school today which is a much quicker option than walking which is taking longer and longer. Don’t panic - Hannah runs down the really steep bits! Lotsa fun. She went on a trip to a farm yesterday, rode on ponies and was thoroughly soaked after walking through puddles – what a great time!

Yesterday Chris and I wandered around campus so I feel like a real student. Please ignore the weather forecasts for Dunedin, they are hopelessly inaccurate. Rain? We enjoyed brilliant sunshine. 19 degrees? More like 24! We’ve paid our fees (SOM picks up most of it but we’ve elected to do these extra block courses so there was a little extra…) picked up our student ID’s and I’ve borrowed books from the library. Nice.

Chris and I are off this Saturday to Hamilton, flying direct to Auckland and back on Monday via Christchurch so we will see mum and dad who are looking after the whanau for us. Chris’s niece is getting married on Sunday, hence the trip.

Right, time to get back to Ezekial…

Saturday night

So things must be getting busy, it has been a day or two.

Enjoyed the School of Ministry BBQ today; good to finally put names and faces together.

The girls started their Sat. morning music classes, we finally made it to the Otago farmers market at the Railway station.

Janine is safely home from camp and had a great time, the weather is lousy (cold and wet), Zachary has had a friend over on Friday and is going to another on Monday (just the way he likes it!) and Katarina loves her new ballet lessons. Hannah is loving Montessori but falls asleep on the couch afterwards; has far too much fun there to be bothered with an afternoon nap!

Chris is looking forward to his block course on Monday.

Green fingers?

Tonight we went to tea with the Yoemans, out at Mosgiel, having been visited by Rev. Ian Guy this afternoon, apparently having just “been in the neighbourhood.”
Hmmm

Monica Yoeman was the youth intern last year so it was lovely to see her in her natural setting as it were; her parents are in the process of packing up and heading overseas which is all very terrifying and exciting. They’ve asked me to speak at their youth gathering on the 27th which I am considering.

I managed to finally get some plants in the garden so I am feeling much better. Chris is still working on the boxes but I was getting quite anxious because I had nothing to eat growing in the garden. Silly eh! Plus the days are so lovely I’d really rather be outside! Warm nor’westers at the moment and we are enjoying the brilliant long evenings.

We are really at the tail end of the unpacking; all the hard things to find places for and boxes of papers that I still really don’t want to sort.As we are both hoarders, there is a substantial amount of emotional energy involved in letting things go. Perhaps we need counselling?

Chris heads out to school camp tomorrow so I might get an assignment done; the plan is to have 2 done by the end of next week so I have only one to worry about during the SOM semester.

Wet wet wet.

Katarina and I were at a ballet lesson when the heavens opened.

I knew it was raining hard but didn’t expect to see water up to the sills on the cars parked outside! Fortunately we were late and parked up the street which was slightly higher! At least we didn’t get wet knees getting into the van. See, it pays to be late! Well, sometimes.

Of course, getting home was less than simple. There were roads closed all over the place and my knowledge of Dunedin’s topography is still insufficient to chart a high road home. All the underpass type roads were under water and at one point we were sandwiched between fire trucks heading off to pump out flooded central city buildings.

Katarina thought it was great fun and quite liked the idea of just ploughing through some of the flooded bits. “Don’t be such a wuss mum” she gently encouraged as I turned around. I was slightly more cautious, not knowing the roads and wondering just how deep the water around Logan Park might be.

Home safely, no floods to deal with here which makes a nice change from Hay Street; the last big dump in Lower Hutt we spent cleaning out the ditch at the side of the house!

This morning took ages to get Hannah to school as there was a fire truck pumping out a garage down the hill which had 3 feet of water in the basement! At least it is warm and dry so things can dry out. Zachary is disappointed as today’s class picnic at Dundas bush is cancelled.

We are missing Janine who is off at school camp this week and wondering how the rain has affected the campers. All good fun.

Firsts

Lot’s of firsts this weekend – first swim (or paddle rather, brrr!) at St Clair beach.

First visit to East Taeri (great church but rather a long way to go…) We took Robbie McGuinness to church with us (and pot luck after) and ended up seeing him at tea time as well. We’re lending him a blow up bed but of course, that was easier said than done. There is still quite a bit of stuff in boxes – but we managed to empty 2 in the process of looking for the bed and the pump. Cheers Rob!!

First visit by Australians – Phil Tondle (Ex Trinity youth group days) brought his bride to visit. It is very odd to see these young fellas growing up and reproducing, well, hopefully a little way off for these guys, but you know what I mean.

It is also very odd to not be dashing off to youth group or music practise but no doubt we will adjust. All this non allocated time with fill up quickly once SOM starts no doubt.

We’ve had a week of fab weather and Janine is off to her first school camp tomorrow so we are all hoping that it will hold.

So we are all trucking along here tickety-boo.

Best mum in the world

Best mummy in the world

Doesn’t take much to earn this title although it is a temporary one.

This morning Hannah and I walked, yes, WALKED, to Montessori, exploring some of the steps, lanes and back streets along the way. This presents somewhat of a challenge for me as my iron levels are a bit low, which means I puff a bit, how embarrassing. But we made it. Three year olds are good company early in the morning and we chatted about all sorts of things on the way.

This afternoon I took Katarina to a trial ballet class – it is all very complicated but she is quite keen so I’m trying to find something that will suit. It is a bit difficult when I’m not sure how this School of Ministry thing will work out but we’ll give it a go.

And tonight I’ve been flat out covering the kids school books; intermediate is a LOT of books! This also meant a trip to find some more duraseal for Janine as Katarina had used all I had bought last year and never quite got around to using.

And Zak? We had a whisper story tonight so as not to wake Hannah, tired out from a full day at school as well as the walk this morning. His “marvellous machines” book is a great mixture of rhymes and diggers and we both enjoyed playing “don’t disturb Hannah”.

So, tonight, I am the best mummy in the world. I am not under any illusions that it will last, it is, after all, a very contextual and relative title, but still…

Still waiting on Robbie who was caught up in the Wellington airport closures. He's acting as mail carrier for some mail that has been sitting around the Hutt for a week or two. Nothing important, just university registration.

Scary things that happened today

Scary things that happened today.

Chris and I wandered up the hill to have a coffee with another ministry student and his wife, Dennis and Jenny Flett. THREE hours later we managed to get home; must be on holiday or something! Dennis is lovely but scary, bit of a Greek scholar. Now, I remember studying Greek but that is about all.

Actually, Chris has been working like a Trojan unpacking boxes but made a nasty discovery, some of our papers had got wet when we had a flood in the garage the week before we left. So they were all mouldy and icky… I’ve just typed in the irreplaceable stuff, fortunately most was on a computer and it is easy enough to make more hard copies. See, computers have their uses, all you technophobes

I’ve enrolled the two older girls in a Saturday music class and I’m making enquiries about ballet. I’m a bit worried about how we will fit everything in; will just have to work efficiently.

People will insist on BIKING up Signal Hill road; I have enough trouble walking up it!

The cloud is rolling in again, spectacular! Yet another gorgeous sunset, still light at 9:30, not that we are taking time to sit and enjoy it yet. Needs some visitors to give us an excuse to down tools and chat. Hang on, wait a minute, did that this morning, so can’t complain really.

Heard from Robbie McGuiness (Ex Lower Hutt youth) today, he is due back in town. I’m not sure whether we will have time to have him over for tea before he heads off for his aquatic week, time will tell…

Thanks to those who are reading and letting us know what you think (both of you!). Without feedback, the rest will simply have to put up with what I put up.

A pinch and a punch for the first of the month...

I’ve just walked up Black Street from my first Montessori school meeting – whew! It’s one of those “10 minutes down, 30 minutes up” streets. The sun is just setting at a little after nine, although the sea fog rolling in is making things interesting.

Can’t believe it is only the second day of school for everyone, it has been hectic at times as we settle into new routines. Yes, I know school is only next door but there are teachers to meet, book bags to find, friends to meet…. Everyone seems to be making friends left, right and centre which is very satisfactory.

Hannah loves her Montessori school. It is very structured but lots of lovely activities. The teachers seem really on to it and write goals for each child every week. I am still trying to get my head around the routines. The children help make lunches which are all vegetarian and do baking on Tuesday and Thursday. So I don’t have to make lunches for Hannah. She was quite put out this morning as she wanted to take her lunch box like the big kids although Katarina eats so little I don’t know why she bothers. I’ve had a picture home both days, unlike Zach who rarely bought things home from kindy. And she is eating, boy is she eating. She eats more than I do!!!

Zachary is also having a great start to his school year. His teacher is just evaluating what he can and can’t do, he has met some boys to be friends with and dragged me back to school this afternoon to watch him cycling around the playground. We are really enjoying living next to the school!!!

Janine went to play at a friend’s house today – AGAIN! She is off to camp next week which will help to reinforce friendships. She’s happy and really enjoying the chance to bike around the house; the section is flat and has a path all the way around. Cool. She loves our new house and her school.

Katarina has collected another girl, from another ministry family, to walk to school with and looks like we might be able to co-ordinate pick-ups too…although I think she should walk up Blacks Road, she doesn’t seem very keen. Be good exercise, we’d all be fit if we did that every day.

Chris has done an amazing job on the house, the study is nearly sorted and by the end of the week we will be able to use the spare beds so we can welcome visitors. The kids’ rooms are sorted, the computers are up and running and the music room/study is well on the way.

It was lovely to have a flying visit from Jackie and Alastair today, our senior minister and wife from Lower Hutt. With yet another earthquake in Lower Hutt this morning, I am really pleased to be here.