Another week bites the dust

First week back into the normal routine.  Boy, is that a shock to the system or what?  But I still feel that deep down I have some reserves of energy from my holiday that should get me through a few more weeks.

What have I been thinking about?  That when we got home from holidays our house was reasonably tidy, but half an hour later it wasn't.  Seven people started pulling out stuff, using stuff, crafting, dressing uping, legoing, eating, undressing and then there was mess.  At least I know who to blame now!

My grey hair is flourishing away and I keep seeking inspiration wherever I may be (as an aside - I've also discovered that silver jewellery is the way to go - it looks great with gray hair).   This may seem like an unlikely source of inspiration but last night at a NSW state music camp concert (250 kids from Years 5-8 from state schools around NSW) I looked around at all the parents - who were exactly like me - and lots of the mums had grey hair.

One woman had such a cool and funky head of gray that I almost went up to her and asked her where she got it cut.  But since people had travelled from all over the state (the woman sitting next to me had travelled for four hours to get there) I thought it was unlikely that I was going to be visiting this mysterious woman's hairdresser.  Plus it would have been a bit strange for her I suspect.

Although ... I must say that at these music events you do end up talking to anyone and everyone - we are in this club of crazy parents who partake in this whole music gig.  And we're old and tired and just desperate for any type of conversation really.  This is probably why there were a lot of gray haired mums in the room.  Who has time and money for hair colouring when you spend your life driving to concerts and music lessons and band competitions and exams and then practising/paying for all of those events???

My daughter loved the camp - very inspired by kids the same age as her who are incredible players.  Part of the reason for sending her to the camp is because the school she is going to next year has a band, but she'll probably be towards the top of the musical ability in the group.  So this kind of camp will give her the opportunity to keep playing with other kids who are better than her.  And plus, how much fun is playing your instrument for five days with other kids who are excellent musicians?

Got back into work this week - I felt OK to be back and nice to see all the kids again (starting to actually know all their names, which sounds a little pathetic since we're half way through the year, but I teach a lot of different kids each week).  I'm still struggling with how work sits within the context of my wider life but I certainly feel that we are all coping with it better than even a few months ago.  Family-wise, there isn't an any more ideal job that I can do, so I need to just get used to it.

Had parent-teacher interviews (for my own kids) this week too.  My daughter's teacher (the youngest) told me that she's been very kind to a very anxious girl in her class and their friendship has been helping this little girl actually learn and participate in class activities.  I got a bit teary when he was telling me this story (partly pride, partly a little bit of surprise (she's not very nice to her siblings sometimes) and partly probably tiredness).  Nice to have some heartwarming parenting moments occasionally.

And I bought a big heavy ceramic baking tray on sale this week.  It's ALL happening people!!