School. It’s back.

Cheers for joining me in The Lounge for another week.  This week we’re talking School.

Check out the links below.

 

 

As a teacher and mother, preparing for school is something I both loathe and love in equal parts.

It’s a tough one.

 

 

The school year looms largest after mid-January and my teacher side becomes aprehensive about the last few weeks of the holidays.  There’s organising, programming and preparation.  Hours of it.  The reality of early mornings sets in and in the last week, via anxiety-laden message marathons with work friends,  I’m reminded of shitty colleagues and the fact that I’ll have to elbow my way through the NSWDEC red tape for yet another year.

Loathe.

 

 

My mother side looks forward to a different, not so sinister, type of school preparation.  They type where my child is fitted for shoes, chooses a drink bottle and cooler bag and gets a haircut.  The preparation where uniform is washed, pressed and of course, labelled.  I look forward to the hype which sees bags packed and unpacked a few times, just to make sure we haven’t forgotten anything and a loose promise of increased maturity for growing a whole school year older.

Love LOVE.

 

 

Chalk talk is ubiquitous in the last few weeks of the holidays and the whole Robo family grows very excited.  We discuss expectations, new friends and homework.  While we chat about teachers, preferred lunches and after school activities, I might nod and gesture purposefully but I’m always wondering

how in hell

am I going to take care of myself, my kids and my husband,

get off to work on time, take care of my students, please the bureaucrats

and then come home to homework, dinner, bath and bed.

And the rest.

 

 

How in hell?

I’m exhausted just thinking about it.

 

 

But it happens.  Somehow everything just works itself out.  We’re clean, we’re fed, we’ve done our homework and the family, Mother and Teacher included, keep their shit together enough to get through the term and have a little fun along the way.  Just.

 

 

Are you a working parent?  What’s your secret?

 

 

Love,

Robo X

Original Happy Place

Little Robo was a quiet girl.

She carried a book wherever she went and at night, she would read with a torch under her blankets.  Sometimes Little Robo would get into trouble for not listening; usually though, it was because she was completely immersed in yet another story.

 

 

In the days before Foxtel, ABC 4 Kids, DVDs and tablets, books were it.

And you could get a new one every week from the library!

Books:  My original happy place.

There are simply too many to mention but here’s a very tiny sample of the books, series and authors I loved as a youngster.  And these are the covers as I remember them.

I just can’t wait until I find these lying around the house again.

Linking up with Kimbo Slice for The Lounge.

What’s your favourite childhood story?

Love,

Robo X

Yesterday’s Virgin

So 2014 started with a literal bang.

Here’s my list of bangin’ events, so far.

 

 

One.

Illegal fireworks organised by some fellow campers at inland NSW.  On the way back from the short bushwalk to said fireworks, I lost my camera flash.

Karma.  Participation in illegal activities.

 

 

Two.

Upon returning home to Sydney I was hit with news that I would be hosting a family function.

Fifteen people, ten kidlets, one day’s notice.

Fun.  And a great excuse to speed clean the house.

 

 

Three.

The night before this function, the impossible had to happen.  I innocently killed a couple of stray ants that I found in my front room with a little fly spray.

Upon returning to the front room twenty minutes later, I found an absolute gold mine of ants.  Tablespoons full of ants.  Some dead, some dying and others trying to get the fuck out to safe ground…

It was apocalyptic.

Too apocalyptic for the month of Jan.

 

 

Four.

Today, the day after the big family event, I realised that I have a serious case of silverfish.  Six t-shirts ruined with tiny weird looking holes.  My friend, Google says I’m fucked and need to head to Bunnings.  Stat.

But that’s a job for tomorrow.

 

 

So how’s your New Year?

I hope it’s awesome coz mine is a bit on the ‘how’re you going’ side…

 

 

 

 

And as for the title of this blog post.  When I googled silverfish, this book cover popped up.

What a byline…  I think this protagonist, too, has encountered a few silverfish.

 

 

 Happy 2014!

Hope it rocks!

 

 

Love,

Robo X