Bits and Other Bits

:: Tonight my hubby and I am going out to dinner with my siblings and their spouses to Gladioli. We do this once a year, and it is always a total hoot. Have I told you how much I enjoy my family's company? Even better, mum is minding all the grand kids. Fun for them. Funnerer for us. Not so much fun for her. Yes, of course we will drink champagne.

:: Those of you who have followed A Peaceful Day for a few years will rejoice with me to hear that we moved our business into its brand new forever home this week. We've been almost four years in portable classrooms. Can you believe that? Yes, it's been almost four years since the flood.

The trauma counsellor that visited our town soon after it happened told us that a community generally takes seven years to recover from a natural disaster. In our case, I'd say he'll be spot on. Now that the business is on its way to being back on its feet, we can look at our home. Stay tuned for some exciting renovation photos in the coming year! Thank you, friends, for your ongoing support and encouragement, and...well...your friendship, I guess.

:: The books are starting to arrive for AO8. Isn't it exciting when parcels start arriving in the mailbox? Stay tuned for some book related posts in coming weeks.

Finding space for them is going to prove a challenge I fear. Even with a whole library of space, shelves still fill up. They breed, you know. That's true!

:: In the Book Bag, we're finally reading through the Harry Potter series as a family. We've just finished book 3, so we still have a nice lot to go. We are enjoying the storyline very much - it really keeps you on the edge of your seat - but I find Rowling's writing fairly simple, and I often adjust things when I read aloud. Things an editor should have changed, I reckon, like using the same word twice in one sentence, or ending all spoken parts with he said/she said. Now I get that some people don't like dialog tags, and I don't need he growled and he sneered and she chortled and they wailed, gasped or groaned, but can't Hermione exclaim once in a while, or Ron yell? Why do they even need to 'said' their questions? Can't they ask? Honestly, this drives me mad. Actually, it just makes me change them on the fly, but that sort of amounts to the same thing.

The DVDs may or may not be in someone's Christmas stocking, Jeanne said mysteriously.

:: Segueing naturally on from there, we started our Christmas shopping the other day. It appears that it's going to be a handcraft year for us, although there will be a few books under the tree as well. Of course. And jigsaws, I hope. I need to find a time to get to Spotlight in the next few weeks, or a certain someone will be 'awful disappointed'.

Do you have any handcrafts or books on your Christmas wish-list? Do your kids?

 

:: The ballet concerts are fast approaching. Jemimah takes several dance classes, as well as musical theatre, and so I'm spending my evenings and weekends sitting in the car outside the ballet studio. I'm happy to do that because she loves it so much, but it really takes a heap out of my time in what, for me, is the busiest time of the year.

On the plus side, it is giving me time for some blogging! It might be too early to speak, but I think I might be over my writer's block. I'm trying to stick to what I do best, Aussie info, and practical day-to-day things, and leaving the erudite clever stuff to those who do it better. CM researchy stuff has never really been my thing, and I think that's part of what's been causing me problems, trying to be something that I'm not.

Anyhow, that's about all around here. What's happening in your neck of the woods? Do tell. I love knowing what my friends are up to!