tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78808506073743391422024-03-06T03:56:45.215+11:00life actuallyKarenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.comBlogger939125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-34847672908720949132014-01-30T22:29:00.001+11:002014-01-30T22:29:17.452+11:00Thank goodness the daily puppy is updated every day......to make up for the lack of posting from me.<br />
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So much for those New Year's resolutions I made.<br />
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I have blog posts galore to write about such diverse topics as circuses, Pilates, prayer, adopting a new dog and books I've read recently, but they shall have to wait a little while. Hopefully this weekend there will be a window of opportunity to sit down and type something, since we are enjoying a rare month off everything on the church roster. This seems miraculous and blogworthy in itself. No music for me to play, no set up/pack up of chairs, no morning tea preparation, no kids program to organise...what on earth will we do with ourselves on Sunday mornings? Sleeping in sounds like it could be a very appealing option....<br />
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<br />Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-35479211190363675432014-01-02T10:11:00.001+11:002014-01-02T10:12:51.286+11:00New Years Resolutions 2014<br />
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1. Blog more. There have been a few too many dust bunnies rolling around this blog for the last few months!</div>
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2. Play less stupid timewasting games on the iPad. Bejewelled has got to go. After I got myself off it for a few months, I have become addicted again over the Christmas holidays. Spelltower has also been a bit distracting, but at least I can pretend it's slightly educational and ask the kids to help me find words (you know, it's a bit like Boggle...).</div>
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3. Finish chronological Bible reading plan that I started a long time ago. I'm up to Lamentations now. Feels like the New Testament is getting closer, but there's still a lot of Ezekiel to get through before that...</div>
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4. Eat better. I've managed to keep up with exercising over the past twelve months (2-3 good long walks per week) but I've fallen back into the trap of too many sweet treats and I can feel the weight creeping back up. </div>
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5. Enjoy work opportunities that come my way rather than stress out about them. Towards the end of last year, I resigned from my permanent part time job and am on the casual contract merry-go-round picking up different things here and there. I am about to do five weeks of filling in at my old Child Development services position working with kids and families (while they wait for the new person to start) and then I am going to be working in acute medical and surgical wards at a hospital for a few months. It's been about twenty years since I last did that, although I think that the experience I had working with older people in rehab last year will be helpful. It's good to have the chance to try out some different caseloads and see if there's somewhere else I enjoy working.</div>
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6. Learn how to use my camera properly and get some of my photos off the computer and on display!</div>
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There, that should do it...how about you guys (if there's any of you still out there reading?). What plans do you have for 2014?</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Image from <a href="http://www.google.com.au/search?q=new+years+resolution+images&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=j5_EUsXyEMTwiAf05YG4DA&ved=0CDsQsAQ&biw=1802&bih=836#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=6jm1hWehS4JynM%3A%3BHiQSMIqN5MljUM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Ftweakyourbiz.com%252Fgrowth%252Ffiles%252Fshutterstock_62795851.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Ftweakyourbiz.com%252Fgrowth%252F2013%252F01%252F09%252Fnew-years-resolutions-5-reasons-why-they-fail%252F%3B1000%3B686">here.</a></span></div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-46964474615748356672013-11-17T18:41:00.001+11:002013-11-17T18:42:26.893+11:00Stormy week<br />
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This week we have had stormy weather, with a storm just about every day. Yesterday topped it off with three storms in the same day. The evening one produced small hail so it was a blessing that we were at home. We also blessed our neighbours by putting out our old hail blanket on the footpath for kerbside cleanup this week, which they used to cover one of their teenager's cars. The blanket wasn't in great shape, and the hail didn't end up being too large, but I hope it helped them out a little bit.</div>
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Our dogs have been finding it hard to deal with all the storm activity. The boy dog gets a bit barky when the thunder starts up. Telling him to be quiet doesn't work, so last night things were loud both inside and outside when the hail was coming down. </div>
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The girl dog has a quieter type of anxiety. The curl-up-in-foetal-position-and-shake type. She likes to find an enclosed space so she feels a bit safer. We've found her hiding in the furthest corner under the kids' beds, and last night she chose the toilet for her hidey hole. At least she knew that the smallest room in the house was the safest place to be. Today we've had a relatively small storm in the afternoon, just a few thunder rumbles and a bit of rain. She's been curled up between our kitchen dresser and one of the dining room chairs the whole time. We've tried giving her cuddles and lots of reassurance but she just seems to be happy to be by herself in her enclosed space. I can relate.</div>
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The Bureau of Meteorology tells me that the run of storms is perhaps coming to an end after tomorrow. I think the dogs will be grateful. Although there seems to be more forecast later in the week, just as the First Test is getting underway in Brisbane.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Image from <a href="http://i.embed.ly/1/display/resize?key=1e6a1a1efdb011df84894040444cdc60&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdistilleryimage7.s3.amazonaws.com%2F1c33ece24cff11e3aeb612488ff18418_8.jpg&width=490">here.</a></span></div>
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Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-70856505126665088842013-11-10T20:41:00.002+11:002013-11-10T20:41:42.497+11:00Great library find<br />
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Chris found this book at the library a couple of weeks ago and since then, I have really been enjoying reading it with Rosie. It's quite different from some of Julia Donaldson's other well known books (eg. The Gruffalo) but it's a great book for 3-5 year old little girls. Not too many words, lots of great illustrations to fire up their imaginations, and inspiration for non-crafty types like me to make paper dolls with the kids since we have some rainy weather on the way here this week. What's not to like?</div>
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We're also big fans of some of Julia Donaldson's other books here. Stick Man and Tabby McTat have also been given a big workout this year after we gave them to Rowan for his birthday last year. </div>
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Highly recommended reading.</div>
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Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-85918193235768066292013-10-28T13:44:00.001+11:002013-10-28T13:51:11.166+11:00Attention Rowan....Please stop eating the dog food.<br />
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That is all.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">I know he can't read this, but I do feel much better having vented about it....</span>Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-48526140910329511782013-10-26T19:29:00.001+11:002013-10-26T19:29:43.305+11:00Saturday night Muppets <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/UGCJFFxoHJ4" width="459"></iframe><br />
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Ah, the Muppets. It's been a while.<br />
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Posting this because one of my children is currently memorizing Jabberwocky for this term's school poetry reciting. Such a strange poem it is too...Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-88771097013157468032013-10-08T21:29:00.002+11:002013-10-08T21:34:40.350+11:00Contemplating life's (un)important questions here...<br />
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Today I spent at least fifteen minutes gazing at the discounted wool in Lincraft wondering whether Paton's "Classic Totem" is the same as Paton's "Totem." The former was the only wool I could find in the shop with "Totem" in its name, the latter was the wool recommended in my knitting pattern (but only as a substitute for "Fireside," of which there was none at all).</div>
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After that excessive amount of contemplation (which was only possible because my husband is still on holidays and I had left the little people at home with him, after previous embarrassing episodes with a two year old pulling lots of balls of wool off the shelves) I eventually decided to risk it and use "Classic Totem." I'm going to have a go at knitting my very first tea cosy (not exactly the same as the one in the picture though, I'm using a pattern that involves three different coloured stripes).</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Image from <a href="http://www.allfreeknitting.com/Knit-Kitchen-and-Dining/Beginners-tea-cozy">here</a>.</span></div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-82009187670364633692013-09-10T11:35:00.002+10:002013-09-10T11:35:38.742+10:00This morning's amusement...I was watching two elderly ladies from the Jehovah's Witnesses trying to leave their magazines with the volunteers at the Salvation Army second hand clothing shop this morning. I'm sure I heard one of the JW's say, "You can just leave them on the counter for people to collect."<br />
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So when I went up to pay for the shorts and T-shirts I was buying, there the magazines were on the counter.<br />
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I hope the volunteers were planning to take them away once the JW's had gone. Probably not the kind of material they'd be wanting to promote.<br />
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I did find it a little bit funny though.<br />
<br />Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-8669661721112426342013-09-03T14:10:00.002+10:002013-09-03T18:24:18.014+10:00Thinking about.......Christians who choose to marry non Christians.<br />
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A close relative of ours (single, early 40s, similar age to me) has just announced her engagement. My husband told me that when he spoke to her, she sounded happier than he had heard her sound for many years. I think she has been really lonely for a long time.<br />
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But we have mixed emotions about it all. She is a Christian. My husband clearly remembers when she was converted to Christ. But her fiance isn't. This is his second marriage/partnership. We haven't met him yet. He has met some other members of the family, all of whom say he seems to be a really nice guy. He even asked permission from her parents (both Christians) before he asked her to marry him. They did say yes, but they also told him they weren't happy that he wasn't a Christian.<br />
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I'm finding it hard to know how to be supportive in this situation. I think there are other members of my husband's family who might refuse to go to their wedding. I think we will go, but I have this feeling that I'll find it very hard to watch. She has a lot of non-Christian friends who I think will probably make up for the mixed emotions coming from her family's direction.<br />
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We're not on the kind of terms where I could say to her upfront, "Look, if you think you were lonely before you got married, that's nothing compared to what it could be like AFTER you get married if you marry someone who doesn't believe what you do!" I'm probably not the right person to say it anyway, she would just see it as coming from the smug perspective of someone who's been married for many years and doesn't understand how hard it is to be single. And on one level, she's right.<br />
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But at the same time, I think single people find it hard to believe that even in a marriage where the two partners are both believing Christians, there can be lonely times. I have had them. But I do know that if I pray about things that are bothering me, then my husband will pray with me and we will work through it because we share the same perspective on life. We believe God is in control of what happens, that He has a plan for our lives, and that despite our sinfulness, He loved us more than any other human being could possibly love us. I don't know what I would do if the person I was choosing to spend my life with didn't share that view.<br />
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My husband and I decided to pray for her husband-to-be each day, that he will come to know Christ. We know there is no guarantee that this will happen. But I think it's all we can do right now without causing a family rift.<br />
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<br />Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-34302619066504939962013-08-31T18:56:00.000+10:002013-08-31T18:56:06.905+10:00Man Is Surprisingly Chill About Almost Being Assassinated<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/1C1ych583TI" width="459"></iframe><br />
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The title of this post says it all really. This guy is hilarious.<br />
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Best line: "two grand is not enough to get this done right."Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-43678599899013298562013-08-20T21:49:00.000+10:002013-08-20T21:53:29.387+10:00Marking blues are here again...It's been a while since I've blogged regularly. My sporadic posts have been ordinary and I felt like I was forcing myself to write them. I've felt like I've had stuff to say but I've been too exhausted to put it into words that make any sense. I make no guarantees that this will make any sense either but <a href="http://ben-vanishingpoint.blogspot.com.au/">Ben</a> has just announced a blogging comeback, and I was feeling inspired reading about it. So here I am.<br />
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Life has felt very full on for the past few months. Work has been demanding...both the teaching at Uni and at the same time learning all the skills I need to rehabilitate people who've had strokes, fractures and amputations. An interesting world. I'm going to blog about some of the memorable moments and the ups and downs of working with old people when I get going again.<br />
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In the meantime, I'm in assignment marking mode. I have two assignments left to mark out of twenty. You would think that would be incentive to knock the last ones over and get it done, but instead I find myself looking for ways to get out of it <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">(you know... I haven't blogged for over a month, but now that I have to mark stuff, blogging becomes a far more important priority...).</span> This assignment involves prescribing a client a wheelchair and an electric mobility scooter. Since I started marking them, I find myself analysing every wheelchair and scooter I see when I am out and about. We live in an area heavily populated with retirees so there are plenty of them out there.<br />
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Tomorrow's Uni teaching session is on dressing techniques for people with disabilities. There's a big focus on doing things one handed. I have reviewed fastening a tie and putting on a jumper and a button up shirt one handed, and I have finally mastered the art of one handed shoe lace tying. I didn't quite get there last year, which led to a few embarrassing moments in the tutorial, so I was determined to fix that up this year. It's actually pretty easy, and kind of cool. So cool, in fact, that I'm going to teach my kids how to do it. If I can find some pictures online, I might even blog it so that you'll all know what to do when you have a stroke or your hand gets amputated.<br />
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Enough procrastinating. If I can get through one more paper before bed, I'll be feeling great about having just one more to do tomorrow.<br />
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<br />Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-8979174170750956782013-07-17T20:04:00.003+10:002013-07-17T20:04:52.497+10:00Here's what happens when you leave a tutor with poor motor planning skills in charge of a tutorial on wheelchair mobility...A multitude of blunders, of course.<br />
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Today I managed to tip a student out of a wheelchair going forwards down a kerb. Not quite the demonstration I was hoping for. Luckily she had a quick reaction speed and managed to jump free before she hit the ground.<br />
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That was after I'd fallen at the last hurdle of disassembling and reassembling a manual wheelchair. All was going well until I got to putting the footplates back on at the end. There's nothing worse than having twenty pairs of eyes watching you struggle with what should be the easiest part of the whole job.<br />
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And all of that happened after I arrived somewhat underprepared, not having watched the mile long list of videos on using various items of equipment that are part of the required pre-reading and viewing for the session. Every other week I've watched them. I didn't get to it this week. So obviously it would follow that a student would ask me about a piece of equipment from one of the videos, that I had sitting at the front of the room and couldn't work out what it was or what to do with it. I'd hoped that I might be able to ask my teaching partner later about it so I could show the students in a future session.<br />
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So the student asked if we were going to have a demonstration of the equipment (something that I now know is designed to assist with lifting a wheelchair into the boot of a car). And then I had to own up and say I didn't know what it was. I ended up having to get her to demonstrate to the rest of the group. Embarrassing.<br />
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One of those teaching days that I would like to erase from memory forever. Or the next best thing, I hope I'll learn from all the mistakes and do a better job next time around.<br />
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I'll be praying for a better day tomorrow, when I have to do a formal memory assessment with a guy who's had a stroke and now has some memory loss. I've never done the test before. I looked at it last week and thought it wouldn't be too difficult. Hope that turns out to be true.<br />
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I feel like I'm on a really steep learning curve at the moment. It's not an easy place to be.<br />
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<br />Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-82731540397342591982013-07-15T17:42:00.005+10:002013-07-15T17:42:57.296+10:00Last day of the school holidays......hooray!<br />
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Today we did one of our regular holiday activities, morning tea at the lighthouse. We generally get to see a few dolphins playing.<br />
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The kids did a bit of running around too. Always guarantees a good afternoon sleep for them both. And some quiet time listening to stories on CD for the big guys.Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-84956890908566019022013-07-10T14:02:00.004+10:002013-07-10T14:04:05.512+10:00The Labor "faceless men"They've been around longer than you think. <a href="http://paintingfakes.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/labors-faceless-men.html">Here's a great post on their history</a> and their relevance (or lack thereof, actually) to recent events in the Labor Party.<br />
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I love reading educational blog posts like this one. Thanks Jon!</div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-18215418597562413022013-07-09T20:10:00.004+10:002013-07-09T20:10:54.711+10:00Easy and yummy winter dinner<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://cdn.taste.com.au/images/recipes/nb/2009/07/22800_l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://cdn.taste.com.au/images/recipes/nb/2009/07/22800_l.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Lamb shank, fennel and pearl barley scotch broth. Recipe <a href="http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/22800/lamb+shank+and+pearl+barley+scotch+broth">here</a>.<br />
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Apart from all the labour intensive chopping of vegies to go into it, it was a pretty easy dinner. I made it in the slow cooker and I didn't bother browning anything, I just threw it all in and cooked it on low for about six hours. By then, all the lamb had fallen off the bones so all that I needed to do was take the bones out and serve it up with some bread. The fennel had mellowed out so there was just a hint of its flavour rather than having an overpowering aniseed taste.<br />
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You can add other vegetables to it if you like. I had a few over-ripe tomatoes on the kitchen bench that I used up. We got an extra bag of potatoes in our online shopping order this week so I chopped up a few of those and put them in as well. An extra carrot or two. A bit more pearl barley than what the recipe said. It easily served our family of six with enough for seconds and probably a bit more for me to take for lunch at work later in the week.<br />
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Yum. Just the right dinner to sustain me for the evening ahead as I'm revisiting how to prescribe a wheelchair ahead of the student tutorial tomorrow morning (not a topic I'm overly familiar with...)<br />
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<br />Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-88905326318777550292013-06-26T13:58:00.003+10:002013-06-26T13:58:40.685+10:00Blog silenceSorry, folks. The blogging well is a bit dry at the moment here. I'm on a steep learning curve at work sorting out all the oldies going home from hospital, and I'm also busy revising bed mobility and hoist transfers for this round of teaching the first year students.<br />
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I have also been distracted by the discovery of a rather addictive game called Bejeweled. One of my patients at work (95 years old, with a stroke that has knocked off a reasonable amount of her language and cognition) used to play it in her pre-stroke days. When her daughter showed me the game on their laptop, I thought I should download it myself. To investigate its therapeutic potential, of course. Now I can't seem to stop playing it.... And when I tried to use it with her at work, I realised how much damage the stroke had done. Her processing speed was too slow for it to really be useful or even enjoyable for her anymore.<br />
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So now I am going to have to cure myself of this annoying addiction. Thank goodness the kids have the iPad at school during the day so I can get a few other things done....Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-11715209392508870902013-06-11T13:37:00.001+10:002013-06-11T14:11:38.644+10:00What I'm listening to....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/k/kate_miller-heidke_curiouser.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/k/kate_miller-heidke_curiouser.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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A bit of Kate Miller-Heidke. There's one song with the rather up-front title "I Like You Better When You're Not Around."<br />
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Her Dad taught me Maths 2 at high school. That's growing up in Brisbane for you. It's a small world.Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-48889003485534935762013-06-08T21:20:00.001+10:002013-06-08T21:20:24.147+10:00Farewell Harvey<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQwSF93o4DEFth1t6-piKf_OR6Z6pdHBkVQ3NEweTmkxE3MD91-u-KjTYyZppA4N1VtDH9batV2LOgqXplSkjiNU44KRafxKHsYBsXc1G5TDP5i2fL4-1boJOlcpTRHxc-4F_CL7g6yDlw/s500/blog+title.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQwSF93o4DEFth1t6-piKf_OR6Z6pdHBkVQ3NEweTmkxE3MD91-u-KjTYyZppA4N1VtDH9batV2LOgqXplSkjiNU44KRafxKHsYBsXc1G5TDP5i2fL4-1boJOlcpTRHxc-4F_CL7g6yDlw/s320/blog+title.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I've blogged about <a href="http://harveythecourageouslion.blogspot.com.au/">Harvey</a> in here before, but I haven't updated how he's going for a while now. He was clear of cancer for a while, but then his tumour returned late last year and over the past few months, he was having pretty heavy duty chemotherapy treatment in an effort to get rid of it again.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><br />
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Last night, he lost his fight for life after developing a chest infection. Just a common cold virus that probably wouldn't be a problem for you or me, or even for him if he was well. But with his immune system so compromised, he couldn't fight it off. He passed away early this morning.<br />
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Harvey is almost exactly the same age as Rosie (they were born a week apart). His older brother Oliver was born on the same day as Liam. I have never met his Mum Cassie in person, but we have been part of an online mother's group together for over eight years now. She is a strong and brave Mum who has blogged about Harvey's journey with cancer on a blog called <a href="http://harveythecourageouslion.blogspot.com.au/">Harvey the Cure-ageous Lion</a>. She has updated her blog just a few hours ago to share what happened during Harvey's last hours.<br />
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Farewell, Harvey. You were beautiful and brave while you were with us, and you will be sadly missed. Praying that God's love, and that of Cassie, Gabe, Oliver and Genevieve's family and friends, will be surrounding them all now.Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-58176956837563873492013-05-28T14:09:00.001+10:002013-05-28T14:09:32.935+10:00Today I did a Pinterest play activity with the kids<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFAN5yJDeAYjg2HoKBEzV4zXlKaF_ktWNG-o1w6lRuMjQAOX3XKv2qJNuPtgSGKhkQ7gp8ucQskxZ6lfcxSKpWCn48nttml4D42j9abidBbanxl9bqitDF0nhHYTor4ypi9ZfZtYAgWVg/s1600/DSC_0020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFAN5yJDeAYjg2HoKBEzV4zXlKaF_ktWNG-o1w6lRuMjQAOX3XKv2qJNuPtgSGKhkQ7gp8ucQskxZ6lfcxSKpWCn48nttml4D42j9abidBbanxl9bqitDF0nhHYTor4ypi9ZfZtYAgWVg/s640/DSC_0020.jpg" width="424" /></a></div>
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So why is this blog-worthy, I hear you ask?<br />
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Well, let's just say that I am much better at pinning ideas onto Pinterest boards than I am at actually doing them. I have at least fifty activities pinned up there. This is only the second one I've ever done. It's a rare event.<br />
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Today's choice was foam dough. It's messy. I'm not very good at taking photos as I go along (and my hands were very flour-and-foam coated as I was mixing it all together) so there are more detailed instructions and better photos <a href="http://earlylearning.momtrusted.com/2013/05/foam-dough-shaving-cream-corn-starch/">here</a>.<br />
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It's not too hard, though. All you do is pour cornflour into a bowl, then squeeze about the same amount of shaving cream in on top of it. Any brand of those will do. Our shaving cream is "Revenge" brand, which gave me a little giggle. Put in food colouring if you like to make your dough coloured, although beware that your hands (and those of the kids) will stay that colour for the rest of the day. Rosie and I are now being blue-handed monsters while the colouring wears off.<br />
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Mix it all together with your hands and make it into shapes. It's not quite as moldable as play dough, although that might have improved if I'd kept adding shaving cream to help it hold together. It did get a bit crumbly, but mostly the fun is about squeezing it together and enjoying the messy sensation.<br />
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I'm a bit tactile averse to both floury and slimy textures, so it wasn't an entirely pleasant feeling to me. It did get better as the dough held together more. I had to fight the temptation to keep washing my hands. Rosie washed hers about five times so I'm guessing she might have inherited my "don't-like-mess-on-my- hands" genes.<br />
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I didn't let the eighteen month old get involved this time, although he didn't seem too interested after a passing look at what we were up to. I thought he might try to eat it and I don't know that eating a mixture of shaving cream and cornflour would be that enjoyable.<br />
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But, all in all, it wasn't the worst way to spend a spare half hour on a wet and cold day. And I did manage to grab a few photos after we'd finished so I could blog about it just like all those other crafty Mummy bloggers do.<br />
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<br />Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-9042531716481975992013-05-22T21:22:00.003+10:002013-05-22T22:18:47.397+10:00Attention students.. (warning...grumble ahead)No, you cannot all have High Distinctions for the assignment. The bell curve doesn't work that way. And believe it or not, some of you didn't even answer the questions you were asked. That is why you failed.<br />
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And to those of you who are haggling for what amounts to maybe an extra half a mark if you are very lucky, why carry on about it when you aren't in any danger of failing the unit? It is a waste of my time to review your assignment over little quibbles that don't matter. Move along, people, just let it go. Put your energy into studying for the exam so you can blitz that instead, it's worth half the marks for the unit so you're better off doing well in that.<br />
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Sorry to everyone reading this, none of whom are likely to be students from my tutorial group. But I just needed to vent for a moment. I have put in many hours of time marking over the last couple of weeks, we had to put off a birthday party for one of our children so I could get the majority of the marking done, and now, having gotten all of the marks into the grade centre, I have come down with a bad cold and I can't go to work at my other job tomorrow. At the moment, the contract I am on doesn't include sick leave so if I don't work, there is no pay. And even though I am not at work, I am probably going to spend at least part of my day (that is supposed to be spent in resting and recovering) in addressing people's silly assignment questions.<br />
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My husband was having a conversation with a student supervisor from a different University at work today, but it went along very similar lines to the above. Students these days want to question everything, even when the feedback they are given is blatantly clear. I don't remember ever questioning any low marks I got when I went to University, you just took it, dealt with the disappointment, acknowledged that you hadn't put in as much effort as you needed to and used the feedback to improve the next paper.<br />
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Sigh. Times have changed. I blame the University for encouraging it though. When you change your tag line to "Where it's all about U", then I guess the students really do start thinking it's all about them....and then respect for the teaching staff disappears. It's a slippery old slope.<br />
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<br />Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-84213131376132850672013-05-14T20:59:00.002+10:002013-05-14T20:59:56.926+10:00Double the NAPLAN joy...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSpWNUvcLWd3gY2X_xOxomK82H5JPCa3OxKfVUpTeI-pMN56yJw2w" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSpWNUvcLWd3gY2X_xOxomK82H5JPCa3OxKfVUpTeI-pMN56yJw2w" /></a></div>
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This week, both of my older boys are doing NAPLAN tests at school. Today's persuasive writing topic required them to select a hero to write about. I'm reading online that lots of kids wrote about family members (Mums, Dads, siblings etc).<br />
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It would have been nice had either of my kids chosen one of their parents. But it didn't seem to have entered their minds. They both chose a historical figure. The funniest thing is that even though they were sitting on opposite sides of their classroom to do the test, they both managed to choose the same person to write about.<br />
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Julius Caesar. Let's just say I had no hope of guessing that.<br />
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I think they've been a bit too engrossed in their Horrible History books lately. When I questioned them further, they were somewhat vague on why they had actually nominated him as a hero. Something to do with great military victories, perhaps.<br />
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I hope whoever is marking their papers enjoys the experience. I'm thinking Julius won't be a common choice....Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-16154919576731642092013-04-30T19:58:00.003+10:002013-04-30T19:59:56.906+10:00I just signed up for a workshop on using iPads in the classroom....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTSMBcr_KJRDhHRZwLFR8pSY1-7rL3AgFQdNzYOpjn2uOBgHAaZnQ" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTSMBcr_KJRDhHRZwLFR8pSY1-7rL3AgFQdNzYOpjn2uOBgHAaZnQ" /></a></div>
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....for learning support and special education (information <a href="https://www.spectronicsinoz.com/register/form/ipad-tour-2013-australia-and-new-zealand">here</a>). I'm really excited about it. It will be great to have up to date information on good apps when I take the next round of OT students back into the school. It's looking like I will be returning to the same school as last time, which is good too. Now that I've done the hard yards getting to know the teachers, it will (hopefully) be much easier to get into the classrooms and work with them. I'd really love for us to be able to do lots more performance analysis in situ this time, looking at the kids doing a task in class and doing some joint problem solving to address difficulties in a more "on the spot" way, rather than withdrawing the kids to work at the side of the room, or in the library like we did last time. It would be great to think we could leave the teachers with some skills so that they feel like they can take some steps to address kids' difficulties themselves, rather than relying on the therapists for a quick fix (and it's very rarely a quick fix, by the way....sadly, we don't possess any magic bullets here).<br />
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So now we just need to buy the iPad and I'll be all set to go.Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-59221516009486676672013-04-28T17:22:00.004+10:002013-04-28T17:22:55.780+10:00And we've been reading too....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/cccac0335a4dd9fe26f6511593105042/tumblr_ml7l042acj1r00fpfo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="281" src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/cccac0335a4dd9fe26f6511593105042/tumblr_ml7l042acj1r00fpfo1_500.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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We've all been doing plenty of reading here over the school holidays. The hammock has had plenty of use as the kids all take turns reading in it. I even caught one of them in there with one of the dogs during the week....Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-59537964298405827932013-04-28T17:18:00.002+10:002013-04-28T17:24:26.673+10:00Knitting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRFEhZacgJfx5HkvjkevL7HyCWC31vGl0f6dakwcATYdlHZfPO7" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRFEhZacgJfx5HkvjkevL7HyCWC31vGl0f6dakwcATYdlHZfPO7" /></a></div>
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It's been a bit quiet in here lately. I just don't feel like I've had a lot to say. So I've been enjoying everyone else's posts for a while.<br />
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I haven't been super busy doing other things. Although I have tried to take a bit of time out from the internet over the past few days. It's been good to enjoy getting out into the beautiful weather we're having here at the moment.<br />
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I did order myself a beginner's knitting kit earlier in the week. It arrived yesterday so I've started knitting myself a scarf. After it arrived, I realised that I had actually learned the basics of knitting many years ago, so it wasn't too hard to pick it up again. Now I'm worried I'll get bored doing the same thing over and over again for so many rows. But it feels good to be doing something a little bit crafty.<br />
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I'd love to be able to knit toys one day. Or tea cosies. The one in the picture looks cute. I'm not so much into knitting things to wear. I'm hoping the scarf will be a good way to get myself going again. It's a gorgeous navy blue colour (my favourite) so that is highly motivating. I'm also keen to get it done so I can wear it this winter!<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Image from <a href="http://sussexmouse.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/plain-knitted-blue-tea-cosy-i-made-to.html">here.</a></span>Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7880850607374339142.post-62186168789865815802013-04-20T22:29:00.002+10:002013-04-20T22:29:51.971+10:00Nineteen assignments marked<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://bama.ua.edu/~chancock/page4/page39/files/rubrics-cartoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://bama.ua.edu/~chancock/page4/page39/files/rubrics-cartoon.jpg" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Image from <a href="http://bama.ua.edu/~chancock/page4/page39/page39.html">here.</a></span><br />
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And I am finally finished. The last one I did was one of the best papers I have ever read on the topic of roles, activities and occupations. Such a lovely way to finish marking after having to push through some complete rubbish during the past fortnight.<br />
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Just a tiny bit of final checking and some whole group feedback to complete tomorrow, and then I am going to read a book, edit some photos I took at a very enjoyable first birthday party this afternoon, and hopefully sort out the three year old's poo refusal dramas.<br />
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No rest for the wicked here.Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213944904796774622noreply@blogger.com0