Rest

We haven't got Autumn colours yet, but the weather is definitely changing. It isn't really cool, the humidity nearly killed me on my last two runs, but I can imagine snuggling up with a blanket and that's a lovely start.

I didn't travel this week, but was very busy at work. We had a parent teacher interview for Bethany and it was a relief to make just the one appointment after 18 at Joss and Tobes' school.

I'm enjoying a quiet cup of tea on a foggy morning before going to Child Protection training at church. I'm trying to adjust my attitude, I know why we do it and understand the importance, but it's my one quiet morning (soon to be lost to soccer) and I have done the training twice before. It's a shame I'm not reading Middlemarch on an eReader, because it's a tricky book to hide! I'll just have to participate.

The road

I have been out and about for work this week. I drove an hour in one direction to Holbrook on Tuesday, to talk to some seniors about Ancestry Library Edition. While writing the talk I made some fabulous discoveries about my own family. Unfortunately, my excitement has not translated into action and I have not followed it up, yet. I''ll get there, Dad.

On Wednesday I drove an hour in a different direction to Cootamundra, a pretty, vibrant town where I talked about smartphones. You may have guessed that it is Seniors' Week, which, somehow, always means technology talks.

I love driving through the country. The muted greens of the gum trees, the golden straw coloured paddocks, still looking like summer. I engaged in some dangerous and not very successful photography.

Tomorrow morning I'm up at five and off to Sydney again, this time for a children and youth meeting. Seniors' Week being the perfect time for such things. It's in Blacktown, too, which will be a new experience for me. I hope they have decent coffee there. I once went to a meeting at Ashfield, which had the advantage of being much closer to the city, and after wandering up and down the street in search of a cafe, I ended up getting a coffee from a Michel's in a shopping centre. There is plenty of good coffee in Wagga!

Cooler

We watched the huge, orange moon rise as we ate dinner. It was almost a shooting star it was so quick! At one point it had a thin line of cloud across the middle and Bethany said it looked like a moustache.

We have been enjoying some cooler weather, looking forward to Summer departing, though it isn't ready to go quite yet, Autumn is just teasing us. Sunday was the coolest day and I was very glad because I finished my 5 to 10k app, again. I ran my first 10k run since I sprained my ankle last year. Now to build up to 21k.....

I wrote a post about my running for ABC Open..

Trolls

I went to Sydney yesterday, my first work trip there this year. I love solo day trips to Sydney. The super early start is not my favourite part, but it does give me plenty of reading time. Two plane trips, waiting at the airport and a leisurely coffee in Martin Place meant that I finished my book club book, Saturday by Ian McEwan, and got a good start on Middlemarch. Middlemarch has roughly 900 pages, so I''ll be at it a while.

Joss and Toby had their athletics carnival today. Each one focused on a different word in that title. I'm sure you can guess who went for carnival! Joss and Charlotte went as those troll dolls with the stumpy bodies and vertical hair. The hair hides a structural water bottle! Toby came second in the long jump and may get to travel to Albury for the next level!

I made brioche and people on Facebook are enjoying it, even though they haven't eaten any.

Sourdough

When Andrew and I got married we had a bread maker. Just a little Breville one that you put breadmix and water into and then turned on. I would put it on when I got home from work and just before bedtime, the bread would be ready. The smell of freshly baked is pretty intoxicating and we would have to cut it straight away and eat it with butter and jam. It tasted so good that we often had a second piece each. The squat, broad loaf would be half gone and no actual meals covered.

The loaf was a tricky shape for sandwiches, too small to have just one, too big for two, and the end was no good as there was a hole where the metal mixer had been. In the end the mixer wouldn't come out to be cleaned and it all became too hard.

Last week, on Shrove Tuesday, my friend Kristy posted a link to some sourdough pancakes she wanted to make. I decided that I wanted to bake sourdough bread. Kristy is a self-confessed bread bore so she not only leant me some good books on the subject, but gave me some of her sourdough starter, meaning I could get baking straight away.

To give an impression of speed, though, would be very wrong. Baking bread is a drawn out process. The steps themselves don't take very long, but you have to wait for an hour or so inbetween steps. I fed the starter on Friday night and didn't have a baked loaf until Sunday morning. It was glorious, though. I have just split the starter to give some to a colleague and I bought more baker's flour on the way home. I'm going to get up early tomorrow to start some brioche.

Of course I have time for a new hobby!

Megasplash

I am not usually one to get involved in school community activities. Perhaps because I have a church family and work friends, card making friends and book club friends, I haven't needed to get involved and haven't wanted to give up the time. I attend assemblies that my children perform in and go the the open day, helping on a stall, but I have never made it to Megasplash before.

Megasplash is held every second year and involves the whole school community, students, teachers, parents and siblings, driving over an hour to a water park at Narrandera. There are pools of many sizes, a lake and waterslides. It's probably the drive that has put me off, and the fact that it doesn't finish until late, but this year I was convinced to go. My friend Narelle questioned my parenting commitment (a sore point for many a working mother) and Monique said that they have been to all of them and even take their TRAC kids out of school  to go.

So, on Friday afternoon, Joss, Tobes, Bethany and I found ourselves on the long, straight road to Narrandera. Joss was unimpressed because she had texted one friend from her old school and found out she wasn't going to Megasplash and didn't know who was. Toby was keen to see his friends but felt tired so I was worried that it was turning into an expensive, time consuming  afternoon of unhappiness, but then we arrived.

As we approached the gate a group of around 12 of Toby's old friends were screaming his name. They ran out and mobbed him, it was so heartwarming. Just after walking in, Joss saw a couple of friends who leapt up to hug her, and she was sorted. I found a shady spot to set up with Narelle, Bethany went off with her friends and we all had a delightful time.

There will be one more Megasplash while we still have a child at the Christian College. Maybe I''ll even take my swimmers.......just kidding!

Baby bunnies

Last night, as we ate our dinner outside, denying Milo any food but rubbing his tummy with our feet, Toby told me the excitement of his day. It consisted mainly of going to the Ag plot at school and playing with the baby bunnies. There is a particularly sweet and tiny white one that is impossibly cute when it yawns.

This story sent me right back to year 8, in 1986, when my friends Teeny and Penny and I used to go down to the Ag plot in any spare moment to play with the bunnies. Having moved twice in the last couple of years, I knew just where to find photographic evidence.

This is long before selfies were a thing, so I am not in the photo. This is Teen and Penny at the PLC Ag plot, many years ago. And, because I'm sure you are disappointed not to see a photo of me, I'll include one with which I was very pleased at the time! The time in question was 1988, at the end of year 10 when I was leaving PLC for Barker and made a leaving book with my friends.

Sky

We have had an odd weather day. It's humid, which is rare, has rained and yet my washing dried. This evening it has been threatening one minute and friendly the next. It's so nice to have a clear view of the sky.

Pancake Day

I won't make excuses, I should have been blogging. We're busy, of course (who isn't?), but I do many things, any number of which I could not do in order to blog. I have realised that we are in a stage of life where even weekdays fly past. It's Friday again? I like it a lot, no dragging days, longing for the weekend. The weekend will be here again before we know it! It does mean, though, that weeks can pass without my writing anything here.

I'll attempt to catch up, but don't expect breadth or accuracy.

Joss and Tobes had their cycling club championships and both placed in their races. They have a presentation a bit later. Toby and Bethany are registered for soccer again, summer has gone! The mornings are cool and dark, the days are still hot, but the end is in sight.

I'm thinking of making my own sourdough bread on the weekends and today I made pikelets for afternoon tea as it is Shrove Tuesday. The excitement of it all!