A list of moments/events/objects in the last few days that have given me a sense of satisfaction.
1) A cafe lunch at a significantly lower cost.
My housemate is a waitress, and she occasionally brings home leftovers for me. Tuscan spinach pie for lunch - why thankyou!
2) Students with a can-do attitude.
As a singing teacher, I often ask my students to sing solo, so that I can hear and correct what they are doing. Today, two of my students agreed without the slightest look of fear on their faces, and their lack of nerves was reflected in the awesome tone they produced.
3) A busy weekend ahead.
I'm going camping with the church youth group tonight, coming back just in time for a friend's birthday party, leaving that to go to a brass band social, crashing into bed Saturday night in order to be refreshed for church and my housewarming party on Sunday.
4) A fridge full of delicious food that I'm going to assemble in interesting combinations.
I'm planning to make a roast vegie salad and a lemon cheesecake for this weekend.
5) A parcel arriving.
The sheet music that I ordered for my choir weeks ago finally arrived.
6) Happy emails
I want to arrange a cool song for my choir, so I emailed the composer to ask for arranging rights. She emailed back and said she was happy to give them to me. I also emailed my old lecturer from uni asking if my school choir could do a workshop with his university choir. He emailed back and said he thought it was a great idea.
7) Sunshine
I know that my mood shouldn't be so dependent on the weather, but it's impossible not to be hapy when the windows and doors of your house are open to the sun and the breeze.
8) An awesome bible study group.
I've joined a new group this year, and I'm loving it so much. Its mainly the sort of people I've referred to before as the 'old young people', and after living in town for just over a year, I'm finally starting to feel like I know these people and can relax around them. The leaders are a married couple with young kids. I hadn't met them until about 4 weeks ago, but they're just so cool. She in particular has a friendly-sarcastic sense of humor that matches mine really well.
9) Finally getting my fitness levels up so that I can enjoy basketball.
Even though we only have one or two games left, I feel so much healthier from playing in this season. I've only scored one goal, but that's not too bad considering this is the first season I've ever played.
10) My tea shelf
This feels a bit like I'm clutching at straws to round the list out to ten items, but it's true. I'm living in an older style house, and the stove in the kitchen has a mantlepiece above it. I've turned this almost into a shrine to tea. It makes me so happy to look up at that shelf and see rooibos, chamomile, lady grey, peach and rasberry, lemon and ginger, orange pekoe, english breakfast, an espresso mug, coffee grounds, caramel latte, hot chocolate, milo and a teapot all in the one place.
11)I've thought of one more
When you're reading a book (currently Tess of the D'Urbervilles) and you come across a delicious simile (describing the sun coming through clouds at dusk as 'a piece of day left behind by accident').
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Two weekends
Disclaimer: No deep philosophical truths will be expounded or explored in this post. I just want to write about awesome stuff that I do on weekends.
This weekend is a long weekend. This doesn't really affect me, because I don't work Mondays anyway, but it did mean that I was able to go camping with a bunch of friends. I don't particularly like packing for camping, or cleaning up afterwards, but it was all worthwhile on a weekend like this. Six of us went, all mates from church, and part of the group that I refer to as the "old young people" - that is, those of us who feel a bit awkward going to youth group, because we finished high school a long time ago, but we still get invited because we're not married yet. (Is that an issue in other churches? Or do I just have a massive chip on my shoulder that I should get rid of?)
We went to an inlet about half an hour out of town. There was a lovely calm river for kayaking, a decent surf break, and plenty of fishing opportunities in both river and sea. And everybody had a fantastic time. My 'role' was food coordinator, because although I hate fulfiling stereotypes, I really enjoy cooking when I'm camping. Probably because I really like eating. We ate delicious sausages, fried potatoes, onions, lamb chops, salad, pancakes, fish that we'd caught, biscuits, lolly snakes (which I taught my friend how to tie in a knot in her mouth), bacon, eggs, fried tomatoes and mushrooms (although not all at the same time). We weren't allowed to have a camp fire, so instead of toasting the marshmallows, we ended up playing chubby bunnies, which I haven't done since primary school. One morning, I woke up a couple of hours before everyone else, and went for a long walk on the beach by myself and watched the sunrise. That was amazing, seeing a long stretch of beach with no other people within sight or earshot. The 4WD tracks on the beach and the windfarm in the distance were the only evidence that other people existed. I turned off my phone and didn't wind my watch, because half the fun of camping is having no idea what time it is, but eating when you're hungry, going to bed when you're tired and stopping fishing when it gets dark and cold.
Now please don't take this the wrong way, but one of the things I enjoyed best about this trip was spending time with the men who came with us. (I feel like I have to justify this statement by saying that I'm a single woman, I live with another woman, I work with mainly women, my students are mainly teenage girls and I need some testosterone in my life to balance this out!) At my church, it sometimes seems that there isn't much socialising between the sexes, which is a real shame because everybody is unique and special, and has something to offer, and we shouldn't immediately dismiss people simly by their gender. Plus,I don't think it's cool to walk into church and see a row of guys and a row of girls (and never the twain shall meet). So the moral of the story is that I enjoyed getting to know some of the men from my church a bit better (and there's nothing quite like convincing not one man but two to cook pancakes for me :P).
This weekend contrasted a lot with last weekend. I spent a little bit too much time on a couch at my friend's place, eating junk food and staring at a screen while all three Lord of the Rings extended editions played. That was great too, in a very different way. It was so much fun quoting our way through the movies (that I hadn't seen for a very long time, but still remembered really well).
So at the moment, now that I've had a post-camping shower (hello, my friendly hot water tap!) I'm just feeling incredibly satisfied, and grateful to God for his creation, for living in a town that has such beauty on its doorstep, and for wonderful friends that could share all this with me.
This weekend is a long weekend. This doesn't really affect me, because I don't work Mondays anyway, but it did mean that I was able to go camping with a bunch of friends. I don't particularly like packing for camping, or cleaning up afterwards, but it was all worthwhile on a weekend like this. Six of us went, all mates from church, and part of the group that I refer to as the "old young people" - that is, those of us who feel a bit awkward going to youth group, because we finished high school a long time ago, but we still get invited because we're not married yet. (Is that an issue in other churches? Or do I just have a massive chip on my shoulder that I should get rid of?)
We went to an inlet about half an hour out of town. There was a lovely calm river for kayaking, a decent surf break, and plenty of fishing opportunities in both river and sea. And everybody had a fantastic time. My 'role' was food coordinator, because although I hate fulfiling stereotypes, I really enjoy cooking when I'm camping. Probably because I really like eating. We ate delicious sausages, fried potatoes, onions, lamb chops, salad, pancakes, fish that we'd caught, biscuits, lolly snakes (which I taught my friend how to tie in a knot in her mouth), bacon, eggs, fried tomatoes and mushrooms (although not all at the same time). We weren't allowed to have a camp fire, so instead of toasting the marshmallows, we ended up playing chubby bunnies, which I haven't done since primary school. One morning, I woke up a couple of hours before everyone else, and went for a long walk on the beach by myself and watched the sunrise. That was amazing, seeing a long stretch of beach with no other people within sight or earshot. The 4WD tracks on the beach and the windfarm in the distance were the only evidence that other people existed. I turned off my phone and didn't wind my watch, because half the fun of camping is having no idea what time it is, but eating when you're hungry, going to bed when you're tired and stopping fishing when it gets dark and cold.
Now please don't take this the wrong way, but one of the things I enjoyed best about this trip was spending time with the men who came with us. (I feel like I have to justify this statement by saying that I'm a single woman, I live with another woman, I work with mainly women, my students are mainly teenage girls and I need some testosterone in my life to balance this out!) At my church, it sometimes seems that there isn't much socialising between the sexes, which is a real shame because everybody is unique and special, and has something to offer, and we shouldn't immediately dismiss people simly by their gender. Plus,I don't think it's cool to walk into church and see a row of guys and a row of girls (and never the twain shall meet). So the moral of the story is that I enjoyed getting to know some of the men from my church a bit better (and there's nothing quite like convincing not one man but two to cook pancakes for me :P).
This weekend contrasted a lot with last weekend. I spent a little bit too much time on a couch at my friend's place, eating junk food and staring at a screen while all three Lord of the Rings extended editions played. That was great too, in a very different way. It was so much fun quoting our way through the movies (that I hadn't seen for a very long time, but still remembered really well).
So at the moment, now that I've had a post-camping shower (hello, my friendly hot water tap!) I'm just feeling incredibly satisfied, and grateful to God for his creation, for living in a town that has such beauty on its doorstep, and for wonderful friends that could share all this with me.
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