Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | October 25, 2008

Sun, singing and sausages

Wednesday dawned sunny and hot in Central Hawke’s Bay. Good for a performing arts festival, not so good when you’re standing at a barbecue for four hours.
Fortunately I had just been regaling the other helpers about my previous unsuccessful exploits on the BBQ at home and they had relieved me of cooking duties! Not sure the money collector was such a good idea either though!
Being from the deep south, watching Maori performances is always a cultural shock for me and I love it.
Sarah at Ngati Whai

Sarah at Ngati Whai

some of the girls at Ngati Whai
some of the girls at Ngati Whai

 And the boys’ haka was fanastic. Most inspirational. But I cant show you photos because I videoed it instead and that won’t download onto this site. Hate that.

That’s all for today. I came off my bike yesterday and am sporting a sizeable gash in my right calf muscle. Hate that too. At least it gets me out of planting my spuds. Maybe.

Leave a Comment

Posted in Family, school | Tags: , ,

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | October 19, 2008

skinny white kid does the haka

My children are performing in the Maori performing arts festival in Takapau on Wednesday. It’s called Ngati Whai.

It should be good – Lachlan is a skinny white kid and Sarah is a freckled red head. They won’t stand out at all! 🙂

They have been practisingtheir songs and actions for several weeks now and I’m looking forward to seeing them in action. About half the school is participating. As for me, I’ll be on the BBQ. The PTA (alongside the hosting Kura Kaupapa) is doing the catering. We have 300 sausages and 300 pattie sandwiches to cook, about seven dozen juices and a couple of dozen bags of mini chocolate bars. I have also been collecting volunteers for chopping onions and making coleslaw. Hope the sun is shining (but not too harshly!)

Our school starts the day with Jump Jam – i was lucky enough to see the three junior classrooms doing it this morning (S&L included). This is a series of songs and actions they do every morning to get themselves going (and it’s good for the teachers too!)

doing Jump Jam at school in the sunshine

doing Jump Jam at school in the sunshine

It was wonderful to see the kids (the rhythmic ones as well as the not-so-rhythmic ones like Lachlan – with dancing feet like his father) smiling and moving in the sunshine.

We biked to school today. We waved the bus on at 8.25am and biked the 4km to school (downhill on the way there). I have an appointment in Takapau at 2pm so I will be able to bike there in order to cycle home with the kids again. 

it’s a bit breezy at the moment – hope it settles by this afternoon!

1 Comment

Posted in Family, school | Tags: , , , , , , ,

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | October 12, 2008

A wonderful end to the holidays

What a wonderful day we’ve had today. Farming, exploring, movies, rugby and cycling.

It started with Sarah cooking herself “fried bread dipped in egg” which is basically French Toast (and the only time she’s allowed white bread, unless Dad is doing the shopping) and Lachlan whipping up some scrambled eggs.

Then it was out to the farm for some calf dehorning (Thomas), weedeating (me) and lamb training for the children. It’s Rangitoto Boys and Girls Agricultural Club’s annual event on Wednesday – otherwise known as lamb and calf day.  The organisation is shared between our school and our neighbouring school (their turn this year). We still have Diesel from two years ago – he won four red ribbons so we can’t bring ourselves to eat him (don’t tell the kids but Cardigan and Weasel from last year have already been and gone). Luckily this year’s lambs, Good Golly and Miss Molly, are both girls so they’ll be added to flock next year.

On a sad note, Brandi died on Friday. Lachlan went out to feed her and Max (the two smaller ones) and came back in saying “Brandi’s lying on the ground on her back and won’t come to drink her bottle”. We talked them out of a coffin and a service and opted for the offal hole. Can’t beat the game of life on a farm.

Back to today. We then helped Thomas bring our flock of sheep (one ram, Diesel, four ewes and seven lambs) up to the yards for a jab and to do lawnmowing duty in the farm laneway.

Sarah and Lachlan stayed down below to play in the creek. They found a lovely round piece of steel/metal/iron/thing, which left a nice rusty colour additive all over their clothes, and had a wonderful time going in and out of the muck down there.

It was cup of coffee time for me so I wandered up, made a coffee and a piece of toast, mmm, strawberry jam, and sat on the HaHa (retaining wall that drops away from the lawn giving the illusion of no fence) and watched them play (when they didn’t disappear down a bank).

We have long operated a simple rule. I call out asking if they are okay – waiting for a “yeeeeeeees” and a “yeeeeeeeeees” from two voices. If there’s no answer, the yell is louder with the grumpy voice on. If there’s still no answer, I go looking. Now there is the odd occasion that they just don’t hear me, but more often than not, they can play to their hearts content without Mum breathing over their shoulder or telling them what they should (or usually shouldn’t do). Independence is a great thing and I’m pretty sure I have taught them some decent common sense.

So, anyway, now it’s lunchtime so after a quick shower to wash off the farm muck, we’re into sandwiches and off to the car for a trip to Dannevirke to catch the last showing of Mama Mia for the holidays with a girlfriend whose two are the same age as my two.

We have been listening to the sound track since the start of the holidays (thanks to stealing (better say borrowing) Fairy Godmother Sarah’snew CD).  I saw the movie when in Wellington on my girls trip and second time around was just as good (although I wasn’t as pushed to stand with rapturous applause after each number this time. And the kids loved it.

After coffee and afghans (highly recommend the Vault in Dannevirke) we headed home to see Hawke’s Bay’s Magpies beat Waikato in the rugby to earn a semi final spot in the national champs. Yaaaaaaaaaaay! (They tried to lose it – winning 28-nil at half time and winning the game 31-28).

We would have gone to the game in Napier but Thomas has only been to two games this season and they are the only two games the Magpies have lost so he wasn’t willing to take any chances! Thank goodness for Sky.

Then we were on our bikes for a run to Takapau (four kilometres) to play on the school playground for half an hour (Sarah reckoned she had forgotten what it looked like). Luckily we had a tail wind on the way home cos it’s all uphill!

And Thomas had tea on the table. What a man. In the middle of Bathurst too.

So that was the last day of the holidays. After a weekend in Wellington, a week in Gisborne with Grandma and Nanna, two days in Hastings playing with coffee group kids and three days at home (which included a trip to the vets and a several hours at a ploughing competition – tennis club catered lunch but the kids did love the vintage machinery and the Clydesdales) it’s time to find the uniforms and get ready for school.

I hope I cleaned the lunchboxes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

Leave a Comment

Posted in Family, Rural, school | Tags: , , , , , , ,

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | October 9, 2008

listen to the music

I don’t want to mow the lawns today (and not for the usual reasons either).

The sun is shining after a few days of rain and wind and there is a chorus of birdsong – a cacophony (to steal a word from Lynley Dodd) from the trees. Well, at least it might have been a cacophony if the dictionary hadn’t just told me it means harsh or discordant sound, which doesn’t fit at all.

There are at least six different birds singing out there, including a few Tui, so how can I turn the lawnmower on and frighten them all away?

You better scroll down to another blog from me about procrastination.

That’s all for today. Birdscarer has just been added to the CV.

Leave a Comment

Posted in Family, Weather | Tags: , , ,

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | October 5, 2008

Old friends and new faces

There’s nothing like a big hug from someone you’ve known all your life (and who appears genuinely thrilled to see you!)

Some old friends dropped in to see me on Friday.

Kate and Tas have always been around in my life – Kate is my mother’s cousin but midway in age between us. She, like me, used to be Kathryn (known only to the IRD and other such efficacious organisations). Note: that was my new big word for the day.

When I was 11, I went to Invercargill to stay with them one holidays to help when she was pregnant with child #3.  But I was the only person who called her Kathryn. Everyone else called her Kate. So this little madam went home and refused to answer to Kathryn anymore. I could have just reminded the teachers nicely when they forgot, but oh no, little madam had to ignore anyone who called her Kathryn and sustained a few detentions in the meantime!

Anyway, their kids are all grown up now. A Guthrie Bowron conference was the reason for Kate and Tas venturing into the North Island (if you’re in Queenstown go and spend some money in their store….) and they called in on their sightseeing journey up the east coast. It was lovely to show off our little slice of paradise.

Aside from permanent, emtionally scarring, psychological damage from Tas throwing me into Lake Wakatipu fully clothed five minutes before leaving to go home when I was a young teenager, they have always been like mentors to me in a personal sense and I am thankful to them for that.

It’s hard to tell people that in person, well, you just really wouldn’t would you? So I can blush in the privacy of my office and go on to the next thing on my blabber list.

Old friends and new faces. The new faces will be at our school. Not only do the children have a new lady at the school office on Monday, but next year will see a new principal as well.

Mr A is retiring at the end of the year and it’s the job of the board of trustees chairman (namely hubby Thomas) to organise the search for a new one. Luckily the chairman two terms back had a couple of gos at this process (a young one who got headhunted fairly quickly, a disastrous one and our Mr A who has been in the job for seven or eight years).

We spent the better part of the day updating the parent handbooks adding photos and trendy phrases to a list that ranged from school hours, absentee rules and walking to school policies through to sunhats, school camps and lunch orders.  I know more about the school than I did this time last week!

Our ad was in the local newspaper and there have been some calls. So that’s all good.

A principal is such a big part of a school. A leader not only of the staff but of the feeling of a school. Will he or she be a fun person but with a strict side, or a strict person with a fun side? Or just strict (hope not).

Well it’s Monday and another working week so work better become the priority of the morning.

A light drizzle on the freshly-budded wisteria outside looks like a light hoar frost or a sprinkling of snow. Such a reminder of home. Six years since my Dad passed away. xxx

Dad and his four daughters at The Glen

Dad and his four daughters at The Glen (a long time ago)

 

Dad having a cigar at his 60th

Dad having a cigar at his 60th

Leave a Comment

Posted in Family, school | Tags: , , ,

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | September 30, 2008

Happy Birthdays

We sent a really cool birthday video to my brother-in-law the other day but he can’t open it. Hate that.

Just in case you can’t open the link, Sarah and Lachlan were primed ready to burst forth with song when Lachlan fell off the block box he was standing on. In true performer style, the show went on. But he did it again and the giggles could not be controlled!

Okay, there’s no link. It’s Nokia Media Player (from the cellphone) and I can’t get it to come on screen. Hate that too. I might go back to bed and start the day again!

We went to my god daughter’s first birthday in Wellington at the weekend. What a trip. After travelling to Pohangina for an interview on Friday (three hours in the car), the kids and I piled back in after school and drove to Carterton to stay the night with some rellies (and who they are is another great story that I will save for another day).

The wind on the Rimutakas on Saturday morning was horrendous so it was a bit of a worry (and a giggle, I must admit) to think about my friend Sarah flying into Wellington Airport. That can be a will-inspiring moment on a good day so I text her just before she left Rotorua to tell her we would pray for her!!! She replied with a message to note where all the wine shops were near the airport because she might be needing them when she landed (and if the plane went down, to identify her from the bright pink crocs she had bought specifically for the honour of shaming Wellington Wearable Arts fashion victims (we were lucky to get a motel unit with all those arty people in town).

Anyway, I digress (I should get a special insertion button for that phrase).

After driving around the airport waiting for Sarah to come out (beats paying $1000 a minute for its carparking fees) amidst yells from the kids about where and when I couldn’t park (I almost gave them to a parking attendant) we finally made contact and headed for Johnsonville (through two tunnels, which was pretty cool).

My #3 god daughter Tara has just turned one (her big brother Zackary is almost three).  She liked me and my present (a colourful, squashy and very suckable thingie) was one of the favs. Cool fairy godmother!

Tara on her first birthday with my present!

Tara on her first birthday with my present!

The fairy godmother tag goes back to Sarah and Lachlan’s christening when FGMs Sarah and Emma arrived with fairy wings and wands. FGMs Sarah and Emma are my Sarah’s god mothers. Big Sarah is Zackary’s godmother and I am Tara’s. That wasn’t too bad after all. I am also godmother to Libby Handford, Lachlan’s godmother Tracie’s daughter. Get that one?!!!! She’s just turned two and lives in Alexandra. And then there’s Olivia, who is three, and lives in Central HB. When will one of my friends give me a godson to even out the score? Now I know how Dad felt with four girls!

Well that was digression in its purest form. The weekend in Wellington was great and I was very grateful to FGM Sarah for being the recipient of a full glass of red wine on the carpet during the rugby as Emma has one Cantabrian eye firmly stuck on her forehead and the Magpies were getting thrashed. Great distraction. And we got the stain out! For the record, pour copious amounts of salt first to soak up the liquid. Then pour copious amounts of white wine on top of the stain to draw out the colour (a Jacob’s Creek chardonnay was chosen for this honour). Then pat with dry cloths until almost dry and apply proper carpet stain remover. Refill glass with a deep Hawke’s Bay red. Done. You’d never know.

So after driving back from Wellington on Sunday, we did a load of washing and drove to Gisborne. And there the kids have remained for the week with Grandma. I did three interviews and the monthly Pak’n’Save shop on the way back yesterday (see, I do work).

I have just caught the weather on Breakfast on TVOne. Snow likely in the lower South Island and I’m wearing my shorts to golf. Haha.

Leave a Comment

Posted in Family | Tags: , , , , , ,

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | September 24, 2008

I love you Mum

The day will come when my children will be embarrassed to kiss and hug me goodbye when they get on the school bus. I’m not looking forward to it.

When the bus appears over the brow outside our place (aren’t we lucky only having to walk 20m from the front gate) they run to me for their cuddle and say “I love you” as they turn to walk up the steps.

Today’s rant is about loving your kids and giving them all the hugs and kisses they need (even when they think they don’t want them!) Don’t assume they know you love them. Tell them all the time – it doesn’t hurt does it.

In the tradition of my parents, my husband always gives me a kiss goodbye – no waving “see you later” in our house. Coming from a less demonstrative family, he struggled a little at first but now it’s second nature (either it’s habit or he just knows he has to!) And so too with our kids. Woe betide (crikey, how do you spell that) Thomas if he leaves for work without hugging them. He actually had to turn the car around and come home one day because Sarah had been busy doing something and hadn’t realised he was going until he was out the driveway.

It’s a good habit – somewhere inside there’s a fear that something will happen to him and we won’t have said goodbye. Like in the movies when characters remember the last word they spoke to their loved one was an angry one.

Kisses and hugs hello, kisses and hugs goodbye, kisses and hugs goodnight, kisses and hugs for no reason at all. You can never have too many kisses and hugs.

Miss you Mum.

Leave a Comment

Posted in Family | Tags: , , , , , ,

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | September 22, 2008

Nothing to say today… but I’ll say it anyway

Life is lovely. 

The sun is shining, the washing is on the line, kids are at school and my first run (jog, partial walk, pant, pretend to do up the shoelaces moment) of the season is done and dusted – even if the breathing has only just slowed and I’ve been back for more than half an hour.

Running on cold winter mornings has never appealed, so it’s only right that one assumes netball, squash and golf is enough to keep fit over winter. But oh, the burning. Obviously selfishly playing goal shoot all season (look out Irene) has levelled my arteries a bit. Maybe coach should have thrown me out to goal attack occasionally too.

What a wonderful win for the Silver Ferns the other night after a loss first time around. Go NZ for the decider. My thoughts for Ruth the coach? Keep Irene at shoot. And don’t give Casey Williams any more berocca. That woman has energy. She is amazing. Intercepts by the dozen (if only we could always convert them into goals…)

You know the movies where basketballers have springs in their shoes or magic shoes – I want what she’s wearing.  Netball in Waipukurau would never be the same.

The umpiring left a little to be desired at times but we won’t go there – being an umpire myself and prone to a little bitching from the sidelines. It’s not nice.

Umpiring has really helped my netball – except for when you try things you know are allowed in the rules only to get pulled up by an umpire who doesn’t know what she’s doing and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it… except give her “the look”.

Just hope the wind doesn’t change. Lachlan was fed that line the other day. He made a whinge/sulky face and was told he would stay like that if the wind changed. He thought about it long and hard.

He also looked at a cut on his finger the other day and asked me how much blood he had in his body and if he didn’t put a plaster on, how long it would take for it all to drip out!

On the speaking gooder-England topic, (that’s worser, aye Mum) Lachlan actually asked “how much litres of blood”. One thing they’ve been getting wrong a lot lately has been many and much – like how many biscuits and how much cake. They’re starting to get it. Like less cake but fewer people. Like management is but the bosses are. Plural/Singular.

Some people just don’t get it.

It’s hard being as perfect as me. Not.

Well if that’s nothing to say, I’ve said it.

Leave a Comment

Posted in Family, sport | Tags: , , , , , , ,

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | September 21, 2008

where’s the respect?

Grownups should have to earn respect from grownups. But adults should command respect from children without question.

A story in the news this morning has made me see red. More than $5 million of ACC funds is being spent treating teachers hurt in the classroom. One principal was quoted as saying it reflect a job more akin to crowd control than education “you don’t expect to be spat at or hit when you’re in this job that you thought was about teaching kids”.

Biting my tongue or eating my hat might be an option in years to come when I have two unruly teenagers sulking in their bedrooms, but for now, I expect (and receive) total respect from my kids.

They do not answer back to the teacher (I don’t need to ask to know that) because they love their teachers. They are well behaved at other people’s places because it is expected of them. It just is. They (pretty much) do as they are told at home because they have to. I’m no parenting genius but they’re good kids.

One teacher at our school gets so many snide remarks from one boy they just go over her head now. That’s sad because she’s a wonderful teacher that boy could learn a lot from. When I shake my head at children like him, I just get told it’s all about their home life. It’s nothing compared with what comes their way at home and that’s a sad indictment on today’s society.

On the other hand, we’ve also told children so much about their rights that it has gone too far. What are other people teaching their children when they second-guess the schools and teachers at every turn? Don’t tell my kid to do that, you can’t do this to them.. even the children themselves now chant that to teachers and their parents alike. Have we given them too much freedom? They have so many rights they have forgotten the chain of command in the natural cycle of life? That is, adults know best. Adults are always right (not necessarily, but do as you’re told).

Note here that I am in no way condoning the crap that goes on in many houses with children being abused or made to go without necessities of life (that’s food and shelter as well as hugs and kisses).
I’m talking about having respect for authority.

There’s one parent I know about who pushes (not literally) against her school’s principal at every opportunity. Whether she is right or wrong, all she is teaching her child is to thumb her nose at authority. He’s the boss, it’s his school, if you don’t like it then go somewhere else. She may think she’s teaching her child to stand up for themself, but what will happen when it’s an employer and her Mum’s not at her side? Or a police officer in a heated situation?

Where’s the track – I’ve lost it. Teachers getting hurt by students. It’s disgusting and completely unacceptable. Teachers, nurses, firefighters and police officers should all be given a huge pay rise for what they have to put up with from people (and in recognition for the wonderful work they do).

Would you vote for me if I stood for parliament?

Sarah and Lachlan took a dozen farm fresh eggs to school for their teachers last week. They want to pick flowers to take to their teachers. There’s nothing wrong with sucking up to the teacher. I applaud it. I encourage it. Long live teachers. Hip hip hooray. I certainly wouldn’t want their job.

Leave a Comment

Posted in Family, school | Tags: , , , ,

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | September 17, 2008

looks can be deceiving

My gran was an old lady.

My children probably think my mum’s an old lady.

But yesterday, I heard a group of ladies congratulating each other for the birth of two new grandchildren. One of them was no surprise as I have met her children, who are about 10 years younger than me (36). But then one of the other women, who I had wrongly assumed was about the same age as me (give or take five years), started talking about her grandchildren as well. Then another talked about her upcoming 50th (no grandchildren yet). They look fantastic!

The generation above mine had their children in their 20s. So by the time they hit 40s they were well on their way to freedom (not that having children at home is that bad – was it Mum?!) I have to get in here somewhere that a previous workmate of mine was a grandmother at 35 (she was 18 her daughter was 17). That’s a worry. To a then 21-year-old it was downright scary.

The host of a 40th birthday party attended a couple of years ago thought it was hilarious that her older teenage children were able to join in the party while all her friends were putting up portacots or going home early to relieve the babysitter. They had made the decision to do family first – travel later.

There are pros and cons for both. There would be many more benefits for overseas travel later because you would be able to appreciate the finer attractions of Europe and other continents instead of just Oktoberfest and Running of the Bulls. 

But the life experience we gain now from overseas travel in our 20s must stand us in good stead as parents.

When the children have homework that involves the Eiffel Tower, for example, you can talk about the Louvre, Champs de Elysses, Arc de Triomphe, oh, I’m not going to go any further because I can’t remember the spelling and I don’t have time to do a little google.

And the reminiscing about my own OE is now taking place in my mind now so I better log off and do some real work (and go and get the washing in because it has started to rain).

There will also be a diversion to the freebie hydrating-cream-for -eye-wrinkles sample that someone gave me recently. I want to look that good when Sarah and Lachlan expand the Taylor family empire!

Leave a Comment

Posted in Family | Tags: , , ,

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »

Categories