Radio silence

A colleague asked me a question on Friday: How do you manage it all? He was referring to the fact that, in between managing the various facets of my job (which are substantial) I also seem to manage a family life with a toddler, a blog, and other bits and pieces on top. Hmm... how DO I manage it all? Quite honestly, I don't. In order to give attention to all the things that I want to do, and all the things I have to do, different things have to be ignored at different times. There aren't enough hours in the day to do it all.

Which is why there has been radio silence for a few weeks. Too much else on the go. With Nellie being sick during the school holidays, there simply wasn't time to do the things that needed doing, which meant that the things I wanted to do (like blogging) were bumped off the list.

So here are the highlights and lowlights of the past 2.5 weeks...

1. The car is STILL in the garage, and will be for the forseeable future. We are awaiting a new CPU from the UK. When that arrives, it will need to be programmed, installed and tested. THEN, if everything checks out, we will get it back. (I forsee LOTS of moolahs being spent here!) ARRRRGGGH! The plus-side of this is that I've been forced to cycle to work on days I might otherwise have chickened out.
2. The owner of the house we bought has NOT gone into receivership after all - the selling agent was lying to us. I don't know why she would do that, but she did. But now I'm feeling very disenchanted with her and the whole buying a house business. Plus I'm feeling very nervous that we won't be able to see our house in time, or for the right price.... Sigh! Buying/ selling a house is definitely in the top 5 major stressors in life, right up there with death, divorce and getting a new job. Hmm... we've done 2 of those already. Let's hope this house stress won't lead us to a divorce.
3. Holidays were lovely, but stressful, and too short. Thank God we have TWO (count them: one, two) long weekends in a row now.
4. My school kids start writing exams in 7 school days... I have 3 exams to set (done 2 already, one more to go) and before then, have had a MASSIVE project to mark from both the Gd 9's and the Gd 11's (roughly equivalent to Gd 9 and AS level in the UK, or Std 7 and Std 9 for the old school Saffas). They are doing a Science Fair - all 200 in each grade. The marking involves not only looking at their write-up, but marking their interview/ oral presentation, plus marking their display up in the hall. The displays are open to the public, so trying to mark during the open days is like trying to walk upstream. PLUS, being HoD I'm responsible for doing some staff evaluations, which involve a pre-interview, classroom visit and post-interview - and all before the end of June... (as well as having my own one done)... for possibly 4 staff members. Hmm... Oh yes - and we're having 2.5 hour power cuts on 2 days of the week at the moment, which makes teaching fun. NOT. Plus I'm also trying to keep on top of my extra-mural stuff. Yup - there are lots of plates spinning... let's hope I don't drop too many of them. Thank God that exams themselves are nice and quiet times for teachers (apart from the marking).
5. Power cuts are playing havoc with our lives. But we work around them - it forces you to either manage your time very well, or to become very creative, both of which are really good things. At least Eskom has finally agreed to a schedule for the cuts, so at least now you know when they're going to happen. (Interestingly, one my Gd 9 kids worked out that if everyone in Cape Town swapped their incandescent bulbs for fluorescent ones, the electricity saving would mean there would be no need for power cuts anywhere in the country! Food for thought. Of course, there would then be the problem of how to dispose of the fluorescent bulbs, as they contain mercury - although some websites claim that using them actually reduces the mercury pollution... quite how, I'm not sure.) In particular, power cuts meant that our router got scrambled, so I couldn't get access to blogger for a few days... very frustrating until we figured out what the problem was. So now I'm back!
6. Nellie is gorgeous, and growing more so every day. She is a constant delight to us, and I fall more and more in love with her every day. I thank God for her because she is the greatest blessing in my life. If someone had been able to explain to me just what a blessing children are... well, I don't think I would have understood, because this is one of those things that has to be experienced to be truly believed. Check out her blog for an update on her life. We recently bought a trampoline for her - best investment we've made in months! Right up there with those black motorbikes that all the kids in SA have! Little and big cousins are welcome to come and play on it with her!

Well, I think that's all... Off to spend some more quality time with my family. Yay!