The end of the road

Well, not really - just the end of the holidays, but it definitely feels like the end of a journey, and I feel travel weary! As my dear hubby keeps reminding me though - quality time with family is more important than ticking off items on my to-do list. He's right, but I'm a list kinda gal... so I'll make myself happy by creating a list of stuff we've done. :)

1) Bought a new (used) car (YAY!!!!!)
2) Sold my old car. (YAY!! We were worried that it wouldn't sell at all because it's an import.)
3) Nellie finally became confident riding her bike, so we rode around the neighbourhood a lot - the first time we've ever had Nellie riding on her bike while I read mine.
4) G put up some shelves in the office.
5) Nellie went to her first holiday club.
6) Nathan started at nursery 3 mornings a week.
7) We went to the Aquarium.
8) Nellie had a sleepover at Oupa's.
9) We cleaned up the garden a bit.
10) We went to see Kung Fu Panda 2.
11) We went to Kirstenbosch.
12) We put up some pictures on the wall.
13) We tidied up a few electrical items that were in the way.
14) We went to Simons Town for the day and saw penguins and baboons.
15) We had several playdates (Matt, Johari, Granny).
16) We went to the Baxter to see the 3 Little Pigs.
17) We went to two kiddies parties.
18) We went horse-riding.
19) Nellie has started to learn how to play the piano. (I'm teaching her, which is surprisingly good!)
20) G gave a few adult classes on Excel.
21) I worked on the family photo album.
22) We had a few people over for coffee/ supper.
23) We helped out at KidZone at church.
24) We helped with the church's clothing sorting project.
25) G started counselling.
26) G went to an Apple conference.
27) We read LOTS of books.
28) Nathan and I jumped on the trampoline a lot - he learnt to 'boingy, boingy' then ask Mommy to pick him up so he could watch the trucks and trains over the wall.
29) I've started doing Powerplate at gym regularly with a gym buddy. (Those 5.30am starts are a killer, but I'm loving the exercise!)
30) I prepped the majority of the course work for a professional growth course I'm delivering over the next few weeks.
31) I made a cargo mat for my new car so that my dogs & my kids bikes don't make my car filthy.
32) I bought a bike rack and new roof racks for my new car.

It was a good holiday. The best bit was NOT getting sick, which is the usual teacher's curse. Of course, since having walked the kids to nursery one cold misty morning this past week, my chest has been tight, a bit phlemy and it definitely feels like I'm incubating a cold. (Just in time for school. Oh joy!)

But it was a good holiday! And I thank God that we have the jobs we have so that we can have the time with our kids and at home that we have.

Outliers - book review

Yup - I've been reading a lot just recently. That's what happens when the matrics are writing exams, my classes have all finished their syllabi (syllabuses??) and I therefore have lots of time at work to do my prep for next year (so don't have to take work home with me).

I've just finished a book recommended to me back in 2008 or 2009 (I can't remember). 'Outliers' by Malcolm Gladwell (author of 'Blink' and 'Tipping Point'), takes a good long, hard, look at what makes some people outliers - that is, so exceptional they stand well beyond the rest of us. What he discovers is shocking. Being an outlier has very little to do with talent, aptitude or genetic giftedness. Very, very little.

If Gladwell is correct in his conclusion (which you'll have to read cos I'm not going to spoil it for the rest of you) then it has MASSIVE implications for the way we do education and school sport. (That means it also has implications for the way G and I raise Janel - not necessarily to turn her into an outlier, but just to help her reach her potential.) It also has implications for the way that government needs to intervene in societal structures.

If this country is going to go from good to great, then the govt needs to hear what Gladwell is saying and implement it. There firstly needs to be an understanding of where we are as a nation - what apartheid has done to the national psyche - without any pandering to political correctness. Then it needs to change the educational structures that prevent children from reaching their potential. It doesn't mean more money needs to be ploughed into the system - it means that the MANNER in which money is spent needs to change.

If you want your worldview challenged, if you want to know how to raise your kids to give them the best chance of succeeding in life, if you want to know how to help change society for the better, then this is definitely the book for you!

The Butterfly Effect - BookSneeze review

A friend (thanks Bee) recently introduced me to BookSneeze. This is a site that allows you to download ebooks for free (or will post them to you if you're in the US), on the proviso that you have to review them. Once reviewed, and you've sent them the link, they will then allow you to download the next book.

So, since I'm hopefully going to be getting a kindle this Christmas, I thought this site would be a great source of free books. Of course, finding the time to read is always a problem. That's one of the reasons I really liked the first book I read from the site. It's called 'The Butterfly Effect', by Andy Andrews.

This short book (more like a novella than a novel in length) documents a few well-known events in American history and goes into detail about which moment in the event was the key. If that one key moment had not happened then the event would have taken a very different path. Some of those key moments were very ordinary, very simple - in fact, complete non-events. Some of those key moments took place generations before the actual event.

It is quite incredible to think the butterfly effect is a real phenomenon and that EVERY action I take has meaning, because it sets in motion a series of other actions and events that could, quite easily, lead to some incredibly massive events that affect hundreds or thousands or even millions of people across the globe.

If you're looking for an inspirational (or terrifying, depending on how you want to look at it) read, but something you can read in a jiffy, then this is the book for you.