Lynne Taylor

brrrrr

This from the met service

don't thnk it's that cold here, but looks pretty impressive nonetheless
(Kayli was "iceskating" or perhaps skiing on our deck before school, sliding with stick as pole)

NZ's biggest morning tea

this is a great way to raise awareness and funds about donestic violence

Between 9-20 June 2008, Preventing Violence in the Home (PVH) and Bank of New Zealand are asking all Kiwis to host a morning tea to help fund a national helpline for victims of domestic violence. On average in New Zealand 14 women, 10 children and 6 men are killed by a member of their own family every year, but we can help prevent many of these tragedies.

I wish i'd been aware of it sooner... can i squeeze it in?

... or would it increase my stress levels too far and thus make me neglectful of MY kids??? :)

Learning to (show) love

On Monday Steve picked a rose from our garden
and gave it to me, with words of love, taken from our wedding vows.
Little Miss 8 watched.

Later, she appeared
with another rose
in vase, ribbon tied around it, and a note with words of love.

This is how she learns to show love
by watching love in action
and imitating.

Simple pleasures

I have just had the simple pleasure of hanging towels on our washing line.
A few weeks ago our (geriatric/antique) rotary washing line rusted through at the join.
It wasn't so good for drying when it was in two pieces and the bit with the line was on the ground...
steve eyed up the grass under where the line was and declared it to be good for (more) vege garden.
i went trade-me-ing for new pull out line to go in new not-assigned-for-more-vege-garden space
and used clothes-horse thing in the meantime.

yesterday the line went up
long, linear, lovely.

and i have just got a silly amount of pleasure out of hanging towels on spacious line

tomorrow i shall air the sleeping bags and summer duvet that have been waiting to be put away.

ah, the simple things of life...

What d'ya mean it is a random draw?

Grabaseat has a competition with a prize of tickets to Coldplay in London.

You have to say in 25 words or less what you'd be prepared to do to get there...

I wasn't prepared to do much, but thought i would have a shot with:

wouldn't find a gun, start a war... but for you i'd wait til kingdom come... and i will try to fix you

discovered at the end of the process that this is not a literary/wit-erary competition, purely a random draw. sigh. was that a waste of 5 minutes then (not that i achived great literary/wit-erary-ness... but it was a nice break from our annual accounts.

no wonder i am cold!

this from the Chuistchurch weather page.

the good news is it has increased now:

but i don't think it is quite worth putting the washing out yet...

but the sun is shining
and in about an hours time my office will be heated by the sun to toasty warm...
in the mean time i think a hot drink is in order.

a giant marshmellow?

1. I had a good idea a while back.
the idea was to completely redo the master document that produces the demographic profiles i prepare. to add in time series data from 1996 and 2001 (added it to the 2006 data), to add thinks to think about to each page rather than at the back of the file as an appendix.

2. On Sunday i took a platter to my sister's for dessert... it included giant marshmellows. i popped one in my mouth as i was about to walk the platter to the table, then put the platter down again, and chewed for some time.

the marshmellow was LARGE (i knew that) but seemed to become larger once in my mouth.

my master document is LARGE (i knew that) but seemed to become larger once i started reworking it.

i am running seminars in chch (28 may), akld (26 june), wgtn (2 july) over the next couple of months.

i MUST get this master completed in time to produce the demographics for attenders...

you can pray for the ability to chew speedily if you like :)

A drive...

I drove up to Hanmer Springs on Monday afternoon
Oh so aware that if i had been in another country
i would have been stopping multiple times for photos
perhaps hanging out the window with video camera recording wind roar and awesome sights/sites.
And i felt enormously blessed
to be me
to be in this gorgeous land
to have our big skies and glorious mountains.
bliss.

Lynne licking walls

OK
so when we arrive at church i need to find a good brick wall in front of which to photograph staff, board, ministry leaders, for our New Photo Board...
I wander the building with my sister (photographer) and pause in front of a graffitted area, wondering if it is chalk or crayon. Lick finger and rub to see if it comes off.
S&H arrive at that moment.
S, being photographed later comments, "H said, when she saw you this morning, that Lynne obviously likes the church so much that she is licking the walls".
ha ha
laugh.

So later when i see S&H leaving in the car (i am still outside photographing last people), i wave to son in back seat, and then make elaborate wall-licking motions
ha ha
laugh
OH NO!
wrong car, wrong family, not S&H at all, but new pastoral team member and family who probably think i am Quite Mad. Certifiable even...

embarassed laughter.
gales of it.

and later a red-faced phone call to explain Very Strange Actions.