I have labelled 2014 as ‘A Year of Transition’. These transitions will emerge in this blog over – you guessed it – this year. It was originally going to be ‘My Year of Transition’, but it turns out that alot of people are transitioning, so not wanting to hog it to myself, I have broadened it out.

Good luck to you all.

So back to me. My first three transitions are all taking place at the same time:

1. First Child At School / 2. My Own Return to School (albeit part-time) / 3. My Search for an Engaging and Stimulating Job (but more on the last two another time).

Easter is well and truly now over, and school returned over 2 weeks ago (admittedly, when I first started this entry, both had only just occurred, and now I just feel sadly out of date!). Easter was my first school holiday. I say ‘my’ because young Thomas started kindergarten this year, and for the first time in … well, a long while, I had to actually pay attention to those dates on the calendar that say ‘School Term 1 ends’, and School Term 2 begins’. What a new world.

Although I (surprisingly) found the first week ever of school Term 1 quite traumatic, I was actually very excited about Thomas starting school. Thankfully, he was too. Term 1 went well – after all, he is at the ‘Best Little School Anywhere’ (official school motto)! This is the same school his grandfather went to so many years ago, which is comforting somehow. It has no waiting list, no huge fees (actually, no fees at all), a big green oval, cute little classes opening out to outdoors, 181 students, a principal and teachers who know everyone’s name… How lovely!

Then as Term 1 drew to a close, I found myself in a flurry getting ready for the Easter Visitors. Over 2 weeks, we welcomed around 14 relatives into our little home. Thank god the weather was so idyllic – we pretty much moved the living and dining room to outside under the verandah, and there we stayed. It’s been awhile since we’ve had the holiday guest onslaught – I think the novelty of our farm wore off for awhile, and then suddenly everyone realised they hadn’t been for a long time, and they’d better pay their dues. I’m always quite flattered that people would like to come up – and when the sun is out, time flies.

This holiday felt different to a few seasons ago, when we’d had kids up. Then, I was shocked at their heavy reliance on the internet and social media, and inability to entertain themselves and make memories. So this time, Dougal and I came up with a cunning plan. We decided to change our wireless password. Aha! That’ll force them outside! 50 acres, with a creek, to run around in! The last time we did this was for 2 nephews visiting. Aged 12 and 14, they ended up having a ball. Unfortunately, despite our good intentions, this time we ended up forgetting, and we ended up being ‘bested’ by youth as in over just 5 days, our internet capacity for downloads was exceeded for the first time ever (the country life, you see, doesn’t offer limitless internet access – which is normally OK, as we’re outside alot doing, you know, ‘outside’ stuff).

Despite this technical glitch, I actually thought we’d achieved ‘outside’ quite well these holidays:

A ‘Water Critters’ discovery day run by the local water board at a nearby property had everyone looking at miniscule water bugs for water health, followed by a ‘paint the pony’ session (why not?!);

a couple of bonfires; a few creek visits;

my – oops, I mean ‘our’ – first outside shelter / humpy made from anything we could find in the paddock; the bower bird nest down by the gate;

Bec H’s now annual Easter Sunday Egg Hunt… There’s no doubt, when the sun in shining, the world is full of possibilities. Even our maimed jacaranda seemed to grown an inch taller.

And now the holidays are over, and Thomas has only got 71 terms to go. So far so good.