Best Laid Plans

I'm studying.
Well. Kind of. 
I am enrolled in a Masters. But I tend to go in fits and starts. Like doing a bit and then taking a semester off and then maniacally undertaking two subjects at once during a busy term at work. That's this term's undertaking. 
I download the readings. I draft beautiful study schedules outlining what I have to do each week. I order the texts and whoop when they arrive. 
But the 'doing' of it does not come as easily as the 'planning to do' it.
I'm not sure why.
I went to university when I had three small children. The Man was working crazy shift hours a fair distance from home. I went to uni every day. I came home. I read, did assignments, prepared presentations into the small hours. I helped teach my own kids how to read, do assignments and prepare presentations too. But it was a juggle. I was usually late for netball/football practice and piano/guitar/violin lessons. There were constant washing crises. I lost friendships. I was stressed and often on edge. But I did it.
So now, when it should come easily, I struggle to settle to it. I do all the self talk, like: You are really interested in thinking about this topic/issue/subject (which I always am). And: This will be really useful at work (which it always is). I have grand plans of reading two hours a day. I'm good at the planning part. 

So now I'm off to make a cup of tea and sit in the sun and do two readings before I'm allowed another (setting myself rules and restrictions is part of the planning-to-study routine I have perfected). I'll let you know what I learn about the Gifted Child in the Mainstream Class.....
Cheers,
GND

Oh. ps. I kind of went off and made sweet little muffins. Packet mix but GF and super yum. But I did read heaps about the ICM - Integrated Curriculum Model...lots of connection to IB.



Just had to include my sweet tea towel - Cath Kidston of course



Big Apple to Bird-in-Hand to Bondi Junction

Last year The Sensible Girl and I had the best mother-daughter experience of recent times. What began as a wistful chat one afteroon about New York, transformed into a holiday to remember c/o two planning days: one to book plane tickets and NYC accommodation (hello roomarama)and one to buy NYC bike tour, Broadway show, out-of-town transport and accommodation. The rest was planned via a series of frantic texts, emails with attachments and phone conversations.  

Two events of the past day have brought this holiday flooding back...as if the Empire State Building linocut on my computer desktop is not daily reminder enough -

1)I moved house this year and due to lots of reasons, have not really finished unpacking and sorting. My current sorting project is the study bookshelves. I love to sort. I love to discard and rationalise. Last night I said to The Man - I'm just going to sort through my cards. To which he replied - You mean you are going to tidy them and then put them all back. Me - No. I am going to cull. I did too but not as seriously as the night before when I reduced two and a half shelves of quilting magazines to one single lever arch file of favourite future (hopefully) projects.

Anyway, I digress. The Sensible Girl was over to offer moral support of the sorting variety, and we stumbled upon my NYC diary - a little A6 book of tickets, observations, maps, leaves, conversation transcripts, daily schedules and such. I try and do a little A6 diary every trip. A self contained record. Every page is a reminder of the little things that made the trip so great: the happy accidents, the encounters with taxi drivers, guest house owners,hardware store keepers and just real New-Yorkers (to the point that our lexicon is now scattered with Bob-isms, Donna-isms, Vivian-isms and Gary-isms), the hilarity, the loveliness of New York in the Fall, the mania of two women so alike and yet unalike as to be the perfect travelling companions.

Among other things, this diary contained details of our trip to Lancaster County to hit up the quilt shops and get an Amish fix. That was where we bought The Fabric. Travelling home our bags weighed over 100 kgs. Which brings me to the second reason for being in a New York state of mind.

b) Yesterday the stitching sisterhood was in session. While in Bird-in-Hand I bought some French General - 15 charm packs and 3 bundles of 8 fat quarters.

We met at Sooz's and in true sisterhood production-line style began to cut, sew, turn, iron, bask in the loveliness.

Using the Dresden Plate ruler and Jenny's failsafe tutorial, we've started. Deborah on precision cutting, Sooz machining, Annabel and I turning points and pressing and arranging into colour groups. Blades all ready to go - all 1200 of them. Updates as we go.   

 

Scraps - too lovely to discard