Baysitting and Movies!

Well, I have had a very busy few days indeed!

On Wednesday arvo, I went to my sister's house to babysit for her for a few days. My sister and her husband were going away for a wedding, so I agreed to look after the kids. It was fun! They have four kids, aged between five and nine, so it was busy, but heaps of fun.
All the kids are into Harry Potter, as am I, so I made a rewards chart and had it laminated. There are four 'houses' in Hogwarts, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin, I made four columns (one for each house), and put each 'house crest' at the top of the columns. We put the names of the houses in a hat, and had a 'sorting ceremony', the kids got a whiteboard marker that matched one of their house colours, and we were away! I soon discovered that leaving the markers out, for the kids to write their own points up, was not a great idea...there was uproar amongst the houses about people having more points than they should, and some houses were missing points, so I took control of the markers after that :) We had a Hagrid figurine as the trophy, and the whole system seemed to work pretty well. I thought so anyway :)
Not sure why the above become 'blog worthy'...I just like talking about Harry Potter...

I will tell you two funny things that I heard my nephew, Aidan, say while I was at their place. Well, I thought they were funny. Maybe you will too....maybe.

Ethan: How come Voldemort doesn't wear shoes?
Aidan: Because shoes make his toes hurt, and he doesn't like it, so he takes them off.
Ethan: Oh. Ok.

(while the three boys were playing on the computer)
Ethan: It's my turn next.
Aidan: No, it's my turn.
Ethan: You had a really long go before, so it's my go after Ryan.
Aidan: You have to do what I say. Everyone has to do what I want to do. So it's my turn next!
Me: Aidan, what did you just say? Did you just say that everyone has to to what you want?
Aidan: Yeah, because the boys have to listen to me, cause I'm five, and sometimes I do things I don't want to do, even if it's naughty, cause I'm only five. So that's why I can say it's my turn next.

I worked today, no Harry Potter rewards chart there. Sad.
I do give out prizes and tonnes of stickers on relief days. They tend to work as behaviour management...most of the time :)

Anyway, not much else to say. I'm going to go get a movie...maybe one of 'the list'! About a month ago, I was in Tamworth, and I was sitting around the table with (most of ) my family. I'm not sure how it started, but my fsister mentioned a couple of movies that I should rent, and I wrote them down. Well, it quickly spiralled, and now I have a list of twenty six movies, compiled by my brothers and sisters, that I have to watch. I haven't rented any of them yet, so maybe I'll start at the top and work my way down...the first one on 'the list' is:

Well, off I go to Blockbuster!
Bye for now!

Teaching...

Good afternoon!

So far, I am yet to let anyone know about my blog. Maybe this can be a thing that just I know about, kind of a 'dear diary' thing...one day I will get around to letting people know.

I did a day of relief teaching today. I've been available for relief since Monday last week (12th), and I worked 4 out of 5 days last week! Hopefully that keeps up!
I was a 'floater' today. I taught years 5, 7, 4 and Prep throughout the day. It was nice to get to know a few other classes (I worked 2 days at this particular school last week).

Because I knew in advance about teaching today, and because my car's currently running on the fumes from an oily rag at the moment, I decided to catch public transport.
All went well in the morning, I got to school with heaps of time to spare. This arvo was a different story...word to the wise, avoid Southbank busway between the hours of 2:30 and 4:00pm. In fact, come 5pm, there's gonna be another influx of people, so I reckon your window of comfortable afternoon travel would be at around 4:30-4:35pm.
I was unaware. I did not even think about the 14,000 school kids that would be trying to get buses home, when I hopped off the train at Southbank, to get a bus home myself. There I was, merrily walking along, unaware of the peril that lay ahead.
Trying to get to the '222', that had stopped at the last bay, when I was at bay 1, proved to be impossible. It was like trying to wade through waist-deep mud. Mud that is so thick and all-encompassing, that even go-go gadget legs wouldn't have helped! As soon as you commit to making a step, the space where your foot was becomes filled, before your foot has had a chance to leave it properly. Chuck Bear Grylls in the middle of that and see how long he survives!
Anyway, in my city-savvy knowledge, I decided to catch the '204'. Once I was on that bus, I was so relieved! I reckon I would've hopped on any bus, anything to get away from the teenagers!

Has anyone seen that episode of 'The Big Bang Theory' where Sheldon talks about having 'bus pants'? They are pants that he wears over his normal pants, so his normal pants don't have to touch the bus seat. He's an ideas man. The bus I caught was fine, waiting on the bench at the station for the train to Southbank was another story.
I want 'public transport hands'. I guess I could wear gloves, but it's too hot for gloves, and how weird would it look to wear gloves with short sleeved top? Maybe, I could get gloves that are the same colour as my skin, and have freckles like my skin too, and nails and knuckle-lines (definitely the scientific name there). Then I would be the only one to know that I was wearing gloves...I reckon there's a market for that! :)

Wow, that's a lot of blabber about public transport.

I'm off to see a man about a dog...

G'day!

Welcome intrepid explorers, to my very own blog!

Firstly, I must thank Catriona Pine. I just caught up on her blogs (I'd missed the last half dozen), and was inspired to create my own blog. So, thanks, Catriona!

You may be wondering a few things...you might be thinking to yourself (or to your friends, I know I'm a hot topic of conversation) 'Rachael doesn't do a whole lot of anything, what could she possibly blog about?'. Well, let me tell you that I have had the exact same thought!
So, I vow to only post things that are interesting...now, as your definition of interesting, and my definition of interesting, are bound to differ, I cannot promise that my blogs will give you the same joy that I find in writing them. Sorry in advance.
It'll be a bit like your very own lucky dip, some posts might be a light-up yoyo, and some may be a piece of string. I LOVED light-up yoyos when I was a kid...in fact, I'm sure if someone gave me one tomorrow, I would still love it. I did not love pieces of string (not that I ever received a piece of string in a lucky dip...)

You may also be thinking 'ajrebel, what does that mean?'. Glad you asked! It is actually the first initial of the names of all my nieces and nephews: Aidan, Jade, Ryan, Ethan, Brodie, Emily and Lachlan. Cool huh?

'Days Ordained' is an interesting name for a blog', I hear you say. Great statement! Cause it is. It comes from the first Bible verse I ever memorised, in Psalm 139. Check it out.
That whole Psalm is awesome It is my favourite one! The idea that God has my whole life mapped out, and each day of my life was figured out before I was even born, that is insane! That's what got me about that verse (and it's why I memorised it), my whole life. Sorted. Nothing can happen that God doesn't already know about. That doesn't mean that life as a Christian is easy, some things can be really hard, some things happen that make me wonder about God; but in the things I find difficult, I eventually come back to the truth that God is good, and just, and loving, and gracious, and merciful...why else would He send His Son, His only Son, His perfect Son, to die on a cross, for us?

I am thankful for each and every God Ordained day I have been given :)