June.
June had two weddings, a school fete and Rachel's Birthday, all in consecutive weekends.
This summary seems like I'm making a big deal out of just a few events, but hear me out. It was busy.
The first wedding was in Sydney; on a Friday. And don't forget COVID, and potential border closures. Do you see some stressful choices now? It wasn't so bad, we flew down early Friday morning, got picked up by family and went to a wedding. It was a lovely wedding, if absolutely freezing outside, and I did get to wear a pretty fabulous cape. The wedding party were obviously very close friends (tears in several of the speeches (from the guys) and lots of laughter too) and it was easy to join in their fun.
Steve and I danced, and I reflected that it had been at least five years since I had been to a wedding where I had felt whole and well. The last two were not as pleasant (nothing to do with the actual wedding though!) and had shaded my impression of weddings slightly. It was a delight to find that getting dressed up, eating delicious food and being with people I loved all night was a perfectly enjoyable way to spend my time. It made me even more excited for my sister's wedding the following weekend.
We stayed the night in Sydney, saw more family the next day and then flew back to our girls. My parents had looked after them in our absence and we stayed with them that night too, rather than try to organise coming home late. Extending our weekend slightly, but it was worth it for the good night sleep.
The next wedding was Fiona's! So so thankful that there had been no COVID cases in Brisbane. Melbourne had had an outbreak and Queensland had closed the border, but most people were able to come and there were no crazy restrictions in place. We were all unbelievably thankful. Again, it was a busy day (albeit without a plane flight), a beautiful wedding and lots of dancing into the night.
The next day, the newly married Fairbrother's continued the celebrations and we all visited their new house. I say "we all", but please don't imagine that it's just our family. It was everyone invited to the wedding and more. Big parties and busy days. Lots of fun, but I was happy to get home again that night.
Then came the biggest week of June ever. I mentioned the school fete at the start of this post. What I neglected to mention was that it was I, who volunteered to coordinate said school fete. I had an amazing team, but I also did a lot of work in the lead up. The three weeks prior to this, I had spent probably 15 hrs a week sorting out the fete, and now, it was really crunch time. I was at school so much I feel like I almost became staff.
In the middle of this week of concentrated fete preparation, I also had a job interview. Not the best timing, but more on that later. Suffice to say, it was a surprise and an accident, but I walked out with an earlier than anticipated return to teaching. Back to fete for now.
All week I woke up thinking about the fete, and fell asleep planning to do lists that I could complete in the morning. Fete was all I did, every moment, and Steve is an absolute saint for listening to me brainstorm every tiny aspect of it. Fete day came and I was at school at 6:45am. I didn't leave until 6:30pm. What a day; I was so proud of it all.
It was fabulous, and successful and huge. The community came out in force. Again I was so thankful for Queensland's COVID response and how we had no community transmission so we could actually hold this event. There was stuff we could do better, but over all, it was amazing and I was super proud to be a part of it. Proud and exhausted to the bone.
I did nothing fete related on the Sunday, but Monday morning I was back at school sorting stuff out. I nearly left in tears thinking it would take me all week to put stuff back where it belonged, but thankfully, it didn't take that long. Maybe three full days of sorting and returning and I finally became a somewhat normal human being again. My fete report was 10 pages long. It had been a huge event.
In that week post the fete, when I was still running around cleaning things up, I was also getting ready for Rachel to celebrate being seven years old. I guess I'll do a blog post about that eventually too. Saturday she had school friends over for fun and food, and Sunday we had family over for more of the same. It sounds like a lot, but of all the things in June, most of all the fete, there was actually not too much to do. Bit of cooking, bit of organising, but mostly, just having fun.
Again we were thankful for the lack of COVID restrictions, which was not to continue. Monday rolled around and we began our first day of school holidays. My last week actually, of not working. The job that I accidently got would begin the very next week with staff week, so my rest time from the busy June and things starting again was drastically shortened.
So the job. Friends of mine work at a Lutheran Primary school in Bethania, and mentioned the music teacher there was going on maternity leave in term four, and would I consider the contract? Three days a week, for 18 months. Sounded like something I could do. I had been doing a lot of music relief in term two, and my plan had always been to go back to part time teaching next year, so starting a term early didn't sound too bad. I'd have term three to recover fully from the fete and enjoy my last term of gap year before really heading back to the classroom.
So I gave them my resume and got a call to come in for an interview. Which I did. And they liked me, and wanted to offer me the job then and there, start date: 5th of July. For those playing along at home, this is not term four. Turns out, the contract was from term three, and they didn't end up interviewing anyone else. I had a lot of turmoil considering the job the first few days, but when they offered it, it would have been ridiculous to say no, so I said yes.
It was sooner than I wanted, and further away than I wanted, and probably a day more than I wanted, but it was a good job, at a small school with a great music program and resources, and really, a half hour drive against traffic is not the end of the world. I just had to adjust after 8 years of working from home, or only ten minutes away. I don't know why God had given me this opportunity now, when I was not expecting it, but it would have been nuts to say no.
So I enjoyed the last week of holidays with the girls and Steve before I went back to work before they started term three. We had some COVID cases and a snap lock down of three days, which turned into four, and the rainy rainy weather made everything pretty bleak. But Sunday came, and the sun did come out again. Masks are still mandatory, but new cases haven't risen, so we are all thankful to be where we are now.
And I'm thankful to be out of June, and into July. Nearly into August really. It's been chaotic and fast, but what isn't? I was saying to Steve that I really want the girls to start piano lessons, and I feel like I've just been waiting for the right time, when we have a bit more space, or breathing room to think about it. The reality is: that there's never going to be a right time for that. There will always be stuff on, things to do, and events to plan. There will always be life to live. So we either fit it in or put that dream on the shelf for now.
I'll let you know what happens.
Thanks for stopping by to find out why I was so MIA in June, and why it's taken me a few weeks to get my feet under me again.
