My February started with finishing up as the Treasurer for our schools Parents and Citizens (P&C) association. I did the job for two years, and starting uni this year, I wasn't sure of the time I'd need, so decided to hand it over to the next person.
The Little Big Fella's cricket has been going pretty well this month. He's a bit "I don't want to go to cricket", but he enjoys himself when he's there and before we signed him up we asked him to commit to the whole season. It's a team event so having someone drop out part way through would impact on everyone else. And we wanted him to complete a season of something to help him learn the life lesson of commitment. He's improving and gaining confidence, and even bowled someone out this morning!
I've continued with our local art society this year (I LOVE it!) and our theme/challenge for February was "love". So I drew my husband. Here's the photo I worked from and the incomplete drawing:
Since then, I've finished the ear, added a bit more shading to his face generally, and splashed some water colour over the left side of the page. If you're lucky, I'll remember to post the finished product next month.
The Big Fella is back home, and after doing a few weeks of day shift finishing up some of the stuff for the new trainees, he's back driving and working awful shifts. Seriously, whoever makes these things up has no concept of sleep patterns or family life!
But, working weird shifts means he's often home during the day and he's inspired to finish our plans for our back patio area! We started by finishing off the herb garden and pizza oven area (see the last photos of it here). The Big Fella and his mate laid the pavers properly, and then the Big Fella and I moved some of the stones from under the back ramp to fill in the rest of the garden (we laid weed mat first in the hope that we can keep those under control). We pulled out some of the older plants, added more potting mix to the top of the garden, and put a few new plants in.
So, after a year and half, here's the finished product:
We're loving it! It's easy to use and has exactly the feel we were hoping for.
Unfortunately we've had some warm weather this month (warm as in 45 degree Celcius, 113 Fahrenheit) so some of the new plants have died, but a lot of them have survived and we're eating our way through lemongrass, taragon, rosemary, thyme, basil (regular, Thai and lime), oregano, chives, and chillies. Bring on pizza oven weather!!!!
I had a bit of time in my front garden as well, and I'm LOVING the bird of paradise plants we have. The pink in the middle of this leaf, and the up close texture in the sun... LOVE!
Once he finished that lot, the Big Fella and another mate pulled out the ramp from our back door in preparation for putting in stairs and an outdoor kitchen. Which was kind of a good thing, because they found termites in it! So the job keeps getting bigger, and we'll have a few months of something like this:
But now we have temporary stairs so it's all good :-)
I started online orientation for uni this month, with a bunch of 1 hour sessions. Some of them have been repeats of info I got last year doing the Study Link subjects, but I've garnered extra suggestions in almost all of them, so it's been worthwhile.
Doing the online sessions at the dining table was getting a bit wearing, so we decided to move the guest room furniture into our room and set the guest room up as my study/art room. I don't have any photos for you yet, but here's the guest room before it was moved. Now all that matching furniture is in our room, and all the junk that was still piled in the corner is... in the living room :-( I'll get there :-)
The weird thing has been going from sleeping in a big, soft king size bed, to sleeping in a smaller, harder, queen size bed. The Big Fella and I are NOT used to touching each other in the night so we kept half-waking whenever either of us rolled over. We're slowly getting used to it.
My first "actual" uni subject has started and I'm already behind in week 1. There's a LOT of reading. Thankfully my previous tertiary experience tells me that I'll settle in and find a rhythm, because otherwise I'd be seriously freaking out (instead of just general freaking out).
The girls I met last month all got together for another dinner out and I met some more new people. I think it's good for me to keep meeting new people. I tend to get caught up in my own little world, so being with others (especially new people) reminds me that the world is not about me.
I also got together with the art ladies for a social night, which is always fun. They're so good for me :-)
Our final bit of news for the month is that the Little Big Fella has started learning to play the flute. He's in Grade 4 this year, so is eligible for instrumental music lessons and he chose the flute (choices were flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone and percussion). Like cricket, he had to commit to playing (and practising) for the whole year. He was SO enthusiastic for the first few nights (including wanting to sleep with it) but it's tapered off already. I'm guessing that when he learns a couple of specific notes (rather than just blowing to get a sound) he'll up the enthusiasm for a couple of days and we'll go round and round the motivation cycle for the rest of the year.
Or he could surprise me!
I hope you've all had a good February, and I look forward to "seeing" you next month!
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