Hayfever

Monday:

My food choices have been terrible this week. Not only too much junk, but also hardly fruit or vegetables. I’ve been affected badly by hay fever for a few weeks, I hardly ever get serious symptoms but this year the entire state is in drought plus it is very windy so pollens and allergens are everywhere even though it is still winter. When I was buying some medication the pharmacist told me everyone is bad this year. When I feel unwell I generally turn to ‘comfort’ food which does not help my body heal! I need nutrients, not over-processed frankenfood! Determined to do better this week.

My weight is up more than a kilogram to 72.9 kg.

Tim has asthma, luckily he doesn't seem too badly impacted by the conditions although other asthmatics I know are. But he is a heavy breather while asleep (not only now, always) which I find very frustrating. We don't have a spare room here for me to retreat to. My current solution is to have a 'daybed', Aiden's old bed tucked behind the three-seater in the lounge room. The kids (and visiting children) love lying on it during the day, and I can stumble out there when the loud breathing gets too annoying. I mainly use it on weekends when I would love to have a sleep-in but never can with Tim beside me - and he always sleeps in on the weekend, he needs it after a tiring week. It means I don't start the day full of resentment that he gets to sleep in and I don't.

The past two weeks there has been a substitute instead of the usual teacher-librarian at my son’s school. This morning there was no-one, and it was still dark and quiet. I went in and turned on some lights and the computer and sat there for half an hour just in case. Generally class 4G are being taught research skills and borrowing books on Monday mornings, and pairs of children return books for their classes, which I scan in and return to the shelves. Today only one class apparently didn’t get the memo and returned a few books for me to process. It was kind of weird sitting there in the gloom (I didn’t bother finding light switches for the whole library). But it got me out of the house for a nice walk there and back. I hope the teacher-librarian is ok.

Sweat

Monday:

I weigh 72.9 kg this morning, so that is a loss of 2 kg this week. Excellent. Some of that is water weight, I would be delighted with 1 kg a week from now on. Also, my waist has shrunk 3 cm to 94 cm which is very exciting. I am an apple shape with a big belly and would love to get back to the hourglass I used to be. I don't mind curves in the right places!

School library volunteer day today. The new librarian/teacher was there, Mr Jones (Harry?), he asked if I was ok and just left me to it. It only took me 45 mins today to return the morning influx of books on the computer and to the shelves. Getting quicker. 

I walked there and back so that was a bit of exercise too. My doctor asked if I exercise enough to sweat and I had to laugh. I can sweat sitting quietly at a desk, it's not a very good indication of exertion level! But yesterday after vigorous dancing I pulled the elastic out of my ponytail and squeegeed a splatter of sweat out of my hair!

Last time I had a significant hair cut Ping commented that my hair was getting really long. What?? I just had it CUT! This time, it was Jo who said that my hair was growing really fast, wasn't it. Um, what? I just went from longish to shoulder length? They clearly see that something is different with my hair, but for some reason go in the wrong direction. I guess because when it's longer I pull the top part back always, but when it's shorter it's more styled around my face and you can see more hair? I just seems weird to me and I don't know how to respond to the comments.

Library volunteer

Monday:

A few weeks ago Aiden's school library asked for volunteer helpers and I put my name down. It took a while to get the roster organised, but I started my one session a week today.

I really enjoyed my morning at the library. The teacher/librarian Debbie had only asked for half an hour but I stayed until 11:00. I think she was only planning to get parents to help with putting books on the shelves and maybe covering them. She seemed delighted when I said I was nearly a Library Tech, she showed me the computer system (very similar to the one we used at TAFE) and I did the returns on the system as well as re-shelving the books. All basic stuff, but she was actually teaching classes the whole time and only had a few minutes to show me in between kid-wrangling so it was good I was confident with it. I didn't do the loans today because students don't have their own library cards, the barcodes are all in a folder and Debbie knows all the kids' names so she's much quicker. I would have to ask every child their name and find their barcode. 

She's about to go on holidays for three weeks to China, they've only just found some one to replace her, I'm guessing the new person won't know the kids' names either! 

They use the 'Oliver' computer system which was also the one used by that other local school I was going to apply for a job at before I found I wasn't qualified - so it might be a common one at least in schools and therefore very good that I'm getting some experience with it. I learned what to do if the book was returned overdue (nothing!) or if they wanted to borrow more than the four allowed (let them!) or if a book was returned two years after the student left the school (excellent, finally!). All looks great on the resume!

It was definitely organised chaos, there were the classes that Debbie was teaching (researching sharks online) who returned and borrowed books, and also several groups of children (including my niece Emma) returned big baskets of books from their classrooms, and a few kids running in for other reasons like they left their mouthguard in the library on Friday. And they all seemed to accept me as a librarian and asked me stuff and gave me books to return. And an empty plastic bag, which I had no idea what to do with, but I accepted it as if I did. Turns out if they forget their library bag, the librarian gives them a plastic bag to use. It was great. 

I felt all businessy too (but still friendly and approachable), I wore a new outfit of navy pants and a white top and my ankle boots and strutted my way up to the school. Look at me, off to work! lol. The boots are very comfortable, as shoes go, but can't compare with sneakers. I was glad to get home and change after two hours on my feet. I'm not used to even low heels. 

This morning I weighed 74.9kg, a bit less than last Monday.

Last night a branch of the family who are always included in the Sunday dinner invitation but who rarely come, came. Without telling us before hand. So I didn't make enough crème brulee for everyone. And they are practicing Lent, so are not eating meat. I can usually cope with these large dinners, I'm used to it now, but still go into a bit of a brain meltdown when I have to deal with last minute stuff like that! The kids got ice cream instead of crème brulee, and the Lent adults insisted they were fine with whatever, which in this case was tortillas with just a bit of salad instead of the beef and chicken fajitas everyone else was having. I would have been so happy to organise some seafood for them if I'd known they were coming! I found it very stressful. I could have rushed around and tried to whip something up, but I decided if they turn up without notice and say they're fine, I will have to take them at their word.

Is it normal to not let your child eat sugar but be fine with them chewing on a crayon? Non-toxic doesn't mean edible!