06 June, 2018

On the edge of ordinary this week

As usual, I've been casting around in my mind for a blog post for today (even more so as I've not written for a coupole of days), but what can I write that isn't dull and boring? (If you make it to the end, you'll find some mildly exciting stuff...or, I guess, you can scroll straight there.)

One photo I found today in my
ongoing search for photos for
home assignment usage.
This is David doing the rounds at
a middle school science fair a couple
of years ago.
Daily life continues here at a pretty regular rate. There are only a handful of school days left. Three and a half, to be precise. Actually a bit less than that for our high schooler who goes into "culminating events" timetable from Friday (what we used to call "exam schedule").

Email troubles
I've endured some significant frustration over the last several days as it gradually dawned on me late last week that perhaps my email was playing up (again). Emails I'd sent weren't necessarily being received. And this going back ten days or more! 



Email trouble always flusters me and I beat myself up that I can't get my head around solving them. This time it was more than one email account and as soon as I tried to do any fixing, it got worse. In the end I asked for help from our mission's help desk in Singapore. Of course that meant writing an email, and it took some time to actually get an email through to them. I'm now grateful for the set-up they have that immediately replies to any email you send them with a "received" email, because then I knew that I'd been successful.

I think I started asking for help last Wednesday and finally yesterday everything came together. It took him almost an hour using a screen-sharing app, to fix the problem. You see my email situation is pretty complex. I have four email addresses that I use regularly, for different parts of my job! Plus another couple that are yahoo/gmail and help with things related to those platforms. I have to say that I'm a little jealous of people who have tech support in their workplace, but considering our organisation's workplace is all over the world, this is a pretty good solution.

A friend, who prayed for this particular problem during a coffee date on Monday, not only gently chastised me for beating myself up, she encouraged me that God is using stuff like this to refine me, grow me! Praise God for friends like that!

A meme I made today from a quote I found while I looked for
a tiny bit of advice about writing rejection letters!
School
Yesterday I also had boys coming in and out of the house. It was an unusual day at school and there were no classes, though middle and high school students were required to attend one or two presentations by the seniors about their year-long projects. So, a bit of a scattered day over all, but in the midst of it I got quite a number of things achieved.

More work stuff
I continue to do a variety of scheduling, just today I've booked in our 16th church for December! I've messaged a friend about catching up in Australia before they leave for Taiwan.

I'm also still wading through handover. I have spent time in these last two days signing up people for different apps or website groups, and writing emails about where I'm at and what next to do.

Just today I've written 39 emails. These last three days I've written 101! (Not sure how many have actually landed, though.)

Editing continues, some of those emails have been back and forth correspondence with writers. I even had to tango with a rejection email today (one I have to write for an proposed article for the magazine, but I can't send it yet...I have to wait until next week).

Well all that stuff is pretty boring, really, but it is where my ordinary life is at right now.

The exciting stuff
The exciting stuff of this week includes things like:

  • Can we watch State of Origin live tonight for free? (For non-Aussies, it is a yearly series of three rugby league matches between our state of Queensland and neighbouring state of New South Wales. Very hotly contested.)
  • Discovering some old videos on this computer from as long ago as 2010.
  • Helping our middle school son complete a craft project for a craft stall after school. (A bigger drama than you can probably imagine. My husband cut out 60 circles 11mm in diameter.)
  • And last night we received news that a large piece of our home assignment puzzle has fallen into place...but that is a post of its own that I'll get to when I get just a bit more information...and maybe a photo or two.
Well, it's after 7 and I'm going to call it quits on the computer for today. Maybe I'll have an exciting post to write tomorrow?

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