Are we there yet?

Today was the kind of day I'll reminisce about and idealise once college is far behind me. In my mind, every single day at college will seem like today.

Great coffee and early morning study at Elizabeth's in Glebe (although no Bernie or Soph to keep me company), fun times reading and distracting Dan at College, a quiet afternoon finished off with a couple of hours at the Berkelouw Books cafe with a bit more distracting Dan to complete it.

Last day tomorrow.

I stumbled across a link to Gwyneth Paltrow's website GOOP this morning. It's kinda interesting, in a lifestyle channel kinda way. She possesses that old fashioned quality of grace to which women used to aspire. She has articles on cooking, travel, lifestyle, relationships, health etc. Oh yeah, and fashion.

It's funny to think that there are some people for whom looking good is a professional necessity...

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, fashion. Well, I reckon 99% of women think about clothing and fashion quite a bit. What we wear expresses who we are, what we feel about ourselves and how we want others to see us. Even if I'm at home all day, I still take a little bit of time to decide what to wear. So what does this have to do with Gwyneth? (you can see I'm feeling a bit weird about writing about this) Well, I read quite a sensible article on her website about having a 'uniform'. She writes:

"I used to spend a lot of time looking at fashion, reading about fashion, generally being bemused by fashion. Then one day I had children and it all kind of went out the window. For a few years I was basically in sweat pants and I didn’t mind it. It’s a fine line, however, between being comfortable and being demoralized by being frumpy all the time. Just because I no longer had an hour to stand in front of my closet and try to figure out what to wear, did not mean I had to don the same high school t-shirt from the day before. As I started to get back into the world of work, I needed to wear something easy and chic that did not require a lot of planning or accessorizing. It is here that I did return to high school, but this time for a clothing concept: the uniform."

I can't ever imagine wearing her 'uniform' (grey tank top, black leggings)... but I do like the general concept. As a young mum who doesn't have time to agonise over what to wear, as a Christian who doesn't want to foster obsessiveness or vanity and as a woman who would like to look nice and presentable I think that all things considered, it's a very sensible idea.

One exam left, doctrine, the end boss of exams. We didn't have a doctrine exam last year so this one has had two years worth of teaching to bulk up, learn to breathe fire and get nasty. I need to make sure I hit and run, hit and run and stay out of his reach.

Seven is a big number when it's counting exams. It's hard to believe that they're almost done. I've actually started looking forward to things beyond them. Over the next few weeks I'm looking forward to:

• Spending some time hanging with college mates
• Showing Ben from Tassie around some of our favourite Sydney things
  
• Going to Melbourne with Ben from Shenkin to drink far too much coffee
• Going with Bron to visit some of our favourite spots in Sydney
• Hanging with Mikey and drinking far too much coffee
• The poorly named but probably awesome In The Chute conference

Thanks for your prayers! We finally got to church last night. The planets were divinely aligned and all of Maisy's sleeps during the day were perfectly timed. I even managed to shop and cook a meal for some friends. The whole day just went really smoothly. And it was great to be there. Craig spoke on the bit in James about taming the tongue and that was challenging and encouraging. And it was really nice to briefly catch up with people. We'll miss DPC.

It's hard to believe that we'll be leaving Sydney in four weeks. It's sad leaving the place which has been our home for the last 3 years. There are so many wonderful people we'll miss, so many cool places we'll look back on fondly.

Newtown has been our little world, and it's weird to be leaving somewhere which has become so familiar for Glenorchy, which is so foreign. On the one hand we're absolutely crazily looking forward to being back in Tassie. But on the other hand there's lots of sadness leaving here.

I called this post Four days/Four weeks because it's four days till Nick finishes exams and four weeks till we're in Tassie. Although I'm looking forward to Tasmania, I'm even more looking forward to this Thursday! Like everyone, we're really just limping on to the finish. Nick is still sick, we're both exhausted. But God is good.

Crazy.

Ed Stetzer gives 10 reasons for partner in church planting.

Before I started college, Dan Shepheard told me to figure out how much time I wanted to study and then stick to it.

So generally I've worked between 7am and 5pm Monday-Friday and some Sundays (the benefit of evening church). It's been such good advice:

• Having those hard edges meant that I've been able to rest without feeling like I should be studying. I hated that feeling when I was at uni
  
• It's helped Bron feel loved. She never feels like she comes 2nd to college or that she's a college widow
• It's taught me to work hard and efficiently but to be happy with whatever I can manage in the time I have
• My ability to do well enough in the time I've allowed gave me confidence which helped the stress levels
• Having a day off ensured that I kept some interests outside of college
• Even during exams I've been able to keep having my day off and finish work at 5. It's better for me and better for Bron and Maisy

For all that, if I was starting again I'd probably make the starting time 8am and be happy to finish any time between 4 and 5.