Grey, bunnies, proud

1. None of the four year olds I was working with at kindergarten knew the name of the colour grey. One suggested silver which was great. Other answers included black or brown. However, my favourite was "dark white".
2. The kindergarten children have discovered a new song about bunnies and they enjoyed dancing to the cd and following along with the actions, hopping, floppy ears, twitching noses etc. Four year olds are so beautiful.
3. My husband told me he's proud to have me as his wife. He's a man of relatively few words on personal matters, so when he says something like that it's a real gem. Don't tell him I told you, though, because he's a "private person".

memory, writing, Maggie

1. I don't know if my memory problems are linked to pre-menopausal symptoms, early onset Alzheimers Disease or something more insidious, but I knew gingko was the answer. I visited my friend Rhonda today at work and there was a box of gingko tea on her filing cabinet. I was transfixed. May I have a tea bag? I asked. Yes, said Rhonda. Take the whole box. I don't really like the taste. So I did. Thanks, Rhonda. My mind will now be sharply focussed again. Phew!
2. A writing job I have been avoiding by blogging (!) actually turned out to be very enjoyable when I finally got around to working on it today. I had fun and I'm looking forward to going back to it as soon I've done this post.
3. My friend in Belgium called Maggie phoned out of the blue. It's always wonderful to hear her voice. She had good news about her journey too, so that was even better.

Chocolate, Movie stars, chimp

1. My friend stopped off with a card and chocolates for no reason other than she loves and appreciates me. I wish I was like that.
2. I enjoyed seeing Jack Nicholson in About Schmidt on the telly last night. I don't like him usually but he was playing against type. He reminded me of my dad, my husband's dad and lots of other men I know of that age. Extremely convincing acting! And I loved the theme of the movie - particularly his writing letters to his sponsored child Ndugu. Very funny and sad all at once. Well done, Jack. Don't know if you read blogs but if you do, thanks from me. I enjoyed the movie immensely. And regarding actors, I have remembered my fascination for Colin Firth, aka Mr Darcy times 3. Love Actually was on telly as well (I sound a bit square eyed here but it's not true) and I remembered how much I like his smouldering style. Bye bye Hugh Grant and Matthew McConnaughey, Hello Colin Firth.
3. Back to reality - my daughter saw my blog name "word imp" and said "Mum, if you were feeling frisky one day you could change your blog name to "word chimp".

Hollywood, Mother Teresa, pronunciation

1. Playing a board game called Careers with my son. I enjoyed going to Hollywood three times during the game. Probably the closest I'll get!
2. I read a quote from Mother Teresa on the blog of Michelle O'Neil at www.michelleoneilwrites.blogspot.com which inspired me. It's about not letting the opinions of others get in the way of your journey.
3. Hearing my daughter pronounce a Maori place name perfectly.

cricket, threnody, Harry

1. We played a family game of cricket on our front lawn today which is always exhausting but always fun. I'm hopeless at catching the ball but I made a catch on my shoulder and held it there with my chin. Miraculously, the ball stayed in place!
2. One of the people who put a meaning for threnody on my Word Imperfect blog recently used photos on her own blog to describe the meaning she'd given the word. It feels so exciting to realise that a small idea from my head in New Zealand can have an impact on people in another part of the world. I feel fully satisfied as Word Imp. I think it suits my personality well.
3. My daughter's school friend came to play. We picked her up from her home on a farm nearby. Her Border Collie cross dog called Harry loves racing vehicles down his long driveway. He waits beside the front wheel on the driver's side and watches the wheel. As soon as it turns just the tiniest bit, he's off, racing full speed down the driveway. He won, of course, and then did a victory lap around the paddock as a parting gesture.

Joke book, disco, trailer

1. I just found out my joke book called "It's True...You can make your own jokes" which was published in April appeared on a children's book website in a list of the top non-fiction books for the month. Pretty cool. The site is www.achuka.co.uk/books/nf/main.php if anyone is interested in having a look.
2. I've just returned from a school disco with the kids. The DJ even played some songs I knew and I got to do quite a bit of boogying. However, my ears will probably be ringing for a while. The kids, eight and 10, had lots of fun. Daughter (8) dancing with friends. Son (10) wandering around the room with friends.
3. I put the trailer on the van and took it to get a WOF all by myself. I'm not that good with trailers, so this was something of a minor achievement - although I must admit the mechanic's garage is almost within shouting distance of our house!

Gifts, cleaning, Isabella

1. Two parcels arrived in the post today - a skirt for me from one sister and a gift for each of the children from another sister. I'm so lucky to have generous sisters.
2. I vacuumed my van of hay, goat raisins and other ex-goat paraphenalia and it is finally fit for human carriage again. I don't like vacuuming the van, but I like the feeling of having done it at last.
3. I finally whittled a too-long picture book manuscript back to under 450 words for a publisher. Now just have to wait to see if it's accepted. The main character is Isabella - a name I love. I like that part of being a writer, I get to have all these children that I name and my husband doesn't get to say the names are crap!

New book, hide and seek, computer savvy

1. I received an advance copy of my latest book from Thomson Learning Australia and it has a dinky little CD on the front which is cute and quirky. Like Christmas!
2. Playing hide and seek with the four year olds at kindergarten. I teach Maori language there each Wednesday morning and one little boy started hiding so several of us joined in. The finer points of the game are lost on the children, though. They come out as soon as you finish counting to 10, shouting, Here I am!
3. Computer savvy is not my middle name. However, I did manage to add a poll to my Word Imperfect blog and I'm very proud of it.

Clare, Alan, Bernard

1. Clare again. This time, as well as continuing to join in with my blog, has put the name of my Wordimperfect blog as one of her beautiful things!
2. My husband just came home for lunch...
3. I thought of a name for my book character - Bernard!

Clare, breakfast, comfort

1. Clare, of 3BT fame, commented on my word of the day blog TWICE!
2. Breakfast in bed courtesy of my husband - he also did the same for the children.
3. Cool, crisp white sheets replacing warm, fluffy blue sheets.