A new day was unfolding in the darkness around me as I slipped out of bed at four o’clock this mornng.

I was soon accosted by my cat demanding, in her strident meowing voice, for me to feed her! There are times when that loud meowing sets my teeth on edge, especially at that time of the day, but hey! she is a marvellous catcher of mice and deserves to be fed. So, I pulled my head in and did so. The loud meowing softened to a grateful purr.

While the day unwrapped slowly, I had my Quiet Time, then later ironed my clothes for the day, had a shower got dressed, and got all the paraphernalia I would be needing at school today. I never take any printed notes as I tell the children the Bible story in my own words, but I always have things for the games we play or an object lesson for me to teach. Today I took a Bible Bingo game, Wordsearch games, string for another game, and I had drawn on seven paper plates the story of creation so the children would remember the order of creation. The miracle was that they really did remember it!

I was organised and oh-so ready to start the new year at school. These children bring me such joy and I was keen to meet the new children - some who had only recently moved into this area, or the little ones just beginning school for the first time.

When I arrived at school, I was again met by lots of little voices shouting out my name and several of them dragging their new school buddies to meet me. I was confronted by five little boys wearing horrific masks, and I trembled, shook and shivered much to their delight of course! Yes, these kids really bring me great joy!

As it was morning smoko break, when I got to school, I sat with the teachers and had a good chat. Apparently, there are eleven new children this year, but then we “lost” several at the end of last year what with families moving away form this area or children moving up to high school. So, the numbers are still about the same as last year’s, there are fifty-four children at the school presently.

Today In my first class there was only one new child - a young boy. In the second class there was again only one new boy, but in the last class I had nine new little people to meet - seven little girls and two little boys. The one little guy was all over the place like a bucket of frogs, but after a while he soon settled down and sat listening to the creation story that I told them!

I left school feeling really happy, tired and extremely hot. Yoh! The weather is a killer. The heat has s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d on and on and on and on. We need rain. Apart from restoring the pastures it would break this long cycle of undiluted heat. Unfortunately for us the weathermen have predicted a really hot day for tomorrow too. Actually, hotter than today! Ah whoopeee! (Not!)

When I got back home both Ken and Koda were still having their siesta. I was too hot to lie down so sat in one of our leather, Lazy-boy armchairs with a fan blowing onto me, and read my Kindle for a while.

Then it was time to create our supper with a flick of my wrist and all that. I quickly created a cold supper as it was still so hot and slaving over a hot stove was not on my itinerary!

I watched a programme on TV for a short while and then headed for bed at half past nine. I was whacked.

What lesson did I learn today? That all the hard work that goes into my preparing the scripture lessons for the school children is well worth the effort, as these children give me so much in return.

What am I grateful for today? The privilege of teaching children.

My saying for today is …