Well, another busy day in paradise. It's officially school holidays, which means I spent today at school painting large corrugated iron chickens and pukeko and kids and letters. Also used a few new muscles banging warratahs into the ground so that we can display our school name proudly for all to see.

I also sharpened pencils and did other essential behind the scenes stuff like that - things I just don't get time for when the kids are all at school.
My gorgeous sons came and helped out for the morning, while hubby worked. All-in-all a busy yet worthwhile sort of day in our household.

Hubby is working on a new photograph - he's a freelance photographer who does a mean line of post-production work to recreate the depth of detail that our eyes can see but the standard camera doesn't. It's all a bit beyond me, but I know that his images are fabulous, and really stand out from the crowd.
The one he was working on today was a motorbike + sidecar racing outfit, and he's producing it as a gift for a business contact to use promotionally.

He's just starting up his business after 7 years of being a house-husband. When we moved from the UK to NZ we decided that one of us needed to stay at home - the boys were only 2 and 5 then - and hubby decided to give up work. He found it quite hard at first, going from a busy university environment to being at home in a strange land with a 2 year old for company, but I think he appreciates the strong relationship he has with both the boys now. He had to learn how to cook, clean, operate a washing machine, and he has done the shopping, washing, ironing (yes, I have a man who IRONS every week for me!) since we got here.

And now in our family we don't have boy's jobs and girl's jobs... we just have things that need doing and people who are capable and willing to do them. I'm so very lucky, I know. :)

But he was finding it a bit tough to get back into the workforce after 7 years at home, (he was in web design and construction - and computers have changed quite a bit since 2003!) so he decided to set up his own photography company.

It's just beginning to get off the ground, and I'm helping out where I can... mostly things like cataloguing the photos and chatting to people when we go out and cover events. I really enjoy working alongside him, and love being a photographer's assistant even more than I like teaching!

My long term dream is to leave teaching and become a full time studio/gallery manager for him... but that is a few years away yet. Still, ....
"you've got to have a dream,
if you don't have a dream
how you gonna have a dream come true?"
to quote Captain Sensible (and isn't that something I never thought I'd have to say!)

But tonight's nearly done - I've made a big dent in the ironing pile (my way of giving hubby a holiday when I'm off school) and it's time to hang up the cape for the night. I'm going to sit and relax with hubby and a cup of tea. Bliss!