Speaching to a Screaching halt!

M had to turn in a technology project for Tuesday morning. He had to make a motorized toy. A motorized toy? One with a switch? I didn't know where to start...What do I know about building motorized toys at the eleventh hour? Let alone where to shop for motorized bits and peices. A padded push up bra...you bet , but a motorized toy...and with one and a half hours till shops close?

 We eventually found  a motor kit from a toy store, it must be a design from a Greek shipping company because I couldn't understand the instructions -It was all Greek to me!!!! Eventually a small odd, polystyrene boat emerged with  it's motor clinging on to it from a dizzy height.

 It went off to school barely dry. As we arrived at school the other children came baring their huge enormous polystyrene boats with massive propellers and serious motors, the dads had been rather busy...I thought I detected some dark ringd under some of their eyes. I wanted to give Roger a kick in the pants right then and there. I can see I am going to have to man up and get technical.

Apparently the motor lasted during the oral where he had to explain how he made it, but failed dismally when tested in the school swimming pool. M, good naturedly spoke about how all the other boats had a full on war...crashing into each other and charging around the pool. My heart broke knowing how he must have stood on the edge of the pool holding his failure of a boat that didn't even stand upright. I had a steely resolve form somewhere in my molten core...I'm taking those dads on...Just you wait Henry Higgins just you wait!!!

Well that was Monday night taken care of. So Tuesday rolled around, and that evening I had to do my first toastmasters PREPARED speech. It was M ( girl) 's dance recital the whole weekend, D had a cricket match, I had a 6am meeting with Roger about finalising the divorce, but I musn't blame as there was a great deal of procrastination involved as well.

I tried to prepare during my two free periods at school, I had something scratchily thrown together. The topic was myself so I was quite familiar with the topic.As the Seargeant at arms banged the gravel and declared the meeting open, the pit of my stomach wasn't doing very well. I sat there wishing I was a little more prepared. Eventually my name was called , it was time to come up and give my speech. I had between four and six minutes to complete it.

I decided to talk about names and how they may shape our lives. I had a great introduction and just before I reached the part about talking about myself, which was the whole point of the talk,the green light came on, indicating I had two minutes to wrap up the speech. I hadn't even begun yet. I was free falling from a high point in speechy abysses and the landing wasn't going to be a pretty sight. I pulled the emergency concluding paragraph and finished with a lacklustre "Thank you."

The comments and evaluations were great! Here are some of them. "Well done! I enjoyed the style you presented the speech, you looked very relaxed.Look forward to your next speech!!" " A good introduction to yourself, very interesting and amusing." " Very good start. May be you could have said a bit more about yourself (ah someone sharp and on the ball) and project your voice a bit more." "Very well spoken and structured, you brought humour in well, dealt with time pressure with ease. At times your voice is a bit soft."

Excellence was something I strove for when I was a stay at home mom and still married. If the children had to dress up, I really went to town and they had amazing costumes, it there was a project to be done, it was always amazing, Roger and I were a good team, he always could figure out the woodworking and technical stuff and I always had the ideas, art and design as part of my porfolio It became a family culture, we always tended to do things well.

After moving back to South Africa and the subsequent upheavals in our lives we lost that. Just getting by seemed a bit like a miracle and I found distractions that didn't involve the children. I miss those times and feel it is time, to raise the bar in the family again. To strive for excellence in all that we do as we have done in the past, to do our very best.

So it's time for me to up my game as a mom. I have become sloppy about so many things. Excellence begins with me. My next speech is coming up in October. I have been having some EXCELLENT ideas. Which is great. Cause excellence is coming back to this home. I just wonder how I am going to convince the kids about letting him come to stay...or is it she?