what are you listening to?

i always love reading those snippets in magazines - what's on your ipod, or what's in your handbag...
my ipod nano is my little bit of technology. i don't need anything grandiose. i'm not into technology for the sake of technology. don't have a mobile phone. sitting on the bus it can seem a little anti-social, everyone with wires coming out their ears. but when you have limited down time, it's a great thing! i have a few podcasts that i've subscribed to. a couple from Radio National: The Book Show, Late Night Live and Rear Vision. others are: The Creative Mom Podcast, Revive Our Hearts and The Prents Journal.
music at the moment? The Audreys, Elizabeth Mitchell, Priscilla Ahn, Klaus and Kri Jobe.
i love the bus. my time for music, podcasts or reading.
today i took A with me for a walk to the shops. i listened to a Late Night Live interview with Harold Bloom (Sterling Professor of the Humanities and English at Yale University) and Bob Carr. it was a great episode, about books. :-)
a thought though, why is it that when you sit on the bus and pull out your book, that you are obviously engrossed in, there are people who will engage you in conversation about the book you are attempting to read. even if i want to say "you don't understand, this is my time..." i'll sigh and close my book, to be just a bit sociable.

the cook and the chef

the night before Christmas... and the day after... and the day after that

what better way to share the past couple of days, than through pictures!!


Christmas Eve

Christmas Day

i was stunned that A took to dolls the way she did...

next year i want to learn to make the pudding!

Boxing Day

Christmas poem

Adoration of the Shepherds, Gerard van Honthorst




In The Bleak Midwinter
Christina Rosetti

In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen,
Snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter,Long ago.

Our God, heaven cannot hold him,
Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When he comes to reign;
In the bleak midwinter
A stable place sufficed
The Lord God incarnate,Jesus Christ.

Enough for him, whom Cherubim
Worship night and day
A breast full of milk
And a manger full of hay.
Enough for him, whom angels
Fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel
which adore.

Angels and archangels
May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim
Thronged the air;
But his mother only,
In her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the Beloved
With a kiss.

What can I give him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man
I would do my part,
Yet what can I give Him -
Give my heart.

time... and collecting eggs

something strange has been happening in my house. the kids are going to bed early (for them) and staying asleep. i have not had to spend every moment from when I put them to bed until 10pm either resettling one or constantly saying “stay in your bed” to the other. this is very new for me, and i find i have the dishes done and some “free” time. although i look at the fridge and think i should clean it, or think of the basket of folding/ironing waiting patiently for me in the laundry, i instead have been madly trying to finish A’s stocking. i made rocky road for work colleagues. on the side I have been doing A’s 1st birthday invitation. all making me realise that each year (especially as she gets older) i will have to be really planned to make Christmas and her birthday enjoyable and separate events!!
i am also proud (relieved) to say that our Christmas shopping has been done without fuss and barely a trip to the shopping centres. we bought all presents for nephews and the niece from an educational toy catalogue N's old childcare centre had. so that was done weeks ago and delivered to our door. i stepped out at lunchtime today to buy a book each for the two older nephews. and there you have it - we are finished!

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anatomy of a picture:

important message

i came across this yesterday. it made me cry - the blog is beautifully written, but contains a message too important not to share. you can read about it here.

how Christmas looks at our house...

i couldn't resist a second post tonight... it mentions Santa and frost, (things that don't feature in our Christmas') but some crooning Sinatra and a bit of Vivienne and Lawrence was to gorgeous to pass by. ;-)

i just had to add this photograph, sent by a friend of himself and his daughter. can you tell they are French? very chic! ;-)

this week so far in my eyes

out together on Saturday afternoon - the best way to ride a bike!

for three days each week this is where i am....

i make it my own space. pictures, drawings and quotes.

but the best thing is that literally a walk down the stairs and out the door (approximately 90 seconds!!) and i am here....

and friends. at our bible study Christmas break-up last night.

odds and ends - mainly about books, libraries & reading..

i finished reading Paula a couple of weeks ago. very moving - i couldn't imagine having to write about the death of my child - at any age. here Isabel Allende cares for her 29 year old daughter for almost a year before her passing. she writes:

"How simple life is, when all is said and done... In this year of torment, I had gradually been letting go: first I said goodbye to Paula's intelligence, then to her vitality and her company, now, finally I had to part with her body. I had lost everything, and my daughter was leaving me, but the one essential thing remained: love. In the end, all I have left is the love I give her."

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when you are a parent, you realise you would do anything for your child.

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my dad surprised me a few weeks ago with a book he picked up at a second hand bookstore. it is called 'Miss Bobbie' by Ethel Turner (Seven Little Australians). this is the inscription on the inside cover: 2nd Prize (Girls) essay on "Patriotism"...

i'd love to have the essay as well! at the bottom of the page is written the date: 23 June 1915. given it was during the "Great War" i can just imagine what the essay was about. it makes me think of all those socks, faithfully knitted for the men at war.

oh, and if i am not careful, i will become addicted to goodreads.com!

...and so it begins

christmas cards are made...

the tree is up...

but my favourite thing is playing christmas carols... all the time. i think they are some of the most beautiful hymns written.

my favourite is Hark the Herald Angels Sing:

“Light and life to all He brings

Ris'n with healing in His wings

Mild He lays His glory by

Born that man no more may die

Born to raise the sons of earth

Born to give them second birth”

life this week

a couple of extra books have sneaked onto my list of reading... i think that will always be the way! after Paula, I started The Red Tent, a fictional story based on the biblical story of Dinah, Jacob's daughter. a message on the telephone let me know a book i ordered a few weeks ago is in. it is called At Home in Mitford. it is the first book in a series that a colleague once told me about. she thought i'd like them. many of the books i read are a bit heavy on the "literary" side. i'm not into "chick-lit" at all (this book isn't chick-lit), but i felt like something a bit lighter than the stuff i normally read. i'll see how it goes...

speaking of critiquing books, my sister bought Ali Edwards book on 'mini-books'. one of the examples in it is scrapbooking favourite books, with quotes and reviews etc. another project to add to the list!!

this weekend we are putting up the Christmas Tree. N told me he will be "so pleased" when we decorate it. i don't know where he gets it from!! at the moment i am madly trying to finish A's Christmas stocking.

and A now has hair long enough for a ponytail! trying to get a photograph of N's bandaged hand (dog bite...) but he fancy's himself a photographer too...
my blessings:~

* always my children

* evaporated air cooler!!

* Pilate's aches and pains (it must mean something is working!)

remember to deliberately pour...

boy is this what i needed to read today...

baby love

sometimes i am so busy with the demands and developments of a preschooler that i forget about all the milestones of a baby. now when i pick up A, i am taken by her weight. then i realise in only a few weeks she will be one!!