it's beginning to look a little

...something like Christmas.

It is not 1 December but as I will be away we started early and put the Christmas tree up.  Some took joy in helping. 

Others just enjoyed the view...

The ipod is full of Christmas music and carols, including Bing Crosby which reminds me of my grandmother. It feels like Christmas when he sings 'Do You Hear What I Hear', or 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas'.  I also love 'Little Drummer Boy' and came across this...

Magazines are in a pile and I have begun to do this, pulling out all of the inspiring pictures, recipes and craft ideas.  It will certainly make future planning easier.  This blog has a similar idea.  I also plan on using the advent scriptures found here.   I had hoped to make an advent calendar from fabric with pockets so might get to it on Saturday evening.  I also pulled out my Christmas scrapbook album to will try and catch up on the last three years... a bit of work to do when I return home.  Funny that a couple of months ago I thought I had ages to prepare.  Where does time go?

what are you reading?

I am really pleased when I look back over this year and see the number of books I have managed to read.  I often bemoan my lack of reading time, but it is amazing what you can achieve in a 40 minute bus ride and by grabbing a few minutes reading time before I fall asleep (often with the book in my hands!)
This pile includes 'The Distant Hours' which is my current read.  I'll finished it by the end of the year so it earns its place in books of 2010.
I enjoyed each of them - they were all quite different from eachother.  The Bookseller of kabul made me a little depressed.  Little House in the Big Woods was an absolute joy to read though.   I think I'll have to put it on the 'must read each year' list.

One LORD

We went to the naming service of a friends daughter yesterday.  They are Jewish.  It was beautiful to hear  the Shema prayer sung.  "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD Deuteronomy 6:4."
And awesome in the literal sense to know who the One is.

miss audrey

Today I took pleasure in reading this post by Heather Bailey.  "I am my own self".  I thought on it for a moment.  I thought of Audrey.  She has the funniest personality.  She is gentle, sweet and wants a cuddle from her mum when she is sad, scared or hurt.  Or just because she wants a cuddle from her mum.  I like that.  She loves pink.  She adores Angelina ballerina. 

In fear of her being a complete tomboy (how can you not with a brother and 5 boy cousins...) I make a big deal when I dress her in a pretty dress with sparkly shoes.  She likes that.  She loves her ballerina shoes.  She likes having stories read to her.  Again and again.

She loves to sing and she loves to dance.  She adores her teddy.

In some things she likes her independence.  She has never really let anyone feed her.  Even at six months.  If you pick her up to put her in the car, or the bath, or bed the response is invariably the same.  She will climb out and say "Audrey do it."  She also has a firey temper.  (David says that is from me...)  She loves jumping into the pool and going straight under, to be pulled out again in the air.  She loves playing with "the boys"  (Her brother and her cousins) and she enjoys Thomas the Tank Engine (she looks for Lady) and playing with dinosaurs.  She pulls books and toys from her shelf - just to make a mess.  She will go to her bothers room to do the same. 

She is forever playing with snails and bringing them to me.

She will eat play dough and draw on walls if you are not looking.... or on herself. 

  

So, I think the lesson for me is that to in spite of what I think a little girl named Audrey should be like,  I should remember that she is her own self, to guide her but sometimes to just let her be.

happy days

I think I have posted this on my blog before.  A favourite quote on a postcard on my wall at work...

"Some have questioned the appropriateness of talking about such matters as metta (loving kindness) and thissa (truth) in the political context. But politics is about people... love and truth can move people more strongly than any other form of coercion.”
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

Hopefully change will truly come.

rather work or play?

I am working on some last additions before I send my job application in.  I have the tertiary qualifications, but have been out of the industry for 15 years, so no recent demonstrated experience.  My head hurts from thinking so much and my eyes would give anything to be closed for a while...

Then I can finally finish this...


















And begin this...

happiness

There is a lot happening at the moment, my work is crazy/busy but at least that makes the days go faster.  Soon Nicholas will be finished preschool, and it will be Christmas time.  I have been doing some Christmas shopping over the last month for nephews and the one niece we have, so i need to sit down and actually look at what we have.
I made a Christmas stocking for Nicholas and Audrey, but I love the style of this one, so may have to make one for myself... I wonder if David would appreciate a blue on??
Tomorrow mum and I are going to a book reading.  I am really looking forward to it a book about lost letters, family secrets and history. It should be fun.

There is another book I read while I was at university years ago, about letters, history and secrets. I read it over Christmas/New Year in the mid 1990's and a movie was made of it soon after. David literally went to sleep when we went to see it, but ever since I have always dreamt that this was my office.

Prints, old books, smart work clothes - but not the coffee peculator (a plunger for me). 
My current little corner at work looks a bit like that, filled with postcards, photographs and notes.  But recently I feel I may get to have the real thing working in a museum... a job was advertised doing exactly what I have wanted to do since I was a child.  It is a level higher than what I am currently at and 1/2 a day less than what I currently work.... but I had better not get ahead of myself.  There is an application to write, an interview to get AND to impress at... I know that I have not had active experience in the field for over 10 years but if anything it has inspired me a bit more to be persistent at knocking on doors.

 Things are looking up.

Oh, and on a final note, look what I just came across.  A picture book on Audrey Hepburn!  The illustrations are gorgeous.  It is due to be published in February 2011.  A bit late for my Audrey's birthday, but hey, since when do I stick to reasons to buy gifts? :)