The Daily Grind

My Christmas wish for you is that in these festive times you can see past pain, hurts and troubles to reach out your hand. I pray that your hand will give hope to another as you reach out to help.

My Christmas wish for you is that all that you do, albeit the same as any other day, that it will be done with appreciation for all that you have that others may not. I pray that you are enveloped in joy as you serve others.

My Christmas wish for you is that you take the time to love someone else that you find hard to love. I pray that in doing so that you feel loved for just being yourself too.

My Christmas wish for you is that you can consider others with a higher regard than yourself. Then, when you arrive home safely after your celebrations, I pray that you can bring thanks to God that no one lost their life at your hands that same night.

My Christmas wish for you is that you can share the spirit of Christmas in special ways with those who see you in a faceted way. I pray that your life is a testimony of love to work colleagues and clients, to playgroup mums and to the barrista at your local coffee bar.

My Christmas wish for you is that as you contemplate the year ahead that your already laid plans clearly seen as wise or unwise. I pray that all fear, angst and stress be replaced with empowerment, encouragement and, above all, peace.

With love at Christmas

Lately, I have been considering book shelving options as I am bored with plain bookshelves where you only see the spine. I secretly found myself longing for display shelves like those we had at Kindergarten all those many years ago.

As it turns out you will always find someone who has thought the same thing for themselves and can point you to a range of answers. There were several very cool bookshelves that I came across in my search. Like the tree that was turned into paper which was then recycled to make a tree-shaped bookshelf to hold more trees which had been turned into paper.

Image source: http://designartist.cafe24.com/web/open_product/big/tree1.jpg

Then there was one bookshelf that looked somewhat normal other than the adult silhouette that would allow someone to shuffle into the shelf itself to read. I wanted to buy it just put against my living room window with a curtain that hides me in my own nook looking out across my front garden as if I was the only person in the world. It is such a great idea!

So, as I hunted it became clear that all the great ideas were used in children's bedrooms. (Apparently, we grow out of being attracted to books by their cover). The solutions that a friend pointed me towards was the use of PVC gutters as a display shelf which is kind of nifty.
Image source: http://familyfun.go.com/

So, I have now seen dozens of pictures showing them in children's play areas:

Image source: http://www.mamanotes.com/

To fitting them into shared bedrooms:

Image source: http://raisingolives.com/ - Rain Gutter Book Shelves Tutorial

But what I hope to see is one long shelf in the Master Bedroom spanning the entire wall above the top of the bed head. I have even had a look at the Philmac web site to look at what my style options are. What do you think?

Today I spent the day painting our Master Bedroom. You see, Father's Day is coming up fast and Sir Sonic wishes to give his father breakfast in bed. Part of that plan was to give Dad a clean, tidy and freshly painted bedroom (free of freestyle texta illustrations and cereal-based hand prints).

At one point whilst painting I realised, since I was painting with such a similar colour, that I could not tell where the wet paint ended and the dry wall started any more. In order to tell I needed to step back and take a look at the whole wall to see where was wet and where was dry.

Later this evening this experience came to mind with three key concepts tied to it - 'being busy', 'dry areas of life' and 'relationships'. What does that have to do with painting walls?

Well, sometimes we just get busy. We do what we need to do and just toil away in our own routine. Sometimes, though we may not realise that we are painting our way through life onto wall that is already wet and missing the dry parts that cry out to be made beautiful once more.

In the same way that I had to step back to look at the wall to take stock and see which part was wet and which part was dry, so we, too, need to make the time to look at our lives and find those areas that are dry and need to be freshened up. Is there a new recipe you have been meaning to try? Is there something simple you can do to decorate your living room? Have you found a new mind-game to play with yourself whilst doing housework? These are all ideas for something new to bring back life to the dry parts of your day.

Better still, and perhaps more importantly, have you brought a fresh coat of paint to those areas of your life that matter most - your relationships? Relationships are so very important for our health and well being so we should not take them for granted. Instead, do something that will invigorate your relationships with family and friends instead!

Is there are friend that you haven't touched base with in some time? Have you treated yourself to something special as a pick-me-up? Have you told someone that you love them recently? What else could you do?

Take five minutes to write down your thoughts on what you can do in your life to freshen up any areas that are looking old, dreary, dusty or marked. If you want, share them with me too by commenting on this post.

Have a great week!

..no, I lie. But it sounded better than 'it started when a child pulled out eight toy boxes'. That's where it really started. I was just in the process of explaining that this was not okay when, ironically, his Occupational Therapist called to see how he was doing. (Let's just say the call was cut short when he started throwing toys around).

So, we did a prompt clean away of toys as a family and I put lunch on. With an egg cracked for each child on the grill I thought about cracking one for myself (which is an unusual thing for me to eat). Clearly, eggs are something I am not meant to be consumed as that fourth egg was rotten and it was a mad dash to get it off the grill before it contaminated the other eggs. (Fried rotten egg smells totally disgusting for the record). I felt ill.

Well, the kid's eggs got away unscathed and were plated with rice and vegetables. It was ready to serve when I found that another child had found store-bought tomato sauce (that did not belong to us) and had managed to spill it from the entranceway, through the formal lounge across the carpet runner and up the stairs including pouring it onto the wall and splashing it on doors also. What a mess!

It was a day I had dedicated to getting the house clean that turned into a day dedicated to not letting the house become any more untidy than it was at the end of the day. Thankfully, with the changing of the goal posts I survived the day.

Yes, it's true things have been quite busy around here. We have had a big change of pace and I am gearing up for a huge change to my lifestyle. For the first time in a number of years I have found myself writing job applications and reviewing my CV.

The nett result has been a job offer in a retirement village. I have my first training shift on Monday and I hope that the couple of shifts I may get each fortnight puts us in stead for the bills that we are expecting when PJ Bear starts his diagnosis process.

I will do my best to keep blogging - it just may be a little more sporatic.