Pip often asks what are 5 words to to describe your life at the moment?

Today here are mine:

• lonely
• boring
• churning
• narrow
• yearning

I fell like there’s a journey ahead - there has to be!  I don’t want to stay where I am now…it’s not that life isn’t good.  I have a job I enjoy, which challenges me, a wonderful husband and a home that on a good day I am glad to have (on a bad day I see all the things that still need to be fixed and feel overwhelmed!)  But I don’t want to be here with these feelings - I’ve spent too much time recently focusing on work.  Now it’s time for me to focus on the whole of me - who I am, where I am and who I am there with.

I want to breathe in and expand.  I may chronicle things here - I’m hopeful that there’s opportunities ahead.  And I’m going to forgive myself for not getting to this point sooner and wasting so much time! (thanks Julie)

I’ve just had breakfast and am finishing off my cup of tea while surfing blogs - a nice way to gently ease into the day (well after the 30min walk/run with the puppy!). The other day Rachel had been talking about the compassion of God and it got me thinking that it’s just as well I’m not God, ‘cos I can be too quick at times to judge.

Then this morning, I came upon this post in my catch up at Jen’s site. I’m gonna try and take this into my day with me!

We had a book club gathering last week that I wasn’t able to go to, but I read the book anyway. It was “A Spot of Bother” by Mark Haddon. I had loved his earlier book “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” - I’d really felt like I got inside the head of the character and he felt really real. It was a book I had a hard time putting down.

Not so with this novel. If it wasn’t our book club read, I’d have had a hard time ploughing through it. With this book, it was almost like there were too many characters and so none of them got to the same depth. There were some great moments, but there was a whole lot of not so great ones, along with some that just didn’t seem believeable. Continue reading this post…

It’s been a while - too long has past since I’ve last blogged, which is about the time it’s been since I’ve just sat down and been able to think about things without a to-do list gnawing at my brain! The week of the 8th April saw us pull of our largest event we’ll ever do for Junior Achievement. The Business Hall of Fame is an annual event thrown by JA Worldwide on a USA level, which is hosted by a local JA. This year it was our turn! It was a lot of work - I picked up the transportation logistics on the Thursday (with a final list on the Friday) prior to the Monday when folks were going to start arriving! That was a long weekend, where I saw far too much of the office, and little of my home and family. I think it paid off though - we picked up people and took them to the hotel, the return shuttle worked out and the dinner on Wednesday night was great. Now it’s just a case of waiting to see how good a fund raiser it was!

Last weekend was Matt’s birthday, so there were various things going on with parents and friends - in between the gatherings and activities I finally managed to sit down, catch up on blogs and start thinking about things - where I’m at, and where this world is at. That’s as far as I got last weekend. Now today, I’m finally sitting down to blog myself!!!

The other day I was reading Rachel Evan’s blog and took up the challenge to see which US presidential candidate my views would fall closer too. It was interesting to be able to see what the candidates are saying about a whole range of areas, rather than the sound bites thrown around. I’ve not taken as much of an interest in the whole process at the moment - it feels like a long dawn out affair that I don’t fully understand coming from the UK! Coupled with the fact that I don’t get to vote anyways, means that I’d kinda just put things on hold until the final candidates are out there!

I’ve also managed to find time to read a couple of books - one for book club and the other was an extra book added in to the Amazon order for Matt’s birthday in order to get free shipping! What can I say, the Scot in me wins out! The reviews will have to wait for another blog, but it’s been nice to sit and read - it had been another thing I hadn’t done for a while! Long may it continue as I got an email from the library that they have two books I requested waiting for me to pick up! Along with finding time to read, I’ve started to find time to be creative again - it started last week with the necessity of making thank you cards (well I guess I didn’t have to make them, but it tied the feeling of wanting to be creative with something on the list!) and I’m keen to keep the flickering flame alight…there are ideas lurking in the shadows and I want to pursue them!

I always like it when the days start to get longer - it feels like there’s opportunity that’s not there when 5pm rolls round and it’s already dark. Spring has sprung, and along with it some hopefulness that I’ve not been feeling for a while. Nashville is starting to feel like home, but I’m still feeling the absence of community - we know our neighbo(u)rs, we both have some good friends at work, but I’m missing folks who will know me and challenge me - who I can get to know and support too - I know it takes time, but I’m thinking I need to be more proactive with it. So while there’s some hopefulness around, I’m all for seeing what can happen!

It’s my first full Presidential Election, here in the USA. I arrived on the tail end of the last one, just in time for the actual vote. I’m following with interest and a fair bit of puzzlement the primary elections.

First off we had the Iowa caucases - I would expect the UN to get involved, as this process hardly seems like a free and fair election - your vote is completely public, and in the democratic primary you can be persuaded to change your vote! Continue reading this post…

I’ve thought the above twice.

The first time, I was driving home. While waiting at a stop light to turn left a car turned into my road. In the inside of the front windshield of his car was a sign, about the size of a car license plate, which said JESUS. I blinked and double checked what I’d just seen before the car passed - then the mind went off down a rabbit hole…maybe he’d been meeting him at the airport and had been one of those people with the sign…and now he was driving him somewhere…gosh, Jesus is headed towards North Nashville… and then my light turned green, the moment passed and I headed home.

Yesterday, it happened when I was driving back to work from the bank. Again, I was at traffic lights, (this time waiting to turn right) and I saw a smallish truck like vehicle coming towards me with a sign all the way across the front which read “oversize load”. The weird thing was there was nothing then attached to this vehicle which was itself smaller than most of the honking SUV’s driven around Green Hills! Had he lost his load…did he realize it?”, I thought as my light turned green and I drove off, wishing I’d had my camera with me, but knowing that even with it I wouldn’t have had the time to get the picture…

Oh, and Happy New Year. To those still stopping by here and those doubting my ability to stick to resolutions ;-p, I have every intention of being a better blogger this year!

“I am not free if I am taking someone else’s freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me…. To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”  Nelson Mandela

“Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else’s skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.”  Frederick Buechner

I was catching up on some blog reading, and came across these quotes on Awareness’ Blog that made me stop and think. I get so tied up looking at my own freedom, my own peace and joy - I get frustrated with the things that take these away. The words of wisdom above ring true and I want to take the challenge of them into each day with me (or at least try!).

I started a project.  It was fairly straightforward - paint the walls in the bathroom - something I could do myself while Matt did other things.  There were some initial hurdles to cross - tearing down wallpaper being the main one and getting to some of the walls the other - but I’d pretty much got the walls ready.

Then, we decided that the large cupboard above the toilet really did make the room feel small and it would be better out of there.  No problem, we thought, just take out the screws connecting it to the wall and carry on - it would only take Matt a couple of minutes and then he could get back to whatever it was he was doing!  Ha, little did we know!!!

Here’s what transpired…we took the cupboard down (the easy part!) which then exposed a strip in the wall, about 2″ wide where there wasn’t any wall…ok, so we just need to insert a piece of sheet rock/plaster board there (we thought).  In order to cover this gap in the section of the wall between where the cupboard had been and the bath surround started there was a piece of edging 2.5-3″ wide which now looked decidedly odd - well, we can just remove that and have a longer piece of sheet rock.  The next surprise - the edging goes over the bath tub surround and rather than place it over it, they had cut a piece of the bath surround out where the edging overlapped.  Now we have a wall with a 2″ gap which then continues into the bath surround.  Not to worry, says Matt, we can just take the surround down and replace it (see how this job is growing?  I’d started out with thinking I had already purchased everything I needed to do the bathroom!).  In hindsight, we are glad it got to this point, as taking down the bath surround showed sheetrock which had gone moldy - don’t you love it when you find a job that someone else cut corners with!  So, the inside wall is pulled down which involves taking the inside wood surround of the window down.  By this time the bath is a mess - it wasn’t great before as it had some cracks from where the old lady had attached rails - so now we are looking at getting a new bath.

Original task - paint bathroom

Current task - put up three inside walls in bathroom, fix bathroom window, purchase and fit new bath, tile wall around the bath…oh, and paint!

Last night we measured the walls for the sheet rock and backboard for tiling that we’ll need and hopefully we can get that ordered and with us for the weekend!  We have guests arriving at the end of October and this is the bathroom downstairs next to both guest rooms!
I’m hoping that the next room we decide to work on is more straightforward - and Matt especially does, given that he got pulled into the bathroom project way more than was ever intended!!

Today I took Molly to the vet - it was her appointment to get spayed. I felt like a worried mother as I dropped her off, her big eyes wondering why I was leaving her there as she’d already established that all the new people she’d excitedly met a few minutes later weren’t going to be new playmates, but rather were getting a cage and pre-op medicine (although I guess she didn’t really realize this part!!) ready for her. It’s a normal procedure, but that doesn’t stop you from worrying slightly - it is afterall surgery and things happen.

But, she has survived, although she is definitely not the same dog tonight as she was this morning! She’s moping around, ears back, trying to lay down and get comfortable - her eyes look confused, as though she can’t quite work out what happened to make her feel so bad…”all I did was fall asleep”…! The kitten is equally confused - who is this black dog that just lies there, letting him walk right up and sniff her without moving? Normally the two of them are tearing around the house at high speed as they “play” together.

So, it’s a somewhat subdued evening here - Matt is out getting dinner and the only noise is from the ceiling fan whirring overhead (the outside temp is almost 8pm and still 23C/74F - I wish the weather would realize it’s autumn!!!). It’s relaxing after a long day and time to savour before the busy-ness of life starts up again - tonight I am relishing the quietness and letting it soothe my soul!

I was told by my boss to take today off - it’s a very welcome break to all that’s been going on lately. And it’s just a me day - chores and other household tasks are waiting for tomorrow!!!

The day started earlier than I would have liked, although and hour later than normal - having a puppy means that 6.30am is a lie in!!! Around 8am I took Molly for a walk to our local coffee shop, Sip, where we met a couple with two dogs who looked after Molly while I purchased my frozen mint mocha and spoke with a lady about Ethiopian food!

The rest of the day has been very leisurely - Molly follows me round like a shadow and I’m getting some reading done. Also, I’ve been surfing the net, and came across this, which was kinda fun…

Name That Tune In ReverseYou scored 10 out of 10 Take the Name That Tune In Reverse Quiz at Quizopolis.com