...so get a real job!

Well, someone is trying to tell me something, because yesterday two of my friends, completely independently of one another suggested that I should get a proper job!

( Can I just say to my amazing friends that this blog is NOT a pop at you, it's an exploration of my thoughts surrounding your suggestion, and I'm also convincing myself that what I do is 'proper' and does have some kind of impact somewhere, even if it does feel like it might be in a parallel universe sometimes)

I really wanted to refer them to the my profile here - an eclectic role is what I have.
(I am SO excited to have a BLOG!)

Ok, I'm not behind my desk THAT much, maybe I should be there more, but everybody who needs to, knows where I am. I pick up my emails at home, get phone calls at tea time, drive around Essex, Herts, Beds and East London at various times of the day and night ( not just for the fun of it, there IS a purpose) and work into the small hours sometimes - much to the annoyance of Keith, who was once described as my ' long suffering husband'!...and I have given up quite a lot of stuff at Church ( the singing stuff mostly,which I honestly miss) in my attempt to 'get a balance' between my pretend job and my real life, which is another thing that friends and family keep suggesting I should do too.

Yes, ok, there ARE days when it SEEMS like I am having a great time - it's not all work, work, work in the paper pushing,admin based, sense of the word. Nor is it all up front teaching.

Soemtimes it's just cheering people on from the sidelines, sometimes it's meeting up for a coffee, or going out to lunch and yes, sometimes I feel that I'm employed, JUST to be ME - but how cool is THAT?

I guess what I have, is more like a bunch of opportunities than a job.

There may be more to follow - there may not, but either way, I appreciate that I am employed in a role that MIGHT make some people think that I'm enjoying myself far too much, but it sounds like the perfect job to me!

Had a funny old day today...

...so I'll take it out on two things that I just don't get.

1) Cricket - don't get me wrong, I admire the athletisism of it, but I just don't get it and the other thing is I just don't want to, so don't try to help me out with it. My Auntie had a quirky t-towel once with 'Cricket for Idiots' or something on it and that didn't help, so I'm either NOT an idiot, or am a mega idiot (!) OR I just really don't care about cricket.

2) Slow hand dryers - what IS the point ?

Oh yeah! Feeling better already:)

The Meaning of Life?

Well, I have been pondering this question and have come up with a couple of ideas for the melting pot.

The first idea began brewing while I was watching the kids playing in the park - my kids that is - on Friday afternoon.

Thomas and Elyse are so different, bringing to life the saying about chalk and cheese, but I THINK Elyse IS the answer to her own question of the meaning of life.

She revels in just being alive, is constantly astonished and surprised by everything, even if she's seen it before. She never takes anything for granted, she shouts when she should talk, laughs when she should cry and then cries laughing, but every now and then, just for an almost imperceptable amount of time, she just stops,I guess, in reality to take a breather, but I wonder if she's trying to let her brain catch up with all the stuff she's just experienced?

The second thought is in response to Philip Yancy's chapter about GK Chesterton, in his book Soul Survivor. GKC was someone who experienced life in an impulsive, kind of
manic depressive way and who really didn't want to believe in God, but found more evidence to suggest that God existed than not. One of the word pictures he paints is of a cosmic shipwreck - we are like sailors who have survived the wreck, walking along the beach picking up the pieces to try and give us a clue as to what has happened.

SO, could the meaning of life be searching for all the clues that God has left for us, that point to his existence and the promise of Heaven; music, love,nature, hope, peace.Yancy calls them 'bright clues into the nature of a reality surrounded by darkness'

What we live with, in this fallen world, are the remnants of God's original design. Is life about trying to make sense of that - is THAT the Meaning of Life?

GRRRR!

This is an unashamedly 'mumsy' blog, but WHERE are all the OTHER socks? I have a laundry basket full of odd ones, so come on - own up, if you've been to ny house lately and pinched a sock as a souvenier - give it back!!

Well, is there?

My daughter asked me an incredible question yesterday, but it was just at the wrong time - I know that sounds awful, and I truely feel awful saying it, but it was teatime!

I was in the kitchen stirring something in a saucepan when I was aware of this little voice breaking into whatever it was I was thinking about.

....well is there?

Is there what, darling?

....an answer..... to the meaning....to life?

I am still cringing at the trite, naff answer I gave...and no, it wasn't 42!
What is even more awful ( for me) is that now I can't even remember what I was thinking about before the 'interruption', so it can't even have been THAT important.

She's nearly 8 and needs to know if there is a answer to meaning to life and I feel a bit pants because I think I should know how to put some kind of answer into words that she would be able to do more thinking with.

I have a feeling that the next few nights of bedtime story time might be taken up having a good old chat.

A change is as good as a rest?

I've never been happy with the name of this blog, because , as usual, the reason for it's being was an impulsive response on my part, so I didn't really think about it.

Well I have been thinking, and prompted by a friend who has just, against her will, started her own blog, and given it a name she can be proud of, my blog is now called: Are We There Yet? - as you can see!

I am trying to work out why I am bothered about the fact that I have bought my first Christmas presents of 2006 this week. I mean don't get me wrong, I feel quite proud of myself, in that I have joined the ranks of the fairly organised, but I also know that there are people out there who have all their gifts bought, wrapped and labelled, and just waiting for the opportunity to place them under the tree, if they haven't already got it up!
There are two households in our road who have had their lights glowing brightly since the beginning of November - no further comment.

So why the sense of botheration and is it wrong to feel proud of being organised, when the reason for the season is to celebrate the birth of an amazing baby - in a stable?

Well, two of my children have their birthday in December and I feel I am selling out in having got some of their Christmas stuff before we've even given them their birthday gifts, but mainly - have I been sucked into the whole consumerist muck of this Season?

Keith and I work really hard and I really want this holiday time to be relaxed and special, and in the past I have had the luxury of swanning around the shops when the rest of the world is at work - so my intentions are all good, but I'm still bothered!

Oh er..HELLO WORLD!

Well, I didn't initially want to start a blog today, it wasn't what I had set out to do, but wanted to post on another blog, and had to have my own blog to do that - sneaky, I wonder if he's on commission?
Anyway, I will be intermittant in my postings, just so you know - whoever YOU are.

Thanks for looking me up anyway, and when I feel I have something to say - you'll be AMONGST the first to know.