Finally finished!

10 Secrets for Success and inner peace!

When I first started my blog I talked a lot about this wonderful book by Dr Wayne Dyer. I tried to take each secret and break it down to share what I had got out of it. Time and daily life seemed to get in the way and I lost the momentum, to finish reading it and also to blog about it.
A couple of days ago I found the time to finish and I want to share with you a little more.

To recap:

Secret one: "Have a mind that is open to everything and attached to nothing."
Secret two: "Don't die with your music still in you."
Secret three: "You can't give away what you don't have."
Secret four: "Embrace Silence"
Secret five: "Give up your personal history."
Secret six: "You can't solve a problem with the same mind that created it."
Secret seven: "There are no justified resentments."
Secret eight: "Treat yourself as if you already are what you'd like to be"
Secret nine: "Treasure your divinity."
Secret ten: "Wisdom is avoiding all thoughts that weaken you."

Each of these very simple and yet profound philosophies has given me something. They are easy to read and understand and yet not so easy to live. The days that I have successfully lived one or more of them have been wonderful days.

I have realised that I can choose how I live each and every day and in fact each and every minute. I can wake up each morning and say:

"Good morning God!" or I can wake up and say "Good God - morning!" I know which one will give me the better day.

The best is treating myself as though I have already achieved that which I wish to achieve! I wanted to lose some weight about 6 months ago. So I put in place all the things that I needed to do this. I believed that I would weigh 5 kilos less by Christmas. I still had to do all the hard stuff, like not eat so much, exercise etc. But now just a few weeks out from Christmas I am down over 4 kilos. I believed and it happened. We can achieve anything that we truly want and believe, if it is the only thoughts that we think. We can put in the work required with joy and inspiration and it will happen.

And finally, avoid thoughts that weaken you. Forgive yourself, release any guilt from your life. You cannot change the past, you can learn from it and move forward with positive uplifting thoughts that will empower you to success. Don't be apathetic about life and things, these thoughts lead to despair. Be positive, live your life, you only get one chance at it - and it truly is beautiful.

Middle School Captain

Middle School Co-Captain for 2009.

Mr Switzer principal of WMAC congratulates Matthew on his appointment as Middle School co-captain for 2009.

Matthew and Madeline Middle school captains for 2009. Matthew is thrilled to have Maddy as his partner. They have been friends since Grade 5, when Matthew arrived at the school.

The school and chapel captains for next year. The blessing for Matthew is that he is also very good friends with Kristy-Anna and Kurtis, so between these 4 young people, they will lead the middle school next year.

Today I had the very proud moment of seeing my beautiful son Matthew given the leadership position of middle school captain. He had given an amazing speech at the end of term three and had been waiting anxiously for the announcement. This should have occurred last week, but the storms washed out the event, so it was with baited breath that we waited for the announcement today.

Our family had wonderful front row seats and when Matthew's name was announced, I punched the air with excitement. I guess, some people would think that I should have been more restrained, but I am thrilled and proud of our wonderful son. Congratulations Matthew, good luck and may you have an amazing experience next year.

Time to think

Today after school drop-off, I will be coming home to an empty house. I don't have to go anywhere, I can just come home. I have lots of chores to achieve, like a whole basket of ironing, 2 baskets of washing and of course tidying up. But, I am not going to be rushing anywhere. For the first time in about a week, I will be coming home to silence and some time to think!

I realise that at this time of the year, I rush around a lot, trying to get everything organised for Christmas. I always have my carpets cleaned, house sprayed for pests and of course achieve the impossible, by attending every school activity with the children while doing Christmas shopping.

I seldom have a day of quiet, a day to meditate or just a few hours of total silence to find some peace and refresh my energy levels. So today I am dedicating to quiet, maybe some soft inspirational music, maybe just silence!

Then I am going to stay quiet and think about my wonderful life.

Christmas is now less than a month away. We are putting up our tree this weekend, I am almost finished doing the Christmas shopping and next week the children go on holiday. Madness I am sure will rush in again soon enough, but as I sit quietly now at the keyboard, only the sound of the birds and my fingers tapping on the keys, I relish the sound of silence.

Every mouth has a silver lining!

Ever since Matthew was very small, we have had to spend a great deal of time at the dentist/orthodontist. It has been really hard on him, having so many surgeries and subsequent braces, expanders, more braces etc, etc. His pain tolerance level is so high that it is almost dangerous! He is stoic and brave and I am immensely proud of him.

Today was another visit into the Royal Children's Hospital in the city for new braces. We had a 90 minute drive in the traffic and then almost 2 hours in the dental chair. His expander had to be removed and the new braces fitted. By the end his mouth was very, very sore.

The 'silver lining' to all of this of course is that we get to have some very special Mom/Matthew time together. Over the years, I have got to know my son, we have shared hours of chatting in the car, always have a treat lunch together when his appointment is over and just share some laughs and fun together.

Today we did some Christmas shopping, how cool to have a whole morning with my teenage son and us both enjoy and love the time together. I am so proud of him, grateful to the amazing medical staff who have worked miracles and to the Universe for the silver lining of his inner and outer beauty.

An Affair of the Heart

During the last few months I have experienced a huge awakening of consciousness, I have realised that I have only one life to live and I am the person that has to live it. Along with this 'rather serious' awakening, I have come to realise that I do not often express the needs and desires that I have, as then I may be disappointed. Now that was a really sad realisation!

I have a wonderful life, I have an amazing husband who I have loved for over 20 years, 3 beautiful, loving and talented children. I live in our gorgeous home in Australia - a pretty good place on Earth to live and I have my health, more than sufficient wealth (of course I would love to win the lottery - who wouldn't?) and family that I love and who love me.

One of the things that I have realised is that life had become a chore! I had to get up clean house, iron, take care of children, manage finances, etc. etc..... I had lost the fun of living. So I decided to change.

My brother sent me a wonderful email a few months back about achieving 'your desires', it was inspirational, but of course the secret what "What did you want to achieve?" I did not know. I suddenly saw myself as a 'nearly 45 year old' and dreaded the thought of the next 20 years of doing exactly what I was doing every single day.

So I decided to change! I decided first of all, again following an email, this time from my friend Michelle, that I was going to set a goal of 101 things to do before I die! I must admit I am only up to around 11 items at the moment, but this is sort of the exciting thing, as I can keep adding to my list. The first and most important item I decided was that I am going to live until 101 at least. Just giving myself permission to live that long was exciting! Now I have almost 2 lifetimes ahead of me and I had no idea what I was going to do!

As you all know by now, I registered to attend University next year. I began really working on my poetry, I am writing, scrapbooking, creating cards, spreading the joy of life through 'Simply Angels - Pay it forward' and really feeding my creative side. I am living.

Now for the focus of this blog: I decided that I needed to have "An Affair!" I remember so clearly the wonderful, amazing feeling of being in that first flush of love with my husband and I miss that. Yes, I still love him with all my heart and even on a far deeper level than before, but we have lost the "Affair" part of being in love. So I told him that I was going to go out and have an affair to capture that magic again. The best part was that I had found someone to have the affair with - yes of course silly people - it is him!

I decided that we need to date, we need to see each other as strangers who we need to pay attention to and to get to know. Just by having an affair of the heart, we can recapture the magic and special attention that 20 years of marriage can dull. I looked at my wonderful man and saw the person I fell in love with and realised that it was worth just that extra special attention.

So I am going to wear make-up, dress up pretty, go out to lunch, catch a movie. Have a special picnic and find all the time in the world for my new 'love affair'. I managed to do it 20 years ago and now I have all this life experience to give, I think I can do it again.

Can you?

Raging rivers

Elizabeth and I standing next to the Bremer river which runs through Ipswich. It is in full flood and many local business's including a scrapbooking friend have been totally flooded! She lost 9000 photos which were on her computer - so back up your files and photos everyone!

Our local picnic spot, completely under water.

This is the Brisbane river, close to where we live at College's Crossing, Ivan usually drives across this road to get to work, but now it is under 1.5m of water.

The dogs were having great fun in the water, it was running so fast though, that any sort of swimming would be unbelievable dangerous.

Summer storm season

Three days of storms and 200mm of rain.

We are the lucky ones. Thousands of people have extensive damage to their properties from the most recent series of storms to hit us in S.E. Qld.

Last night was the hardest for us. It started with Matthew's presentation night, which went ahead despite the storm warnings and less than 20 minutes into the programme had to be abandoned due to heavy, heavy rain. We were wading through ankle deep water to get back to the car, all of which had fallen in just 5 minutes. Our drive toward home was interesting, as it was completely dry in our suburb. This was really good, as it gave us a chance to get home, dry off and get settled.

Around 10pm the storm hit us and the rain started, it never let up until after 3.25am and it sure rained. Our front garden is not well designed or drained, so this morning we were ankle deep in water, thank goodness, none of it caused any damage!

I had around 2 hours sleep and was up at 5am sweeping out the garage, Dad's workshop and the patio. Needless to say am feeling a little punch drunk this afternoon.

More photos and blogs to follow.

Tuesday - Simply Pay it forward

Today is the magic day of the week, when we pay forward the joy in our lives. Michelle and I, of 'Simply Angels' send out a card or maybe even two to share the Joy that we experience in our lives and so share the joy.

I must admit this morning, I woke feeling tired and 'not-so-Joyful'. It is raining and I am having my carpets cleaned, of course they won't dry properly. I have to get up and make lunches for school. Ivan can't take the children to school as he has an early meeting. The house is all a mess as we have cleared the carpets, I have ironing to do....... Can you see the pattern?

I did not see how I could even begin to send out a card with Joy. Yet, as I have read Michelle's JoyExpress, her lovely morning email and the beautiful inspirational letter that Matthew wrote to Sarah last night, the Joy began to seep back into my soul.

So Tuesday, is Share the Joy and Pay it Forward, so I am sending you all thoughts of Joy. If you would like to receive some Joy in the form of a card from me, drop me an email with your name and address and I will add you to my list. Email address is baadair@bigpond.net.au or maybe you want to share the joy in your life with people that you know need a little. Let me know and I will email you some details of how to be part of 'Simply Angels - Pay it forward.'

We can all make a difference.

Have a Joyful Day

Beverly

Birthdays

Tomorrow is my Darling Husband's 49th birthday and then on Monday my Mom, Dorothy celebrates her 65th birthday.

I always delight in the 2 months between November 16th and January 24th (my birthday) as I can say that I am 5 years younger than Ivan. Although in reality I am really only just 4 years younger, the math of 49-44= 5, delights me and annoys Ivan. (Hmm small things annoy small minds).

As always we seem to have a celebration on Ivan's birthday for them both, but this year it is okay as Mom and Dad are having a few days away, leaving early Monday morning. So I am planning a roast lamb lunch, with some nice red and white wine and a few laughs.

I like birthdays, it is special to make a day really special for someone. As we get older they often lose the magic of childhood, I think this is because we forget that it is a day to celebrate, not to mourn another year passing.

Birthdays for children are magical, the morning presents, often a party to look forward to and a day when we can do no wrong. So tomorrow and Monday, two special people in my life will celebrate their birthdays and I am going to make them special days, filled with happiness and magic.

2008 Young Leaders conference

Matthew was invited to attend the 2008 Young Leaders conference at the Brisbane convention centre with 9 classmates from his school. There was a total of 1400 young people in attendance and 5 amazing guest speakers.

I had to have him in the city at 8.30am this morning and had planned the day for myself, to wander around the city and do some shopping. His teacher invited me and another parent to join the conference instead and although I had to pay my own way, I jumped at the opportunity.

It was wonderful to be re-inspired by some amazing speakers and to realise just how relevant this information was to me as I shift my focus in life. I am at a crossroads, like many of the young people attending. I am deciding on my journey forward and want to give to the world in a positive and powerful way. So I learnt some amazing and inspirational things today.

I loved a couple of special comments:

The first was: " A dream is an idea abut the future that differs from the current reality."

A quote from Joseph Campbell, "Follow your bliss" find what makes you happy and follow it. Along this line don't pursue your goal so hard that you destroy the joy, work at it and pursue it, but enjoy the journey.

"Flow is when you love something so much that time disappears!" Then you know you are following your bliss.

Natalie Cook the Gold medal Australian Volleyball player was an amazing speaker. She talked about the 3 'ships' of a great leader. 1 - Leadership; Followship; and Relationship. All three are essential for success. You cannot have one without the other two.

She also said that good leaders find a win/win situation, look at other people's viewpoint and that it is essential to write down your goals.
Walk around obstacles in life, don't give up or turn back, just change direction and move around them..

Finally choose and then commit 100%!

There was also the message of "Life is made up not of 'what if' but 'what is'? Real champions don't make excuses they make choices. We choose to follow a path and then need to do the hard work.

So today as a 44 year old Mother, I have walked away from a conference for the young leaders of our future and looked at my own life, believing that I am on the path that I choose, am going to commit 100%. I am going 'Risk big to win big!' rather than risk nothing and win nothing! I am grateful for this amazing day.

Very Early morning

It is a wet, early (very early) morning in Brisbane, just 4.45am. I have been up since 4.10am as my dearly beloved has an early flight to Tasmania this morning. Another gripe about not having daylight saving, is that we are now an hour behind the rest of the Eastern States, so have to get up really early to catch interstate flights.

The garden is green and wet after lovely soaking rains last night and the birds are just beginning their early morning calls. The funniest is that I let Abby (our dog) out and fed her, after her morning patrol of the borders of the property and a little doggy business, she appeared back at the door, came in and rushed straight back to her basket in the laundry. Even Abby reckons it is too early to be up.

Last night the children kept telling Ivan to please wake them to say goodbye, he was so reluctant to do so, rather wanting them to sleep. I had to talk to him, to make him realise that they would go straight back to sleep and even if they didn't it was far more important to them to say Goodbye to their Daddy than have a few hours extra snooze time.

Yesterday, I had a busy day writing my annual Christmas letter, 6 pages! Every year I write to people I have not communicated with for ages and send them an annual update of our lives. We have been really busy again. I am also including a CD of photos this year, modern technology is wonderful.

So now at 4.54am, I have reset the alarm for 6.15am and I am going to sneak back to bed for a lovely hours snooze. The best type of all. Then it is on with the daily routine of life. A little housework and hopefully some scrapbooking or writing. Elizabeth and I had originally planned a day out, but have postponed it due to the rainy weather. We have 3 months home together, so will get lots of time for fun days out.

Early morning

Wednesday morning 6.00am.

Queensland does not have daylight saving and we should! The sun rises well before 5.00am now and the birds start really early. To wake up in the cool mornings and start the day earlier would be so much better, then we could enjoy longer evenings.

However, the bonus is being one of the few people that are up and about at this time of the day. Ivan has been getting up at 5.00am and doing a few chores, bringing me orange juice in bed and then heading out by 6.00am. As he goes into the shower, I get up and make his lunch for him and now just after 6.00am, I have the computer to myself for about 30 minutes to check emails and write on my blog. What a lovely way to wake up!

Yesterday I had a lovely crafty/creative day. I decided this year to make 2 Christmas gifts. I spent the morning sewing and enjoyed myself so (sew) much! It is years since I last sat and made something special by hand, what a forgotten pleasure.

I also realised that I have not shared this wonderful skill with my children. At their ages, I could sew on buttons, repair rips in clothes and even make my own clothes. With our changing lives, if something is now ripped or torn, we just throw it away and don't attempt to fix it. Clothes are cheap and so sewing is no longer cost effective, but the pleasure of making something yourself cannot be bought from a shop.

I also had the pleasure of my eldest daughter's company yesterday. She is finished her first year University and although she is working part-time, I am going to have lots of time with her over the next few months. We have plans to sew together, to bake and scrapbook. What a pleasure to share my life with this wonderful adult woman. I am truly blessed.

Today I am focusing on my writing again. Everyday I am trying to write. At least a few lines, an outline, a thought or maybe if successful a full poem.

P.S. Chore list is working fantastically - by last night after just 2 days 31 chores had been achieved and the house is looking fantastic. It has also caused me to lift my game, as the task is no longer daunting. I only have to achieve 5 chores a day. Even Ivan is into the full swing of it, complaining this morning that two of his chores were not on the list, so it needs amending.

Give it a go in your house, 5 goals a day. You can achieve miracles.

Sharing and receiving Joy

Simply Angels...Pay it forward!

My lovely friend Michelle has started an amazing idea that we are going to spread joy to the world. She has been doing this for a few years now first with her newsletter JoyExpress and then her website JoyExpress. Both of which uplift the soul and inspire all of us who read it.

Now we are starting a new idea.

Simply Angels … Pay it Forward
Each Tuesday, I am going to send a card to someone. Inside that card will be a positive and uplifting message. My Intention is that the person receiving the card will Feel So Good that they will want to SHARE the JOY and, in turn, send a card to someone. And, that person will Feel So Good that they will want to SHARE the JOY and, in turn, send a card. And so on.

Have you ever opened your postbox and there is something special and uplifting, it lights up the whole world just for those few moments? To know that there is someone out there that is thinking of you and wants you to feel special.

Today is November 11th, when we take one minute in our busy lives to remember all those who have lost theirs to give us our freedom. Today instead of only remembering those that have been lost, focus on the true spirit of remembrance and change the world, with thoughts of love and peace to all. Spread the joy, not the hate!

We can change the world, one step, one thought, one word and one deed at a time. Tuesdays are special because Angels all over the world will be sending out Joy.

If you would like to join our Simply Angels - Pay it forward, just send me an email; put your name in my "Pay it forward jar" or start your own wonderful special card day.

I hope today you experience the Joy of Angels and Joyful thoughts.

Five Goals

Children and chores is the theme of today's post.
I have the three most amazing kids in the world. They are polite, funny, amazing and I love them so much. The problem is that I am a 'stay-at-home-Mum' and I do everything!!!! I am also very organised and efficient and can do most things in half the time that everyone else does - and so I do!

The problem has however, now arisen in that I am developing a life outside of being just a 'stay at home Mum!' I am now a writer and a poet and next year I am going to University and I am just plain tired of being the slave that I have created over the years. I take full blame for the fact that my children are not more responsible as I have spoilt them. I have also denied their help when it has been offered. If they come and say what can I do? I often can't think on my feet of something that needs doing, so say "Don't worry, there is nothing I need help with!" WRONG!

So today I have created a chores list extraordinaire! It has around 40 items on it and runs from Monday to Sunday. Elizabeth has laminated it at work and I have a marking pen. Everyone has to complete 5 chores each day. There are easy things from emptying the inside bins or wiping down the sink and mirror in the bathroom to really hard tasks such as washing windows or weeding garden beds. I am no longer going to tell anyone what they have to do. Everyone in the family will be responsible for completing at least 5 chores each and everyday of the week, and all the chores will have to be filled in by the end of the week. Some of them will only need to be done once a month or so, but this way, I have taken myself out of the equation.

Three children times 5 chores times 7 days - Wow! A total of 105 chores per week. I am going to be able to retire from housework! Ha! Ha! No, I think not, but at least it will free up some time for me to pursue my own passion now and I won't get mad because I am constantly begging, pleading or nagging.

Anyway that is the goal and the plan, will keep you updated on how it is going!

Raindrops and Saturdays

Woke this morning to a drizzly day. It is however, not grey or depressing, but rather muggy and refreshing. It is one of those warm Brisbane summer mornings when the air is just too fill of water and it starts to rain. The birds are in full chorus, so you can hear it is not a downpour and it appears as though everyone of them is out there having a morning shower.

Ivan was up and about at 5.00am wide awake and cheerful, jet lag finally passing I think. As a result he 'quietly' (I think impossible) made himself coffee and me orange juice, at which stage I was now awake. Still it is nice to have a couple of hours to sit and chat about life and dreams.

He did me the huge honour of asking me to read him some of my poetry this morning and we talked about the meanings and thoughts behind it. I am also so very blessed in that he offered that 'one day' if and when I am ready he will help me publish a book of my poetry and he will pay for the printing of the minimum of 500 copies. Now that was a WOW moment for me. That my husband loves me so much that he will pay to publish a book of poetry that I have written, I am truly the luckiest, most loved woman in the world.

Elizabeth finished her exams for first year university yesterday, so we had a celebratory BBQ with Mom, Dad and the children. It was so yummy and relaxing.

Saturday duties are now calling, so happy weekend to you all.

Magnetic thoughts!

Last night's post focused on the thought that I was sending out negative energy to the world and feeling it myself. My amazing friend Michelle, sent me a lovely email this morning in response and I thought I would share some of her wonderful thoughts here with you all. (Hope you don't mind Michelle?)

You are a Very Special Woman and Friend. It is Normal to have the lows after the highs. It is your opportunity to recognise what you have been achieving, and take time to nurture, pamper and rejuvenate the Inner Goddess. Nothing more, nothing less. Take in your ‘shingle’ (the one you have hanging on your ‘door’ saying “Mother/Writer/Best Friend Extraordinaire”) for a day or two, so everyone knows the ‘shop is shut’.

This is really profound advice and made me realise that I could just take some time to recover. She went on further.

A message for you from Manifest Your Desires – 365 Ways to Make Your Dreams a Reality by Esther & Jerry Hicks (Teachings of Abraham):

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The most important thing to remember is that you are the attractor of your experience, and that you are attracting it by the virtue of the thoughts you are offering. Thoughts are magnetic, and as you think a thought, it will attract another and another and another, until eventually you will have a physical manifestation of the vibrational essence of whatever has been the subject of your thoughts.

These fantastic messages are useful for us all. Sometimes we do just need to 'bring in our shingle'. We feel overwhelmed and start shouting and yelling, it is not through a desire to punish the world, but to find the time and peace for ourselves.

I Loved this message … it’s so true. We do spend lots of time giving out the energy, then our thoughts start turning to ‘I’m tired. Leave me alone. I need a break.’ But we don’t listen to them, or our bodies. Eventually, Lovely Angels are sent our way to say ‘Hey, I’m going to irritate and aggravate you until you get the message that you are short fused, tired, and need some down time.”

So for today's post, I am going to acknowledge my amazing friend Michelle, who is an incredible person. Her website JoyExpress is something worth visiting each and everyday. She is bringing joy to the world one step at a time.

I hope you send out positive amazing thoughts today and that they come straight back at you.

Beverly

Negative energies!

Today I had a lovely morning scrapbooking with a friend. It was good to have company as it meant that I could not get distracted by chores and other 'yucky' stuff. I managed 20 pages and completed my 'Port Douglas' album at last! I have been really slow at this and as much as I enjoyed the holiday, the photos have eventually become a chore, because I dragged it out to long. Anyway, it is now done and looks wonderful.

I realised today however, that I had found it very easy to slip into 'negative energies!' My friend and I started whinging about issues and all my positive thought efforts went out the window. I allowed myself to deal with issues that are a problem in a really negative way and now feel a little sad about it.

One of the things that I have been working really hard on is trying to stay positive and happy, so once more I have decided to refocus my thoughts toward good and positive and throw out the negative.

At least now I can see where I am headed before I get too far down the road.

Tomorrow, positive energies again.

This is Me!

How do you all like the hairstyle???

This morning I decided to try a change of hairstyle, usually have it lose or tied up in a single ponytail, to get it off my neck. It has been 30 degrees today and I was ironing, so felt like a change!

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I feel young and cheeky, with it tied up like this, but love it. The great thing about being 44 is that I do not worry about what other people think of me anymore, so can wear my hair how I like. Funny though, because I asked you all "How you like my hairstyle?" Maybe, not quite as confident as I thought, although I am not going to change it for anyone except myself.

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I have realised that I am really happy today. Wrote another couple of poems last night, "Laughter" is already published on Vesta-poetry and I am working on the other one. Bought the DVD of Mamma Mia this morning and bopped along to Abba as I did my ironing, only the 5th time I have watched it - the best movie ever and now my favourite movie!

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Family news:

Elizabeth received a fantastic '7' (top grade) for a recent English essay for Contemporary Literature, the one subject that she has really struggled with this semester. The books that were chosen were all depressing and dealt with serious issues in society. She hated the selection, but in her usual indomitable way, she conquered all. She also wrote her final Contemporary exam yesterday. Has completed her final Gothic essay (English) and now has just 2 history exams on Thursday and Friday, one course of which she has sufficient marks already that she has passed the course. Quite a girl!

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Matthew has been invited to the 2008 National Young Leaders Day in Brisbane on 14th November. As a candidate for middle school captain next year, he was given an invitation. This will give him the opportunity to meet other school leaders from schools across Brisbane, wow, what an honour.

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Sarah is still practising her flute and was paid an amazing compliment recently by the school accompanist! Mr Ramm, told her to keep up her flute lessons as she has one of the best 'pure' flute sounds he has heard in a long time. Very special for someone, who has only been playing for about 9 months.

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Ivan is travelling, now in South Africa, for a couple of days and due home on Thursday evening, we are all looking forward to having him home again.

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So that is all for the early November family wrap-up! We have Sports presentation night on the 14th, Matt's presentation night on the 19th and Sarah's presentation night on December 3rd, so a busy month ahead of us all.

The Bucket List.

Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson recently starred in the wonderful movie called "The Bucket List". Both having been diagnosed with terminal cancer, they set out to achieve some of the things on their list of 'things to do before I die!' It is a funny, sad and inspirational film with two great actors.

My friend Michelle, has today set herself a challenge to make up her list of '101 things' - her own 'bucket list'. Unlike the actors, she has decided not to wait until she is dying to work on her list, both writing it and also achieving it now while she is young and healthy.

It has made me think, that I to would like the challenge of finding the 101 things that I would like to achieve in this life. It sounds so easy, but as soon as you begin, you will find that you run out of ideas really quickly. My first five came easily, these were the ones on the top of my head. Dreams and wishes I have had for a while, then I stalled! Wow! I did not expect that. I thought about it and managed another five, so I have a list of 10, but now I am going to keep a notebook with me to record all the 'little and big' dreams and wishes that I have for my life.

I have realised that I cannot begin to achieve any of the things that I wish for, if I do not even know what they are and also if I don't focus and work towards them.

The first item on my list was: To go to University next year to study writing and poetry. When I first decided to try and attempt this, it was a 'sort-of-vague' thought, but it has taken root in my soul and I really want this. It is one of those things that I would never have imagined that I would ever want to do and yet here it is top of my list.

I am keeping all my goals really personal, not focusing on things that I want my children or family to have or achieve, but goals and dreams that are purely my own. That may sound a little selfish, but I think just the idea that we can wish and dream for things just for ourselves, is a powerful thought. It is neither selfish or self-indulgent, but rather a way that we can be fulfilled and serve our true purpose in the life that we have been given.

Why not join the challenge and make out your list? It may not have 101 things on it, but imagine how exciting it will be to dream and plan and then achieve your goals.

Writing in my head!

Last night I informed the children that I did not want to be woken before 8.00am under any circumstances. We all agreed we needed a lie-in. (I love it now that my children are older and don't wake up so early). I woke at 5.00am, let Abby (our dog) out and went back to bed. Having only turned off my light at mindnight after reading a wonderful book my friend Michelle had lent me (Angels in my hair), I was rather tired!

At 8.01am I woke for the second time and just smiled, my internal body clock had rung its alarm and told me it was now 8.00am. I decided that it was time to get up and begin writing down all the words that had been floating around for the previous 8 hours! There are times when I wish I could connect directly to the computer, as amazing words of power float in my mind. I see poetry and words that just flow with ease and when I try to capture them through my fingers, they sometimes disappear.

I have posted a new poem on Vesta-poetry last night, it is a little different but so reflective of my space in life at the moment. I hope you enjoy it.

Today I feel the need to write, I counted last night that I have written 20 poems this year, poetry that I am proud to own and at last have found the courage to share. Thank you to everyone for your encouraging words of support.

Wishing you all a wonderful day.

Beverly

Final Halloween post!

THE END!

Three Mummies and six excited and sugar-hyped girls and boys!

I hope you enjoy looking at all the photos of our first (and I think last for a while) Halloween party. I have had to post 4 or 5 different entries to try and show you all the photos, so scroll down and have a peek!

Today is November 1st, and Christmas will soon be here! So I wish you all a wonderful weekend and a great day. I hope you enjoyed our Halloween party photos!

Beverly

Halloween decorations! We had lots of fun decorating the house with many of the amazing things we brought back home from the USA. Inside and out, the house looked amazing. Now today we have to put it all back together.

Halloween game

THE MUMMY WRAP!

Three teams - two toilets rolls and a prize for the best and a prize for the fastest!

Elizabeth's friend Sam, joined us and was such good fun in all the games.

Matthew's team won the best wrapped, Elizabeth's team the fastest wrapped and Sam's team won the prize for getting out of the paper first!

Finished Mummy's next post

Halloween creatures!

Mad Scientist dies of a broken heart! Bride disappears after wedding?

The body of Freddy Frankenstein was found, 10 years to the day, after his wedding to Melissa, his famous assistant.

It appears that Melissa disappeared after the wedding and Freddy's heart was broken, thinking she had run off with te dashingly handsome Vlad Dracula!


Freddy was found reading a book of love poems, still dressed in his wedding suit. His diary next to him records his heartbreak and sorrow.

Mystery deepens: Where is the Bride?????

We had the above story next to Freddie. Poor Melissa was in the bathtub, where she had fallen after the wedding. With only candle lighting in the bathroom, no-one wanted to go in and wash their hands.

More photos to follow