do not adjust your set

I'm glad I didn't stay under the duvet, the light on the trees as I drove to work was beautiful.
There's a lot I feel I'm trying to adjust to at the moment, in all aspects of my life, and I don't feel as flexible as I would like. It's a long time since I did yoga. The phrase "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" is unhelpfully playing on my mind. But tonight hopefully someone is coming to collect the dog agility equipment we no longer have space for - it was a very popular item and once picked up I have the slightly uncomfortable task of letting all the others know that I didn't offer it to them. Someone has already emailed me a second time asking why I've not got back yet to her email of yesterday. Ho hum.
My boyfriend's bigger tele is now in our lounge and I'm not convinced people are using the remote properly, there are synching buttons on it that I'm sure are being accidentally pressed as the sound never seems to match the vision. I'm sure we'll be used to it soon.

Need some cuteness? I thought I'd posted this before but can't find it...
http://twentytwowords.com/sea-otters-holding-hands-to-keep-from-drifting-apart-while-sleeping/

no adulting today

Today you will find me under the duvet, free from responsibilities and decision making and form filling and being grown up.
Except of course that will only be in my imagination, because I am in reality up and parenting and trying to decide who to freegle all the different items to and soon off to work and then parents eve and then a meeting.
There doesn't look like much pause for breath today. I will make time for pausing for breath. And maybe holding hands with my friends to skip through piles of fallen leaves without caring if there is dog poo beneath. (in my imagination again).

run in... run out...

same as it ever was?

As you know, I'm not a fan of paperwork. Previously, my husband would file away all the electricity bills etc, and i've continued doing that. But in trying to create space I've wondered about my archive of 15 plus years of bills and wonder just why I file them away. There doesn't seem to be a good reason for it, my answer appears to be "that's the way we've always done it" which is not usually a good reason for doing anything. A straw poll amongst my friends reveals that most people, if they keep them at all, would save them only a year or two. I'm diligently removing personal info off each of them tho, so it's not as quick a process as I'd like. And my paper recycling bin is already full.

It's always good to be jolted out of a rut when doing something just because that is how it has always been done. I'm tired tho and out every night this week and right now would quite like to be unchallenged,  back in my comfort zone (with my duvet).

I've realised that the tiredness comes in part from feeling a need to justify myself instead of feeling accepting of myself - form filling never assists with that feeling!! Still trying to find an easy christmas hymn for the choir. And what I really really want to do today is start a jigsaw...

discombobulated

I was concerned for my friends who live in Turkey and spent the morning reflecting on happy times with them. I was mightily relieved to hear they are ok. They are my daughter's godparents so I was also thinking about the role i play for my goddaughter,which I have always seen as a role in which i support their parents.
Maybe enough reflecting for now. I really need to get the pool cleaned up and dismantled today. Finally! Time for  rest now:-)

little lie in

This half term is often tiring as everyone adjusts to the new expectations of a higher academic year. I've said the kids can sleep in as long as they want today, their first deadline is not til this evening. I however am off out this morning and am grateful to be sharing transport as last time I went there I got lost.
I missed singing last night but there is a gig tonight so hopefully that will re -energise me. Not only was it great to sing, but there was a debut performance by folk who are also in my Friday choir so great to cheer them on :-)

Christmas is coming (kind of)

I will at some point get back to yesterday's blog and finish the poem, just whenever I'm next inspired to do so.

Now I am officially a choir leader, I need to be a bit more organised about Christmas than my usual attitude of "I will think about it when it gets to December." And so I spent a considerable amount of yesterday rediscovering Christmas Carols with a view to what we might sing as a performance piece at the Carol Service. I'm none the wiser. Good job I started early.

I'm hoping the car will stay locked today - it's had 2 weeks now of being on and off, I booked it in once to get it checked and it started behaving itself, so cancelled the appointment. Then it played up again and I had to leave it unlocked for a couple of days at work etc, and so I took it in yesterday where it refused to play up. As a bonus tho they fixed the drivers window for free so that turned out well if not the way I expected. There's a message there :)

So far so well behaved on the car front. No choir tonight feels weird. Maybe form filling instead - not as much fun, obviously!

a work in progress for National Poetry Day

(I have to get the car to the garage, and do some work today, but I've woken with the startings of a poem that I hope to add to tweak as the day progresses...)

I wandered lonely as a cloud
is how I hear that poem goes
but when I look up to the sky
they're often bunched up in a crowd

But lonely is a state of mind
not whether we are on our own
We've all been there, that longing soul
Lots of people yet all alone

That single cloud in azure sky

commands an unrestricted view

joins its mates for later sharing

coalescing, morphs into something new

Today they are all in one big mass
no separating one from t'other
it's nice to be like that sometimes,
one big blur of sister, brother

At other times they tower tall
distinctive forms inspiring awe...

light defining something edges
something about growing more

Hmmm, I may get back to this but in the meantime have come across much better. Like this:

Hug O War
I will not play at tug o'war
I'd rather play at hug o'war
Where everyone hugs
instead of tugs
Where everyone giggles
and rolls on the rug
Where everyone kisses
And everyone grins
And everyone cuddles
And everyone wins

and this, from my friend Rachel McGladdery who is a real live poet :)
Here's a tongue-in-cheek ode to the placcy bag. (Woo, how current!)

Atom thin this crinkle and the give
I make the orange white with stretch
I fold you flatten you - your handles sticking out like shoulder straps
the safety of your two punched holes your throwaway availability

you are used and reused - re-reused to end tied tight
a shiny glutton bladder full of bits of stuff from out the bathroom bin
I hoy you (all casual like) into the darkness where you tesselate
with sighs
a subtle nestling into vacuumed space to wait for Tuesday morning.