“Take twelve fine, full-grown months; see that these are thoroughly free from old memories of bitterness, rancor and hate, cleanse them completely from every clinging spite; pick off all specks of pettiness and littleness; in short, see that these months are freed from all the past—have them fresh and clean as when they first came from the great storehouse of Time.

Put in about one teaspoonful of good spirits, a dash of fun, a pinch of folly, a sprinkling of play, and a heaping cupful of good humour.”

Anonymous - from www.appleseeds.com

HAPPY NEW YEAR…….

I hope it brings you all you wish for - and most of all - much health, happiness and most of all, hope for the New Year ahead….

What I need to remember in order to keep the stress levels down over Christmas….

“If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my family, I’m just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love to my family, I’m just another cook.

If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing.

If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir’s cantata but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child. Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband. Love is kind, though harried and tired. Love doesn’t envy another’s home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.

Love doesn’t yell at the kids to get out of the way, but is thankful they are there to be in the way. Love doesn’t give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in giving to those who can’t.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust, but giving the gift of love will endure”.

Merry Christmas and lots of love to you and yours!

Well, I should say that, further to my last post, my stress levels have come down a few notches, despite son failing his driving test…

We are still without a date for completion and all the house stuff is still looming over us, but at the moment, there are more pressing concerns like the fast approach of Christmas.

We are now nearly sorted. I am waiting for three presents that were ordered on line. I have an expected delivery date for two of them for Monday - which is all a little too close to the mark if you ask me. The other was not even dispatched until Friday so there is no way I will be able to give my parents that.. Plan B methinks…

We have one more present to get on hubby’s side and the teens still have their dad to buy for… and I too have a challenge in that area… but moving swiftly on as he will probably be reading this later, I will have that sorted soon too…

We have all the Christmas food and drink bought and put away and our kitchen in bulging. I am so looking forward to a new house with a bigger kitchen… but that is next year.

Mother managed to sort her oven out on her own…yay…

Son is happier…he was not a happy bunny at failing his driving test again but has reached a place of acceptance. Where the young lady is concerned, well that is a rather unknown quantity, but he was out with his posse last night and out with the lads tonight and so…who knows really. I expect he will launch into a heart to heart mum and son “chat” just as I am going to bed at some stage…

Daughter is a treasure. She is going to relieve me of some of the baking and take over the job of making the mince pies and chocolate log.

Hubby and I managed to spend a very “de-stressing” couple of hours together on Thursday evening (or more accurately the early hours of Friday morning) so he has a bit of a spring in his step and we are both feeling better for that!! Unfortunately I have been caught out by a certain monthly visitor (or in this case, three weekly visitor) so our planned “sleep-in” tomorrow (sunday) morning will be just that.

So, for a few more day, I am hopeful that the stress levels are now lower…. well, at least until Christmas Day when it is time to cook the Dinner. Then, there will be a few hours of, what can only be described as “high octane energy” levels until it is all eaten and cleared away.. and then I can relax. But you never know, perhaps this year I will remain calm, cool and collected over the whole cooking caboodle and metamorphose into the dom*st*c g0de$$ N i ge ll a and remain a paragon of peaceful poise whilst serving up the festive fare….. and pigs might fly!!!!!

PS Chuck, if I have the chance, I will post about your comment about the pudding!!!!!

* Son has girl trouble… again. Anyone know of any nice, level headed young ladies that could sweep our son off their feet? Since his break up with his first steady girlfriend early this year, he has been a pushover for all the really needy, unbalanced girls in his circle. I would say 2.

* Mortgage company holding everything up as we still await them to appoint a surveyor to undertake a valuation on the house we are trying to buy. Hmm. About 3.

* We just find out that there is a proposal to make the whole area outside our current house a no parking zone, leaving the occupant of this house and the rest on this side who do not have back entrances without anywhere close by to park their car. (We live on the main street of a small market town with no off street parking. At the moment there is unlimited parking on the side opposite the house with restricted parking during the day on our side. What are our vendors going to think about that? Near to 4

* Our new solicitor, who came highly recommended, has not lived up to expectations and seems to be holding the whole chain up. A definite 5.

* Ed has been doing a lot of driving involving very early starts and so our sleep patterns are all out of kilter….There is not a lot of “quality” mum and dad time happening in this family which does little to help the mood of my darling hubby. I am not saying he is in a bad mood. Just that he would be happier if this was not the case. Rising to 6.

* I have been struggling to get all my work up to date as I start my holiday today and it we have lurched from one drama to the next crisis over the last week. I might have to go into the office today anyway. Getting to 7.

* Father in law is not at all happy about the prospect of us moving and has been extremely demanding over the last few weeks but these last few days it has been particularly so. I know it will be hard for him to adjust to not having us so close but we will only be 10 miles away……. A real 8

* I just had a phone-call from my mother who cannot work out how to use the newly installed Oven in their super dooper, jealously inducing new kitchen and so I now have to jump in the car and go help sort her out. 8.5

* Found out I don’t have to go into work today…Phew. Back down to 8!

* I hear a rumour its nearly Christmas. We still have most of the presents to buy, all the food to get, including the turkey, wrapping, cleaning and baking.!!!!! Lets just bypass 9 and go straight to 10…….

and, to top it all….. the son is taking his driving test this afternoon (well in 15 minutes as I write this)….

Shall we say 20 out of 10 or do I just go into minus numbers!!!!!!!!!

Arghhhhhhh

Addendum - he failed - so we have to go through it all again on 31st January!!! Ho. Hum!

For the last three years or so, my husband has been sleeping with a blonde.

Before that he had a few flings with a redhead.

He is now sharing his bed with a brunette.

I don’t know why I don’t just let the grey grow through and and then he will have had the full set.

Here I am again. It has been a while since you have been subjected to one of my insomniac ramblings.

I have been sleeping a bit better recently I suppose and have even managed to go back to sleep almost straight away if I have been disturbed for some reason. The dog has started barking in the night recently, asking to be let out and I have even managed to go straight back to sleep even before darling hubby has returned from sorting him out.what a good man he is!.

But I seem to be back in a negative pattern again and the hours between 2.00am and 5.00am have become almost familiar to me yet again.

I have been having quite a few palpitations again recently. I don’t know if I am starting to stress about the move or something or it may be because I am not taking the iron supplement any longer and I may be back to being anaemic which has been a contributing factor in the past. It may also be my thyroid medication. I am recovering from a migraine too and those prescription tablets I take are pretty potent, and they usually knock me right out but reading the small print, it also says that they may caused disturbances to sleeping patterns.

It does not help that it is pouring with rain and heavy hail showers and the sound of that drumming on the skylight just a few yards above my head is enough to wake anyone,,, (but not hubby of course who sleeps through rain, hail, thunder and lightening but wakes for the dog - how odd!)

When I look at it like that, it makes me wonder how an earth I ever manage to sleep.

Thankfully it is the weekend and I can at least catch up with some sleep later….

Always a silver lining…