I’ve been trying to be more reflective these days. I think reflection is always a good thing in being able to grow. Whether it is to grow as a person, grow in relationships, happiness and even in love.

So lately I’ve been noting the small things that make me happy. It is always easier to focus on the larger, more obvious things that we think can make us happy ( like more money, a massage or a holiday) but I think that a happy person finds joy in the smallest of things.

For me so far from what I can think of from today is…

Arranging things into order. YES this includes putting my hangers together.

Pairing up socks (the washing machine keeps eating up our socks! Or I swear there is a sock monster that keeps eating our socks!)

The feel of newly vacuumed carpet.

The smell of freshly washed clothes.

Hanging out clothes and making sure I use our pegs as effectively as possible (i.e joining the corners of each garment so that it only needs one peg between garments)

Getting random kisses from Missy A, and hearing her sleepily say “I love you” before she drifts off to bed.

Seeing Missy C smile, and then stick her tongue out straight away.

When Missy C sneezes and farts simultaneously.

Receiving comments on my blog. Go on… make my day.

When Dave calls, just because…

Hearing my sister laugh… and then laugh at her for laughing.

Stacking folded clothes so that the edges are nicely lined up.

Getting wet when Missy C kicks with so much excitement when she is having a bath.

Hearing Missy A randomly try to read words she sees.

Erasing a pencil mistake cleanly.

Sitting on a bed when the doona is folded and put in a corner ( I like the bed to be nice and flat).

Receiving snail mail (espcially if it’s a package from eBay or Etsy – hahaha.. ok this one doesn’t really count).

Wiping off a surface until it is smooth.

Using the car wipers and seeing the rain drain away.

Laying out in the garden, eating outdoors (even if it is just a sandwich).

…oh, I’m sure there’s more, but I need to sleep otherwise I might get too excited!

I’m already smiling just thinking of these, and to think! All of these happen almost everyday. I should remind myself to just slow down, stop, think and remember that JOY can be found everywhere and almost everything I do.

What brings you JOY?

Dear God,

Thank you for making everyone different so that we can all learn from each other, and also to learn about ourselves. I would like to pray for that woman at the markets today who was so bloody rude. You saw what happened. Darn cow. So I thank you Lord that I need to learn to have patience and be forgiving to such horrible people, and thank you that it created an opportunity for me learn. Today, I learned and gain perspective that You must have to put up with lots of crabby horrible people too and R.E.S.P.E.C.T and much love that you still love us anyway. I know that if it was me, I would have sent a lightening bolt down and scared the crap out of that woman and made her hair like Einstein PERMANENTLY, with lots of split ends and also lots of NITS (…that only stay on her head)… but I’m glad You’re not like that. VERY thankful. Thank you for all your patience… otherwise I’m sure there would be a heck alot of people walking around with really really bad itchy hair.

Cheers,

Amen.

At the very least…this stallholder at Camberwell made me laugh!

To READ Last week’s Camberwell story… Click here.

It was almost like the movie in that it was one bad experience after another, but in retrospect… it wasn’t all too bad. I think.

Dave and I spend a night at the Werribee Mansion over the weekend. When we first arrived, they created some payment issues – the room had already been paid for… but they still insisted that we needed to pay. This took about 30mins to resolve. Then as I got hungry…like a pregnant woman does… we ordered turkish bread and dip and a bowl of fries with ketchup. I’ve been having weird cravings when all I want to eat is just ketchup. Anyway… the bread arrives… and they were MOULDY! That’s right… they tried to feed me basic penicilin with my bread. GROOOSSS. The waiter sheepishly took the food away but offered no apology NOR an option to change my order. By then I was happy with another bowl of chips instead….with my ketchup.

Dinner… was crap. BUT I did get to drink a virgin mary, and I ate my french duck cuisine dipped in ketchup. So, it was KINDA crap… but I was a happy camper.

Oh well… God has wired me in a way that when I go to bed… I tend to forget the day before… ALL including bad experiences… or even arguments that I had (lucky for Dave… )… So the next morning was a brand new day.

Buffet breakfast… you CAN’T possibly go wrong right? WRONG. I started with bread because I was just way too hungry waiting for the hot breakfast…bread tastes really good when you’re starving! Anyway, Dave ordered poached eggs on wild mushrooms… YUMMO… while I ordered the Chorizo Omellette.

Out came my dish… and I was like HAR? Why issit white? Where’s the yellow stuff… and the brown chorizos?? Aparrently this it the healthy 3 egg white omellette. Perhaps the waiter made a personal judgement thinking that this asian skinny girl has an unusually odd stomach pot and needs to stay away from the unhealthy and just try to eat healthy??? Bleh.

Anyway… in the meantime while waiting for my unhealthyish brekky… or sometime before that (I can’t remember…) the waiter spilt both my juice and Dave’s juice unto our tables…

YUMMO… THIS I MORE LIKE IT! GIMME THE FATS AND THE CHOLESTROLS! Hey… I did eat up the tomatoes and rocket too…

So come my fruit… this was the first time I have ever had to cut my own mango at a restaurant. Hmm… perhaps I wasn’t suppose to take the mango from the fruit basket… MAYBE it was for display purposes… OH WELL… to Dave’s horror… and embarrasment… I managed to cut it up with my butter knife… which definitely… after eating it all up… made me a happy camper.

Then it was off to visit where Harry Potter lived…. The Werribee Mansion.

The beds were so small even in the master room, that you think perhaps hobbits used to occupy this place.

There were more to discover around the house… like a tunnel to a different dimension!

Or if you were an egg… you could have this bird sit on your head until you hatched.

Or… if you’re lucky… a Mansion ghost will visit! FREAKY!!!

All in all… despite the the duds … it was an experience… and Any experience reminds me that I’m alive and can be grateful that I just can.

Have you ever had those days when you’ve got a tummy ache … and you’ve just started the car and it got worse as you were taking off into a main street. It’s too late to drive back to use the loo, and the only option is to get to your destination… and use the public toilets.

EEWWW… I really don’t like public toilets. As if its already bad enough that you have to poop next to a stranger, but in some way, you feel like you need to do it discreetly….and then there’s the timing of when you come out. You sit there thinking, ok… I can hear that that person ahs finnished, and another person has just entered… quick… you can make your quick break and save the embarrassment of seeing other people’s face crindge from smelling your stink. With all this going on… and when you think you have your chance… the damn toilet paper keeps breaking off into little strips, and the dispenser refuses to cooperate… just teasing you with these micro mini strips of ‘cotton’ that you’re suppose to clean up on. GRRrrrrrrrrrrr.

Sigh… but aren’t we all glad that public toilets are available for such …. for such… eh…emergencies…

BTW, this did not happen to me today… it was just a ‘hyperthetical’ scenario…:)

Ok, so after re-reading my last post… I’m a bit of a sook. So anyway, after last nights sniff sniff and boo hoo…. I could either keep windging… or try to do something about it. Looking over it, it really did help…give perspective. So today I took time out to reflect. Bought myself a cup of Gloria Jeans white hot choco, sat in a midst of strangers, and dug deep.

I’ve kinda lost it lately because I haven’t had much structure, or routine, or goal in whatever I do. Each day… unplanned… spontaneous. NOT what I fully enjoy. I need structure, plans, and definitely goals to keep me fueled. So today, I wrote my list…

Then I realised… I wrote a list of things of what I should THINK about rather than THINKING them, and then writing a list. So in the end, I have “A list of things I should think about”. BAH!

Well, it felt satisfying anyway…

How exciting is it when we do new stuff!? Imagine that but multiply it by like a gizillion, and I reckon that would be the excitement of little kids who are learning new things.(NOTE TO SELF…Go learn something NEW! and be excited!!!!).

 Missy A has just begun swimming lessons, and SHE LOVES IT! Currently she’s a STARFISH (level).

Coming back from Yum Cha today, I noticed something on the window of my bro’s car. The car has been sitting there for a while now because he has a new car to drive, so it just sits there. It has been there for so long now, I hardly even notice it when I pull up in the drive way. But today, as I got closer to it… there was… MOSS growing on it!!! LOL!!! So I couldn’t stop myself from taking a few pics with my spiffy new camera. I just learned about what the “Digital Macro” thing is on my camera.

So the story of the day… is that Growth can happen in ALL SORTS of places and more so in those unexpecting places. During our mundane days, or in our daily routines… where we don’t really take notice of what we’re doing (happens to me alot)… GROWTH can happen! New things can happen to us!!

…Just a thought to take the drag out of each day…..SOMETHING could be growing on you!! Muahahaha…

Today as we drove out to meet my in-laws for dinner, I had one of those “PING” moments. Looking down the road and into the skies, with the sun setting, the sky just looked so amazing and grand. I felt a sense peace and protection, as if I just knew that “everything is going to be OK”. I’m not exactly in turmoil or that my life was upside down, but it was a really nice reassuring feeling. THEN, as I took a snap shot, it made even more sense.

I have been short-sighted and focused on the hussle and bussle of my daily runnings that has really worn me down when I should remember to look up and forward into the opportunities of the future and what is ahead. “PING” Hope that makes sense… well, it did to me at the time, and hopefully it hangs out in my head for alittle longer.

Waiting on a job can be very mundane. Hang on what am I talking about? ITS VERY MUNDANE. So while I’ve been hanging around at home in my trackies I’ve tried to keep myself busy. I’ve made 3 batches of cupcakes, taken my rabbit for a walk at the partk, washed a gazillion batches of laundry, sorted out my massive wardrobe, Ebayed and tried to learn how to use photoshop. I’m sure I’ve done more, but they’re just the fun ones to mention. Anyway, it has been difficult trying to ward off the crap feeling of NOT being wanted by any company. I have found it easier to stay positive when I’m busy doing something. Whether it is just out and about window shopping for more buying ideas, or just having a stroll. So far, baking has been great. At the end of it all, you have this scrumptious thing you can take time out to dissect, eat and analyze.  It works for me anyway. Although I have to admit, I’m quite afraid of the amount of butter and sugar I am consuming – can’t exactly be good for my health. Mind yes, health not so.