The 11.59 Rule

Waiting is a bummer.

Waiting to grow up when you're little, waiting for the kettle to boil, waiting for the postman when a magazine subscription is due, waiting for Christmas, waiting for something good to happen when life seems bleak, waiting for people to figure that change is needed, waiting for the vegetables to grow...

Many years ago friends and I had a conversation about this and one of them explained it thus:

Everything happens in God's Perfect Time, not my good time or your intended time but God's.Perfect.Time. For God, what may seem to us the last minute for an answer is still His Perfect Time. 11.59 may be panic stations for us, but that too is His Time.

Over the years this has been proved true over and over again, and even when no amazingly obvious miracle or answer has whooshed in at the metaphorical midnight, still things have kind of worked out in the long view. I suppose impatience is a human characteristic- how many squirrels do you see hovering around oak trees in Spring waiting for the acorns to fall?!

Waiting can be productive if I keep a positive attitude, 'the journey, not the destination,' and especially if I manage to keep the long view that 'all things work together for good to them that love the Lord.' Its difficult, its really, really difficult a lot of the time but since we all have to endure I guess it helps to do it with a good grace and hopefulness?

So I am applying the 11.59 Rule: I will live in the 'now' and believe that 'it' will happen in God's Perfect Time; and if it doesn't happen despite all my efforts then either it wasn't meant to or we haven't reached God's Perfect Time...yet...

Gobbled by Clobber

I told Lady Soggibottom that would be the title of my next post, and so it is!

I also said I would post hints and tips to hassle-free moving, which I'm not because there's no such thing!

I am sitting out in my side yard under a tree listening to bugs and birds and sheep and the breeze in the trees, breathing fresh salty air with a hint of hot grass and leaf mould, just being!

The bliss of it.

And its only mid-morning!

No people or cars or exhaust fumes or being edged out of my seat because I'm taking too long over my coffee and someone else wants to sit in my place...

No photos yet, as you can see...I still have not located the cable. It's possibly in my make-up bag from the wedding, but I haven't seen my make-up bag for over a week and its not exactly a priority. I would, however like to know where I packed the tea spoons, extension cables, clothes pegs and shopping list paper, three cups from my only tea-set and the sugar tin. I found a jar of pens and pencils and remembered to buy light bulbs and torch batteries but a state of 'chassis' still reigns. The fridge appears to be not working but I've let the landlord know and I daresay it'll be repaired at some point, this being the middle of baling and silage though, I'd say it'll be a few days. Oh how lovely to be on country time once more; I realise it is not everyone's cup of tea, but it sure is mine!

This afternoon the piano tuner is coming and the joy of having my bockety ould piano back with me is probably partly responsible for the present state of zen-ishness!

I have to admit that the reason I remain in 'gobbled by clobber' mode is because I keep wandering outside to sit in the sun instead of unpacking. But as they say, 'sure isn't the winter long enough?' Meaning, if the sun shines or the rain stops or the weather looks up, get out of the house!

The fridge will be fixed when it next rains, and the unpacking done, and perhaps even the camera cable found?

Until then I will be collecting freckles...

Oops, the wifi hotspot just fell out of the fuchsia where I had it balanced and into the nettles...

Of Time Lost

Golly to Goodness but where does Time go? Blink and you miss a week...or two...or three! I know I've been busy but didn't realise I was THAT busy!

School's back and and after a crazy-mad few weeks, everything is beginning to settle into its usual hoppity skippity progress, as in one day you think you've almost got a grip on work and the next two you wonder if you ever will...

Since Middlest moved home at the start of the month I feel as though I'm running a student hostel which leads to some interesting scenarios- I thought I was waking up Middlest the other morning and another girl's head popped out from the duvet!! Poor thing, she didn't want to be woken up at all!

Middlest's man, Car-boy, for future reference, is also around a lot, which is fun as he is a gas character, also he is quite happy to hang out with Youngest, and not every boyfriend would be as easy- going.

Youngest has begun her final year of school, kinda scary, you never think your youngest will actually grow up, do you? Ok, you might, but I didn't! She's had two friends here for the weekend and they have baked, cooked, watched films, gone jogging and talked the hind leg off every donkey in Connaught!

So it goes. The greenhouse progresses not at all, the weather has been unseasonably (and unreasonably) cold, the charity shops have nothing in my (ginormous) size, and four horses broke into the garden a fortnight back and ate all my trees down to the ground.

Things gotta be lookin' up soon....

Tick...whizz...tock!

Do clocks fly? Or is it just time that flies?
Yesterday I went with the folks to Enniskillen to do the main grocery shop for Christmas. It's better to get it in now before places are too crowded. B and Sos came for an outing and we all had a very productive day with everything being achieved. Quite a feat, I'd say! (All Civil Servants in the Republic were on strike yesterday so no School or College.)

The drive was interesting as the various lakes are so full. In Enniskillen town they had lined one road with sandbags and were pumping the water out so that it was drivable- interesting to watch.

I got some thread and the dinkiest angel! Today I taught Music until lunchtime, combining several classes at a time. One song with disastrous timing was sorted with the help of the oldest class, and for the rest we were working on accurate entrances and melding the different voices together into a unified sound. It was difficult and required intense listening to themselves but the children worked very hard and very successfully, although by 12.30 we all felt like limp rags!

The temperature dropped considerably throughout the day and this evening the wind is cutting. We've had sun, rain, hail, strong winds and more hail. I sound like my sister who is on a trip to Antarctica, and sent a postcard from the Falkland Islands giving us a weather update! Is it perhaps an Irish characteristic to be obsessed with the weather?