That Is A Good Thing

Have had a very stable last few days, which is great. Have also been exceptionally busy - for some reason I have managed to end up with back to back things from the start of each day until bed time and for the most part I'm really loving it. I still don't think I'm particularly motivated and there are so many things that I am still not getting done but I feel like I am living and am getting a really great balance between my responsibilities to others as well as my responsibilities to myself. Two of my biggest downfalls are my lack of will power and my inconsistency but as these haven't always been part of my personality then I don't see why they really need to be any more and it's time to redress the balance, me thinks.

Something that I am exceptionally happy with at the moment is that I am going horse riding. This is something that I have always loved but as I have gotten older it has become harder and harder to find the time and money. I have a friend who has two horses, one is hers and the other she bought for her son but he has lost interest so they aren't getting ridden as often as she would like. I went out for a ride with her on Saturday and again by myself today and just loved it. Some people are really protective about other people riding their horses but my friend is just so casual about it and is happy for me to take either of her horses out any time using all her gear and everything, even if she is not there. I've been riding a three year old filly who needs a fair bit of regular work but we've gone well together so far, even though I'm not a terribly well experienced rider and she is the youngest and most feisty horse I've ever ridden, but I'm keen on working with her more to get her to be a more settled and obedient ride.

I've also been very acutely aware lately about God working in my life but now my thoughts are starting to turn to what it is I can be doing to return the favour, as it were. There are ways that I want to serve God and I have been incorporating them into my life over the last few years particularly but I'm really starting to doubt that they are the things that God really wants me to be doing any more. I'm positive I am building important skills and experiences that I will need in the future but I am increasingly of the opinion that I need consider doing some things differently. I'm spending a lot of my prayer time of late trying to work towards whatever it is I need to be doing but I think I am still a ways off knowing. For now, I'm good with just acknowledging the amazing power of the divine, living in gratitude as much as possible and being open to my destiny. This is a big thing I guess because I've always had the jury out on whether everyone actually has an important destiny to fulfil. Definitely a time for learning lessons and I have to believe that that is a good thing.

So Be It

I had a huge attack of self-doubt today and I found myself reflecting on how many of us go through those times when we just want someone wise and insightful to pick us up and tell us what we need to do from here. Sometimes I don't even know what I need to make a decision about let alone be able to get to the point where I can actually chose the right path and I think it's pretty natural in those times to wish for some kind of guidance or instruction so we can take a step back from the responsibility of stuffing up our own - and sometimes even other people's - lives. It's then, somewhere in that moment, that I remember that I ain't so good at following orders and even if there was someone to do that then I'd probably still march to the beat of my own drum.

I got to that stage today relatively quickly for me, which was good, but draining to go through so many emotions in such a short space of time - and it probably wasn't too much of a picnic for the rest of the zoo-dwellers here either! From there I stepped into action and got a few of those nagging projects that had been sitting around and glaring at me from little piles of mess about the place completed and also got a start on tidying the lair - a project that seems to grow by the day as I move 'To Do' items out of the general traffic areas of the home and out of sight though not quite out of mind into that room.

I am a bit like a pendulum at the minute, swinging on one side from feeling overwhelmed just trying to get through the mundane chores that fill my life these days while the brilliant and imaginative minds of certain people around me keep coming up with brilliant and imaginative ideas which, due to their brilliant and imaginative brain process, they are completely powerless to take any practical action on and which, therefore, invariably result in more work for me and then swinging to the other side where I am convinced that I am inherently and hopelessly lazy and am wasting my life and the opportunities that I am being offered right now with my current circumstances through lack of action and motivation. And, if you think that sentence was a difficult to read, just think how it feels for me to have a barrage of that and other similarly complication thoughts occupying the void between my ears through ever waking moment and seemly quite a few while I'm asleep as well it seems.

I'm finding it difficult to type tonight to the point where I am seriously contemplating sending in a "thank you, God, for spell-check" comment to the 'Jesus, All About Life' campaign - well, maybe I wouldn't go that far but I'm sure you get my point. It's not just the typing, there are really common words that are just coming out jumbled because that is the way my brain is thinking them down to my fingertips and directing them onto the keys - like before, I tried to spell picnic as picknick. I think that's called: crazy-arsed, tired and stressed out Wendy-logic. Whatever it's called, I do believe it is more of a calling - and that is for me to stop typing now and go to bed. So be it.

My Step-Daughter's Wedding

Well, the wedding was an absolute success. There were a few small hiccups as one would expect but all were managed well and with great credit to the excellent organisation skills of the Virgo Nurse.

There were so many amazing photos from the day but I think this is one of my favourites:


Don't you think this photo belongs on the cover of a magazine. She has such a radiant smile and was able to maintain it until 4am the next day (as they did night shots in the city after the reception) even though it was not long after this photo that she passed comment how her cheeks were already aching.

Here's a picture of the whole bridal party:


The Kman was the junior grooms man on the left, the smiley monster was the page boy in the middle and the impossible princess was the junior bridesmaid on the right. They all behaved so well, considering they were woken at 6am for the two hour drive and had to put up with a two bedroom townhouse full of people for another four hours during the preparations and then had their very important roles to play through the ceremony and the photos and then the long night of the reception. I was so proud so many times that day but far from the least of that was in my own children in how gorgeous they looked and how they had fun and let everyone else have fun as well.

And did I mention gorgeous? Here's the smiley monster with The Starchild and the flower girl all looking out the window of one of the cars, which I think makes a really gorgeous photo:


The next photo is from the wedding ceremony. It was Coptic Orthodox as the grooms family are Egyptian and it was so beautiful even though I didn't understand most of it. The church was so amazing and the jackets the bride and groom are wearing were one of the parts of the service, which also included crowns and incense and singing and all the rest of it.


There were six '71 and '72 GT Fords as the wedding cars as well as four motor bikes.


I didn't get any good photos of all of the bikes but here is one of them with Bones in front of it that someone else took:



The reception was held at a place in a town in the outer South West of Sydney so you wouldn't really expect anything too flash but it actually was one of the most lavish reception venues I've been to. There were fireworks and pyrotechnics, the bridal table was a full length fish tank and behind the bridal party was a bubbled glass wall with water running down it, there were light up centre-pieces on the tables and everything was done up so nicely. There was a magician entertaining the guests as they arrived in the foyer of the reception while we were off doing the post-wedding photos and it was pretty much non-stop the whole night. The parents of the bride and groom had to do a bit of a grand entrance along with the bridal party and this is The Starchild and I coming in:


We all made our way to the dance floor to await the entry of the bride and groom and it was lovely to see so many family and friends there to help celebrate.


The magician did another performance during the reception...


...and there was a Michael Jackson impersonator along with his five dancers that did about half a dozen costume changes and were really very entertaining:


The grooms men even got a lesson on how to dance like Michael Jackson which was loads of fun:


There were also speeches - that was the part that The Starchild was dreading the most but he spoke so wonderfully...


The cake almost looked too good to eat...


...and the bridal waltz included more fireworks, fog, a beautiful spin, a dip and, of course, a high lift being that the bride used to be a competitive gymnast...


The Starchild and I even danced (although he left me there once the fun dancing started) and I think you can tell by the smiles on our faces how much fun we had!


It was such a wonderful night and it was so special to have Bones as part of the celebrations even if the nine live cat with clipped wings couldn't be there. I think the thought of him undoubtedly shedding more than a few tears at missing such a special occasion and knowing that it won't be the last one he misses was the only down side to the whole thing but everything else was just perfect and I'm so glad that they had the wedding that they had spent so much time, money and effort planning for so long.

Now, I am sending blessings of protection, safety and more amazing memories as they start their honeymoon and look forward to seeing them in a few weeks when they get back.