Reflections and Resolutions

A lot has happened this year: new baby, new job, new haircut ;-) Finishing uni was a huge thing, a sad thing: I know I'm in debt to the tune of lots and lots and lots of money to the Student Loans Company (I've just started paying the loan back at £35 a Month, and at this rate the loan will only be half paid back by the time I reach retirement age) but still, I owe a lot more than money to the society I live in, one which allowed someone in my position a 'second chance'.

I resolve to (resolve to) continue with the 'river of the new': the strange thing is, at uni, with so much to learn and so much work to do, I read a lot of non-uni related books and thought a lot more about everything not related to university - I'm saying I led a much more 'examined life' than at any time previously and as a result have never been happier. The culture (I hate that word) of learning found it's way into every part of my life, flushing out the parts of my thinking that were stagnant. Why should the river stop just because uni has?

That is a danger, of course. Having three kids and a full time job - those are damn good dam builders when it comes to that river of the new: it would be easy- let's not lie I feel it happening - to let routine take me to a safe, still place, where all I know now becomes all I know, all I am. Let that not happen! In practical terms:

I need a pile of books to read through, a pile of music to listen to, and I need to talk about what I read and hear, here and with my family and friends.

Sounds like a plan. So alongside the embarrassingly small pile of books I read last year (which includes this masterpiece - so quotable, and yet so unquoted by me in this blog, shame on me) on our bookshelf I have a much bigger pile of unread books (this is on top). On my MP3 player there is another, albeit digital, pile including my favourite albums of last year and at least one I'm ashamed of liking - this could be my song of the year though. There's also a hefty amount of podcasts to catch up on and some Teaching Company stuff (so I really can still feel like a student). In the 'listen to more music more often' regard there's been progress already - the best thing I've bought all year has been a little phono 3mm jack which lets me connect my MP3 player to our stereo, voila, no need to burny any more Cd's - but it does mean we've not been using the PC to listen to music any more, hence the removal of the 'last.fm' widget thingy.

I do need to do more of this too (the blog) and not just when I get a deep (usually irreligious) idea - that wasn't really the intention but it seems to have gone that way. I mean (you can't) look at all the things I've missed writing about, all the amazing things Joni and Ed have said and done which I've not recorded here (shame on me). A few which spring to mind from the past few weeks:

Edward getting his head round 'can' and 'can't' - well almost, particularly funny his rendition of 'Bob the builder': 'Bob the builder, can we fix it? Bob the Builder - yes we can't!' Everything is 'my' (belongs to Edward), also when he doesn't want to do something/eat something (e.g. crusts on his bread) 'no like it' (repeat for every time you ask him to do/eat that something). He's not the brat I'm making him out to be, honest! He's so headstrong though, he absolutely will not, ever, back down if he wants (or wants to do or not do) something. He's going through the 'sleeping in Mum and Dad's bed' stage at present, you can imagine that four in a bed isn't very comfortable, especially for little Tessy. Ed's so clever though, the other day a parcel came for Bex and he said (bear in mind Becky hadn't told him she was expecting a parcel or what was in it -he must have overheard) - 'is that your coat?' (it was ;-)

Joni is doing well at, and loving, school. She can say all her letters (she's learning them the trendy new/old weird phonetic way) and is learning to write them too - she can write her own name and some other things, such as 'poop' on the whiteboard with her friend Poppy - Joni said 'we rubbed it off before the teacher came'! She's developing a good sense of humour (GSOH is a must, eh?) and by that I mean she's learning how to 'trick Daddy' - telling me she's going away to Nana's for 10 nights (I pretend to cry) before saying 'I'm tricking you Daddy! I'm only going for one sleep!' She also has a great giggle which she reserves for occasions when quite unfunny things like Daddy falling over happen, but on the whole she's great ;-) She's learning ballet too at the local community centre - you should see her dance to that album I got for her (the one I mentioned earlier...)

Tess is beyond belief beautiful, sometimes I wonder who's child she is... if I feel bad about anything it's about not taking the time to get more photo's and video of her.

Let's see how I do. Next post, March 2008?? Ah well, good intentions count for something ;-)