A beautiful Happy New Year friends !!!

I hope your easing in slow. I hope your being kind to yourself.

My Instagram friend Karen said this, “Its not so much a new year as it is renewed hope”.  I like that idea. So let’s lean on in – into hope and into love and into each other. With those we can handle just about anything else cant we.

Right now grab a cup of something nice, put your feet on up for a bit, and enjoy a few good things I’ve put together with you in mind.

A Good Word

A few of them because simple things haven’t lost there value with the turning of the year

A Good Look

Hey you with your crazy gorgeous post Christmas hair.  Take one minute, close your eyes and remember  – you are lovely and loved and entirely enough right now just the way you are.

 A Good Idea

Cruise Control

I spent the better part of last year driving my boy back and forward to his job which  was very  inconveniently located right up the north end of town. It was a good 25 minute drive and within a short space of time I got myself two speeding tickets and a red light camera ticket. It wasn’t because I’m a maniacal driver (I don’t think) but because although it’s freeway most of the way,  there also happens to be about 6 different speed changes. It goes from 100 to 90 to 80 then back to 90 for a bit then 80 again etc.  Now that takes a bit of vigilance to keep on top of at first and vigilance no surprises isn’t my strongest suit – hence the tickets which apart from making me feel totally incompetent at doing life,  are not kind to the bank balance and put me at risk of losing my license. 

First thing that happened, Ethan was banned from any panicked statements like “ I’m gonna be late!!” He was never late because he was military about leaving home in oodles of time. He was also banned from saying “you could have made that mum” when I stopped as the light went to orange. It only took a couple of “do you want to pay the fine” and a “do you want to be catching a train to work” to shut him up. 

Second, I started using cruise control. God bless that little bit of technology.  Set the speed and car stays at that speed unless I tell it otherwise. It stopped me speeding but it also took the pressure off me constantly checking and rechecking my speed and turning into a hyper alert crazy woman. Vigilance still required of course because I was driving a car after all but you get the idea. And no more tickets

It was a game changer all round but the thing I didn’t expect was how much more relaxing it was to be driving and how much calmer I felt. I also felt less pressured by the speed other cars were going because they can have us going faster than we should without us even realising it. My thinking now was “I’ve set my speed and I’m sticking to it so please go ahead and overtake me if you need to (and you can get the ticket this time)”. It gave those drives more of a Sunday cruise feel than a frantic peak hour endurance lap as they had before  We even got a playlist going, Ethan in charge of that of course. Don’t Stop Believin and Proud Mary our driving to work favs that we played and replayed and played again. I have to say with the music turned up loud (loudish) and my boy sitting next to me (and singing !!!), it was a little bit magic. 

Ethan’s moved onto another job now so we don’t do that drive anymore but I’m still using cruise control just about everywhere I go. Church is now a 20 to 25 minute drive away. I take the freeway getting there (four speed changes!) but going home at about 12:30pm ish on a Sunday the freeway is choc a block so I take the long winding way home around the lake because what’s the big rush and with cruise control set and a podcast on it’s a Sunday drive in more ways than one. 

So friend, heading into this new year,  or a new week or even this weekend.

It’s OK to set the cruise control. 

It’s ok to say “this is the speed that works for me right here and now and everyone else can go ahead and scream on past me if needs be”. 

We are not just getting from A to B. The getting there bit, well that’s our life.

And it’s ok  not be constantly hurtling along at risk of life and limb.

Its ok even on the busy days to have the window rolled down and your favourite song turned on

A Good Read

Baking Bread as an Act of Hope

As a young, poor newlywed, trying to make a life on love and peanut butter money, I desperately wanted to learn to bake bread. Memories of my childhood home, a tiny house we moved out of when I was in high school, are permeated with the warm, curling scent of fresh bread, unrolling fragrant steam in the house. I think that house always smelled like bread. At least, every single memory does.

These were the days before the Great British Baking Show captured our hearts and our Netflix accounts, before you could learn to tile your bathroom just from YouTube. I spent weekend hours at the library, hauling home heavy and beautiful books with pages stained with oil splatters and flour dust (that’s how you know it’s a good one). Underproved, overbaked, my patient and hungry husband ate them all, and encouraged my efforts.

Then, one evening, I opened the door, tired and late from work, to a home that smelled magical. I couldn’t put my finger on it. What is that? It smells like…cinnamon rolls! I pestered my husband, who rebuffed me, laughing. It’s nothing!

– – – – Keep reading