i really am very fed up of dust (sawdust in particular).

having spent most of last weekend sanding 2 of our floors the dust on monday was incrediable, so i spent ages cleaning, to bring it up to the bare minimum. sadly the Boy continued sanding on tuesday, so now although the job is done the house is just covered (literally), there is dust coming out of everything. having watched the Boy play footy on tuesday evening, and been to homegroup on wednesday there hadn't really been a chance to start to clear up. so last night i got home and cleaned for about an hour, and then i reached my limit! there was no way that the house would be clean that night, so i decided to stay at my parents place. you have no idea how nice it was to wake up this morning not coughing and feeling clean(ish), then to have a shower and still feel clean 10 minutes later. its quite funny what you can feel grateful to God for, and what teaches you to appreciate the small things in life.

tonight its back to the cleaning though, with the aim of having one cleaned, painted and varnished working bedroom by the end of the weekend. its funny to think about how much i've changed in the last 10 years; i've gone from being someone who spent much of her summers trying to wash as little as possible, with the odd dreadlock in my hair and spending half my summer in a tent, to someone who is (not often mind) a little bit grown up at times, and who really is desparate to clean the house! i'm hoping that my deep desire to clean won't be permenant and obsessive once we have a few rooms together as that was always one of the things i didn't want to be.

i feel like i'm on such a huge learning curve at the moment, its hard work and fun sometimes, but not all the time and i think its at those times that i realise just how far God has brought me, but how much further there is to go; combined with that overwhelming sense of just how gracious God is to me in soooo many situations, when i stuff up so constantly. its funny there we were in homegroup discussing the how to fall in love with God spot of the day, with the Lord making me aware of how i don't take my sin seriously enough sometimes, and then i spend the whole of thursday morning blowing it (that would be my top, and at the Boy!) and i know thats the way it often happens, and over the years of trying to follow jesus it happens less frequently in such big ways, so you think i'd know better but it just doesn't work that way! one thing is for sure, i'm more grateful than normal for God's grace today!

~end of friday stream of consciousness post!~
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a meme i'm liking (from linkmachinego):

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

"I didn't want to bring her out of whatever kind of trance she was in, into a screaming fit."

(i'm at work, but happened to have raymond chandler's 'killer in the rain' handy.)
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back in the saddle again . . . .

i finally feel like i'm back on the planet, after one rather unpleasant coldly flu type thing, with a stomach bug followed by a throat infection. i'm back at work and kind of raring to go!

went to see the vcf santos boys play their penultimate match of the season last night when was good fun if a little (!) cold and damp. sadly they drew, and considering that they still get to go up a division the Boy is rather sulky! (something to do with needing to go up as winners to go down in history, i'm thinking its a boy thing)

we've been manic trying to sand floors at our place and its finally looking like it could be finished (apart from the varnishing, obviously) thanks to the myriad of help we've had (thanks everyone), but we're still living from one room due to the necessity of moving furniture around with the whole decorating thing, still, one day in the not too distant future we'll even have a spare bedroom, how exciting will that be!

the other excitement of the day is that my brother is back from the US and starts temping in my office tomorrow, i'm really looking forward to seeing him (and he might be my sanity for this summer). his girlfriend (of about 3 1/2 years) lives on the east coast of the US and his journeys there and back over the last few years have just got longer and longer (looks like its only gonna get worse as well), he may well be the most frequent flyer i know! i got a phone call from him at 9 am today to say that he is safely back in the country, but that his bag was stolen at heathrow. still its not as bad as the time that his connecting flight got delayed and he missed the last flight out of JFK and ended up sleeping in the airport.

dti: wow that feels like a long time ago, so perhaps a summary:
sleep deprivation, frustration (not necessarily with our young people ;) ), God doing lots of stuff - teaching both the youth and us about the choices we make, lots of food, and the deeper desire to own a dance mat (well for the youth to invest in a couple, even my dance hating Boy is addicted to them, they are just sooooooooooo much fun).
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