christmas messages, not quite the queen's speech

but close enough for jazz

i put the kids on the spot, this was all they got

the three girls weren't here as i only figured the way to do this after they had left for pahiatua, sorry



eliot, looking spunky and a little like tintin



hannah, details are everything




india, not sure whether being boiled alive might be more fun



henny gives it a dry run, but gets giggly when india drops her script



this time henny gets it all out without giggling

memories

the packaging from my birthday,
originally uploaded by ninefish.

i was prepping some things for christmas and found these treasures. for my last birthday the children got me these imported treats, i hadn't had maynard's wine gums in maybe 15 years, and they'd been a staple part of my food pyramid since i was small. i'd forgotten that allthe different colours taste different rather than just be different colours

within seconds of arriving tidy rooms look like this

within seconds of arriving tidy rooms look like this,
originally uploaded by ninefish.

i'm very very grateful that i grew out of this, even though some would say i'm still living like this.

but more so i'm grateful that at least they are still visiting to make my house look like this

india and the year six leavers sing

well i think they were singing at least, it's like this in all schools i guess, only the adults are singing and most of them are groaning tunelessly under their breath, why are school songs set in such unsingable keys?

india leaves school

it would have been better in focus i know, but it adds a certain artyness to it don't you think?

india shakes the hand of the principal [sue ashworth] her teacher mr "wayno" mathews and chris stent from the board of trustees

other photos are also on flickr.com

i don't remember graduations at 13, but wish i did

it's been a day of farewells, first katie and rosie finish school and now hannah has her prize giving last night

im grateful to bask in the reflected glory of our kids
eliot got a prize two weeks ago, but i couldn't get there to see that
katie was librarian and read the welcome speeches at her schools graduation [still a year to go for her though]
and last night hannah got the Breens Intermediate Citizenship award for her extensive committments at the school. she was a modest team player etc etc. i hope to get the commentary from the teacher, once i do, it will be here



Hannah and the citizenship award

katie's welcome speech

other photos are also on flickr.com let the family know…

still number one

cold butter melting on hot toast

staying up late and not arguing even though we're tired
chilli con carne
warm norwest föhn winds
last days of school
impending holidays
twee inspirational stories that aren't quite true but could be be

the real christmas story

a weekend of fun

snuggling back into bed after getting up once
watching sleepover with katie and nina
BBQ food
reading in the hammock
snoozing in a warm room after eating too much
spooning

"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate himself through conscious endeavor."
Dale Carnegie

today's serendipitous quotation

doom

"You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try."
Beverly Sills

insight of the day there've been messages left for me here all week

thursday

Insight of the Day: "'Forget about the consequences of failure. Failure is only a temporary change in direction to set you straight for your next success.'
Denis Waitley"

Insight of the Day

getting paid [not enough, but something]
fish and chips
finding out it's still possible to be creative

Insight of the Day: "'Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.'
Robert Louis Stevenson"

weekend blessings

a night out at the harbour lights in lyttleton with earth-sea-sky
christmas dinner with all the family
unwrapping presents [photos here]
christmas shopping [the day after, spending gift money from all the grandparents]
snatched coffee with friends and lovers
girls with hula hoops
a top and a skirt with henny
boys who want gifts for their girl-friends
kids looking after each other and helping each other decide on clothes

"Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it."

Maya Angelou

insight of the day

faster than writing

i'm thankful that it's as fast to type this as it is to write it

kids all home
sexy in work boots
not having broken anything in the fall
beautiful warm sunshine
making the top 100 on squidoo!

it's thursday already

"'I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition.'

Martha Washington"

Insight of the Day

something there for everyone today

choose life

for getting lots of tasks completed yesterday
[completing all the tasks in the list]
afternoon sunshine
late night whispers
the acknowledgement of the distance travelled by the scouts in a year
contacting job agencies

save some time

see the two new links in the sidebar?

save yourself some time. either subscribe to new posts via email using the feedblitz link, or use the feedburner link to add a subscription to your feed reader

i guess for many of you, the email might be easier, new posts will then be emailed to you as they go up, no need to check in during the day to see if anything has turned up...

love and kisses

somedays i feel like this chicken

#1 reason to be grateful everyday

oooooh!,
originally uploaded by ninefish.

i go gooey at the knees

it will be sunny tomorrow

"'Inside of a ring or out, ain't nothing wrong with going down. It's staying down that's wrong.'

Muhammad Ali"

nachos with the girls
a quiet moment with katie
feedback from the outside world

excited

the last few days have ben exciting because i've been coding and making things work, this hands o work has blown over into some work with clients, and either way it's given me some hope again that i know what i'm doing

i've been having fun

Insight of The Day

from Insight of The Day

'It is not the straining for great things that is most effective; it is the doing of the little things, the common duties, a little better and better.'

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

reasons for being grateful on monday...
new recipes added to the fishy's food roster : aloo gobi [well it's based on that, any indian friends i had would probably roll in their poppadoms]
bike rides
friends in times of need
listening to after work stories
warm winds into the late evening

thanks my friends

clients who come back
associates who commend the web site changes

gratefulness in abundance

sunshine in the bathroom
movies on the couch
children cooking dinner
katie's cookies
barbecues in the late evening warm sunshine
insect bites
peace and quiet
sunday morning lie ins
impromtu stopovers
insight of the day

an idea that's been had before

"Less isn't more; just enough is more."
Milton Glaser, designer

wednesday's gratefulness

quick pizzas
finally getting CSS code under control-seeing the light at the end of the tunnel-
bringing home the van -it's not as if it's really like some warrior returning home-
parents who help out whenever they can
dad whose emails amuse
winning projects…
clients who come back and restart projects we invested time in last year-slow cookers-

Love Your Work

Savage Chickens: Love Your Work: words fail me sometimes, but this is magic

home made cookies

are the bomb!

thanks nettie

betty crocker cookies

a mental picture...

something for me to hold onto today

"Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously and never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop this picture!"
Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
1898-1993, Author of "The Power of Positive Thinking"

[tomorrow the link will probably fail, there's no permalink system in place at insight of the day, i've tried lots of things to find the actual URL of the pages i link to]

Monday monday, thanks momma cass

pasta meals that get cleaned up completely, [note to self: must make even more pasta now, two packets not enough]
warm hips and straight hair
going to school on the bicycles, getting home quickly, girls getting there safely
girls in red skirts
librarians with more pasta on their shirts than their plates
boys who fall asleep after weights
afternoon sunshine
red peppers
urgent print jobs
new requests for branding from clients who've been away for 5 years

new week, same story

grateful...
for bike rides with the girls
horror with hannah [and eliot going to bed in disgust]
for the return of my three girls safe from pigeon bay
pinstripe jeans like the oxford bags i had as a kid
old pen friends calling from germany after 30 years

i thought of you when i saw this

The Interview With God

acleareye.com: Sign on cubicle wall

another reminder to myself...
acleareye.com: Sign on cubicle wall:

'What we're doing today is important because we're paying for it with a day of our life.

Make it worthwhile, because the price is high.'"

wednesday's gratefullness

colleen who pays her bills
the choir who pay theirs even though it was discounted as paid
having another librarian in the family [tuesday]
watching movies with loved ones
rides with the bunch where i don't get left behind [tuesday]

missing blessings reflections

i need to recommit to reflecting on three positive outcomes for the day, i've missed this exercise from Martin Seligman's site. i guess i need to print the PDF out myself, and do the work!

many weekend blessings

i've been too blessed to keep the list up, but i've kept a mental list for friday through sunday

friday
popular pizza comments
falling asleep watching movies with nettie
snatching time with henny and india who missed the bus

saturday
views across to shag rock from the yacht club on an early bike ride
strawberries, fresh coffee and bagels
surprise direct credits from clients
pictures at an exhibition
beer and wedges with nettie, rosie and katie
playing at ohoka with the children, rabbits et al
message in a bottle

sunday
not hearing the alarm clock and waking to warm bodies
the santa parade, ice creams and hot chocolate with the two girls
an extra night with henny
getting jobs cleared up
letting the light into the porch by clearing the jasmine

serendipity

more pause for thought on Insight of The Day:

"'Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strength. When you go through hardship and decide not to surrender, that is strength.'"

arnold swarzenegger

there's a lesson waiting for me every day, maybe you too?

Insight of the Day

it's sometimes seems strange, and on the other hand it's not in the least bit odd that the things in our email inbox have something for us to learn

this just in...

Insight of the Day:

'Look at the abundance all around you as you go about your daily business. You have as much right to this abundance as any other living creature. It's yours for the asking.'
Earl Nightinglale

i'm grateful today for…

a cuddle from henrietta this morning
eliot's gratitude for his homework mission
a head on my chest before i got out of bed

three blessing for thursday

following on from yesterday's post about marty seligman's programme and to prove i do do my homework...

first positive event was a meeting with a potential new client, this went well, i felt, because i was honest and concise. i gave her the price she asked for before i gave her the questions about what she was trying to achieve. normally i'd have launched into the "this won't achieve what you think it will" talk. i also didn't waffle because i had to get the kids from school so time was limited

second postive event: long phone call with nanna about custody arrangements, this went well because i felt heard [maybe this happened because i was rational and compliant?]

third positive event: supporting eliot in getting hhis homework done. this went well because i stayed calm and helpful rather than taking over or melding his will to mine :-)

well, that's it. make a comment below, or just keep an eye on things, if i do this for at least 14 days before retesting, we ca all see how it comes out

maybe you should try this yourselves?

love to you all...

lunch blessings

here's a reason to be cheerful today: lunch with nettie in the sunshine

this made me giggle

seen as there's been so much navel gazing here lately, today's savage chickens made me giggle.

not an example of the kind of symchronicity i've been looking for

chicken therapy

three blessings preamble

basically what Marty Seligman is suggesting is to do this before bed every night for a week. It's also what my darling wife suggested to begin again [you see nettie has mucho insight]

1. Positive event I:
Why did this good thing happen?
2. Positive event II:
Why did this good thing happen?
3. Positive event III:
Why did this good thing happen?

i've put the form here as a PDF

just in case you want to print your own, and track your own transistion

best go to the site and get yourself benchmarked first, after all i'm not the pyschologist here, Marty is!

for the record, happiness score for me was 85 [pretty high as expected] and depression scale was a bit of a surprise at 14 [mildly depressed this week]. best keep working on increasing the one and decreasing the other

ciao

synchronicity redux

here's something that came into my mailbox this morning

I've read both of Marty Seligman's recent books about learned optimism and authentic happiness i've been a big fan and talked a lot about them a great deal at the time.

this new site << tests and exercises here >> and the home page here offer some benchmarking tests and a program that apparently will help alleviate depression over a short time period, i'll be reading more on this, and keep this updated

thursdays cheerful quotient

firstly the children are coming tonight YaY! :-)

i'm also grateful for going to sleep at a reasonable hour yesterday i awake feeling fresher than i have in too long

today's insight UPDATE:- i've been making poor links, this previous link goes to insight of the day's site, not to insight of the actual day i was reading's quote page

so to cover off everything, here's yesterday's quote inline:

Throughout all history, the great wise men and teachers, philosphophers, and prophets have disagreed with each other on many different things. it is only on one point that they are in comeplete and unanimous agreement. - We become what we think about.

Earl Nightingale

is another treat of syncronicity, man i should be listening

and to all those who think that setting up this blog took a long time...

it didn't, but i learned a lot whilst doing it, and it may even earn some money as i roll the concept out in other areas of the business

i'm also grateful for the love i get to pass on

love you, reason, season and a lifetime

reasons to be cheerful part one

reasons to be cheerful part one…

that even though it's difficult to believe in myself sometimes, my wife does anyway [and so do the rest of my family]

that things keep putting themselves in front of me reminding me of what could be…
This came in this morning's insight of the day:

The only person who succeeds is the person who is progressively realising a worthy ideal. That's the person who says 'I'm going to become this' and then begins to work towards that goal.

Earl Nightingale

the persistence of the universe in teaching me things is amazing

today i'm listening