Since Daughter & K have been in and out, haven't had any real time to post. So some random pictures I took.....
















The first picture is of a typical clear December sky. I took the 2nd picture when I saw the dark rain clouds--quite unusual in December. There was rain north-east of us and so these ominous looking clouds (though not much rain).




This is Mrs. Santa & grandson at the school Christmas do :)

My grandson K's parents came and he's gone off with him. My husband has also gone out and as I sit here alone in front of the computer, although I'm listening to lovely Christmas music on Accuradio.com, I feel like this.
Having a grandchild is a living experience of developmental psychology. Somehow with one's own children, there is not that much time for observation as you're too busy doing. I agree with such a small grandchild, even grandparents have to do, but somehow (maybe because in some ways I'm more detached as a grandparent) I can get to watch the wheels of his mind turning and changing and growing. Us grandparents just gave him love. He bossed around his granddad quite a bit. But he was mostly very co-operative and enjoyed himself, when he came to school with me. he's generally a reasonable little chap and quite adjusting. The mental and physical growth of a toddler is so great in a year and there is so much change in the one year since he last came and stayed alone with us. Anyway, I'm sure I can now look forward to more visits from him alone, when we can do lots more things together.

Just a short note, my grandson is coming visiting. He is coming alone with his granddad who has gone to get him. So I'll probably get very little time to blog till his mum comes, a week from that.

Hip Hop Grandmom asked me to take on a tag she just finished on 10 things I would like to do before I turn 60 and things I miss from the old days. I think I will also do it in 2 parts like HHG.
So for the first part.. 10 things before 60.
Let me say this first that as I near 60(another 4 years), it doesn't seem like an age which means the end of my active life :)
1. Travel to South America. I love Latin music and Brazilian music particularly--what i've heard of it. (But I'm willing to take Thailand.)
2. Hope to see the birth of at least one more grandchild, preferably more!
3. Maybe go for one spa treatment.
4. Lose around 10 kgs (ok let's get realistic here--5 kgs atleast)
5. Be more active in working with under-privileged children.
6. Learn to take negative criticism better--without feeling like I'm the most useless thing around.
7. Learn to be firm.
8. Hope to get the better of my procrastination.
Can't think of anything else that I feel I just have to do by 2011. [Look at that date!! to me born in the middle of the last millennium, it seems like some monstrous futuristic date. But it's only the year I turn 60.]

A quick post to say that the computer connection to my room is gone 'cos the main computer shifted places and something happened to the cable connection to my computer. So I've not answered mail, nor read all the new posts the Google reader tells me have been posted. Besides, last night I could not even get blogger.com or any blogspot.com. So waiting desperately for the connection to be repaired. Sorry friends for not being responsive.

A tag about windows.

Onedia had done a lovely post on windows and had asked about the ideas of others (including me) on windows. Incidentally, I took the idea of a collage of windows from her post.
Well, let's take the literal windows first,
1. The windows are open to let in fresh air(almost 24x7 in most parts of the house).
2. To catch the breeze, when it's the season for it;
3. To watch the rain;
4. To hear the sounds outside (various bird calls, depending on the time of day, the breeze singing through the trees, children playing, music from the music lessons over at sis-in-law's place)
5. To sit and dream by.

Now for the 'symbolic' window, the windows of my mind..............
Well, I had done this post last year about my mind rooms which had 3 windows looking out. Those windows were open to catch the breezes (I love a strong breeze) and to look at the beauty in the world outside.
But after reading what Onedia had to say about her symbolic windows, I wonder whether my mind windows aren't a bit smoky just now, not clear enough to see clearly, too inward looking? If my windows were clearer I would probably see the beauty in the world outside, the goodness and beauty in the people I meet--in person and on the Net--, people with totally different ideas and opinions from me and who may not like me at all, but still have the right to be out there.

Pictures of windows all taken by daughter in law/son and 2 by me.

Not for me the rough seas

Picture of Kovalam. Credits to my daughter-in-law.

Not for me the rough seas of turbulent emotions;

The swirling murky waters of a troubled sea,

Not the riding up on the crest of the choppy wave

To drop into the trough.

For me, I strive for the serenity of a calm ocean,

(Kovalam on a sunlit December morning?)

The clear waters of awareness, of quietitude,

Flowing like a balm through me.

No exciting surfer’s paradise;

Rather, the staid peace of a gentle sea.

My rant about the many multi-storeys coming up around us is here.
Incidentally, that is a family blog about which everyone knows, with more than one contributor and which I have kept separate from this. This blog only my children know about and which I have not told extended family about.