Music.

I love Christmas music. 

I get quite upset when Christmas passes and I have to start listening to "normal" music again. 

(I do occasionally sneak in a cheeky, wee Christmas song!)

So I have been listening to Christmas music since November. 

And I don't mean after Thanksgiving, I mean like November 1st. 

I know the rule - no Christmas music until after Thanksgiving.

I'm sorry, but not really. 

I am from Scotland and we don't celebrate Thanksgiving, therefore I can start whenever I like.

Glad we cleared that up! 

That is 2 months of solid Christmas music. 

(which is basically 2 months of solid joy!)

If I listen to anything else during this time I feel really bad and feel like I cheated on Christmas. 

I realise that this sounds like I have a problem, but this girl just really loves Christmas and celebrating the birth of her Saviour!

The other wonderful thing about it is that because I haven't listened to other music for a while it now feels like I am hearing it for the first time! 

I have been listening to a lot of Kari Jobe. 

If you don't know who I am talking about please go and look her up. 

She has some beautiful songs.

Her words really speak to my heart. 

Over the past few days I have been listening to one of her songs over and over. 

I find it really hard to listen to her music and do anything else because I get so lost in her words. 

You are for me. 

You can find a link to this song below. 

I don't know about you but sometimes I have to remind myself that God is for us.

You fill me. You see me.

You know my every move

and You love for me to sing to You.

God knows our every move, and knows what lies ahead. 

Lord, I know that You are for me. 

I take great comfort in that. 

p.s. I will share what else I have been listening to soon. Some of it hilarious, well not really but it is stuff that my brother listens to and we he had it on when we were driving all over the world last week! It is not at all what I would normally listen to but I got a kick out of it! 

Safe.

A few days ago I received some very sad news from my Church family in California. 

A young guy was killed in a car accident.

I am lifting them up in prayer.

Please pray for them with me.

My heart is hurting for his family.

It is comforting to know that he is safely home and with the Lord now.

This song has been on my mind.

One day we will all be safe in His arms.

Thankful that right now, Connor is wrapped in His loving arms.

Shuffling.

I never put my iPod on shuffle. 

I am usually really picky about what music I want to listen to at a certain time.

But this week I have been enjoying a little random music.

Oh my goodness, I have some funny music.

It puts a big smile on my face.

One minute I am listening to Carrie Underwood, the next some Christmas songs come on!

Then I have some Dreamgirls soundtrack, Taylor Swift, Hillsong, Sam Cooke, Motown Greatest hits, Hairspray soundtrack, Dixie Chicks...and the list goes on and on!

I can go from sitting reflecting on worship songs, to then be wanting to dance.

Some songs come on and I just can't help but laugh - like when songs from the "We Love Life" album come on. (I can thank my sister for that!)  

I think you everyone should go and put there music on shuffle.

You will have a great time!

I am going to leave you with the song that I have listened to most.

Definitely one of my favourites.

Everytime I listen to this song I pray that in my life HIS will be done.

Lifted up.

I don't think I shared about my very encouraging moment a few weeks ago. I was doing some shopping in Perth and I could here this music playing. So I started to walk in the direction it was coming from. I walked down a very creepy alleyway (even in daylight!) and there it was. The little shining light. There was a choir from one of the Churches singing worship songs. I am so moved by worship music. I wanted to join in with them, dancing and singing. I kinda did actually. It was definitely a wee gift from God. He knows what we need and exactly when we need it. It was beautiful. I was moved to tears. So I am going to post a little video of the song they were singing. Enjoy. I hope this encourages you as much as it encouraged me. Just imagine you are wandering around the shops and you hear this.

On a roll.

I am totally on a roll with posts! But this is what I always do. Post, no post...post post. Anyway, back to it. This is just quick. I had a fun day out shopping with the ma today. I a little bit of money money from some relatives for my birrrrthday so I had an excuse to spend it. I am on major, major save just now. More on that soon. I managed to find some super duper bargains for summer. We have been fortunate enough to have lots of sunshiney days of late and I am so enjoying it.

The sun was shining today, I was smiling. I wore sunglasses! I like this alot.

Ok. I am going to share a little music with you. Have you heard of Adele? Say yes, even if you haven't. Of course you have. She is great. I totally wore out her first album, like to the point where I couldn't listen to it for ages because I was like "blah blah blah..I know all the words, neeext!" So you can imagine how excited I was when her 2nd album came out. Ah. I love it. She has an amazing voice, such a beautiful tone to her voice. Listen to her. Now.

I will leave you singing along to Miss Adele. Enjoy.

p.s. I am back to work tomorrow. Mixed feelings about this. It will be nice to see everyone. But when my alarm goes off at 5:55am tomorrow morning I will not be thinking about how nice it will be to see anyone.

This is my Desire.

Have a listen to this song by Hillsong. It is one of my favourites. This is my prayer today.

I have had such an ecouraging day. I will share more on how God blessed my day, tomorrow. ♥

Call me, no matter where you are.

Today I got to chat with one of my best friends. We planned our Skype date yesterday and I was looking forward to it all day. Our conversations usually involve lots of laughing. Today there was laughing but we were having more of a grown up conversation. It has been a couple of weeks since we have spoken so we had too much to catch up on. For a while we would talk everyday so we would always be up to date on everything going on in each other's lives. Lately I haven't been calling because I am working late and then too tired, or time differences don't work out (my dear friend lives in California, while I live in Scotland. Hopefully soon we will be in the same country. Pray.)
It is so easy to get so caught up in all the busyness that life brings. I am constantly telling myself that there is not enough time to do all the things that I had hoped to do with my day. I am really bad for thinking...I'm far too tired to do anything...I'll just sit down for a minute..hour... This is not cool.

I love the song Ain't No Mountain High Enough. I enjoy singing this song at the top of my lungs..maybe with the hope that all the people I love will hear it and know that I am talking about them.

If you need me, call me
No matter where you are
No matter how far
Just call my name
I'll be there in a hurry
You don't have to worry - Eh, I mean this.

I am gonna change my attitude. I am gonna call you more often, friends. I am gonna give you more of my time.

Because I love you.

 p.s. And how can I resist seeing this face more often?

Get your dancing shoes on!

This week I had a very unplanned visit with one of my best friends, Laura. This girl is seriously one of the greatest people I know. She totally challenges me to be a better person. Everything she does is for someone else, she never thinks of herself. She is definitely the best listener I know, when I am rambling on about everything and nothing she sits there quietly taking it all in and getting ready to pass on some of her wisdom. She is awesome.

So that's Laura. I went down to spend the night with her on Tuesday. It had been a over 6 months since I had seen her. That is just ridiculous. That will never happen again. We both barely took breath for the first hour trying to fill each other in what's been going on. We sat for probably 6 hours talking and talking and talking. It was just what I needed. We then watched a movie...let me think what it was called...A thing Called Love..maybe? It had a bunch of country music in it, which and love, and also Dermot Mulroney, who I also love! Then she brought in all her karaoke DVDs. Oh my goodness, we laughed. We both love to sing, Laura is an amazing singer..me, not so much! We both tend to be very theatrical with our karaoke performances. One day I will remember to take my camera. Then she whipped out her guitar and we sang a few praise songs. We used to do this every week when I lived closer to her. I definitely missed this. It was probably 3am before we finally decided that we had probably rehearsed enough for our big show (ha) and we hit the hay. 

Wednesday was pretty much filled with more of the same, except me had a wee nap thrown in their somewhere. I was (very easily) persauded to stay an extra night, so that I could be deprived of sleep some more! Another friend came over and had dinner with us which was lovely. We were then going to an open-mic night at a wee bar in town. Laura has gone there a few times because she is trying to build her confidence so she will be able to perform more easily in front of people. It is a great place to do it because it is not too big so there are not too many people. The guy that runs it is lovely and really makes everyone feel welcome. It was lovely because another guy, Stuart, that we used to go to Church with was there performing too. He is awesome. Him and his wife were such an encouragement to me. He is a phenomenal musician. I love listening to him sing. Laura and Stuart were definitely the best performers there. I may be a bit bias, but I am right! We really enjoyed ourselves, lots of laughing. When we got back to Laura's flat we had a wee dance with Paolo Nutini. Now when I say that we dancing with Paolo Nutini what I really mean is we put on his CD and danced our socks off in her living room. It was awesome.

I was really sad to say good-bye to my lovely friend. But I am already looking forward to going back to visit her again soon. Even though it had been so long since we had seen each other it felt like just the other day. She was an answer to a prayer of mine and I thank the LORD for her. I learn so much from her and she is a joy to be around. There are some people you know you are going to be stuck with for the rest of your life. I am SO thankful that I am going to be stuck with this wonderful friend!

I have put in a link for Mr Nutini's song Pencil Full of Lead. I am sure this will make you dance...or at the very least get your foot a tapping! Enjoy!

p.s. can you believe that I am posting my second post in one day? Well technically it might be Saturday now so I might not be quite as good as I think I am.

The Never-ending List...

About a month ago I made this cute "To Do List" sign. I actually made it out of a card I got from a friend for my Birthday this year. I love it!

So, since I have made this cute sign I am always adding more and more things to this list. The sad thing is that rarely does anything get crossed off it, but the list just keeps growing and growing. Until today that is. I managed to cross off a few things from my list, a few e-mails, letters sent, birthday present mailed and Christmas presents bought! I also did a bunch of laundry, tidying and cooked a lovely dinner tonight aswell. Feeling very pleased with myself too. I also changed my room around, well really just moved my bed. But I like it. :)

Also, I have something to confess. Today I was listening to Christmas music. I just couldn't help myself. Yesterday when I was shopping ALL the shops had Christmas music on. I was jealous that the people that worked there got to listen to this music all day and think that it is perfectly acceptable to start listening now. It's only a month before Christmas, and this is the only time of year that I get to listen to this wonderful music! I think you should start now too, you know YOU want to?