Lydia

Oh Lydia, as all my girls do you are growing faster than I would choose and today you turn three! You've been telling me all week that you are "nearly three" and you can even recognise a number 3 when you see it written down (along with other numbers too, you clever little cookie).

You are a joy to be mummy to, with a wonderful inquisitive mind, you enjoy exploring, going on adventures and you often tell me "I have an idea!".

I love how much joy you bring to any occasion, a pile of leaves - great! A slice of cheese - yummy!! A big space - fun! A long car journey - amazing.  Your ability to find the adventure in any and all circumstances will take you far, my precious, cherish it.

You don't like to be the little one. You are a big girl and heaven forbid anyone think otherwise. Whatever the big ones are doing there you are too.

I mean why wouldn't a nearly 3 year old make a Charles Rennie Macintosh stencil, her big sisters are doing it after all!

You bring so much fun to our lives, you are the dance when everyone else is just sitting around. You are the wiggle to everyone else just waiting.

You have an incredible sense of smile, fairy dress for the school run, yes please! Party dress and welly boots, why not? Wooly hat whatever the weather? Why is it even a question.

Lydia you are a precious, beautiful child who DEFINITELY knows what they want. And what you want you make known and I don't enjoy the days I have to say no for some reason. You are a strong, wonderful girl and I suspect will lead people all sorts of fun places. I can't wait to see, I know you'll go on all sorts of adventures.

My prayer for you this year: that your sense of adventure grow! and that in it you'd start to trust in Jesus

I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have laboured and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.
2 Corinthians 11:26-29

Volunteers wanted

I project I'm running that's looking at the sounds people associate with places is looking for volunteers. Basically we're looking for people to visit our web page, listen to a few groups of sounds, and vote on the ones that remind them most of one of the places. Each visit should take around 7ish minutes, and ideally you'd come back to the page a few times over the next 2-3 months.

The places being studied are Stirling City Centre, Stirling University Campus, Aberdeen City Centre and  Aberdeen University Campus. At least many of you will be familiar with at least one of these! If you can spare a few minutes, please sign up and start listening to the sounds we’ve captured. The page can be found here: https://tiny.cc/crowdsound . At the start of this work, the sounds will seem fairly random and not necessarily good matches for the places. The idea is that as more people participate over the next couple of months, they will slowly gravitate towards something the really fits each of the places.

Also, if you can share this with others that'd be great. There's a an "official" blog post with much the same message at http://crowdsound.stir.ac.uk/2017/10/27/volunteers-wanted/