Back to work tomorrow
...though as the kids aren't back to school until Thursday, I immediately have Wednesday off for childcare reasons so it is a bit of a case of dipping my toe in the water of normality, or something. Before finishing for Christmas I had a flurry of emergencies and time-sensitive stuff to squeeze into those last minutes, and of course not all could even be fitted in, but my boss is good at telling us that we can only do what we can do and not to worry about it, so although it took a while to relax into holiday mode, I did succeed in stopping thinking about work after only a day or two. (Hmm, oh well.)
Dad was in hospital over some of the holiday time - went in on Christmas Eve, and was released on Boxing Day I think it was. The immediate bladder trouble had been controlled by that time, but of course it still remains to be seen what the underlying cause is. He has an appointment on Wednesday but it's not clear whether that will be one where he gets scanned / gets some analysis done, or if it is just to get him starting to move through the system. He's clearly under the weather and has been snoozing a fair bit, but then powerful antibiotics and a hospital stay will do that to you.
I don't really do resolutions but I have been getting increasingly tetchy about the state of mess that our house gets in and I / we need to make some changes in how things work in order to fix it. Being busy at work doesn't help - one thing that was working last year was the hint from useful website Unfuck Your Habitat to never leave your washing up with items undone - always do all your washing up in one go. But getting home late and tired is really demotivating for that, and the cold weather has me wanting to just crawl into bed early, to boot.
Although we were away for a couple of chunks of the holiday (and frantically preparing for Christmas before then), over the last couple of days we have managed to catch up on the washing up sufficiently that today, at least, I have been able to follow the never-leave-anything-unwashed rule. I'd like to maintain that as a habit throughout more of 2018 than I did in 2017. I think that in order to do that I / we need to make sure to get the kids to help out more - helping with getting the table laid or cleared, at least. They (reluctantly) do so when specifically asked but we haven't really enforced it as a regular habit or requirement and we really must do.
I've also been getting into bad habits of leaving stuff scattered about all over the house - all of us have been doing that. Kid B leaves his train tracks and trains all over the sitting room, Kid A leaves books with bookmarks in just about every room in the house and half-done science kit stuff in the dining room, R leaves miscellaneous stuff including lots of books of course, I have been leaving sewing equipment hither and thither, plus piling up comics bloggery stuff near my computer. And the cellar is getting worse and worse. The kids are good at joining in with a clear-out once they are nagged into it, and once they get their second wind (the first while of any such stint is marked by a lot of complaining but then they get quite enthusiastic about it, and they positively like the result of clear space and fewer things lying around).
The sewing room that R has been making for me (with the kids' help - they picked out a nice colour of paint for the drop-down table that R is attaching to the wall) will corral the sewing clutter into a better space, and some things have already gone into the pull-out drawers that R had got assembled before Christmas morning. At some point the cellar is going to need a proper go-through but again really it's going to need the adoption of some better habits all round - and I think that is going to be tough to do (and/or to come up with useful small steps that will help to gradually improve things - suggestions welcome). Some of the change will need to be about getting rid of stuff more effectively but that's easier said than done - I think all four of us are more acquisitive than minimalist.
I've seen fewer friends this year than in previous years - with work being full-on and trying to also fit in stuff like comics blogging or sewing, then even getting the tidying / cleaning mentioned above feels like a big effort, and anyway going out in the evenings is more of an ask than just staying in. But the regular meet ups with a few key friends have been on-going, and with old friend Jenni Cole starting work in Oxford I have added one meet up to that, which is great. I work best with putting something in the calendar in advance (and preferably regularly) rather than trying to plan spontaneously, in case anyone else wants to meet up in 2018...
This entry was originally posted at https://jinty.dreamwidth.org/1044942.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Dad was in hospital over some of the holiday time - went in on Christmas Eve, and was released on Boxing Day I think it was. The immediate bladder trouble had been controlled by that time, but of course it still remains to be seen what the underlying cause is. He has an appointment on Wednesday but it's not clear whether that will be one where he gets scanned / gets some analysis done, or if it is just to get him starting to move through the system. He's clearly under the weather and has been snoozing a fair bit, but then powerful antibiotics and a hospital stay will do that to you.
I don't really do resolutions but I have been getting increasingly tetchy about the state of mess that our house gets in and I / we need to make some changes in how things work in order to fix it. Being busy at work doesn't help - one thing that was working last year was the hint from useful website Unfuck Your Habitat to never leave your washing up with items undone - always do all your washing up in one go. But getting home late and tired is really demotivating for that, and the cold weather has me wanting to just crawl into bed early, to boot.
Although we were away for a couple of chunks of the holiday (and frantically preparing for Christmas before then), over the last couple of days we have managed to catch up on the washing up sufficiently that today, at least, I have been able to follow the never-leave-anything-unwashed rule. I'd like to maintain that as a habit throughout more of 2018 than I did in 2017. I think that in order to do that I / we need to make sure to get the kids to help out more - helping with getting the table laid or cleared, at least. They (reluctantly) do so when specifically asked but we haven't really enforced it as a regular habit or requirement and we really must do.
I've also been getting into bad habits of leaving stuff scattered about all over the house - all of us have been doing that. Kid B leaves his train tracks and trains all over the sitting room, Kid A leaves books with bookmarks in just about every room in the house and half-done science kit stuff in the dining room, R leaves miscellaneous stuff including lots of books of course, I have been leaving sewing equipment hither and thither, plus piling up comics bloggery stuff near my computer. And the cellar is getting worse and worse. The kids are good at joining in with a clear-out once they are nagged into it, and once they get their second wind (the first while of any such stint is marked by a lot of complaining but then they get quite enthusiastic about it, and they positively like the result of clear space and fewer things lying around).
The sewing room that R has been making for me (with the kids' help - they picked out a nice colour of paint for the drop-down table that R is attaching to the wall) will corral the sewing clutter into a better space, and some things have already gone into the pull-out drawers that R had got assembled before Christmas morning. At some point the cellar is going to need a proper go-through but again really it's going to need the adoption of some better habits all round - and I think that is going to be tough to do (and/or to come up with useful small steps that will help to gradually improve things - suggestions welcome). Some of the change will need to be about getting rid of stuff more effectively but that's easier said than done - I think all four of us are more acquisitive than minimalist.
I've seen fewer friends this year than in previous years - with work being full-on and trying to also fit in stuff like comics blogging or sewing, then even getting the tidying / cleaning mentioned above feels like a big effort, and anyway going out in the evenings is more of an ask than just staying in. But the regular meet ups with a few key friends have been on-going, and with old friend Jenni Cole starting work in Oxford I have added one meet up to that, which is great. I work best with putting something in the calendar in advance (and preferably regularly) rather than trying to plan spontaneously, in case anyone else wants to meet up in 2018...
This entry was originally posted at https://jinty.dreamwidth.org/1044942.html. Please comment there using OpenID.