November
I broke my office coffee cup last week. I'd already chipped it, but this time I smashed it into a thousand pieces. Boo. It said Foxy Lady on it, and I really loved it. On the upside, I was surprised to learn that my coffee actually tastes better in my replacement cup, so at least it was good for something.
My intern starts on Monday. I'm excited. She's 38, and she used to be a caregiver for the elderly, but because of back problems she's had to choose a different path. She has to complete her 'trainee' part of her new education, which is where I come in. She needs her paperwork, and I need her to do MY paperwork. It's a win-win situation. :) I have thought of a bunch of different jobs for her, so I doubt she'll be bored. She'll be working 12 hours a week for the next 6 weeks.
Right now it's Sunday afternoon. I'm hanging out in the kitchen by candle light. It's raining outside, the washer and dryer are running in the utility room, and Sven put on a Spotify playlist. It's nice. He's out washing our cars, and I'm looking at a pile of invoicing that I promised myself I'd at least take a stab at today. I'm just kinda... working up to it. :)
Sven and I decided to celebrate Christmas Eve at home this year, just the two of us. It was such a load off my mind, I didn't even realize how much I was stressing about the inevitability of the Christmas craziness. For the first time in years, I'm actually looking forward to Christmas now! I might even get a tree!
Don't get me wrong, I like the family stuff, it's just a huge time suck, and this is my busiest time of the year. We were supposed to head down to Sven's parents this year, an 1½ hours' drive from here. And knowing them, they'll want us to come a day early, on the 23rd. So that's a minimum of 2 days intense Christmas family interaction. And we never manage to head out the door on the 25th until well into the afternoon. Then, on the 26th, we have my family's Christmas Luncheon, which is a pot luck, so I'll spend the rest of the 25th cooking for the day after. The luncheon takes up alll of the 26th. That's four days where I'm trying to enjoy myself, while having knots in my stomach over all the paperwork I'm NOT getting done. And December 31st looming like the horrible deadline that it is. So just skipping the 23rd-25th family time is like a gift to me. This decision is primarily based on the fact that Sven has the emergency phone, and being several hours away from plumbing emergencies is a pretty terrible idea, and a source of stress to him. So we both win by being the anti-social assholes that we appear to be. :) Yaaay!
My intern starts on Monday. I'm excited. She's 38, and she used to be a caregiver for the elderly, but because of back problems she's had to choose a different path. She has to complete her 'trainee' part of her new education, which is where I come in. She needs her paperwork, and I need her to do MY paperwork. It's a win-win situation. :) I have thought of a bunch of different jobs for her, so I doubt she'll be bored. She'll be working 12 hours a week for the next 6 weeks.
Right now it's Sunday afternoon. I'm hanging out in the kitchen by candle light. It's raining outside, the washer and dryer are running in the utility room, and Sven put on a Spotify playlist. It's nice. He's out washing our cars, and I'm looking at a pile of invoicing that I promised myself I'd at least take a stab at today. I'm just kinda... working up to it. :)
Sven and I decided to celebrate Christmas Eve at home this year, just the two of us. It was such a load off my mind, I didn't even realize how much I was stressing about the inevitability of the Christmas craziness. For the first time in years, I'm actually looking forward to Christmas now! I might even get a tree!
Don't get me wrong, I like the family stuff, it's just a huge time suck, and this is my busiest time of the year. We were supposed to head down to Sven's parents this year, an 1½ hours' drive from here. And knowing them, they'll want us to come a day early, on the 23rd. So that's a minimum of 2 days intense Christmas family interaction. And we never manage to head out the door on the 25th until well into the afternoon. Then, on the 26th, we have my family's Christmas Luncheon, which is a pot luck, so I'll spend the rest of the 25th cooking for the day after. The luncheon takes up alll of the 26th. That's four days where I'm trying to enjoy myself, while having knots in my stomach over all the paperwork I'm NOT getting done. And December 31st looming like the horrible deadline that it is. So just skipping the 23rd-25th family time is like a gift to me. This decision is primarily based on the fact that Sven has the emergency phone, and being several hours away from plumbing emergencies is a pretty terrible idea, and a source of stress to him. So we both win by being the anti-social assholes that we appear to be. :) Yaaay!