When I say I’m losing track I’m not talking about trotting out the old Mum adage of “where has the year gone?”. We all know that once you have kids time becomes a slippery slope of years passing as quickly as our many failed diet and exercise fads.
I’m really meaning, we are 9 months through 2014 and I’ve lost track of my life. In SO many ways.
I’m pretty sure it’s a combination of massive cabin fever due to a miserable winter, Nixon’s surgery and recovery, getting used to SAHM life again and just complacency with the status quo that has left me feeling continually overwhelmed and overcommitted, but with a severe lack of motivation and focus to be able to mentally ‘clear the decks’. That was a l o n g sentence but this is going to be a long post so get comfy.
I have never in my life had a veritable MOUNTAIN of things on my desk that remain there for days. Behind one couch is my pile of shame; another mountain, this time of outgrown baby clothes, toys etc that could probably fund Christmas – if I could get around to listing it all on TM. I have started SO many projects this year and failed to complete them. I have shopped up a storm and left things in their packages, unopened and unappreciated << how disgraceful/ungrateful is that? I have indulged some horrendous eating habits, specifically, unbelievable levels of chocolate consumption. I’m not even going to tell you how much and when I eat ALL the chocolate because you wouldn’t believe me anyway – it’s THAT bad.
Basically, I’ve just been sucking at my life. I’m pretty sure my kids are ok though, they aren’t made of chocolate so I haven’t eaten them.
I’ve also been totally sucking at my blog and that makes me really sad. I’m sorry about that.
But, it is spring and spring means change and promise and brighter {drier+warmer} days ahead and I’m going to rock summer this year so I need to get started NOW.
Here’s how I’m going to shake things up before the close of 2014;
- Finances: Dave begins a new contract October 1st which means he is going to be paid monthly instead of weekly. Conveniently, I had forgotten about this until he reminded me last night. As I
mismanage our finances I now have two more pay checks to prepare for a month between $$. It’s beyond time to vastly reduce the discretionary spending and put some goals in place. I used to micro-manage our budget and I was really good at it. In the past few years I have let this slip so I will be reinstating the budget and setting up a new savings account. Call me frivolous, whatever, but I want to holiday next winter. I want to have something to look forward to, to work towards and somewhere to escape the hideousness of winter in Auckland. We don’t have credit card debt and won’t be getting into debt for a holiday so, it seems we will be saving. - Health: I’m going to shake my mega chocolate addiction. I didn’t buy 4 king size blocks at the grocery store on Monday so that’s all that needs to be said about that. We also need to reduce alcohol consumption. Dave and I have slipped into the habit of “it’s been a rough day let’s have a wine” or “it’s been a wicked day, let’s have a wine” or “today is a day that ends with Y, let’s have a wine!”. This will also go some way towards saving money and reducing the old discretionary spending. I also realised that I went 3 days without drinking any water at the end of last week. Hells bells I need help!
- House & Home: It’s time to stop procrastinating and get cracking, and by cracking I mean purging, selling and cleaning. Around the house I have a to-do list as long as my arm that includes such good times as; water blasting the house before it stops raining for the season, planting my vege seedlings, weeding the rest of the gardens, getting our dining room table painted, spring clean Ethan’s room and the family room……..and more of course. None of them especially onerous or particularly time-consuming, but the motivation to actually do them is what has been lacking. I’m thinking, lists, lists and more lists.
- Blog: Writing makes me happy, and sometimes, I think my writing makes you happy too. So, I’m going to prioritise some time each day to spend right here, mummy-blogging it up. This may eventuate in getting up earlier to fit things in, but this also has the added bonus of a guaranteed shower each day. Yay for clean!
So. That’s all of my dirty laundry aired. I’m going to update you on my progress each week and please be a champ and let me know if you’ve been sucking at life too ok? Maybe we can all reform together and start a commune or something?
If you have any amaze apps that you love for to-do list type stuff I would love to hear about them. Anything I can do on my phone may help me keep on track.
Finally, if you have made it to the end of this monstrous post, you, my friend are a Champion Reader of Blogs, so go and find yourself a button for that and pop it in your sidebar or something mmkay x