Reality check

It’s day one after the A – Z Challenge but I decided not to have a rest and to find something to post about instead.  It was quite useful having a theme for the challenge but now it’s back to real life which is usually what I blog about. 

My life has taken a major twist over the last couple of months.  I’ve gone from having a very stressful job, working long hours every day to being at home all day, every day.  Initially this change was very hard to adjust to.  My blood pressure was high, I was feeling very low and there were quite a few duvet days to start with.  It’s been a reality check and I’m not totally sure whether I’ll look for another job yet or consider myself retired.

It has given me a lot of time to watch TV.  I’d like to say I watch programmes that are enlightening and educational but sadly I can’t.  I watch some quiz shows which will of course exercise my brain but I also watch a lot of American shows.  I steer clear of reality shows and I’m not a British soap opera fan.  I used to watch them a lot but made a conscious choice not to get hooked into them.

What surprised me this week were the comments about a storyline in a popular show.  A main character had been written out.  Although I agree that it sounded as if it hadn’t been done very well, the comments of some of the fans were worrying in that some of them carried on as if it were a real person being killed off rather than just a character in a show.  I wanted to interject and tell them to get a grip but who am I to judge what other people watch and how much of themselves they invest into it.

It did make me more aware that I need to find things to fill my time.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not saying it’s bad to watch TV it’s just that I feel I’m doing too much of it at the moment and I could spend my time more productively. 

I’ve had a few things to keep me busy this week – we’re having a gathering for family and friends on Sunday to celebrate hubby’s 60^th birthday.  That’s got me back into making lists!  Just getting his immediate family together involves over 40 people.  Fortunately we are not doing this at home, we will use the social club that we are members of.

I’ve also started on decluttering the house.  One box at a time.  If every box takes as long as the first one this will keep me occupied for a long time.  The box I tackled was one left behind by our youngest son when he moved out.  I’d asked him if it was just rubbish or if anything needed to be kept.  His response was it was just rubbish.

Well, it’s a good thing we recycle!  There was a lot of paperwork in the box so I started to sort it out into a bag for recycling and a bag for the rubbish bin.  I won’t embarrass my son my divulging just how many things I determined were fit for neither bag but….I have a pile of important papers waiting for him and we’ve gained a lot of working pens.  I also spent a lot of time shredding paperwork that couldn’t just go straight into the recycling bin.  It took me most of a morning to get through that one box.

However, I now have one less box of junk to go through so it’s a step forward.  Positive thinking!