R is for Removals (A-Z Challenge 2020)

In January of this year my hubby and I decided that it was time to move on to the next stage of our lives and move house.  I deliberated long and hard about whether it was a good move to take part in the A-Z Challenge this year (pun intended) given that we could be very busy, but decided on balance that having something to focus on might not be a bad idea.  Of course the decision on a theme was much easier to make – Moving House!  

Then Covid-19 put a stop to any ideas of moving so I’ve had to regroup and rethink my posts.  Which means I’m not as prepared as I’d liked to have been but here goes:

R is for Removals Reality

Well Removals was the title I planned.  The heading above and logo were all pre-prepared as were all my posts before the start of the challenge.  Quite a few of the posts had actually been completed and scheduled to publish.  I did a few more as time went on.  On Sunday I was going to finish off the missing letters.  X Y & Z were already done so that left me Q - W.  I managed Q!

So reality check, I'm now winging it.  Reality check, I'm not ok.

Well of course I am ok.  I haven't been struck down with the dreaded virus.  I have a lot of things to be thankful for.  (Check out my Friday's Fave Five posts if you don't believe me.)  And yet.....

Who wants to hear about removals when I can't even begin to start packing up my home as the future is so uncertain?  Will there even be removal companies in business if I ever get to needing one?

I'm sure like many people, despite being safe in my home, well, and without any immediate financial worries, I'm still finding this lockdown situation tough.  I have good days and bad days.  Days when I get up and dressed and make a "to do" list of things to get done and work through them.  Yesterday was a bit like that although we didn't get out for our daily walk.  

We did go outside to try and catch sight of the Satellite train that is currently passing over the UK (more info here) but although we walked out onto the common there is so much ambient light here in the city it was difficult to see them.  There was also some hazy cloud.

Today hasn't started as a good day.  I was awake at 4.55 am and of course that's the time of day when it's hard to control your thoughts and get back to sleep.  The time when I really miss my kids and grandkids and just want to be able to give them all a big hug.

I decamped to the spare room and read my book.  In fact I finished my book.  I might review it, I might not.  It wasn't a great book but it met one of the criteria of the online book club challenge set for this month.  It was also from my TBR pile so there is that.  I've read all my library books and of course the library is closed.  Thankfully renew dates keep being extended so no fines will be due.  I'm trying not to buy books and I do have a lot of unread books in the house so hopefully I won't have to resort to searching for cheap/free kindle deals.  (Although there have been some good freebies mentioned.)

I could also reread some of these which we dug out from the loft today:

I was a huge Enid Blyton fan as a child and there are lots of Roald Dahl and other classics there.  Some in better condition than others.

I still have quite a few jigsaw puzzles to work through and then there's the knitting. Yes I'm knitting again - for those of you who are not regulars here I have another grandchild on the way.  So there's that too.

I know that it's perfectly normal to feel like this - I read a good article on FB that someone had written.  (Here's a link if you fancy a read.) It's quite a long article but it made a lot of sense to me.

One of the things on my 20 in 20 list is:

  

Be kind to myself. Whilst I think it's good to set myself challenges sometimes life gets in the way or I just have days where I really can't be bothered. I need to accept this and not be hard on myself when things don't go to plan.

I had no idea what challenges were coming when I listed that but it's certainly advice I need to take at the moment.  Maybe plan B for today should be to just get the rest of my A-Z posts finished so that I'm not winging it and doing so much waffling.  Oh, I forgot, that's what I do best!