JusJoJan - 24/1/20 - Change

Woo hoo, I managed to get a prompt suggestion submitted in time!  Thanks Linda.

This challenge is hosted by Linda G Hill.

Go here for the rules of the Just Jot it January challenge.

Go here  to see who else is taking part today using my prompt of "Change"

This word seemed very apt when I noticed Linda was after prompts for this week and I sneaked in my the skin of my teeth just in time.  Why apt?  Because Hubby and I had spent a lot of time last Sunday debating the pros and cons of staying put in our house or moving.

Well we've decided to move.  Which of course will be a big change!

Of course you're probably all mouthing why? at this point so here goes:

We love our house but it is quite unusual (why we fell for it in the first instance).  Essentially it is a 3 storey house.  At the front there is a cellar, a living room, and then a bedroom and an office on the 3 levels.  At the back there is the kitchen/diner, then the bathroom plus a room that has served as a playroom, a bedroom and is currently what we refer to as Hubby's den - he has his desk in there plus his various guitars!  On the top floor at the back there are 2 further bedrooms.  Except that, the back and front do not line up so we actually have 6 floor levels AND a lot of stairs!

Yes I know you're probably confused.  So was I when my friend, the former owner was trying to describe it to me.  I came to look and I was sold!  That was nearly 27 years ago.

We have been here a long time and have done various works.  The kitchen was replaced, we added on a small extension which gave us a downstairs shower room and utility area.  We decorated throughout.  We've moved the kids around from room to room.  We've provided a home again for the kids when we thought they'd flown the nest.

I think it's safe to say that the kids will not be coming back again now, except of course to visit and now that means Grandchildren too.  When they're all here it's a bit crowded.  Not too much but of course we're often spread over 2 levels - some of us down in the kitchen, some of us upstairs.  I'd like somewhere now that has a more conventional layout.

We're also beginning to think about future proofing with a home that would work if either of us became less mobile.

Lots of things to consider, and lots of things to sort out here.  At the moment we're going to get our house valued to see what our financial situation will be and then we need to decide where we would like to go.  I'd like to be able to wave a magic wand and make our house change into what we want in a house in exactly the same spot as we are now but of course I can't.  However it may prove hard to find what we want in a house with all the amenities/transport links etc that we enjoy now.  There may have to be compromises.

There are also things we need to do here before we could invite prospective buyers in.  But we've done a walk through of the house and made a list and thus a plan.

It's exciting but daunting.  It's a big step and we want to get it right.  For someone who's only ever lived in 3 houses, all within 2 miles of each other, this could be huge!

Change - sometimes it's difficult!

There has been a lot of debate going on since yesterday regarding changes to the A-Z Challenge.

For anyone who doesn't know what that is where have you been since 2010?  Basically it's a challenge to blog every day through April, except Sundays, with the theme of starting with A on 1st April and working through to Z on the 30th. 

If you want the full history, details etc you can find it all here.

Part of the fun of the challenge is visiting other people taking part.  For this you need a list of participants.  Well you did.  This year the organisers want to change things a bit.  Well a lot.  They don't want the list.  


Why? Because the list is updated daily and people who signed up on the sign up day but who aren't keeping to the challenge are removed.  Unfortunately the success of the challenge may be it's downfall.  Last year there were over 2000 participants.  That's a lot of blogs to be checking.  Of course the organisers organise their own teams of minions to check the blogs but it has become an awful lot of work.

Now they want the onus to be on the bloggers to post a link each day on the appropriate post on the A-Z blog site.  So for those of us who take part in things like the Wednesday Hodgepodge or SoCS or any other meme where you add your name to a Linky list/post a link in a comment etc this is nothing new.

But it's new for the A-Z challenge.  So it's a change.  And often we are resistant to change.  Even when we know it will be better or that the current way isn't working.

The way we communicate with one another has changed so much during my lifetime.  I can remember when we first got our home telephone.  It was so exciting.  When I compare that to my current mobile phone (which isn't the latest iphone but still has lots of bells and whistles) there is no comparison.

When I was younger I never dreamt I could be sitting here in the comfort of my own home and sending something out into the ether where it could be read by anyone with the means to access it.

Of course sometimes that's scary.  Especially when you also know how it can be manipulated or worse.  Change is scary too.  When the new arrangements are unknown, even untested, as creatures of habit we want to hang on to the old ways.  We often quote, (me included) if it's not broken why fix it?  

The A-Z list is beginning to break.  Many a blogger will complain if they visit someone who's signed up for the challenge but hasn't posted any entries.  They'll say the list is not up to date.  They might ask why aren't the organisers/minions removing those blogs from the list?  Probably because they have a life too and sometimes it gets in the way.

Lots of suggestions have been put forward to try and prevent this change.  Personally I can understand why steps have been taken to address the issue.  I'm not 100% happy with the proposal but I'm not a minion so I have to accept what the organisers are prepared to try.  They don't get paid to do this.  It's a labour of love.  Except I think it's become just labour and something clearly had to change.

Will I vote as some people are suggesting they will by not taking part this year?  No way.  Some of my posts are already prepared.  I'll give it a try and see if I like the change.

Sometimes we have to be brave.  In the comfort of our own little blog worlds that should be achievable.

Just do it! 7/12/15

If I looked at the tags from my blog posts I'm sure that procrastination would have the most hits.  I am an expert at procrastination. Since I left my job I've got even better at it.  The months have gone by, Christmas is nearly here and not much has been achieved.  

At least that is one way of looking at things.  The way my depressed self would look at it.  But I'm not depressed or stressed out now, just a bit lacking in purpose and unfortunately, although I have a wonderful hubby, he's not the best at giving me a kick up the backside when needed.

I'm trying to turn things on their head and look at what has been achieved.  My garden is looking much better.  True I've had help there but I have done more in it this year and definitely have more interest in it. My house has less clutter in it.  Slowly, bit by bit I'm winning the battle against the toot and chaos that had taken hold.  Yes it's a work in progress but there is progress. 

I've been reading some articles and books that have given me some insights on how I could make things better, especially using my time better.  I was particularly thinking about this at the weekend and was planning on putting things into place in the new year.  And then I had one of those light bulb moments.  Why wait?  If I really want to make changes I need to just do it!  If I wait until January this month will pass in a blur and I will be looking back on the whole year with dissatisfaction.  If I start now I will have made a step in the right direction.

Just do it needs to be my mantra and today, Day 1 it worked.  I made phone calls I've been putting off so I now have a dentist appointment booked for next week and the car is booked in for a service.  I went and got new hoses for our showers and fitted them. (One split at the weekend and the other wasn't looking like it would last much longer!) I finished writing and posted my Christmas cards.  This involved walking to the Post Office so included exercise. I turned off the TV at a sensible time rather than vegetating in front of it.  And I've managed to blog.  My immediate To Do list looks a lot better.

I know that the mantra may not work every day, habits take time to establish especially good ones.  But today was a good day!

A funny old week

I’ve tried to keep to routines this week but it hasn’t been easy.  A family friend, Del, died last week which was sad but he’d lived to the age of 93 and had not been in great health for some time so it was a release for him but of course difficult for those left behind.

His body was received into our church late on Wednesday so I attended the service for that.  Del used to be a Governor at the school where I worked so some of my former work colleagues were there and we ended up going to the pub for a drink so it was nice to catch up.  On Thursday I collected my Mother-in-law and with hubby we attended the funeral and reception afterwards.  It was a lovely send-off and the weather was good so we were able to sit outside at the reception which was held at the local tennis clubhouse.

My Mother-in-law has stayed with us since Thursday as it was our weekend to have her and on Friday hubby’s sister from France came with her husband for a visit.  They stayed over until Saturday morning before heading off to visit other family members.

It was nice to be able to put them up without any hassle.  One advantage of an empty nest.

Today we have our youngest and eldest offspring here with their partners for dinner so that will be a nice get together, especially for MIL.

Lots going on but I’ve done very little walking!  One thing we also did this week was to return items to work.  I still had my laptop, keys, security fobs, debit card etc belonging to the school that needed to be returned.  I couldn’t face going in so Nick did that for me.  It was closure in a way as I now have no reason to go to the school and there is no reason for them to contact me.  But considering I’ve had no contact from the Headteacher or Leadership team since I was off sick and subsequently resigned I’m not surprised that no one had asked for my things back!

Making that break was quite hard but because of the funeral this week I have actually seen all my former office team now so at least they know what happened.  From all accounts things are not getting any better at the school and more staff are leaving at the end of this term.

It’s taken a while but I’m glad to be out of the firing line and I am enjoying getting on with the rest of my life.

A - Z Road Trip & goals for June

Hmm no blogs for a few days then three in a row.  A bit like London buses.  Although that's actually not a fair comment anymore as our bus service is actually quite good locally.

Having completed the A - Z Challenge, as a means to get back into blogging regularly, I've now signed up for the Road Trip - this gives an opportunity to continue visiting the blogs of those who participated but without the pressure of trying to do all that and get a daily post done.  There's also less pressure as only 172 bloggers signed up for the Road Trip compared to the huge number that took part in the challenge. (1509 at the final count.)

I think my aim for this will be to read 10 blogs a week. (Probably at the weekend.)  I've copied the list into a word file so that I can make notes or just cross off the ones I've been to as I go along.  I'm going to start at the bottom and work my way up so that those on the bottom of the list feel some love early on.  (Be nice if some others did this as I'm near the bottom of the list!)  That should give me plenty of time to get through the list before the next challenge starts.  Yes I will be doing it again but I might try and do a bit more forward planning next time.  I'll also need a theme.  For me having a theme definitely helped.

There's one problem I have with blogging - finding the time to visit other bloggers.  Especially things like memes where the whole point of joining them is to interact with other bloggers.  I love the Wednesday Hodgepodge but it takes time to get around to all the participants.  Again I'm giving myself a target of 10 at a time until I've done the list. 

In my previous post I talked about having a schedule but also being flexible.  That said I also think I need to set myself some goals to aim for each month so for June these are as follows:

Walk at least 10 miles per week.  
Fix the curtain in my lounge (the heading tape is coming adrift)
Touch up the peeling paint in the kitchen
Strip the wallpaper in the spare room
Ride my bike

These things are realistic.  I could add in lose weight but that might not be realistic.  I'm not overweight but I'd like to weigh a bit less.  Having said that I'm not unhappy with how I am and as long as I don't go in the wrong direction I'm not going to lose sleep over how I look.  (Plus I'm not much good at dieting!)

Schedules

The last week or so I've felt out of kilter.  After my bad experiences that left me leaving my job and feeling very down I had some therapy sessions which really helped.  One of the things I started doing was keeping a log of my days and I was encouraged to build in ME time and not feel guilty about it.

The weekend before last we had my mother-in-law with us from the Friday until the Wednesday and my routines went to pot.  I love my MIL and she is absolutely no trouble to have around.  She is not the reason the routines went to pot - I could have carried on and she wouldn't have minded.  I just got lazy.

Then this weekend we were away, which was actually lovely - we went down to the New Forest and met up with some of my cousins and family members.  It was something we'd talked about doing as we often only meet up at weddings and funerals and lately there have been too many funerals.  And it finally happened so it was a good thing.

But back to reality on Monday and I was beginning to feel overwhelmed and out of control so I sat down and drew up a schedule that builds in doing the things that need doing at home but also allows time for blogging, reading, hobbies etc.  This might sound rigid but I'm prepared to be flexible.  I just need some structure otherwise whole days go by and I feel that I've achieved nothing.  I know that it's ok to have ME time and although some things at home are more urgent than others none of them are vital.  They'll get done as and when.  Life's too short to spend every minute working.  I know this as I've been there and got the T-shirt

I was looking for an image that conveyed some of this and I stumbled across this:

 

it seemed rather apt!

Getting the hang of things

Well I think I’m settling in to Blogger as my site of choice.  I’ve linked it to google reader and I’m now able to catch up with everyone there and link back to your posts.   

I’ve decided just to post links to my blogs on the sites where my other friends are e.g. Blogster and Ipernity so that you can keep up too.  I’ve enabled anonymous commenting so you should all be able to leave comments on the BLOGGER pages but I have set them to be moderated so don’t panic if they don’t appear straight away.  Just lets me stop any silly comments showing up.  

Not sure how frequently I’ll be blogging once I get back to work, 2 weeks today :(  time will tell.  We have different attitudes to change.  Some people seem to thrive on change and embrace it.  Others like me probably don’t like it too much but you have to get on with it.  Losing my Mum this year has meant changes.  I no longer have to work out when to fit visiting in or getting her washing done.  So life is easier in that respect but there is a gaping hole that has to be filled.  

Grief is a funny thing.  I expected that having felt as if I was already grieving for Mum over such a long time as she was gradually lost to us through the Alzheimer’s that her passing would be a relief, a time to move on.  I was kidding myself if I thought I’d done my grieving.  I know it will get easier, experience tells me that it will.