An Epiphany (of sorts) 2/10/15

Those of you who follow me regularly will know that my life underwent a major change earlier this year when I stopped working.   I had been working full time for many years in what had become a very stressful job and I just stopped.  It was very much a “stop the world I want to get off” moment.  There were quite a few dark days.  I’m still adjusting to the change in circumstances and dealing with the upset of it all.  I try and keep busy but I haven’t really made long term plans.  I have things I want to do but I’ve not really made a lot of headway with them.

One of the things I have done is got back into blogging reasonably regularly.  Blogging is something I really enjoy.  Many of you will know that I did this by launching myself into the A-Z Challenge last April.  I’ve met a lot of lovely bloggers from there and by taking part in the Wednesday Hodgepodge I’ve met more. 

One person that I follow is Jane at The Witty Ways of a Wayward Wife.  Jane is a published author and is really funny.  While we were away last week I read her book (The Changing Room).  It tells the story of a woman at a certain age who has a chaotic life and a mother with Alzheimer’s. 

 “Sandy Lovett's confused mother and chaotic life are having an effect on her waistline. She knows she needs to change her life but doesn't know how until she buys a risqué dress which sets in motion a sequence of life-changing events.  After years as a mother, carer and full-time employee, Sandy quits her job and places her mother in a care home, and life seems on the up.”

Of course things are never that simple as the book goes on to show.  

Having had the experience of a Mother with Alzheimer’s and placing her into a care home there was lots in the book that I could relate to.  One thing that did strike home to me from a particular part of the book was that if my Mum was around today and in command of her faculties she would be giving me a kick up the backside and telling me to get on with things.  It was a wakeup call.  So thanks Jane, I think.

I have been better this week – I’ve got up earlier and I’ve started work in one of our spare bedrooms.  I need to strip the wallpaper off to see how good/bad the surfaces are underneath then get a plasterer in to do the ceiling and possibly the walls before I continue with decorating.  Hopefully having started I will continue!  I do have the incentive of next year’s wedding and probably having guests to stay to spur me on.

I nearly signed up for another blog challenge too but that required posting every day in October and with the wedding coming up very soon I decided that might be pushing things too far.  I have my outfit now but I still need to get accessories.  On Sunday I’m going with my daughter for her first fitting of her dress so that’s exciting.  Hopefully there might be time to look for my accessories too.

I’m thankful for the power of prayer today.  My MIL has come through her surgery for breast cancer so we can all breathe a sigh of relief for that.  At 87 any time under an anaesthetic is a worry.  Hopefully she will be feeling much better for the wedding.  It wouldn’t be the same if she wasn’t there.

June goals review/ July goals

Well now it's July I guess it's time to see how I did with my June goals which were:

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 

Well I averaged roughly 8.24 miles per week so room for improvement there.

The curtains are fixed and I also hemmed the sides of the net curtains - when I bought them I knew tht if I waited until I'd hemmed the sides before hanging them they might never get hung!

Paint is fixed

I've stripped the area where there was mould due to a leaking roof.  (The roof was fixed a while ago.)  The rest of the room still needs doing.

I pumped up by bike tyres but have yet to venture out on it.

Not a bad effort considering I did do other things like clear out the shed and work in the garden.  But clearly still room for improvement.

Goals for July:

Walk no less than 8.24 miles per week - consistency is good
Get on that bike!
Do some knitting
Do some crochet
Finish Catch 22

This of course is in addition to carrying on with sorting out all the clutter in the house and some deep cleaning jobs that have been neglected for a while.  Now I just have to hope for some slightly cooler weather.  I don't mind a bit of heat but yesterday we were over 30 degrees and walking out into my garden, which is south facing, was like walking into a sauna.  It didn't cool down much overnight either.  Today is much cooler - still hot but bearable.

Monday meander 18/5/15

Well I still had breakfast in bed this morning but I was up much earlier and as I've already done a few chores I'm allowing myself some blogging time. It's also a miserable day so I don't need to feel guilty about not being out in the garden.

Thankfully the weekend weather was much better in that it was dry and sunny on and off but it was quite breezy and not that warm.  It was still warm enough for a BBQ at my cousin's house on Saturday.  That was fortunate as we were there to celebrate her hubby's 60th birthday and there were quite a few of us.  If we had been rained inside it would have been a bit difficult. It was lovely to see them and their family - all five children (who are actually all adults) were there including most of the partners and the 6 grandchildren.  The garden looked quite different from when I was there last.  Her hubby was in the process of preparing to build a large garage on one side of the garden and the whole thing was a bit of a mess.  But it looks great now.  The garage (which is huge) is finished and the remainder of the garden has been restored.  There is even a vegetable plot at the bottom.  They've not been there that long but have achieved a lot.  It suits them - it's in a small village but it wouldn't be for me.  I'm too much of a city girl.  But nice to visit and we had a lovely day.

Yesterday we had lunch in London's theatre district with my daughter, her partner and her future in-laws.  It was the first time we had met them but it went well and we had a very nice lunch.  The food was excellent and we seemed to get on ok with the in-laws.  We're not likely to see a lot of them though as they spend most of their time in America.

After lunch we decided to walk back along the south bank of the Thames as far as London Bridge.  It was interesting seeing the way the London landscape has changed.  When you live here you don't play the role of tourist often enough to really appreciate things.  At least we don't.  Although I'm not sure that some of the new modern buildings sit quite well alongside St. Paul's Cathedral for example.

Anyway, I have set myself some targets for this week so that I can feel that I'm achieving something so I should push on with those.  I'll let you know later how I get on.

Catch 22

Well I've managed to get to chapter four.  I'm not liking it so far. I will persevere.  It's number 11 on the BBC good read list but I'm up to nearly 40 books read from the 100. Some of them, of course, I'd already read, even in childhood or to my children as there are a few children's books on the list.  There are some I know I will struggle with.  For example I have started A Suitable Boy several times but have never managed to get very far with it. It is a huge tome of a book. There are others like that on the list, but I have no excuses now.  Time is available.

I have resigned from my job although I'm still signed off sick.  I will not be going back. It is not an amicable parting of ways and I am having to come to terms with that.  There is a big void to fill.  I may or may not look for something else. But not yet. Fortunately my hubby is very supportive.

Breakfast in bed keeps coming.  I wonder when he will decide that this doesn't provide the best motivation for getting me moving at a reasonable hour of the day or if I will decide to get up with him before that time comes.  

We had a good day yesterday.  Our youngest and his wife came for dinner and we had quite a good discussion around books and all our latest news.  After they'd gone, thanks to the clock changes, there was still enough daylight left to go for a quick walk. We managed nearly two miles but it was very windy.

Now I should get up.  That pesky Fly woman keeps telling me I should be up and dressed to shoes!  Yes some time ago I signed up to the Flylady website in the hope that it would keep me organised and motivated around the house.  No chance. All I do is mainly delete all the e-mails. And I don't wear shoes in the house.  Don't always wear slippers except when it's cold.  Although when I drop things on my feet, a frequent occurrence, I can see the sense in shoes.

But hey, just getting up and putting clothes on is an improvement.  On my way.....

I've lost the socks!

Well I was going to start this blog with a picture of four odd socks.  I was going to accuse the sock fairy of stealing four socks from hubby.  I'd done a load of washing and drying which consisted of lots of his underwear and socks, only to discover when pairing the socks that I had four odd ones!

Not one, or two, but four!  They were all different designs and I was initially flabbergasted.  To lose one sock between the dirty washing basket and the clean washing to be folded cycle is bad enough, two is just downright careless but four!  Well the sock fairy had to be involved.  So I was prepared to blog about this when of course I found the socks.  

To my embarrassment I had left them behind in the tumble dryer.  There was no sock fairy responsible for their disappearance.  They hadn't actually disappeared at all.  I had just been less than thorough when emptying the tumble dryer.  Human error after all.  Hmm and I thought I was perfect.  Well if not perfect certainly pedantic when it comes to pairing socks.  I hate it when there is an odd one or they don't match up quite right.  Of course it's much easier now there is only hubby and me at home.  No mistakes over clothing now.  (Neither of us has taken to cross dressing, yet!)

When both the boys were here it used to be a nightmare, especially when I had the bright idea of buying plain black socks for school/work.  Have you noticed just how many sock shades of black there are?  That idea was swiftly replaced with having some sort of logo on the socks so that they could be matched more easily.  The only trouble then was I couldn't always remember which logo belonged to who.  And they all had the same size socks eventually.  I could usually work out hubby's without too much trouble but I often got it wrong with the boys.  The problem there was that if the eldest son got the wrong ones he would pass them over to the youngest.  The youngest didn't reciprocate.  If he was given any extras by mistake he would hang on to them.  This caused no end of arguments because it wasn't only socks I used to muddle up.  It was much easier when they were younger and often had the same clothes!

On a positive note I had a GP appointment today and although I'm still signed off as not fit for work, my blood pressure was much better.  I even walked to the surgery leaving the car at home so that was my exercise for the day.  (It's about a 20 minute walk each way.)   But I've noticed the time and I'm off to bed now.  Have a great weekend.

A quiet day

Today has been a quiet day.  I didn't have an early start, I lingered in bed checking out some of the blogs signed up for the A - Z challenge.  Then I got cross with myself for doing that and got up with a plan of catching up.  I managed to get some chores done and managed 20 minutes on the Wii so that made me feel better.  

I had a group session this afternoon which went ok.  Plus I didn't eat too much rubbish today.  I even managed some fruit.  I'm pretty rubbish at eating fruit so one of my aims for the new me is to eat fruit each day.  

Yes I'm working on the new me.  It's a work in progress.  The fruit thing may be a bit tricky.  I don't like the texture of a lot of fruits so not many appeal to me.  Still I can always fall back on raisins.  I love them, especially if they're chocolate covered!  

Chocolate is still a weakness.  My daughter bought me a box of Lindor on Mother's day and I'm trying to be good and ration myself to make them last.  They are my favourite chocolates.  I especially love the plain chocolate flavour and I've just discovered they do a strawberry and cream variety.  I haven't tried that yet.  I will have to start dropping very unsubtle hints.

Of course that doesn't go hand in hand with another aim of losing weight.  I will have to up my exercise levels to compensate.  That won't be too difficult given my current levels. 

Targets for tomorrow: 

1. get up earlier than today
2. eat some fruit
3. exercise

Those are achievable.  

A better day

Yesterday was a better day.  I managed to get several things done.

Firstly I did the household chores that needed doing.  I also bagged up some jumble for recycling.

I made myself go out to the shopping mall in nearby Ilford.  This had two advantages over the well known Westfield at Stratford which is actually nearer.  One there was less likelihood of running into people I may know.  (Yes my work colleagues would have been at work but there are also 400 plus sets of parents who could be out and about that could recognise me!)  Secondly I parked in the Sainsbury's supermarket car park that has a recycling centre.  I was able to not only put the jumble bags in the Oxfam recycling bins but also offload the glass bottles we had accumulated.  Anyone watching me could be forgiven for thinking I'm an alcoholic.  That's the problem with having a house that has lots of storage space - things tend to accumulate.  Although I'm sure the wine bottles multiply when left languishing in the cellar waiting to be recycled.

That will be an aim in future - do this more regularly.  There are actually recycling bins at the end of my road so I really have no excuse now for not taking a walk up there each week with any bottles/jars we have emptied. 

Back to yesterday.  The whole point of going to the mall was to get a present for our eldest son.  That was achieved quite quickly.  Hopefully he will like it but if not or it doesn't fit he can exchange it for something else.  I also managed to get some light bulbs for our kitchen.  These are ones for the lights under the wall cabinets that light the work surfaces.  They are halogen and not available everywhere.  They are also fiddly to put in.  Once again Nick had been complaining about the lack of extra light but typically hadn't done anything about it!  So now there is light!  Not sure if he would have noticed if I hadn't told him.

I also managed some time on the Wii and have put together a To Do list for the long term.

Having done all of that and some washing I decided I'd earned some TV time.

I also worked on the plan for the mattresses and we switched them over before bed last night.  Nick claims to have slept better, he certainly wasn't awake so early, but he was still complaining of pins and needles in his arms which I think is due to the fact that he often sleeps with his arms above his head.  I slept ok too but I did wake once or twice.  We'll see how it goes.  We also discovered our beds are not all the same size.  Our one (which came from IKEA) is an imperial size. so 4 feet 6 inches across.  Our other two, which are both the same, are IKEA size.  Fortunately it was ok as the IKEA mattress just fits in the frame of our bed thanks to it being quite soft but our mattress is a bit smaller than the other frame it is now in.  If we'd been switching them the other way it wouldn't have worked.  Not sure that I've explained that very clearly!

So overall a better day.  I've decided to try and get up and tidied round each day then blog where possible. Then I'll try and fill the rest of my day productively or not as the mood takes me.  I'm a work in progress.