Back to normality 4/1/16

 
Oh it feels strange writing 2016.  It always takes me a while to get used to writing a new year.

Today things have returned to normal - no visitors in the house and hubby back at work.  My decorations are still up - I will take them down on Wednesday - Epiphany.

It hasn't been the best of starts to the year though.  My mother-in-law stayed with us Saturday night as we had planned a family meal yesterday with our son and his wife now that they are back from the states.  Unfortunately yesterday morning my MIL fell in the bedroom and fractured her hip.  She had been sitting on the end of the bed, stood up and either just lost her balance or maybe the hip just went but she toppled over onto her side and the damage was done.

Fortunately I can report that she has had surgery today to repair it and has come through the operation.  At 87 years old surgery is not to be entertained lightly but she's one tough lady.  Hopefully she will soon be up and about and I hope it won't have dented her confidence too much.  She fell down the stairs a few weeks back and has been very nervous tackling stairs since.  This new complication may make her wary of visiting anyone, like us, where coping with stairs is a necessity.  It's a good thing that she lives in a bungalow with her eldest daughter and son-in-law living in.

As for progress on New Year resolutions I am now the proud owner of a Fitbit tracker so I will be trying to increase my step count to improve my fitness etc.  I'm also trying to implement ways of improving my habits.

One of the things recommended in the book I read about this recently was pairing habits.  I have to take medication each day and I usually take it with my breakfast so the medication was down in the kitchen.  Except of course some days my hubby brings me breakfast in bed.  This means remembering to take the tablets when I go down.  But the change in routine meant that sometimes I didn't end up taking the tablets until later in the day or not at all!

I now have the tablets by my bed as I always have water up there and I have a reminder set on my phone so that I can take them first thing in the mornings.  So far that is working well.

Another thing I used to do was sit in the bathroom and waste away time either looking at stuff like Facebook on my phone, or doing crosswords or just generally taking more time that I need.  I hope I'm painting the picture for you here because I'm not going into any more detail!

Of course I could apply the Just Do It mantra here and move out of the bathroom but it was always a haven when the kids were younger.  You could lock yourself in and get a few minutes of peace.  Still works for me especially as I'm sitting right next to a radiator so it's quite cosy.

Anyway I decided that it's ok to loiter in the loo but it must be productive so I have moved my copy of Catch 22 to the bathroom.  We have other books in the bathroom but I am trying hard to finish Catch 22 (well I'm trying and it's hard!) so I've resolved to only allow myself to read Catch 22 when I'm loitering.  I managed a chapter today so I have now read 23 out of 42 chapters.  Hopefully this pairing will produce results.  No pun intended!

Happy New Year

 

It’s that time of year again when we look ahead to the New Year and think about resolutions.  Part of me wants to follow my cousin’s philosophy – that we shouldn’t wait until the New Year to resolve to do something.  If it’s important we should be doing it anyway.  Some of you will have noted that recently I adopted a “Just do it” mantra to try and overcome my bad habit of procrastination.  It’s working well but it is good to step back sometimes and think about what we want to achieve.  The start of a new year seems a logical time to do that and I’m nothing if not logical at times.  Watch me do puzzles if you don’t believe me.  You’d also note that I’m stubborn and don’t admit defeat gracefully.  Not to myself anyway, I’m better at admitting defeat to someone else.

Hmm I digress.  Another bad habit.

Visiting some of the other Hodgepodge posts this week I came across a few ideas about resolutions.  One was from Marla at Marla’s Musings which was to keep a “Gratitude Jar”.  (Placing notes inside of good things when they happen so you can look back at them at the end of the year or any time you might need a boost.)

Another was from Susan at Stew Mama Says who plans to:

Eat less.
Move more.
Put down my phone.
Be present.
Clean a closet.
Or two.
Pray.
Learn something new.
Make dinner.
Look around.
Hug.
Close the computer.
Take a walk.
Pray some more.
Give thanks.
Show love.

I think I could handle those.  Well apart from closing the computer.  Because if I did that I might not blog and that’s something I want to continue with.  I’m already looking ahead to the A-Z Challenge.  2015 was my first year for that but it really did get my enthusiasm for blogging back and led to finding lots of interesting blogs to follow.

2015 started badly but improved as the year went on especially with the engagement of our eldest son and the wedding of our daughter.

I’m looking forward to 2016 in a much better frame of mind and of course another wedding.  As far as resolutions go I'm going to try and keep the Just Do It mantra going and to be kind to myself.  I think if we're happy with ourselves we can cope with what the world might throw at us.

Happy New Year to all who visit here.