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| Pierre Auguste Renoir Portrait of a Girl in Thoughts |
....here in my little world recently. Thoughts about eating, the life I am currently living, the life hubby and I could be living in another 18 months or so, the state of our home, all the craft ideas swirling about in my head ~ the list goes on and on. No wonder I have trouble getting to sleep at night! Sometimes I think about stuff so much that no actual "doing" gets done! I can't be the only one who does that, surely? I almost paralyse myself with indecision and the thought of stepping outside my comfort zone can be rather scary, to be honest. Still needs must, as the saying goes, so I shall be pushing myself to get a move on ~ otherwise I'll still be talking about making changes this time next year.....and all the years following ad infinitum!
What's on my agenda then? Well, for starters I am finally going to get myself organised with menu planning. Whilst it might be a bit of a drag to start with, I really do think that planning all my meals (not just the evening, family, dinner) is the way to go. I tend to have pretty much the same things for breakfast and lunch every day ~ mostly bread either in the form of toast and marmalade for breakfast, and a sandwich of some kind for lunch. It's been so many years since I've really cooked properly and yet, I used to enjoy it. Perhaps I've just lost confidence in my culinary abilities? I think there is also an element of not bothering to make anything "special" just for me. It's just habit and a large dollop of laziness, really. Time to create some new habits, methinks!
Adrian has finally decided when he is going to retire: early March 2018. It seems as if it's a long way off yet but in reality it's only 18 months! We both really struggled when we came back after our annual holiday in Orkney earlier this year, much more so than we had ever done in previous years. We have known that we want to move up there when Adrian retires for quite some time now. It is feeling more and more like "home" each time we visit, which is good on the one hand, but does make life difficult on the other. Still, those 18 months really will go by quickly, judging by how fast previous years seem to have disappeared!
There is a lot to be done between now and that magic date in March 2018, mostly concerning the house and all the stuff I have managed to cram into it over the years. I have been decluttering this year, sometimes enthusiastically, sometimes only half-heartedly, but at least I have made a start I suppose. The trouble is that I have been putting off making some big decisions about all the bits and pieces that I have accumulated ~ all the collections of this, that and the other that I have started on the spur-of-the-moment without really thinking about what I'm doing. I have decided, though, that our next home will be filled with only things that we really do love, not just any old junk. Now, I'm not saying that I will be turning into a minimalist ~ far from it! ~ but there isn't any point in just cramming one's home full of things that aren't truly loved and appreciated. So, plenty more decluttering yet to be done.
Towards the end of next year, we will be getting in an estate agent to tell us whether it would be worth decorating the house before putting it on the market. In the meantime, I need to give the place a good clean and then get myself back into a proper housework routine to keep it that way. There is an awful lot to be done over the next 18 months or so, and I confess that at times I feel somewhat overwhelmed by the thought of it all. But the longer I keep putting it off, the shorter amount of time I will have to actually get the house sorted out. I guess I need to keep reminding myself of the answer to that question: "how do you eat an elephant?" ~ "one bite at a time" ;-)
What's on my agenda then? Well, for starters I am finally going to get myself organised with menu planning. Whilst it might be a bit of a drag to start with, I really do think that planning all my meals (not just the evening, family, dinner) is the way to go. I tend to have pretty much the same things for breakfast and lunch every day ~ mostly bread either in the form of toast and marmalade for breakfast, and a sandwich of some kind for lunch. It's been so many years since I've really cooked properly and yet, I used to enjoy it. Perhaps I've just lost confidence in my culinary abilities? I think there is also an element of not bothering to make anything "special" just for me. It's just habit and a large dollop of laziness, really. Time to create some new habits, methinks!
Adrian has finally decided when he is going to retire: early March 2018. It seems as if it's a long way off yet but in reality it's only 18 months! We both really struggled when we came back after our annual holiday in Orkney earlier this year, much more so than we had ever done in previous years. We have known that we want to move up there when Adrian retires for quite some time now. It is feeling more and more like "home" each time we visit, which is good on the one hand, but does make life difficult on the other. Still, those 18 months really will go by quickly, judging by how fast previous years seem to have disappeared!
There is a lot to be done between now and that magic date in March 2018, mostly concerning the house and all the stuff I have managed to cram into it over the years. I have been decluttering this year, sometimes enthusiastically, sometimes only half-heartedly, but at least I have made a start I suppose. The trouble is that I have been putting off making some big decisions about all the bits and pieces that I have accumulated ~ all the collections of this, that and the other that I have started on the spur-of-the-moment without really thinking about what I'm doing. I have decided, though, that our next home will be filled with only things that we really do love, not just any old junk. Now, I'm not saying that I will be turning into a minimalist ~ far from it! ~ but there isn't any point in just cramming one's home full of things that aren't truly loved and appreciated. So, plenty more decluttering yet to be done.
Towards the end of next year, we will be getting in an estate agent to tell us whether it would be worth decorating the house before putting it on the market. In the meantime, I need to give the place a good clean and then get myself back into a proper housework routine to keep it that way. There is an awful lot to be done over the next 18 months or so, and I confess that at times I feel somewhat overwhelmed by the thought of it all. But the longer I keep putting it off, the shorter amount of time I will have to actually get the house sorted out. I guess I need to keep reminding myself of the answer to that question: "how do you eat an elephant?" ~ "one bite at a time" ;-)
Oh, my, you sound like me. All that thinking and not sleeping can be exhausting.
ReplyDeleteDiet planning - yeah, have fun with that. I started one of those "Eat for my health" diets, um yesterday, by this afternoon I was hanging in the refrigerator. I always feel 'deprived' when I try to work on my weight. It's odd, when I am not thinking about it, there are days where I forget to eat. I did read up on why the doctor tried to sneak in a thyroid pill - fatigue, weight gain, and hair loss stuck out the most. I will have to seriously consider doing what the article suggests as I have been put on synthroid before and it worked against my heart medication. It also suggests a person try going gluten free for a while and see if that makes a difference.
As far as making that important move, strike while the iron is hot. One never knows how things will be when the time comes and the move may not happen. Notice, if you will, I am still in the little house in the country - miles from anything.
Unfortunately we can't do anything about moving until Adrian has actually retired and we can sell our house ~ if we had a spare £250,000 we would snap up a house in Orkney right now LOL As for "dieting", I'm so tired of all the dieting-to-lose-weight stuff that I'm not even going there anymore. What I'm doing instead is trying to eat more like I did when I was a child ~ I think it will probably take me a while to get back into the habit of preparing meals from scratch again!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to leave comments on my posts ~ I really appreciate it Sharon (((hugs)))