I love this time of year so much I invented my ‘twixmas season’ – the interval between Christmas and New Year. Although not a true season of course, I can treat it as one as it is a very defined period that we don’t have at any other time of year; the Christmas festivities are over, the hard work done and the new year is a few days away – it is a good time to stop and catch my breath, a time to reflect and review and formulate plans for the year ahead.
My Advent calendar is fully opened now and very colourful, I might make another next year. Below I just thought I would show you the delightful Christmas card that Master Freddie made and the school printed them.
During these few slow days of twixmas my new notebook is being prepared – next year’s calendar pasted in, along with a note of birthdays and a list of intentions for the year – those endless tasks of home maintenance, self maintenance and any ideas that spring to mind for revamping the house.
There will be roll-overs to put down too from last year’s list….all those tasks that didn’t even get a look in – the ones where I wonder how on earth a year can pass and so many jobs still remain outstanding. After all, I really don’t remember lying in my bed all day….I am sure I was up and about ‘doing’ all day, most days – so why has so little got done?
I have known for some time what my focus word will be for next year, well actually it is two words, something that is much needed here; twelve whole months to Restore and Reset my life, in fact both our lives as DH feels exactly the same way. After the sale of the cottage last year and both daughters moving this year, we have both felt to be wandering a bit in the wilderness with no real objectives in mind.
Of course, I had to Google the differences between restore and reset and as I read through the definitions it has more than confirmed this is the right road for me.
Restore: is to put back something to how it was before or return to an earlier good condition. This is exactly what I need for my health, sleep, exercise, routines and systems that once worked well.
Reset: is to start again after a period of rest or change ( in my case definitely change) so you are better able to deal with life or a situation. If I were a computer it would be putting myself back to the factory setting!
I see reset as an opportunity to shake off all those bad habits that I have acquired recently and begin new ones that are more aligned to a better, healthier, less stressed me. I need to take stock of my life and identify the changes that have happened over time that are really not helping me, and restore anything that has worked before.
It is about recapturing the essence of any period of my life that was balanced and worked well. Since we sold the cottage last year we have not got into any routine here at home, other than shopping on a Tuesday….and now we don’t even have my friend K to pick up anymore, but Tuesday is as good a day as any for us to continue doing our shopping on.
In 2010 I came across the book ‘Everything That I’ve Ever Done That Worked’ by Lesley Garner. It is a series of short essays where she documents everything in her life that she has found to work for her, especially in times of stress and trouble. It started me thinking back then of just such habits, routines, systems, attitudes and behaviours that have worked for me in the past and those that really didn’t.
Presently, I can name a few unhelpful habits I have developed that will be detrimental to my health and well being (perhaps not immediately, but certainly in the future), and I need to get myself on a new and better path.
As I have pondered over these two words I have come to the conclusion that many of the RE words are going to be utilised within the bounds of Restore and Reset.
Rest, reconnect, recharge, reflect, review, recycle, rearrange, return, revamp, recover, reduce, reflect, relax, renew, replenish, research, resist, return and revisit.
I need to do all these, and no doubt more, to improve my life and now is a good time to start.
So I am taking the opportunity this week to recover from all the pressures that Christmas brings with it – often nice pressure, but even the accumulation of nice pressure is stressful.
Recovery for me isn’t lying down on the sofa watching endless TV, but rather having a good potter around the house putting everything slowly back into place and making plans.
Along with recovery, I went shopping today to replenish the pantry, mainly of bread, milk and fresh fruit and veg that we needed, but not before making a menu plan – that is certainly on the ‘it works for me’ list.
I used my personal Nectar discount offers that are given for using scan shop – I had 10 reduced price items, nine of them are items we normally buy and wanted, which is good…but when did I ever buy an Aero chocolate mousse? Sometimes, these computer generated offers are far off the mark.
My personal Nectar points were good too, 110 bonus points (worth 55p) on organic leeks, and 90 bonus points (worth 45p) on large organic tomatoes, organic broccoli and varying points on twenty other items. If I had used them all I would have added ÂŁ4.15 to my Nectar points spend total. There was also 3 x bonus points if I spent over ÂŁ120 but I certainly wasn’t spending that much. DH has his own offers of Nectar savings and points. We tend to just buy anything that is on offer each week where we can, and if it is a very good offer we will stock up with 3- 6 items depending on how often we would buy the item and how often Sainsbury’s put them on offer. I find their offers are very cyclical and come around every 3 to 4 weeks on main items like butter, tea and coffee.
Once I have done a bit more sorting at home I will be in a position to attend to any returns and the recycling.
I know of one or two bloggers who will choose a new focus word for the year and I am always eager to see what that word will be, equally I like to hear of those plans or (dare I say it) resolutions for the new year that you might have.
Do excuse me now I am off to the local pantomime, Beauty and the Beast with the family…my Christmas treat. X
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