Gosh, it’s August already!

I know that this post is overdue. I have to say that this has been my LAZIEST winter ever. I blame Rose and the icy weather for EVERYTHING these days. Is it just me or is winter bringing out the hibernation in you? I planned to take it easy in July and I think I managed to do just that. Here’s how I did last month:

1. ENJOY my birthday. I’m going to be away from home. It was my best one EVER!

2. Do something fun for my husband’s birthday. Perhaps you can suggest something? His birthday falls in the same week of my FIL’s one year anniversary of passing and I suspect that he may be “quiet”. How would you suggest we celebrate this birthday while acknowledging his sadness? We had a quiet dinner and some family over for cake. Was lovely.

3. Organise my DH’s B-Day present. YES!

4.  Read 1 NF and 2 other books. I read one NF and 4 others. Am so proud of this one. Thank you Rose!

5. Swim in hot springs. YES. It was absolutely decadent.

6. Get a massage. No. Am off for a spa weekend this month so will do it then.

7. Decide on what to buy myself as a birthday gift to myself. Decided!

8. Go exercise. I’ve been ordered to take part in this in October so I need to get my act together ASAP. Eish. No. It’s been freezing!

9. Prepare Child2 for his new school. Make a list of stuff that he needs to be able to do for Grade R and get cracking with him. DONE. He has settled in BEAUTIFULLY. I am so very proud of him.

10. Relook at the money stuff. On the very last day of the month. Not going to ruin my birthday with this. I am 80 % done with this and need to finish up.

11. At least one friend date. I had two! 

So for August I am going to take it easy. AGAIN. I am just really enjoying being a lazy bum and snuggling more, reading more, sleeping more, eating more comfort food and watching loads of series. This is what I have planned.

Kids:

Go and spend time with Child2 in his new environment. Meet all his new therapists and talk about the way forward.

An outing to the Planetarium.

Look at High Schools for Child1.

Have a look at current clothing for summer and see what is still needed.

ME:

Read. One times NF and one times Fiction.

Finish knitting something that is long overdue.

Have fun on girly weekend away.

One friend date.

One date with DH and two at home dates.

Home:

Take a walk through the house and list all “small things” that need to be fixed. Then make a plan to fix what can be fixed.

Go through all bedding and towels and see what can be tossed/donated/ converted into rags. There is too much at the moment.

How are you and how has August treated you so far?

 

Friendship Friday: The past 6 months

So as you all know, I was struggling a bit with friendships during last year – actually even before that. Last year I wrote some posts on the subject – you can read here, here, here and here.

Anyway I consciously decided to work on Friendships this year.

I needed to work out what I expected from friendships, how to marry my value systems and expectations with differing value systems and expectations (this is essentially what navigating friendship is really about) and I had to learn all about when to step back. When to trust. Who to trust.

At the beginning of the year I decided that I would make an effort to have regular friend dates where there is connection and conversation. And I have to say that I have had the most FANTASTIC friend dates.

I am currently averaging a minimum of two one-on-one friend dates per month. I have learned to do this cheaply and I think I may write a post next week on how I do this without having it break my budget. Of course it helped that my darling friend Marcia was writing about it every Friday.

IN the past 6 months, I met nine (yes, NINE bloggers).  And I will probably meet up with Laura in a few weeks (this will be my 10^th blogger meet) when she comes to Montague. Most of them were unplanned and came together at the last-minute. I have LOVED LOVED LOVED meeting the people in my computer.

I have had an incredible friendship journey these past 6 months and I have learned and discovered so much.

In the past 6 months I have learned that friendship shouldn’t have to be “hard work”. I have learned that either there is connection or there isn’t. I have learned that if you truly want friendship then actually you can’t just stay home on the couch. You need to put yourself out there.

In the past 6 months I learned about how it feels when someone is just not into you.

In the past 6 months I learned to be honest and set very clear boundaries with friends.

IN the past 6 months I watched two of my friends fight and subsequently break up.

In the past 6 months I explored things that I had never ever really given much thought. Things like Friendship and Filters, having a litmus test, being bff’s with your Mom or wanting to be friends with your boss..

In the past 6 months I learned A LOT about friend dating. I learned that the ones that come together on the last minute are usually the most fun ones and I learned that friend dating can be done cheaply and differently.

In the past 6 months my friendships have been more alive with possibility than any other time in my life

In the past 6 months, I went on a friendship blind date that I haven’t even blogged about yet.

In the past 6 months, I showed my nerd side when I blogged about my spreadsheet (btw..this post doesn’t show up in GR – not sure why), about whether age was an issue in friendship and I even blogged about cliques. I also explored things like not liking friends of your friends and the money question. These are just some of the things that I explored in my friendship posts.

I must say that I have found tremendous pleasure in writing about friendship and I will probably blog about it forever and ever because it is something that I really enjoy talking about. Even now while I’m linking all these old posts, I am soooo enjoying reading them again.

I can honestly and truly say that these past 6 months have been the best friendship months of my life. And do you know what? It’s going to get even better.

What have you learned about friendship in the past 6 months? Where are you with your friendship “stuff?”

ps…I MUST thank you all for your FANTASTIC comments and food-for-thought on my friendship posts. Do you know how much I LOVE you for that?

November goals – week 2

Time for an update of week 1! 

Price new washing machine.Done. I am panicking because I have no money for this.

Personal admin including budgeting, SARS & some banking stuff. Have done admin, budgeting and banking stuff. Didn’t make it to SARS.

Finalise Christmas card list. Done

Book hair appointment. Done.

Sort some stuff for a friend who is getting married (there are 3 parts to this task).Done, done and done.

Start reading 365 nights book. Not done. I read something else instead.

Start knitting blocks. Not done.

Finish lining bag – any ideas on how to do this?. Not done. Have decided to outsource this to someone who has a sewing machine.

Email woman from scrap-a-doodles. Done.

Appointment with Teacher – child 1.Done.

Appointment with Teacher – child 2.Done

Set up evening tidy up roster and study roster for child 1.Done

OT appointment – Child 2. Postponed.

Attempt to MAKE CHRISTMAS CARDS! I started this and left it. Will blog.

Saturday guitar lesson. Decided not to go as I was taking strain.

 

I did have an impromptu walk (Muizenberg to Kalk Bay) followed by a dinner date, followed by watching fireworks on the beach with my DH on Saturday night which messed a bit with my plans but, I am living in the moment and it was ALL GOOD! Had lots of fun.

I think I did well enough, though I do see now that I overdid it with what I was expecting for myself.

So for Week 2: 

This week I am getting a day off. This is what I plan to do on that day off:

Breakfast by myself

OT follow-up.

SARS.

Movie by myself. Any suggestions?

These things need to happen as well but NOT on my off day:

Start new book – Mmmm….maybe I will wait for off day for this too. Could work when I’m sitting in the SARS queue.

Start knitting blocks – This will happen tomorrow – we have officially started a knitting/crochet group at work and will be meeting on Tuesdays starting tomorrow.

Do some more research on making Christmas cards. I started and they flopped. Obviously I am WAY TOO AMBITIOUS!

Re-attempt Christmas cards

Go to my friend who is getting married and give an update of stuff that I needed to sort for the wedding – I’m thinking Saturday evening.

Guitar lesson on Saturday afternoon.

There are a few more things but I feel comfortable to leave them for next week.

How are your November goals coming along?

 

Hello November

Time for that to-do list!

I have decided to try a different approach and do this weekly for the month of November – just to see if it makes any difference in the way I approach it. Also, I am feeling a bit overwhelmed (as I usually feel around this time of the year – there is just so much stuff happening! ) and I am doing what I can to make my life more manageable and to feel like I am in control.

So.

Week 1 – week ending 05/11/2011

Price new washing machine, do a few sums and make a decision.

Personal admin including budgeting, SARS & some banking stuff

Finalise Christmas card list

Book hair appointment

Sort some stuff for a friend who is getting married in December (there are 3 parts to this task)

Finish scanning Happiness Project and start reading 365 nights book,

Start knitting baby blocks

Finish lining knitted bag – any ideas on how to do this?

Email woman from scrap-a-doodles

Appointment with Teacher – child 1

Appointment with Teacher – child 2.

Set up evening tidy up roster and study roster for child 1

OT follow-up appointment – Child 2

Attempt to MAKE CHRISTMAS CARDS!

Saturday guitar lesson

Do any of you ever feel like you need to take a few days off work to do your “stuff”?

I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by Week 1. Actually I am feeling VERY overwhelmed by Week 1.

I can easily spend about 45 minutes to an hour doing 4 of these items – I think I’ll do that now actually.

The other stuff (reading, crafting, knitting, SARS, friend stuff) are a bit more tricky and I need quite a bit of time for these tasks.

You will notice that I have no social plans for this weekend. That’s because I may need to go into the office. Because I can’t keep up with stuff in THAT neck of the woods either. Clearly I need to be cloned so I can actually remain on top of things?

Oh. I didn’t do so well with the September goals. I didn’t post an update (I should have tried to do this) because I was barely online in October.

I thought about why I didn’t do that well with it (it should have been a breeze actually, I was barely online) and I have the answer:

For the first time since I started to do this I didn’t print out that list. I didn’t have it written down either meaning that it wasn’t visible to me.

Now here’s a very basic tip:

When you set any type of goal or compile any form of to-do list, make sure that it is visible. If it isn’t then it is so much easier to NOT do what you need to do and lose focus.  Read this post about keeping your goals where you can see them. Ironically, I even commented on that post about making a plan to make my goals more visible. Clearly I am WAY TOO DISTRACTED BY MY LIFE???

Anyway. How is your Christmas planning going? Is it going?

Final countdown: The last quarter

I still don’t have an online connection and I am rather peeved at the horrendous service that I’ve been getting from ISP’s. Do they really NOT want my business? Anyway, I’m not going to go into that for the moment but I will continue to post from my Dad’s computer. Brace yourselves. I am spending a lot of time here this evening because I have LOADS to blog about.

——————————————————————————————————————–

So we are in  the last quarter of 2011 and I’ve been thinking a lot about where I am at. I was thinking of what I set out to achieve earlier this year and what I would still like to/need to sort out by COB i.e. 20111231.

This is what I’ve come up with:

Run 3 more races (including one 10km)

Look into the possibility of joining a running club.

Sort my hair out. My FABULOUS sister gifted me with a Brazilian blow wave that she grouponed. She apparently doesn’t have time to fit it in and I would just need to buy the shampoo and hair products that go with the treatment! Am I not just such a lucky lady?

Assess where we are at wrt certain skills that I expect my Tween boy to do. Did I mention that I made him do a “11” list when it was his birthday? And that I made my own “11” list for him mainly based on things that I needed for him to be able to do by the time he turns 12? I will blog about it soon.

Re-look at the money stuff. IT just seems to be a never ending pit of CRAP! Ugh.

Lose at least 5kg.

Plant vegetables – I am soooo inspired by Louisa! (honey, I would link you but I don’t want my Daddy to find my blog url.)

Redo bathroom. This means tiling, painting, removing a cupboard, adding some accessories and getting in a plumber to fix that leaky toilet which I unsuccessfully tried to fix myself. Hopefully the money will be there for this.

Fix TV.

Fix Washing machine.

Register at Unisa for next semester.

Go visit SARS and sort my life out.

Potty Train Child 2. Remind me to blog about this sorry saga that drives me insane!

Fix my car.

Price a second-hand set of drums (I want to learn this in 2012) and figure out which location said drums are going to be placed. I have no place for it and at this stage it looks like it will be in my bedroom!

Have another look at my CV and do some tweaking where necessary.

Send an email about a possible employment opportunity. Actually there are three emails that need to be sent out.

Try to go away for a weekend with my DH. Sans kids.

Send Christmas cards – this will be my first time ever doing this. Complete all Christmas gifts AND wrap them.

Read 5 books.

Attend a local soccer match at Cape Town Stadium with the kids.

Attend a cricket match at Newlands with DH sans kids.

I believe that I will be able to reasonably carry out at least 90% of what I have listed here but obviously I would like a 100% pass rate. Much of what I would like to do depends on cash flow which is rather minimal at the moment but I am trusting that all WILL fall into place where this is concerned.

I know we have all been doing monthly lists (I didn’t post mine this month because I was offline a lot) but do you have any goals (big or small) that you would like to carry out by COB (20111231)?

Please share in the comments or do your own post.x