Christmas Crazies

December is always my yearly speed bump, or judder bar as we call them in New Zealand.  It comes up with a rush, makes you sit up and take notice, and can do some real damage if you aren't prepared.

It's that crazy month of school finishing for the year and all that entails.  Christmas parties and work functions.  We go away camping or in the boat (or both) over Christmas so there is preparation for that.  Christmas presents to make and organise, decorations to sort.  And then this year we added in settlement on our house sale and some illness to boot.  Both my husband and I have had the kind of colds that make you couch bound for three days and now my daughter has a sniffle but she's just grateful that she's stopped upchucking after a tummy bug.  

And if that wasn't enough to send sanity packing, it's that time of year when I start questioning my goals, my achievements....my life.  Why does the end of the year make me wonder if I'm doing what I should be doing, if I'm achieving all I could achieve, if I'm a good and worthy person (just kidding on the last one....mostly).

I need to apologise to all those people who commented on my last couple of posts and who I haven't answered.  I'm using all the above as an excuse.  

This is day 94 from my 100 Days Project.  It's a little bit how I'm feeling at the moment.  

So what am I doing to help myself?  

Forgiving myself for things undone.  

Setting my timer and working on things for 10 mins at the time then setting the timer again for 3 mins to get up and walk and do a tiny bit of tidying up.  

Writing a schedule out for the week and to-do lists and paying close attention to my calendar.

Doing kind things for myself.

Doing a round of 'what we are grateful for' at the dinner table.

What do you do when it all gets a little crazy?

 

Where will I put the pets?

Today, if all goes well, and I see no reason it shouldn't, we become the owners of a boat.  A pretty big boat, but not as big as my house.  And that is significant, because the plan is that we move onto this boat and live on it for a while.

WHAT?!  When did this all happen?!  Well, I'm going to write more about this, but one of our first considerations was where do we put the pets?

Part of what decided us to buy the boat was the availability of a cheap berth in a convenient location.  We have two dogs.  Sam is very old and sits on her mat all day, but Emma is younger, dopey and super enthusiastic.  We won't be moored out in the water, so we will be able to step off the side and walk the dogs easily, and Emma will probably go to work with my husband every day.  His work will be a very short bike ride down the road.

So it may take some adjustment, but I think we will manage with the dogs.  We do have options of placing them with friends, but that wouldn't be our first choice.

I think the the cat will transition easily, it will just mean a litterbox.  And hopefully he'll keep the seagulls off the roof!

The chickens, ducks, sheep and cows will either have to find new homes (some of them were planned for the freezer shortly anyway) or we will 'gift' them to our tenants.  That's another thing we have to do, find tenants for our lifestyle block.  Oh man, the list of to-dos is huge!

I will try and post pictures of my new abode soon.