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The last challenge—well, the last couple of months, really—have been ones of new challenges. Too many challenges. Challenge 1: Lockdown restrictions. Needed, necessary and I support them 100%. But being restricted to one outing a day and all of the myriad complications around having a toddler when everything is canceled and you have to keep them distanced as well... it’s not easy, you guys. Challenge 2: Enting. There’s all that Lockdown stuff, and then there’s the issue where the toddler has also gone through some kind of developmental change which has caused severe separation anxiety. I’m spending a minimum of 1-3 hours a day trying to settle him down to sleep now (I used to spend less than 5 minutes total, as he’d easily go to sleep on his own). That’s a huge chunk of my day gone. And I’m having to bed-share night time as well, and he wakes up half a dozen times a night to make sure I’m still there with him. I have to tell you, I’m exhausted. Challenge 3: Falling apart. See above—I’m tired, I don’t get out for as much exercise as I want or need, and I never get a break, day or night. My evening downtime is all but gone because it takes an hour+ to get Enting to go to sleep and then I need to catch up on chores, and then by the time I can get myself settled, it’s time to get ready for bed. But, this is the new normal around here. And I’m trying to accept that, rather than continue to think of this as an inconvenient blip that will hopefully go away in a couple of days. Pull Together There is good news on the horizon—Mr has a new job! He starts on May 18th, likely from home for the short term. The job is in the Midlands, so we’re looking at relocating when the situation allows. And we’ve decided to go for the Dream. We’re planning to make our forever home in the Wye Valley*. Why the Wye? (You may also recall me pic-spamming about this place last September/October when we were there on holiday.) Mr’s new job will change things around here, as he won’t be as available during the day even though he’s at home. After this week, there will probably be some gradual relaxations on Lockdown. Depending on how relaxed, we may soon be able to go the homes we’ve “registered an interest” with the estate agents about. We need to get our house on the market. We need be prepared to move—because it could happen in 2 months or next year. We just don’t know between the fluctuations on the housing market and what Lockdown will allow, but we want to be ready. This challenge will be rife with transition and also with “hurry up and wait!”. But for any of this to work, I need to pull together. With lack of sleep and toddler issues and Lockdown ennui, everything has fallen apart. I’m not getting the daily chores done—let alone the extra things that need doing! And more is coming! So, the challenge begins with: Get on top of daily chores Get on top of extra house maintenance (things that don’t need daily attention, but haven’t gotten attention in... um, months weeks) Future relocations activities, which may include: Preparations to sell the house (both in terms of paperwork but state of the house) Preparations to view properties (putting together travel on short term, making sure we know what questions we want to ask about a given property, exploring the area around properties) Putting together a new routine when Mr is working Caring for my balcony garden (good for the soul) Trying not to let the lack of sleep interfere with my relationships (IE, try to think before being cranky) Getting outside daily—even if it’s just sitting in our dark little garden. The trouble here is that sometimes Enting won’t go with me, or won’t want to be out for more than a few minutes, and Mr is not always available to watch him so I can go on a solo walk. Also, we’ve done every possible walk in the acceptable local area over and over again and I hate to say it, but we’re bored. Control stress/boredom eating. I’m doing okay on this one now, but I need to stay vigilant. I’ll probably think of other things. Maybe even a theme! So, it’s not as much of a fitness challenge as a “level up your life” challenge, because I need to sort out a lot of other things before I can get to serious fitness obligations. But these things... this moving to the place we’ve dreamed of, navigating Lockdown, these are the things of heroes and adventurers, too. As for details, I’ll put more of those out every few days—this is a time of flux and priorities may shift too quickly for me to have them out far in advance. But for now... time to make a to-do list! (*Please note, plans can change. But this is our top choice.)