[deftona]

Deffy’s Inner Child: A Christmas Story

 

Hello hello hello! Christmas, already?! Would you look at that.

 

 

This challenge isn’t about hard and fast goals because I have big projects that will necessitate this coming up next year (Road Map to come soon!). This challenge is about taking it a bit easy breezy, having fun and looking after myself. I love Christmas so much because it’s always so snug and we go all in on it. But that isn’t to say I don’t have goals I want to achieve! Boom or Bust must go on and we all know I need goals for this.

 

Goal 1 - EAT DOWN THE FOOD STORES AND NO GROCERY SHOPPING EXCEPT FRUIT, VEG, BREAD, EGGS, COFFEE, TEA, MILK AND CHEESE AND TOILET ROLLS (This will be shortened to the much more manageable and App Tracking friendly: No Grocery Shopping. 

 

We start on the Christmas food on Christmas Eve and I think we should have a takeaway on the 23^rd which means we have 25 days to get through with current food supplies which I am thinking will probably be enough. I will inventory everything today and post the lists as a way to track this. Please note – I am allowed to shop but this will be for food for Christmas. The only food I am allowed to buy for now is fruit and veg, bread, eggs, coffee, tea, milk and cheese. And also toilet rolls. Everything else I should be ok for and it’s about time I used up all my shampoo and conditioner dregs. NB - We always have a nice meal on the day we put up our Christmas decorations so we can buy this also but nothing else! 

 

Goal 2 – EAT 5 A DAY – I don’t want scurvy thanks.

 

Goal 3 – DRINK 8 GLASSES OF APPROVED FLUIDS PER DAY I simplify this and call it water but squash and herbal tea counts too.

 

Goal 4 – DON’T OVEREAT firstly from a health perspective but also because I want my food to last lulz.

 

Goal 5 – CLEAN OR TIDY SOMETHING EVERY DAY TO LIVING DOLL

 

(this song is problematic af)

 

If this goal is about reconnecting with my inner child, I can’t ignore this goal. It was a running joke when I was little that when it came time to tidy up our toys, my sister used to tidy up and I used to sit there looking very busy pretending to tidy up. My mom used to pick me up and hold me upside down while I picked up toys and then she’d hold me over the toybox so I could put it away and making it fun like this is the ONLY TIME I was happy to pick up after myself. When I started Reception (first year of proper school so kindergarten I suppose?) my mom came in for a parents tea party and we were all having fun and then all of a sudden the teacher put on Cliff Richard’s classic Living Doll and all of the kids got up wordlessly and started to clean. She said it was like something out of the Midwich Cuckoos and really unsettling, but training a bunch of kids to clean whenever a certain song is played is pretty fucking clever if you think about it. So every day I want to play that song and clean until it’s finished. It doesn’t matter where or what I clean.

 

Goal 6 – 4 Kitty Devotion Activities I want to have some one to one time with my kitty because she’s excellent. She does have this habit of dicking off when you start to give her any attention (cats gonna cat) hence the emphasis on attempting to play with the cat, but this goal isn’t about me, it’s about her and if she’s not in the mood I am going to respect that. She likes cuddles, treats, going outside, snuggling under blankets with me, when I say lovely things to her in my soft voice, and playing so I want to do 4 activities with her. Can be repeated in the day

 

Goal 7 – DO SOMETHING JOYFUL EVERY DAY this can be anything – a nice bath, a Christmas movie, listening to some great songs, playing video games, having sexy time or prepping for next years goals with my bullet journal but I want to do something indulgently fun every day.

 

For last year’s challenge we watched as many terrible Christmas films as possible and TH reviewed them and that went down very well here so there will be a bit of that too, although there won’t be as many opportunities to watch Christmas films because of the stoopid World Cup that shouldn’t even be on now (I’ll never forgive it) but I am promised there will be some Christmas films. 

 

New challenge, GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! 

[Epsilonte]

Oh best challenge ever. I especially love the kitty goal, the joyful goal and the living doll goal. Have fun! ❤️ 

[Snarkyfishguts]

This challenge is fun and I like it! 

[Shello]

Awesome challenge!  I love your tidy to a song goal! That really is genius! 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

I forgot how much I enjoyed TH movie reviews. Here's to your good clean fun.

[sarakingdom]

10 hours ago, deftona said:

She said it was like something out of the Midwich Cuckoos and really unsettling, but training a bunch of kids to clean whenever a certain song is played is pretty fucking clever if you think about it.

 

Honestly, I'm thinking of doing this to myself. I just need to find a song I like enough to hear every day,  but not enough that I want to associate it with anything but mopping ever again.

 

10 hours ago, deftona said:

Goal 7 – DO SOMETHING JOYFUL EVERY DAY this can be anything – a nice bath, a Christmas movie, listening to some great songs, playing video games, having sexy time or prepping for next years goals with my bullet journal but I want to do something indulgently fun every day.

 

YES. I should really do this more often, but if you can't be mindfully joyful at Christmas, when can you be?

[deftona]

9 hours ago, Epsilonte said:

Oh best challenge ever. I especially love the kitty goal, the joyful goal and the living doll goal. Have fun! ❤️ 

 

Thanks for coming along! 

 

7 hours ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

This challenge is fun and I like it! 

 

Fun is my middle name! 

 

6 hours ago, Shello said:

Awesome challenge!  I love your tidy to a song goal! That really is genius! 

 

Thank you! 

 

5 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

I forgot how much I enjoyed TH movie reviews. Here's to your good clean fun.

 

Remember his hatred for Vanessa Hudgens? 🤣

 

7 minutes ago, sarakingdom said:

YES. I should really do this more often, but if you can't be mindfully joyful at Christmas, when can you be?

 

I arguably do this stuff too often, but I have chosen to devote my life to the pursuit of pleasure and decadence so I kind of have to. 

[MaeradCase]

Tagging along for this festive atmosphere. 

[deftona]

4 hours ago, MaeradCase said:

Tagging along for this festive atmosphere. 

 

Hello and welcome! 

[deftona]

Sunday Update

 

Technically between challenges but had it been the new goals I would have smashed it's knob off. 

 

We woke up early because the cat was screaming, as she had been since 5 am. As soon as we got up, she went to bed. I don't know what we did to deserve that. We go out for breakfast on a Sunday and I really wanted Burgers for Breakfast at Burger King so we tried to go there but it was closed for a refurb so we drove to McDonald's and picked some Christmas bits up from Sainsbury's as we waited for them to stop doing breakfasts (bleurgh) and start on their real menu. 

 

We had a cup of tea with my parents and then came back home where TH watched the World Cup and I had a bath whilst singing my guts out to grunge and it was the best time I had had in ages. We had some picky bits for tea since neither of us was all that hungry and I did my bullet journal pages for the new year while listening to more grunge. I then lay on the sofa listening to Nick Cave until bedtime. I actually did every single one of the aforementioned examples I gave for joyful activity, it's just a shame I was working on the previous challenge goals. 

 

I got 4 goals ticked off but I wasn't really trying, and I got 71.43% in total last week. 

[Shello]

7 hours ago, deftona said:

joyful activity

Whether they counted or not I'm glad you found so many opportunities for some joy.  Sounds very Hygge! 

[Epsilonte]

8 hours ago, deftona said:

I had a bath whilst singing my guts out to grunge and it was the best time I had had in ages.

This sounds like the best time ever. What did you sing?

[sarakingdom]

20 hours ago, deftona said:

I arguably do this stuff too often, but I have chosen to devote my life to the pursuit of pleasure and decadence so I kind of have to. 

 

I have often considered adopting hedonism, but I'm at such a cultural disadvantage. The best I can hope for is probably suppressing an uncomfortable guilty feeling whenever the word "self-care" is uttered.

[Shello]

6 minutes ago, sarakingdom said:

 

I have often considered adopting hedonism, but I'm at such a cultural disadvantage. The best I can hope for is probably suppressing an uncomfortable guilty feeling whenever the word "self-care" is uttered.

Perhaps you need some exposure therapy...

 

[KB Girl]

On 11/27/2022 at 10:22 AM, deftona said:

training a bunch of kids to clean whenever a certain song is played is pretty fucking clever if you think about it.

I may have to try this. It's pretty fucking clever indeed  

[deftona]

17 hours ago, Shello said:

Whether they counted or not I'm glad you found so many opportunities for some joy.  Sounds very Hygge! 

 

It was great! Thank you

 

15 hours ago, Epsilonte said:

This sounds like the best time ever. What did you sing?

 

So much! Lots of Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Hole, Stone Temple Pilots. It was the best time.

 

15 hours ago, sarakingdom said:

 

I have often considered adopting hedonism, but I'm at such a cultural disadvantage. The best I can hope for is probably suppressing an uncomfortable guilty feeling whenever the word "self-care" is uttered.

 

My advice to you is to jump into hedonism with both feet. It's the best raison d'etre. 

 

15 hours ago, Shello said:

Perhaps you need some exposure therapy...

 

 

But even if it were, what's wrong with a bit of self indulgence.

 

13 hours ago, KB Girl said:

I may have to try this. It's pretty fucking clever indeed  

 

Let me know how you get on! 

[deftona]

Monday Update

 

I have a few days annual leave booked this week so we had a lie in with lots of snuggles. We watched the World Cup and I put a flutter on each of the games, narrowly losing my build a bet for all of them but never mind. I also inventoried all the food and made a list of suggested meals out of what we have and we have 25 but that includes many portions of bolognese which is what I ate the night I got Norovirus so the chances of me ever wanted that again are pretty slim. 

 

I did lots of napping on the sofa and reading because I'm not far off having finished my fiction book and it's in the running for one of my favourite books of all time.  I had a bath in the afternoon where I sang Jagged Little Pill and Alanis's MTV Unplugged in it's entirety and then I did more reading. Dinner was Special Chicken which is chicken cooked in like a Worcester sauce and butter erm... sauce with mushrooms and onions (my dad cooks it for us) and we had that with mash, buttered leeks and beans, carrots, stuffing and yorkshire puddings. 

 

6/7 goals ticked off. I didn't technically overeat but I had a hot chocolate made with milk in the evening and sometimes milk disagrees with me and I felt ridiculously bloated and how else do I track this goal than failing it when I am uncomfortably full? For the cat activities, I gave her lots of snuggles and treats and I also took her outside for a run in the garden where she met the squirrel that lives in one of the trees. She wasn't impressed by him and his parkour around the walls of the garden. The Cliff Cleaning time was used picking up some of the floordrobe in my dressing room however it's not very long at all so  will need a few more sessions to make an impact in that room but it's a nice manageable amount of work, especially as it's used in addition to anything we would have normally done anyway. 

[Epsilonte]

8 hours ago, deftona said:

So much! Lots of Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Hole, Stone Temple Pilots. It was the best time.

Awwww yisss, love them all.

 

8 hours ago, deftona said:

I did lots of napping on the sofa and reading because I'm not far off having finished my fiction book and it's in the running for one of my favourite books of all time. 

You cannot tell us this is the best book ever without telling us its title.

[deftona]

48 minutes ago, Epsilonte said:

You cannot tell us this is the best book ever without telling us its title.

 

[deftona]

Tuesday Update

 

We went into the city yesterday to grab a few bits for Christmas, like for TH's nephew and niece. That side of the family are almost sorted now. We also went for a few pints and lunch because day drinking is fun. We shared some nachos and a pizza and watched the first half of the afternoon World Cup match. 

 

We came home and played Mario for a while before watching the England match. 

 

4 goals ticked off which isn't bad considering I was tipsy by 4pm. 

[Shello]

7 hours ago, deftona said:

We shared some nachos and a pizza

+

7 hours ago, deftona said:

I was tipsy by 4pm. 

Your acing the joy goal!  

[deftona]

Wednesday Update

 

We got up early quite naturally so we started putting the Christmas decorations up straight away. It didn't take too long and everywhere looks really pretty (Pics on my Insta). In the afternoon we went to Dickhead Retail Park where there's an M&S food to grab some more of the Christmas alcohol like the port and vegan Irish cream for my sister. We also had Pizza Hut buffet for lunch and it was excellent. 

 

We got back home and watched our first Christmas film of the season - Noelle. It was good. TH did write notes so I assume there will be a review at some point, but it's not with me yet. I then had a nice long bath and we played Mario. 

 

I got 4 goals ticked off but I'll be honest and I didn't really try. I need to pick this up a bit more, but at least I'm doing the joyful things

[Jarric]

On 11/27/2022 at 9:22 AM, deftona said:

(this song is problematic af)

 

I'm glad you said that, because this song really creeps me out.

 

I like the format of the goal though. Doing one song's worth of anything is a really good measure of time. Now I just need to think where I can apply this...

[deftona]

Thursday Update

 

Back at work and it was fine. TH was in the office so I missed him quite a bit, but when I finished work there was an energy saving session - something a lot of energy companies are doing at the moment to encourage less usage and you basically win money back for not using as much power as your average, scaled to how much you save and it seemed to me like a fantastic opportunity to lie under blankets with the cat reading. It was lovely. 

 

When the energy saving hour was over I sprung into action and did my yearly ritual of sacrificing the autumn decorations. When we come back from our holiday in September I buy some mini pumpkins to decorate the fireplace and these stay up until we put our Christmas decorations up, at which point I recycle the pumpkins by making soup out of them. I boiled them up with two carrots, four potatoes, some veggie stock and lots of black pepper and then when I got back from picking TH up from work I chucked it in the blender and blitzed it to death. We had that with some bake at home ciabattas I cooked in the air fryer and it was heaven. 

 

I read more in the evening to finish my book (Poisonwood Bible) and I absolutely ADORED it. 

 

7/7 goals ticked off. 

[Snarkyfishguts]

Catching up on your week, I feel relaxed just reading about all the chill and festive things you’ve done!  
 

I like the idea of an energy saving hour too!