Thank you to those who wrote supportive messages on my last post, it means a lot to get that reassurance that November sounded as hard as it felt! HA.
December has started off busy, but I got a lot done this week and things went generally well so I'm feeling pretty positive about things.
A few things that happened this week:
O and I both had medical check ups, which went well. For me, I got my very first mammogram now I'm over 40, which I'd put off for 2 years. In our state we have a Breastscreen bus that drives around to all the towns and hangs out for a month for everyone to pop in and get their screen for free - I'm so grateful for this service, meant I could get it down in 15 minutes for free yesterday.
We had a guy out this week to service our septic system. Definitely one of the least fun aspects of rural home ownership!
O had Santa visit his daycare, and he got a book from Santa which he was very excited about. He's now 4 and its great to see that he's really getting into Santa (and his reindeer and the North Pole etc) in a way that he didn't in previous years. I love the magic of Christmas as seen through kids eyes.
O with his Rudolf pajamas
E had her breakup Christmas party at school and we had to bring a sweet plate. I did the seasoned parent trick where I took E 15 minutes early, drove past a bakery and let her choose a sweet from the cabinet (she chose two large chocolate muffins), and used a knife I brought from home to cut them up into pieces for sharing. Done! She had a good day. They actually have another week of school, but all the curriculum is apparently finished so I guess they will be watching a lot of movies next week.
I'm now at the part of the work year where we are doing the "lasts" for 2024 - last work drinks (this was fun with my team!), last team meeting, last speaking engagement (I really enjoyed this one, it was put on by a local aged-care provider and it was for clients to learn about healthy ageing - what a great initiative).
Our team got a research paper (journal article) accepted for publication, and I got another one submitted this week, so good to move some key research projects forward before the end of the year.
I managed to fit in lunch with a friend one day, lunch with an old student who came back to visit another, and lunch with mum a third day! What a social week.
I managed to walk so far 4/6 days. Not perfect but for such a busy week I'm happy with this.
One walk this week was at the beach, so nice to feel the sand and walm water on my feet
Right now I've just been for an early walk in a beautiful local national park, and drinking an iced latte at a local cafe while I write this post. This is the kind of calm start I love on a Saturday, and don't always get. Feeling grateful for this.
my morning walk
Iced latte and uninterrupted blog writing- aaah
For the rest of the weekend I have planned:
Take the kids for a swim at my parents house - it is already HOT out there.
Laundry and tidy up the house this afternoon while the kids have screen time
Put up the Christmas tree! Yes this is very late this year, but really excited to get it up today. I bought new twinkle lights for it yesterday.
Do the budget for the rest of December so we know our allowances for certain categories (otherwise things can get a bit out of hand with holidays, family and friends visiting etc). YES we should have done this earlier, lets just say that budgeting and keeping track of our money is NOT our strong suit, but this is something I'd like to work on for 2025.
Have my parents over tonight for dinner - I'm going to cook us my favourite honey mustard chicken drumsticks recipe with roast veggies. They so often have us over (they have the bigger house with the pool!), so looking forward to spoiling them tonight. Thinking we might put on a Christmas movie to watch altogether.
Work a bit on my side business. It's coming along well, I'm doing an hour or two most days, taking Cal Newport's slow productivity approach of small consistent effort over a longer period in order to yield results. I'm aiming to launch the business properly (with new website and everything) in the new year, at the moment I am just doing it via my existing network and emails etc.
Go for another walk tomorrow, and of course make sure I have a bit of time for reading, and watching some TV (for anyone who enjoys true crime, I'm finally going to watch the second season of the Jinx - I watched the first years ago and it was so absorbing, but never watched the second season)
Oh, and of course there are the admin type tasks like book O for his 4 year old vaccinations, pay bills, plan out the coming week, order some presents etc.
What does everyone else have planned for the weekend? I hope you had a good week, and a good weekend ahead!
It's so beautiful where. you live! Look at all that lush greenery! I love seeing your painted toenails in the water! It sounds like you had a busy, but good week.
I love that we did the same thing with our computer and caffeine of choice! We have reached the time of year where our different hemispheres/seasons are SO APPARENT! It is warmer this weekend but I will not be barefoot outside for a good 6-7 months!! But your beach walk sounds wonderful!
Your sharing plate sounded great. It’s nice you can still do that at school. It’s so strict here that you can’t bring any treats to school. So for birthdays, kids brought plastic favors which is not my favorite. We opted not to send anything for Paul’s last year.
Have fun with your parents!! I need to check out that recipe!