Things I Haven't Been Doing
I keep meaning to grind up the eggshells in the blender before they go in the compost.
It does happen. Eventually.
Today I have for you a little list of things I really want to do, but actually have not been doing.
Making yoghurt: It is months since I made any yoghurt. I don't know why because making yoghurt is very easy. I am lacking in yoghurty get up and go.
Driving less: Ok, so in the last year Rosy has year Rosy has acquired her license and I have acquired a partner who lives half an hour's drive away up a mountain. Neither of these acquisitions has contributed to using less fossil fuel in my car.
Using less electricity: For some mysterious reason we are using more electricity this year than we did last year. Is it Posy's twice a week bath habit? Is it us getting a bit slack with our overall electricity use? What to do?
Getting enough work: At the beginning of this year I started a wee garden maintenance business. It is so wee it is not so much a micro-business as a nano business. It nearly, but not quite, covers my living expenses. This is, of course, mostly my fault as I am procrastinating about organising advertising. All I need are some business cards and flyers. I have not quite got around to producing these yet..
Writing much: I am writing a bit. There are a few articles written and at least one accepted for future publication. Hooray! I need to do more and be more adventurous with where I send them. I can do this. Then there is the world's slowest novel. Here is my thinking though - a novel a decade is a lot more than no novels a decade. Am I right?
Making less rubbish: I thought I was getting really good at this, and I was. I am doing okay - the girls see no reason not to bring large amounts of plastic packaging into the house, although they are starting to bring their own bags places, which is a good start. I am also letting more packaging creep back into my food buying habits. I really want to do better. I can do better.
Parenting Well: I have not been the parent I want to be this week. There has been shouting. There have been fights over mess and school attendance. I am better at conflict resolution than I once was, but I still have some way to go. Being a parent is not easy. Being a teenager is not easy either.
I could seriously go on and on with this list, but I'll stop now and hand over to you. Any confessions?
Comments
But for the solidarity, I will join you:
- Yes to the no yogurt making, and even worse, I have been buying the individual plastic pots for my son's school lunches as it is the only way he will take it to school.
- Eating too many meat dinners, but at the moment the hungry males in this house insist on it. To balance: My daughter and I made silverbeet and feta gozleme yesterday. Delicious!
- Spending lots of money on groceries. Got to stop reading Frugal/Minimalist Facebook pages where people only spend $80 per week for a family of 4 grrr, impossible for us no matter how hard I try.
- Gas! Electricity! But I tell myself it is because the husband and I are both home most of the day. And I get chilblains if the house is too cold (honestly, nothing makes me feel older and more decrepit).
- Hmmmm parenting.... is either Mother of the Year (cooked breakfasts every morning, making their lunches so they eat healthily, time spent hanging out) or Harriden ( yelling, muttering horrible things under my breath, whining about ingratitude, going for walks alone to get away from them, nagging)
Is that enough?
Please keep writing for publication, you do have a gift for it.
(And yes, my email is the same, no rush on the letter, I will enjoy the anticipation) Loretta x
Definitely no yogurt happening here, just too lazy.
I don't make bread or bricks anymore.
Reducing my rubbish, I do try, but so much plastic packaging, my daughter and husband just don't even appear to think about the waste included in their purchases.
Power use hasn't dropped as much as I hoped now half the family has moved out, perhaps I'm not as diligent as I was about nagging everyone to turn stuff off!
Letter writing, why do I put it off so long?
Phoning my dad regularly, again why do I put it off?
Riding my bike, haven't ridden regularly for years, too much effort required to make it happen
Knitting, I love it, the process, the satisfaction of creating something
Reading, love the escapism is provides. These last two points are in direct relation to my phone usage, but why?
Stopping comparing myself to everyone I come into contact with, either in real life or on line.
Probably the biggest and definitely hardest one for me is leaving my phone alone, Im addicted.
cheers Kate
Loretta, yes, perfection is just over there, at the end of the rainbow, right next to that pot of gold and the leprechaun..
Your daughter sounds like my oldest daughter who hates driving and still doesn't have her license at 22, and who has now left home and lives in another state. The marvellous thing about that is there is not much I can do about that particular problem anymore:)
Oh, I am hearing you about the grocery bill. I am going to do a post about how I am increasing my grocery bill so that I can buy local food produced at a fair price by actual farmers I can meet. I'll cut corners in my spending elsewhere..
Btw it was your street address that I was hoping was the same:) Also don't have your email because i changed computers without being clever enough to also change over my address book. Sigh. So would love it if you emailed me again:)
Kate, yes, most of your list as well, although I gave my bike away, which entirely removes the guilt of not using it:) I have been thinking about how I can move forward and achieve some of the things I want to do without beating myself up about all the things I am failing to do. There are voices in my head which tell me a particular story about myself which is not a good or a true one. I think I may be going to listen to some better voices and see if a different story will help me along to a better outcome..
Hazel, shouty parent, sigh...
Books collect dust on my night stand unread.
The challenge on making bread goes un-tackled.
Grocery bill....
Menopause keeps the A/C running and electrical consumption higher than it could be..
Papers haven't been sorted.
We women are pretty good about focusing on what we are Not doing, so lets focus on what we are getting accomplished: I finished knitting a shawl! And I gave myself a standing ovation for that! :D
Have a good productive week, dear ones.
Patricia/USA
Well, I reckon there are always things that need doing better than they are done at the moment, and surely that is just part of life?
Confession is good for the soul - or so say folks who enjoy gaining juicy gossip! :-) Who doesn't enjoy a good gossip?
Usually I'm on to things, but you know, this week I'm not on to feeling relaxed. I have a scary job from hell that has been a burden on my mind of late, so yeah, not being relaxed is one thing I'm not feeling this week. Oh well. It happens.
I dunno, and can't speak for others, but when I was a wee youngster, I remember feeling emotions a lot more intensively, than now when I'm apparently an adult. Dunno. Good luck!
Home made yoghurt is good. I've been working on my batch for about half a year now and am waiting to get some raw milk to add to the yoghurt batch from my friends with the epicly large shed. Raw milk has a very diverse range of bacteria, but I do want to wait until the spring pasture is at its peak. They have milking cows, but I can't quite shake my irrational fear and uncertainty about raw milk. Oh well.
Cheers
Chris
I guess we all have things we have every intention of doing better. I put it down to too many good intentions all at once! Meg:)
Keep writing, Jo. I would love to see some of your published work. You'll need to let us know about it so we can try to track it down!
Linda in NZ
Chris, I do think a little gossip is good for the soul, as long as it is gossip about yourself. That is partly why I wrote this post. Confessions from me, just keeping it real!
Scary jobs hanging over your head are not conducive to relaxation, but if I know anything about you from reading your blog all this time, it is that you are tackling it as hard and fast as you can to get it out of the way. Now, if it was me, I would be putting it off as long as humanly possible:)
Meg, I think it is good to take a look at the long list sometimes. I have a 'Housebook' where I list all the things I want to achieve in the house and garden. I put a tick and the date when they are done. Sometimes it takes years, but usually it gets done eventually!
Linda, one thing I am learning with my gardening business, is that a huge job, or number of jobs, will all get done eventually, two hours' steady work at a time. I like your plan of starting one thing and ploughing along steadily until it is done. Sometimes it is better to ignore all the things and just concentrate on that one thing. Although all the things tend to intrude themselves, don't they?
I still only have one article published - that was in a magazine that doesn't publish articles on-line. I have another article accepted for publication by them, another one waiting for the editor to read, and another article I am about to send off to another magazine.. so when I put it like that it does sound like I have been doing more writing than I thought. Nice!