KTHDSN

This year, rather than setting out my usual vague list of goals for the year, I only have one resolution. Just one. And it’s going reasonably well a week into the year.

My resolution this year is simple, measurable, and most importantly, easily achievable in the short term as well as the long term. Good start, right?

My new year’s resolution is to actually do stuff that I put on my to do list.

People who know me well are used to me not getting on with stuff because I’m working on a new organising system, or I’m just making a list first, or I just don’t know where to start, or I’m planning on doing that after such and such a thing has happened at some vague, undefined time in the future. I say things like “yes it’s on my list” and “I’ll get round to it eventually”, and it never actually happens.

Well as of new year’s day, I have turned this around. I have a to do list, I have no reason to make excuses, and I have actually been doing things from my list. Wow!

So far this year, I have started to read the books I bought in the January sales last year. I have picked up a sewing project that has been languishing on a shelf for almost a year. I have a knitting project in progress on my needles. I have sorted the big pile of junk that used to reside on my coffee table and put it away. I’m even posting something on my blog!

My to do list has been transformed from a procrastination tool into the organisational tool that it was supposed to be. What’s more, each time I actually do something to check off the list, I feel more motivated to get something else done so I can check that off too. I’m moving towards all the goals I had intended to work on last year, but never actually got round to doing anything about, and I’m enjoying it.

I have a good feeling that this new year’s resolution is actually going to stick around and become a part of my life rather than a distant memory that is buried under a pile of lame excuses. Yey for me!

After a very adventurous move from Toronto, Canada back to the UK before christmas, we’re finally settling into our new home and our new life.

My fiancé and I lived in Toronto for 3 years with my three daughters, but he didn’t qualify for residency so we had to return to the UK.  We were having money trouble before we moved, and we depended on credit cards to get us back home.  We stayed with our wonderful family while we figured out what we were doing and got back on our feet.

Once we had decided to stay in England, our luck changed for the better and everything started to fall into place.  Ric got a great job that he is enjoying as much as he will ever enjoy a job.  We found a really nice house to rent with three bedrooms and a garden, a huge improvement on the two bedroomed apartment we had in Canada.

We have moved in, unpacked (almost), and are starting to feel settled.  There is a lot to get used to living in a small town in the countryside after having lived in a huge city, and as with most things there are pros and cons.  I miss the 24 hour grocery store just around the corner, and the subway across the street which connected us to the whole city.  Of course I miss the people we left behind, especially my sister who spent more time at my place than her own.

The pros balance things out nicely though, I absolutely love having a garden where I can grow things, the girls can play, and I can have pets.  I like the peace and quiet, and the darkness at night.  It’s nice to be able to see the stars.  I’m even enjoying having a car, without which we wouldn’t be able to go anywhere but Morrisons.

It’s great to be back online, and I am looking forward to sharing my adventures