Starting the New Year again

It’s not been a brilliant start to the New Year.  I spent the first three days of it in bed with some form of unpleasant lurgy that prevented me from getting up and getting on with things.  I’m the kind of person who likes to be getting on with things so being stuck in bed all day was never going to leave me in the best of humours.  It doesn’t make me a good patient either and although the family looked after me magnificently, I think they were all mightily relieved when I was well enough to get dressed.

It meant that we were a bit behind with putting our decorations away – we normally like to have them down just after New Year.  I like to make sure that they are packed away in particular boxes so that I can find things next year, so I made the family wait for me rather than let them do the job themselves (another symptom of grouchy-patient-itis).  I think the plan backfired on me slightly as I ended up doing it all by myself without any help at all, but never mind.  At least I’ll be able to find things!

It made me smile to take the photo of the little reindeers and Father Christmases, looking worn out after rather a lot of racing.  As gifts from crackers go, these ones were a bit of a hit – although I have to say that I rather sympathised with them!

Today has felt like the first proper day of the New Year.  Although I managed the school runs yesterday, by the time I had taken the dog round the block as well (“I’m perfectly fine now, thank you, don’t fuss!”) I realised that I wasn’t perfectly fine at all.  Today, though, has been much better. I’ve even felt well enough to get out my new journal and Make a Start.  Ooh, just look at it!  Isn’t it a thing of beauty?  It’s purple, my very favourite colour and I have officially splurged to buy it with some Christmas money that my Dad gave me – this is a posh journal.  None of your cheap and nasty, thin-as-toilet-paper, ink shows through on both sides writing paper here – no thank you! This is a Leuchtturm1917 journal and I chose the version with the squared pages.  I figured that if I made an effort to buy a proper book, I’d make more effort to keep the journal going for more than five minutes.

This year, I’m going to try Bullet Journaling.  I’d never heard of it before but read about it in the comments of another blog shortly before Christmas and, after having had a look at the website, I’ve decided to give it a go.  For years, I’ve tried to use the Time Manager system that my husband uses very successfully, and for years I’ve lasted for about three weeks with it before it all goes to pot.  It’s a great system, but I just can’t seem to get to grips with it, which is very disappointing as it comes with folders, printed calendar and to-do sheets and pictures of little elephants which represent tasks that are too big to tackle in one go; I love the stationery!  It’s no good, though.  I always end up back with my calendar and a to-do list that never seems to be shorter than three feet long.  Bullet Journaling seems like a way to get my to-do list to be shorter without actually having to take jobs off it and hide them away somewhere.  It also appears to be remarkably simple and to be flexible enough to cope with me sliding off the tracks from time to time.  Whether I will still be waxing lyrical about in three or six months’ time remains to be seen, but for now there’s that wonderful moment when you get to write on the first blank pages of a brand new book.  Perhaps that’s all I need to keep me happy – an endless supply of new books.  Plenty of space for three feet long to-do lists, anyway!

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8 Responses

  1. Lilly's Mom says:

    Hello, I do hope that you are feeling better. Sorry to hear your new year got off to a rough start. I love your idea of the journaling. It's funny that you wrote "sourdough starter". I just started the "starter" today after reading about it online. I will see if my wild yeast starter will take shape after five days of feeding it. Wish me luck. I send you my get well wishes:)

    • Winwick Mum says:

      Thank you, I am starting to feel much more like my usual self, although stopping myself from overdoing it is always going to be a problem! I need to get on with my sourdough starter as it's still just a note on my list, but I do hope yours turns out well. Sourdough bread makes the best toast in the world so it's definitely worth giving it a go! xx

  2. Mummy3+1dog says:

    You go!

  3. Angel Jem says:

    Is there anything more welcoming than a clean new journal? Good luck with the new system! And I'm glad you're feeling better x

  4. Lucy@Attic24 says:

    hellooo……..! I've been looking into bullet journalling after chatting to you about it – I wonder how you are finding it two months in? Is it working for you Christine? I'm adopting a hybrid bullet journal thingy, combing sketch book, note book, diary, monthly plans and weekly to-do lists. Do you still do FlyLady stuff too? I'm revisiting that as well for March. Looking forward to seeing you again soon xxxxxxx

    • Winwick Mum says:

      Hi Lucy, yes I'm still using the bullet journal, and although I started off following the suggestions in the original video, over time it's morphing into something that's more useful for me. I love ticking the little boxes, I get a real sense of achievement from it! The real genius part of it is the index – it's such a simple thing but means that you write anything on any page and still find it later. I still use the Flylady methods too; not religiously, I often fall off the wagon and have to start again, but I split my "house blessing" across the week and never take on anything that's going to take me longer than an hour to clear up. I just don't like having to spend a whole day catching up on the cleaning so it's much easier to do a little bit every day! Looking forward to seeing you again soon too 🙂 xxxx

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