A steady January

I’ve heard lots of people describing January as gloomy and dreary, but I’m enjoying the steadiness it has brought with it – along with the leafless trees, winter sun and unusual skies that we seem to be waking up to. The boys have seen their cousins lots, we’ve stayed in a little more, watched a few films, organised the house, had more afternoon baths, revisited potential preschools, been out in the snow, drank hot chocolate and generally slowed down. Rufus has had the most hideous cold so he’s been quite miserable, but Winston has been fantastic company (unless it is meal time, or time to get dressed!)

It looks like Ru has been practising his blue steel too.

Jared and I are really trying to spend more quality time together. Since Rufus was born I can count on one hand the times we’ve made time to do something together – even if it’s as simple as watching a film, playing a game or eating our dinner once the kids are in bed. I don’t feel like we are too busy, but between Jared being self employed, evening appointments, lots of my massage clients wanting to rebook in, fitting in exercise, responsibilities at church and wanting time to oneself, it is a fine balancing act and communication can be hurried and crabby. We don’t live near family (although one of my sisters has just moved to Leeds!), we try to avoid asking others to look after them as it makes me a slightly stressed, but we’re slowly realising that there are people out there that actually like babysitting and are happy to do it.

So far this month we’ve eaten a meal in once the kids were in bed, followed by a film, and we’ve used the skiing vouchers we bought each other for our birthdays last summer. A vast improvement already! Some good friends of ours insisted they are having them both for a whole Saturday (which we still can’t believe) – so we’re planning on going to a ‘fun’ swimming pool and playing sport.

Something else we want to work on this year is being more social. We both enjoy being social, but we are not good at initiating ‘getting together’. This includes inviting new and old friends for supper, or having people over for Sunday lunch. We’ve had some new friends over already this year (granted it was their idea, but still) and we had such a lovely evening talking, eating and playing on the SNES.  Jared also has some cousins he’s wanted to have over for ages so we need to just go for it.

This was not how I envisaged this post coming out, but I may as well mention other things I want to work on…

I normally connect with most of my siblings each week, but it is usually by text and I’d really like to call instead. Three of them are at Uni, one is going to Uni this year, one is potentially getting married this year, one doing GCSEs this year, one going through a divorce and three that don’t live locally. I really want all of them to know that I care about them and sometimes a text just isn’t enough.

and that just leaves one more thing…

Exercise in the morning. Our evenings are getting less free and now Rufus is sleeping through I really want to make morning exercise part of my routine. I really think it would transform my life. I haven’t started yet and am using the snow and ice as an excuse, but I so want to make happen!

How has your January been? I hope you’re having a happy one.

E xx