The rest conundrum

This morning I was lazying around in my nightie, reading and doing bare minimum to entertain Louis.

This afternoon I was lazing around in my nightie, because I put it back on to do yoga - it is very comfy and loose-fitting. After yoga, I picked up my book again.

Started the day with full intent of doing as little as possible. I suck at doing as little as possible. Had one task that actually needed doing: make baby food.

By some miracle, possibly due to running out of reading material, I actually did make baby food. I put on Love Actually, a very un-annoying Christmas movie which I have seen far too many times, but not for ages, and chopped up all the apples and pears, and cooked them. They're still sitting in their pot, un-wizzed, on the stove, but that's a quick job. And there's no room in the freezer so no hurry to spoon it all into a muffin tray as I've nowhere to put it!

How I love good procrastination excuses.

Unfortunately (altho do feel better) baby-food-making set me off on active-path and did the dishwasher - loaded AND unloaded. Also checked emails and facebook. Had lunch with Mum and played with Louis, fed him, and whatnot. Didn't entirely neglect him in order to watch movie/read book.

Found another book and almost spent entirety of Louis' afternoon nap reading, but book mentioned healthy lifestyle and made me think of doing some exercise, as I've been resolving to do for weeks now. So got out old yoga dvd my sister lent me (forever? I think/hope so) and did 2 of the 10 minute sessions - one for 'buns and thighs' (just love how americans won't say bum or butt or ass on anything official*) and another for 'relaxation and flexibility' which was far nicer - all breathing and stretching and twisting till my back clicks.

Possibly should check out pregnancy yoga to see how different it is. Suspect that I'm more likely to harm myself/baby by NOT getting enough exercising than by overdoing it, as probably never overdid exercise in my whole life. Why would that change now?

Can't believe it's half way through December already. Only did one other blog post all month. Am finding it hard to get back into habits and routines after going off them for all of November and focusing energy on novelling. Have done no novel-related work at all for 10 days... have replaced it with christmas preparations and tired-lazy-relaxing. Keep meaning to do journal in the morning as it tends to set me off for the day, focusing my energy/attention on what is urgent/important, which actually helps me to rest/relax properly when it's time to do so. Otherwise I relax and feel bad for it, since I haven't done all the things I should/would have liked to.

Feel like rest is probably very wise use of SOME time each day, just not ALL my time... Coming onslaught of preparations for moving to Paris, as well as pregnancy-induced-lethargy, make resting a definite priority, while I can.


*and 'buns' makes me think of hilariously named bakery in upper hut "fresh buns bakery and cafe'. Classic!

Decemberitis

The month of silence has ended. The baby is trying to get the candy canes...

Yep. That sums it up.

Almost. I haven't posted for a month because I've been saving my words for nanowrimo. This is a month-long madness where a bunch of people around the world write a novel of 50 000 words, in 30 days. And I did it! This was my third successful attempt - and the easiest by far! Not working full time, on top of beginning with a plan, made squeezing in a few hours and/or a few thousand words every day much easier.

This year I did a romance novel, bit formulaic, but fun. And possibly publishable, cause there's definitely a market. My other novel, meanwhile, is out in the void somewhere, hopefully being read and enjoyed by an editor. Hopefully.

But no matter what happens, I am determined to keep writing. Spot the new mantra :) Spot the top new-years-resolution candidate. And maybe that would be a good time to pick up writing again, after december. The month scares me a little this year.

We're planning a quiet Christmas, and when I look at the calendar/diary it's not too scary, but in my head it's becoming this big scary black cloud of things I've forgotten, that are really important, and then I panic, and do nothing but watch movies and ice christmas biscuits for a whole week... Mmm, christmas biscuits.

There are a few things that are probably adding to the stress-load...
- I'm pregnant again = I'm tired all the time and easily overwhelmed
- I might be moving to Paris for 18 months... but don't know yet. Waiting on decisions and information out of our hands.
- If we don't go, I'll be disappointed.
- If we do go, the to-do list is going to be HUGE! Sorting, lending, selling and storing all our stuff, learning French (which we've started already), getting everything organised... holy cow.
- I've overspent my budget for the year... and it's impossible not to spend money on the occasional end-of-year-do-lunch, among other things, this time of year. So I'm trying to be frugal, without being a sad-sack, to be reasonable and yet disciplined.