Happy New Year…Take 2!

I don’t do many posts like this, but after neglecting my blog for much of 2020, I thought that a catch up would be good. I had a nice post all planned out for the beginning of the month, with my New Year goals and plans, and some outdoor ideas for the new year.

At the end of December I was feeling uncharacteristically positive and full of ideas for 2021. I even bought myself a shiny new planner and started diligently filling it in.

I have certainly come to appreciate our local area over the last 12 months

Then lockdown 3.0 happened, the schools closed and once again the world was full of uncertainty and I felt a familiar sense of doom descend. However, I was adamant that this time things would be different. Last time around I put a lot of pressure on myself, tried to do everything, largely failed, and felt awful.

This time, despite my many plans for a restful and creative January being dashed, I was determined to be a lot kinder to myself and set more realistic targets.

So, here’s a look at what we’ve been up to over the last month, and what this year holds-as far as we can plan anyway!

Local days out have been the order of the day during lockdown 3.0

January

Working in retail means a crazy November and December for me, and that was certainly true in 2020. I’m lucky that my job has been unaffected by the coronavirus pandemic, in fact we’ve been busier than ever before. Whilst this is good news, it has made life busier, more hectic and meant less flexibility to juggle everything. The one thing keeping me going was the thought of some well needed days off in January and some me time.

This was , of course, completely torn up once the schools closed and the daunting prospect of juggling homeschooling, working and a wilful 2.5 year old became a reality.

This time I am trying to adopt a much more positive frame of mind. It’s easier said than done, but these few things have helped:

• Accepting the fact that I won’t get every school activity done. I do as much as I can, but I have to work some days and on other days I refuse to just leave Ollie in front of the tv all day while Finn does schoolwork. My best is good enough.
• Time for me. I have really got back into cross stitch, which has been a lifesaver and given me a much needed creative outlet. I also bought a sewing machine last year and I am itching to have the time to get to grips with it properly. I have also starting treating myself to a monthly beauty subscription. I really look forward to the deliveries and trying out new stuff gives me an excuse to spoil myself once in a while.
• Family time. We try to do something together every week, even if it’s just watch a film or play a game. While our outdoor adventures have been curtailed, we still manage to get out locally as much as we can.

We’ve managed to have a few nice local outings, not to mention a well needed and anticipated snow day, which is probably one of my favourite days of the last 12 months.

So what does 2021 have in store?

It looks like we’ll be shackled to our local area for a while yet, and although this is not necessarily a bad thing, it does mean that I am looking for ways to keep the kids engaged when we’re outside. I’ve recently been sent a set of gorgeous books from Ladybird Books which have already proved popular with Finn.

https://www.facebook.com/helpfulhiker/posts/1784874918347307

I will be doing a full write up of these in the coming days.

We have also decided to head back to Hickling Campsite in the summer holidays as we love it so much. After deciding what we wanted as a family from our holiday (great campsite with fires allowed, beaches, nice countryside and walks) there was only one contender!

We cannot wait to head back to our favourite campsite.

Finn has already asked me approximately 1 million times how long it is until the summer holidays!

I am also trying to get back into some sort of shape this year. I am signed up to a 30 day yoga challenge starting tomorrow, plus I plan to give up alcohol for a month too (notice I chose Febraury -the shortest month of the year!) Hopefully this will kick start my new year-albeit a month late-and help me feel a bit more energised and motivated.

Also, I am trying to live a little more sustainably going forwards. I’m not trying to win any awards, but I’ve been thinking about a few small changes I can make in my everyday life. Stay tuned for a post coming soon!

How are you feeling about the new year? What are your goals for 2021? Why not comment below and then you can’t back out if they’re in writing!