New Year’s Resolutions
Well, it’s February, the dust has settled (literally) and I’m finally getting round to thinking about my New Year’s Resolutions . . . .
As we’re already so far into the year, I decided to discard the usual clichés such as: get fitter, drink less, be a nicer person, play with the children more . . . and try and choose things that were a bit more specific. Ten seemed like a good number:
1) Send Birthday cards on time and write Thank you letters/emails within one week(ish) of receiving presents. This also implies making sure that we know who we are going to send cards to and what date their birthday is. This will entail contacting everyone in our address book and verifying their address: we found out last summer that we’ve been sending cards to one friend of ours to their old address for three years!
2) Wrap ALL Christmas presents well before Christmas Eve – and label them securely. I know the children just tear the paper off but I actually felt embarrassed at the contrast between the crisp edges and curly ribbon adorning other people’s presents and the sellotape frenzy that characterised the ones wrapped by me.
3) Organise Eldest Son’s birthday party (10 January) BEFORE Christmas, not in a mad rush the week before.
4) Start a yoga or pilates class AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
5) Reinstate “two weekends on, two weekends off” principle with regard to having people round for dinner/going away for the weekend.
6) Swimming lessons for the children NOW.
7) Publicise Blog with a view to earning some money from it. This will entail becoming more web-literate - a tall order.
8) Do (at least) two things that make us significantly more environmentally friendly.
9) Arrange play dates and activities for the children’s holidays before the last day of term.
10) Seize the Day!
Looking at the above list, it is clear that a lot of these resolutions revolve around the concept of Being Organised. This means that living up to them will be a bit of a challenge because a large part of me rather likes not knowing what is going to happen next.
Ten years of boarding school, where life was run to rigorous timetables, has left me with a bit of a phobia about joining organisations, or even being organised. Too much predictability in my life makes me feel as if I am being suffocated. I like to see this aversion to planning as being flexible and spontaneous. Others, I am sure, see it as being disorganised and even – horrors! - lazy.
I don’t agree at all. I’m firmly in the Winnie the Pooh camp on this one. I cry every time I read the bit at the end of The House at Pooh Corner where Christopher Robin tells Pooh that he’s not going to be allowed to do nothing any more. To my mind, the crucial element of that last sentence is the use of the active verb “To Do”. “Doing nothing” is not passive. It’s about doing what you want to do, when you want to do it. It could be about lying around in bed reading books; it could equally be about going on long walks, or cycling, or playing tennis with the children.
As far as I’m concerned, being spontaneous actually involves quite a high level of something akin to organisation. You have to be ready for anything – or at least be able to improvise quickly. Suddenly finding that you have six children coming for tea actually requires a cool head and some creative cookery – it also helps to have a well-stocked freezer. Being able to say: “Yes!” when friends ring up on a Saturday morning that is unexpectedly frosty and sunny and say: “Fancy going sledging at Big Hill?” is fun. It gets the adrenalin going.
On the other hand, knowing that for the next two years you are going to be the Secretary of the school Parent Teacher Association, requires the inhalation of a rather large, deep, breath - but it can be done (I know it can, I did it).
So, where the children and our social life are concerned, I shall be getting my diary out and making an effort to be organised. All this effort, will, I hope, be balanced by the licence granted to me in my final resolution “Seize the Day!” After all, you never know what exciting opportunities might be coming round the corner. . .
ENDS
Well, it’s February, the dust has settled (literally) and I’m finally getting round to thinking about my New Year’s Resolutions . . . .
As we’re already so far into the year, I decided to discard the usual clichés such as: get fitter, drink less, be a nicer person, play with the children more . . . and try and choose things that were a bit more specific. Ten seemed like a good number:
1) Send Birthday cards on time and write Thank you letters/emails within one week(ish) of receiving presents. This also implies making sure that we know who we are going to send cards to and what date their birthday is. This will entail contacting everyone in our address book and verifying their address: we found out last summer that we’ve been sending cards to one friend of ours to their old address for three years!
2) Wrap ALL Christmas presents well before Christmas Eve – and label them securely. I know the children just tear the paper off but I actually felt embarrassed at the contrast between the crisp edges and curly ribbon adorning other people’s presents and the sellotape frenzy that characterised the ones wrapped by me.
3) Organise Eldest Son’s birthday party (10 January) BEFORE Christmas, not in a mad rush the week before.
4) Start a yoga or pilates class AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
5) Reinstate “two weekends on, two weekends off” principle with regard to having people round for dinner/going away for the weekend.
6) Swimming lessons for the children NOW.
7) Publicise Blog with a view to earning some money from it. This will entail becoming more web-literate - a tall order.
8) Do (at least) two things that make us significantly more environmentally friendly.
9) Arrange play dates and activities for the children’s holidays before the last day of term.
10) Seize the Day!
Looking at the above list, it is clear that a lot of these resolutions revolve around the concept of Being Organised. This means that living up to them will be a bit of a challenge because a large part of me rather likes not knowing what is going to happen next.
Ten years of boarding school, where life was run to rigorous timetables, has left me with a bit of a phobia about joining organisations, or even being organised. Too much predictability in my life makes me feel as if I am being suffocated. I like to see this aversion to planning as being flexible and spontaneous. Others, I am sure, see it as being disorganised and even – horrors! - lazy.
I don’t agree at all. I’m firmly in the Winnie the Pooh camp on this one. I cry every time I read the bit at the end of The House at Pooh Corner where Christopher Robin tells Pooh that he’s not going to be allowed to do nothing any more. To my mind, the crucial element of that last sentence is the use of the active verb “To Do”. “Doing nothing” is not passive. It’s about doing what you want to do, when you want to do it. It could be about lying around in bed reading books; it could equally be about going on long walks, or cycling, or playing tennis with the children.
As far as I’m concerned, being spontaneous actually involves quite a high level of something akin to organisation. You have to be ready for anything – or at least be able to improvise quickly. Suddenly finding that you have six children coming for tea actually requires a cool head and some creative cookery – it also helps to have a well-stocked freezer. Being able to say: “Yes!” when friends ring up on a Saturday morning that is unexpectedly frosty and sunny and say: “Fancy going sledging at Big Hill?” is fun. It gets the adrenalin going.
On the other hand, knowing that for the next two years you are going to be the Secretary of the school Parent Teacher Association, requires the inhalation of a rather large, deep, breath - but it can be done (I know it can, I did it).
So, where the children and our social life are concerned, I shall be getting my diary out and making an effort to be organised. All this effort, will, I hope, be balanced by the licence granted to me in my final resolution “Seize the Day!” After all, you never know what exciting opportunities might be coming round the corner. . .
ENDS
posted by Susan Darnbrough at
8:22 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home