“All we have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given us.”
Points for those who can name the character and book from which the title of this blog was taken. I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking this year is flying past! We’re in August already and as usual there seems to be so much going on, and things I’m aware that I haven’t yet gotten to. For me the last few months have been intense:
How is it that even after spending 40 minutes doing all the dishes and cleaning the kitchen, you leave the room for a minute and then come back to this?? Photo by Gary Barnes
Travel - I got to the snow for the first time ever with the wonderful Renae and her family (read about it here). Thanks to Renae for making this one happen.
More Travel - Renae and I got away, child-free, to Mt Tamborine for a few days with Renae. Decadent I know. But in fairness, we needed a holiday to recover from the ski holiday. You can read about this one here on Renae’s blog.
Kids Sport - I took on a co-ordinator role at the club this year, supporting the other 22 x team managers, in addition to managing Jacob’s Under 14s side. And Noah’s been playing up semi-regularly to Under 18s in addition to his Under 16s games, which I try and get to whenever they don’t clash with Jacob’s matches.
General Parenting - you know this list; school, homework help, shopping, meal prep, mountains of washing to get through, keeping the house and yard clean, hosting friend’s sleep-overs or ferrying boys to and from sleep-overs, etc.
More Travel - I’m planning a ski-holiday for the boys and I to Queenstown New Zealand in late September. Preparing applications for four passports almost constitutes a full-time job in itself! But they are in and now just have to arrive on time…
Work - Oh yeah, and work of course. Though I obviously had a bit of leave involved in July; thanks again DL for approving that! But then there’s always catching up on all the things that build up when you are away.
So it’s been intense but also pretty amazing. But back to the title of this post; have I been deciding what to do with the time I have, or have I been letting time get away from me? With all the chaos that life throws at us, it is easy to let goals and intentions fall to the wayside. So I thought it might be time to check in on the goals I set at the start of the year (here) and see where my marks are at so far on achieving these ones.
Learn to surf – Partial credit: I made a start on this early in the year (read here) but then all the rain and flooding kicked in, then footy season, and my trips to the beach dwindled. That was followed by winter and I feel that this goal is suddenly not so important as to justify hitting the beach during winter. So I wouldn’t call myself a surfer yet, but I’m okay on where I’m at with this one. I still have the warmer months coming to get out before years’ end. And I learned to snow-board in the interim, so not a bad substitute if I don’t quite get there on the surfing this year.
If I recall correctly, Marshmallows were not the only thing toasted in the fire. I think a couple of cold slides of pizza ended up on a stick in an attempt to reheat them. Photo by Bianca Gasparoto
Get away camping with the boys – Partial credit: We haven’t gotten away camping all together yet. But the tent has been put through its paces twice so far; once with Jacob and Thomas when we joined Renae and her family at their annual Easter pilgrimage to Pizzeys (see Renae’s post here on the weekend). And more recently in July, Jacob’s Under 14s team had a Dads & Lads camping event with one of the families generously offering up their property to have 22 kids and a bunch of Dads come and camp for the night. Though this sounds like a recipe for disaster it was an amazing weekend; the boys had a great time with basketball, footy, spotlight in the bush, marshmallows and heaps more, and were very well behaved all up. Aside from one pretty impressive bruise above the eye from the energetic rugby match, no kids were harmed in the making! And the Dads had a great time mucking around with the boys, sharing good conversation, watching plenty of footy (outside screen by the fire was pretty special) and sharing some beers. And apart from the need for some strong coffee and a berocca or two the next day, no Dads were harmed in the making!
So, while I may still try and get away for a camping weekend with the boys in the warmer months later in the year, the tent has gotten a work out and I figure a skiing trip to NZ is probably a fair substitute if I don’t get there.
There, I’ve done it. The obligatory picture of the old type-writer that graces every writers site at some stage. I will do my best not to repeat this one. Photo by Pixabay
Buy a house – needs some work: For anyone following the housing market, you may have seen some ridiculous prices around earlier this year, so I was certainly in no haste to mark this one off. I’ve been watching the market around where I live for the past two years and prices rose by up to 70% over about 14 months. Crazy stuff. Prices are starting to settle a bit now as inflation and interest rates take a little heat out of the market. I’m happy to wait it out a little longer on this one and see where things settle towards the end of the year, or maybe early next.
Finish first draft of Happlessly Ever After and progress the Savage and Lions & Lambs manuscripts towards publication – needs some work: This is where I start to get into the not-so-strong performances. With everything else going on, writing has not managed to get as regular a look-in as I’d ideally like. I have done some work on the writing front, but I’m well off track on finishing the draft at this stage. And on the publication front other than getting some useful feedback from Renae, I haven’t really moved anything along. If I want to get these goals across the line I’m going to need to carve out some regular writing time in the next few months! Hmm
Get the boys meditating 10 minutes a day – needs some work: Apart from Thomas joining me once or twice in my morning meditation (usually just as an excuse to come in and use my ensuite bathroom rather than walk up to the other end of the house to use the main bathroom), I haven’t achieved this one yet. I’m anticipating a battle – which would be the exact opposite to what I’d be trying to achieve by encouraging the meditation in the first place – and so have procrastinated on it. I may aim to tackle this one in the last term of school, once footy season is done and dusted.
So that’s where I’m at with my goals; probably not quite where I’d ideally have liked them to be at this time. I would like to give some a little more time over the rest of the year, so revisiting them has been useful. But I’m also pretty happy with everything else going on this year. I’ve spent lots of good time with the boys which I’m well aware is time that will disappear pretty quickly as they grow. Renae and I have also carved out a fair amount of time, despite the barriers of distance and our separate family commitments, and I’m thankful for that. I’ve had some great experiences that were unplanned (by me at least; well-planned by others which I am again very thankful for!) and the NZ trip should provide another highlight. And the best thing; there’s still five months of the year left!
And of course, the quote in the blog title was from Gandalf, who spoke those words of wisdom to Frodo in JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series.