Some may say that I might not have had so much to finish off, had I blogged a little less and worked a little more. But I'm at the close of Annual Leave Day 1 - and so I don't actually care right now.
I've spent the day doing nothing, only getting dressed to go to my parents house for dinner and the most I did around the house was turn on the dishwasher. I'm not even sure the dishes in there were actually dirty - but it gave me a sense of pride so I'm not going to worry about the details.
I'm catching up on my recorded episodes of 'One Born Every Minute' and 'Dr Quinn: Medicine Woman'. Yes, I love Dr Quinn, and no I'm not ashamed. I can't hear your snorts of laughter, so it's all good.
But the main message of this is to say I'm going to be taking it easy. Since I lost my iPhone I've had a forced withdrawal from Twitter and blogging and all the other things I used too obsessively check previously, and I think it's been good for me.
So for the next 5 weeks my priority is going to be my family and doing the things together that we want to. And believe me, we have plenty to do.
I have baking to be done - and even if I didn't enjoy baking I'd be forced to, because our chickens have started laying about 6-8 eggs PER DAY. That's a shit load of egg's! I can't give them away fast enough so the only other solution I can think of is to become a the Betty Crocker of Darwin.
And when I'm not baking, I'll be tackling the tropical jungle that is our pain in the arse garden. Goodbye palm trees. Goodbye pointless, unidentifiable shrubbery. Goodbye horrible paving and hello to the garden of my dreams! Hopefully we'll also get the grass mowed and I won't have to take a cut lunch and water bag to get to the letter box.
We'll be restoring the pool to a habitable state, safe for human activity. Because if the pool pump doesn't go in this week with enough chlorine and salt to bleach the earth, I will loose my shit. $700 and endless waiting for the pool man to declare it safe only for the bloody pump to blow up and the new one not fit the existing pipelines has made me very upset. I'm sick of looking out our bedroom window only to see a cesspool. Although it does match the state of the garden. Ahem.
The chickens will be relocating to a penned area in the back yard. Because they've developed a love of roosting on the stairs. And I don't love having to wear my wellies to get down the stairs. Getting to the clothes line has become a daily game of chance - and my chances of not ending up stepping in chicken shit is getting less by the minute so they won't be as free rage as I had originally planned.
But it's not a bad thing - it's getting to the point where they're bigger than the cats. And that's fine, until I have to catch them and then I realise that the bigger they get the sooner they'll eat me in my sleep. The pen is, therefore, for my safety, too.
Otherwise it'll just be filled with shopping and visits to the park and Christmas and New Year and then a certain little girl's 3rd birthday.
I'm still slightly in denial about that. I'm not ready to have a 3 year old. Because that mean's I'll have to turn 28 shortly after. And I'll be honest - any age after 25 just wasn't in my life plan. It would mean our daughter would never be older then 13 months, but I was, and still am, totally okay with that. The older she get's, the more it reminds me of the ever growing age gap between her and the elusive second child we want.
Fertility is a bitch - she's not getting a Christmas card this year. There are lots off bloggy babies due in 2012, and I'd like ours to be one of them. But I'm finding myself getting cranky (again!) that it's not happening and I don't want to be the bitch who can't be happy for other people's wonderful news - so it's a sign that I need to take a step back and chill out.
Who knows, maybe all the things we've got going over the next 2 months will be a good distraction and we might get that 2012 baby after all.
And if not, I have an internal wall that's coming down so I'll be able to vent with a hammer.
I'll be popping in now and then to update as I feel like it, but regular programming might not return until 2012.
So to you and your families I wish all the best for a fabulous Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.
