FIVE THINGS I WILL BE DOING IN 2018
Well, it’s been an interesting last two months. At the end of last year, I decided that 2018 was the year. This would be MY year. I made a list of the things I have wanted to do, but never managed to get round to actually doing - because I have either been procrastinating, or haven't actually even realised I am neglecting some areas of my life. These are a couple of the things on my list: 1. Fix my teeth. I hate my teeth. Obviously when I pointed the blatant flaws I saw in them to my friends and family, they didn’t even notice – but I did. And I decided if I didn’t actually fix the things I hated so much, I would regret it for years to come. So what did I do? I took the first step to see an Orthodontist. I felt accomplished walking into those offices, although I didn’t quite know what to expect. Next thing I knew I was scheduled to have two teeth “extracted” and braces put on for the following week. I had two teeth – nearer to the front than I was expecting – wiggled, jiggled and pulled from my mouth. I sat in the chair with half my face completely numb (and drooling), wondering what the hell I was doing to myself and trying not to cry or vomit. After the first tooth came out and was placed on the little bib on my chest, I realized that it was far too late to back out now. At least I am in the process of checking number 1 off my to-do list, even if it means mashed potato and smoothies are my meals of choice for much of this year ahead. Then there is the fact that I look and sound like a teenager all over again - but without the pimples, and with much nicer eyebrows. The plus side is that I can no longer bite my nails, even if I try. Two birds, one stone.
2. Sign up for some courses. I have always wanted to study. I went to London when I finished school for my “gap” year and just never made a decision of what to study after that. Then I got married and knocked up… As time went on, the thought of cracking open books to complete assignments and write exams gave me chills. Now that I have blessed enough to take over a pretty successful business, I feel it would be an obvious choice to learn more on how to make a total kick-ass success of it. With my husband’s help I found several courses to choose from. A Certificate in Marketing? Office Management? Business? Na, I decided. Let’s go balls to the wall and sign up for a four year BCom in Strategic Business Management. After all, how hard can it be really? It’s not as if I have a full time job, two small children and a husband that frequently travels for work or anything. My husband went to fetch my textbooks for me and the excitement turned to stone cold fear pretty quickly when he arrived home with 5 massive books, which are only for the first 6 months of this course. Many self-sabotaging thoughts ran through my mind like “I am 'just' a mom, who can’t even fry a bloody egg! I can’t do this!” Once I logged onto the student portal and found that I had no cooking clue what was going on, these thoughts got worse and more vicious until I was a complete blubbering mess at the dining table on Monday. What was I thinking??
3. Learn how to cook. This one is still in the pipeline. When it got to the point where I was talking about my blog (and lack of skills in the kitchen) with a friend and my daughter defensively piped up “My Mommy CAN cook! She made cooked carrots yesterday!” I knew it was probably time to be a better example to my children in this department. We have invested in the most amazing machine in the world. We will be paying it off for the next couple of years of our lives, but oh it was so worth it. It’s called a ThermoMix, and the best way to describe it is it basically cooks for you (and kneads dough, nogal)! If even I can make a three course meal with this thing, then it must be good right? I have been told I may need to change the name of my blog now :-) Last night, for the first time in I can’t even remember how long, my conversation with Luke did NOT go like this: “Luke chew your food. Luke! CHEW YOUR FOOD! No, you are not chewing! I can SEE you are fake chewing! CHEW YOOOOOOOUR FOOOOOOD!!!” It was brilliant and so stress free. Where has this miracle machine been all my life? (This reminds me, please keep an eye out for April’s Essentials Magazine! It will be available mid-March. I don’t want to give too much away, but I even did a photoshoot and had my makeup done! Yuss, it was all so exciting... and kind of intimidating.) 4. Use my inside voice more. I never realized how loud I am until we were out one day and I moaned at my kids, and everyone turned to look at me. Everyone besides my children, that is. They have obviously become accustomed to the sound of my loud shouts that it doesn’t even affect them anymore. This got to me. How much do I shout? How long has this been for? How did I not notice? Why am I so uptight anyway? Where has all my patience gone? I pictured myself as such a chilled out mom, and the reality is quite the opposite. The other night, some silly fight between my kids set me off - which in hindsight shouldn’t have affected me at all. My fight or flight reflex kicked in… and I flew. To my room. With a bag of Chuckles. And a quarter of a bottle of flat coke. I mean honestly! Am I missing something? I see these moms who are always smiling and so incredibly patient that their voices are like honey when they speak to their kids. How can I get me some of that chill? Anyone know? 5. Play more with my kids. This weekend I took all the cushions off the couch and had a tickle fight with Luke. He laughed - proper belly laughs - which made the rest of us all laugh too. We then ran through the sprinklers – the kids in their undies (you will be glad to hear that us parents had all items of clothing on - I didn’t want to scar our poor neighbours for life). I didn’t worry about my hair getting wet or the grass that was walked through the house to the shower (Okay I did worry about the grass a little bit). It was fantastic! Casey likes to draw and paint and I am determined to spend more time doing that with her. This morning I gave her an old drawing book I found that is completely empty, except for one drawing of a lily I had done on the first page. I realized that, not only do I not spend nearly enough time doing the simple things with my kids, but the last time I picked up a pencil to draw was in 2015. How sad is that? Casey’s response to my gift was pure joy. That little drawing that meant nothing to me, means so much to her. Her exact words were “Mommy this is so special to me. I promise to look after this book. Your drawing is amazing and I love it even more because I will still have it when you go to Heaven.” Ummmmm….? This year ahead is going to be a big one, we are moving into our own home. We have moved every year for the last 5 years, and for the first time in so long I will be able to paint my kids' rooms crazy colours, and hammer as many holes in the walls as I want. Casey and I will even have our own art room outside. I am determined to complete a lot more drawings and paintings in the many, many years I hopefully have before I go to Heaven.
By the end of 2018, I expect to be business savvy and chilled out, cooking a 7 course meal for Christmas. Sounds totally reasonable to me.
