Half way

Yesterday was the shortest day of the year which means that officially the days are going to start getting longer from here and I'm so happy about that.  The cold and the dark always bring me down and so during the colder months I start to lose my motivation for just about everything.  It's that little bit harder to get up in the morning and get myself ready for the day and I go to bed at a ridiculously early time at night because I just feel exhausted.  I'm in hibernation mode and I can't wait for the spring so that I can get back to my usual self.  I can't believe that we area already half way through the year.

I have no idea how the past three weeks passed me by so quickly but we've had a lot on our plate.

This is what's been going on:

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The Queens Birthday long weekend came but it basically rained (poured actually) the whole time so we couldn't get out and about.  It was a nice excuse to stay at home with no specific agenda of things to do.  I'm a planner so I like to have everything mapped out, but this weekend I just switched off and went with the flow which meant staying in pyjamas until noon, watching movies on the couch, playing and reading lots of books with Ella, eating home cooked meals and just relaxing.  I should switch off more often I think.

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Ella got her first cold which turned everything upside down.  It wasn't a really bad cold but she was miserable in general and wasn't sleeping well at all, which meant that Tim and I didn't get much sleep either.  During that time I seemed to grow an extra limb as she was always grabbing onto my leg and wanting to be picked up.  It was hard to get things done around the house but I relished her clinginess and need for hugs because Little Miss Independent isn't usually the snuggly type.

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Sometimes when I am in a familiar place I don't actually take much notice of the things around me.  When Tim mentioned that there was some mould on our window from condensation I was surprised (and a little disgusted) as I'd never noticed it.  It forced me to take a good look around the rest of the house and I am not proud to say that it was actually pretty filthy.  I try to keep things tidy each day but it's hard to find the time to do a really good clean around the place.  The more I looked, the more dust and piles of papers I finally saw around the house and the more determined I was to do a good and proper clean. We took Ella to Tim's mum for the day so that I could concentrate just on getting everything done.  I was a woman on a mission and was ruthless. I cleaned the whole place top to bottom, scrubbed the floors, the skirting boards, washed the walls, filed all the papers that were piling up on the table, did a proper vacuum and moved all of the furniture out of the way so I could get to every corner, nothing was safe.  I was so proud when it was all done and felt so good about it.  But boy was I sore the next day!

Oh, so that's what my dining table looks like without three months worth
of mail and piles of paperwork all over it...

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I've jumped on the Fifty Shades of Grey bandwagon.  After reading and hearing so much about it I thought I had to buy the book.  Ella and I went up to the shops one day, she got a new Giggle and Hoot book and mummy came home with an erotic novel!

Girlfriends reassured me that I wouldn't be sorry.  One friend's husband even commented that it   definitely did things for his sex life after his wife read it and was sure that in the next few months he'd be hearing a message from us to say that our little family would be expanding!

I am not a big reader.  I love the thought of it but rarely do I actually finish a book.  I get half way through, get bored, read the last page and then that's it.  There are probably at least 6 books on our bookshelf currently that I have started to read and haven't finished.  I've been trying to find the time to read this one though and spent a lot of the long weekend curled on the couch with it in my hands.  Sure, it's raunchy but I just can't seem to get into it.  I mean really, this girl is a virgin, hooks up with a guy who is into all sorts of kinky stuff and has a room dedicated inflicting pleasure and pain on his submissive but this doesn't scare her off.  She loses her virginity to him and has several orgasms on her first time in the process.  That sure wasn't like my first time!  Plus if the guy I was planning on losing my virginity to had a room full of whips, paddles and stretching tables I'd run a mile the other way.  

Maybe I should just see it for what it is, a little entertainment, rather than analyse it too much.  I am still turning the pages though and it hasn't ended up with those other half read books on the shelf at this stage.

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We went to a wedding last weekend for a friend of Tim's.  Unfortunately it was teaming with rain the whole day but their spirits weren't dampened.  It reminded me of our wedding.  It poured the whole week before our wedding but miraculously it was sunny on the actual day, but then poured again the following day.  Somebody must have been watching out for us.  It reminded me again of how important marriage is and so I spooned Tim a little closer that night and have been trying really hard to make a conscious effort to connect with him.  It's hard when you work and have a little one, to concentrate on spending quality time with your partner but it's so important.

They had a photo booth at the wedding so we had fun taking silly pictures together.

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The babies from my Mother's Group are all nearing the big '1' so we had a first birthday party for them all.  I was tasked with making the cake and somehow managed to find the time to do it between a day off work, a root canal and the wedding.  It was so nice to see the babies interact.  Since we can't make it to the weekly get together's because I'm back at work now it was nice for Ella to see all her little friends again.

That about sums it up.  It doesn't sound like much when I write it down but the last few weeks has been full!  Here's to a relaxing weekend and family time, and the days getting longer...and me getting my mojo back.