Don’t blink or you’ll miss it – yep, we’re at the end of another year and boy did it ever feel like it flew by. One moment its autumn and the next moment it’s already the end of the year. I don’t know where the last few months went.
Let’s start this with what’s freshest – the holidays. Typical quiet Christmas around here. Just family at home with our usual food traditions, drinks and hanging out. Super simplistic with no gifts and no decorations (with the exception of 1 small clear acrylic tree that cycles through different colour lights and cards on the entertainment unit). New Years is even quieter. I took a self care day of sleeping in, relaxing bath, napping to try and get rid of a headache and just generally hanging out. Took some time to think about a word of the year and I think I’ve settled on Nourish – my body with good food and movement, my brain with learning, my mind with reducing clutter and my soul with self care and connection.
Nothing super extreme when it comes to mental health. I still have moments of anxiety or feeling low, but they’re shorter and much more manageable lately. This just goes to show how much work I’m putting into myself. I still go to therapy once a month and it’s such a freeing experience that leaves me feeling lighter with being able to brain-dump and reinforce all the positive things I’m doing to cope through the hard feelings. I find I’m quicker to use tools that help calm and being more in tune with what I’m needing. I do plan on diving deeper into some things that have been on my list to bring up and have been scared to get into them – but I brought up something at the end of my last appointment that I want to work on, at our next appointment.
I can no longer say I’ve managed to avoid COVID. I caught it mid November. At first I thought it was just a sinus infection because my biggest symptom was my upper teeth hurting from the pressure pushing down on them. But a few days later, when my brother called up to me that dinner was ready, I couldn’t smell that he was cooking and then couldn’t taste the food – so I tested and yep, came up positive. Thankful that it was pretty mild for me and I recovered pretty quickly and didn’t give it to anyone at home. Aside from that, my blood pressure is doing well managed with the meds and I’m still taking the supplements recommended by my dr for the iron, B12 and D that keep falling low when I stop taking them. She’d done some testing of other blood levels and ultrasounds to make sure nothing was wrong with how terribly crazy my period can be and came to the conclusion that its just my PCOS and it’s my normal and nothing like the scary c word or fibroids or such. Thankfully I likely only have a few years left of experiencing it.
Still doing some Color Street side biz stuff, but really just casually. I rarely post in my group anymore but I still keep using the products. Love the nail polish strips and now the new top coats that are out too – giving it even more of a salon gel type look with extra strength.
My current house construction job is FINALLY almost done. We’re down to just needing the house numbers put on (still, ugh), the light on the back deck hooked up and closing off the basement stairs edge that needed to be removed to get the new washer and dryer down – yep, I went and got a new set. The Lowes up the street is going out of business (and if rumours are right, will be opening back up as a Rona+). So I got a good deal on a floor model set. The old set still technically worked, but it was definitely on its last legs. They were used for years and came with the house when I bought 14 years ago. It’s definitely been a journey getting here tho. It feels like every time something starts, something else gets found and adds on more and more work – which means more invoices for added on jobs. The kiddo’s roof was leaking so I got that repaired. It also did damage to the ceiling, so we added on getting that replaced. When the back deck was taken off to get replaced, the foundation was found to be crumbling and it was so bad in 1 spot that there was a hole in it that I could see the drywall in the basement through it. I was already planning on getting the back waterproofed, but extra work needed now to fix how bad the top of it was. Then, when removing the back siding to build the new deck, they found the wood rotting and needed to re-frame the back wall before they could start – which effectively doubled the cost of the deck. Don’t get me wrong – I’m glad it was discovered when doing a renovation and not because it actually fell apart and someone got hurt. But it really killed the budget I’d set. So now the front and back are done on the outside of the house, so there’s just the side left (only 1 side, I’m in a semi-detached). My contractor is going to give me a quote to do the side, so the whole exterior will be done – I just need to make sure I’ve got the funds to do it before agreeing. There’s lots of work to do inside too, but they’ve definitely got to wait until I pay down all of this.
I’m not letting all the construction stuff stop me from living life though. I’m still going on my planned vacay the end of January to Florida to play Heroclix again. The event is from the Friday-Sunday but I’m going from Wednesday-Monday. Normally I’d do Thursday-Monday (I like giving myself a travel day outside of the tournament), but this time I decided to go a day early and take a self care recharge day. Have a great day of some quiet alone time after arriving and Thursday I’m going to book a spa day and get a massage and facial. I’m travelling with Jay as usual, but I asked him to wait a day before joining me so I can take this alone time. I can’t freaking wait! It’s going to be the perfect start to my vacay before a fun weekend of hanging with tons of friends playing clix, chatting and of course lots of hugs and pictures!
I know I haven’t been writing as often and I keep saying I need to do it more, but I’m not putting pressure on myself with timelines and just writing when the feeling strikes. With that I will say happy new year friends. I wish you all the best this year with lots of happiness and health.
Until next time, xoxo