DECEMBER 2023 WISH dancing through the holidays

[PollyannaMom]

I'm going with realistic expectations and time to relax today, as I'm here on the DIS when I should be finishing another batch of cards.

(but I do have a load of laundry in, and the groceries are put away, so I think I'm doing OK!)

 

[newski_mom]

SUNDAY SELF CARE

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What is on your self-care list for today?

Another good Self-Care list -

I do decent at quite a few of these. I don't know that I will ever be able to say no without feeling guilty. I think it's just part of my DNA unfortunately - but I've learned to be ok with that, and honestly, now that my kids are mostly grown, I don't get asked to do too many things any longer.

I"m in the process of trying to create our own new holiday traditions. Now that our kids are grown and two of them not living with us, we're all trying to create a new normal as far as the holidays go.

Today is our usual - church, my mom's for lunch and my MILs for dinner. We haven't been to my MILs in awhile and I"m hoping to get some Christmas ideas today while we are there!

 

[ShannyMcB]

Last night we took the kids to see the Christmas lights at lasallette shrine. It was a beautiful night which meant huge crowds. It took us about 20 mins to get from just over a mile down the road into a parking space. When we left the same line stretched a solid 3-4 miles. We normally go during the week and have the place almost to ourselves...next year we will get back to week day even if the kids have to skip an activity.
Today was church, taking DS11 to do his shopping and baking cookies. The younger kids have a holiday store at school but DS11 is too old now so I took him to 5 below. Then we went to pick up an order at Joanne fabrics...going to try to knit a blanket for project linus...and by going to the store I found out where the area drop off site is!
Weather tonight is going to be gross. Thank goodness it's warm out or we'd be getting a major blizzard.

And I noticed I goofed yesterday. The BNL song isn't we three kings its God rest ye merry gentlemen if anyone was looking for it

 

[PollyannaMom]

It's Motivation Monday!

So many "regular" things have to get put off in December if we want to get holiday things done instead. But what's one healthy habit that you can give to yourself now, something that only takes 5 minutes a day, 20 minutes a week, or some other small manageable amount of time?

 

[newski_mom]

I can pack my lunch everyday for work. It only takes about 5 minutes each morning and it actually saves me time at lunch. If I don't bring my lunch, I have to leave and drive through somewhere to get something.

So, packing my lunch saves time, money and calories! Definitely a win, win, win!

 

[Oneanne]

#1 I've got to get back to exercising. This week I'll be starting up with some YouTube videos and I'll be getting outside to walk, even if it is just around the block.

#2 I've got to get back to having breakfast at home, instead of running out to the coffee shop. To this end I bought some protein cups that you cook in the microwave.

Christmas shopping is officially 100% done. I thought I was done but when I wrapped the little stocking stuffer gifts realized I didn't have the same number for everyone, so picked up a few more things over the weekend. My last gift purchased online should arrive today and then the wrapping will be completed as well. Well done me!

 

[piglet1979]

I am not doing well with these at all. I need to learn to manage my stress better. I always get really stressed out around this time of year and this year we are throwing in Elizabeth being sick and Jeff's grandmother is back to her feisty self and adding to my stress. I have so much to do and my time is getting shorter and shorter. I need need to get to the doctors but I have been too busy taking care of everyone else. It is nothing major so I have been putting it off. Thankfully this is my last week at work and then I am off for 2.5 weeks. I take this time every year because I need it. I love Christmas once it gets here but this lead up really stresses me out.

For today, I think I need to go for a walk or something. I am really worked up and can't focus. I woke up to Jeff's grandmother calling me and giving me attitude because she doesn't have caregivers for today. She told them she didn't want 2 caregivers any longer so they have no one to send. And she wants me to fix it. She had a hair appointment at 11 and she was asking how she was going to get there. It is 2 doors down the hallway from her. After this I got into with Elizabeth because I made a doctors appointment for her and she would have to miss a little bit of work. I was in tears by 10:15 this morning. It has been a rough day and everyone coming at me about stuff. We have cake at the house and this is what I am eating right now for lunch and breakfast. I might just need to curl back up in bed after work and restart my day.

 

[ShannyMcB]

I generally pack my lunch for work so I need to get back to paying attention to what I pack, specifically snacks. Lately I have not been packing enough so I come home famished and grab the first thing I see which is never something healthy. So more conscious lunch packing.
Also need to get to reading more at night instead of reading people and intouch and all of that.

 

[Summer2018]

I can’t think of anything specific except to maintain my healthy routines in the midst of chaos.

 

[PollyannaMom]

@piglet1979

 

[PollyannaMom]

I can’t think of anything specific except to maintain my healthy routines in the midst of chaos.

I've been in elementary schools in December. If you can do that, you're amazing!

 

[PollyannaMom]

It's Topic Tuesday ~



This one seemed a good choice from the folder for the holidays! - There's always so much we want to "get right" at this time of year that it can definitely be overwhelming. In what ways are you choosing grace over guilt and pleasant over perfect this holiday season?

 

[piglet1979]

Good one today. Yesterday, I was not choosing grace or pleasant. It was a bad day all around. Today, I am doing much better and I am going to choose not to let Jeff's grandmother get to me like she did yesterday. I am taking her to a doctor's appointment today. I am going to choose to let it go and ignore her when she tries to make everything going on my fault and not hers.

On the holiday side, I am going to go shopping after work today and hopefully get a lot done. I have an idea of what I need to get so it should be a quick in and out for the most part. I am thinking about cookies and will start those this weekend. I want to make some new ones but I think i might wait to a time of year that is not so busy. I am off starting Monday, but Nick will have his wisdom teeth out on the 20th so the rest of the week will be more at home doing stuff around the house and tending to him. I will get done what I can and Elizabeth will be a big help once she is out of school as well.

I talked to Elizabeth last night about how she was acting when I was trying to schedule an appointment for her and she agreed that she was being a butt (her words). She then said the time that I really wanted (after work) was fine so I got on to schedule that time if it was still available but it wasn't. I am a little peeved about it but I let it go as I had already figured out another time. Not a great time but it works.

 

[Oneanne]

One of my favorite writer/bloggers posted an article yesterday titled "Everything is worth doing poorly". The gist of it is that we aren't always going to be able to give 100%. Maybe it's something new we haven't learned, maybe we're overwhelmed/burned out, maybe it is something we aren't good at... whatever the reason, just show up, do what you can, and let go of the guilt and shame associated with not being perfect or enough. I didn't think this was an issue for me but when I really thought about it I realized I am beating myself up on a fairly regular basis about not doing enough or not doing the right things, so I'm working on that.

Yesterday was a big day for messages because another artist/writer posted a piece about being radically honest with yourself about who you are, what you want and what you fear. Her sentiment that "I own my own heart" has really stayed with me and I'll be writing on it today.
.

 

[Summer2018]

It's Topic Tuesday ~

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This one seemed a good choice from the folder for the holidays! - There's always so much we want to "get right" at this time of year that it can definitely be overwhelming. In what ways are you choosing grace over guilt and pleasant over perfect this holiday season?

A very timely topic. Since my friend who is the main PE teacher is no longer teaching, our specials schedules have been inconsistent. Add to that the Art teacher (another close friend) who left was replaced by an Art teacher with serious heart disease who had open heart surgery just days after being hired. Then the Music teacher and Librarian keep getting sick, and there is a shortage of subs, we don’t know day to day what our schedules will look like. Concert rehearsals have been scheduled, rescheduled and just plain canceled repeatedly.

So today, I brought my class to the wrong special, and when the teacher didn’t show up, I sent a search party for her because she has forgotten about my class and been very late almost the entire time she has been “working” in our school. This time it was actually my mistake. It was so embarrassing, but instead of being upset, I owned it and took all of the ribbing and jokes dished out for the rest of the day.

It is a stressful time at my school and emotions are high. December is NUTS and it’s only getting worse. There’s no point trying to be a perfectionist even though it’s my normal way of being. I am just doing my best like everyone else. And I’m cutting everyone some slack, including myself.

Grace…

 

[ShannyMcB]

External stress has been the order of the day....in a very odd way
I think I have mentioned I live in RI. Well as anyone who knows the state knows there is a lot of water. To get to our offices DH and I both have to cross a very busy bridge. Last night that bridge was partially closed to prevent a potential "catastrophic incident." At this point and for the next 3+ months the west bound lanes are closed completely with the exception of 1 lane to only be used by ambulances bringing folks to the only area level 1 trauma hospital.
The sudden closure created legit insanity. The detors are nuts. Commutes that generally take 20 minutes were upwards of 4 hours in some instances as streets were re-routed and partially closed here there and everywhere.
DH had to go to the office...ended up taking a crazy roundabout way home and ended up back an hour after he left which wasn't awful but he left an hour later than normal to try to avoid the congestion.
I am able to work at home and have been told to do so until they figure out how many colleagues can fit in each ops center...one on each side of this bridge. And now our yankee swap party is happening on Valentine's day (legit question can I still bring a calendar as a gift?) And we had to come up with a drop off situation on this side of the bridge for the charity gift donations that were due Thursday...although one person has to brave the chaos to pick up the items that have already been collected on the other side. Mail will be delayed, deliveries delayed, events canceled, schools put on distance learning. Office workers getting reassigned or only working partial days because their commutes are so drastically different.
At this point all you can kind of do is laugh. Doing so much to get things right only to have it derailed by such a freak incident. Thank goodness it went down the way it did (no pun intended) but it's just crazy in the larger scale.
The press conferences over the last 24 hours have been their own soap opera...you want to hear some thinly veiled buck passing see if you can catch a re-broadcast from any RI TV stations.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Yikes, @ShannyMcB!! That sounds like a nightmare. One of my cousins lives in RI, too - I'll have to check in with her!

 

[PollyannaMom]

It's Wednesday! - What is everybody celebrating?

 

[Oneanne]

Woohoo... after close to six months of taking Nutrafol supplements for hair health, I've got almost 3/4 of an inch of new hairs growing in and super healthy growth on existing hair. This new happy healthy growth pushes the hair up from my scalp instead of laying flat, and creates funny lumps, so yesterday I had her put in a lot of layers to loosen the style up and work with what's going on. It looks pretty OK, but mostly woohoo for healthy hair.

Woohoo we had mostly clear skies yesterday. I signed off from work at 4p and went down to the beach for the first time in over a week. Didn't walk far because the sun was going down, but stood there and watched boats and ships go by and just soaked it all in. I t felt really really good.

 

[ShannyMcB]

Woowhoo I did a quick 10 min workout and the washer got delivered earlier than anticipated.

Bridge situation is insane and the drama is becoming epic. If it wasn't a legit disaster waiting to happen it would be almost entertaining. But major woowhoo that it was not a disaster that actually occurred.