Thursday 2 January 2014

A letter to start anew... or rather some excuses to postpone New Year to a more convenient date!



FACT: in 4 years, 5 weeks and 1 day I will be 50 - not that I'm counting! 

When I reach my 50th birthday my sons will be 21 and 18 and maybe they won’t need me so much.

Does it seem as if I’m wishing my life away? Sometimes I feel like I do, I wish I could enjoy the moment more and stop daydreaming of a future when I will allegedly be “free” to do whatever I please.

We celebrated Christmas at my parents, a bit of a houseful with four generations under one roof for almost a week. There were surprisingly few fallings out and a great time was had by all. 

I went to visit some old school friends while I was in the area and dipped in and out of Facebook catching up on the goings on of my online community.

On 30th December my dad was 70 – family and friends drifted in and out all day, including cousins I’ve not seen for years. We used to meet regularly for family weddings and parties but the family has grown so large we’ve come to accept we will never all get together again but Christmas is a great time for getting back in touch at least with a few.

New Year’s Eve was a quiet affair spent at my in-laws. We played the Pointless board game, watched the spectacular fireworks on TV at midnight and then I went to bed.

Oldest son stayed up with his cousins playing FIFA on the Playstation until 3am! Those days seem a distant memory to me although I later found out my parents stayed up until after 2 having their own party! 

I’m caught somewhere in the middle with all the responsibilities of being the sensible adult. I didn’t even have a drink.

However I was glad of the full night’s sleep and a clear head because yesterday I had a long and very wet drive home. The car aquaplaned a few times which I admit was scary and I am thankful we returned home safe.

But youngest son was definitely off-colour on the journey – I’m thankful he wasn’t sick in the car over the coats and Christmas presents that were on the back seat beside him. However he was sick at 4am and he’s lying on the sofa now watching Home Alone.

I too feel drained, exhausted, shivery and full of cold. And coming home to the reality of a mountain of washing and last year’s left over paperwork to sort out depresses me.

It’s doesn’t feel like a HAPPY New Year but that means things can really only get better, right?

Facebook is obviously filled with New Year’s resolution but the big question appears to be to plan or not to plan and instead go with the flow?

I’ve always been a plotter and a planner – I had a few ideas in the pipeline before I felt sick. Now I wonder what the point is and that’s probably why I recalculated the number of days until my fiftieth birthday. It’s a definite point on the horizon, far enough away that I know some things will have changed by then – at least I hope so, I really do.

I know I am too tired to think rationally, too exhausted to set realistic goals for 2014. Besides who said resolutions should be set in stone by yesterday to count?

I’ve tried before with mixed success.

And so I've decided NOT to have a new year's resolution - this in NOT to say I've stopped planning or that I'm just going with the flow but at the moment I feel too sick and tired to think about it!

New Year with all its hopes and fears is postponed – maybe until my birthday, which is after all only 5 weeks and 1 day away – FACT!


I am linking up with Ruth and Sabrina again with this post and their "Letters to..." challenge. Just click on their names to see what wonderful words they have written on the subject.

3 comments:

  1. Oh I'm with you on the resolutions, I never do keep them anyway! I've given up trying to cut things out, setting challenges, etc and these days I try to just think of something I want more of - more peace, more patience, that kind of thing. At least then it's not measurable if I fail ;-)

    I hope that the weeks between now and your birthday will be a time of refreshing after all the Christmas busyness! Thank you for linking up, lovely to have you join us again!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm sorry that you have been feeling so rubbish recently, a head full of cold doesn't make you feel too hopeful does it! I spent Christmas at my mum's and came home to an over flowing laundry pile, an impossible amount of ironing and so many Christmas gifts to squeeze somewhere into the house. It is hard to be hopeful for a new year when you are still clearing up after the last!
    I hope you feel better soon and thank you for linking up! x

    ReplyDelete
  3. Aw, Sarah, I wish I had 4 years to go until I'm 50! Never wish your life away, and don't bother with resolutions... we spent Xmas with sons in their 30's who own their own properties (just!) now that IS being old... however, just like you, back to the grind of laundry and housecleaning, plus had daughter staying - it was lovely to have her here as an adult! Though now she's gone back to Bristol even sociable me is glad to have some un-interruptable quiet as need to work... house is in chaos as we're having the study redecorated and floored... furniture and books everywhere... I am trying to be thankful that this is NOT for us due to flooding... all around us there are awful floods and roads closed and people having to move out, and I am so sorry for them... Hoping you are feeling brighter, all of you... Who cares about New Year's Resolutions... we can only live one day at a time :-) Blessings...

    ReplyDelete