Chaletgirl

2011. Life.

It’s been a long time between blog posts recently. The latter half of 2011 kind of caught up with me, and although I have had plenty of things to tell you about, I just never found the time nor the inclination to sit down and put it all into words. Now it’s just 2 days until Christmas and the end of 2011 is fast approaching. I’m starting to make plans in my head for 2012 and the urge to write has, somewhat fortunately, coincided with my husband just waltzing in the door a few hours ago declaring that he is officially on HOLIDAYS. “And since it’s raining, kids, why don’t we all go and watch a movie and let Mummy have some peace and quiet.”

Right. Peace. I vaguely remember you. There was lots of peace about 7 years ago, and peace came to us briefly in Fiji this year, but other than that, I am sorry, I don’t really know you anymore. Which is not say that I don’t know your friends happiness, contentment and fulfilment; oh, I do! But peace and quiet, not so much.

So where to start?

In 2012, Emmeline will go to preschool two days a week. My darling girl turned 3 recently (there’s a post still to write) and the very next day we discarded the nappies and she is all underpants-ready and excited to go to Henry’s old preschool next year. She would like to do lots of painting, play with the play-doh and learn to write her name. She doesn’t know many children her own age, so I am excited for the social opportunities that preschool will bring for her.

And I am a little excited about the 12 hours a week (TWELVE HOURS A WEEK) that I will have all to myself. Why, peace and quiet, I might be seeing more of you in 2012.

I was reading this the other day, an interesting list of 12 Things Happy People Do Differently. I can honestly say that my husband has taught me many of those things already over the time that we have been together, and that we are generally very happy with our lot in life. The one that caught my eye is number 8:

Increase flow experiences. – Flow is a state in which it feels like time stands still. It’s when you’re so focused on what you’re doing that you become one with the task. Action and awareness are merged. You’re not hungry, sleepy, or emotional. You’re just completely engaged in the activity that you’re doing. Nothing is distracting you or competing for your focus.

And finally, finally, FINALLY, I felt that someone had put into words what I have struggled most with about being a stay at home mother. That. Exactly that. Because being at home with children means that you never, never, never get time without something or someone distracting you or competing for your focus. And it drives me crazy.

And that little paragraph was all I needed to remind me that spending time like that is so important to me, that I will make sure that my TWELVE HOURS A WEEK are not wasted doing the grocery shopping or the laundry. Those I can juggle on the other days of the week; after all Emmeline is a most excellent counter of apples and holds the strawberries so carefully so they don’t get crushed, so I’d be crazy to not do the shopping with such a great helper.

2012 will be the year of “Flow Experiences”. Doesn’t that sound grand?

A perfect flow experience that I have discovered in 2011 is running. I have never run in my life until this year, and on the morning of Sew It Together in March, those crafty, running girls got me moving a bit faster than my old power walk, and it started a love affair that is yet to die. And it is a bit like an affair. It takes me out, alone, at all hours of the day or not. It’s taken me for days out, weekends away and I always come home flushed, red, and happy. Oh so happy. Running makes my heart sing and it makes me feel alive. And the fact that I get to do it ALL BY MYSELF, with my very favourite music on my iPod and the wind in my face? Yes, yes, yes.

My new running hobby fitted in nicely with the 12WBT this year. I lost 13ish kilos and gained a whole new life in 2011. This is such an awesome program, and I am so lucky to have been able to do it this year with some absolutely awesome, amazing, inspiring, incredible, courageous, magnificent, fabulous, women. Thank you to all of you beautiful women who inspired me, motivated me and encouraged me along the way. I bow down to you with much love and gratitude. Thank you.

This year I competed in two races….just little ones, 4km each, but they were my very first running races ever, and until then I didn’t even know if I could run that far. In my first race, I came in 6th place in the female division, and first in my age group, and if you think that didn’t rock my world, the world of the smart, clever, bookworm in the corner who never played sport and didn’t like to move much…..then you’d be very wrong. Now, I should add that it was a very small race with less than 100 competitors, but I could not care less. First in my age group is first in my age group.

And after that, things started to unravel a little. In October, we were preparing for Henry to participate in a billy cart derby at school (awesome event, I do love the idea of boys participating in controlled risk-taking activities) when I took it out for a test run on a hill, went too fast, hit one of those reflector things on the road, overturned the billy cart and rolled down the hill. I was very grazed, bloody and sore, but feeling better after a visit to my chiropractor who slotted my elbow, shoulder, hip and knee all back into place. Two days later, as my Dad pottered outside making repairs and improvements to the billy cart, I was chopping some tomatoes for our lunch when I, um, chopped off the end of my pinky finger. As in, yes, a medical ‘amputation’. Amazingly enough, over the next few months, the end of my finger grew back, and now I just have a normal looking finger with super sensitive nerves on the end and a little patch of scar tissue. The human body amazes me. But please don’t ever remind me of the dressing changes. I had to go to the nurse every single day for weeks on end, and those first few changes, where the dressing stuck to the raw end of my finger, was almost more pain than I could bear. And I have done childbirth sans drugs. Aye, aye, aye.

Needless to say, the thought of running, or doing anything to make my blood pump faster, with a raw, open wound of cut nerve endings was completely out of the question for a few weeks, and I had to give up my beloved weekly netball game for even longer. My return to exercise was the second 4km run, and I was thrilled to be less than 2 minutes slower than my first run with absolutely no training.

Life went on quite nicely for a little while there as we prepped for a Darth Vader 3rd Birthday Party for Miss Emmeline (oh look, another post that needs to be written). All went very well…she had a lovely party and a wonderful birthday. The next day, I got a message that my netball team needed me, and my finger felt sufficiently de-sensitised to give it a whirl, so I trotted off to netball that Monday night…..where I (basically) broke my foot. A silly jump which brought my ankle down and rolled it a touch outwards…and the ligament was sprained and a piece of the bone was torn off with it.

Yeah.

But look, all things considered, it hasn’t been too bad. The worst part is that it is my right foot, and therefore driving is not allowed, and neither is using the sewing machine. {Sigh}. Luckily, LUCKILY, my mum had come down to Sydney for Emme’s birthday and was staying to Christmas. LUCKY. She has been my chauffeur and my saviour. We only had a few days left of the school term at that point, so Mum took over the driving and I stayed home to toilet train Emme (tick!). The worst part was that the next weekend was the 12WBT finale workout and party. Donna was coming from Brisbane and Kelli was coming from Canberra and how stupid did I feel having broken my foot? Nonetheless, having donned my Sew It Together 12WBT uniform, and my clunky boot, I showed up and managed to party quite well, thank you very much. (Photos to come maybe later….I started this post 7 hours ago…. The Internet has died….finishing on my iPad….$?&!@!).

And thankfully, aside from the moment where I crumpled to the ground on the netball court, my foot has been almost pain-free, and for that I am so grateful. I’ve been having lots of physio and I should be perfectly ready for my trip to Palm Springs in just under a month (yippeeeeee!).

So, where was I? Yes, in 2012 I am going to run, run, run; as much as I can. I will be 40 (forty!) in April, and nothing quite says mid-life crisis like running a half-marathon, does it?