It has begun: 5 things 7.1.18

• New year, new overwhelming sense of everything I would like to be Different 365 days from now, even though I am explicitly rejecting resolutions, goals, challenges or anything of that ilk. Ah, January.
• I managed to finish mending the quilt (again) this weekend, meeting my self-imposed deadline of “before the next year really kicks off”. It’s completely pointless, having any such deadline, since the quilt is already mostly patches, the fabric is remarkably degraded, and I confidently expect to be mending this quilt for the rest of my life or until the patches themselves fall apart, at which point I draw the line.* But still, yay me, I did it.
•  I drew up a huge to-do list yesterday (in that “before the year kicks off” feeling), which seemed theoretically manageable, but still had the inevitable effect of leaving me stunned and incapacitated by not knowing where to start. Also by Armin still being in bed most of Sunday morning (as is only right and proper) which hampered various would-be efforts.
• I went for a run yesterday. I really didn’t want to, but it had stopped sleeting and running seemed more appealing than chasing the kids to tidy their room, so. (Pro tip: leverage your bad parenting for exercise motivation!!) Am also vaguely conscious that if I manage to run regularly over the next couple of months – exactly the time of year I’m least likely to keep it up – skiing will be less traumatic come Sportferien. Wish me luck.
• Feeling similarly “don’t wanna” about going back to work… but that’s less easy to get out of. It’s made worse by looking ahead to all the school holidays and trying to work out how the hell to fill them, holiday childcare being so remarkably scarce in these parts. The kids have had great experiences in holiday programmes but still aren’t keen on having to do programmed stuff every day (ie missing out on the glorious thing that is just chilling at home) and I very much share their pain. And yet. Working from home only gets me so far.

* Why bother? Because (a) the quilt is much loved, even / especially with the patches, and (b) can’t be easily replaced.