New Skills

This month we are all learning new things.

M. very proudly made her own bed. She has only done it once, but she was very pleased with herself.

A. started on freestyle stroke in her swimming class. She's using a kickboard, but it's something she couldn't do last week.

Y. is learning - slowly, slowly - that he can't constantly work himself to the bone to earn a FEW extra dollars without it having an impact on his sanity, health and family life.

And I am adjusting, very happily, to a new way of life.  At least I hope it will continue and be my new way of life. From tomorrow I am starting a new job working three days a week, with a company, boss and colleagues I know well, doing work I am good at and like. In the current climate I consider myself very lucky to have this job, and I am thankful that the years I spent at my previous job led me to this one.

So what's to adjust?

Well, funnily enough, since finishing work 3 months ago, I have found that I am not very good at a few things that go with the SAHM job description. These are:

• grocery shopping. Working full-time for so long, I got used to buying little and often. I tried weekly shops in the past but they just didn't work for me.  But working part-time with less money coming in, my old way is no longer the best fit
• In my old life: I found my best rhythm menu-planning for 3 meals a week, doing one or two "picnic dinners" and one or two baked beans/scrambled egg dinners, and the occasional take-away. I cooked a couple of meals per week in advance (1 or two nights before), and assembled the rest based on what I had planned and what was to hand. This worked pretty well
• In my new life: I am trying to menu plan a bit more and do a weekly shop, but I keep finding I run out of things much faster than I thought, and/or I forget stuff at the supermarket. I've picked up a couple of tips from some good blogs (like No Excuses!), and am sure I'll get better. I just need to find my new rhythm.

• scheduled housework. My excuse was I was exhausted from the last (in particular) two years of very hard work under a fair bit of stress, combined with two weeks of contract work and birthday and Christmas planning in December, but whether from this or just laziness I found myself not achieving very much on the home front for a good few weeks. Actually I did do a lot, but I suppose I was expecting that my house would become sparklingly clean, de-cluttered and gorgeous more or less straightaway. And of course that didn't happen.
• In my old life: Y and I split the tasks (mostly) and would do one or two each night, with me doing sixteen thousand loads of washing on the weekend. The house was always untidy, and we only just managed to keep up with what mostly needed to be done
• In my new life: Y is doing a lot less (but that stops now!), and I am slowly learning to spend some time most mornings I don't work doing SOMETHING other than sitting around with a coffee and my phone. It still feels like an unbelievable bonus being home during the day that I just want to enjoy it. But, that attitude does not get the floors washed!

I hope this is not coming over as complaining - it is so, so, so NOT. To be honest I am just writing what's on my mind so as to post something other than Fiction Fridays this week!

I am very very grateful for this change in my life - however temporary it may prove to be, I hereby resolve to ENJOY it and make the most of it.

So what about you? What new things have you been learning and doing lately?