All The Things I Didn't Have Time To Do... List

If September was chaos, October was probably just over-scheduled and jam-packed with so many things to do and not nearly enough time to do them all. Basically, what I'm saying is that I failed big time at tackling the #allthethingsididnthavetimetodolist but I did get a whole lot of other things done. October is Spooky Month and so, naturally, I got spooky. October 1st, we pulled out all of the totes of Halloween decor and I decorated the inside of the house. We got started on the outside, but only with the things that could withstand the expected rain (We've learned our lessons in past years). Then, of course, it didn't rain until the 21st. I painted my nails, alternating orange and black, so of course they started chipping a few days in. Not exactly the coolest look, so I had to re-do them. Now that things are easing back to a new normal for the kids' schools, we (the Parent Advisory Council) were able to put on a Halloween event for the school community for the first ...

 September is chaos. September will always be chaos. It's one of my absolutely favourite months because I love the whole back-to-school vibe and I always have. However, I feel like I've often gotten hung up on the idea of September meaning "back to a more structured schedule" when really it's just a trick to balancing so many schedules. This September was the first September in years that I, myself, was not taking classes so balancing my own course schedule on top of my kids' stuff didn't happen. However, my contract for one job (academic-based) was renewed for another semester, so a lot of the workload picked up in the latter half of the month. Additionally, I had interviewed for and been hired for another position that is also education-based, so the end of September was an increased workload on top of adjusting to a new role. It's no surprise then that I didn't really get to check anything off my allthethingsididnthavetimetodolist ✅ Writing Mak...

 I have to say, the last week of August seemed like the longest week ever and I think it's because the 31st was on a Wednesday. So many deadlines for "the end of August" and then there were still work days that happened after! Anyway, overall August was busy. A little bit relaxing, but mostly busy. (It's got nothing on September, but we'll talk about that in my next post.) Photo by Maddi Bazzocco on Unsplash   On a personal level -- Okay, so this whole blog is fairly personal in that it's about me, as a person. But, I mean on a deeply personal level that I try to avoid getting to in this particular space -- the month started off with some mild re-traumatization cleverly disguised as "closure" and it sort of set a level of bone-deep exhaustion that carried through the rest of the month.  In better news, my husband and I just shared our 15th wedding anniversary this month, which is fantastic and amazing and I'm just so glad that he is my partner i...

My goal for this month: to breathe. Gods have I needed it. And no, I haven't always been successful. I've spent a lot of the last 6 years (but especially the last 3) cramming so many things into every available minute of every available day until I was so overwhelmed that I just threw up my hands and ignored it all in favour of obsessively reading fanfiction instead. Not a single aspect of my life hasn't been impacted, but I'm noticing it the most with trying to adapt to the changes in my writing process. I spoke about it a bit (somewhat disjointedly) in a Twitter thread in the middle of the month. My Instagram is mostly focused on the safe spaces, the calm spaces, the small joys of -- literally -- stopping to smell the flowers. Tackling these tasks has meant decluttering and letting go. Not just of actual objects taking up space, but also of mental and emotional things that I was holding on to that weren't doing anything other than harm. I don't think that I ...

 Ooof. June was a busy, busy month. Lots of stuff happened, much of which is deeply personal and doesn't have a specific connection to the purpose for this blog, but I also managed to check off a lot of stuff from the #allthethingsididnthavetimetodolist I posted this on Instagram ✅ #KPUGrad2022 The big congratulations to me moment came in the form of my university convocation ceremony. When I filled out the application for graduation back in September 2021, I checked the box that said I wanted to participate in the live ceremony in June 2022 if they were able to have one. After receiving my Bachelor of Arts credentials in the mail in January felt rather lackluster and, frankly, disappointing (it was as if all my work over 5 years culminated in a single piece of paper), I was really looking forward to the actually cap and gown ceremony. That was the moment. It felt pretty fucking fantastic to sit there with the other graduates, all dressed up, and switch the tassel from the right to...

 Well, I'm not sure what I have to say about May. I've been busy and stressed out and stressing about being busy. Yet, while I'm struggling to deal with some things, I'm also finding that I am actually doing the things. ✅ Finished Puzzle My husband bought me the Disney's Villainous: Captain Hook puzzle for Christmas. It arrived late, so around mid-January, and then it took me a little while before I decided that I had time to get started on the puzzle. I definitely did not expect it to take me as long as it did to complete it. The thing about Captain Hook is that he wears red and when there are umpteen images of Captain Hook in the same puzzle, all wearing the same red jacket, it gets to be a lot of similar-looking pieces. Also, I tend to work on jigsaw puzzles in spurts. I enjoy the "problem solving" aspect of them while also getting to utilize my visual connections centre of my brain (Nope, don't know if that's a real thing) because sometimes I...