Five Year Fix, Five Year Plan

savingholmes

Hope you feel better soon. Loads of bugs going around. 

It's good you are making your house a home - and of course studying cashback options.

FlacosFloozie

Hope you feel better soon. Its rubbish when you get some long awaited time off and fall sick.

Merlin's_Beard

Starting to pick things up again and tidy the house of accumulated stuff and living, after a week of basically not doing very much. Can definitely recommend not getting any of the bugs going around.

Feeling very behind with Christmas despite not having an awful lot to do.

Sorted out presents for my friends kids and they've arrived at the other end of the country - this was the important one.

Presents for immediate family - brother, parents - still a WIP

Cards to be posted - still not done. This needs doing asap for strike reasons but I need to remember where my address book landed after moving. It's probably the work of 10 minutes to find it but seems to be the sticking block in my mind right now.

Food - small trip to local C00p rather than a proper shop, but I've got food until the weekend and it gives me a bit of breathing space before I have to think about what I can cook that my stomach will stomach.

Money wise life plods on. The mid month doldrums is real. Threw away a fair bit of fresh food as well,  which is wildly annoying but it doesn't happen very often and can be put down to not eating most of last week.

Sleep wise I'm completely messed up from being ill and constantly napping as well, so battling to reset my "asleep" hours from a comfortable (to me) 2-10 to a more socially acceptable 10.30-7. Any tips welcome, especially when early mornings are so unbelievably dark and cold.

astrocytic_kitten

I didn’t realise you had a diary MB! Have just caught up, glad you’re all settled in new house but what a time you’ve had of it. 

On the getting up, have you tried one of those daylight alarm clocks that gradually wake you by getting brighter and brighter? They’re pricey so it’s not necessarily a MSE solution but some people swear by them. I used to have one but it had a 30 minute wake-up which wasn’t long enough for me, I needed more like 90 minutes of gradually increasing brightness… So instead I put a dimmable wifi plug in my bedroom overhead light and had it set to increase brightness every 15 minutes until it was on full blast 😂

These days the younger cat wakes me up each morning by trying to smother me in my sleep (she’s never really stopped the kitten thing of wanting to be as close to my face and neck as possible) so no need for anything else.

Merlin's_Beard

astrocytic_kitten said:

I didn’t realise you had a diary MB! Have just caught up, glad you’re all settled in new house but what a time you’ve had of it. 

On the getting up, have you tried one of those daylight alarm clocks that gradually wake you by getting brighter and brighter? They’re pricey so it’s not necessarily a MSE solution but some people swear by them. I used to have one but it had a 30 minute wake-up which wasn’t long enough for me, I needed more like 90 minutes of gradually increasing brightness… So instead I put a dimmable wifi plug in my bedroom overhead light and had it set to increase brightness every 15 minutes until it was on full blast 😂

These days the younger cat wakes me up each morning by trying to smother me in my sleep (she’s never really stopped the kitten thing of wanting to be as close to my face and neck as possible) so no need for anything else

Thanks for the idea - sadly this is me already with a daylight alarm clock. I do think it helps as a natural extreme night owl, especially in winter, but it's fighting an uphill battle right now. Being back at work is helping with the evening tiredness at least.

The cat alarm clock is faulty and likes lie ins as much as I do  I did hit her limit last week when I was just not getting up at all - not entirely sure if the midday poking was about me getting her food or whether she was just testing whether I was dead yet.

savingholmes

I'm a night owl too - I was going to suggest you can get your phone alarm to do the same thing if you want and gradually brighten. 

Hope you recover quickly. Horrible being ill. 

astrocytic_kitten

Merlin's_Beard said:

Thanks for the idea - sadly this is me already with a daylight alarm clock. I do think it helps as a natural extreme night owl, especially in winter, but it's fighting an uphill battle right now. Being back at work is helping with the evening tiredness at least.

The cat alarm clock is faulty and likes lie ins as much as I do  I did hit her limit last week when I was just not getting up at all - not entirely sure if the midday poking was about me getting her food or whether she was just testing whether I was dead yet.

Ah, as a fellow not-morning person I’m afraid that’s the limit of my ideas! I don’t think I’ve ever found a way to not have getting up in the dark at this time of year be a chore

I think the self interest of cats is one of my favourite things about them 😆

Merlin's_Beard

Hope everyone had a good Christmas!

Spent several days with immediate family, now back at home decompressing (I like them, but I very desperately need alone time to recharge my social batteries)

Now in possession of an electric blanket to help with the heating bill, and a little lawnmower for the obligatory bit of grass I need to maintain on my front garden. And a bunch of chocolate that's in danger of not making it into the new year because I have no self control.

Have also been gifted money for an extra bookshelf so will need to get myself up to the scandi-shop at some point.

Definitely not doing anything today except trying to stuff in all the Christmas tv I can - back at work tomorrow so trying to fit in a week of lazy into a day.

savingholmes

Love the idea of fitting a week of lazy into one day. Hope you are having fun. Sounds like you received useful gifts.

South_coast

I am re-framing your chocolate comments as: 

"From 1 January my body is a temple and no chocolate will be eaten, therefore I am eating it now so it doesn't get wasted" 😀

(That's what I am telling myself about cheese 😳!)