NST January 2024: This is Sparta!

DrCarrie

Hi Spartans - Happy New Year to you and yours. 

SFD# 1/16

I am grateful for
1. A lovely New Year's morning breakfast and laughs with family in Bristol.
2. I really enjoyed my nephew and his girlfriend, they are just adorable 
3. Trains being on track.

Just back from NYE hijinks, my sister bought me a hot water bottle, I am going to have 2 tonight, after a bath and a bowl of pasta. It's really raining hard in Brighton. 

 I am, fingers crossed, moving this month. I am anticipating a little drama. Perhaps.

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for going to investigate the crack/pop noise in the kitchen - dh has left the gas on and a nearby tea towel had caught fire! Thank goodness the washing up bowl was full of water so I could use a couple of knives to carry the flaming torch and drown it! Also grateful for a lovely relaxed day, for planning and booking stuff for Oz, for starting the month with an NSD and some exercise, for audiobooks.

DawnW

That was a close call @apple_muncher   Lucky you investigated and caught it before it did any damage!

@Toni'sfriend I am with you on the food situation. I'm sure I still shop as though I still have all the kids at home Anyway, some of them came round tonight unexpectedly and I made 6 chicken drumsticks feed 4 of us, used up some stuff in the fridge and rounded if off with a microwave treacle sponge pudding and custard to ensure everyone had had enough   It is amazing how little you need. I am determined to avoid overbuying this year, and to clear the freezer!

ldee2111

Glad you discovered the flames early, @apple_muncher!

My focus in 2024 is my physical and mental health, and my savings goals to pay off the mortgage by December 2025 and to keep funding holidays.

I want to loose 6lbs - the weight I’ve put on since the holiday in October, followed by Halloween, followed by Sprouts Day and all the excuses in between (it’s winter and I need a hot chocolate with marshmallows and cream!). 

Last summer we joined our local health club as a family and it’s been a great thing. We’ve been going to the swimming pool together for a splash about with DS, I was enjoying some of the classes (but got lazy at the end of the year), and OH has been every single morning to the gym and has lost 2 stone! I’ve booked in for a couple of exercise classes next week. My challenge is to get back into the habit of going and to stop stuffing my face with treats and fill up on the stuff that’s good for me. 

Mentally I want to tackle a really unhelpful trait that I have… procrastination! It causes me unnecessary bother and stress at home and at work. I often leave doing things until the pressure is on. I don’t know where the behaviour comes. Why do we do things that we know are not good for us?! And weirdly when I do ‘stuff’ that needs done, I feel better for it… surprise, surprise! 

My savings target for mortgage overpayment in 2023 was originally £6k, upped to £7k. I’m going to aim for £7k in 2024. 

Today is NSD 1 for me.

Grateful for time at the pool with DS and Mum, OH making us a lovely New Year’s Day dinner, and for a new year! 

grandmanerd

Grateful for sleep, easy food and getting 7 bags of rubbish/ recycling in the bins - lots more to go but it was chucking it down.

KajiKita

@ldee2111, I am a serious procrastinator too. For me it’s about perfectionism - it’s like I get scared to start as what I do won’t be good enough. 

I find that treating things as ‘drafts for others to chew on’ helps as I am helping to *start* a process, not completing it all on my own. I also am trying to live by the saying ‘sometimes a job is worth doing badly’ I.e. just get it done, even if it’s not perfect - cleaning for example, that’s better done a bit than not at all. Does that help?

Kk

ladybird1106

Grateful
1. Bird crap landed on my shoulder and not my hair or face🤣.
2. Family
3. Thermals
No money spent nsd#1
Love 🐞

f0xh0les

Today I have tried.   I patched some painting on a ceiling and a wall that was suddenly shonky.  I am sure the plaster just sucks  it in.  It was fine when I finished, I look at it 2 days later, and it is patchy.  Anyway, it is good enough for builders to do their thing at an unspecified point, this week.  It means I have to be up and dressed and fed, just in case they rock up at 7.30 to open the door for them.   I just want them to come, do the last bits, and then go away again. There is probably, maybe one day of work left. No doubt they will all come on different days, one hour of plumber/ two hours of electrician/ one hour of carpenter/ 2 hours of builder (grrr!) 

In preparation for this, I have cleaned and scrubbed the bathroom, hoovered the top two floors, mopped, sanded, disinfected, scrubbed and generally drove myself nuts from 10 - 4.30.  Filled two bins in readiness for the 7.15am emptying, and have enough to fill them both again, so they have to go out or they will be in the way of the trades.  I usually don't even put my bin out every week because it takes us 10 days to fill one single bag. When there is building work going on, my bin is full and so is the spare which we do not have (honest).  

Nevermind,  it will soon be done, and then more decorating can take place.    It has chucked it down all day long.   

Soup for lunch was a yellow split pea and spinach spicy curried creation, and it was brilliant!  Well done DH.   Another  jar of pulses gone from the pantry!  Woo hoo.  Going to trash the quinoa next.

De-Christmas-ified the window ledges, tomorrow the lights, the badger, and the tree will come down. 

abundant1972

Good evening 🌖

Happy New Year everyone!!!

What a great thread. I am strapping on my sandles, gladiator style kilt, helmet, and have my sword and shield at the ready! I have loved a fairly simplistic lifestyle so this speaks to my heart!!! To battle turtles!!!... 

Like a few others on here - procrastination is something I need to battle (he says writing his entry on at 23:00 lol). Also a bit of a perfectionist - and probably a bit lazy and hedonistic. I always take the easy route and put pleasure before tasks I should be tackling. Bad abundant!!! So something to chip away at. 

I am back on my habit trail - attempting to master good habits; mindfulness, hydrating, gratitude (done here), getting to bed by 23:00 (#epic fail today haha). I am not beating myself up for not getting 100%... I am just choosing one to master each month and add to it the next. Any I do are a bonus. 10 minutes of mindfulness is my January habit.

Budget set and bills go out tomorrow. I'm paying myself weekly (depending on what activities I have done the week before) and putting the money on a pre-pay debit card. So when that's gone it's gone. Leaving all credit cards at home. Will see how this goes. 

Chuckling at ladybird for getting pooped on - isn't that good luck? Buy a lottery ticket haha. I don't know how the hell hat activity became an omen of good luck lol. Answers on a postcard!

Today I am grateful for:

1) Catching up with a good friend
2) Family time with parents and my sister's family
3) The staff at my Mum's home who are just incredible

Today = NSD number 1

I will have a ponder over the 'This Is Sparta' challenge over the next few days and see what I come up with. 

Hugs for now - and once again - bright, happy, prosperous blessings to us all ⭐ 

Thrifty_Taylor

So glad you managed to douse the flames @apple_muncher, & didn't burn yourself in the process!

NSD#1
 
Read a chapter of my book whilst eating my breakfast, then DS1 appeared with the dog he's pet sitting, & along with DH, we did a 5.5 mile hike along the clifftops. We'd been this way last year, bug not gone as far, so nice to see new things & beauty weather for it.

Had a power nap after my dinner, prepared my new diary & wrote inspirational quotes inside the front cover. Tidied up se wrapping paper from my birthday, ready to go in the shed til I reuse it.

Washed the dishes after tea, then watched a film with DH & DS1.

Grateful that I didn't break any bones when I slipped on a steep, wet slope, for beautiful weather & new scenery, for a message from DS3 telling me he's grateful for having a mum like me & for a work friend (who's slightly squiffy) telling me I'm her go to for support & she loves me!