Watty's Awakening

Watty1

Very late night, not just New Year but was worried about CC but after a lot of reading online I think his asthma had flared up.  He was bright enough but ever since the colic surgery a couple of years ago I have been anxious about him and given my mental health state of course it just made things worse.

Watty1

Welcome 2026

This morning I got up and "did things" nothing notable but cleaned teeth, got dressed, fed all animals, had breakfast, that sort of thing.  Why is this worth mentioning?  Because it is the first time in what feels like months I have felt that I can actually get out of bed and face the day.

VNM still asleep.  

Came downstairs and found one of the Christmas trees on its side, the coal bucket knocked over, decorations everywhere.     I am quietly delighted.   I now have a great reason for taking both trees down and putting the decorations away as VNM will want to keep them up until the very last minute.     I have righted the tree, gathered up decorations and swept up all the broken ones but later today I will take the down.     I have found the clutter overwhelming this year so will be good to have a reset.

ladybird1106

Love the fact that you found a positive in the chaos.
love 🐞

Debsnewbudget

With every good wish for 2026 to you and the crew xx

Suffolk_lass

Happy New Year @Watty1 - here is to simplicity, health and happiness! x

Watty1

Thanks @ladybird1106 @Debsnewbudget and @Suffolk_lass .   It really was a positive. VNM also pointed out that the tree could have come down on the log burner so he didn't resist putting everything away as much as i thought he would.

It did take me all afternoon.  I think meds making me feel very sick.  Went to bed very early as felt so nauseous

VNM and I chatted about targets for the year ahead.  I have my personal goals but he felt we should have some points to jointly focus on so we settled on  restoring my mental health as the biggie, then and in no particular order, selling his mothers house, getting planning permission, working out retirement plans for both of us and moving if my mental health recovers sufficiently that I can make sensible decisions.  . 

Cherryfudge

Feeling nauseous is horrible - perhaps ask your pharmacist if that's likely to wear off or if there's something you could take to counteract it.

Reading your recent posts, I was struck by the difficulty of balancing the hard work needed to restore your income with the amount of stress you are under. What you have done in terms of building your business and bringing in income - not to mention providing employment for other people - is amazing. I truly take my hat off to you. You have achieved so much and proven your abilities.

My question here would be - do you really need a million? Perhaps you do (I understand horses are costly) and it could give you a psychological boost (:D) but you must have quite a bit of that already, tied up in the house, business, etc. Of course, if you want to sustain your lifestyle, that will have costs - but what do you actually need in cash or liquifiable assets? How long would it take you to arrive at that amount on your current trajectory? And how long if you slowed down by 10%, or some other figure, even for six months?

Just trying to take some of the pressure off really. A million is a million, but you need to be in a mental position to appreciate it. I'm not aiming for a million myself, but my life is different. I did choose mental well-being over income, and I've not (yet) regretted it. However, that was my choice, for my reasons, about my life - your parameters will be different.

Watty1

Good idea about asking a pharmacist.  I’ll do that because I have spent a few hours on sofa feeling sick snd hoping that this settles down soon   I’ve only managed a couple of slices of bread and butter so far.  

As for the million - no I really don’t need that much.     And you make a great point about taking the pressure off. 

I just decided last year to come up with a figure to aim at.  It is based on a book I read years ago about a Canadian who wanted to be an astronaut and from that moment did everything to achieve that (he did and his journey to get there was a great read as Canada did not have a space program at that point in time ).  I thought if I aimed really high then I would try and see where the journey took me.    It pushed me hard to develop the business and to be really mindful about expenditure and using up and all the things we all do. 

If I set out to save £5,000   into my ISA and it seemed doable then I would not try so hard so I wouldn’t make it happen because I would carry on thinking it was possible rather than putting any effort in and at the end of the year I would have failed.   (I know myself)   As it was in aiming really high I got £10082 into my ISA and added to the pension pot.  (My business did well last year). 

it’s a goal not a “need” and I won’t push so hard this year as I need to recover mentally first. 

Staffordia

Hi Watty, I sometimes have times when I feel nauseous and I take two herbal travel sickness tablets. I'm happy to pm you the details if you're interested. 

Watty1

oh yes please @Staffordia