Life has been good, well, in reality, it is always good because it is what we make of it and I choose to make it a good one.
I am relatively healthy (aside from a few inherited health issues that I deal with but are under control), I have a wonderful husband who loves me to bits and a great family. My relationship with my parents is great. I'm best friends with my mum and we have girly times all the time. My dad is a grump but that's normal and we just love him for who he is, mum always reminds us that if he's not grumpy then something's wrong, so we are grateful when he grunts at us. :-) I also have a great relationship with my brother and sister though I don't see them as often as I'd like.
But life ... life gets the better of me. I keep telling myself that I'd like my life to slow down a bit and you'd think that is easy given that I don't work full time in an office, but it's not.
I do freelance editing and proofreading, which means I spend a lot of time reading and editing manuscripts for authors; annual reports and prospectuses, etc., for businesses. I also do a lot of beta reading and critiques of manuscripts and that takes time too. I like to take some time to spend with my friends who don't live in Australia and stay connected with them, chatting each day. Take Steve to work, pick him up from work, errands, cooking our meals, etc., and the day gets eaten up. Add to that filming videos for the YouTube channel, plus editing and uploading; writing and maintaining two blogs (this one and Daz in the Kitchen) and the hours just get chewed up. That doesn't even include when I find time to read for fun, which I love to do.
Mind you, I'm not complaining, I like to keep busy. After all, who likes to sit around twiddling their thumbs?
Still, the point of this post is that I'd like my life to slow down but for some reason, life never seems to go into the slow lane for me, for us.
In April of 2014, Steve retired from corporate life. Between then and now, we moved into our home in the Hunter Valley and life changed a great deal. We though that was it and we were never moving again.
Never say never! You'd think I'd have learned by now after being married to the man for almost 14 years.
Anyhow, at the end of last year, Steve took on some consulting work to help pay the bills. Even in retirement, the bills need to be paid, ya know! That meant another big change for us, spending less time at home and more time again in the city, with a weekly commute back and forth.
Life has settled into a routine for us again though a very different routine from when Steve had first retired in April but it's a good one.
I guess the point that I'm trying to make is that I'd like my life to slow down a bit, perhaps have a bit more time to read for fun.
Last year, I read 171 books but a lot of them were very short, mostly between 50 to 200 pages in length. Towards the end of last year, because of work related reading (editing, beta reading) I only read about 2 or 3 books each month and that was not a lot at all. Thinking that it would be the case, I set my reading goal for 36 (I usually set it for 100) for the whole year and fortunately, I've read a bit more than I thought I would, but I'd like to read more.
Today was one of those crazy days where I thought I'd have a fair bit of time on my hands and I'd get to start on a manuscript that was sent to me for revisions, nuh uh, that didn't happen. :-) After getting up, it was errands, spending some time with my parents, more errands, then home, got home for about 10 minutes and Steve called me to pick him up, then traffic, traffic, rain, rain, rain, traffic, traffic, traffic, and now we're home. Dinner is in the oven getting cooked and after that it's some quality time with the love of my life.
So, the point of this rambly post? I'm very blessed in my life and grateful for many things, but can I please be a little whiney and just ask for perhaps an extra 3 or 4 hours in the day to just read for fun?
What do you want to do if you have a few extra hours in the day? Do you read? Do you sleep? Or go out and have fun with friends?
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