New year, new me!

  Happy New Year!  I’m back, all fired up and raring to go!  It’s been a full-on festive season - four little ones (mine and my sister’s) bouncing off the walls with excitement, non-stop food and drink, presents piled to the rafters and a 4th and a 40th birthday to boot!  So, after all that, it’s quite a relief to find myself on my own in the office today, just the buzz of the lights and the occasional ring of the ‘phone to disturb the peace.  I’m in January mode, which every year sees me brimming over with enthusiasm for the “new me” I’m going to create!  I’ve already written great long lists of goals to achieve, places to go, people to see, and so on.  To start with, I’ve decided that I’m going to make all next year’s Christmas presents, to avoid the crazy consumerism that I find so disturbing and, at the same time, so terribly tempting.  I’m also going to get back into yoga; meditate every day; eat more healthily; make more of an effort with my friends and family; write a journal; paint; put all the photos into albums; declutter and redecorate the house … oh, and set up a successful business of course!  Plus, having just written an article on spirituality, I think I’d better get some of that too …

Found a fantastic website - www.spiritualityandpractice.com - that tells you all about the 37 (yes, really) practices you need to practise in order to be properly spiritual … like ‘being present’ and ‘paying attention’ to name just two.  It’s given me loads of insights into what I should be doing.  If only I wasn’t so busy with everything else!  I guess it’s a question of priorities.  Does anyone else ever get that feeling of wanting to stop the world for a while so you can just get yourself sorted?!

Anyway, having left the house before my children even woke up this morning, I’m going to go home and play now, full of love for my little darlings, joy at their smiling faces and gratitude to the nanny for having done all the ironing (I hope!).  And, given that I’ll be unexpectedly early, no doubt I’ll also get to gaze in wonder at all the mess they’ve managed to make!  Six down, 31 to go … how hard can it be?!

I must be mad …

Wow, the days and months are flying by - I can’t quite believe how long it’s been since I last ‘blogged’! Had to return to full-time mummy duties for a while as our poor nanny was “proper poorly”, as she put it - turns out she caught the dreaded salmonella from our daughter, which apparently means we’ll be investigated by environmental health! And now I’m officially office-less. Sitting here in the only local cafe with internet access, trying to concentrate and hear myself think over noise of the juicing machine. I sometimes wonder how on earth I can even contemplate setting up a new business when my life is scattered amongst various piles of paper all round our house and I drift from one coffee shop to another all day long. Not to mention needing to get over ‘postnatal depression’ (sshhh, don’t tell anyone!). Perhaps I should just take my mum’s advice and spend my days doing yoga and meditation … or then again, perhaps that would really send me mad?! Instead, being the kind of contrary Mary I am, I choose to busy my brain with new ideas, options, possibilities … escape routes to an exciting future.

But things have reached crunch point. Can’t keep on researching forever, I need to actually make a decision. Apparently, that’s what you have to do in business! Everyone I’ve spoken to so far about this idea seems to think it’s a good one, so do I just go ahead and take the plunge, investing all my time and money into it, or … ? Do I take the children, move to the country and opt for a simpler, less materialistic life? After all, whilst I may not really want to ‘play mother’ at the moment, I do know that once these precious years of my little ones’ lives have passed, I can never press rewind and go back again. Is there some way I can follow both paths? At the same time? Or is that called having your cake and wanting to eat it as well?! (I’ve always wondered, aren’t you supposed to eat cake?!) Anyway, enough rambling, I’m going to disappear to a cottage in the middle of nowhere and make my mind up. A whole week to myself - it’s been so long since that happened that I’ll probably be ’sectionable’ by the end of it! Which, I guess, is always another path! Want to come with me to my rural retreat and see what happens …