Resolutions - April Update

So here we go again. 

1. Accomplish all the necessary stuff involved in selling this house and moving into the one we are buying. This is the sort of resolution that, although not easy in itself, HAS to be followed through on.

Report - Well, we move on April 15th.  I just want it to be over and done with.  It will be four months since buying the house and moving in (a ridiculous length of time but stipulated by us because we needed time to sell the old one and get the money for it!)  There will be upheaval and what-not.  Tempers are very frayed all round.  I am grimly trying to hang on to the shred of sanity that comes with remembering why I fell in love with the house in the first place.  Plus the people buying our place have been a bit irritating.  But all will be well and all will be well and all manner of things will be well.
2. Get a job. It really is time after 18 years to go back to earning some sort of income. This is a scary one. I have no idea how I and the rest of the family will cope - they have all got used to me being available whenever required. I did not have children or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome last time I worked. A very large part of me does not want to go back to work. But a small part of me craves the idea of doing something else.
Report - well, I've been working for five or six weeks now, I have learned a lot of what I need to know ... and I don't much like it.  Not the job itself, which is fine, and the people are lovely, and it is even nice to earn a bit of money.  But I hate not being around for the children, even if they are teenagers, and all my health problems are rearing their ugly heads again.  I am permanently tired and miserable and hurt all over.  Again I am gritting my teeth and trying to hold on to that notion that I need to earn this money to pay for the new house, and I really want the new house.  And I am trying to pull myself out of the Slough of Despond and make some small changes to my lifestyle which might help my health a little - like starting to take a proper multivitamin again, for instance.  And knowing that the damp and mould in the old house is probably a cause of many of my (and the other family members') health issues in the first place, and that the new house will not have them.

The small bit of me that craved doing something else - it is now begging to return to its cave and be left alone!
3. Complete a project a month. Even if it is just a plain sock (pair of socks!) Preferably try out some new techniques or whatever, but at least one project a month.

Report - easy!  I have finished the March Bead Journal Project piece, run up three quick scarves for Me-Made-March 2011, and repurposed an old cardigan and a pair of shorts into another scarf.  All blogged about previously. 
4. Stop spending money like water. With this in mind, this resolution is split into sections :



4.1 I will not buy any clothes or shoes unless ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. 'Necessary' means underwear if my current collection falls apart; if I end up in a job where I can't wear jeans, some other covering for my bottom half may be necessary beyond the one pair of black trousers and one black skirt I own; and I am going to a family wedding in March that MAY necessitate a new outfit. I can make myself anything I like out of my vast stash of fabrics and patterns, however, and if this is the case, purchase of required notions will be permitted. I would make an outfit for the wedding but that is likely to be around the time we move, and I am packing up my stash as we speak.

Report - Ha Ha! Quite a few work clothes purchased, the new job requiring reasonably corporate clothing. But nothing frivolous or not usable for work. (Oh, and there were some shoes too, but ditto). I bought a dress for the wedding, despite really wanting to make something, but realising that I just wouldn't get round to it, and the dress is suitable for work as well. All in all, more money spent than I really should have done, but for a good reason. 

That paragraph is what I wrote last month, and it can stand again for this month.  I bought three 'pashminas' in a 3 for the price of 2 deal, and wore one of them to the wedding.  All three will get used.  The wedding one was black and grey (as was my dress - how Melbourne am I, I wore a black dress and a pashmina to a wedding!), the others are bright pink/black and turquoise/gold.  They are all lovely against my sad old neck and between them will go with lots of things.  Yes, there were a couple more items of clothes for work, and maybe some more shoes.

4.2 I buy far too many DVDs. I will restrict myself to the equivalent of one full-price film (i.e. one new release or something like those 3 for $30 specials you see around) and one TV series. I need to be VERY STRICT about this.

Report - pretty successful.  I bought the old BBC series of Survivors as my TV series, and a reissuing of Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves as my film (it's a huge favorite of mine).  I only cheated a tiny, tiny bit - at the same time I found a copy of the old TV series of My Brother Jack (not the one made a few years ago) which I have never seen, on special for $10, and I bought that because it is a favorite book.

4.3 Likewise with books. One full-price book or the equivalent per month.

Report - please all fall about with derisive laughter now.  Even with rolling over February's book into March, I overdid it by a factor of ... something or other.  I think I bought about six books in March.  My bad.  All with my OWN MONEY though, so boo sucks.

4.4 Craft materials - only to be purchased if necessary to make a specific project immediately after purchase. Otherwise all craft material shopping is to be done from the stash.

Report - One ball of novelty yarn from Lincraft with which to make an annoying ruffled scarf.  I mean the knitting of it is annoying, the scarf is kind of cute.  In shades of bright red.  And hugely ruffly.  I started knitting it the day I bought it.  And it didn't cost much, though I cannot actually remember how much.

4.5 Exceptions to the rules will include craft shows, where I will take a fixed amount of cash and leave my credit cards at home. Nothing purchased under these circumstances will count towards the total!

Report - no craft shows, so I passed this one!

4.6 Items for any room in the new house, but especially the kitchen, will only be purchased if necessary, not just because they catch my eye. There will be some purchases, planned in advance.

Report - Nada.  But April will be a biggie on this one, as we need a new fridge and dishwasher (and when I say 'need' I mean 'replace the 25 year old fridge that keeps freezing vegetables and the 15 year old dishwasher that leaks and isn't going anywhere near the lovely floorboards in my new kitchen'!)  And I may buy a couple of new pans given that I wil have more than two burners on my cooktook for the first time since January 2000!!!

And apropos of nothing, today is our 22nd wedding anniversary.  We'd better get this move over and done with or there won't be a 23rd, we will have killed each other before then!!!  On the other hand, the fact that I will be spending the evening alone with a bowl of soup sounds sad and pathetic but isn't really.  George is working very late so that he can take the next 2 1/2 weeks off to oversee 90% of the moving without me having to do more than the other 10%, and he will be taking me out to dinner over the weekend or something when I have the energy to get up and go out.  I have promised to take Wombat to Supernova tomorrow, which means my energy levels will be in heavy minus figures.  There will be a 23rd anniversary!

Edited to add that the anniversary dinner happened anyway, unexpectedly, and the chances of a 23rd one are increasing!  However if he keeps reading over my shoulder and asking if I am editing this to change the rules of the resolutions, I;m not so sure!!!!!