Dysfunctional Planner

I love creating goals and working towards them. Nothing is quite like using the end of the year to focus on yourself and your loved ones so I thought I would share my goals.

1. Work focus

Next year I start an apprenticeship alongside my job. My work are paying for it and I really need to focus and work hard on it. I really would like my ADHD do be diagnosed this year so it’s another goal to work towards.

I get easily distracted and I want to focus more on my job and hopefully get to a level of progression but we will see. I still really enjoy it.

2. “I want adventure in the great wide somewhere,
I want it more than I can tell” Belle

This year will be filled with travel and adventures I want to revel in every moment of it. I want to drink it all in and share it with those I love. I have some big trips next year but I also want to take time and appreciate the country that I live. Explore my local area and parks more, take the time to sit and read and write where ever I wonder.

3. Working on the allotment

My allotment will always be a work in progress. I want to have 3 beds fully used this year. We aren’t away in the summer, most of our holidays are at the beginning and the end of the years which is what I prefer. That way I can appreciate England and also spend time in my garden.

We are working on the house so the front garden and the back garden will have to wait but the allotment still has so much work to be done. I want 4 of my beds prepared this year.

Jobs to do:

• Pumpkin patch clears of brambles
• Second raised bed filled
• Earth bed prepared and planted
• First raised bed refilled and flourishing
• Log storage
• Greenhouse glass fixed
• Green house table made
• Green house tidied and ready for sowing all my seeds
• Plan where the chicken shed is going

4 Fitness, working out together

I talk about fitness and health all the time. What I want to achieve but never quite hit my goal so for the past few months I have been cutting back. Just slightly. When I prepare my breakfasts that I cook at the weekends I just have one sausage, one slice of toast one egg and normally half an avocado. My job gets me a discount at my local gym and Gavin has agreed to come with me. I need to find some nice easy steps so we can get fitter and tone up. The goal is to be healthy. To be fit and hopefully lose a little weight from our stomachs.

We have to do this.

Now is the time. Our gym has a pool so I will get in the pool at least once a week which will help me tone up. We know that, with our house being done, when our kitchen is ripped out our meals may become takeaways but I also know that if we are both focused on our fitness then we will be a bit more conscientious about our food and reduce our drinking ( a bit).

I have a ham in the fridge, as soon as it is eaten I will be vastly reducing my pork intake ( that sounds so wrong) I am going to cut down eating my favourite animals, this means no more pig, octopus or lobster. All intelligent animals ( no offence to cows, hens and fish) I don’t eat lamb or duck because I don’t like the taste. I will still be eating chicken, fish and beef. By reducing what meat I eat this means I can invest in farms who have a better welfare for their animals. A small step, I will never be vegan but I think this is achievable.

5. Cook in my my new kitchen

I can’t wait to have a new large kitchen that is curated by me. This space is where I invite friends over so I can cook and we can chat about all sorts enjoying spending time together.

Cooking is communal, it’s my community. I want to have my family over all in one go and not be squished into rooms. Gav loves to host people his birthday is always a wonderful time out in the garden.

6. A space for reading

I have always been an avid reader and the last 18 months I have been inhaling books. I normally read about2 books a month but I have doubles that this year. Not all months. If I read a book I enjoy then I would rather dwell in that world for a little bit longer than rush onto my next book. I also listen to audio books which I do count as reading.

I would like to carve out a space for reading. I am having lots of fun planning the spare bedroom so maybe that can be my book space or maybe the current dining room maybe a library, or maybe in my shed! Definitely a space with a comfy chair and no distracting technology.

7. An organised well used home

Definitely a goal I talk about every year. I have accepted that we are both messy people I hate mess but I hate cleaning more. I am happy to work extra hours to pay someone to clean my house once a week. Eventually I will get there but for now, whilst we live in a semi building site I can wait.

Our plan is to keep all our creative bits in the sheds we own and kind of minimise the house stuff / crap/ collections with everything having a home, everything having its own space.

I want to grow old with my husband

I know I am not in any power to know if this will happen or not.

But I really want to.

So I am going to leave you here. I hope you have a wonderful start to the year. Tell the people you love, you love them, and check your stool it may save your life.