Diary of a busyish woman

Maybe it’s a good thing that  Advent & Christmas happen at the end of our calendar year. There is very little if any reviewing and critiquing like for example New Year when we’re expected to review the past year and make resolutions for the coming one. I honestly believe that the number of people who have no idea of the reason for celebrating the Christmas season is increasing in Ireland. I suppose it hit home when I realised that the Advent calendar with a different Biblical thought for each day is now a chocolate a day or for the adults a bauble or even an alcohol minitature a day. Does anyone have any comment, I wonder. Is Christmas a stand alone commercial event loosely based on a pretty story or does anyone note there is a very old tradition and belief on which it is based. Sure, the Christian Church has taken over many a pagan tradition from the season timing to the feasting but now the tables are turning and it is increasingly a commercial opportunity to encourage c...

Post Christmas exhaustion left me open to infection not the blues. From  http://articles.bplans.com/ Hi, One of the problems being busy is that if you have a chance to stop, the body goes into downtime and lets you know in no uncertain terms that there's a time when rest & relaxation is mandatory not optional. Exhaustion Emoji Last weekend, I wasn't feeling too good, but put it down to general tiredness. During the week, I had what I thought were a recurrence of  'hot flushes' which I hadn't suffered for a few months. Finally on Tuesday, I realised as I drove towards home, that things weren't adding up. Made an appointment and visited my G.P. Explained my symptoms and one of her first questions was to ask if I had taken my temperature! I think she held back on the laughter by great self-discipline when I explained why not. Anyway, I threw in a sore, hot ear & the verdict was an ear infection and flu. No, not a heavy cold, but flu. Ther...

I can't believe it's TWO weeks since I posted but on reflection, it's not surprising. The last weeks in December were absolutely hectic culminating in my 18 hour day on Tuesday, 23rd - this was a shocker for me when I actually added up my hours. I did manage to do a little bit of office work on 24th, but really I was present physically & on a mental shut down. We were supposed to be more than 4 for Christmas dinner, but that didn't pan out, so we spent most of the day from 8am church service catching up with each other and relaxing most of all. Yes, we enjoyed turkey and our own smoked ham, but we'd sold out of spiced beef & I didn't have time to make either a Christmas pudding or a cake so we did without. In fact as I hadn't been shopping, there was no cream in the house either & we were down to 3 onions! Early to bed on Christmas night and I actually didn't get up again until nearly noon St. Stephen's Day. The last time I ...

Buying a present at any time is, in my opinion, a lottery. You have a good chance of getting it right but there are so many variables, it's more than possible to get it wrong too. Have I got it very right and very wrong? More times than I can count on fingers and toes. In my family, the stress has been reduced considerably since the introduction of Kris Kringle amongst the adults and the children. So all the first cousins buy a present for another cousin & there is a limit of €10. My two have had so much fun, I think, and have taken it very seriously to choose the right present for their recipients. The adults too have a price limit. The result is imaginative presents & just a few so no overloading. A few years ago, I bought a Hazel 'whip' each for Willie and the lads. No-one commented much, and after a few days the whips were planted by William. Later on that year, another member of the family enthusiastically wielded a strimmer and annihilated two of the three t...