Autumn rush

We are almost at the end of October and I have yet to post anything since sometime in September. To be fair, there was one major change in my life that I'm still adjusting to as it keeps changing on me.

I now work full time so you can imagine how much less time I had than before. I started back in mid-September right after my last post. It's been about 2 months and there have been only 2 weeks in which I have stayed under 40 hours. I've done more than a few 12 hour days because I can't say no, which is a little bit of a running gag at work. It's been a bit stressful and it's been a bit of a sharp learning curve but I'm getting there. The worst part has been the constant schedule changes as some weeks I'm working during the day and other weeks I'm working evenings as I'm trying to get as much training done as possible.

This has, of course, made changes in the household as we're all trying to adjust to the fact that as I have less time than before we need to all pitch in more together so that the house stays clean, animals are taken care of and we're all fed ourselves and that we still find some time together as a family. So far we're doing okay. Some days are better than others but we're getting there.

It doesn't help that it is autumn, which has always been a busy season for my family and this adjusting has to happen in the middle of it all. I am armed with my planners though and that's been helping with keeping things organized and descending into complete chaos. My husband and I also make it a point to chat every night to keep each other informed with what's happening to the both of us and to our family. Some things are still falling to the wayside and I'm fine with that, as long as the major things are being taken care of.

I do miss my time to work on my personal projects but I do what I can when I can and remind myself that I could go to sleep late to work on my own stuff but I need to sleep because of everything that happens during the day. Maybe once things calm down a bit we'll work out a better routine and hopefully I'll get to back to posting more regularly.

Post, No Post

Oh, I'm terribly late with this. Last month became a bit of a train wreck and I was just trying to pull myself out of the debris that's scattered everywhere.

It was a mad scramble for the beginning of the school year with information from the school being wrong and barely enough time to fix it and be able to start the school year without too much of a hiccup. It was down to the last minute and that's something I hate happening. I'd much rather start a little early and take my time getting what's needed and working on things at my own pace then trying to rush things last minute and feeling unsure if I was able to get everything done properly. I'm still trying to get things done and school's been in session for a few weeks now.

My house is still a wreck. There isn't anything I can say to make that better.

It is September so there is that. We are currently in heat advisory though. This year has just a been a mess and I'm seriously hoping that going into autumn might make things better but at this point it's just wishful thinking. 

That's about it for now. Hopefully, I'll have something more interesting to post. This is just a bit of make up post but it's something, as late as it is. 

Time is moving

I'm a bit late with this but by only 2 days so that's not that bad. I'm a bit behind on other things still but I'm working on it, sort of. I actually don't have a specific topic to discuss today so I thought I might wing it to see what pops up.

It's more than halfway through the year. I'm a bit excited about that because I'm honestly ready for this year to be over because it's just been a mess of a year but it also freaks me out because I feel like it's going way faster than I thought it would.

A lot has been happening. I finished out my first lettering challenge. I'm fairly happy with the results and even happier that I was actually able to finish it out. I originally thought that I might do a different lettering challenge every other month but I decided to just keep jumping into it and started another lettering challenge right away. I was so wanting do an art journal challenge for myself but I still need to brush up on a few techniques before I can dive into that. I'm definitely enjoying the creative challenges that I've set for myself and super proud that I've kept up with them.

Oddly enough, I've been contemplating how I might change up my planner system to something a bit more streamlined. I have no idea how I might do that or whether it's a good idea to even think about switching my system out because it's been working and working well for me. I've done great progress on a lot of things though there are areas that I really need to work on but that's always how it goes.

Work may be changing up for me. I've been in a few interviews for my workplace for different positions. I have no idea if things will change and if it does, that's going to change my whole world.

My house is still a mess.

I guess it's just a wait and see period. That's it for now.

In a Planner World

I've taken my first steps into a bigger world. I'm now part of a planner group on Facebook. I joined the Llamas Love Lettering Group, which is a group that focuses on planner stuff and lettering all encouraged by Cindy Guentert-Baldo.

I've been watching her on Youtube a lot and she's one of my favorite planner people to watch as she's funny and more importantly, her brain seems to work in a similar way as mine when it comes to planning and such. She also does a lot of creative projects that I can get into myself along with art supply reviews. I'm not sure how much I'll be joining along with comments and such but I've started and we'll see how far I go into the planner rabbit hole.

This is late but I'm posting this on time so I'm getting better with keeping up again! Go me!

Challenging more

I was doing so well for a long while with posting regularly and on time but then I just fell off the bandwagon. This posting has been a good indicator of how far along or how far behind I feel with my general goals. If things are on time, I'm right on schedule with this little blog of mine but if I feel like I'm falling behind, the timing gets all screwy. Obviously, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with everything that's been happening.

For the past several weeks, I've been on overdrive with trying to get everything done. My daughter finished school last month and now we're just waiting to get information about her new school since we decided to switch her out of public school and into a charter school. It's been interesting trying to parent a preteen with the trappings of modern life. My house is a mess and I'm still dealing with insurance trying to get everything ready so that things might finally progress along. The weather has been up and down with thunderstorms every 4 days and just recently there was a heat wave, which made working in a warehouse so much fun. At this point, I don't think I know any other speed besides ludicrous speed. I honestly can't believe that it's already July. The year is halfway through and I feel like I've barely got anything done.

Of course, it's not enough and I have to add another thing to my to do list. I've been learning lettering and focusing on brush lettering and calligraphy. Luckily, that was indeed one of my things to learn this year so I'm ahead on that, slightly. To keep practicing, I decided to start up a challenge for the month of July. It's a lettering/journaling/doodling challenge on the topic of Harry Potter. Of course, I'm focusing on lettering this challenge. It's been fun so far. I'm hoping it'll be another thing that I can say that I completed this year.

Shell Shy

It's difficult being a person. I find myself to be more cat than a human at times. Once I like you, I claim you and I want all your attention. If I haven't claimed you, I'll take you in whatever doses I choose and no more. I'm perfectly happy being a hermit and not making an effort to talk to people who I'm not forced to see everyday and even with those people, I'm fine with simply not saying anything. I suppose that's just being an introvert though.

When things are difficult around me, I have a tendency to turtle myself in. When my emotions are chaotic and barely under my control I find it worse to be around people as their emotions tend to throw my own emotions off even more. This year has been very trying for me and my family so far so I've barely held onto my sense of self and have avoided people to not add to the drama that's already happening. The year is halfway through and I can't keep avoiding people, as much as I'd like to. I'm making steps to reach out to people again. 

Writing letters was the first step to getting used to the idea of starting conversation with people again. I started messaging people. I finally contacted someone to hang out, face to face. I'm getting there and hopefully it won't be long until I'm a person and not just a shell of a turtle. 

Summer's Almost Here!

I'm still here and still not sure what to do with this blog. I feel I should do something productive with it but I honestly have no idea as what that might be. I've continued journaling and that has helped with making sure my head doesn't feel too full with excess emotions. My planner continues to give me a great boost in productivity. I'm not sure what else I need after that.

I don't have much going on right now as I'm a bit busy dealing with life issues. I woke up a few days ago to a loud boom, in which a guy ran the stop light in front of my house, hit a van in the cross traffic which sent the van into my front door and the car into my car. I don't even have words on what a mess things have been and still are. The weather has just been crazy for the past several weeks with barely just a day or two of sunshine before rain and cloudiness settles in. I love the rain but I'm a bit sick of it at this point. I need some nice weather to stick around for a while.

It's the the last full week of May. Next week starts the month of June so before I even knew it, summer is just around the corner and I am so not ready. It seems the weather decided to just skip spring and go straight into the hot season. It's super hot or super rainy with not much else so far but hopefully we can sneak in a few nice days in between.

I'm going to make it my mission to enjoy this summer though. Spring was a wash in many ways but I'm determined to try my best to turn things around. We may not have major plans to go anywhere but we can still enjoy time together as a family and see friends again.