Nearly back to normal and new beginnings

I am half asleep from getting home from the airport in the middle of the night, and a certain person wanting to chat until morning! So we are all together again and Fahed, more English than the most English, is delighted to be home. He hasn't been away long enough for his gloom to set in. He smiled all the way back from the airport because it is always so green here, although at 2am its hard to say that he could see that for sure. He even liked the weather, snowy and 2 degrees. He keep walking around the house smiling. It reminds me of when we used to collect the cats from the cattery after a holiday, just checking the place out. I really must remember to appreciate my own country this much. Unfortunately the rest of his family had to go back to Syria, which is so dangerous right now. We are keeping fingers crossed that they get home safely as they had a proper close call on the way to the funeral.

My youngest son had a bit of a reality check today. Since mid December his weight has gone up by something like 7 kilo. He has convinced himself it is muscle building up since he started Jujitsu. Coincidentally Coke & Pepsi have alternately been on special offer at our local supermarket for £2 per case. Today his brother pointed out the obvious correlation and made him check his profile in the mirror. Jamal has now given up fizzy drinks and is going back to the gym. Ahdel drinks mostly water anyway, he has a milk allergy and loves water, but I think he will also be avoiding the demo fizzies from now on. I also like the idea that we don't have a weekly disagreement about how much fizzy drink is a good amount. Lastly Fahed is giving up his caffeine free diet coke habit. They are drinking up what they have and going cold turkey.

and on the subject of cold turkey. Whilst Fahed was away he stopped taking his sleeping meds on the advice of our GP clinic. They are going to help him manage his insomnia, which is anxiety related, in a different way. The surgery also dropped his anxiety medication by 1/3 also in a recent heart scare. He still feels very well but has more energy so now he wants to give them up completely. I have persuaded him to discuss it with the doctor and maybe half it to start with and then consider dropping completely. That would be so lovely for him and he is doing really well but we mustn't get ahead of ourselves.

Bed time

Last night in my bed alone. Fahed was afraid to go back to visit his family for almost 15 years because of the political situation, so he has only been going there since around 2000. He loves to see his family and to meet up with old friends but he can't settle with the culture and politics after 22 years here (plus years in Greece and Cyprus)he is as English as can me. More so than me & inclined to get homesick if away from here too long. The first few times he went he took 6 weeks or three months for his journey. This is the main reason that his being away for three weeks doesn't bother me too much. I noticed he doesn't come home from these long trips very happy, in fact I think he dips down into depression. Its all too much for him. I told him he can go one more time alone and then we go for shorter times and together. So this is not my last night home alone but it is for a while at least.

Tomorrow I will have a quiet day with a little tidying, Bonnie & Ahdel are also making cleaning and tidying plans which will also be nice. I will pop over to visit my friend for coffee and cake, lunch with my parents, a bit of driving practice. The time to go to the airport will soon be upon us. Pretty sure Fahed will be happy sleeping in his own bed. We love our bed. It's not big (and antisocial sized)and has a lovely tempur topped sprung mattress. Perfect. I suspect I will find it a tight fit to allow him back in but I can't argue that I sleep better when I can hear him sleeping beside me.

How do you not wish your life away?

Having a little bloggy catch up this morning I came across this from Heart Shaped. I don't feel this way about January, I love it. I don't wish my life away but what I do is to really look forward to something so much that I dont appreciate the time in between. So if, for example, I have a weekend in France planned for April then I don't properly appreciate the time in between. I focus too much on the things I am looking forward to, especially when it is travel related. Following my own happiness guide I am failing to grasp the 'live in the moment' element as fully as I should be. This shortfall is what brought me to trying to simplify my life, and write my blog, in the first place. I had so much to do that instead of settling into enjoying the gardening, cooking or whatever, I did it as fast as I could, and badly, and just worried about whatever else I should have been doing. I have come a long way since then. I understand that by planning I can concentrate and far more thoroughly enjoy what I am doing at any moment. My List, something I always considered to be the enemy, turned into my friend and I was free of the worry that I had not done something that I should have. I actively ditched a load of activities which I didn't realise were optional until I really starting living deliberately:- shopping for pleasure (the biggest time and money suck ever),ironing, TV ( I watch the programs that I want, about three or four each week, to but don't have the TV on automatically). Another piece of happiness advice was 'Stay Busy'. Well I sure have that sussed. I don't have too many idle moment but maybe I need to take it a stage further and deliberately pleasurable activities in my plan. Maybe some night classes at college, some volunteering, I have been looking at the Open Uni courses too. I need to open my mind as the possibilities are endless. Any advice ?? Since Fahed has been away I have been neglecting my healthy eating pan (and associated blog). This morning I woke up at four with a cracking headache which didn't go until nine. Yesterday I had toast for breakfast and three slices of pizza when I had lunch out with a work mate (£5 for a standard pizza and unlimited salad at Pizza Hut, yummy bargain). I had a pizza headache. I know it will happen but I convince myself that it wont. So silly. Carbs are evil, to those with allergies, and must go!

Weekend Tomorrow & getting my Honey back

Very busy at work at the moment but enjoyable work which mean that weeks are passing at a flash. It always seems to be Friday night. Its good that I enjoy my job and good the time doesn't drag but I would like it to slow down a bit as I am also getting old pretty darn quick. So I had a quietly enjoyable Friday night at home with my oldest son and his girlfriend. We watched old box sets of Bones, had some laughs. It was a simple evening but enjoyable. I can still hear them down there now, with Ahdel laughing so much that it makes me laugh too. So I decided this weekend will be active. I joined with with procrastination Thursday last week but I would like to have to try a little harder to find something I am avoiding doing next week. As i came in from work I finished off the painting needed at the bottom of the stairs so that I can rehang all the coats and reclaim one of the sofas. I am going slow because last time I tried to do it all a lot closer together I ended up with ceiling paint on the walls, wall paint on the woodwork and so on. I also touched up the paintwork around the windows in our bedroom. I hung two small oil painting in our room too. I want it to look nice Fahed when he comes home on Sunday. I will mop the floors and sweep, wipe and clean. Finish a cushion for my mum, do a little laundry and find some way to dry it, cook a frugal dinner,go visit a friend for coffee and visit my family in the evening. I might even give the fridge a bit of a sort out and tidy. The contents are mostly veg so things get made into soup instead of thrown away but it still needs a bit of a tidy sometimes.