Its a New Year!

Well as we say goodbye to 2011 and move into 2012 I find myself thinking back over this past year and reflecting on all changes to our family.
2011 for our family was a year of change and it was a year that felt like I was riding a rollercoaster ride, many ups and downs and sometimes I felt like I was being turned inside out. I’m not a person that copes with change in a very relaxed manner and the decisions that Geoff and I had to make were not made lightly and came with a lot of uncertainty as to how our future would be affected. 2012 is now upon us and those uncertainties still lie.
After years of planning on studying to become an Architect, Geoff in his last year of high school decided to study law and due to his financial situation decided to embark upon this externally, which means that he got a job at a law firm and did his “articles” whilst studying for his degree. He never attended university full-time and had blocks of study leave prior to sitting exams. Towards the end of his grade 12 year he applied for and got a job at Butler McDermott & Egan. He was employed by BME in 1992 and finished his law degree (a year early) in 1997. He remained employed by BME until 2005 when he then bought into partnership with them. This year for various reasons that I won’t go into, Geoff decided to sell his share in the partnership and pursue an ambition he had been carrying since obtaining his law degree and practice as a Barrister. This meant returning to university for further study (thankfully it was only a short course of 8 weeks). It was certainly a tough couple of months for me and the kids with Geoff living in Brisbane full-time. The course was pretty full on and it was certainly no holiday for him. No surprise to me that he excelled in his studies and is now a fully fledged Barrister who can dress up in his wig and gown and look very important indeed. Whilst this change has carried a lot of stress for our family as to what out future holds because we no longer have the financial security of regular income, it has also taken a lot of strain away having to watch Geoff work unbelievably long hours and carry a lot of stress and responsibility. It is wonderful to see him flourish in doing something he is truly enjoying. He has had a really positive response for the work he has undertaken so far and hopefully with time he will get regular work. We have a roof over our heads and food on the table and hopefully as Geoff builds up his new career some of the financial uncertainty will ease. As long as we can keep that roof over our heads and keep our children in the school that they love and we love as well, then there isn’t really much else I need to concern myself with. A lot of people would think we are crazy to keep our children in the private school they are at, but until we can truly see how things will go we don’t want to subject the children to such a major change. My eldest son in particular doesn’t cope well with change (wonder where he get’s that from lol!). He will finish his last year of primary school this year so we will re-evaluate how things are going after that.
To be honest when I think back over the year that was 2011 and try and think of what has occurred over that year I really can’t think past anything other than Geoff’s change of career.
I’ve not made any New Year’s resolutions as such, but rather am going to try and set myself some goals for 2012.
During 2011 I have found my health issues something I’ve really struggled with. For 2012 I would like to try and make some changes to my lifestyle that I would hope would somehow lighten my health burdens. With my youngest starting school this year I really need to ensure I use the extra time I will have productively. I want to take the opportunity to fit in some regular exercise. I don’t want to start the year overdoing that because I find it never works well for me when I do. So I will start slowly and try to build up as the year goes on. By the end of the year I would like to think that I was exercising at least 4 times a week. Maybe 2 walks and 2 swims in a week. I would like to take more time to make better choices in my eating habits. Not diet as such because I find that really hard work, but just make some simple changes and this added to a little more exercise might not make a major change but will aide in getting my health on a better track.
Another goal is to have a thorough purge of the accumulation of ‘stuff’ in the house. Going through and clearing out toys and clothes that the kids no longer have a use for would be a great start. I really need to go through my scrapbooking supplies and become a little ruthless. Its hard because I know how much I’ve spent putting those supplies together but at the end of the day I’m not going to be able to utilise everything I have. I can pass some things on to the kids and they will have a great time making cards and creating with a lot of what I have so it wouldn’t be a complete waste.
I’d like to regularly fit in some more time in the garden because it is something I’ve always loved but haven’t made a lot of time for over the years. Our garden is really starting to take shape now and is looking better and better each year. My mother this year gave us a vegetable garden bed and some seeds to get started. Geoff and the kids are really excited about that too so that is something we can all do together.
I want to be more organised with our weekends and planning things to do as a family. We tend to spend our weekends trying to achieve ticking things off the job list or catching up on chores and it really isn’t much fun for the kids. I find that we waste a lot of our weekends. I’m usually just exhausted by the time the end of the week comes and have no enthusiasm for heading out. The kids (not Thomas unfortunately) and Geoff love bike rides so we need to fit more of those in and try and get Thomas to have some more confidence in riding a bike.
I also hope to keep my blog posts more regular. I was very conscious of the fact when I would sit to write a blog post I felt everything I wanted to say was negative or expressing how stressful I’ve felt things have been and I would much rather my blog reflect the positive things in our life. So I will endeavour to keep up with my blog focus on the more positive side of life.
I have high hopes that 2012 is going to be a more relaxed year for us…all I’d really ask for is good health and happiness for my family and friends.