A short list full of big things

Well while we wait for things to happen on the house front I have decided to turn my mind to learning and doing.  I love that sense of stretching myself and gaining competence and I feel as if I have been floating along in my comfort zone for a while.  There have been so many things going on: lots of new babies (ten grandchildren now!  can you believe it?) and the buying of the plot and putting the house on the market.  Now the last of the new grandchildren is here safely, just ten days ago, and there is nothing to do with the house other than play the waiting game.  The garden is pretty cared for at the moment thanks to the 100 day project and we have an August full of visitors coming up.  So here is a week or so of lull when I think I am going to shake myself up a bit.

I used to be a great list maker when I was working and have dropped the habit for most of the time.  Life is full of cooking and eating and going to yoga and choir and spending time with family and friends.  All of that seems to happen without the need for lists either because it has to, as in feeding the hordes, or because it is part of the fabric of my week.  So I thought I would have a go at a list of things I would like to do over the rest of the summer which might not happen unless I really committed to them.  Some of these might need the shepherd's hut!

1. Do some form of exercise every day and keep a journal of it.  I have dug out one of my many lovely notebooks and made a start with this.  Today's exercise is some very light lifting of weights.  More than twenty years ago I used to go regularly to the gym, for five or six years I suppose, and weights were something I enjoyed doing.  We have a set of hand weights and I keep meaning to use them and never quite getting there but I am aware as I get older of wanting to be strong again.  I won't ever be very strong.  I am simply not built like that, but it would be nice not to be weak!!
2. Keep working on my Spanish.  I have found a great website www.saysomethingin.com which I have previously used to help me with my Welsh.  They have started using the same techniques to help with learning Spanish so I plan to have a go every day for a few weeks and see if by the time we go to Spain in September I can manage a bit of basic conversation.
3. Start writing again.  I wonder if I could apply the 100 day project to doing a tiny bit of writing every day?  And I wonder what that would do to my writing and my blog, not to wait for a bit of spare time which may or may not come along but to regard sitting down and writing, even for only half an hour, as something which must be done.  I will try and see if I can
4. Begin the daunting, difficult and yet somehow delightful process of shedding some of my stuff in readiness for the big move.  Mmm, baby steps maybe...