Dearest Penpal,

Exactly one month + 1 day ago, I wrote:

I’ve realised that this is probably my last proper work session for a week or so. Wild Bushman Dad arrives tomorrow, and I’ll be deep in food prep for Christmas. Then, the days when I have no idea what day of the week it is, when napping and board games and talking shit are my highest priority.

I said on the podcast that I wasn’t sure how long I would take off, that I would just see how long I lasted before the siren call of work called me back. Not because work needs me – but I really am rather fond of it, and quite love the routine of it. This is how a usual holiday routine of mine goes: I usually hang out with the family in the morning, have mini adventures or just slop about the house, and then I go piss off into my office for a couple of hours of creativity/admin/reading shit on the internet. Come back, read a book to the kids (this new illustrated version of Enid Blyton’s Faraway Tree stories are our current obsession), make dinner, put kids to bed.

Anyways, I thought, for something different this year, I’d NOT do that holiday routine. And instead just see how long I lasted just staying in holiday mode. And guess what? I lasted a shockingly amount of time. And it was glorious, and it was good, and I feel a lot clearer than I have in an age. Even though I don’t work that much anyway (about 10 hours a week or so), I find my brain usually has a certain cognitive load of thinking about business and work and priorities just humming along in the background. Detaching and getting out of the trees to see the forest was damn useful. The longer I took off the more insights I had. I need to do that more often.

Here’s what I did in the last 1 month + 1 day:

  • Made a rad Christmas feast. Honestly, my culinary goddess skills have REALLY progressed in the past few years. I went from not cooking + hating cooking to actually ENJOYING IT! And being more than ADEQUATE AT IT! Blow me down with a feather, I never thought that would happen this life. And yet it did. What a miracle!
  • Developed a roaring addiction to jigsaw puzzles
  • Had my Wild Bushman Dad visit + stay for a week. We talked shit, had mini adventures, ate an enormous quantity of fudge, and he played with the kids. It was most excellent.
  • Read a lot of books (mostly romance novels, but some majestically good non-fiction too. More Than A Woman is one of my most favourite reads of the last 5 years.)
  • Mapped out the next year in my planner and calendar. The levels of organisational jollies this gave me was UNREAL.
  • Had to have an emergency optometrist appointment because I was convinced I had a detached retina. Turns out, I’ve been sleeping with my eyes open like a CREEP and my eyes were as dry as a dead dingo’s dick. An eye mask and lubricating (snort) eye drops have done wonders. Life hack for anyone out there who needs it: you should, like, defo close your eyes when sleeping. YA WELCOME.
  • Took my kids to a week-long swimming intensive.
  • Binge-watched Bridgerton in two days and could barely cope with how much I adored it. The SEX! The SCENERY! MY FAVOURITE ROMANCE GENRE COME TO LIIIIIFE!
  • Munched through a lot of morning buns at River Read.
  • Last time I wrote, I said one of my kids had developed a Raina Taigmeier book addiction. Since then, she’s powered through a ginormous quantity of graphic novels. I feel like it’s a part time job for me now to trawl through online shops hunting to replenish her to-read pile. If you have any graphic novel recommendations for an almost 11 year old girl, hit me uppppp pretty please!
  • Did FOUR social things. WOW! LOOK AT ME! We went to visit my husband’s parents, the kids & I hung out with some old homeschooling friends, I had an impromptu tea date with a sweet friend, and I also took her out for tragic Italian & magical churros. I always have huge plans to see all the people over holidays, and I never manage to make it happen. We are just so content being at home all the time, I have to remind myself to actually… you know… LEAVE sometimes.
  • Went to a natural horsemanship workshop with my kids (PONIES! EEEEE! MY FAVE!). They loved it so much we’ve arranged to do it fortnightly during school term as well. In fact, we get to play with the ponies again tomorrow. EEEEE! My inner child is thrilled. I can already smell the ponies from here. I grew up on a cattle property & spent much of my childhood on a horse’s back. So it’s one of my fondest parental heart wishes to get my kids some of that equine connection too.

I’ve also got a new idea for a project. I’ll tell you about it v soon.

I’m not back to daily writing just yet – I still have a couple more days of school holidays left and I need to bake lemon cupcakes and read Enid Blyton to my children. #priorities

It’s good to be back though.

It’s going to be a good year for creativity for me, I reckon.

Thank you for being here.

Big love,
Leonie

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