Real Life.

The last little while has been a bit chaotic, to say the least. And it's truly a mix of the good, the bad and the ugly. I'm happy on a daily basis to share the good. Sometimes I throw in a smidge of the bad. But for now, I'm keeping the ugly under wraps until we have things sorted. Nothing love limiting or altering, just, you know, unexpected crap that sometimes comes in to our circle and then we have to figure out what to do with it! The stress of the Pandemic is hard, as we all know, and there are days where I just want to stay in my cozy bed and read. Today, I've let myself do that for now. It's almost 11, I'm munching on leftover popcorn from last night's movie (my breakfast!) and reading a new book that I picked up at the bookmobile this week. I actually had it on hold at the big library in town but I'm number 6 on the list and clearly it wouldn't be in my hands now until late Fall. So it was a lovely surprise to flip through the bin of books that had placed outside for borrowing (the bookmobile is too small to let patrons on) and there was the book I've been waiting for! I added it to our pile and when I got home, I took my name off the list for the big library. I'm on chapter 6 and just started reading it around 9:30. So far, it's got my attention and I'm going to now have to carve out time today, in between the other stuff that needs my attention!

What's keeping me so busy that my corner of our turret, aka as "the office" has gotten so messy, you may ask? Well, let me catch you up! Sit back and relax. It's long today!

Work is super crazy right now. It's almost as if everyone has decided that if they're home right now, abiding their time, why not delve in to their grief journey that they have perhaps catalogued and stuck up on the shelf for a future date. And now that date is here! My case loads have jumped so much that I had to make one of my part time staff a full timer. Clients were able to typically get in for an appointment in person, before Covid, within a week. Now it's about 2.5 to 3 weeks, which feels awful for the 3 of us but we're managing fine. Without a commute, as we're all still working from home, the good thing is that we can slip in an extra client each day. But that is a lot of paper work too. Our preschool has been gearing up for the Fall as well. We have been working hard to get all the PPE we need, reduce our class sizes and revise how we deliver our curriculum. Funds will be less but the gov't is promising to continue to pay both the Wage Subsidy and the Rent Subsidy (75% of each) so fingers crossed, we'll be okay. So yes, work is busy. We also had a big event, the launch of our new radio station last weekend. Very successful, well attended, we're all so happy but it was also super physical, so I'm still tired. And then there is the pulling of weeds, the tidying of the house, the prep of meals, the exhausting grocery shopping and maintaining relationships. I bet  you feel just as tired as I do some days! Balance is always the key, isn't it?

As you can see in my photo above, I chose to show some real life today. Other than a garage that needs another tidy (always gets cluttered after an event), the only other spot in our house that has become untidy is our turret. It's the spot we do our Zoom meetings, where I counsel my clients, where I program plan and where case notes are written up, when I'm not doing those outside. But the last few weeks, it's also become the spot to move some files, sort books, work on an art project, look through the kids memory books to do some updates and then we have piles of receipts for filing, bills that have been paid and need to be filed, and work stuff organized that need to go in to a box to go back to the office. Yup, it's a mess! Not proud but it's doable.

Today we're gardening after our nice long rest, making a roast dinner, a load of laundry and a quick run of the vacuum. So with the extra time after this is all done, I'll likely try to start tidying this little corner of my world. I hate clutter and I hate when things are out of place. But this is real life and some days, things are not where they are supposed to be. As long as they go back in time, I'm okay with it. And today is that day! I shall take a pic after it's all done and share that another day. I hope your day is as productive as this one should be. 

~ Chy