2011 in review

Having just returned from our Christmas holiday I am a bit pressed for blogging time.  As I have done in a previous end of year post here are my best and worst moments of 2011.

Top 5

1.  Felix started kindy and he loved it!  He likes his teachers, has made a couple of good friends and is zooming ahead in his literacy skills.  I have no concerns about him starting school in 2012 as I think he will settle in beautifully.

2.  Knitting Nancy 2.  I really enjoyed doing the Fringe exhibit again this year and had a lot of fun with the theme.  Once again I collaborated with a great group of women and I revelled in the online communications we had.

3. Finally accepting I needed help.  It was a massive weight off my shoulders to go back to my psych and admit I was not able to cope anymore and the medication she has prescribed has improved my life in a million different ways.  I am still struggling with some side effects but they are a small price to pay.

4. I'm running again.  I stopped running after Poppy was born as it was just to hard to juggle all of my commitments and I was worried I'd dry up my milk if I went back to serious exercise too soon.  Eventually I realised that running helped my mind as much as my body so I took it up again and was in fine form almost straight away.  I'm now planning to enter my first fun run and hope to do a full 10km run by the end of next year.

5. Our Christmas holiday in NSW.  It was so good to see our family again and to spend some time in a really beautiful setting.  The first part of our break was just us and the kids so they'd have time to settle in and i think that was a really good idea.  As much as I am happy here I was certainly reminded of all the things that I miss about Sydney.

Not so top 5

1.  Felix started kindy and added in yet another car trip to my day.  I do feel that I spend more time driving around dropping off and picking up kids than I do at home these days, and I suspect Poppy feels the same way.  And it has become really hard to get Poppy to give up her day nap when we go for a drive in the middle of each day and it lulls her to sleep every time. 

2.  Work.  I went back to nightfill and it damn near destroyed me.  I was constantly exhausted, all of my joints started to ache, and I lost a lot of weight.  The money was obviously the big motivator so I kept it going as long as I could, but in fact should have stopped long before.

3. The breakdown.  There is nothing like having a total meltdown in a doctors office to get things in motion.  Looking back I can see how far I had deviated from 'normal' but in the thick of it all I could see was how tired and stressed I was.  I am a lot better now but obviously still a work in progress so it will be interesting to see how much better I feel next year.

4. Hurting my knee really badly.  Sounds a bit trivial but it really did happen at the worst possible time and took far longer to heal than I expected.  I injured it by running in a way that was stupid and unnecessary and I have learned my lesson but it has made me aware of my physical failings.

5.  I don't actually have anything to put here.  I didn't lose any family members or friends, we didn't have to move, and there were no major illnesses or injuries (other than the ones mentioned above.)  All in all we had a good year and now that I am looking after myself I feel we are really doing well.