Life is all just a bit too groundhog day right now don't you think? Keeping the tedium at bay is tough, although for some, life is just so full on they don't really have time to think about it. It has reached the point again though now that however much you loved that cycle around the common with your kids and the dog, doing it everyday has now become tedious.
Like anything and everything, it's important to keep things fresh, and so when even my youngest asked if we could do something 'fun', we set off for an adventurous trek all the way down to our high street. It's amazing how small changes can feel so great, and we found pleasure in what were previously just an add on to our adventures, which now have become the highlight of an outing. Buying a coffee, a slice of pizza from the market stall, visiting the organic store to buy turmeric and icecream sorted us out for another day.
Turmeric is my recent 'thing'. It looks a bit like a carrot, but is brownish, with a powerful staining yellow once peeled. Whizzed up with grapefruit juice, a peeled apple, lemon juice and some vitamins it lasts me all day. The only minor problem is that it stains your hands and everywhere else it gets to. But it's good for you apparently in some way.
We are generally a busy hive, squirreled away in our own rooms, writing essays, building empires, skateboards, reading, researching, writing, listening to music. There is the odd shower or bath thrown in, the meeting in the kitchen for meals and the all important family sit down for dinner, before an episode of whatever series we are watching. Currently it's 'Atypical' which is brilliant, funny, poignant and realistic.
Each day I encourage us all to get out, although admittedly it takes us a while to get it together and for me to persuade them all. Usually by the time we actually finally leave the house its mid afternoon and the darkness is closing in. Time just seems to goes by, as do the days and the months. It's hard to believe that it's a been a whole year of this new kind of life. But that walk or cycle out and about is just great when you actually do it.
We started to draw little pictures together, learnt from books on 'how to draw'. Previously I have only ever really been able to draw lovehearts. Its remarkable how easy it is when you follow more formulaic rules though. Everything in our book starts with a square, triangle or circle and builds from there. It's the pleasure of sitting around the table together that I think we all like the most. It's far too easy otherwise to become like strangers in our own house, if we just do our own thing all the time. A balance of space and company works best we have found.
I suggested a few new ideas for activities recently, one of which went down surprisingly well: dressing up and showing each other our clothes in a fashion show type style. We each take it in turns to put on an outfit and then parade into the kitchen for feedback. It's gone pretty well so far. It's a sort of ruse as well as I figured that we will all be able to sort out our wardrobes AND get feedback on what we look good in. To be honest I have loved this since being a little girl so I am delighted that we can have what in effect is like a family play date. It's especially fun to be able to put on some of the more glamorous outfits, with us all living in 'lounge wear' these days.
Its too cold for gardening, or cleaning the car and cooking has started to be a bit of a bore now. There are only so many cakes you can bake. I have been enjoying my hoovering increasingly though! Very very sad I suppose, and I am definitely not the OCD type, not having time to be, but since I invested in a wet / drive cordless hoover recently, like a mop and hoover in one, it's a new passtime. It's been a revelation just how immensely satisfying pushing my contraption around the kitchen and hallway can be. There really is nothing quite like a clean floor these days!
So whoever you are and whatever you are doing, if that repetition is starting to get you down, shake things up a bit. Think outside the box. You might just find that simply by breaking the repetition, life gets fun again.