My Dinner Rules

So, as you may have gathered from a few posts so far this year, I am changing up a few things in my world.
I like to share them with you.
Some are silly little adjustments to things that bug me, and some are big t'ings, that I hope will improve the shape of our little family longer term.

One of the big ones so far has been this dining table.
It belongs to my Nanny.
It has been a part of my childhood memories for my whole life and I really feel that a dining tabel so often is where the memories are made and the stories unfold.

So..... we pretty much, up to the arrival of this table, ate like gypsies.
We had big day beds and a huge coffee table in our sunroom, as well as a small dining table which I use as a study desk. Also a couch/kid stool/coffee table situation in the lounge room and a bench/stool sitch in the kitchen. And an outdoor table on the deck. Plenty of options.

When we got the table, I was so excited at the grown-upedness of it.

But what I learned in the first few nights was that it aint all about the dinner parties.

Oh no.

What I noticed was that there were so many skills attatched to eating at a didning table that quite frankly, for all the attributes of our socially well-adjusted children, they sucked big time at good old fashioned family tea time.

1. Their cutlery skills were appalling. Miss 8, not too bad, Mr 6 ate like a cat with chopsticks.
2. The Give-Way rule of dinner conversation had been failed dissmally by our family O'four. Car. Crash.
3. The sit the hell down and dont get up rule of fairytale dinner times was a pipe dream of other worldliness.
4. The dont eat too fast/too slow and wait til everyone is finished ideal were UNHEARD OF.

I am stoked that a few weeks down the track, we are eating like more accomplished cats, with a pre set tabel requiring less jack in the box action, less car crash conversation and an unspoken, agreed upon pace of consumption.

In fact, the stuff of my imagination for family dinners around a dining table with chatter and manners and the creating of lovely memories, is slowly and wonderously unfolding.

 

Taking out the rubbish



So, as I've said before, I don't do New Year's resolutions, but I have made something of an effort in the Housekeeping department.
Not HOUSE keeping as in sweeping and bed making, housekeeping as in my actions which directly relate to how I operate and ultimately feel.

Difference between this and New Years Resolutions being that there's no pattern of unrealistic promise making, trying something for a while, getting distracted and ending up disappointed with myself by the first week of February.

I'm taking out the rubbish.
De-cluttering.
Tidying up a bit.
Here's how......

1. I unfollowed all the Facebook pages that mad me feel inadequate, underachieving or anxious. Sometimes you start following a great page because you feel inspired by the content and you connect with the writer/writers. Then one day you feel anxious because what they're presenting is so damn soft-focussed and supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, you feel ansty and a little bit angry..... you might even roll your eyes. I realized, it's not me, it's you.
I look at my Facebook news feed pretty regularly, so I need to be amused by it, not depressed by it.
Unfollow.

2. I stopped reading helpful articles and pages and magazines that keep telling me I need to buy stuff to be happier or more organized. BS. The way I see it I need less stuff, not more.
Be gone.

3. I left my two on-line cancer support groups. There is a normal rate in life at which bad things happen. Ditto things that break your heart, ditto things that are unfair, and unjust. When you belong to a cancer support group with 700 members, the rate of devastation is much higher than the regular amount we are meant to endure to remain mentally healthy. I felt that the support I was able to offer the other members, the daily heart-break and the path I'm on now, just didn't marry up. So I took my training wheels off and I left the two groups. Going it alone, when I was used to the contact with these people almost daily was daunting, but honestly, I haven't looked back. It just wasn't for me anymore. There are people in my life I am sharing the breast cancer experience with but they are real flesh and blood and I care very much for them. I cant be on that trip with 700 people it's just too heavy.

4. You know those undies? The ones that you hate so bad but you never realize you're wearing them til its too late to change, and you spend the whole day yanking, tugging, adjusting reefing and swearing at them. Chuck 'em out. Its an act of self love. Cause you know what happens, you'll put them in the wash, put them in your drawer and before you know it, you're spending the day in the fuckers again. Get Rid. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life. I already feel lighter and more carefree since I banished all the crappy old knickers in my life.

5. I stopped reading anything that has the word "Organized" in the title. And as it turns out, I'm actually not as tragic as I was starting to believe.

That's my advice, take out the rubbish.
Much love. xxx