Term One: Done

So, term one 2016 concluded on Thursday afternoon. For us, picking my eldest up from school following her year 7 camp (at 3:15) was the transitional moment, after which we pottered home to enter an intensive 36-hour hibernation, which has involved reading, watching TV, playing games (both computer and card / board games) and lying around. The kids and I have yet to leave our property since unlocking the door at 3:30pm Thursday, and the two elder kids are yet to leave the *house*. (The youngest did play in the yard for a while yesterday, as my husband and I did some laundry-hanging and gardening).

It was a massive, massive term. My eldest daughter started high school, with all that entailed in terms of adjustment to routine, new commitments (including not insubstantial financial commitments), and letting go. My secondborn found her groove in Grade 6, running a Lost Dogs' Home fundraiser and displaying substantial leadership skills, and also suffered from an ongoing digestive complaint that has finally resolved in us moving her to a gluten-free diet (which does seem to be working). My little one had a good entry to Grade 2, although was upset and shaken by one of her closest friends leaving the school to move to Indonesia with her family.

We had birthdays (both in our family and multiple friends' celebrations), chess, netball, swimming, and music. My husband took up bike riding to add to his distance walking. Husband and I had a wedding anniversary day in the city.

For me, this term has been by far my busiest stretch with my freelance work since I returned to freelancing last June. In the 8.5 weeks it encompassed, I have billed more time than in the 4.5 preceding months, which is great financially, but has not been cost-free in health and family terms. I now have four projects live, with a fifth pending, although the longest-term of these projects (which commenced last November) is gearing down as it approaches its final stage. I will be just as busy for the first half of term two, with Projects A and B continuing until the end of May, and Project D (a smaller editing job) taking place entirely in April. Project C will still be rolling on after May until mid-July, and my pending project may kick in anytime from early May onwards, but I am still hopeful that life will be a little less frantic in work terms after A and B are signed off and handed over, and little D is done.

I have also been fitting in quite a bit of writing, mostly poetry, and am excited to be part of a planned anthology of poetry from my Month of Poetry writing group. It's a long road ahead to publication (we're hoping for January 2017), but we have a tentative title: Limina. I am not-so-secretly tickled at the idea of having some of my poems published.

My health has been reasonable, but with some hiccups. I have had some crashing fatigue issues again and some internal concerns, which have led to my specialist starting me on a test dose of thyroxine (damn you, Hashimoto's Disease!) and scheduling me for an exploratory & maintenance surgical procedure in April. I am not overly thrilled to be needing an operation, but it is minor, and hopefully it will resolve some of the persistent niggling issues that drag me down. (Of course, right now I have a stinking cold, which jaundices me on the whole subject of health and wellbeing, but infection with the common cold is hardly a sign of the coming Apocalypse, even for my over-heated imagination!)

We also have been chipping away at home maintenance tasks - the biggest of these being the replacement of our manky old side fence with a new super-high colourbond structure that we have dubbed the Great Wall of Suburbia. (It's over 8ft high). The neighbours wanted the extra height and I was happy to go along, as I felt like it would be a good thing to help block some of the noise from their occasional night-time shenanigans, and so far so good on that front. The back fence is next in the crosshairs, but will probably not be done until spring due to financial factors for the back neighbours (and I don't want to push, I know how tough it can be).

The kids and husband are on holidays now until term two commences on 11 April. I had hoped to be too, but in fact I have a couple of things I need to finish for various projects before I can down tools. Yesterday I did not touch any work, but I will try to get it squared away by Monday night so I can enjoy a good break with my family. On Tuesday night I am taking my youngest to stay at a fancy hotel in the city and then on Wednesday we are going to see Matilda, which we are both looking forward to immensely, and I definitely want to have purged work from my headspace by then.

Ambitions for term two? I think I'll settle for holding the line - keeping everyone reasonably healthy and functional, discharging all our obligations as well as we can, and keeping on writing. I am hoping that my surgery goes smoothly and that the thyroxine helps stabilise my energy levels. I want to make sure I carve out time for family things, regardless of how busy I am with work. And I hope to arrive at the winter school holidays in a good state to enjoy the next term break.