I can’t believe it’s almost the end of 2020. Somehow, this year has whizzed despite the fact that at times it felt like the days were crawling by. Once again, it’s that time of the month to link up with Heather Gerwing’s Share Four Somethings Saturday.

Something Loved

Earlier this month I realised I still had a chunk of annual leave left to take before the year ended. Because of COVID, pretty much everyone at work was in the same boat. No one had been able to really go anywhere but the policy at work is either use those days before Dec 31st or lose them. No carryover. This has meant that I’ve had a number of odd days off here and there throughout this month and I have loved the opportunity to rest and breathe.

Something Read

I haven’t done much reading this month but I’ve used my downtime to catch up on recordings from the BREATHE conference. I had registered to attend but didn’t get a chance to join in October when it was live. I guess this is one of the silver linings in the cloud that is 2020 – in previous years this conference is normally held in-person in the States. It would have been highly unlikely that I would have attended due to the distance but because of the pandemic, it was held as a virtual conference this year and so I got to ‘attend’. I’m enjoying watching the sessions and improving my knowledge of all things pertaining to writing – poetry, prose, editing, publishing, etc. I believe the recordings are still available for purchase on their website if anyone is interested.

Something Treasured

My daughter turned 6 this month – woop! It was good that we could have my parents over. Although we are part of their support bubble, we’ve minimised visits and hadn’t seen them physically for a number of weeks (I get whatever is needed delivered instead, etc.) and so my daughter was absolutely delighted to get back from school and find them at home. We cut cake, opened presents, ate Burger King (that was the birthday girl’s request) and at the end of the day she said, “this was the best day ever”. High praise that really delighted this mama’s heart 😁

Something Ahead

What else is ahead except for Christmas? But before that, let’s talk elves. A couple of years ago, I got my children an elf on the shelf each. Now, I don’t go all out every night like some of the really creative and humorous things people err…I mean the elves get up to – our elves mostly tend to move around the house (they are restricted upstairs to minimise chaos and cleanup) and sometimes get into mild mischief like climbing door handles or knocking over the toy box. The kids and I have an agreement that whatever mess the elves make, they clean it up – otherwise my day will be filled up cleaning up after four mischief makers! The elves will be coming back out on the 1st of Dec and it’s always fun to see the look on the kids’ faces and eavesdrop on their theories about the inhabitants of the North Pole. I suspect my 9yr old knows the real truth but he plays along for his 6yr old sister and I just stay out of such deep philosophical conversations, lol.

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(Image credit: top – Brett Jordan and bottom – jeshoots.com from Unsplash)