Skip to main content

How to get humdrum but happy

December's issue of Psychologies has this as a strapline. Coach Jessica Chivers suggests ways of finding even dull (necessary) housework activities more appealing. She talks of reframing the chore - I find that phoning my mum makes emptying the dishwasher much more enjoyable.

She also talks of exchanging the bucket list of "things to do before you die". Okay I don't think many of us would sniff at seeing the Northern Lights, but how about standing on Southsea beach, facing the Isle of Wight, during Cowes Week. Try and beat that contrast of white sails against the blue sea.

I'm thinking of creating my own list; not a bucket, rather a suitcase filled daily with "things" that have made my life happier, made me more content. Maybe this is where my blog is heading...

Comments

  1. Ladybird World MotherSaturday, November 09, 2013

    Like the suitcase idea.... I have a little book that I put down three things every day that are a blessing... amazingly am now nearly reaching the end of the year and have done three things every day! That makes almost a thousand. As for 're-framing the chore', will have a go. LOATHE ironing.... how can I re-frame that?!! Do it naked and outside in the rain?! Neighbours might get a bit of a shock. xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Humdrum MumThursday, November 14, 2013

      Um can you watch a fav program on tv while ironing? Downton?! -HMx

      Delete
  2. Professor MungletonThursday, November 14, 2013

    Defo! Or listen to music and bounce as the iron whizzes back and forth. I have a stereo in the laundry room for that sole purpose

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Talk to me...

Popular posts from this blog

Would I Lie To You board family game review

Would I Lie To You? "The game of believable lies and unbelievable lies ", linked into the TV show of the same name. Purchased:  December 2017 in Waterstones, for around £20 In a nutshell: These TV show-affiliated games usually show themselves up (Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Top Gear) but this game is fun and easy to play (if a little modified) as a family. You don't really need specialist knowledge to play, just the ability to lie! Every year for Christmas, I like to buy a board game to play, even though no games better either Ludo (in which my dad is the reigning cheater-champion, and argues to high heaven over the rules about doubling up or how to place your counters in "Home") or Rummikub (which we can now play with two packs of cards lest we forget the game). This year, Would I Lie To You caught my eye in Waterstones (other emporiums - emporia? - for book lovers are [locally] unavailable). It's a game, it says, for 2-8 players; however we dec...
5 comments
Read more

A walk from Portchester Castle to Salt Cafe

Well we just had to choose the worst day of the year to walk. The date had been set weeks before - who knew there would be the worst winds of the decade almost on this very day? But we didn't want to be beaten. We will walk to the cafe. At least it wasn't raining! Parking is free next the castle and obviously, it wasn't busy this day! We set off around the outside of this medieval monument. The sea wall affords views across to Portsmouth and Gosport, and Portsdown Hill if you look behind. You can see the Spinnaker Tower in my photos, but you'd have to zoom in. The sea wall leads to a walk along a path, switching between grass (a much more sheltered area) beside a playpark, and the beach. It is an easy, flat walk, made slightly harder in the wind. After 1.75 miles, you reach the Salt Cafe (@saltcafe66). This took us one hour - that wind did slow us down! I've had a breakfast bap there before and remember it being delicious, but slightly expensive. But today, we...
Read more

That's not my Elf, he's too rude and noisy

At nursery drop-off this morning, I was handed part of Elf's transfer to school pack, you know, the bit that the pre-school teacher had completed and also that Elf had drawn in (looking worryingly like a blaze that Fireman Sam ought to be putting out instead of rescuing Norman's head from a saucepan with the "jaws of life"). Reading it, I had a sense of "That's not my child" in the way that the above tractor book is written. Surely, the little angel you've so kindly described here doesn't really exist, and certainly doesn't pretend to be my little Elf? So here is "This is not my child" book, by A Humdrum Mum. That's not my child He's too rude and noisy That's not my child He's uncaring and unkind (to me sometimes) That's not my child He wants to sit in front of the TV not run around in the garden That's not my child He won't help me take in the washing This is my child ...
10 comments
Read more