Daily routine

I am half way into a five-day stint looking after my four-year-old talkative granddaughter and fortunately I have a routine going. Rise late, breakfast, walk down the beach, play time, lunch, cartoons, swimming, dinner time, bath and then bed. I am writing this during cartoon time.

It has been a delight having Kylah, but one forgets quickly just how much time and energy a busy pre-schooler takes up, especially one that does not require an afternoon nap. If that was all one had to do that would be fine but I seem to be busy myself, with a number of things on the go at once. On Monday, my friend uploaded my children’s book onto Amazon only to find that the desired fit was not doable. A lot of correspondence followed between her and me and the illustrator and me. At one point I had to ask Stephen, ‘’could you please just talk with Kylah for a few minutes so that I can deal to this. Kylah has an amazing vocabulary and one can have a perfectly adult conversation with her, just with lots of questions.

That was the same day Genevieve dropped Kylah off. I had invited Willow, Genevieve and her parents, who have travelled over from France, for lunch. I had to apologise, through a Google translator, for having to constantly check my phone, and for disappearing every now and again for a phone conversation as my friend, uploading my story to Amazon, needed codes sent to me, or more information.

Yesterday, my Whangarei friend arrived for the night, so once again, I have been trying hard not to divert too much of my attention away from my guests. There is nothing worse than being with someone who is not present. That has been me for a good part of the last three days. I have found myself constantly apologizing. ‘’Sorry, I just have to take this call, attend to this’’.

As well as all this, my brother received correspondence from a person from South Africa, a genealogy buff. My great grandfather’s second wife had gone on to marry her grandfather and there were lots of questions from her which became lots of correspondence between my brother and me, all at the same time as this other was going on. My great-grandfather had been involved in a scandal back in the early 1920s leaving his second wife a widow. This South African woman had a lot of questions as to his behaviour at the time.

This busy-ness and everything happening at once seems to be the story of my life lately. I know there will be a message somewhere for me in all of this, so when Kylah leaves, I shall sit down and meditate around it.

I did make an intention to say yes more than no as one of my New Year’s resolutions. Perhaps this was not a good intention to have made after all as the busy-ness doesn’t seem to have stopped. Or is it the new energies of 2024?

Whatever it is, my next activity in my routine is an afternoon swim. I am looking forward to that as the temperatures here are sweltering.