Things that are working // things that are not

Getting up early is Working.  I've started setting my alarm for 5:30am.  Kids sleep until at least 6am (usually 6:30) and my mornings have started to feel longer.  Yesterday I went to the office, which meant I left at 7:25am, but I had already had 2 hours at home.  I didn't feel rushed and chaos, although I did forget my phone charger and bring headphones instead, and I forgot my water bottle, so it wasn't an ideal get out.

I did wear my new blazer and thrifted dress! But my selfie skills are super sub par.  I have a whole head, I promise.

Not getting enough sleep is Not Working I know this is the other side of an early morning and I should be going to bed at 9 but kids finish bedtime at 8:00 and then dishes and house and stuff means I don't feel like going to bed at 9.  I've been falling asleep around 10:30, which is 7 hours of sleep, and slightly under the 7.5 I sort of need to function.

Sorting the house is Working I carved out a few hours of time to sort the house earlier this week and it makes me feel better that things are (or were) more in their place, even if it's not visually obvious I've accomplished anything at all.

The dishwasher is Not Working.  On Tuesday night the dishwasher died.  Andy thinks it's the element, and a new element is £150.  We have a 10 year parts warranty, but apparently the call out to use this warranty is £150, and varying levels of responsiveness and timescale.  We got this dishwasher in August 2023 (it was a warranty replacement for one that broke 6 weeks after purchase!) and 2.5 years seems really short for a dishwasher lifespan.  According to the internet, dishwashers are meant to last 8-10 years based on 4-5 cycles a week.  We run our dishwasher twice a day (at least) so... maybe 2.5 years is like 8-10 years in normal dishwasher life?  It still seems early for it to give up.

Replacing the dishwasher is Working I am immensely thankful that I am in a position where dropping £450 suddenly on a new dishwasher isn't a catastrophic situation.  Is it how I wanted to spend £450? No.  Is it crippling? No.  We have a new dishwasher arriving Monday (with a full 5 year warranty this time)

Budgeting for our house stuff is Not Working. Every year in January we make a list of house things we want to buy and then every year by March we seem to have bought totally different house stuff.  Here was our planned costs for the year:

And here are our actuals so far

Realistically our lighting upgrade probably won't cost that or we won't do it.  It was a "to do" from 2022.  We upgraded our kitchen lighting with a side-of-the-road freebie fixture, but it's not amazing.

You may notice the Cleaner line item.  Having a cleaner is distinctively Not Working.  Maybe my standards are too high.  Maybe good cleaners are totally full so when someone can fit me in it means they are not a good cleaner.   The last cleaner combined bleach and chlorine to get the toilets clean.  Apparently that is a "cleaning hack" that also produces chlorine gas and is super dangerous.  The cleaner before was expensive and the house wasn't clean.  I'm thinking about trying a service (not an individual), for a spring "deep clean" or also about just having a messy house for longer and/or realizing that I can hoover and dust in 2 years when the twins are in school.

There are a bunch of little things that I would say are Not Working (sport, ability to focus in work, fun nice family time on the weekends) but also overall some subset of these things are Working (I do get gym buddy once or twice a week, I can sometimes focus on things and intend to, we are trying to build more family fun into the weekend and it will be easier when the sun comes out) so overall, it's all fine.

And, to sign off in a very british way... after a long awful dark crappy cold wet winter... this weather is definitely WORKING

What is working and not working for you right now?