Season of intense busyness, and season of rest

It's been a long while since my last blog post - but I haven't been sitting around twiddling my thumbs. The last six weeks of the school term saw busyness which ramped up until the very last couple of days before the holidays, and my family and I were just 'treading water' to get through it all. It is difficult to explain, but it felt as if finding time for anything but survival was just not possible. Head down, keep going.... (mixed metaphors here, I apologise - if you're treading water, please don't put your head down!!)

The season of intense busyness

A view from above of a group of people running a race

We've had school concerts, a big birthday party, toddler group festivities, not to mention church music at the beginning of December as well as the Christmas services. We've had family visits, big times of stress, and unexpected change. The run up to Christmas felt like a marathon, but one like in the Olympics where all of the other runners are much faster and better at it than me, leaving me puffing at the back trying to keep up. (Rather like my experiences of sport at school, actually!) The sensory overload of the shops and the frustration of not being able to find what I wanted to buy led to me mostly shopping online, exchanging frustration around finding things in person for frustration with delivery delays and things delivered to the wrong address. The final present that I had ordered actually arrived on 23rd December (by which time I had bought a less good replacement, having lost hope of its arrival or indeed existence). All in all, less 'peace on earth' and more stress upon stress. (I would sum it up by my feelings about 'The Carol of the Bells' - one which I know some people feel is lovely and festive, but to me it just feels as if I am being shouted at by a Christmas carol. On previous years I have actually felt my stress levels rise when it was playing on the radio, and now I just switch it off in the first couple of bars). I wasn't going to say 'bah, humbug', but it definitely took me longer than usual to reach the point where I was able to think about the baby being born in the stable and how his coming changed our relationship with God. And how the angels sang about peace on earth, and what that means.

Season of rest

But after all that chaos, in the actual days of Christmas and up to now, we've had some of the most restful times as a family that we've had for a long time, and had been much in need of. I was finally able to enjoy listening to the carols that had been playing on Classic FM since November, and to find the playlists I have of other Christmas music and enjoy them. Our Christmas tree went up very late this year - just the weekend before Christmas - and unknown to us, this marked the beginning of the quieter, restful season that we have been enjoying ever since.

A Christmas tree


An unexpected change of plan on Christmas Day, which would usually throw at least one of us, led to us having our first Christmas just with the three of us. And it was the most relaxing we had ever had. We had a chance to take our time over our meal, to sit and watch whatever we wished on tv, and to open all of the presents from each other and other relatives that we would normally space out more during the day. We were able to just 'be'. I had already taken the decision to buy in as many ready done elements of our Christmas lunch as possible, after having volunteered to help with the church music on Christmas Day as well as Christmas Eve, and this was further helped by having plenty of foil trays to cook everything in, which saved on washing up. My husband and I sat at the kitchen table together in the morning (after I got back from church) and prepared the vegetables together in advance of when I would need to cook them. These little things, even without the other unexpected changes, made a big difference to my day and I will definitely try to include them in the future.

This restfulness (is that a word?) continued after Christmas. My husband has been lucky to have a long break over Christmas and New Year, and will go back after this weekend. This has been the longest break together since the summer, and we have all benefitted from long lie-ins, playing games together, and generally enjoying being around each other. We have all enjoyed low demands and working with our various neurodivergent sensory needs - which in my case has involved lots of jigsaws and crocheting my very large Doctor Who themed blanket, which is a very long and time-consuming project!

We will have a change of pace from the weekend, when we have to start getting ready for the coming term and all that it brings. Hopefully it will be more of a slow build-up and less of a sprint. January - March is traditionally my hardest time of year, so I am going to try to come up with some strategies to keep myself going until the spring arrives. I will keep you posted!

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