What one thing do you do to increase quality in your life?

[Springhasspung]

What one thing do you do to increase your energy, or improve the quality of your day, I'm trying to steal little ideas that could make my life with two dcs under 5 and a busy DH tips are appreciated!

Another tv tip. Look at the tv guide or whatever. Record or make not of what you want to watch and just watch that. I cannot fathom the idea of flicking between channels and watching stuff you arent really interested in. Reading, taking a bath, crocheting etc are a bit better use of time for me

Oh yes, nothing used to give me more pleasure than putting an elastic band around a puzzle for the school Fair and popping a note under it to say "Still has 100 pieces". Ooh and once I was called to the Head's office before school started and my heart pounded. ........the school had changed it's jumper supplier and there had been complaints about how the new ones were wearing - and she wanted to see what I thought because my DC were always well turned out and I was reliable. She scared me witless and made me late for work but I preened even though I had to tell her that I had had to sew some threads back in on the sleeves because they were unravelling

Cleaning lady visits for two hours on a Friday morning for £19 inc agency fees. Bliss to come home to for the weekend! Better than a takeaway! Joy.

Ooh another one! Once a month I make sure I have a 'keep free' day. No chores, no outings just me and the DCs. A chill out day. I love it. If it's in my diary and someone suggests doing something I tell them I'm busy

Also, my dd (10) loves cooking and can knock up simple stuff with minimal supervision now - curry, spag bol, chilli, she can even do a lasagne if we use white sauce in a jar - a roux is still a step too far. Pancakes, omelettes etc. So I shamelessly utilise her sometimes and we chat whilst she cooks and I check emails, pay bills etc. I consider this as building her life skills as I find it a bit shocking that some people never get the chance to learn to cook these days.

I make a tea and put it in my travel mug every morning to take with me on my commute, and drink it while reading a good book. Makes my morning a little nicer.

This is going to sound really twee but I after a bout of anxiety and depression I take time to count my blessings. I acknowledge things can be crap but dust myself off as best I can and get on with it. My quality of life has improved because I'm focused on the good not the bad. That's enough before we make myself puke!

Elvis - that sounds lovely! I try to book a wednesday pm (no school Wed pm here) as often as possible as holiday and we do lunch and go visit something that dd wants to do. Girly bonding sort of stuff. We have a weekend planned next month as I get free train tickets from work.

Fresh air and some exercise every day. Some days this will be a run but even getting out at lunchtime for a 20 min walk around the city centre makes me feel so much better. When I am at home with dc we always get out in the morning . Sometimes we will have picnic etc but even a trip to park and can have a relaxing afternoon as have run off some steam.

harderthanitlooks not vom inducing at all -quite the reverse. Glad that works for you.

sugarhoops

No not too late at all, I am just sowing mine now,

Monty Don did an experiment last year to try and end the on going...."when to sow arguments..but it worked out all pretty much the same", whether you sow early or late, I think the early ones where very slightly ahead, however later may last longer providing no frosts.

Anyway, I usually do them now ish, in seed trays in doors, then plant them out when fear of frosts have gone. This is the balancing act, sew to early and you get them too root bound and you cant put them out due to frost, leave it too late and they take a while to get going but still worth it, as they last till October....

This year I am hardening them off more quickly, and want to sow them out as soon as possible before they become too root bound. I will hold some back in case of frosts, but I want to get them out sooner rather than later.

Cosmos and Zinnia are wonders....both germinate very quickly, so easy to grow and you get soo much value from them, bushy border fillers, on going flowers, wonderful. Again, sow in seed trays or pots and try and get them out before they get root bound, sow now....not to late at all.

Hope that helps.

BTW I grow all sorts of sweet pea but I have noticed the ones that they say could be exhibition have good strong and longer stems, easier to put in vases.

elivis another great one, someone mentioned something like that a while ago on a thread, so my version is to not do chores when the family is all together...I do boring stuff when its just me...

Harderthanitlooks - not twee at all, in fact very sensible. It's not unusual for psychologists to give 'homework' to those with depression of writing down three good things which happened to you each day. Doesn't have to be amazing, can just be 'it was a sunny day' or 'there was no traffic on the way to work' or whatever.

Having a husband who brings me breakfast in bed every day. It is truly wonderful and allows me to wake up and face the day in such a better mood than I would be able to otherwise.

I always have garlic butter in the freezer, along with a bag of mozzarella (that pre-grated stuff with starch in, not a fresh ball, if that makes sense). Then whenever I have some suitable bread that's otherwise going to get wasted, I can have cheesy garlic bread.

I find even the shittiest day is hugely improved by garlic bread

Icansmellsummercoming - thanks so much! Off to garden centre tomorrow to buy seeds

Nine months ago we downsized to a much smaller house. I can't tell you how much better I feel living in a more manageable space. I can keep the rooms clean and tidy and don't stress about the home anymore. An unexpected bonus!

These are great

Electric blanket-I love it!

Ps talk of de clutter. I've got too many clothes and need to sort through-what's the best way to go about this?

Having read this thread, I really want to be far more organised. I will give this a go, because clutter really stresses me out and I end up in circles with piles of everyone else's belongings. Not fun.

I have my groceries and vegetables delivered, that has by far been such a positive step for us. A week's worth of food shopping would take an hour with a huge trolley. I pay around £1 for the delivery. No stress at all

I would love to have a cleaner, not on our budget radar at the moment. Instead, I try to spend 40 mins or so whizzing around the house if DH will entertain the DCs.

I would love to habitually batch cook, I need to start a 'to do' list, now!

Exercise. I prioritise it. There is always something else to be done but I don't do it till I have exercised.

Food. I try to spend my money on the best quality food I can afford. Meat from the local farm. Veg box.

Cleaner - I only got her a year ago and it's been brilliant a d has freed up so much time.

I definitely need to declutter!

I recently bought a line-a-day diary, and every day I write in it one thing I've done that day that's been new, or special, or nice. My rule is that only positive things can go in there - no complaints, no bland statements ("tired today" "OH driving me mad" "rainy. stayed inside" etc), nothing mundane.

Instead it's just little positive things like - "had a delicious hot chocolate today", "lovely chat with mum on phone", "wore silver nail varnish for first time" "saw pictures of Chinese rainbow mountains for first time - amazing!" "heard a cuckoo" "made homemade california roll - first time kids have ever made sushi" etc.

I know it sounds like a world of cheesy, buy it's been totally great, for three reasons. The first is that it makes me look back on my day every night before sleep, focusing on any new or positive experiences I have had so I can write them in my book. This generally puts me in a good mood. The focus on doing new things also stops me feeling like I'm in a rut when otherwise my day is quite mundane.

The second is that flicking through my diary gives me pleasure - to look back on small but happy memories from a month or two ago is really nice.

The third - and perhaps most important - is that if I'm having a crappy day and am in a funk and don't want to do anything except get home from work and slump in front of some crap TV, having the diary forces me to do some little thing I'm "proud" of - going for a walk, trying a new chocolate bar, making salad cream from scratch*, writing a letter or card to an elderly aunt - so that I have something to write about!

Usually, once I've done the small but pleasant thing just to write it in my diary I feel loads better and my bad mood is gone.

*I'm kind of obsessed with making industrial food from scratch - my next goal is Findus crispy pancakes

Drugs.

Also plastic surgery.