Our Holiday ended, now adjusting back to normal

Our Holiday

This trip was a much needed vacation. Everyone got to relax and explore the UK, and my parents got to explore Kyushu and Tokyo. Yet it is bizarre that it has taken me so long to get back into a normal daily routine. It was great having more time to self, as well as letting my parents bond with their Grandchild.

Yet this was my longest holiday in a long time. Before I met my husband, I went home once a year, spending around 3 weeks home in the UK. On the other hand, we have only been on holiday for the weekend, with only one night in a hotel as a family. It really does make a difference to have gone on a longer holiday, and abroad at that.

While the main purpose of the trip was to go my younger brother’s wedding, it was also a chance for my family to meet. Seeing my LO bond with everyone was great. She adjusted quickly to the different environment and got on with most people she met. Catching up with people was long over due. To think that I hadn’t been home in over 6 years was a strange thing.

Updating my Travel Journal

It was a little difficult at first to find time to write in my travel journal at first, but I wasn’t worried too much. The first week schedule was packed with places to visit, as I wanted to show my husband around the Island where I grew up. My husband only a week off work, so I wanted to make the most of it.

For the remaining week and a half, I was able to write in my Travel Journal. Having more time to write about things was kind of relaxing. Giving me a little more freedom to just write about things in a diary style. Rather than keep track of chores and other tasks for the day. I was glad that I had everything with me that I needed (see Starting A Travel Bullet Journal for the First Time for what I took). Yet deep down, I missed taking my main Bujo with me.

During the whole trip I was able to travel a lot of destinations.

Travelling with a Toddler

It was also a first to be travelling with a toddler. She did very well for her first time on a long flight travelling to London. It helped how the flight was over night and she managed to sleep during our long flight after transferring at Hong Kong. She was a loud to watch as many movies as she wanted. Anything to keep her entertained.

However, it was little different on the way back. She did well during the flight to Hong Kong. As I wasn’t able to sleep on the plane, and I had very sore/tired eyes. I was a little tense from travelling without my husband, as I wasn’t so familiar with dealing with connecting flights so much.

Once we were on the plane to Japan, I managed to relax a little but my LO was starting to get very restless. She ended up crying 30 mins before we were going to land, as I opened my big mouth and said we were landing soon. She took that as “we are getting off soon”. It took a very long time to calm her down. I had to step away for a while to calm down. I don’t know what I would have done if my parents weren’t with me.

Proud Mummy

I am still proud of her for doing well during all the travelling. Even flying to Tokyo and getting on a train to our Hotel near Mount Fuji. It did help how I took my tablet with some Bluey episodes on it, so she was entertained for a while. For the whole trip, I was glad I was more prepared and wrote down lists of where to change trains etc. Even my Dad kept saying how he was glad that I was with them, as they would have never managed to navigate themselves around Tokyo or anywhere else in Japan.

Although the main point of the trip was for my parents to help support me for a while. I wanted them to see different parts of Japan and to relax a little.

Journal Spreads

Now that I have been back, I feel like I have spent a lot of time trying to catch on my main Bujo. I also felt like I found a more creative spark with my spreads since I got back. So the holiday time did do me some good. Perhaps it was because I wasn’t stressing about getting chores done for almost 3 weeks helped clear my head.

I am hoping now that I’ve managed to find the layout for my collect spreads, I can work on finishing my current Bujo now. I only have space December and Yearly review pages left in my Bujo. So if I work on finishing them soon, I can begin working on my new Bujo for 2024 soon after. Giving me plenty of time to work on it little steps at a time.

Dutch Doors

I also managed to experiment more with using Dutch Doors for my trackers spreads.

My trackers have always been a pain to plan out. After going through so many different style designs, I feel like I might have found a style that works for me. It may have taken me a few to get there, but I don’t know how long this style will stick.

Researching into different ways to use Dutch Doors lead me to experimenting with making ways on how to deal with empty space on my tracker pages. I found that cutting off the sides helped and made it easier to tell where my trackers where in the month collection.

However, another aspect of my trackers that I am still trying to figure how to do, is to actually colour in the trackers. I’ve tried completely colouring in the boxes, scribbling, diagonal lines, circular patterns, and for November, I am doing a plaid line style. I guess if I really to be minimal, I could always just go with a singular dot. But as you can see, I am so undecisive with how to do it.

Weekly Spread Layouts

As far as my weekly spreads go, I feel very comfortable with using more than 2 pages for each week. It has allowed me to use the space wisely and keep track of all the tasks, with enough spaces for notes and daily reflections.

For November, I am trying a different layout with splitting each day up with different categories on each row. To help separate the tasks to make it easier to read, rather than just clumping it all together. It will be a better way to read at a glance too.

My main goal for this month is to be more organised. Personally battling with lack of time management skills is never ending. Trying to do better does take a lot of work, yet most of the time I can’t do it as my toddler has other things in mind, or she is interrupting me when I’m trying to do something. So fingers crossed that this setup will me a little bit more.

The Adjusting Period

The biggest problem with adjusting back to the normal daily routine, is dealing with my anxiety. I have noticed a big increase of me being snappy for no big reason. My mind set is still in holiday mode, where I can try to spend more time on doing what I want to do. However, this doesn’t work as a SAHM, well it doesn’t feel like it to me.

Perhaps I have deviated a little too much from what my original goal of using a Bujo was for. I hope I can use the next 2 months to get me back on track while helping me to cope with the pressures of Christmas and New years.

End of Year Goals

With the constant reminder that Christmas is lurking ever closer, all thanks to stores here with Christmas displays and selling decorations. I really need to start planning more. It really doesn’t feel like its almost the end of the year, yet here we are!

In addition, after a long holiday, there is an even bigger need to budget spending. While I do have some savings, I am not strict on myself when it comes to spending. If there is something that I would like, I get it. Its just a good thing that I don’t have expensive taste. My biggest weaknesses are the stationery stores and shopping at Daiso. As they aren’t luxury items (well maybe buying too many pens can be seen as that), it won’t be breaking the bank.

Conclusion

Whereas it was a great family holiday, and spending time with parents was the best. Having that lack of extra support has really taken a toll on me mentally. I knew that raising a child in different country was going to be challenging due to differences in cultures and languages. But I never took into account how I would struggle mentally. As I was diagnosed with Anxiety and mild depression before coming to Japan. It hasn’t always been bad, until after my daughter was born.

Don’t get me wrong, I find being a mother so rewarding. Its just that I need to process everything on paper. The Bullet journal system, has been a great help to me. Since we moved into our house, I felt more pressure of keeping it clean and safe for our child. I was overwhelmed with what needed to be done, that I found writing down tasks as a check list worked amazingly well. Getting things done and ticking them off puts my mind at ease.

However, I feel like I should try to apply the same, or similar method to dealing with anxiety. This is my focus for November. I might even try to get back to sketching to help relax and calm down. But I will figure that out over the next few weeks.

~Thank you~