In Honor of Spring: Out with the Old

I am going to be honest with y’all: I am having a really hard time finding the motivation to write. Most of the time, when an idea comes to mind, I wave it off and ask myself “What’s the point?” I think this is because my heart just really isn’t in it. I chalk that up to a combination of things.

1.)  I’m still homesick and being homesick drains your energy for doing anything.

2.)  This move, and some extra, on-the-side and completely unrelated things, have completely stressed me out and gotten me down in the dumps more than once and for longer than I should have allowed. I’m still struggling.

3.)  The weather. I am one of those unfortunate people whose moods are affected by the weather. Don't judge me. I don’t like cloudy, overcast, windy, dreary, blah days. They make me feel…well, “blah.” I’m from the South. Clear blue skies, brilliantly bright sunlight, and warm temperatures are what make me happy. So needless to say, England was not the best place for me to move to.

(Seriously, in just these few short lines, I have stopped myself twice to ask why I am bothering.)

But I don’t think these issues will go away on their own. I have to take charge.

So this is me taking charge. Starting with a whole new look, a new weekly segment, and a new dedication to writing and publishing posts. I hope the dedication will turn into motivation and spill over into other lacking areas of my life at the moment...

 

The new weekly segment has been in my mind for a while and it is really inspired by my homesickness and coping with being out of my comfort zone (in so many ways that I am sure I will be permanently scarred somehow.) I am calling it “Miss You Mondays” and it will feature an element of my normal life back in the states that is missing or completely unavailable here in the UK (and that I miss more than words can describe). This segment will allow me to vent about the changes I am having to make and will give you a peek into how different the UK is from the US.

And today is your lucky day! Know why? Because it is the first installment of the new segment! So here we go.

Today I am sorely missing: an American-sized washing machine.

To describe UK washing machines as “tiny” completely misses the mark.

I mean, look at this thing.

 

 

One load of our clothes in this consists of maybe two pairs of my pants (or one of my husband’s, or three of my kids’) and maybe three additional shirts. Or I can wash three bath towels. Literally.

Ask yourself how an American family of four manages to wash all of its weekly laundry in this thing.

 

 

Answer: It doesn’t.  

So as I write to you know, I am sitting at the “laundrette” on base, where my (several) weeks’ laundry is going through the motions in four of the industrial-size washers here.

 

By my guess, and I’m only estimating, that is about two loads of an American-sized washer in each industrial washer. So I am currently killing eight loads of laundry. And I didn’t even bring it all.

 

Yes, we had that much.

 

Sigh.