New Year Blues?

Mathew seems to be suffering a bit of January downness. Mornings, especially, he has become rather quiet and takes a lot longer to get ready. No child has ever been a huge fan of school, I know, but he has gone from bouncing around the house enthusiastically to moping lethargically around the kitchen, and we're not entirely sure why. We've asked if anything has happened to lessen his enjoyment of school, but it doesn't appear that there's anything going on. So maybe it's just the time of year, and the post-Christmas downturn that lots of us suffer from. I'm hoping he hasn't inherited my SAD issues, so I'm going to keep a close eye on it, but we'll see how he is by the weekend, and if he doesn't pick up we'll maybe have a chat with his teacher to see how he is in class.

In other news, I seem to keep using words that look as if they are nonsensical when I see them, even though I know I have used them correctly. The latest examples are 'manouever' (from yesterday's posting) and 'downness' (from this one). I'm still not convinced that I spelt MANOUEVER right at any point in my musings, while DOWNNESS just looks like an invented word that I've put in a sentence because I'm too lazy to look up what the real one is. And don't get me wrong - I'm not against doing that, and it's a crime I've committed often, but it does bother me a bit when I look at what I've written and feel like I've made a mistake, and it seems to be happening often.
So, any clear guidance on correct usage of either word, and indeed correct spelling, would be very welcome. I would look it up online myself but I just know there would be conflicting statements based on American or British standards and I would just get more and more confused. And also, y'know, I can't really be bothered and it really isn't that important.

RC 14-1-26