The last couple of weeks - From Stay-at-Home-Mum to Work-at-home-Mum Diary of a Transition

I really feel as though I've been making progress in the transition to working-from-home this past couple of weeks.

The Business

I've sold a handful of items!  Yippee!  Whoop Whoop!  A couple of sales have come through friends and friends of friends through the Sunbow Designs Facebook page.  I've had a couple through Etsy, which is a global site.  And I've had a few through my shop on Folksy - a British site.  It's great to see that all three markets are working for me.

I've also kept up with the making side of things.  I'm aiming to make forty items this month, and am currently at over thirty, including sandwich wraps and snack packs, finishing a couple of wooden animals and making some brooches.  The snack packs and sandwich wraps are on Etsy and Folksy, but the brooches are too small to make the P&P worthwhile, so are for my first Craft Fair stall....

...which I've provisionally booked!!  (Must follow up on that and make sure it's firmly booked!)  It's going to be at the Ludlow Assembly Rooms on Sunday 1st March and I'm very excited and nervous.  Not sure whether Hubby might be on-call that weekend, so have asked Mum to come and stay to look after the kiddies just in case (better follow that up too!).  Will have to spend some time in the next few weeks making sure that I have enough stock to fill a stall, and that the stall is "dressed" appropriately.

I've written a few articles on i-writer, and a few blog posts, though not as many as I intended, and I've bought the most up-to-date Writers and Artists Yearbook so that I can start sending in queries and proposals for articles to magazines, which I aim to do next week.


Family

Following Christmas, it's clear that Bug is still not completely ready to give up her afternoon nap.  After a few days without one, her behaviour becomes very random, and she starts waking earlier and earlier in the morning, a sure sign of overtiredness.  So on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays when she isn't at pre-school we get into the double bed together and nap for at least an hour.  Despite needing the nap, she's reluctant to miss out on anything so won't stay in her bed for one.  A snuggle with mummy for an hour though... that she won't miss.  So I've put aside any hope of getting much done at all on those three days.

Thursdays after school C has started swimming lessons.  He's finding the pool a bit shiver-tastic, but he does enjoy it, and is already making progress and increasing in confidence.  Watching what he's doing every Thursday has also inspired little sister, and she was trying more and more things in the pool today.

I have to confess, that as my rate of work has stepped up, the rate of housework has slipped, and so has the organisation.  Last night I realised that I didn't have enough bread to make C's packed lunch!  However, I also realised that I need to be clearer in what I want everybody else to do to step up and do a bit more of this stuff too.  Before the summer we had quite a good regime where the children did a job around the house each day, usually in the morning before pre-school.  That stopped with the house-move and C starting school, but it's time to reinstate I think.  Before school is possible, but they've got into the routine of playing at that time, so I think maybe I'll have to discuss it with them to find the best time to do their jobs, so that they actually get done with minimal angst.  I'll blog further on this, and what jobs I get them doing, at some point in the next couple of weeks.

Just for me

I've managed to stay on the running wagon for a few months now.  I've occasionally got on in the past and fallen off when it gets cold or I get a cold, but so far this time I've stuck to the plan.  I don't run far, and I've just been building up slowly with a mixture of walking and running.  Yesterday was the first time that I have run the entire way for thirty minutes, which I think is about 5km.  I need to measure that now, and keep doing it, and gradually increase.  I hope to enter a 10km in April or May, though the idea of actually running in front of people instead of in country lanes in the dark is a bit scary!  I've also been swimming at least once a week, a regular 46 length stint.  I'm feeling better for it, and I think looking better too.