Lockdown Targets

As lock-down here in the UK are extended by a further three weeks, I wonder what kind of lock-downer you are?  Are you a planner, with goals, targets and lists?  Are you a plate-spinner, trying to keep all those plates spinning but never sure where the next one will come from?  Or are you a drifter, not worrying too much and taking each day as it comes?

I don't think anybody who knows me will be surprised to find that I'm a planner.  I have a very love-hate relationship with lists.  There have been times when my lists have got out of control - if there's too much on there and I don't feel I'm getting things done it can make me feel anxious and despondent.  On the other end, if I see that I am making good progress through my lists then I can feel very good about myself.  I have tried to live without lists (I always ditch them when I'm away on holiday) but I can't keep it up for long.  I always end up wondering what I'm missing, what I'm forgetting to do... and I start writing things down so I don't forget... and before you know it I've got a list again.

So of course I have a plan for lock-down.  I would hate to come out feeling that I've wasted the potential of these twelve weeks.  Of course, as I've posted previously, I'm putting my own and my family's happiness as top priority.  I am also still being paid my (part time) salary to work from home.  That doesn't mean I can't have other targets too.  I won't go into detail here but here are some headlines.  I'd love to know what your aims are while you are at home.

• school work
• reviewing MFL provision at school
• supporting and planning for my Beavers and Cubs.
• planning adult training for Hereford and Worcester for Autumn and 2021
• supporting the training, validation and compliance of adult volunteers in the County.
• creative writing
• build up freelance writing
• tame garden
• finish decorating a few rooms in the house that have been started
• come out a few kg lighter and a lot fitter
• catch up with some of my craft projects

Why it's okay NOT to do Joe Wicks

No offence meant to Joe Wicks here.  I've done a couple of his workouts and the man is a legend.  The internet is bursting at the seams with activities that you can plug into or do at home at the moment.  There is so much choice out there.  The issue is that so many of us are trying to work from home and educate from home as well as just existing.  All these activities are a good source of inspiration for parents who are used to out-sourcing their children - gym classes, Cubs, swimming lessons, boxing and so on.  However, it does leave you with a vague sense that if you aren't doing Joe Wicks every morning, followed by online art lessons, online Steve Backshall, online Scout activities and online education, as well as downloading all the free resources being offered by the BBC, Twinkl and every other portal on the interweb, then you are somehow failing your children.

I'm here to tell you that this is not so.  

What is important is maintaining sanity and love within your family.  

In a time full of financial and health anxiety, in a time when people are concerned about their jobs and their family and friends, in a time when we are facing an unprecedented global pandemic, that's when we are all confined to our homes and cut off from friends and from the outdoors.  A walk alone in the woods is my choice of activity to re-balance and to restore my sense of self and optimism.  We normally have a healthy mix of society and solitude in our lives.  Time to think and time to talk.  At the moment we have some people forced into solitude, while others are denied it.  It's hard for our children too: used to the routine and society of school, time and space to run and jump, laugh hysterically at the daftest things, feel proud of themselves when they get the right answer or seek solace with friends if they don't.  Now they're stuck at home with only a limited understanding of why. 

I'll be honest.  I'm finding this hard.  I'm supposed to be self-isolated for another ten weeks.  I want to do a good job for the families I'm supporting as a teacher and as a Scout volunteer; I want to get the house and garden looking good; I want to build up my writing again; I want to get fit... all during this period of isolation.  What I'm learning though, is that looking after myself and my family is going to have to take priority here.  In the last few days I've had a deep sense of anxiety, unease and disquiet.  I have been irritable and tearful.  Miss Busy, who is very nine: noisy, messy and emotional, is finding the lock-down overwhelming and needing her mummy.  My husband, when he gets home from a busy and tense day as a hospital doctor, needs a lot of support too - for him, planning for the future helps him deal with the present.  

So I'm remembering that I need to prioritise cuddling with a film over replying to e-mails;  Playing a board game with the children over cleaning the floor;  While my to-do list doesn't get any shorter, reaffirming connections within the family, building our strength in this time of uncertainty, seems the more important task.  When this is over, like the flowers that grow back more vigorously after they've been cut back, we will be ready to bloom vibrantly.  When we look back, we'll think of 2020 as the year that made us.

So don't feel that you have to be busy all the time.  Don't feel that you need to keep up with all the activities and resources.  Don't worry about fancy-schmancy specially-created internet resources and lessons.

Do your best to keep up with the things that you have to do for your work and your children's education (don't worry too much about this - they are remarkable at learning when nobody is teaching them, and will also soon fill in the gaps when they get back to school).  Mostly though, it's okay to do the simple things, to spend time just being, and just connecting with your children.

Here are a few things you can do as a family: 

1) play with the kids - get the Lego or the doll house out and get down there and play with the children.

2) Do the housework together.  This one may be a harder sell for older kids, but I taught Mr Build-it to iron shirts yesterday (we had to submit a video for his Scout Skills Challenge), you're teaching them valuable life skills, and its definitely more fun when you do it together - and that's a life-lesson in itself.

3) Play silly games like charades and hide-and-seek.  A daft friend posted a video of herself playing noughts-and-crosses with her dog.  (ask and I'll tell you how - very amusing!)

5) Rediscover peaceful crafts that you can just sit and do together - drawing, painting, rock painting, crochet, knitting and sewing.  Or if those don't appeal - how about wood-work or creating miniature models for Warhammer or a model railway.  These things take time and lets face it, we're not going anywhere in a hurry, and you get the satisfaction of creating something.

6) Bake and cook together.  Explore those cook books and come up with some recipes that you can make.  (Forward planning is useful here as given the shopping limitations for most of us at the moment.)

Most of all, try to relax.  Don't try to do too much.  Press the "Reset System" button on your life.

Advice to a new mum

Quite a few friends and colleagues are having babies for the first time, and I've thought often about what advice I would or should give.  Here's where I've got to:

1. Take all advice with a pinch of salt.  Everybody wants to give a new mum advice - I'm writing this blog!  You don't have to follow it.  There are many many "correct" ways to bring up children.  As long as you love them, you can't go far wrong.  What works for some families won't work for others, what works for some children may not work for yours.  Muddle through, make mistakes, find what works for you.
2. Nearly all the baby paraphernalia that they try to convince you to buy is a complete waste of money, and you don't need to fit out "the nursery".  Mostly, baby won't spend any time in its nursery unless it's with you or asleep, so it won't care two hoots about the carefully picked out colour scheme and wallpaper with rabbits on.  Paint a calm neutral colour and wait until it begins to show some interest in stuff as a toddler to start accessorising.  As for the rest, it needs a car seat, a buggy, a cot, bottles if you're bottle feeding, nappies, clothes and that's about it.  Muslin squares are the exception.  You need muslin squares.  Get a pack of ten, you'll use them as a sun shade on the front of the buggy, to mop up baby sick, to lay on the floor if you need to put baby down somewhere clean and many other uses I don't remember.  I just remember they were very useful.  We also bought a very cheap baby bouncer from a car boot which we cleaned up and was great so you could put baby down and they could still see you.  And a friend made a lovely blanket for the floor for when baby had tummy time, and later when they started playing on the floor. 
3. Find other mummies, preferably open and honest ones.  It's great to know you are not alone in going through some of the stuff you go through as a new mum.
4. Try to get out every day.  This doesn't need to be far.  A walk to the shops, a wander around the park with the buggy for example.  It's good for morale to be up and dressed, especially on a day when you've had no sleep and baby won't stop crying.  A change of scenery will do you both good, and if you can combine this with a meet up with a fellow mummy, so you can compare notes and support one another then even better.  This is why they invented "mother and baby" or "toddler" groups.  They can be cliquey, they can be scary and some of them are awful, but if you find a welcoming one with those honest mums who look after one another, then its worth it.
5. On the same count, don't feel you have to fill baby's day with clubs and classes.  Baby doesn't care whether they've been to baby sensory, or baby yoga or baby music lessons.  Baby wants to spend time with mummy.  As mentioned earlier, a walk to the shops or around the park or coffee at a friend's house is plenty.  There are some days when you'll be very tired.  There are some days when baby will be cranky.  There are plenty of days when sitting on the sofa cuddling the baby and watching daytime telly are perfectly acceptable ways to while away the hours.  Also, your baby will begin to fall into a napping routine at some point and you'll want to encourage this, because healthy sleep patterns = happy baby (and mummy).  Once this starts to happen, ditch any regular activities that interfere with baby nap time.
6. All this advice is written with the assumption that its mum at home with the baby.  Of course, all this advice applies equally to dad being the main carer at home, and my next piece of advice is to share the load.  Dad needs time to bond with baby too, and should be involved with all the decisions about how you manage things.
7. Having a baby around the place isn't always easy, and being a new mum at home can be lonely.  Don't feel you are alone.  Everybody will tell you to "relish these years, they go so fast".  They do.  But sometimes it doesn't feel like that at four in the morning when baby just won't go to sleep, or when you realise that you haven't got dressed or had a shower for four days because baby wails every time you put it down... those days seem very very long.  Pick up the phone.  Call a friend.  Have a cry or a moan or a rant.  If they are a good friend they will remember or understand.  Ask them to come over and hold the baby so you can have a shower.  Ask them to hang the washing and mop the kitchen while you and baby have a nap together.  

My children are now seven and eight.  I don't remember the details of my time as a new mum, though looking back at this blog from 2010 and 2011 gives a bit of an insight to what we were getting up to.  I do know that we had some great days, and we had some harder days.  I also know that the time I spent with my babies and toddlers has helped build the relationship we have today.  Having babies isn't always easy, but it's worth every moment as you watch that baby grow into an independent young person.

On being a working mum

Over the last six years I have had increasing admiration for my mum and dad, my sisters and all working parents out there.  

Hubby and I made the decision that I would be a stay-at-home-mum.  We wanted me to be there for the children in those early years.  It worked well.  I enjoyed being with the children, we played, went for walks, went swimming, made stuff, played with friends, baked and had a great time.  In the last year before they went to school they started attending pre-school, to build more structure into their day and get used to being with other children and adults.

Throughout all this I was watching my sisters.  My younger sister has taken maternity leave and gone right back to work full-time.  She's worked full-time continuously and her two children are now eight and six.  My elder sister has four children, currently aged 7 (almost 8!), five, three and six months.  She worked full time initially after the first baby, then on moving to Devon went part time, and continued working part time as babies number 2 and 3 were added to the family, and then started up her own freelance business from home, adding number 4 to the brood.  I have for some time thought these two were superwomen.  While I spent my days playing, making stuff and having a great time, they were out at work, but they still also managed to incorporate time for and with the children, the mountains of laundry, getting packed lunches sorted, and birthday cakes and birthday parties, juggling child-care, nurseries, sports days, looking after the children when they were poorly, filling in the slips at the bottom of letters.  I take my hat off to them.


I tried working from home myself for a while (as regular followers will know), while Bug was at pre-school two days each week.  I did okay.  I earned a little bit of money, but not enough to call a living.  There was too much else to do: PTA, voluntary stuff for the pre-school committee or the Scouts, walking the dog, getting the groceries, doing the laundry and housework and getting some exercise.

I'm now two weeks into my REAL WORKING MUM journey (even though I'm only working 2.5 days per week at the moment) back as a Primary School Teacher.  I'll pat myself on the back because I'm doing okay.  The children have clean and ironed uniform to wear.  They have packed lunches when they are supposed to and letters do seem to be getting signed and returned on time (so far).  We have dinner on the table each evening.  I'm also managing to keep up with my own workload of planning and marking that happens outside of school hours (as well as continuing with freelance writing commitments and a couple of craft orders on Etsy and Folksy).  I've forgotten the Forest School clothes once, and forgot to leave their booster seats for the person picking them up another time.  I've yet to see how I'm going to manage to leave school promptly at 4.45pm after a staff meeting, drive for 20 minutes, pick the children up, drive for 20 minutes (if the traffic into Hereford is clear!!!!), and get them changed for a 5.30pm swimming lesson.  This is going to take a minor miracle to achieve successfully week after week.  I do have a pile of letters next to me from school and Beavers waiting to be read, noted in the calendar, signed and returned.  I'm conscious that I haven't heard the readers at school that I'm supposed to hear on a Friday, and that I haven't put up my French display yet.

It hasn't always been perfect or easy these last few years as a Stay-at-Home-Mum, but I've had a ball, it has definitely been worth it and I wouldn't change it for the world.  

I was ready to go back to work, and I'm relishing the changes and challenges that come along with that.  I am beginning to feel again that I am about more than laundry, bum-wiping and baking, and to stimulate my grey cells with research, planning fun lessons and real grown-up conversations.  I'm planning to get up to full time after Christmas.

Combining the two is my next adventure, and to those of you superwomen (and men) out there who combine parenting with work without making a complete hash of it - I salute you.

From Stay-at-Home-Mum to Work-at-home-mum... diary of a transition

My journey from being a stay-at-home-mum to two gorgeous, vivacious and characterful little monkeys, to being a work-from-home mumpreneur has been a little bumpy just lately. 

At the moment C is at school every day, and Bug is at pre-school two days a week 9-3.  On the three days that she's at home we go to a play-group, go swimming, do the shopping, walk the dog, go to play-parks, do housework and play together.  On the two days that she's at pre-school I try to cram in things like going swimming, taking the dog for long walks, and working.  In the evenings I'm trying to work, do housework, do exercise, walk the dog and occasionally do some Scouting.

I'll be honest here, things haven't been as easy as we hoped since the move from Scotland to Herefordshire.  Hubby's job is hard mentally and emotionally, and he's taken quite a while to settle into that, and been pretty exhausted when he gets home, so I've been doing pretty much all the dog-walking and housework etc.  We're also both suffering a bit from the tension of having an empty house sitting up in Scotland which is taking a very long time to sell and costing money.  Don't get me wrong, things could be a lot worse, the house we are renting is not at all bad, it's just not ours, and we can't make it feel like home because we know that as soon as we sell the house in Scotland, we'll be buying down here.  We're just unsettled and edgy.

As you'll know if you've been reading these posts, I've been trying to do a combination of writing and crafting, hoping to build up a portfolio of work and sales, enough that I feel confident to work from home once Bug is at school.

I was doing okay.  I was working hard at the writing and getting a bit of money for that, and I was selling a few bits and pieces on Folksy and Etsy, but it was not enough to call a proper business yet, and a craft fair with zero sales was also a bit disheartening.  We've managed fine on Hubby's income for the last six years, so it's not that we're desperate for cash... its more my peace of mind and sanity really.  I feel like I've so much more to offer in life than the ability to iron and cook.  I'm reluctant to spend any money on me because I'm not earning any, so would really like to contribute financially - so I can buy clothes when I need them, decorate and buy nice things for the house and garden and so we can go on more holidays together.  I NEED to be working and feeling more fulfilled now - I'm not saying that I'm not fulfilled as a mum, I love it, and I've loved being at home with the children and I know that I've done the very best I can for them (and they are awesome), it's just that I've reached a point now where I need to be moving on and doing more.

So anyway, I realised (actually Hubby pointed out, during a rare argument one evening) that I was spending loads of time tapping away at the computer and getting frustrated with him and the kids for interrupting me when I was "working", but actually Bug isn't even at school yet, I'm actually not making any money, and surely the whole point of it all is to make family life better.  So I took a deep breath and re-evaluated (again).  I took my foot off the pedal.  I've concentrated on doing a few jobs around the place to make this rented house a better place to be, since we're going to be here for at least the next couple of months.  I've tidied up the garden and planted lots of pots of flowers, I'm painting the back door, I made a tepee for the children to play in the garden, I painted Bug's bike.  I'm still trying to write and make stuff to sell - but that's only when I have time.  Family needs to come first.

Then I started applying for part-time jobs starting in September.  Mostly teaching jobs, but not all.  Anything which appears to fit my interests, experience and aspirations and also fits in around school.  One in particular really sparked my interest as a job I would love to do, and since I'm trying to be better at self-esteem I can say (not boasting) I know I would be good at - I'll likely hear in the next couple of days whether I've been short-listed.  I'm not holding my breath.  I know I'd be good at it, but I don't quite have the experience listed in the person spec, and I know that if I am short-listed it will most likely be as the "wild-card".  Plus, before I settled down in Scotland for seven years, for various reasons, I kept moving around the country, so my CV is somewhat patchy, and now I've had a six-year break.  I guess that makes me a bit of a gamble.

If I get one of the jobs I'm applying for, that's great!  It will be part-time, which will allow me to work hard and earn some money, but I'll still have time to be there for the kids, to do the house-work (I am going to pay somebody to do the ironing though!), to get out and get some me-time, and to continue writing and crafting in my spare time.

If I don't get one of the jobs, then I'll keep trying, but I'll also have more time once Bug is at school to do the writing and crafting and try to make that work a bit more.  I might make my career even more of a tapestry by adding a few other things to the mix too, making more of my teaching experience by doing story-telling, writing and 'eco' workshops in schools.

As you can tell, I'm at a bit of a cross-roads at the moment.  I really don't know what direction I'm going to go in, but just now I feel that they will all take me somewhere good, so I don't really mind, and I'm just going to keep plugging away and let serendipity find me and guide me in the right direction.
When we finally sell the house in Scotland (it will happen, and soon we hope), I know too that Hubby and I will also suddenly feel a huge weight lift from our shoulders, and life will feel brighter and easier, and we'll be ready to settle properly into this lovely part of the world and make our new home and new life here.

Do keep me company on the journey.  It might be bumpy, but we'll get there in the end!

Feed your family for under £50 in February - Conclusion

If you're a regular reader of this blog you'll know that during the month of February I was attempting to reduce my weekly shopping bill for a family of four to £50 per week.

I started the challenge, and outlined a few ideas of how I might achieve it here.

I detailed progress in Week 1 here, Week 2 here and Week 3 here.

Now it's time for the conclusion.

It's safe to say that I didn't once achieve my £50 target.  Here's why:

• my family likes meat, and meat is expensive.  If it isn't expensive, you start to wonder whether it's fair on the farmer or whether the animals were treated well.  Where possible I buy organic and free-range meat.  That makes it even more expensive, but I feel strongly about it so the only way to cut down on the meat bill is to cut down on meat eating.
• We all have home-made lunches.  The cost of Hubby's lunches has dropped considerably since he started taking a packed lunch (although he's occasionally admitted to "topping up" at the canteen at work!).  C could be having a free school-dinner (all Foundation and KS1 in England are entitled) but for some reason prefers to have a home packed lunch.  Bug either eats at home or has a packed lunch, and I always eat at home.  The costs of packed lunch items probably adds about £10 to the weekly bill, if not more.
• We're food snobs.  Lets face it, we like freshly made granary loaves, nice continental meat selections, artisan cheeses, real ales and local ciders, olives and balsamic vinegar.  I make home made casseroles, lasagnes, cakes and so on, and really enjoy cooking and trying new recipes.  I'm certain that we would spend a lot less on our shopping if I bought a cheap sliced white loaf, mild cheddar, value meat and chips and cheap packaged cakes... but we like it our way.

We did spend a lot less on food during February, and crucially we threw less away as well.  I went shopping more often but bought less, focusing on the next few meals and buying what we were actually going to eat.  In some ways that put the bill up, because using the village shop for things like milk and meat was more expensive than going to the supermarket, but it was also local meat and milk, so I didn't begrudge that at all.

I do think it's been a worth while exercise, because its shown me what is important to me when it comes to buying food - and it isn't the cost.  I do think I'll continue buying little and often, which allows me to pop to the local market and pick up a few things, to visit the butcher and to pick up a bargain when I spot one, without worrying that I'll end up chucking out excess. 

Introducing scissors, paint, glue and tape when you don't want a messy house

Kids are messy.  Let a three or four year old loose with scissors, paint and glue, and the likelihood of raising the blood pressure on a parent who likes a clean and tidy home increases tenfold.

Children have got to learn to use sticky tape, paint, glue and scissors though... how to do this without it getting very messy?

I'm not all that bothered about a little bit of creative mess.  After all, I make things all the time, so having threads, paints, scissors and knitting lying around is just part of life in the inkspots house.  Three year old creative mess can be, even for me, a bit of a challenge.  One of my sisters likes a clean house, and I understand that for her the idea of allowing her children to wield paintbrushes and glue-spreaders was just too much.  Since they were in full-time nursery this wasn't really a problem, as she put it "they get all the messy stuff at nursery, I don't need to do it at home".  What about the children who don't go to nursery though?  They need to have a chance to experiment creatively with a wide range of different materials and to learn how and when to use them... how can you do that without making a mess?

Set up activities
From a very young age set up supervised activities.  Cutting around pictures in magazines and catalogues for example, and show the children how to use the scissors safely.  Set up a table and chair with lots of old magazines and a pair of scissors and allow your child to snip away to their hearts content.  Then when they've finished TAKE THE SCISSORS AWAY!  The same with glue - set up activities where you can show your child how to use it.  Then set up activities where they can use it by themselves.  When they've finished PUT IT AWAY.

Limit the zone
Once you know that they know how to use the scissors / glue / paint / tape you can move to the next step, which is to allow them to use it for whatever project they have in mind, but designate a particular place where they must use it.  This place should be easy to clean (no expensive carpets) and somewhere that you're likely to be nearby to supervise and to ensure that clean-up happens.  The kitchen table is a good bet.  Do not allow them to take paints or glue into the bedrooms.  My daughter, just 4, is at this stage at the moment.  She keeps trying to take water, paint, glue, scissors or tape into her bedroom, and if I let it slip I always end up regretting it (PVA glue on the carpet, an entire roll of selotape wrapped around her, tiny scraps of feather that she's been chopping up all over the carpet, bits of furniture newly "decorated") - felt pens are also a worry at the moment, as I've found her using them in her bed a couple of times!!

Gradually lift the restrictions
As your child becomes more aware of their surroundings, more careful and more responsible you'll be able to gradually lift the restrictions.  They'll show this readiness by keeping things mostly tidy when they are crafting in your designated zone, by cutting with a purpose rather than random snipping, and by tidying up when they've finished.  You can gradually allow some things to be taken elsewhere, maybe by buying them their own roll of sticky tape and their own scissors...  Allowing them to take a palette of water-colour paints (not poster paints yet!) upstairs to use with a water pot... allowing a glue stick (but not yet PVA).  They will relish this new freedom and responsibility, and if you find that they have painted their wall, left small bits of paper all over the floor, or left the lid off the glue, then take them back a step, don't replenish the glue or tape and tell them they are back to the kitchen table only rule until they can show they are ready.  Try again a few weeks later.  My five year old is at this point at the moment, and the things he creates at his desk in his bedroom are wonderful.

By taking a steady step-by-step approach, you are still enabling and developing their creativity, but also developing the responsibility which needs to go with increasing freedom and independence.  You wouldn't leave a 3 year old with a saw in their bedroom because its dangerous.  Equally, unless you're happy to deal with or ignore the mess, they shouldn't be left with items that could wreck the house, until they can demonstrate their readiness to use them without the mayhem.

February - From Stay-at-Home-Mum to Work-at-home-Mum - Diary of a Transition

February
This has been a weird month from the point of view of the business.  I've honestly not got much more made.  I think I've got enough for my craft fair stall so that it doesn't look empty, but also not too crowded.  I've a few things to finish off, and ideally I'd make a few more things to sell, but in reality I don't think I'm going to get around to much.  

• The washing machine has now been out of action for a fortnight, so I'm spending at least an hour of each child-free day at the launderette.  
• It's half term next week.  
• I've also committed to making a few other things which aren't for the business.  It's Bug's 4th birthday next week, and while we've got her a gift voucher for an experience for her present, I want her to have something a little more exciting to open as well - I'll post more about this when I have finished the make and can show!  I'm also making two more gifts for people, but I'll post about those another time as well, with pictures.
• I'll be focusing after half term on getting everything ready for the stall to make it look great, pricing the items, getting business cards etc. (which also means I need a website up and running!)

The writing has been going okay.  I had a bit of a revelation at the beginning of the week.  I was getting a bit frustrated because Hubby seemed to be faintly amused by my business efforts, rather than being supportive and really believing in what I was doing.  He smiled and said 

"I just think you're funny.  I thought you wanted to be a writer."  

He's right of course (he always is).  That was always the plan.  

I liked the idea of making things and selling them, and that really came through when other parents at pre-school started commenting on the things that I'd made, and suggesting that I should sell them.  I worked at the making, to build up the quality, and once I put things on my on-line shop I found that people were actually buying them, just a few here and there, but enough that I got the whiff of success.  

Writing on the other hand, comes easily to me and I love doing it.  When I day-dream, I'm not dreaming of spending my days in front of the sewing machine, I'm dreaming of tapping away at the keyboard, I'm dreaming of the letter from a publisher telling me that they want my book, or the editor commissioning an article.  I'm dreaming of a royalty cheque.  I'm dreaming of being a writer.  

Writing isn't just about writing though.  It's about sending off ideas and them being accepted, and there will be an awful lot of rejections before there are successes.  So not only do you need to be ready for that, but preferably you need to be able to concentrate and work at the computer for a couple of hours, and that is extremely difficult at the moment.  

He is right though.  

So, my priorities over the next couple of weeks are to 

• prepare for my first craft sale
• set up a website that combines everything - my blog (yes, I may be moving - watch this space for more information on that), my crafting and my writing, all under one headline brand, and order some business cards.
• Up the ante on my queries to various writing contacts.

The crafting needs to be something that I enjoy, and a sideline.  

The writing needs to be something that I enjoy, and the headline.

The parenting is still obviously pretty high on the agenda too, and we have lots of exciting plans for next week.

My running and swimming has taken a complete backseat.  I didn't do much the when my dad visited at the end of January, then I did something to my back, then I trapped a nerve in my elbow, and now I have a cold.  I'm just about to go out for a quick bike-ride with the dog, so I'm still exercising, but after the last couple of weeks, especially the very sore arm and back, I'm easing back into it. 

This is a crazy ride, a bit on the bumpy side.  I hope you're holding tight.

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.