Summer Term

On the day before we return to school for the last half term of the academic year there is always a mixture of emotions running through my household. Nerves, excitement, intrepidation, disappointment. This year it is intensified as my role has changed. 

We are looking forward to the summer together, the extended evenings, the BBQs, the hope of better weather, but wedged in between stretches eight weeks of term. Yes EIGHT weeks. It is a long haul this year.

We have had fun during this half term break and over Easter together. We got away to Cornwall for a family break and have spent time chilling out and recovering from having a house full of builders for months on end. Here are some snapshots of our time off.......

Life is settling into a pattern and we are becoming more accustomed to being a household with two parents working. However, everything hangs by a thread which is easily broken when a child is sick or a parent away or over worked. The ideal certainly would be for one of us to be part time to hold the fort at home a little better!

I am so fortunate in that I love my job - it is a vocation to me. I get engrossed in it, so much so that I have to stop myself from becoming too involved at times. I have to set a time to go home and stick to it as the job is never done, ever!

We have just finished the home office for my husband. The carpet goes in tomorrow so we can move him out of the living room! This means we can claim back another room in our house. I can't wait. Although we have paid someone to do this room I have been painting again and have taken before and after photos for you to see the transformation later this week. Slowly we are re gaining our whole house. By the summer things should be almost normal again.

I can't wait!

Organisation

When Working

This is an area that is new to me.

I had the area of 

"Organisation as a Stay at home Mum" almost cracked on some days.

I think the trouble is with organisation and kids is the kids part. 

They tend to mess it up. 

Anyway. 

These are the things that help me out.

• Schedules.

I have schedules typed out so everyone can see them and see who should be doing what, going where, wearing what, taking what, handing what in, going to what club, etc etc etc. From January there is a possibility that I will be working more and I have 3 kids at  2 different schools. From September I will have 3 kids at 3 different schools - that's a lot of different schedules. 

• I lay uniforms and clothes out the night before.

• I get the kids to get their sports kits out for their clubs the night before.

• I get them to plan the days on which they need to hand their homework in so they might not get caught out ( they still do) 

• I get up early to give plenty of time in the morning to be organised before work and school.

• Menu Plans - I know you heard me say it before! I can't cope not knowing what is for dinner that night and not having a few "easy cook" nights a week. 

• I iron/wash everything at the weekend so it is ready for the week . If it doesn't get ironed/washed then it gets worn creased/dirty.

• Basically whatever I can do ahead of time, I do. I feel sometimes it is a never ending cycle of keeping in front of a high speed train and I'd better not stop!

I am going to continue my series from earlier this year on organisation and share some ways I am trying to get reorganised after our building works. For me being organised never costs a lot, but it makes such a difference to the way our busy lives run. I shall be looking at gadgets I love, blogs I have found great,and giving tips on things I find help!

How do you best organise your day and your children? Tips and Hints gratefully shared!

Returning to work

After a Long Break.....

....It feels a little bit like poking my head up out of a nice warm rabbit hole into the big wide world, where it is pretty scary and you are not sure what you might find. A part of me wants to scurry on back down that hole to what is warm and safe and familiar and another part of me is excited to come out in some fresh air , to do something for me at last, to breathe some fresh air again. 

Sometimes life is so busy you don't really have time to think. The weeks just fly past , filled with the mundanities of life . Raising children and being at home has been a huge privilege. I worked as a teacher when my boys were very little , but for the main part of the last 9 years I have been the primary care giver of my children at home. The work I do for my husband is based at home. I always said the time to return to work would be when all my kids were at school and this time last year when that day finally arrived we decided to give it yet another year to allow my youngest to settle at school and my eldest to settle at secondary school. That year is now up, we need some extra funds for the extension and I am all out of excuses........

The time has come.

But , ( exhales a long held breath........)

........I am totally overwhelmed with the prospect. It is not so much the working , but the fact that I have been out of the official workplace for so long. The work I do for my husband is different. It is simple, un demanding , repetitive tasks that support him in the running of his business. This will be a return to something I am trained in. 

A part of me is really excited and can't wait to start this journey, but a part of me is scared of failing , of looking like a middle aged, post children has been, of no earthly good whatsoever.

I am filling in forms this week.... and so the journey begins.

Wish me luck and please offer advice ....all will be taken!

The benefit to this is that I will, of course, be needing to purchase a few items of clothing that are less Home related and more Work related! 

Well, there has to be some incentive, doesn't there?

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