#R2BC Week 2 2014

Thanks everyone who joined in once again last week. It's always great to read what has made other people cheerful! So what is making me smile this week apart from all the other lovely blogs?

1) Operation House

It's a slow project but its actually becoming easier now I've started doing smaller bits at a time. Using Fly Lady's Beginner's Baby Steps I am doing jobs in chunks of 2, 5 or 15 minutes. It's actually amazing what you can achieve if you concentrate your efforts on a small area whilst waiting for your toast!

Bonuses achieved so far include a great reduction in the number of odd socks:

And more importantly the kitchen table is now being used for its proper purpose which is eating meals and not for anything else! The kitchen itself is being decluttered of all the things that migrate there too...

2) Running

So happy to be out in the fresh air enjoying views like this again:

Victoria Bridge from Stramongate Bridge, Kendal, Cumbria

3) Blue Skies

Its not been a sight we have had much of this year so a whole day of it was blissful:

Blue Sky and pink clouds, Staveley, Cumbria

Dockwray Foot bridge, Kendal, Cumbria 

4) Winning things

First up a hamper from Swizzels Matlow I won for doing a survey:

Swizzels Matlow hamper

And then today I heard that I won a bundle of Walking with Dinosaur Goodies from The Mummy Blogger! Not a bad start to 2014 at all. 

What is making you smile?
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LifeCircle 2012: Time Management

This week Kate has had us looking at our Time Management. This something that applies to everyone not just parents but being a single mum I think I need to try and manage time better. 

I use my large family calendar and my iPhone to remind me of tasks that need to be done on a major front or that are out of the house. The day to day tasks and paperwork jobs tend to be done my memory. 

There are certain regular things that take place each week that I have to fit everything else around. This includes my activities as well as well as school runs and children's activities. With these things fixed in time/day of the week it is normally easy to fit other tasks around them.

On days when I have nothing out of the home during the day I get on with jobs around the home such as de-cluttering and re-organising. I am dabbling in the Fly Lady system for fitting in different household chores for each day and timing tasks for 2, 5 or 15 minutes. Shoving a load of laundry in each day helps to keep on top of things.

The fly in the ointment comes when I have a few weeks like the last three when I have poorly children at home. Planned tasks get shelved and other things get forced to top of the list. I had hoped to have the house much more organised before half term but things just haven't worked out that way... So my to do list is there but it hasn't actually got much shorter!

To see if other people are more successful than me please pop over to Kate's blog.

Reasons to be Cheerful XXIII (#R2BC)

Another guest host with Mum of All Trades this week. I have to say I have plenty of reasons for being happy this week!
1) My weight
I hadn't felt all that optimistic going to my Rosemary Conley class today but when I stood on the scales I'd lost 3 pounds! For the first time for ages I've had successive losses which is a great boost. A combination of factors is involved:

• with both children at school there is more routine and I can stick to my healthy eating programme better with solo slim meals
• I've been listening to Thinking Slimmer for a couple of weeks and maybe the message is finally getting through!
• I went to a Zumba class run by my Rosemary Conley instructor in Kendal. Amazing workout and such a laugh. Can't wait until next week to go again

Thinking positive that it's all going to keep coming off after this! Oh and top it off I got another Slimmer of the Week award.

2) My work

I had a major Usborne event at the Babymaze Baby and Toddler Show. Not only did I sell lots of books on the day I got one confirmed booking and lots of interest from local groups, nurseries etc. Today at the breastfeeding group I took books to I have been invited to visit on a regular basis and have got 2 more bookings in pipeline plus a lead into a school. All in all a good kick start to the Christmas season! If you want a party between now and Christmas you need to get in quick at the rate my diary is filling up...

3) The house

There are no major changes yet but I'm amazed at what I have done by following the FlyLady's babysteps. I haven't spent more than 15 minutes on any particular task but I've got rid of all the heaps of laundry everywhere (had to put kitchen radiator on to get them to dry in less than 2 days!) and even managed (briefly) to get to the bottom of my laundry basket. There was a brutal 15 minutes with the odd sock pile and I binned lots of odd black socks and baby/toddler socks that will never ever be reunited with their partner. In preparation for the big bedroom swap I've started to remove DVDs from the current study to the living room and the baskets of homeless toys and paperwork are shrinking as things are returned to their rightful place. Two weeks until my daughter's sleepover so the clock is ticking...

Why are you smiling this week? Please visit all the others taking part:

Mission "Organised Mum": Report 1

After yesterday's disorganised post I'm going to start laying out how I'm trying to undo 40 years of chaos and train my children to be more organised than me! This may be mission impossible and I have tried before and failed but maybe this time I'll do it...


Organising My Life


For a couple of years now I've been using an Organised Mum family calendar to keep track of all the activities that we get up to as a family. It is displayed in a prominent position in the kitchen next to where I prepare all our meals. It has lots of room for writing everyone's commitments on and nice colourful stickers to make things stand out. I'm getting much better at using it and adding school events on it as soon as the letters come home. What I need to do better is adding things like the car service etc on with a reminder the month before to book. 


Organising My Home


This is the area that I've fallen down the most on over the years. Between the 3 of us we create complete chaos with things not being put back where they belong. It seems to me that every time I sort out one space then the stuff that was in the wrong place that I moved out gradually works its way back... I've never managed to get on top of things so give up and go back to chaos!


So I'm once again trying the FlyLady system which was created by an American lady called Marla who herself was fed up of living in what she calls CHAOS (Can't have anyone over syndrome). I have had a few goes at this in the past but either ran into opposition from my partner or life just got in the way. I still try and do some of the bits I remember from the last time I signed up such as having a launch pad to place items needed for the school run and laying out clothes the night before so make mornings less stressful.


However the system starts with Beginners Babysteps as FlyLady knows we can't fix everything straight away so she doesn't want to overwhelm us! I've got to day 5 now and have tried to stick to the rules - though getting dressed including make up in the morning is really not my normal style... 


Alongside her babysteps I'm trying to keep the basic household chores running more smoothly and getting the children to do a lot more around the home (putting away clothes/tidying toys etc). I know I'll have to get back into things such breaking into zones and using a timer to get things done. 


Watch this space to see how I get on... Oh and I found the missing spectacles under the driver's seat in my car...

New term, new....

Tomorrow is the first day of day of the new school term up here in Cumbria. After a long wet summer holiday my daughter will be heading into year 3 and my son starting in Reception. It will be a whole new experience for all of us.


New to Junior School


My daughter may find it a shock to the system moving to the more formal schooling of juniors. We are going to have to get use to the joys of proper homework so guess I need to start as I mean to go with ensuring she gets it done. This is her second year at this school so I hope it goes at lot smoother than last year. I hope that she learns to control her temper and emotions better so she can settle and make stronger friendships.


New to School


My son will be part time at big school for the first 2 weeks. The transition from nursery school to Reception is designed to make it as smooth as possible for the children. He is very excited about going and I'm sure he will be perfectly happy. I think its going to be harder for him to have to wait until the afternoon to go in wearing his new uniform (which I've spent too much time labelling!):

New mummy

I'm going to be on my own for most of the day 5 days a week from the end of the month. This opens to many opportunities for me:

• sorting out the house and getting a proper housework routine (FlyLady here I come!)
• expanding my existing Usborne book business
• getting going with the family history business
• finding a part time paid job to fit into school hours (not an easy thing to do)
• getting into shape with Rosemary Conley (school holidays not good for my weight!)

It will be interesting to see how it goes for all of us so watch this space....

Re-establishing Routines

Well having survived week 1 of my daughter at new school I am now trying to work out how to make week 2 easier with new routines to go with it! It doesn't help that my son doesn't get fully up to his maximum days at nursery for another couple of weeks...


I have been trying to follow the Fly Lady system for a couple of years but never quite got it fully up and running as life kept getting in the way. She is a major advocate of routines to keep your family life running smoothly. It is true that when you keep the same things happening at the same time every day/week things are less frantic so I just need to knuckle down and get my routines bedded in...




Morning


Kids dressed before coming downstairs (No TV until dressed)
Check the calendar
Daughter to her school
Housework tasks
Any shopping




Afternoon


School pick up
Take orders for packed lunches
Check calendar (believe me I miss all sorts normally!)

Before bed

My daughter makes sure her school uniform ready

I make any packed lunches

Check the calendar

Put school bags & shoes near front door

Where possible start preparing dinner for next night

What sort of routines do you have?

Finding the balance..

OK so how do I get the balance right for all my roles in life? How do you prioritise them?

I am a mum, housekeeper, computer technician, book seller.... medieval re-enactor - not sure if that is the right order!!

So I need to spend time with my kids to show them that I love them and to make sure that they grow up nicely and be the best they can be (without being a pushy parent!). Then I have a 6 bedroom house that I not only need to keep clean but also is in drastic need of decluttering and sorting out which needs days if not weeks of effort. Three days a week I am a computer technician and this just about covers the cost of nursery fees etc. Obviously on those days the job has to come first. I also sell books and want to expand this side of my life as it is much more family friendly than my real job. The medieval re-enacting is our family hobby but can be quite costly.

I am trying to use the FlyLady's 15 minute rule and babystepping through sorting out my house. As she says it didn't get in this state in a day! Problem is what to do with the kids when doing housework? I know the watch too much TV & DVDs but sometime it seems the only way to keep them out of mischief (especially O) so I get things done. I have to ensure that I don't leave them too long and try to get them involved were possible.

As my 15 mins of PC time is almost up I'll be back later - got to watch Night Garden with O!!