LifeCircle 2012: Having Me Time

Life has got in the way of me taking part in this for the last few weeks! It's very topical this time as Kate wanted us to look at our me time. 

This is especially important for me as single mum as if I burn out there isn't a partner to pick up the pieces. There is a lot of pressure on my day with children, housework, blogging for work, blogging for pleasure, my other business interests and now a part time job 4 hours every afternoon. I'm working on finding a balance between them all that leaves me with enough time to unwind.

I have started getting up half an hour earlier so that I can start the day more relaxed and less frazzled. This means that I have to be conscious of not staying up (or not turning bedside light off) too late. My children seem to have got through their sleep issues so I am now getting enough time in the evening to watch some TV and have some Facebook/Twitter time. I seem to have plenty of time to read books and this is one of my favourite ways to unwind.

Hopefully I'll start to feel less like I'm running round in circles soon.. Use the logo above to see everyone else's posts.

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.

LifeCircle 2012: Progress Report

This week Kate is asking us for an honest report on how we got on with our plans from 2 weeks ago. I have to admit that I haven't actually managed very much - for much of the last fortnight one or other of us have been ill so things have all been up in the air!

Finance

I have chased a few leads and put out more social media marketing for my Usborne books but this hasn't resulted in any more sales or bookings as yet. I haven't got any spare money to buy the latest leaflets so this doesn't help!

On the blog I've been involved in some sponsored posts but these have mostly involved freebies so no impact on the bank balance. 

Romance

Well not been in the mood for looking for love when feeling bleurgh! My social life revolves around other mums and my family so its great fun but hard to find Mr Right in those circumstances.

I hope other people have managed to get on better. Go and check out the linky at Kate's place to find out. 

LifeCircle 2012: Planning Ahead

This week Kate has asked us to write a Life Plan. I did this on the original LifeCircle so I don't need to re-invent the wheel! So this is a short post as nothing much changed in 4 months...

To see everyone else's please pop over to Kate's post and the linky.

LifeCircle 2012: Taking Action

Kate has asked to put in a Taking Action plan based upon last week's 2 lowest scores on the Wheel of Life. We need to think of 2 actions to undertake in the next fortnight for each area. In my case my lowest scores were Finance and Romance. So let me see what I can come up with for each of these...

Finance

Well I obviously find ways to increase my income as there isn't much I can do in the way of reducing spending! So what can I do?

1. Follow up on my leads for my Usborne Books business and generate some revenue. 
2. For my Kendal Family History Services and blog businesses I need to up my online presence and keep on marketing.

Hopefully by the end of the fortnight all of this will have resulted in money in the bank...

Romance/Significant Other

This is a tough one to crack! It maybe beyond my control but this is what I can try to do to increase my chances of finding myself a new man:

1. Get time to myself out of the house in places where I can meet people.
2. Er can't think of anything else!

So there you go hope that I can report back with some progress in a fortnight's time... To see everyone else's posts pop over to Kate's Action post and the linky on there.

LifeCircle 2012: Wheel of Life

After breaking us in gently last week Kate wants us to evaluate where we are at the minute. I did this back in September but I'm not going to look at that until I've written this one! What we do is look at this wheel:

and then score each section from 0-10. I haven't got around to actually drawing lines on mine like she has but here is the basic results for me:


Fun and Recreation = 8
I am managing to enjoy a variety of activities in and out of the home and have started to really get into hiking and sewing at the minute. Yes there are things I can't do due to childcare but things are pretty good.


Career = 5
Still not got a regular income from a paid job but I have begun to earn money from my Family History business. The blog continues to provide a trickle of money and good in kind. I need to work on boosting the books though.


Health = 8
Nothing bad about my health but still carrying a bit too much weight! This is definitely going to change this year.


Personal Development = 7
I am challenging myself to re-learn how to sew this is a real rest of my little grey cells. I would love to find courses I can do to work on other aspects of my personal development.


Friends and Family = 9
The reason I moved was to be nearer my family and I love it! My friendships up here are building nicely and I still get to see my old friends from down south a few times a year.

Life Circle: Introductions

This is my second attempt at joining in at Kate's Life Circle as she has re-started for 2012. So time to re-introduce myself!


So I'm Becky and I am now 41 years old (where do all those years vanish!). I live with my 2 children, my daughter who is 8 and my son who is 5, in Kendal, Cumbria. We came up here 18 months ago after my now ex-husband left the country and I wanted to be nearer my family.


Despite graduating with a BA in Geography and an MA in Human Geography I spent 15 years working in IT. I only stopped 2 years ago when balancing a job and raising my children single handed became a bit too much. So I now have various little pots of self employment:

• I sell Usborne children's books as Becky's Books
• My blog earns me money for paid posts
• Kendal Family History Services is my genealogical business

I am trying to find another employed position but so far nothing has come up that I have either managed to get or that is suitable to fit in with the children.

For me LifeCircle is all about continuing me on my journey to be self sufficient again after divorce. I also need encouragement to ditch the excess weight and this time keep it off. So a bit of coaching to get my head in the right place is just what I need.

This is a linky so check out Kate's post to see everyone else.

Life Circle: Week 2 Planning Ahead

Kate has asked us to think about where we want our lives to move onto after our initial reflective posts. I am going to put some of my thoughts into this post.

5 Years On

That seems like a lifetime away when I think that my son is not yet quite 5 and so will be twice his current age and in Year 5 at school and his big sister in Year 8 at secondary school. I am not wishing my children's lives away but this will give me so much more freedom. This will enable me to have both a more active social life and time for a career.

I would hope to have got myself a decent job or made a success of my own business and moved well away from my reliance on benefits. This would hopefully mean that we could be living in a slightly larger home with more space for us .

By this stage I should have managed to maintain a new healthy weight and be keeping up my levels of fitness. If there was a significant other in my life by this time then it would be the icing on the cake.

1 Year On

This obviously has to be more realistic than the first set of goals! My son will be well established at school and I hope to be working at least 16 hours a week with a regular and steady income. This will have taken me on to tax credits instead of Income Support which is a confidence booster.

My home will finally be completely sorted after the re-shuffles and sorting out all the possessions we have! I would hope that my social life would have extended somewhat and that hopefully my participation in things like the Kendal Passion Play will have introduced me to lots of new people.

By then I should have got my weight down to a healthy slim 14 (I've tried size 12 and didn't like it!) with plenty of exercise for me and the children. 

Click on the logo up the top to find out what everyone else is hoping for.

Life Circle I: Wheel of Life

Kate over at Five F's has started some of us off on a Life coaching course and each week is setting us some homework. This week we are starting off by examining our Wheel of Life to see where we starting off from:

I'm not going into full details for each section but this is my score out 10 for each sector at this point:

Fun and Recreation = 6

As a family we are having some good fun times at the minute but I need to find something more which is just for me. I do exercise classes but it would be great to have a hobby or some adult evenings out.

Career = 5

I'm hoping that my books is taking off slowly but I've yet to find some paid work to supplement the bits I'm earning. With more time I'm sure that this will be increasing soon and just hope that I'll get sorted soon.

Health = 7

My weight is slowly coming down so I'm a lot healthier than I was. Touch wood I haven't had any bugs for a while apart from some sniffly colds. My dodgy knee that I've had since I was 10 hasn't caused me problems since the spring (since it was prayed for!) so it may finally be better.

Personal Development = 6

I did get my PTLLS earlier this year which made me feel like I was working my little grey cells. I could probably do with more of a challenge in improving an old skill or learning a new one.

Friends and Family = 8

I am very blessed by living near my parents and an aunt and uncle. Having them all less than 10 minutes away is wonderful. My best buddies from school are still close but unfortunately live a long way from me. In Kendal I've met lots of lovely people I enjoy being with but it takes time to build up those really close friendships. 

Environment = 8

Living in Cumbria has to be one of the nicest parts of the UK to live. My children are at school in the Lake District National Park so I get to drive through beautiful countryside every day. The air is fresh and even the rain doesn't seem so bad up here even though there is a lot of it! Just need to sort the house out so that home is as lovely as what's outside the walls...

Finance = 2

I am still at the point where money comes in and goes straight out. Yes we have some little treats but I need to find a way of getting more money coming in... 

Romance/Significant Other = 0

I've been on my own now for just over 2 years and divorced for 3 months and as yet haven't had even a sniff of romance! Oh well its still early days ;-)

Click on the badge and go see what everyone else has put!