The Calm ‘After’ the Storm!

Aah, let me take a second to enjoy the silence – my 18 month old is asleep on the sofa having worn himself out chucking his toys around the living room and my 6 year old is at school!  Finally, I get some time to catch up!

This morning I dropped the balls – big time.  Do you ever find that being a busy mum with loads of projects you seem to run just to stay still?  Well on Friday I handed over the manuscript of my book to the publishers and breathed a sigh of relief!  I’ve been working on it for months and haven’t had a weekend off since Christmas so after getting this biggie off my ‘To Do’ list, I had a cheeky glass (bottle) of Asti to celebrate.  This is quite a ‘drinking binge’ for me as I rarely have a drink and can get hammered on 2 halves of lager!  Anyway, major deadline met, my body decided to pack in.  I’d been running on adrenaline for so long that I started to lose my voice, get a runny nose and get tired.  I even went back to bed on Sunday afternoon for a few hours and still fell asleep that evening at my usual time of about 9 o clock (party animal I am so not!)

So this morning we are all getting ready for school when my 6 year old starts dragging her heels.  She just got some cooking game for the Nintendo DS and wants to play on that rather than get ready so I’m trying to get her motivated with a series of tricks: gentle cajoling to start, then appealing to her competitive spirit “I can get ready faster than you”, followed by bribery, threats to remove stars from the Good Girl Chart and ending up in losing my rag!  She eventually got ready and then it was ‘battle of the breakfasts’.  She wanted ‘pain au chocolate’ and we had 2 left over from the weekend so they both had one each, cut into quarters.  The boy happily sat in the highchair and munched away.  The girl threw a strop because hers had been cut into quarters.  Give me strength!

I had said earlier that she could ride her bike to school because I wanted to jog with the boy in the buggy.  I have 4 stone to lose now to get back to pre ‘second baby’ weight so being a Time Management Mum, I thought i’d be effective with my time and kill two birds with one stone.  Do the school run (literally!) and get some exercise.  Anyway the breakfast battles had set us back so we had to go in the car instead to get there on time, prompting another tantrum!  My head was pounding and I just lost it.  After getting them both in the car and all the various book bags, PE Kits, dinner money, permission slips, buggy and hats, coats, gloves etc, I was still hearing whining from the back so I shouted “SHUUUUT UUUUPPPP”!

Instant silence! I should do it more often but then I think it’d lose its effectiveness.

I’d been racing round all morning, the house looked like a bomb had hit it and I still had a days’ worth of work to do.  Anyway, a peaceful drive to school ensued and we must have looked like the ‘perfect family’ getting out of the car and walking to the classroom door.  My daughter had forgotten what she was whining about and once she saw her mates, it was ‘social butterfly’ time!  It made me think – how many of the other parents who looked ‘normal’ had been embroiled in a war just 10 minutes before!  Actually, I don’t think they’d be normal if they didn’t have the occasional morning like this one.  There’s absolutely no such thing as the ‘perfect’ family and people are lying if they say there is!

So one task sorted, my rest of the day looks like this: Now the manuscript is done, I have to attend to my other business areas, plus entertain the boy all day, sort out my mountain of washing and remove all the furniture from the living and dining room as the carpet cleaner is coming tomorrow (Yippee!)  I used to have a showhome you know.  Pre kids!  I don’t know how I was so finickity – I couldn’t relax if a picture was hung on the wall wonky.  I’ve had to relax my standards.  A lot.  But at least my home has ‘life’ now.  I’ve also got to get old baby clothes and toys ready for the NCT Nearly New Sale in a few weeks (I’m having a good clear out and can’t wait to have the extra room!)

Calm reigns, for now anyway.  In just over two hours I have to collect the girl from school, then the fun starts again!  But I’ll tell you something – I can get more done in this two hour window that I ever used to be able to before I had the kids.  They’ve trained me up – I was just organised before.  I’m uber – SAS style – hyper plate spinner organised now!  In fact, Once I’ve finished this post, I am getting my work blog sorted, getting my expenses paid from the BBC, making a dentist appointment, administering a new client, creating my autoresponder follow ups for Virtual Assistants who subscribe to my information feed and getting the stack of papers on my dining room table filed into my office (these were only the weekends’ paperwork).  Let’s see if I can crack that in two hours…..

xx

The plumbing – puh-lease!

What a week is all I can say!

We’ve had pathetic plumbing in our house for the last few years – absolutely no ‘power’ in our shower!  But this week has got to be the worst.  On a world stage we’ve had the Oscars and as an ex fashion student, I tend to take an interest.  I watch more what they are wearing rather than who wins what but I have to say, it’s quite fitting that ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ did so well because it felt like we were living in the slums yesterday without clean running water!

My husband decided on Monday that he would drain the whole system to force all the air in the pipes out, then re-fill the house again which should improve our water pressure.  We get cold water ok so are having plenty of cold showers, and when we bathe the kids, it takes ages as we’re boiling kettles to get the warmth, I don’t mind this too much, it reminds me of my youth when my mum did this on occasion as we didn’t always have ‘the immersion’ on.  But my hubby had decided enough was enough, so instead of plentiful cold running water, instead he ended up draining the tank, leaking our son’s bedroom and having to buy a new valve instead!

I got the kids up yesterday morning and nothing was coming out of the tap.  At a push, the toddler can have a ‘wet wipe’ clean for just one day, but our daughter had school and I had a business meeting, and we both looked as though we’d been sleeping in the mosh pit!

I got the kids up and took them to Grandma’s in their pyjamas.  They both had a lovely bath and my daughter was clean and well turned out for school.  I on the other hand, looked like I’d been at Glastonbury for 3 days so I had to get in at the hairdressers for a blow dry (with the straighteners!) At least I looked glam when I was at my business meeting!  The kids enjoyed bathing at Grandma’s for a change and I was so grateful to her for both the help and for not judging me when I rolled up in my scruffs with the kids in their PJs at 7.30am yesterday morning!

With Mother’s Day coming up I wanted to spare a thought to our mums, who do the very best job in the world, just as we are doing for our kids.  I have to tell you an incredible story though.  As I’ve mentioned before, my blog is being re-designed with a fresh new look and I’m moving blogging platforms very soon.  My awesome designer is April Durham, and she writes the blog April Showers.  She has just posted an amazing story about her mum – you can read it here.  If you feel you can help in any way then please do!  I have paid in advance for my blog design and given a donation and I’m pretty sure that I will use April’s talents again in the future, as I have another project brewing (once a business mum, always a business mum!!)

The newsflash on the plumbing fiasco is that it didn’t work, so we’re back to square one except that I have a ton more washing to do because hubby used my decent towels to mop up the leak on the floor, instead of old rags.  Genius!  I can’t be mad though as it’s his birthday today and we’re off to Nando’s.

Link- tastic!

Now we’re getting to know each other, I can trust you can’t I?  After all, I told you the bikini wax story (and no, I’m not linking to it again, if you really want to know what went on, you’ll have to trawl the site!)

So let me share some resources with you, of blogs I like and useful links…

I was delighted when I found the blog ‘Nadine and the City’  http://www.nadineandthecity.com/ because the writer shares my name and she loves fashion!  This site is like ‘me’ but 15 years ago! (How that makes me feel old, even though I try to be a hot mama! – Seriously, read the bikini wax story, I do my best!)

I also recently joined the social network ‘British Mummy Bloggers’:  http://britishmummybloggers.ning.com/

Yay! It was nice to find a group of ladies like me, well, ladies who enjoy blogging!  I don’t know them very well yet so who knows if they are like me and I have seen a couple of ‘moany’ posts and as you know I don’t ‘do’ moaning!  Hey, time will tell, and I’ll keep you updated.  We all have our own style I suppose:)

Whilst we’re on the subject of links, check me out on Twitter, I’m @businessmum (www.twitter.com/businessmum)

…and if you are a ‘Mumpreneur’, join my group on Facebook here.

I wasn’t going to say anything at this stage but I am so excited that I may need to pee, so let me reveal that I am currently having the Time Management Mum blog re-designed by a hot blog designer.  It is going to look fab and be a lot more colourful, and it will be installed in a matter of weeks.  I’m switching blogging platforms too, so I’ll post a new URL where you can follow the blog and the new blog will have cool features like RSS so you can subscribe easily and never miss a post!  There are also some surprises up my virtual sleeve, but I don’t want to give the game away all in one go, so chew on this info and keep watching this space!

Happy Sunday!

Cranky and impatient – that’s me, not the kids!

Lately I’ve been getting ‘itchy’ – I don’t mean actual ‘scratching’ itchy, but I have that feeling of anticipation in my gut – permanently lately!  It feels like I need to pee but I don’t.  Is it butterflies?  Or excitement? Or just that the hubby and I haven’t had our rocks off for a couple of weeks?  I don’t know!  What I do know is that there is an itch that needs to be scratched!

I have loads of great projects on with work – I run my own business, master of my own destiny and all that, and I’m sooo thrilled to be doing some of the projects I’m doing and to be honest, I feel like I’m on the verge of something big – that work is about to snowball and that I’m about to be busier than I’ve ever been.  And I’m just so bloody impatient!

This isn’t like me – I can be very patient when it comes to the things I want.  I plan and take steps then wait then do more steps, and it comes to fruition and so on.  But this time I can’t wait!  I love writing this blog, and I want it to be at the stage where it has hundreds of subscribers but I’ve only just started it!… and blogs take time!

I am also writing a book and whilst I’m loving the writing process, I just want to get it finished already and ‘out there’ so I can breathe a sigh of relief that it’s done and I don’t have to meet my 1000 word target for the day!

When I started the book and the blog, I knew that if I just did a little each day, eventually I’d have an end product.  I decided that I’d spend about a year or so on getting content down then worry about launching the thing once I am fully up and running.  But now I can’t hold my fire!  I want to get on with things NOW!

This blog is about to be re-designed by a fab blog designer.  I’m just so excited to get it done and uploaded so I can sing and shout about the fab bright new blog!!  I can’t wait to get everyone’s opinions on it!

Phew! Just writing it down has made me feel calmer!  Haha – maybe this blog should be a confessional!  Relieving the world by allowing readers the theraputic act of writing.  So come on then, let’s do it!  What is your confession?  Tell all here and free yourself!

I’m less cranky now – smile on! I’m off for a sarnie!

xoxo

PS: if you read my last post, I booked in for the bikini wax BTW – well, it is Valentines Day on Sat!