I have been absent from our blog now for over a month and gee whiz what a busy month it has been! We had a very busy Christmas mixed in with a house relocation from Lancashire to Yorkshire on the 27th December, yes crazy! So for us a New Year means- New house, new area, new life, new work, new schools, new clubs and new preschool. And the most important thing having my husband home with us more often, as he now works around the corner. It’s exciting mixed with an overwhelming feeling (albeit less overwhelming that I’m not on my own during the week).
The beginning of January for us has been spent frantically sorting out our new home, which is now looking lovely and homely albeit missing a few extra photos and prints on the walls and a bit more organising in some cupboards where I have thrown a few things in! The house is considerably larger so we have been busy purchasing and building a few more flat packed furniture for the children and I have been on a spending spree of new fresh storage boxes for as many areas as possible. We have been finding our feet in a new area settling in our two eldest into new schools. Something of which tested one of my new goals for this year -patience!
This week I feel that I have finally got the chance to sit down, document and reflect on how my life is going to be different here. I have made the decision to pause my childminding career, as I have been doing it now for 7 years, minus two maternity breaks and a few months off in-between moves. As much as it works for us in many different aspects, I feel that for me I don’t get enough time to focus my attention on our own children and also leaves me with very little time for me to focus on myself and Dougie. Last year saw me find myself in blogging and social media and this is something I need to allow to grow as its something thats all mine, so this will be where I focus my efforts on and hopefully going forward not writing at midnight!
So with Teddy in a new preschool and doing his first full day I get to try out how my new life and routine will be like. Its been so exciting just thinking of the prospect of having these two full days to fill my time differently. Teddy is doing 2.5 days at first and I will see how this goes before possibly an increase in hours closer to September. I have Florence at home to entertain, so I will still have my hands full in school time, but it will be so lovely to give her some much needed Mummy time in a house where she screeches to be heard above the rest (mainly Teddy). I will still be doing childcare based activities with her as I’m so used to doing this, as in taking her to groups and doing little activities at home but this will be managed around more time for me to organise myself, the home and some “me” time. Who knows one day I might get to even curl up with a coffee and a book for an hour, although the way my sleepless nights are going with my teething baby, a much needed nap would be a great idea!
So this leads me on to my goals and wishes for the year.
Patience- I need to work on my grumpy Mummy patience levels. After flying solo for a year and feeling that I had too much on my plate all of the time, my patience levels reflected this. As Flo doesn’t sleep through the night its so easy to lose my rag quite often. I haven’t got any strategies in place yet for how to achieve this, as I’m winging it really! I have instead got a voice in the back of my head telling me to keep calm or work on diffusing a situation to help my own patience levels.
Plan ahead and stop holding back! I procrastinate a little, its in my genes as my Mum is a big procastinator, and I battle with myself on combating this infuriating personality trait. I’m getting so much better at thinking ahead and not holding back, but I can improve even more and really plan ahead! This is something I’m going to put into practice with my blog and YT channel as much as possible.
Me – Me time is a subject we all talk a lot about but don’t always have it. I am determined to have more snatched moments even if its sitting down for 10 minutes whilst Dougie does bathtime. I want my appearance to benefit from more “me” time so being able to polish my nails, shave my legs more often and go and get my hair done. As money will be reducing for us as I’m not working right now I won’t be able to throw extra cash at having ‘me’ time, so its finding simpler ways to take time out. I also want to update my wardrobe, I’m stuck in a rut with my post maternity and breastfeeding clothes. To be able to update my wardrobe slowly over the year is a must for me. I need to take a step back from children clothing purchases and reallocate some of that money towards my wardrobe needs!
Quality Time with my children- This sounds a bit contradictory after discussing needing more ‘me’ time! As I feel like last year was spent being boring responsible Mummy, I want to do more fun things with the kids, so I’m not just thought of as Mummy who washes up or does the laundry. I will be able to spend more of the daytime when they’re at school doing more mundane jobs and thus giving me more time to sit down with them after school and catch up with them. And put aside time at the weekend to do more 1:1 activities with the older ones who see me less in the week.
Having a more Insta worthy family home! I get that our house is very lived in by 6 people but having a few corners of zen is not too much to ask! This has already started this year as I have sneaked into the house quite a few new bits on moving. Our furnishings and accessories in the home were looking tired, so now with a lovely new house its time to go forward this year and bring an update to every room with prints and new home accessories. Increasing the amount of flowers and plants is a must for mw and I have started this off with a cacti / succulent green corner in the kitchen. Again as we adjust to our change in budget this will be a gradual thing each month.
Get up earlier- I would love the motivation to get up 1/2 an hour earlier than my kids to get myself dressed in peace and feel on top of each day more. I’m finding this a very hard one with the cold dark mornings and the complete lack of sleep from my teething Flo. This will take some achieving!
Meal plan each week, add more fruit and vegetables into our diet and bake more. I’m hoping to have time to keep costs down on the food shop, reduce waste and be more organised. When I was working these were two areas that I didn’t always find enough time for and so I’m really enjoying squeezing in time for one of my favourite hobbies: baking. I want to try out different recipes rather than my usual go-to bakes. Contradicting the baking I want to eat more fruit and vegetables this year having time to make more smoothies and sneak veg into baking etc. Just keeping a healthier family balance.
I have many big and small goals to work towards on my blog and You tube channel. Some are just centred around stats for growing them both and other goals are centered around becoming more professional and working out some unknowns to me such as SEO and stumbled upon, google + etc. I know that I will work most of it out, as I already have done, with the help of reading other blogs and the advice from some supportive blogging/vlogging groups.
I think I may have enough goals and aspirations for a busy Mummy like myself and I’m not sure if I will achieve some or all of them yet. I will reflect on how I have got on throughout the year. Last year I wanted a year for me and it didn’t necessarily work out that way due to Dougie’s working arrangement, but one thing’s for sure I achieved a new aspiration in all that I created online! My advice for anyone wanting to try and achieve anything new big or small, just go for it! If it seems overwhelming break it down into tiny steps. I never would have thought last January that I would have achieved all that I did last year, and that was down to working on it all slowly and surely. so with these changes firmly on my mind and a fresh year ahead, here goes…
Zaria says
Don’t be too hard on yourself! You’re doing an amazing job xxxx
Charlotte Stein says
Thank you! Hope you’re enjoying your last few days xxx
What I wouldn’t give to curl up with a book for ten minutes in the day! Me time is so important and something i’m planning on working on this year too. I notice i’m much more able to give to my kids when I’ve taken a little time for myself so it’s a win win. #coolmumclub
Totally agree, I think we appreciate them more x
Wow what an amazing start to 2018! It sounds like you have plenty to be busy with and it’s going to be an incredible 2018 for Team Stein! Can’t wait to see the instaworthy home snaps 😉
Thanks for linking to #coolmumclub
I don’t know how you do it all lovely! I agree on finding ‘me time’ but also finding more quality time with the girls. It’s all too easy when you’re at home all the time to do jobs around the house so this is definitely something I need to do as well. Thanks for linking this to #ThursdayTeam
Thanks Sarah xx