Making the future happen - museumworker's MFW diary Pt 2

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

What a lovely update MuseumWorker.

Best wishes for 2013

Tilly x x x

newgirly

Great update Mw, best of luck for a happy and healthy new year

museumworker

Hello Tilly and newgirly, happy new year to you both too.

DS is asleep on the living room floor and OH/DD out with friends to an exhibition so I finally have a few minutes to update you all!

Here are my priorities/aims for 2013.

* Have an organised home
This is ongoing from last year. I have shed hundreds of items and feel much better for it but there is still further to go. I want us to enjoy every inch of our home, and banish the 'rooms of doom'. I want us to live in the now, and get rid of anything which distracts us from this. I return to work in June, and am a bit nervous about how I will cope working with 2 kids at such different ages. Getting the house in order so it is efficient and easy to manage is a good part of this. I need to do some serious ebaying/gumtree selling, and some general just chucking! I will be hanging out on the declutter thread to help with this.

* Work with DD on her emotional well-being
DD can get quite upset with other kids, and it is affecting her behaviour in school. This is the major barrier to her enjoying and getting the most out of her education.

* Be prepared for secondary school choices for DD
OMG DD will be going to secondary in 2014 :eek::eek:! Feel quite unprepared. I aim to visit as many of the local secondaries as possible, and get her prepped for the 11+.

* Practice mindfulness and relaxation
I need to take time for myself and learn to deal better with stress and anxiety. This is essential for me to keep the migraines at bay and be able to enjoy life. I am working with a health psychologist, but need to practice daily to get best results.

* Dsygu cymraeg (learning welsh)
Something for me! We still want a welsh cottage, and I still want to be able to converse with the locals, as well as open up job opportunities for me in the future. Plus I enjoy the challenge of learning this language! This involves looking at classes that fit with family commitments, and lots of regular practice at home.

* Make quality time for OH
Self-explanatory - with the family, work and general busy-ness we need to make sure we have time just for each other - days out, date nights, general talking time.

* Overpay £6K
We are now entering the SMP part of my maternity, and soon to come is the unpaid 3 months :eek::eek:. We then have two lots of childcare to pay, as well as travel etc. I have yet to work out the exact details of hours, costs, but hoping we can stick to the regular OP of just over £200, then raise a few hundred extra from my job/bits on the side. Gone are the 5 figure annual OPs for a few years at the very least! To achieve this we will have to be very focused on our finances.

* Enjoy ourselves!
We love to do things - visit friends and family, heritage sites and museums, go camping, bake and cook, swim, go the park, walk in the woods - and we want to continue to do fun things together as a family. DD in particular is growing up and I want her to look back on her childhood and smile . Thinking bike seat for DS so that we can for family bike rides together!

museumworker

Our Xmas present to ourselves arrived last night .... a magimix food processor :j:j! We used up £70 vouchers we had received for DS from work, and the rest came out of savings. We have wanted one since our last food processor died about 3 years ago, but held off. Bought it before the 25th to get the free accessories offer - although the confirmation email came through dated the 25th - :eek:! Have emailed J0hn Lewis and they have sent through a message to confirm when we bought it.

We did our banking yesterday and made our first OP of the year of £216.15 - made up of standard OP and ama$on monies. Our accounts are looking very gloomy after a super expensive month, so no further OPs planned apart from any extra money I can make.

Sold another 2 items on Ama$on from clearout on Monday. Plan is a spot of lunch from fridge leftovers, then a walk to town to post the items, and check out what unwanted Xmas presents are in the charity shops . I have practiced some welsh this morning with a cd I was given for Xmas, and will do some mindfulness when OH is home. I also need to order a replacement cartridge for our printer, I am currently hand writing our packing slips for our sales :eek::rotfl:!

Courgette

museumworker wrote: »

* supported some friends through hard times

You certainly did :kisses3:

Courgette

Awwwwww, these are lovely posts mw, making me a bit emotional actually. I am so with you on the sorting the house out mission. 2013 really has to be the year I get some routines going.

Dead jealous of the food mixer, our friend has just bought one too. Can't justify the price at the moment really.

Top tip with the bike seat for ds is to get started sooner rather than later. Non-peddling passengers, even little ones, are surprisingly heavy so try to get your fitness up for this while he's still relatively small

Happy New year too, not sure if I've said it already!

museumworker

Courgette wrote: »

You certainly did :kisses3:

Aw, thanks courgette, glad I could be there for you, and to see your positive outlook for 2013. xx

Let me know how you get on with the organising, I think it'll be terribly cathartic for us both to feel on top of our stuff.

DS is a bit of a chubber already, so might be time to get on with finding a bicycle seat if it'll be harder the heavier he gets! Any recommendations on which seat is best? I had a hamax for DD, seemed fine, but not looked into any others. Sadly I had to abandon the seat and the bicycle it was attached to when I locked it out on a balcony on an old flat, the door to which I had lost the key. I climbed out and tried dismantling it, but it wouldn't fit through the window so I had to leave it :rotfl:!

Two sales posted, and another two come through today . Bought generic inkjet cartridge through tcb, had leftover soup for dinner with HM bread, and practiced mindfulness.

museumworker

Just checked topcashback account and have had two larger purchases declined. BT broadband and our home insurance. That would have been another £50 for the OP pot. Am very annoyed with them, as not sure why. Have lodged 2 queries, but don't have very high hopes.

Claimed £47 from switching energy supplier, and have also claimed the £50 Mr S voucher for getting BT broadband. Hope that doesn't get blinking declined too!

Courgette

I had my car insurance declined last year, lodged a query and after ages and ages they did credit my account.

No recommendations re bike seat I'm afraid other than to get one with leg straps and some sort of wheel guard but I think they all come with this anyway. I assume you're not planning on getting a front seat. I don't have any experience of them cos I'm not tall enough

[Deleted User]

Wow fantastic new year achievements and goals mw

sorry to hear about return of the migraines and hope the mindfullness helps -it is certainly a totally different way of viewing life, and from my experience of (attempting! ) mindfullness meditation, a much calmer one!!

Easier said than done though for sure ...

Good luck too on the decluttering- will be off to find the decluttering thread as there are things everywhere I look at the moment that probably have a place somewhere else ( eg. looking at my bedroom drawers at the moment I can see some books/cds for amazon, toiletries that I havent bothered to put in the bathroom, 3 makeup brushes, a camera and 2 photo frames (one of which belongs in another room) and in front of that 2 chairs strewn with various clothes that I either need to 1) mend or 2) put away!)

decluttering could be a HUGE mission - but a worthy 2013 goal - will be really interested to look at the declutter thread and see how you managed to get rid of so much (especially with small people to manage too I dont even have that as an excuse!! )