A new royal start

QueenJess

Happy Monday all!  I am currently shirking the work I really dislike and am playing around with some training slides for training I need to give next week.  Definitely something I would rather do.  I still have to find time to finish my CV as well.  Just don't know how to fit everything into a day at the moment.  I still need to tidy up the house as well.  I took yesterday off and went to feed the ducks and then got a pizza and watched DD eat absolutely all of the three courses put in front of her and then have a bag of sweets!  Both are eating like there is no tomorrow at the moment!

On the plus side, we are eating so much fresh food that my cupboards and freezer are still full.  I don't think I need to do my monthly shop in Aldi next week as we have lots left.  Will see how much of the month I can stretch it out for.  Aside from the usual milk/veg/fruit, I should just need yogurt this week (which is a pain because I have to travel 15+ mins to a big supermarket just to get it).  Might see if DH is passing anywhere on his work visits this week and can grab it on his way home.

DD will be 2 on Friday (how did that happen?) and so I need to put her presents in one place and get them wrapped up.  Almost everything has been picked up for free via Buy Nothing or handed down from DS.  I did buy her some second hand books though that I thought she would like and we are going to buy her a helmet as she's desperate to get on a bike to chase her big brother.  She will have plenty of stuff.

Today is an unusually meaty day food wise.  Lunch will be cream cheese and smoked salmon bagels with a side salad (including beetroot of course for me!).  Dinner I need to cut up soon and throw into the slow cooker; chicken thighs, butter beans, carrots, potatoes and parsnips.  Dessert is a blackberry and apple eve's pudding I made yesterday with vegan cream.  I still have a few more blackberries left from ones picked in the Autumn and a huge amount of redcurrants from the summer in the freezer to use up.

QueenJess

Been such a busy week. I’m still not sure how to get off this crazy train where I’m running around trying to do everything for every waking hour (apart from after 9pm where I sit to eat dessert and refuse to get up until bedtime). I’m hoping dropping hours will help alleviate the pressure… only another month now until I can request it. On the other side of the coin though is wanting to escape from there and get another job, but the reality is you have to earn trust to get the flexibility I have now and so I would need to work harder and longer with less flexibility. I can’t really win there. Anyway, CV is updated and I am waiting for DH to review it for me. I can then start browsing at least. Having some options will at least make me feel slightly better.

DD was 2 yesterday! I can’t believe how much she’s grown up! She’s had a very frugal birthday so far as she doesn’t like party food, but she does like the Victoria sponge cake I made for her. We’ve got her a new teddy (hoping I can steal mine back from her!), a cycling helmet, a few second hand books and then everything else was handed down, a gift from family or obtained from buy nothing.

Popped to a neighbours house yesterday and as their kids are older, it was like a little window into the future. Their house didn’t have stuff strewn everywhere from the kids and they seemed more relaxed. So it does end at some point!

I am behind on seed planting, so that will begin today. I already have seeds from last year and so will probably redo all the same things to plant out in the pots/containers for the patio. I’ve also decided the random strip of grass the other side of the drive is pointless, patchy and I am not a fan of grass anyway. So I am going to make it into a wildflower strip. I don’t fancy my chances of just putting seed there and don’t have time to dig out the grass all at once, so I’ve ordered some native seed that I can start inside and then plant it out but by bit as I clear space. Definitely cheaper than buying plants! Hopefully it’ll work and then it will be less mowing to do and be good for the environment, my hay fever and look pretty. Just another thing to wedge into my schedule though.

I feel bad that I don’t get time to ever complete my list of things to do. I still need to book DS into a private appointment for allergies to discover the extent of it and haven’t yet. I just don’t know how I’m meant to fit it all in and there is constantly things you are meant to be doing for school, nursery, the house, feeding people and I have a full time job. It just doesn’t work. It does feel like everyone else comes with it better than me, but whenever I’ve tried to find more information, I’ve discovered all the school parents have one or both parents that work part time. So maybe that’s the answer? DH will be working 4 days a week from April so I am thinking about creating him a list of things to do from my list. It would be good to share the burden a bit..

Anyway, not sure what the plan is for the weekend. We will definitely go out on the bikes as DD will get DS’s old bike now she has a helmet. The rest is to be determined…

Lunch today is mixed… beans on toast for DD (her favourite), cheese sandwiches for DS (with fruit) and yogurts for dessert. DH and I will have a huge salad with tinned mackerel as I seem to have far too much salad at the moment. Dinner will be spaghetti bolognaise as it’s one of DD’s favourite (just part of her birthday weekend). Breakfast was banana drop scones that everyone goes crazy for… I spent a full lunch hour in the week making a big batch of those for the freezer.

edinburgher

Belated happy birthday to DD2 🎁

Are you going to make wildflower plugs? I fancy sowing some to plant in our lawn May I ask where your native seeds came from?

QueenJess

edinburgher said:

Belated happy birthday to DD2 🎁

Are you going to make wildflower plugs? I fancy sowing some to plant in our lawn May I ask where your native seeds came from?

Yes, that is exactly what I am doing 😊. I got mine from this site as they were native British varieties from British seed and I also needed varieties which did ok in the semi shade of a fence (which is harder to find): http://www.wildflowersuk.com/Wildflower_Seeds.asp

themadvix

Jess, I think you might be underestimating opportunities for flexibility - not sure where you are right now, but the corporate world can be vastly different to an SME. My sister has just started work for a multinational after working for a very dodgy SME previously. She used to work all the hours God sent around childcare (literally up at 6 to do work before taking niece to school and then working after bedtime too), never got any recognition and was treated poorly. She's now working fewer hours, with flexi time (and if she's done her contracted hours gets Friday afternoons off - it's a manufacturing company), paid overtime and frankly, not enough work to keep her entertained. She also gets a bonus and can't get over how nice people are. Yes, my niece still has to go to breakfast club and does two after school clubs (and also has the benefit of nana picking her up), but despite working FT hours now, my sister is much better off. You don't necessarily have to earn that trust to get the flexibility - you just need to find the right organisation. (PS you wouldn't want to work for the company - it's in Defence! But I'm sure there are other options out there too - it's just about having the right culture.)

TallGirl

Sounds like you’re busy as always but nice to hear you’re making time for you at least the gardening sounds like you. 

Totally agree get DH to step up and do stuff. It might. It be to your standards but does it matter. Maybe decide what you want him to do and then try not to get involved. I know it’s hard I struggle with that big time. 

QueenJess

themadvix said:

Jess, I think you might be underestimating opportunities for flexibility - not sure where you are right now, but the corporate world can be vastly different to an SME. My sister has just started work for a multinational after working for a very dodgy SME previously. She used to work all the hours God sent around childcare (literally up at 6 to do work before taking niece to school and then working after bedtime too), never got any recognition and was treated poorly. She's now working fewer hours, with flexi time (and if she's done her contracted hours gets Friday afternoons off - it's a manufacturing company), paid overtime and frankly, not enough work to keep her entertained. She also gets a bonus and can't get over how nice people are. Yes, my niece still has to go to breakfast club and does two after school clubs (and also has the benefit of nana picking her up), but despite working FT hours now, my sister is much better off. You don't necessarily have to earn that trust to get the flexibility - you just need to find the right organisation. (PS you wouldn't want to work for the company - it's in Defence! But I'm sure there are other options out there too - it's just about having the right culture.)

Thanks.  It's just difficult to know before making the leap.  I've always worked for huge multinational companies and I remember when I joined this one they said I wouldn't be able to work at home any day.  After a few weeks it became clear it would be ok later on, but they didn't want to say it from day 1.  But then a lot of the company I am in is horrible,  but I've lucked out either with very relaxed managers or working directly for another country so they didn't care if I was at home.

I would quite like to do some contracting roles from a personal learning point of view, but that could be tricky to juggle with childcare etc.  I'm not really sure what I'm trying to do really... I need to somehow get a good work life balance, but also have interesting work to do if that combination is possible.  I need to sign up to some recruiters as my experience is a bit niche and so these jobs don't tend to be actively advertised.

QueenJess

TallGirl said:

Sounds like you’re busy as always but nice to hear you’re making time for you at least the gardening sounds like you. 

Totally agree get DH to step up and do stuff. It might. It be to your standards but does it matter. Maybe decide what you want him to do and then try not to get involved. I know it’s hard I struggle with that big time. 

Whilst that is exactly like me, the other problem is that DH is a bit oblivious on certain things because either I've always done it or he doesn't "see it" (like mess or the continuous decluttering/sorting out of kids stuff).  Doing all the thinking to make sure everything is covered is also exhausting.  I'm hoping if I send him some of my list he'll do a bit more automatically because he will know more of the things I do.  Not gardening though... that is definitely my domain!

QueenJess

Finally made it into the garden with DS.  Sweet peas and cucumbers are now on the windowsill ready for germination and I planted a set of salad leaves for the kitchen windowsill that I got for free from buy nothing.  DS specifically requested the sweet peas and he ate the peas from the plant in the summer... none of them managed to get onto our plates!  More planting tomorrow.  Hoping I can do up to 30 mins a day and get all the seeds done, then make a start on tidying up the garden.

QueenJess

Today's gardening was planting of dwarf peas outside in a container, then indoor seed planting for black-eyed susan (looked fab with 5 of them in a pot climbing up huge canes last year) and two types of tomato seeds.  Nothing new being bought for most seeds as I should use up what I have.

Also discovered that I have potatoes growing in a container where I failed to lift them all last year.  So free potatoes this year!