Packing away for Christmas holidays

I always find this time of year a little sad. Throughout the year my work things are spread out over the coffee table and the small area I have for paperwork in the corner of the room, but at Christmas it all has to go to make space for tree, decorations and seating for the family at New Year. I love having my work things within easy reach and find it very hard to 'switch off' from it all for two weeks. Last night my husband told me to make time for myself for a change, which made me cry. As any working mum knows, time for yourself is at the bottom of the list and now I do have the time to look after myself I feel anxious, I should be working, organising something, packing orders, promoting the website, anything.

So here I am, packing away the last few bits of my working life and feeling like I have chopped my arm off. It has to be done, tomorrow is the last day of kid free time as Thursday is little sprites party and Friday is last day at school for big sprite and then the chaos begins. Time to put away business mum and become just mum again.

Back to school - back in the old routine!

My organisational skills have been put to the test over the last six weeks. I had grand ideas of how my eldest would entertain my youngest which would result in plenty of working time for me, but it didn't work like that. Instead of having one child wanting mummy all the time I had two, so I relented and did the bare minimum of work, resolving to catch up when they finally went back to school.

So here I am, catching up on all the little things I normally do on a weekly basis and looking back on a lovely 6 weeks spent being a kid again. We went camping, played in parks (yes, even I went on the swings!) built sandcastles and went rockpooling on the beach and ate an absurd amount of ice cream, whatever the weather! We even found time to visit a roman fort up near Hadrians Wall and touched the Angel of the North on the way back home.

What is really scary is how little time there is until Christmas (no I'm not sorry I said it!). I already have the Christmas and New Year party supplies on the website, despite my husband telling me it is too early. I am currently looking at halloween supplies, something we didn't stock last year, and I also want to get my greetings cards orders placed so we can wow you for Christmas. This is the start of our busy season, what with Halloween, Christmas, New Year, Valentines Day and Mothers Day I will be lucky if I have time to blink!

Another Competition this one for twitterers!

I know a lot of you are on twitter, so thought a little competition would be fun. All you have to do to win is tell me for what occasion you would send a balloon in a box by writing a little message to go in with it. Remember only via twitter, so you need to copy the following and finish it with your message.
"@partysprite My balloon in a box message would be " and then whatever message you would write.
The competition will run up till midnight on 11/8/09 UK time and the favourite picked by Mr Sprite will win a balloon in a box of choice. Don't forget you only have 140 characters so be creative!

Oops look at me, ignoring my blog during the school holidays

Ok so I sort of have an excuse, two bored children, housework and work don't exactly mix well. I don't remember the school holidays being this much of a problem last year, maybe I wasn't quite so busy then, who knows. This time around however I have been tearing my hair out, two weeks in and the kids are driving me to distraction, leaving little time for anything apart from picking up their toys and checking email.

So how am I fitting the work in? To be honest I'm not sure, I have been going to bed later but I still seem to be keeping on top of things. Maybe I am being more creative with how I use the little free time I have. I have a to do list, something which so far I have managed without, and I am bulk emailing on a night when the kids are in bed. Post is opened while I make breakfast for us all and emails are responded to with a mug of tea in one hand while the kids eat.

Meetings are the hardest. I have a few important ones to arrange soon which I think will have to be on the three days when hubby finishes early meaning he can be childminder. I do get funny looks when I have the kids in tow, surely I am not the only working mum trying to do everything all at once?

Well I better get on with my to do list, will catch up again soon I hope.

Article in Practical Parenting

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Originally uploaded by Partysprite

I think I mentioned this at some point, but thought I would link in the pictures too (now I have discovered that flickr can do this for me!) I am hoping that this will be the start of many more!

Time off work today to be a mum

Today was school sports day at big sprites school, so I took some time off work to wear my mummy hat and went along. Watching the children race I was quite shocked to see my girl getting upset because she didn't win. I haven't knowingly taught her that winning is all that matters, in fact I take great pride in encouraging her to just have the confidence to take part, something which at times I struggle with, so where was this competitive streak coming from? I wanted to rush across and give my girl a hug and tell her it was ok, she was doing really well, but I knew how important it was not to make a fuss in front of her friends, so stayed in my seat. Her teacher, noticing the tears being wiped away, crouched down in front of her with a pep talk that soon made the tears dry up. Back came my happy chatty little girl, and with her first sports day firmly under her belt I have no doubt she will have just as much fun next time (with hopefully no tears!)

Look at what we got daddy for Fathers Day

I always struggle to choose gifts for the men in my life. My dad has everything he needs and doesn't really have any hobbies so usually ends up with chocolate. Hubby is just as tricky, he has interests but it is such a minefield to know what he has and hasn't got, so I usually struggle for him too.
So, Father's Day was looming and I didn't have a clue what to get. Then one of my forum friends asked for reviews of her business service - taking pictures of your children and turning it into something spectacular. I snapped up the chance to have one done, had been admiring her talents for some time and it was on my list of 'must gets'.

I sent her a selection of home snapshots of my girls playing outside, not convinced any of them would be useable, and left her to it. A couple of days later she emailed me the proofs - well I was impressed. See what you think?

I loved it, and wanted to show my husband straight away, but knew it was the only thing I had to give him to make his day special. While he was at work, I printed it out on photo paper, put it in a plastic sleeve with a board backing and voila, a lovely present for the girls to give daddy.

If you love it too the talented lady is Victoria Dixon, her website is http://www.enhance-me.com and she comes highly recommended from this happy mum!

Picture copyright Caroline Parker - please don't use it without permission!