Today is Lollipop's 1st birthday, so yesterday we had a tea party for the family. This meant I spent a joyful morning making sandwiches and tarts and stringing bunting round the house. Then I had to take a photo before everyone arrived and spoiled the pretty picture I had created of my house!
It was a lovely day, the weather was beautiful so we were able to go out in the garden and the children really enjoyed themselves. I think Lollipop herself was a bit bemused but she definitely enjoyed her cake- my standard birthday 'sweetie cake'- a victoria sponge covered in butter icing and sweets!
I felt tired today- the normal Monday struggle to get through the day, but this evening I went for a run round our local reservoirs in the sunshine and took pleasure in the beautiful scenery and my own thoughts in my head (rather than the voices of 4 children vying for my attention!)
Which reminds me, I found this article http://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/3527073/Mothers-need-me-time-too.html which pretty much sums up how I feel at the moment......
Hurray, I have managed to get the younger children to nap at the same time, so have decided to devote half an hour to updating my blog. It feels so lovely to be writing....
So yesterday I was writing about a few things I have enjoyed doing recently. The crafty things I like doing seem to have a common theme - keeping house! I think when you are a stay at home mum you spend so much time looking at the same walls/ floor/ garden that it feels really important to make the space look nice.
I love gardening - mowing, weeding, sewing seeds, even a 5 minute wander round the garden admiring the things that are growing can make me feel happy.
This is a photo I took of a corner of my garden on one of my wanders about a month ago. It was a beautiful sunny morning, the children were playing happily and I had a quick walk round to look at my plants, it's amazing how cheery it can make me feel to see things growing!
When I have bit more time I like to crochet- this is a craft that I learnt recently. I went on a fantastic 3 week course and loved the fact that when I was crocheting I couldn't think about anything else (I'm not very good so a high level of concentration is required!) I have made a couple of cushions and am currently working on a blanket.
These are the cushions, they look lovely if you don't look too closely!! They are displayed on a recent bargain find- an ercol chair that I found in a charity shop for £7! Another thing I love is bargain hunting- in charity shops, antique centre and car boot sales. Then I like to bring the new bargain home and arrange it in the house. At a later date this can provide me with a pleasurable 5 minutes of me time spent admiring the new thing. My husband would question whether we need another new thing but this chair made my week...that week when the children were arguing, or I was feeling bogged down by the continual chores I would stop and look at my chair and smile to myself!
Finally another mini project- my easter egg tree! I kept some sticks when I pruned a tree in the autumn, then sprayed them white and hung some of my eggs from it!
Well, that's a little bit more about me, I'd better go and make some lunch for my lovely children now- yummy salmon, potatoes and veg today.
In the meantime I'd love to hear what you like doing!
Happy me time!
Sam xx
Hello!
I thought I'd begin my blog with a description of a day in my life which I'm sure will sound very familiar to other busy parents. Today, Wednesday, a normal school day.. I was woken at 6.30 by my 2 year old son, nicknamed Tigger to describe his bouncy nature and dashed into the shower before I went into him. Dressed myself, Tigger and 11 month old daughter Lolly. Encouraged my 7 year old son (JJ) and 4 year old daughter (Danni) out of their bunk beds and told them to get dressed. Everyone piled downstairs for breakfast.
My sister arrived to drop off my 16 month old nephew who I was looking after today. I got everyone into the car and dropped my 2 older children at school, popped home, changed a nappy, got everyone back in the car and went to toddler group, where I tried to stop Tigger from snatching toys from other toddlers whilst holding Lolly and playing with my nephew. Tigger pushed another child over so we all left in an embarassed cloud of shame. Fed them all then tried to get them all to nap at the same time, with some success- an hour for me to do jobs- clothes washing, tidying, pay some bills, hang on must squeeze in half an hour sit down (me time! Yay!) Then everyone got back into the car to collect JJ and Danni from school. We all went home for tea, my sister arrived to collect my nephew, I tidied up and gave the children their baths, the two youngest went to bed, then I heard the older children read and felt guilty about not having found time to do JJ's homework, again! My husband got home at 7 o'clock, JJ went to bed at 8 and we ate dinner.
And that's it, another day over. Phew!
So thank goodness for me time.... I thought I'd start by sharing some of my recent enjoyable moments! The photo I've chosen for my title is of my kitchen windowsill and is a good demonstration of some of my recent me time. I love flowers so treated myself to the freesias when doing my tesco shop and spent a happy 5 minutes arranging them- they make me feel better every time I look at them or walk into the kitchen and smell them. The kitchen is a good place to have a 'me' space because I do so many of my neverending tasks in there! washing up, preparing meals, loading the washing machine/ dishwasher...
The candles were a longer me time task- I started dabbling with candle making at christmas time and found that I really enjoy it and it turns out to be double the relaxation time because of the pleasure of making them and then the pleasure of lighting them, oh and also there's the pleasure of scouring charity shops and car boot sales for containers to make them in.
And in the planters are lettuces and basil seeds I planted a while back...
All in all I just think it makes such a lovely picture - all arranged prettily on the windowsill - everytime I look at it I feel a sense of calm descending, take a deep breath and feel better able to cope with the next flurry of activity...
Well I think that's a suitable introduction to my life and my need for some me time!
Happy me time!
Sam xx
