24 hours in a day

How many times have you wished you could magic extra hours in the day? When I look back the past two weeks and rate everything on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 = least/ poor, 10 = most/ great) this is how my life looks:

SlimmingWorld: 6.5
Me time: 1 (I watched ‘Remember Me’ with Robert Pattison 1.5/10 - rubbish)
Domestic goddess ability: 5
Family time: 6
Work time: 10
Social media: 10 (work related)
Stress: 10 (I’m back on the vino)
Juggling, balls kept in air: 10 (nothing dropped, but 2 close calls)
Time spent with husband 0.5 (I discussed how bad Remember Me was)

Summary work-life balance: Drastically, out of balance

OK, so some commentary with regards to my scoring. Week commencing 21 March started well. I maintained my SlimmingWorld programme, exercised on my day off, cooked low fat, healthy supper, helped my daughter with her homework and fell into bed exhausted, but, rather happy having enjoyed a productive day around the house. From Tuesday life started to take a rather manic turn. Work turned up the volume, both in terms of activities required and deadlines to complete, I decided at work we needed to launch our social media presence and we were operationally in the last 2 weeks of the fiscal year.

11 days after such a good day, I am so exhausted I can hardly type and tonight will definitely be a take-out dinner night. As a working mum, I have to be supremely organised. You drop one ball and you end up sending a child to school in uniform, on a dress up day for the Christmas school disco (since this bad mother moment, school does not rely on paper notices going home in book bags – they are on email), you try and drop off when you are on after Brownie collection run. You almost miss a meeting – well it wasn’t in Outlook, so how can I know? Again – what is it with paper? I quote, I put the invite on your desk. Paper doesn’t get into your PDA diary, it gets lost amidst the clutter on your desk.

I have completed 8 quarter end personnel reviews. I've completed our activity workflow for the next 3 months. I’ve issued 8 sets of goals and objectives, which included major change to the job performance expectations for 5 of my team. I have completed Lync (UC solution) training and GPS (a new way of logging goals, performance and appraisals) training. I’ve participated in an all-day management team meeting, which needed preparation. Had an away day in London, well not quite, I attended a sales training day with my team, and I had a trip to the beach. Again, not quite. Although you can see the sea from the 8th floor window, this was actually a full day team review and planning session with my outsourced agency.

I have ended up working until 11 am at night for 7 working days in a row, with my daily break being the 1 ½ hour cooking supper, ensuring the girls get into the bath and get washed and then get into bed. No wonder why I then, at 7.45pm, reach for the Pino Grigio.

Although, I work for a company who offer flexible working arrangements, provide the tools for me to work in the most ‘appropriate’ place or space and I do not have ‘presenteeism’ pressure. There are times that you simply do not have enough hours in the day.

Tonight I am going home on time. PDA will stay in the car, my PC will not be switched back on. I will have a curry and movie night with my husband and I will get my balance back. Oh and it’s only 1 more day to the weekend. Cheers!

Old MacDonald had a farm...

Today started like many others, rather dull and overcast. However, I had arranged a day out with my friend and fellow working Mum, Jo, and her two children. She had suggested an activity farm which is half way between her home in Oxfordshire and mine in Wiltshire. Jo and I met over ten years ago when we worked together. Now that makes me feel rather old!

We visited FarmerGows, a family farm, near Faringdon, Oxfordshire. First impressions were that it was easy to find, easy to park and we had a friendly welcome as we paid our entrance fee (£17.00 for two adults and two children over 3). We were asked if we had visited before and as Jo had, we declined to be told what was on offer.

We headed straight for lunch. The small cafe was in the same area/ building as the entrance and we selected our food from the limited menu. It was rather basic, a choice of sandwiches, toast plus, beans or scrambled egg or 3 types of burgers (made from their own bred goats, lambs and pigs). The food was made by the same friendly staff member who we had paid our entrance too. Food was OK, made fresh to order. However, I would suggest, as there were amble indoor and outdoor tables and benches, it may be worthwhile taking a picnic if visiting.

There was an outdoor play area, with fun tractors to pedal and a giant hay bale to climb on. These were all on view from the cafe, so you could see your children playing in a contained area while you sat and drank a latte (think Nescafe jar, rather than Costa or Starbucks). There was an additional small adventure type playground and an indoor play area with a small amount of activity toys.

Where this farm was superior to many other farm attractions I have I visited in the past five years was their feeding the animals programme which you could join daily at 11am or 2pm. The livestock manager and his weekend assistant were excellent. We spent about 40 minutes feeding tiny lambs, larger lambs (and their mums) and goats. We were not rushed, we were shown what to do and every child had a turn, well lots of turns. The livestock manager could see my eldest daughter was scared and spent time encouraging her to pet the lamb he held tightly.

We also had a chance to walk the goats, feed some pigs and enjoy a tracker ride. A thoroughly enjoyable and recommendable day out for 4 hours at a farm we will definitely visit again.

Now I should have Sunday night blues at 9pm, but as a flexible, smarter worker, I do not work Mondays. Instead I will make sure my out of office is set and the school uniform ironed!

The start of a blog

As my friends know, I am ever an optimist. I have a direct debit so I never miss a lottery draw (I have had the same two lines for more than 15 years). This optimism was rewarded last year. However, not with a lottery win. After 36 years of winning nothing apart from a school bag when I was 11, I won a 4 day holiday in New York courtesy of MullerLight yoghurts!

I am a subscriber to two magazines, Red and Zest and one online newsletter, GraziaDaily. This may give you an insight into my interests. So I was alerted to a competition on Tuesday 4 May 2010 from Grazia. I would love to become a Simple Star. And to win this I have to get the most votes on their site and create a blog that gets followers.

They say everyone has one book in them. I don’t necessarily think I have one in me that will win the Booker prize. But there are three things close to my heart that I can write about with experience. Family life, I am a wife and mother of two gorgeous girls. Smarter working, I am lucky to have a great employer who offers flexible working to ensure I can experience the best of both worlds. And finally, skincare. I am fast approaching 40 and I really do try and look and feel my best. Not easy when you are juggling a busy family and work life.

So what can you expect from me?

Tips, tricks and technology I use in my family and working life. The benefits I enjoy as a ‘smarter worker’ and reviews of skincare products currently in my bathroom and cosmetics in my make up bag.

Until next time...