Monday, March 11, 2013

{Getting Organised} Phase 1: Confessions of a Messy Mum

The getting organised saga continues in this household. It is a constant, up-hill battle of which I am yet to reach the top of and proudly stake my flag in its smug, solid ground. 

The thing is, my little man is starting school next year. And for the last 4 years I've envisioned what that will be like, what it will look like....

In my mind, he wakes up in the morning, gets himself dressed, and then comes out to the clean, bright kitchen where he is warmly greeted by me, (I'm already showered and dressed) and getting his breakfast ready. His school bag was packed the night before, (everything we need for the morning was packed the night before) and so after breakfast, we stack the dishes in the dishwasher, ensuring our kitchen is once again, clean and shiny, and set off for school with plenty of time. 

We arrive at school, not frazzled and stressed, but calm and happy, ready for the day. We walk up to his classroom and as he greets his friends, I chat to some of the other mothers about a play-date after school. I will have no time between now and after school as im out all day, but this isn't a problem. Because the house is already clean and tidy. 

After school, his little friends come over and I have coffee with their mothers. The kiddos all play happily together. I don't feel ashamed nor embarrassed about the state of the house. I'm not making excuses for the mess or trying to justify why we live in our little weatherboard. The house is clean, tidy and stylish (thus justifying my career ambitions!) and we are content living here....(Ok so that sounds alot like the scene of some pine-o-clean ad or something but a girl can dream right!?!)

This is how I imagine life will be when the little man starts school.
This is how I want my life to be when the little man starts school.
I have ten months to make this my life. 

My mum says it can't be done. Life isn't like that. Life is messy and unorganised and crazy. 

But I really want to try.

I don't know that I have ever been more determined to achieve this elusive state of 'being organised'. I guess there has never been a more important reason than to do it for my children. I don't want them being too embarrassed to ask their friends over to play. I don't want them constantly running late and losing things (like I did and still do!) I don't want them to spend hours agonising over how to get themselves organised, to question why they aren't as prepared as this person and as clean and tidy as that person, I don't want them to ever have to think like this

Im a procrastinator and this is one of my biggest challenges. I constantly say to myself 'as soon as 'x' is finished, ill have time to get started on 'y' ' but the thing is, there is always another 'x' and so the 'y's' continue to pile up. 
guilty

I always, always leave things to the last minute. Like right now, I am supposed to be getting ready to take the kiddos to a birthday party that starts in 20 minutes. But I still have to have a shower, get dressed (decide what im wearing), get Marley to get redressed in to more appropriate clothes (instead of his full body dinosaur costume on a 37 degree day), hang out the washing, find the birthday card that little lady ran off with, feed the dog, pack everything we will need.... {Ok so I left at this point and went to start getting ready. We were 45 minutes late to the party}



guilty, again.

I'm not a hoarder but I am a shopper. Thankfully im not really in the position to do much shopping these days...thank you ginormous bills, I knew you had to be good for something! But I am still left with a lot of random stuff from over the years cramping our little house.

I cant use 'a lack of storage' as an excuse anymore either. In the last three years, we have installed built-in wardrobes into each of the kiddos bedrooms, floor to ceiling laundry cupboards, new shelving and hanging rails in our walk-in-robe and completely renovated the kitchen producing three times as much storage as before. So no, storage isn't the problem, stuff is the problem.  Or rather, sorting out what stuff we need and what stuff we don't need, and then working out how and where to store the stuff we need and sell or donate the stuff we don't.



EVERY night!

I stay up way too late every night and then dont want to get out of bed in the morning. I dont get my mojo to clean and tidy until the afternoon but by then, ive left it too late to make any real progress as I need to prepare and make dinner, bath and dress the kids, you know the whole evening routine. 

So, it seems I have a few things to work on if I want this whole 'being organised' thing to happen...

Time management seems to be a big issue for me. It results in me being late to everything all the time, procrastinating, staying up too late, never getting anything done...so I'm definitely going to be focusing on this issue. 

Clutter or too much crap is the other big one. I have been slowly chipping away at it over the years but I still have a way to go. 

Ok so Im going to go away now and find me some tools to tackle these issues and then Im going to come back with a plan. Just you wait and see. Seriously!

Lisa xx

{The Grateful Project} Day 18: getting educated

Woah! How did I get so behind yet again? Time management really is not my strong point. And I chose to go back to study? Again? With two kids? And whilst trying to run a household and a business? Really!?! 


just your average Saturday night activities

Yes! Yes I did and even though it is hard work trying to manage it all, im so glad I did and im so grateful to have the opportunity. 

For as long as I can remember, it has been my dream to be an Interior Designer, long before The Block made it cool! Many days during my childhood were spent rearranging the furniture or going over house plans in the Sunday paper, drawing up room sketches and pouring over the gorgeous homes in my stash of design mags. I loved art and design and I wanted to make a career out of it. 

But when you are 18, and you have just moved out of home to live with your boyfriend, and you really need money to pay for boring things like a mortgage and groceries, well you will take any job you can get and any dreams you have of a glamorous design career get left by the wayside. 

So I worked in a chinese restaurant, then a pharmacy, then for an airline, then in jewellery sales and finally, in marketing. Then I had kids. And somewhere in there, right before leaving my marketing job and having our first child, the husband started his little earthmoving business. And that is what I do now. Kind of. (Im not very good at keeping on top of it all...whoops!)

But in all of that, something was missing. None of it was what I wanted to do, all of those jobs were what I felt I had to do. I started feeling resentful and full of regret for not pursuing my dreams and instead, being responsible. urgh. 

So, one day I randomly decided to do a bit of googling on interior design courses. And then I just applied. And then I told my husband. And he tried to be supportive. But he is kind of pissed about all the wasted money on HECS from my last attempt at a tertiary education that I never finished (hello incomplete Bachelor of Management Marketing) . But this time will be different. Finally, at the age of 28, I am realising my dream (apart from the other dream of you know, having two gorgeous kids and an awesome husband). This is what I have always wanted to do.


research

Im so grateful to be an interior design student. So much so that all the boring things about being a student really arent that boring to me. I love going to Tafe. I love all of my classes and I really enjoy doing my homework. Im so excited about the future and what it holds. Whether or not ill be a successful interior designer or not, at least I have given it a go. And I will always know I tried. 

No regrets here.

Lisa xx

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

{The Grateful Project} Day 17- Friends

Friends. Thank god you can choose them. I have some of the best, if I don't say so myself. And oh my, I am so incredibly grateful to have them all in my life.

I have my 'mum friends' who I've met since having children. We all had babies around the same time and now we hang out and the kiddos play whilst we have coffee and share our horror stories. Every now and then we are lucky enough to go out and catch-up without children and instead, wine. Now that is always a fun time to be had! 


'mothers group'


Then there are my 'single and child-less' friends although most of them aren't single anymore and a few now have kids, even step-kids. They are the ones that know the latest pubs and clubs to go to, the ones in the latest fashions, smashing it in the career fields and generally having the time of their lives. jealous? me, never! Ok maybe a little bit but I wouldn't trade places with them. I still get to go out every now and then but I have my kids everyday and that beats any club or corporate ladder.

party time!
Fiji, one thousand years ago

There are our couple friends. Most of whom we have known since we got-together, nearly 13 years ago! We've gone through weddings and divorces, babies and miscarriages. We've been through alot together and you know they will always have your back, and you theirs. 
Our very dear friends wedding, 4 years ago

two of my closet friends on our Melbourne trip last year

I have alot of friends and Im grateful for every.single.one of them. I don't get to spend time with any of them anywhere near enough but we are all busy and they get that. Im so grateful to have friends that organise stuff though because without those friends, I probably wouldn't see anyone-ever.

Sunday brunch dates with these chicks
 Thank you ladies. 

Lisa xx



Saturday, March 2, 2013

{The Grateful Project} Days 10-16: Time


I had every intention of doing a separate post for each day of the last week. But the more I thought about all the posts I wanted to write, the more I realised that each moment I have been grateful for, all comes down to the same thing...time.

I'm feeling so grateful right now, to time. 

Right now, time is on my side, on my family's side. The kiddos are still so young and even though time is constantly ticking, right now they are here with me. And I am here with them. 

coffee dates with the little lady

turning boxes of wine into works of art

still little enough to squash side-by-side in the trolley


I have become so painfully aware lately how limited this time really is. Whether it is due to the little man starting kindergarten and the incredible changes I have seen in him as a result, or if its due to the recent time I have spent alone with Lila, and noticing how quickly she is growing up, I am constantly aware that this time is precious. 

I caught Marley helping Lila put on her shoes...proud mummy moment!

Last week I toured one of the schools we are considering enrolling Marley in. All too soon, I am going to be a 'school Mum'. We are going to be doing lunches and school runs and readers and after-school sports and he is going to be gone all day, five days a week. I keep thinking 'that's it', like once he starts school, its all over. 

yes it is

I have been loving mornings lately. Those blissful moments when the kids have climbed in to bed with me and we all lie there snuggling together, them watching cartoons and me stealing a few more precious minutes of sleep. Already we are at a stage of having to be somewhere every morning by a certain time but its still pretty casual. Casual in the way that its not a big deal if we run a few minutes late to swimming lessons or to kindergarten. Next year were going to have to be on a.....schedule!

so relax!

I am grateful to still be at home. All too soon, it will be time for me to return to work. And that is exciting, scary and sad. I will not only be a 'school mum' then but a 'working school mum'.

always, always choose the kids

Right now Im just grateful for the kisses and cuddles and tickle fights. Im taking more time when I go to check in on them before I go to bed, just to soak up a little more of the adorable that is a sleeping child. 

Im finding that im willing them to come in to our room and hop in to bed with us, just so I can fall asleep with them tucked safely in my arms. 


All I want to do right now is just be where they are. I just can not get enough of them and that is a wonderful feeling.  


Lisa xx

Friday, March 1, 2013

{The Grateful Project} Day 9-Dates with the little man

{I am well aware it has been over a week since my last post. It has also been precisely a week since we went over our GB allowance with our new Internet plan and they slowed our speed to an excruciatingly sloooooooooowww speed to the point that it was pointless even trying to use the Internet. I gave in last night and doubled our allowance, a girl cant deal with this no internet thing!}

Day 9

So it was last Friday (Day 9) that I finally got a chance to spend some much needed quality time with the little man. It doesn't happen anywhere near often enough. Partly because there is this other little person around all the time and partly because Marley is such a daddy's boy that usually they go off and do their boy thing while the little lady and I do our girl things (like this time).

But last Friday, I finally had an opportunity to spend some time just with him. We went to the movies, we had lunch, we had coffee (he had a babycino), we even went shopping. 

our valentines present from the little man

He soaked it all up {I love watching him watching everything}. He asked questions. We talked. 

We talked about his new kindergarten and the friends he had made there, we talked about what he is going to be when he grows up (his latest is either a 'fireman' or a 'dad'), we hung out. It was awesome. 

Im grateful for days like this. I know all too well, that they are limited. One day, he will be able to think of nothing worse then going to the movies and shopping with his mother. So im going to enjoy these days while I have them.


ok so I caved and bought him some new cars. How could I resist?

Lisa xx