Being the main parent and the house-person (not wife), one thing I really struggle with is finding time to do everything. Its like today; I planned on doing quite a bit of cleaning as well as going to the doctors for Alex, walking Daxter and catching up with Avon. The only things I managed to do were going to the doctors and walking Daxter. I suppose at least I got two of the most important things out of the way but there is just so much I wanted to do today that I couldn’t. I don’t think it helped at all that Meghan and I both slept for over two hours. Those two hours I could have been cleaning but to be honest, I really needed the sleep. Anyway, how do you, as a parent and for those of you who work too, how to you manage your time properly? You can spend every waking hour cleaning and caring for others needs. You still need to make time for yourself. I think my problem is that I make me a priority and cleaning the last on my list. When it gets to a point where the whole house is a mess, I start to get really upset with myself that I haven’t kept on top of it. Obviously it is harder to get stuff done when I have a two year old running about, destroying DVD’s and pulling all my books out every half an hour, only stopping so I can’t put them back again. I dread going back to work for the only reason that I don’t feel like I have enough time now so cut anything between 4-10 hours out of my day and it will only get worse.

I guess I need to start planning things properly. Lists are a really good one for me and if I start adding times to the the things I need to do so that if I’ve done everything before the allotted time, then I have some spare time to myself. I’m finding myself online way too much at the moment. I spend hours online at night once Meghan is in bed, just not doing anything. I’m literally sat here refreshing the same pages, looking at stuff I’ve already seen and time is just passing me by. Things are changing all around tomorrow so maybe I should change this side of things too. The message board I am part of is doing a Lose 5 Pounds in October challenge and I’m using this to my advantage to get started on my healthy eating. I weighed myself earlier and its not on the good side and it looks like its only going to get worse if I don’t do something about it. As well as this I’m trying to get my reading back on track. I’ve completely lost my ability to sit down and read for several hours so now I have a goal of one hour a day. Maybe I should make it a goal to manage my time better too. It would make my life a lot easier.

As much as I love Meghan and as much as I love being a parent, its so nice to have some time on your own. This afternoon, as soon as I put Meghan down for a nap, I left the house and went to town on my own to meet Amy. I’ve not been shopping in town without Meghan for so long and I really enjoyed it. It was nice to do the shopping I needed to do (even though I barely got anything done as I got there late so the market was shut) without having to keep a two year old entertained at the same time. Plus I booked myself in for my next part of my tattoo for the 22nd of October which is fantastic. It should have been almost complete by now but its we’ve not had the money to get it done until now. I really should try and get into town on my own at least once a month. I had to rush today to get back as Alex isn’t too well but it would be nice to have three hours to wander around and have a proper look in the clothes shops. I might get my mum to have her one afternoon so I can do that. I’ll have to make sure I have some cash first though!

You know, until I got this opp I didn’t even know there we such things as tape drives. I thought tapes, of any sort had been wiped out long ago. Its not something you see all the time really. I guess you learn something new every day!

I was looking online the other day for new crib bedding for Meghan and then I realised that even though she needs new bedding, there’s probably not much point buying any. I’ll be making the change from a cot to bed at some point in the next six months. I don’t know how or when but it needs to be done. I like her being in her cot because she can’t get out. I’m dreading when we have those nights where she won’t sleep and she keeps getting up and down out of bed all night. I have been thinking how we will make the change over. I’ve heard some people put the mattresses on the floor first before they move them into the actual bed but some people just put them straight in the bed.

How did you make the move from cot to bed? Did it cause a big argument and end in sleepless nights or was it easier than you thought?

For the past week, its been gradually colder. I have been trying to stop myself from putting the central heating on for this long every morning when I wake up and have woken up cold. This morning, I submitted and turned the heating on. I didn’t want to do it until at least October but its just cold! My weather meter on Firefox tells me its 13°C but I don’t believe that for one minute because it feels so much colder. The reason for not wanted to turn the heating on for a while longer is that gas prices are ridiculously high and I know that once I get used toi a nice warm house, I won’t be wanting to turn it off again until next Spring. I guess I’ll just have to leave it on for thirty minutes at a time and leave it at that. I’ll have to invest in a few jumpers and cardigans.

I’m awake this early because I’m waiting for a clothes delivery from Marks and Spencer for the kids. We spent quite a lot of money on clothes a week and a half ago and they are only just being delivered today. I hope they come this morning before I get Meghan dressed so that I can put her in the new clothes. To stop this happening again (the mass spending in one go) I’m going to revert back to what I used to do and buy one thing every week. For one she’ll have more clothes and it spreads the cost over the weeks rather than having to spend £200 in one go. There are still a few things Meghan needs to complete her winter wardrobe so I look forward to buying her bits here and there. Its just a shame me and Alex can’t afford to do the same. I think we need clothes more than the kids.

For the past month or so, I have been going with my mum to the market twice a week to get fresh food. We go on the Monday to get food up until Thursday and then on Friday to get food to last us until the following Monday. I’ve found myself a better meal planner since I’ve been buying bi-weekly rather than weekly. I plan our meals for the few days ahead on the morning I go to the market and I buy all the vegetables and meat fresh. I’ve even got good at freezing the meat as soon as I get home so it doesn’t go off. I was always really crap at remembering to do that so I’m quite pleased with myself. I’m actually using the vegetables that I buy too. When I shopped soley at the supermarket, I’d buy loads of vegetables and they would go off as I never used them. Now I use them on the days that I planned to and by the Monday and/or Friday, my fridge is empty again. Its a lot better this way and I’m finding myself a lot more organised. The only problem is, I can’t get everything I need in the market so I still need to go to the supermarket which is a bit of a hassle. I’ve started doing all my supermarket shopping online though so its not too bad. At least I don’t need a trip to there during the week too. Meghan loves going to the market too. She gets really excited when I tell her Nana’s coming to take us. But then she doesn’t shut up about it all the way there and all the way back.

Is the one day I just don’t have the time. I got up fairly early but I took my time getting ready as my mum was only picking me and Meghan up at 11AM to go to town. I assumed we were only going to be in town for a maximum of two hours but I only got home at around 2.20PM. Meghan usually has her nap at 2.30PM but since we’ve only just had lunch and I have to go out yet again (twice, I might add), I just don’t have the time for her to nap. If she falls asleep while I’m out that’s fine but I guarantee that she won’t. She has to be absolutely exhausted to fall asleep in her pram and that’s a very rare occasion. I promised Alex’s mum that I would go and let her dogs out and I need to go and walk Daxter. I also need to go and do Avon but I think I might leave that until Alex gets home from work as yesterday I ended up coming home early because of all the stupid, idiotic children being idiotic. I hate high school kids. Anyway; so I’m thinking if I go after around 7PM once Meghan’s in bed, hopefully it will be a little bit better. I still have two orders that I need to give out but I’ve already paid my order to Avon online. All the money I get now is mine to keep. Lets hope I manage to get it all done because I’m really busy again tomorrow and I just won’t have time to do any Avon tomorrow at all. At least I have another week before my order is due in so it gives me a little bit of time.

I was watching one of those really cheesy chat shows the other day. You know the one, “Your baby is not my baby because you had sex with 2349074 other people at the same time as me!” “No I didn’t! I only had sex with 398 people!” “Well I want a DNA test because I don’t think the baby is mine even though its been seven years and its taken me this long to actually do anything about it!” Well yeah, I was watching one of those because I love them. Anyway it was about drug rehabilitation that this woman wanted her daughter to have. Its quite scary when you think about the fact that it could be your child. Being a drug addict is definitely one of those things that you dread for your child as they are turning into a young adult. I wouldn’t even know if there was a drug rehab centre around here. I suppose that’s a good thing in a way as it means that I’ve never needed one! I bet most of us have tried even just one drug at some point but there’s a difference between having them once and having an addiction.

Yesterday, Meghan woke me up shouting ‘Mummy!’ at 8.45AM. I told her I was coming and next thing I know its 9.15AM. I’d fallen back to sleep. I very rarely do that and its only when I’m really, really tired. Meghan was playing in her cot quietly when I went in to see her. I felt awful but I didn’t even know I’d done it. All day I just couldn’t get going and when I put Meghan back to bed later on in the afternoon, I needed to have another sleep. I set my alarm so I only slept for thirty minutes and even though I felt slightly better, I was still really tired.

I’m not too bad today but I still can’t get going properly. I don’t know whats wrong with me being so tired. I’m thinking its probably my diet as I’ve not been eating too well recently. I’m trying to get back on track with my healthy eating but I’m not doing so well. Its either that or I need a system memory upgrade, haha. If its because I’m getting older than god help me in ten years time!

Our weekly family swim has been postponed for another week. Last week all four of us were ill but this week its just Emelye thats still ill. Her cough is worse than last week and she’s still full of a cold so there’s no point making her worse by going swimming. Hopefully we can go next week because I’ve missed going the past two weeks. Instead, we’re going into town to swap the coat I bought for Emelye for the smaller size. I thought the one I got her would fit but its really too big. I was going to leave it until tomorrow but it gives us all something to do today rather than just sitting in. I think we’re going to go to Pizza Hut for lunch too and maybe head over to Borders for a book each too. Not that I don’t have enough already but you can never have enough books.

Over the weekend we finally set my old computer up in our bedroom. We had a bit of a move round with the room and got rid of our TV in place of the computer. It was nice to use my old computer for a change. I’ve not been on it for at least a month. I need to buy a wireless dongle for it so that I can use the internet upstairs and I have to transfer all my songs from my hard drive onto the computer so I can listen to music. I also need to look around for some budget software as there are a few things I want to install on there that I’m not prepared to pay full price for! Its a shame I can’t play The Sims 2 upstairs because I rarely get time to play it on my computer downstairs and I know I’d play it in bed. I also need to get ahold of Spore. Have you seen how awesome that game looks!? I have it on my DS but its not that good on there. The graphics are terrible for one. I’ll probably put it on my Christmas list from my parents.

Two days ago, I decided that it would be a good idea to put a duvet and pillow in Meghan’s cot as she’s getting old enough and its starting to get colder. She loves having it in her bed and keeps asking to get in so she can lie down on the pillow. I thought bedtime that night was going to be a breeze. But obviously I was wrong.

Meghan’s one of those children that needs to have ever single teddy bear they have in bed with them to be able to go to sleep. We are talking at least twelve if not more. With the new duvet, because its warmer and she was already sweating in bed with all the bears on her, I told her she could take three bears to bed and she could choose which ones they were. They led to a ten minute back and to with all her bears to which point I got pretty frustrated and walked out after giving her two more bears than she was originally allowed. She eventually got to sleep and I snuck in and moved all the bears like I usually do. Last night was even worse. She wouldn’t go to sleep without ALL of her bears. On top of that she wasn’t very well and she hadn’t eaten any dinner or drank any of her milk. On top of that, she wanted the bears in the right place and kept needing to move them around because she wasn’t happy. Needless to say I got pretty annoyed and left her crying for a while so she’d realise that she needed to go to bed. She got to sleep in the end and again I snuck in and releaved her of all the bears.

I’m thinking whether I should remove the duvet and pillow from her cot because its caused nothing but trouble since I put it in there. She really loves it though so maybe its just a combination of her not being very well and a change. I’m hoping so because I thought we were really moving on from a cot and getting ready for a bed. She’s also been waking up with a dry nappy for the past three nights and yesterday she used her potty first thing in the morning which is fantastic. I’m so sick of paying a ridiculous price for nappies and I can’t wait until I change the last one!

I’m sure it will get better over the next week. I’ll just have to bare with it until things get better.

Yes, its September and yes I’m about to talk about Christmas. I have started really early this year. Its more because of the fact that I have at least three, if not more people that I am knitting gifts for this year. Ever since I’ve switched to circular needles to make my Ravenclaw scarf, I’ve really enjoyed knitting. Coming away from those straight, boring needles and even more boring K1 P1 scarves has really made me love knitting. I plan on making Meghan and Emelye matching hats and scarves, Alex a hat and scarf and my sister, Amy and a friend some gloves. I’m really looking forward to doing it all but I think I’m going to have to have two projects on the go at once to actually get them all done in time.

As well as making a few people gifts, I’ve also start buying my Christmas gifts through Avon, using my discount to my advantage! I’ve bought a couple of frangance sets and something for Amy that I know she’ll love. They will get here next week with my order along with my new catalouge so I can buy a few more gifts in next months order. I know I won’t regret buying gifts this early come December when everyone will be struggling to fight the crowds and be worrying about their bank balances. Every Christmas is a budget but it makes things so much easier this way.

If I get one more diet pills link I think I will go mad. I really have run out of ideas of how to incorporate it into my blog.