What I have been doing (19th-26th June 2017)

As this blog is called 'DIARY of a Busy Working Mum' I thought that I need to treat it like a diary and let you know what I have been up to ( It isn't 'Secret Diary... after all).

It was a busy week which started out at Quilting club on Monday. I am making a throw quilt for my bed and wanted to do hexagon flowers. I have made a few up to now but there are still plenty to go as I am hand sewing them all. It will probably be ready for Winter 2018 as the only chance I generally get to do anything is at the club which is once a fortnight.

 (1 down, 49 to go)

Tuesday was a big day for Emma as she had been invited to the Student of the Year presentation at the Lowry Theatre by her college. Some of the students had overcome tremendous obstacles to stay in college and I really admired them for their resilience and courage to complete their studies. Emma didn't win Student of the Year but I was still proud of her for getting Student of the Term

She is now looking for an apprenticeship doing photography or videography but there is little out there at the moment but she is definitely trying hard. She wants to be a travel photographer eventually but is willing to do anything to get experience.

Wednesday brought Emma a little closer to buying her own DSLR camera when she came into work with me to do a research project for my boss. She has been in a few times before doing other projects and it is what made her decide that working full time in an office was not for her. ( I can't blame her, I wish I was in a more active job sometimes)

I managed to resist temptation on Thursday when I took Matthew to Krispy Kreme for a treat. I stuck to coffee whilst he tucked into a sprinkle doughnut

I love going there and watching the doughnuts being made. This time they had the glazing machine on as well. We have been lucky in the past and have been able to go behind the counter and see how the doughnut mixture is made and then filled and ate our own doughnuts. Matthew has also been to a party there and came back on such a sugar high from all the doughnuts he had eaten it was a wonder he wasn't sick.

I was in cooking and organising mode on Friday when I made the Spicy Lamb kebabs from Prima magazine for my brother in law, J.  Craig and I then helped him organise some paperwork he needed for the legal separation from his wife. J had a massive stroke nearly 3 years ago and isn't able to organise the paperwork himself due to the brain damage he suffered.

I also did my own planning for the week and decided to start decorating my planner the way I have seen people on Instagram and Youtube. I have made the inserts as I have not yet found exactly what I want and even these aren't perfect but they are close

The weekend was spent mainly out of the house visiting friends and family. I did lose 1 1/2lbs this week at Slimming World putting me a bit safer in my target zone. I want to get to the lower end of my target zone so that I have got a bit of wiggle room for events and holidays. I also managed to get these planters to brighten up my front garden a little.

We went to Morecambe on Sunday and ended up catching the last part of the kite festival. The kites were huge and it was a good job they were well fastened as it was extremely windy on the front.

We ended up getting back a little later than planned from there because of the Kite Festival so I have got to spend this week catching up with housework. I am glad there isn't much else planned for this week.

Cleaning schedules

 This year I have been working on several cleaning routines and adapting them to make them work for me. I have pretty much got the daily and weekly routines sorted. I don’t rigidly stick to doing certain things on certain days as work and WI commitments make that impossible. Instead it is a case of getting it done in the week. Some weeks I can spread the jobs over several evenings and other weeks they are done all in one go at the weekend.

I am struggling to keep up with the zone cleans due to this  lack of routine. I do find that if the jobs are spread over the week then doing the zone clean is easy at the weekend.

 I have also set up cleaning schedules for those things that need cleaning less frequently and also one for before I go on holiday. This came from Alison at Brocantehome and I love reading her e-books and web site because she is not obsessed with having a perfectly clean sterile home but on making the home comfortable and welcoming.

I admit that I do not stick rigidly to this but at least it gives me a fighting chance of not needing a visit from Kim and Aggie.

Trying to find planner peace

Planner peace is something that I have heard a lot of bloggers and vloggers comment on and whether or not they have found it. I don’t think that anyone can find ultimate planner peace and use the same system for years on end without refining it. I have watched a number of Youtube channels where there is a video titled ‘Planner Peace’ and then a few months later there is a video uploaded for a completely different system.

I have yet to find planner peace as my requirements have changed over the years and the more I have looked into planners the more systems I have tried, some have lasted longer than others but I have yet to find the ‘Utopia’ that Planners aim for.

My current system is a cross between an ring bound system and a bullet journal and is in two ‘books’. I like the idea between a bullet journal but I don’t fancy have to transfer my ‘collections’ to a new book every time the journal was filled. This is where the ring bound system has proven useful.

My planner is from Paperchase. It did have ‘Make it Happen today’ printed on the front but it started to rub off quite early after purchasing it so I just rubbed the rest of it off so that it looked better.

I have different tabs as any ring bound system does. I didn’t like the tabs that came with it as they were to dull so I made my own using scrapbook paper laminated to strengthen it.

My first tab is a diary where I keep my appointments, events, when I am out of the office and  when things are due. I suppose this would be the future planning in a traditional bullet journal. I am using the diary that came with the planner.

I have only got to the end of the year in as it was originally an academic year but I prefer January to December so I will be purchasing a new diary insert soon.

The next tab is the weekly plan. Again this is a filofax insert and is the daily planner. On this I put things that I need to do this week as a general list. On the back there is a notes section on which I put my meal plan on along with any other general notes I may need.

My daily to do list is in a separate notebook which also contains my brain dump which are just random notes and thoughts that I just need to get out of my head so I can focus on other things.

I tend to write this first thing in the morning as it depends on how I am feeling and what I have got on that day as to what I intend to achieve. This works better than planning out the whole week as I am more likely to do what is on the list. I am going to spend more time and make it look a bit prettier (damn you Pinterest).

The next tab in my planner is my running to-do list which is for non-date specific things that need to be done. I have a separate list for my craft projects which I am trying not to add to until I have got some of the projects which are already on there completed.

A list of birthdays and anniversaries make up the next section in the planner. Having this section means that I don’t have to remember to transfer them all across to a new diary every year.

My ‘Life’ Section contains my monthly goals and ways I am trying to simplify my life. I will also put in things that other people have done to simplify their lives and maybe try to incorporate their ideas.

The List section is my equivalent of the collections in a Bullet Journal. I have currently got school holidays, writing challenge, photo challenge,  where I am up to with box sets and my wish list which is a list of things I want to buy.

The final section is notes which is just everything else.

I don’t know how long I will stay with this format, but it is currently working for me and seems to offer the most flexibility.