Reflections on 2 weeks of not tracking my time, Halloween Party, Random Thoughts, Adult Pro-Tip.

I have officially not tracked my time for two weeks.

It turns out, when I don't track how much sleep I get, I get less sleep.  I've decided to start tracking sleep on my habit tracker instead.  I have also wasted more time on the internet knowing I didn't have to write 4 blocks of "wasted time on the internet" on my time log.  That said, I don't feel the need to spend time on google rabbit holes now that I can spend time on google rabbit holes.  So maybe that one will just go away by itself.

I think time tracking is super cool, but I'm also not sure I need to lean into my own weirdnesses so much, so maybe doing more normal things is more better for now.

Speaking of normal things - Pumpkin carving party 2025 was a great success

We went super minimal on the snacks this year.  Everyone brough cookies/cakes/other snacks.  The fruit salad was a hit. Even the mummy dogs all got eaten!

Although the party was "drop in 2-5" almost everyone showed up at 2:30.  It basically felt like a house party - I think there were about 20 kids in our house and garden and 20 parents as well.  12 families ended up coming.  Some didn't stay for the whole time, but some did. 

Andy once said "people want to have a good time" and it's true - people stayed long after they were done carving pumpkins.  They played with duplo in the lounge, Andy got out the smoke machine for a smoking pumpkin, and overall I think (hope!) people had fun.  Or they hated it and they won't come back next year.

On Sunday Morning (Before the party) we went to a local open air museum and I snapped some very autumnal photos.  I think this counts as a walk! I have done very badly on walking and photoing my walks this October.  I will put the walking challenge as a goal for 2026.

It's NaBloPoMo next month.  I am definitely not going to participate, but I am excited to read more posts by my favourite bloggers.  I can't believe it's been 3 years since I re-started this silly blog.  I'm glad I did. NaBloPoMo was how I met most of the bloggy friends I now have, and it was also a fun way to restart blogging.  

Oh and a random tip for you all on this random post.  Today I did a super smart grownup thing (and yes I'm 40 years old and still think about doing "grown up" things) which was taking all my cards out of my wallet and photographing them so that if I ever lose my wallet I will know exactly what's in it. 

I also found two starbucks cards which I have put in my wallet and I will find the perfect time for a pumpkin spice latte soon.

Pumpkin Carving Party Eve : annual party traditions and a chaotic trip to ASDA

I love pumpkins and carving pumpkins and pumpkin food and pumpkin candles, and in 2022 we decided to throw a pumpkin Carving Party.  

It was raining, and we bought a gazebo, and we put our kitchen table outside and had about 8ish families over to carve pumpkins.  We made pumpkin snacks.  It was fun!

We didn't do a party in 2023 (due to imminent arrival of twins) but we did somehow have a party in 2024 (with nearly 1 year old twins??) We invited 15 families.  9 came, 15 kids and 20 adults (at least, that's what the RSVP situation was).

Tomorrow we are hosting the same party again. I have decided I love hosting the same party every year.  It's easy, we know what the set up us.  People who come year after year know what they are getting into (it's a bring your own pumpkin affair).  We bought some new pumpkin-guts bins and sharpies this year,and massively reduced the food offering (hot dog mummies still on the list, and cracker spiders, and a halloween spooky fruit salad).

This morning we went to ASDA to buy our pumpkins and some more halloween-y decorations.  The kids asked if they could wear costumes, which of course they could.

I am sometimes so entertained by what our family must look like to the rest of the world.  This is normal, right?

I had a somewhat secret ambition to buy some more autumn decoration for the house, which I did in the form of this discount wooden sign:

Which now sits on our mantle with my autumnal candles.  I also got a giant stuffed pumpkin, because the kids had taken my tiny crocheted pumpkins and my medium stuffed pumpkin so it seemed like we needed more stuffed pumpkins in the house.  

The afternoon was spent playing dress up and tidying the house and then making the house a chaos mess again. 

Mostly I am excited for the party tomorrow.

We always run the party as a "drop in" for 3 hours in the afternoon on the last Sunday before Halloween.  This works well for a few reasons:

• We can invite a lot of people so people can come and leave at anytime
• It's definitely not over a meal time.
• It's always clock change day, which makes the day awful and weird, so it's nice to have a fun afternoon activity to drag everyone through to the later bedtime

We also usually have one family stay for dinner with us after (and help clean up) which makes it even more fun.

This year we invited 16 families, 11 have said yes, with an estimated 19 kids and 19 adults.  It always seems like it will be too much (we don't have a giant house) but it's always worked OK before, so fingers crossed it works OK again.

And if it doesn't... then I guess people won't come back next year.

Do you (or have you ever) throw(n) the same party year after year?  Have you ever been invited to the same party year after year?

I wish I had another year on year party I could throw.  Like a Valentine's Day party.  Some other minor holiday in a rubbish time of year.

Hello From Friday - to do lists, new friends, priorities

I couldn't decide what the naptime priority was on my list of things to do, so I decided to write a blog post first

I wonder if there is some Kendra Adachi / Lazy Genius approach I could use?  I have about 1.5 to 2 hours of nap time at most.  

Laundry does need to be hung up, but it could probably sit in the washer untill tonight, but also it only takes 10 minutes

Hoovering is a good idea because the floor is gross.  But also, the floor will soon be gross again so I may as well wait and do it tonight or over the weekend.

Packing up parcels is needed - I have two big returns to make - but it's so boring.  It probably takes 5 minutes.  But it needs to be done by 4:30 so I can make it to the post office before it closes.  

Budget it getting out of control... usually I update twice a month but I haven't done October.  There are a lot of receipts on a magnet on the fridge (we keep not obvious receipts so I can code them correctly)

I want to write a blog post, so this is what I'm doing first

Andy is in charge of recycling, but there seems to be a growing collection of glass on the windowsill and the recycling is full (and smells somewhat like fish, oops).  But also, if I wait until tonight then he can do it.

I think the order will be Blog, Packing Parcels, Hang Laundry, Do Budget.

But then I start thinking... shouldn't I do a workout? Yoga? Strength?  I could do a 20 minute sprint on the peloton... but it would be better to start that sooner so that twins don't wake up during it.  I don't mind them waking up when I'm in the middle of tidying.  I do mind if it's 10 minutes into a 15 minute workout. 

Or I could sit down and read my book.  Or just sit down and relax? Have a cup of tea and a pumpkin biscuit? My mom brought me Pumpkin Joe Joes from Trader Joes and I am savouring each of them

Random aside - Trader Joes is the shop I miss most in the USA.  Other shops on the list - REI, Whole Foods, and New Seasons (a grocery store in the Portland area).

On a totally different note, I had a very bloggable story morning.

The story starts over the summer, when I met a really nice couple at a not-local park but they lived locally to us.  They had a daughter the same age as the twins, and they had lived in the USA for 5 years.  I thought they seemed really cool but I didn't ask for their phone numbers because I felt like that was quite forward for a random park meet, and also I knew I didn't really have much free time to make friends.

Recently I've thought of them a few times as I now have Fridays off work and still don't know many people with two year olds.

This morning I went to a local super cute soft play and there was a guy who looked oddly familiar and so did his daughter, and of course it was the guy I met at the park! I told him I wished I had got his wife's number, and then we swapped numbers and he seemed very keen to meet up again as he and his wife have alternate Fridays off.  I'm not sure we will be best friends but I am so pleased I ran into them again.

When we first met them I told Andy I wished I had gotten their number and he said "well you will probably see them again and then you can get numbers" and he was right.  And honestly, I thought about how if I was on facebook or WhatsApp or other things I could have probably digitally connected before now, but this way felt so cool and organic in a way that the digital world would not.

Then at the soft play a mom said she thought she knew me from the local climbing centre, and I remembered her and we had a great chat and it turns out she used to own an run a vegan restaurant I loved! We did not swap numbers but I hope I'll run into her again sometime as well.  It was cool to feel like there is a community of lovely people around.  I sometimes feel like potential friends are everywhere.

Here are Aubrey & Clara enjoying snack at the soft play:

Now it's 1:30 and I better crack on with my to do list.  I just realized I forgot to add planning to the list.  But I did update my dream naptime to do list and it turns out I have 2 hours of dreams to accomplish and 1 hour left.  I did also realize that I pretty much have to choose between weekly planning / Budget vs. doing sport...

In good news, there's not really a wrong decision.

Do you end up with random difficult to prioritize to do lists?  If you moved away from where you live, what store would you miss the most?  Do you like Pumpkin Joe-Joes?

A really random post about protien and food and running and sports

I've started eating breakfast and I think it's helping with my energy levels during the day.  I'm trying to eat within 30 minutes of waking up, and 30 minutes before & after exercising.

My "breakfast" probably has some hipster name, but it's chia seeds, flaxseed, and ground almonds, left overnight with oat milk (if prepared) or just made in the morning (if not prepared).  People go on and on about protein but maybe "people" are right.   I'm trying to pick more protein rich foods for my meals.  It turns out these foods have lots of protein (so I learned from my vegan friend).  I even measured my overnight sludge today (probably need a better name for this) and it has 17 grams of protein.

I've also been eating salads for lunch.  Salads are good foods to eat at my desk.  I will put almost anything in this salad.  Last week I tried adding tempeh which was tasty.  I'll also add leftover veggie burgers, or leftover beans... or whatever is leftover.  Also tomato and lettuce and cucumber, or sometimes not lettuce because it's expensive.  Also chia seeds and cashews and pumpkin seeds.  And this italian dressing from Two Peas and their Pod. 

I know no one came to this blog for photos of salads but it's happening...

My work has asked us to use copilot more so today I asked copilot to figure out how much protein was in my salad:

The major adjustment that I'm trying to make with my food is to eat when I'm hungry, or when I'm struggling to focus in work, because often that's a sign that I'm hungry. Today I was fairly productive in work, which might have been a result of my copilot approved salad?

I'm also trying to get 3 strength workouts and 2 SIT (Sprint Interval Training) workouts in every week.  I would love to also do yoga and swimming once a week, or 10 minutes of stretching a day, or some other great idea thing that would be good for me... but if I could do my SIT and my Strength that would definitely be a great success.

I have given up on running for now.  I don't have 2-3 hours on the weekend for a fun run, and it's dark and wet and cold during the week.  I don't see any real benefit from running a few miles once a week, because the part of running I like is the part where I run for a long time.  I think I'll be taking a break from the running until the weather improves and maybe start building distance again in the spring... when I might enter my first ever trail half marathon....

Do you eat the same thing for lunch every day?  Are you a breakfast person? A eat when you wake up person? Do you fuel before and after workouts or do you forgetfully chase your day in circles like I often do?

Time Tracking, Other Tracking, Not Tracking and a random aside about suppliments.

I think I'm taking a break from time tracking.

I have been tracking my (on a time tracking spreadsheet excel, like a nerd) since February 2024. 

It's interesting! There's a lot of data (maybe?).  There's a lot of time.  I've done a lot of things with that time.

And yet it's started to feel like a chore.  I don't wake up and do my time log like I used to.  I don't think I'm learning anything from it at the moment.  In fact, it's often making me feel like I have abundant time and non abundant energy or ability or logistical opportunity.

A young colleague of mine said she didn't understand how I possibly did "everything" - meaning having a job and young 4 kids.  I told her that my job is only 32 hours a week and there are 24 hours in a day so really my job is basically 1 and a half days a week... barely any time at all.

I do genuinely feel that way.... but I'm not sure it's great for me to be so unaligned from the common perceptions of work/life balance.  

I stopped filling out my line a day journal about two months ago, when I decided I didn't want to relive the last 4 years of autumn sickness and newborn times and covid lockdowns.

To quote Spinal Tap... "Too much ****** Perspective"

Anyways there are things I still want to track.  I've been tracking my cycles and it's kind of fascinating and somewhat helpful for understanding how I wildly swing from feeling like the coolest human ever to being the most neurotic human ever.

I've been tracking some habits too

I have a goal to do 100 strength work outs this year.  The Half Marathon training really dampened my strength training.  I'm currently at 69 for the year.  I'll have to do 3 strength workouts a week to get to 100, which doesn't seem impossible but does seem improbable.  I may also need to look at Strava and see if I missed any workouts on my tracker.

I like seeing how when cardio goes up strength goes down, and knowing that I'm not doing nothing on my non strength days... I'm just not doing strength.

Randomly, without tracking, I started taking vitamins every day.  I've been reading Next Level by Stacy Sims and it has some fascinating info on aging and nutrition and I decided I may as well try taking Creatine and Vitamin D and a multivitamin because it probably can hurt and if it helps with energy and brain fog then that's even better.

Also, maybe if I'm not time tracking I'll do more paper planner stuff.  I like writing in a planner.  It brings me joy.  If I'm organized about it then it also keeps me organized about life.  

Have you ever trakced your time or your hobbies?  How long did you do it for?  Do you feel more limited by time or energy or logistics?  Or all three?

Work trip - walking adventures, eating adventures, thoughts etc.

I'm currently posting from a train, on my way home from 2 nights in Leeds.  I so enjoyed a bit of space to think, although I also felt like it took me 36 of my 48 hours to decompress enough to start thinking.  Also, I was traveling for work so I did spend my days in the office as well.  My first office day felt exhausting, which I think is a side effect of being primarily work from home. 

First - Walks!  

Elisabeth does a bloggy walking challenge every October and I love following all the bloggy walkers around the world.  

On Monday I didn't get much of a walk in, but I had 20 minutes to walk around Kings Cross Station before my evening train to Leeds

Inside the station there was a random non-train queue, and of course it was platform 9 and 3/4!  So many muggles!

On Tuesday I finished work around 5:45 and decided to go for a quick walk through Leeds in the evening.  I hadn't explored Leeds before and I didn't realize how big it is - it's the 5th largest metro area in the UK.

During my walk I saw a recognizable sign... but one I did not expect to see in the Leeds:

Chick-fil-a??? in Leeds? Bizarre.  I had also just read Suzanne's post on likes which included a nod to Chick-fil-a so it felt extra bizarre to see this American fast food joint in the British wild.

Food

On my first day in Leeds I went down to the hotel breakfast and didn't feel like any of it was actually food.  My kids would love it, the weird fried eggs and sausages and white bread, but I've been trying to eat more protein and non processed food recently and hotel breakfasts are definitely not that.  I found a local cafe and ordered a granola bowl and a latte and had the most AMAZING breakfast

I went back again the next day and also I have decided I need to make myself delicious breakfast bowls from now on.  It had Cacao Nibs! and chia seeds sprinkled on top.  And other crunchy delicious things.  

Also, it cost £9.50 for this breakfast, which I felt was a great bargain for such deliciousness.

This morning I was writing in my planner and eating this breakfast while The Postal Service "Such Great Heights" was playing and I realized I was having a perfect moment.  I sat and enjoyed everything about it - the cafe, the ambiance, the food, the quiet.  No one asking me things.  Nowhere to go.  No to do list.  Just breakfast and a full day of work ahead.  It was glorious.

I also went out to dinner by myself on this trip, something I've somewhat dreaded previously.  This time, I loved it.  The quiet, eating slowly, watching people, thinking... it was dreamy.  It would have been better if Andy could have been there, but dinner alone is actually kind of awesome.  Maybe that's a sign I'm getting old(er)

Some realizations from this trip

• I really love travel and adventure and right now I don't do much of it
• I'm not sure incorporating kids into things I like is a recipe for success.  I loved my dinner alone.  I don't love being at restaurants with young kids.
• I live where I do because it's less than an hour from lots of beautiful places, and I almost never see any of them.  Maybe that's just the stage of life I'm in.
• Being home for nap time every day between 12 and 2 is highly adventure limiting.  Again, maybe it's just the stage I'm in.
• I spend a lot of time in my own home.  
• I spend a lot of time thinking about logistics and plans (short and long term) for other people.
• I spend a lot of time thinking about what to feed kids and others and need to spend some fraction of that time figuring out what I am going to eat and planning my own intentional food

It's been a nice and productive few days away.  I am lucky I get to travel for work, and that I have the childcare support structure to make work trips possible.

Monday: A long weekend (in feeling, not time) - Lots of young kids, melon fights, and some bloggy complaining

Sometimes I find having a lot of young kids (6, 5, 1 & 1) very tiring. This weekend was one of those weekends.  

I had the distinctively 168 hour / Laura Vanderkam thought that I currently work 32 hours a week (If I'm in work all week, which I haven't been for 3 weeks in a row).  I do my own sport (gym with gym buddy, circus class with other gym buddy, and any of my own running and yoga) around 8 hours a week.  I spend about 55 hours a week sleeping.  

The math shows I spend 73 hours a week parenting and managing a house and actively watching kids and doing all the stuff that family life involves.

I chose to have kids, and kids on good days (many days!) they bring clouds of joy.  I'm also eternally thankful I don't have newborn twins.  My kids are all healthy.  They sleep.  Problems are generally simple.  This is all good.

But also, toddlers are hard, and TWO toddlers is hard.  It's physically demanding and mentally exhausting.  They will be 2 at the end of this month.  They are amazingly independent: they can walk up and down stairs, open doors, they climb in and out of their own highchairs.  They feed themselves with utensils and Aubrey can even serve herself her own food at the table.

In the meantime, I have two other great kids who I feel I barely pay attention to because I am often maxed out taking care of twins.  Even when the twins aren't around (ie, if Andy takes them out) I am then desperate to get some of the pile of house and life admin done... sort the toys, do the dishes, prep the dinner, rotate the clothes, update the budget... everything.

On Saturday we had planned a trip to the pumpkin patch.  We have been every year and I booked tickets.  Lily asked for pumpkin waffles for breakfast.

I woke up at 6, prepped waffles. Chopped melon.

A screaming fight over melon ensued between the 5 and 6 year old regarding who got more pieces.  I had cut up an entire cantaloupe but it was apparently not enough and not fair.  In the midst of this, the 5 year old told me she did not like these waffles (the ones she asked for and I had spent 20 minutes making at 6am).

I definitely did not respond with kindness.  I told the kids we are never eating melon or waffles again.  Then I changed it to "we are never having melon or waffles for a month" which is more reasonable but also devolved into a screaming argument.

I looked at the rest of the weekend: We had morning pumpkin patch and an afternoon family party, followed by the 6 year old's birthday on Sunday where he would be out all day with Andy, and I would be home with Lily and twins all day again.  I told Andy I needed some me time and so I went for a 10 mile run.  

After the run I was too tired to be grumpy at the kids, or at anyone.  Success?

I'm currently on a work trip this week, two nights in Leeds.  I visited Leeds 3 years ago, around this time, and enjoyed it immensely.  I'm hoping I'll get the same thrill and distance and rest this time and come back with more energy and excitement for the remaining hours of my non work non sleep week.  

Anyways, no great realizations at the end of this blog post.  Sorry it's a bit of a whiney one! I know my life is filled with luck and opportunity and good things.  The sun even came out on Sunday...

They stopped fighting long enough for this photo