Weekend Update - that went fast

It was a too fast weekend.

I woke up Friday not feeling well because a certain two year old had decided not to do sleeping at 2 or 3 am and I foolishly put her in bed with us which meant no one slept and I was very grumpy.  I tried to push through at work but was too tired/pregnant/annoyed and eventually took a half day of sick leave so I could take a  nap... which is unfortunate because I have too much work to do and could really have used a work day.

I had friends coming over for afternoon tea at 2:30 which thankfully my mom and Andy prepped most of.  Then at 2:30 I realized I had told them 3:30, so we sat around for half an hour.

On, and on Friday the Drier arrived!

Tea went well, we hand cheese and chutney sandwiches as well as cucumber sandwiches, plus scones & clotted cream & jam, and a Victoria sponge cake.  And a fruit salad.

Friends left around 5 and then more friends came from Bristol for a sleepover and dinner at 7.  I am sort of obsessed with these salmon burgers right now and it made a really easy dinner for everyone:

After dinner the kids all went to bed (In the same room!) and adults had a fire pit.  It was vaguely threatening to rain, which is perfect for a fire pit.  

On Saturday we went to the bike park with all 3 kids.  Lilah is getting more and more rad.  Isaac is on a pedal bike.  Our friend's 4 year old borrowed one of Isaac's bikes and got on super well with the pump track.  

We all did afternoon playing in the house, followed by dinner Pizza.  And our friends helped us hook up the new tumble drier - it's a heat pump drier an doesn't use a vent. 

on Sunday Andy went biking with his dad buddies while our friend (with two almost the same age kids) came for a play date.  Play dates are so much easier with 2 and 4 year olds.  Especially 4 year olds. They played upstairs while we were able to actually hang out and chat.

In the afternoon I had another afternoon tea with some friends from my first baby class before Isaac was born.  One of them is having her second baby in a few weeks and we are all very excited.  She is also the cutest pregnant person.  I had more finger sandwiches and scones and patisserie and this is probably why I am going to get pregnancy diabetes this time but oh man are afternoon teas delicious.

I made Shwarma with Tahini-yogurt sauce for dinner which went down a treat.

We also washed AND DRIED two loads of laundry.  We have washed all the baby clothes and they are now in the baby room washed.  We own a lot of 0-3 size which is great except for the fact these babies are probably going to come out at 5-6 pounds and not 8 pounds like my other two which means we are scavenging for tiny baby size.   A job for this week is to put away the baby clothes and make the baby room look (a bit) more sane.

Food Plan this week:
Monday: Leftover Shwarma
Tuesday: Falafel Wraps
Wednesday: Scrambled Eggs or Leftovers
Thursday: Slow Cooker Chili
Friday: Choritzo Pasta Bake
Saturday: Chicken & Aubergine Parmesan

Monday Musings from a Train

Currently on the train from London after a very busy day in the London office.  Had a job interview, which was a good but nerve wracking experience.  I'm hoping that my nerves indicate that I'm actually reaching in my career in a way I haven't before. Plus, how cool is it that I can forever say I interviewed for a job at 5 months pregnant? I usually love interviews, but at the start of this one I had somewhat full blown imposter syndrome.  Oh well, we will see how it goes.  Even if I don't get invited to the next stage I'll be keen to hear feedback so I can become better at interviews going forward.

Yesterday Andy and I ordered a tumble drier and I cannot wait to wash and dry clothes on the same day.  It's been raining lots and I haven't hung laundry outside in months which means I'm on a constant cycle of laundry airers and fans and open and shut windows.

We brought most of the baby stuff from storage and shoved it in the baby room.  I still need to unpack it and organize it.  So much stuff.  Two bouncers.  I did tell Andy this is the last time we are moving this baby stuff - the next time we move it will be to whoever is getting it next.  

Interlude: the people on the train table behind me are watching TV out loud.  On the one hand I know I should be empathetic because kids and trains and whatnot but also, if you're going to be family of children watching ipads can you not also be family of children with headsets to watch ipads?

I don't have any plans with the kids tomorrow.  Tuesdays off are a bit odd - as Suzanne pointed out in a comment it's like having double Mondays.  I keep thinking I should go somewhere far away (like, an hour) but also I am at a loss about where to go.  We had an amazing local farm but it's closed for renovations.  It's supposed to be closed until early spring... but it's apparently closed until spring 2025.  

The unplanned weekend went surprisingly OK.  Saturday Andy took Isaac to a kids birthday party while my mom watched Lilah and I worked on my interview presentation.  Saturday afternoon Andy took a nap and then assembled some more IKEA.  On Sunday he wasn't feeling well and tried to run a 10k before abandoning because he was actually somewhat ill.  So he did more sleeping and then we picked up all the baby stuff from storage.  I washed my hair, picked out my interview outfit (becasue there was no hiding my pregnancy). and we both fell asleep at 8:30pm, which was good because I was still tired for the 5am alarm.

London days are long days.  

Weekend plans: house & work updates

We don't have many plans for the weekend so far, which sometimes bodes well and sometimes can be disaster.  

Hopefully we can get all the IKEA built - especially the dresser/changing table for the nursery room.  Once this is built we can start to unpack all of the baby stuff and figure out if we need anything else

(Fun Fact: although I am a firm believer in "babies don't need things" and I knew that twins are allowed to share a cot until they can roll, I only realized recently that babies can't share a bedside cot.  So... we are hopefully borrowing a bedside cot from a friend our ours.  Our room almost certainly doesn't have room for two bedside cots... so that's going to be a squeeze to figure out later)

Then we have our new dining table to assemble, but I am also not super excited for this assembly because once done our house will have two dining tables and 12 chairs until the charity donation people come on Wednesday.  I recently started donating furniture to charity rather than selling it because I decided I don't do enough charity donations and so even if I could make £50 or £100 for selling something maybe donating it can be a replacement for the £50 or £100 I don't give to charity?

On Monday I'm going to London to interview for a new role in my current company, which would be a promotion from where I am (a fairly big one) but is also very daunting because I am so obviously 5 months pregnant (actually I look more pregnant, because twins).  I have been trying to play it cool with this interview but I need to work on a powerpoint and practice what I am going to say and the points I want to address.  So, I need some focus time this weekend to work on that.

I also need to figure out how to address my obvious pregnancy.  

I'm hoping this interview will be a good experience for me because even if I don't get the job it means I'm pushing myself and being told no.  I've always had it as a point of pride that I'm always offered a job once I make it to interview stage - but maybe that's because I'm not pushing myself enough and applying for things that are at my level?  

Isaac has a birthday party this weekend and Andy is running a race on Sunday.

That's about all the weekend plans.  I don't think this is exactly Laura Vanderkam approved (is making a powerpoint a big adventure?) but hopefully I will feel a lot less stressed after job interview and furniture collection next week.

Home improvement - Kids Costume Rail

I'm a pretty firm believer in the Organize 365 principal of "don't sort your kid's room".  Its often the messiest room in my house, but if I sort it then it will still be the messiest room in the house as soon as kids play in it.

However, I do need it to be accessable.  I don't mind toys or books on the floor - I do mind unapproachable chaos.

Recently I realized we have acquired lots of costumes, which had started to overflow the costume bucket.  It also meant that when kids wanted to play with costumes their first action was to dump all the costumes on the floor.  I tried to Lazy Genius this by shoving all the costumes under Isacc's bed (he has the IKEA Kura bed, which is 4 feet off the ground and has space under for playing etc.)

The problem with this method, is that instead of benefitting from the extra play space, I had just created a small chaos space... and the kids still weren't that into costumes once they were scattered everywhere.

I decided to build (or, ask andy to build) a costume rail under the bed.  First I had to find the rail - I found a rake at B&M Bargains for £4 with a wooden handle the right size.  Andy mounted it under the bed (he is very clever with wood things) and then yesterday the IKEA kids hangers showed up.

I don't have a before picture... but now the underside of the bed looks like this:

Isaac was very excited when he got home from nursery.  I still want to sort the box of hats and masks (the grey box) into a slightly more appealing order, but I am hoping that this can be the start of kids hanging things on hooks.  Isaac wanted to hang every hat on a hook, which I think bodes well.

Time // Time Management // Focus

Tomorrow I'm giving a short presentation at work about time.  It's taken from another presentation I did at my last job on the similar topic, which covered info from Laura Vanderkam, Oliver Burkman, Daniel Kahneman, David Allen, Cal Newport and others in that sort of "writing about time" sphere.

Last time I talked a lot more about phones and family but this time it's mostly about time - how we perceive our time, and how we feel about our work time.  It's going to be a two part series, this first piece is on Time and the second piece will be on task management systems.  I realized I couldn't really talk about why task management systems are important without taking a bit about why time is important.

It's been a really good experience reminding myself things that I know but forget.  I talk about the Eisenhower Matrix and how it's easier to do the non important but urgent tasks than to do the important but non urgent things.  

I have gotten far to reactive in my day to day and have not been time block planning or even properly scheduling my work.  I've also started to get way more bogged down in teams, and I don't feel I have a good sense of what I need to accomplish in any day, which means I don't feel as focused during the day and then don't feel good about my work day when it's done.

So, I'm working on my task system again, and on both focusing and taking breaks.  I'm also working on scheduling what I need to do in a day and being realistic in how long it will take me.  I've added all my important but non-urgent tasks to my task planner and will tackle them on Friday, which is generally the slowest day in work.

I think part of the pressure is that I've moved from a 9 day fortnight (4 days then 5 days a week) to 4 days a week for July and August.  I don't work on Tuesdays - which is nice for hanging out with the kids but makes my weeks feel so odd.  I generally feel a bit stressed on Monday, then have Tuesday off, and then Wednesday feels like an insurmountable workload.  I'm hoping that this will slow down, but I definitely think if I stick with a 4 day workweek after maternity leave I'll want to have Fridays off.  Tuesdays are just... Awkward.

Kitchen Project - or - this is the first day of my new life.

OMG everyone I have had a dishwasher for almost 24 hours and it has changed my life.

Our amazing plumber came and installed it yesterday, and all I can think about is that Bright Eyes Song - First Day of my Life. This is the first day of my new life where I don't spend 30 minutes a day washing dishes.

The fridge corner is also looking good and I love having a full size fridge-freezer.  I love not having to bend down for under counter storage.  I love having multiple shelves for condiments.  

On Thursday we have an IKEA order coming to replace that white plastic thing with one of these:

We had one of these when we lived in Portland and I loved it and I'm so glad I will now have a new one.  The plan is to put kids plates/cups/water bottles on the shelves below so that kids can easily get their own plates/cups/etc.  

I'm also excited to have another drawer in the kitchen.  We currently have 2 drawers (HOW DO WE SURVIVE) and now we will have three drawers.  Hopefully, this will help make our kitchen last another 5 years until we can do an extension (i.e., until we are not paying for all the childcare in the world).

I don't think "nesting" kicks in at 23 weeks but I think "panic home organization" is definitely kicking in.

In addition to the kitchen trolly, IKEA are delivering us a new dining table & chairs and this chest of drawers which we will use as a changing table:

Then we can start actually figuring out what baby things we need - hopefully not much - but I'm sure I can document nursery transition project here on the blog too.

I have lots of minor improvements to make to our home and it's exciting to see actual progress.  I'm pretty surprised that I can be as interested in time and time management as I am and yet I still lived without a dishwasher for so long.  I feel like I have literally gained 30 minutes + a day which would have been spent on dishes and now can be spent on... something else.  Anything else.

I know I'm currently in a fortunate "let's solve this problem with money" stage, but I am hoping that even when the money dries up (i.e. maternity leave) I will still have the solutions and won't regret spending the money.

Do you shop at IKEA?  What's the last thing you bought (at IKEA or elsewhere) that massively improved your life?

Mid year goals check in 2023

I know I'm late to this goals check in, but better late than... not?  Here's a progress update on some of my 2023 goals:

Media Goals

• ✓ Read 50 Books - currently at 34 books.  Recently abandoned two.  I don't think I abandon books quickly enough and that slows me down - I haven't finished a book yet in July.  I think I will make it to 50, but I am not sure how much reading I will get done after twins are born.
• Watch a movie - not yet.  But I want to see either Glass Onion, Weird (the Al Yankovic story), or Everything Everywhere All At Once.
• See a show - Probably not.  It just seems like a lot of effort to sort a babysitter and get to town.  Nothing that I really want to see has come through Cardiff recently.  I should remember to keep checking.  I am on the waitlist thing for Taylor Swift Tickets, but I give that a very low chance of success (and also, that's 2024)

Kids/Family

• Potty Train Lilah - we may be making progress?  It's been far more painful than Isaac (or maybe time has distorted my memory)
• Overnight trip with Isaac - not yet and nothing planned.  I think I might already be too pregnant for this one.  
• Family photo albums - All are currently up to date (finished through June)
• ✓ Take a family holiday - done! We went camping... and to the New Forest.  Both were exhausting.  We also went to the Forest of Dean in January, which was not exhausting.  Perhaps holidays are better when not pregnant?  We are going to stay in a Glamping Yurt for 2 nights in August which is exciting.  But, I think we are in full on "let's get our home sorted" mode now.
• Take 2 family photos - I think we have taken one?

Health and Wellbeing:

• ✓ One Rachel Thing a Month - done so far, definitely pleased with my 6 pack of massages I bought.
• ✓ Run a 5k - done!
• ✓ Visit Pelvic Floor Physio - done... right before getting pregnant again.  But done!
• ✓ Go up a mountain - I went up the Garth - famous from the movie The Englishman who Went Up a Hill and Down a Mountain.  I would call this "mountain" exceptionally basic. 

Financial

• ✓ Write Will - done! and signed! Finally!  It only took ages.  I need to email the people who are in the will to confirm the details and let them know where it's stored, but I'll take this as a victory.
• ✓ Pay off additional borrowing mortgage - done! And so glad because interest rates are cray-cray right now here.
• ✓ Get British citizenship - done!
• Make retirement savings plan - I'm not really sure what this means, but it seemed like a responsible adult thing to add to this list.  Clearly I have not done it.

I'm doing well on my concrete goals and less well on habit goals (ie, "have a resilient bedtime" and "eat more fruit" were both rather wafty goals) I thought I had probably not accomplished much in the first half of the year but looking over this list I have done a lot more than I expected.  

We are also doing a lot more on the house than I planned for in goals, and I'm excited about all we've accomplished here.  The dishwasher arrived today and is getting installed on Monday! I'll never wash a dish again!

Do you make yearly goals? How are you doing on your goals?