Sunday Update: Reading, Sports, Sleep (and some photos!)

I give myself a 6.5/10 for this week.  It had some good stuff, some nice stuff, and a LOT of kid stuff.

 Time log notes that I did 77 hours of active parenting this week, and 53 hours of sleep, which still leaves 38 hours of other things in a week.  But... I like slightly more other things.

This is the weird thing about time.  I had a FULL TIME JOB of time left over after watching kids and sleeping.  It's weird that a full time job is considered a big deal and yet 38 hours in a week can disappear without me even noticing it.

As I keep saying - life is going to be so fun someday!  All these kids will be great someday!  But right now, a week off school and a week off nursery and a week where lots of stuff is closed = a long week.  That said, we did have fun things, of course.  Christmas was pretty nice.  We stayed up late (7:15pm!) playing board games (Poop Bingo) with the big kids.  The babies are solidly on one nap a day, which has sometimes lasted up to 3 hours.  We can leave the house in the morning (or have to leave the house in the morning, whether we want to or not).  It didn't rain.  It was cold and foggy though:

Reading

Very slowly reading The Dead Romantics still.  I got my copy of The Most Wonderful Crime of The Year on Libby and downloaded it so I need to get reading.

Andy and I started watching A Man on the Inside which is taking some reading time, but it only has 8 episodes so we will probably finish before the new year.  Enjoying so far.  Ted Danson is great, always.

Sports

I am still making a lot of effort to make sports time, although I am tired and unfocused and mostly doing it for the "streak" at this point.  Which is dumb, but not exercising is also dumb right?

Also, I donated blood on Christmas eve, in the morning.  I made sure to get my exercise in before I donated, but I think bodies and muscles need blood (note: I am not a doctor) because I have been way more easily fatigued since donating blood.  I knew I would be tired, but I'm a bit surprised on how long its lasted.  But also, my life might just be tiring.  

One of my life goals is to donate the same number of pints of blood as my age.  Women can only donate 3 times a year, and I calculated that I'll catch up to my age when I'm 55 if I'm able to keep donating at that rate.  

Anyways:

• Monday
• 30 Minute Holiday ride with Robin Arzon
• 20 Minute Pilates with Kirstin McGee
• Tuesday
• 30 Minute Sundays with Love with Ally Love
• 10 Minute Lower Body Stretch with Matty Maggiacomo
• Wednesday
• 15 Minute Lower Body Strength with Ben Alldis
• 5 Minute Core with Ben Alldis
• 15 Minute Pop Ride with Ben Alldis
• 5 Minute Lower Body Stretch with Ben Alldis
• Thursday 
• 20 Minute Full Body Strength with Ben Alldis
• 10 Minute Full Body Stretch with Ben Alldis
• 1 hour walk in lame weather with sad babies
• Friday
• 20 Minute Pop Ride with Tudne Oyeneyin
• 5 Minute Post Ride Stretch with Ben Alldis
• Saturday
• 20 Minute Upper Body Strength with Ben Alldis
• 10 minute Postnatal Core with Emma Lovewell
• 5 Minute Upper Body Stretch with Ben Alldis

I haven't really got a regular time to exercise.  Options are:

Morning.  Babies are generally sleeping or at least in bed until 6:15.  But... I am so tired.  Also exercise in the morning makes me hungry and tired all day

Midday (during baby nap).  Probably the best for energy levels, and I always feel great after, but it ifeels like the only hour of the day where one can accomplish anything in household management (Laundry, putting clothes away, writing a blog post, updating budget, Doing dishes, sorting kids toys, putting things back where they belong, writing emails... all of it.  Also I share this time with Andy and babies only nap a guaranteed 60 minutes (usually at least 90) but even if we split the time 50/50 (because one of us needs to be watching big kids) it's just not a lot of time

Evening Everyone is generally asleep by 7:30pm and I can theoretically do sport from 8-9 every evening but it's really hard to motivate myself.  I do motivate myself, but it's not the most inspired workouts ever.

I am hoping when I start work again (which is the 6th of Jan - Christmas breaks from school are LONG!) I can either do my sport in the mornings or at my lunch break. A day of work takes far less energy than a day of watching kids.  Until then, moderately consistent home exercise is probably good enough.

Sleep

This morning I slept until nearly 6:30am which a massive sleep for me.  I did wake up at 5:30 as usual, but decided to close my eyes for a few minutes and opened them with Andy sorting the babies at 6:30 and the big kids still asleep.  Miracle!  My average is 7.75 for the week, which has to be a recent high for me.  Not getting up in the morning to do anything = more sleep.  But also, less me time.

Some photos

Today during baby nap, instead of exercise, and while the big kids watched the Grinch (the animated one, a Christmas favourite now), I sewed Isaac's ripped jacket hood back together.  I don't like sewing or fixing kid stuff, but it's getting cold and I'm tired of seeing this broken jacket on the to-do list, and also I couldn't be bothered to drive it to our local sewing lady to fix.  So, TA DA:

It's not sewn particularly well well, but it is attached! Isaac said he doesn't mind the white thread showing.  I think my third grade sewing class skills really shine here.

In December Andy and I ordered new socks from Stance.  I really like Stance socks.  New socks are cozy. Rainbow socks are great.  I like my socks:

That's all for this week.  I hope you had a great Christmas (if that's your holiday jam) and otherwise if you have a bunch of kids at home and no childcare then please know I SEE YOU.

Contentious Christmas Conundrum - Santa

We have never done "Santa" before.  I always figured other people were making a bigger deal of Santa than needed, and I was just being so cool about Mr. S that my kids figured out it wasn't a big deal. My six year old has always been delightfully unaware.  

Case in point: when Isaac turned 3 he really really wanted grapes and Banana for Christmas.  He opened his grapes and banana with glee, then took it to the kitchen to eat it and forgot about the rest of the toys.

When Lilah turned 3, she had a wish list that included "A giant dolls house, a scooter, two chocolate cakes, dolls"

For me, Santa was NBD (no big deal) because growing up I celebrated Hanukkah and not Christmas, so all Christian things (Santa included) were not for us.  We never had an opinion on the reality of Santa, because we had eight nights of presents to look forward to, so dudes coming down other people's chimneys were not particularly interesting.

I resolved that we weren't going to be a Santa family.  We have a Christmas tree (very little this year, because twins). 

Santa seemed like extra effort I didn't want to go to, and neither did my husband.  Do you have to write "to kid, love Santa" on a card?? Do some presents come from parents and some from Santa?  Do we have to hype up Santa?

It turns out, we do not have to hype up Santa, or do anything Santa, to bring the magic of Santa to live.  Although Andy did sprinkle some toast crumbs around the fire place (to look like soot) and I did throw the reindeer food in the compost (It got eaten!).

As we put out the presents I asked Andy if we needed to write "From Santa' on one. "no" he said "kids don't read labels, and they don't care"

And it's true! They don't' care! they saw a bunch of presents and thought Santa had come.  Maybe I'm going down a path of chaos and lies, but it's cute.  And low effort.  And I guess we are a Santa house now.

How Santa is your house?  Am I telling lies to my kids such that they will never trust me again or am I bringing the magic to life?  Or am I teaching them that they inferred "Santa" and it wasn't my construction at all, and perhaps giving them an early lesson in perception bias?  Or, perhaps more likely, am I overthinking it all?

Sunday Update: Reading, Sports, Sleep

I almost forgot it's Sunday today because my mind is fully in "Christmas Break" mode.  It's not the relaxing breaks of 30 year old childless me, or the stressful breaks I hear so much about, but it's definitely not normal life either. This week was extra awesome as I had 3 days off work WITH CHILDCARE which was amazing amazing amazing.

Reading

I finished reading Real Americans.  It was good, but definitely not super memorable.  I've just started reading the Dead Romantics.

I was hoping for The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year but it didn't come through my Libby holds in time.

Sports

I really like exercise, and it turns out that when given days off to do whatever I want, I want to do sports.  Most of the below is Peloton, unless obviously not Peloton.

This week I learned that Imagine Dragons did a lot of songs I like.

• Monday
• 30 Minute Holiday Ride with Ally Love
• 45 min Intervals & Arms Ride with Tunde Oyeneyin
• Tuesday
• 90 minute Gym with Gym Buddy
• 30 Minute Classic Rock Ride with Jenn Sherman (live!)
• 5 Minute Post Ride Stretch with Jenn Sherman
• Wednesday
• 45 Minute Your Day One ride with Robin Arzon
• 30 Minute Holiday Full Body Strength with Andy Speer
• 10 Minute Density Full Body Stretch with Andy Speer
• 10 Minute Relaxing Meditation with Aditi Shah
• Thursday
• 30 Minute Hamilton Ride with Robin Arzon
• 10 Minute Imagine Dragons Cooldown Ride with Bradley Rose
• 30 Minute Wicked the Movie Yoga Flow with Aditi Shah
• Friday
• 30 Minute Holiday Ride with Cody Rigsby
• 15 Minute Pilates with Kirstin McGee
• Saturday
• 5 Minute Warmup with Ben Alldis
• 20 Minute Benchmark test with Ben Alldis
• 10 Minute Full Body Stretch with Ben Alldis
• 20 Minute Imagine Dragons Ride with Sam Yo
• Sunday
• 20 Minute Upper Body Strength with Ben Alldis
• 30 Minute Feel Good Ride with Ally Love
• 5 Minute upper body stretch with Ben Alldis

It was a really fun week of sport for me.

Also, gym buddy and I snapped another post workout pic together.  I'm not sure where I'm looking.

Sleep

It turns out, when I replace work with exercise I sleep pretty well. I've had an average of 7.33 hours this week.  This was helped also by the twins deciding to finally sleep past 5am.  We have had a few mornings of 6am and even one 6:30am wake up!  I was so surprised to wake up and see the number on my watch start with a 6.  I haven't slept in until 6am in... years.  It was a christmas miracle.

Also I am really sorry if the text formatting on this post is weird.  Blogger is great until it isn't, and I am too tired to figure out what went wrong with my font.

Are you enjoying time off?  Is it Christmas holidays for you now?  Do you like doing lots of sport or not lots of sport?

2024 Goals in Review: Family, House, Professional

 Last years goals were broken down by Personal, Professional, Family, House, and Fun.  I wrote about Personal and Fun here.  Let's move on!

Family

• Contact everyone in our will about the will
• Done! 'Make a will' was a goal for about two years.  Now it is made, and in the right place, and the right people know where it is.  It seems like the UK is less complicated than the US (or maybe we don't make enough money for the will to have as many decisions?) but this was actually somewhat easy and also now it's done.
  
  
• Make a Charcuterie board  
• I made a few and consider this done.  This summer party board from July 2023 is probably the best:

• Walk up a local mountain with Andy 
• This did not happen.  By the time we could take the babies out for enough time to go up a mountain the weather was not good enough.  And I didn't really *want* to take babies up a mountain.  I'll move this goal to next year.
  
  
• Get baby passports and renew Isaac's passport
• Done! This is especially good because Isaac is going to Sweden next year.  Kid passports last 5 years and I wish I had just renewed Lilah's passport at the same time because it would have been super great to have all kids on the same passport cycle.  Top tip for kid logistics, have all kids born in the same few months.  It really pays dividends in tiny logistical puzzles.
  
  Also, the kids currently only have British passports.  US passports need to be done in person in London, and taking 4 kids to London has felt basically impossible.  Getting their US passports will be a goal for 2027, before our (hopeful) next US trip.
• 
  
• Take kids to the bank
• This sounded boring so I took it off the list
  
  
• Open bank accounts for Audrey and Nora
• I had an empty account which I renamed "Audrey and Nora" because my bank currently isn't doing child savings accounts.  Goal done enough I guess?

Professional 

I had four vague "get in touch with x y z person" and "think about what I want to do next" goals.  It was not easy to make professional goals with 6 week old twins.  I am super pleased that I was promoted this year.  While I know my current professional foundation is a bit rocky (maneuverings of a large company) I think I can use this year to take a step back and try to make things easy on myself.    Sometimes not knowing the "next step" is probably better than reaching for some path that may or may not exist.  

House

• Get quotes for home improvement
• I can't even remember what I wanted quoted or what home improvement I was thinking about.  We did pay to have two rooms painted, but that probably wasn't on my radar in January.  I guess I did this?  I really wish I knew what home improvement quote I was looking for.
  
  
• Buy fire extinguisher
• Bought! done!
  
  
• Donate unsellable baby things
• I got rid of so much this year, and sold a lot too.  I still have four large boxes to sort: one box of sentimental things (mostly halloween and and americana), one box of reusable nappies, and two boxes of "ready to list on vinted".  It's been great to get rid of so much baby stuff.
  
  
• Add Photo tiles to wall
  
• I have no idea how I accomplished this this year, but it's done! We have a photo wall in the dining room now (it turns out it's hard to get a photo of a photo tile wall):

Mostly I am glad that 2024 is over.  I know I'm not meant to wish years away, but in case I haven't mentioned it recently, newborn/infant twins are really really hard.  It's fun to look back and realize I did do something this year, besides endless nappies and staying up all night.  It's nice to finish some small goals. 

Did you have any major home or family goals this year?

2024 Goals in Review: Personal & Fun Goals

 Last years goals were broken down by Personal, Professional, Family, House, Fun.  How did I do???

Personal

• Only Own Clothes I love and fit in December 2024  
• This will be a whole post someday but I have done really well on this.  I got rid of loads, I bought new things that suit me, I own some nice sweaters now.  I still am keeping a few things that I don't currently wear but might someday.
  
  
• 1 Rachel Thing a Month
• Yes! February's thing was taking a bath, but I also had a few pedicures this year, and my first ever facial. I found a lady near me who does amazing reflexology.  I know this is all very 1% of me but for the first few months of the year it was super hard to find Rachel time and I'm glad I made something happen once a month. 
  
  
• Regular Strength Training 
• Is once a week regular? I guess so.  I need to figure out how to structure this goal better for next year
  
  
• 4 Parkrun 5Ks 
• Yes! I did 4!
  
  
• Join Twin Club
• I did this. I went to two twin events.  I will probably not do much with the twin club but it's nice to have one.  I also joined Twin Trust, which is an amazing charity for parents of multiples and someday I will do some sort of charity fundraising for them because they are awesome. One of the things they have is a hotline for twin parents to call about literally anything.  It's open from 10am to 1pm and 7pm to 10pm, which is such a perfect "I have small children" phone support time
  
  
• Find a good lipstick for everyday 
• I got a Ilia lipstick I love.  I don't yet wear it everyday, but I own it, so goal completed.
  
  
• Run a virtual turkey trot or christmas race 
• I did a turkey trot soundtrack to a Parkrun, so that counts right?  Someday I will do an actual Christmas parkrun again
  
  
• Learn to eat and drink slowly again 
• Not really. I eat really really fast now.  Not as fast as when I had teeny babies (once I ate a giant salmon salad in under a minute) but really really fast.  This is a goal for later.

Fun

• Watch 2 Movies 
• I watched 7 movies this year.  Highlight was Everything Everywhere All At Once.  That was a good movie!  I also really liked Hidden Figures and Moneyball.
• Read 50 Books
• I'm at 44 books now, so I'll probably finish the year at 45.  I read some great books this year too.  August was by far my favourite reading month:

Stay tuned for Professional, Family, and House goals!  Mostly the fact that I survived a year of baby twins is a pretty big success, so anything else is a major accomplishment.  

Did you have any "fun" goals this year?  

5 Photos on a Friday

I know you have anxiously awaited an update to my tablecloth post.  We now have a tablecloth, sourced by Andy. I mean, Llamas and Cacti would not necessarily be my first pick for our sort of fall-farmhouse aesthetic, but my number 1 priority with this decision was that I did not make it.  And I didn't!  Also this tablecloth is hemmed to the right size, not just cut wonky by me, so I am doubly impressed by it.  

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I had a week off work this week, which turned into 3 days off work because two of those days involved watching children, but one of my major life goals for my "week off"  was to watch a Christmas movie.  And I did! I watched Our Little Secret.  It was kind of stupid, of course, but I liked it.  There wasn't really enough Christmas for me.  If you are going to pick one not-very-good christmas moive with Lindsay Lohan I would recommend Falling For Christmas instead.

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Strava sent me a "year in sport" thing.  I am really surprised that it thinks I ran 120 miles.  I think that must be a mistake.  I can remember doing 4 parkruns this year, which is 12 miles, but I can't really think of where the other 108 miles may have happened.  

I am really really enjoying the Peloton, I am sure most of those miles were Peloton related and therefore happened in November & December.

I have some vague fitness goals forming for next year.  I will run the Cardiff half, but I am contemplating an outcome goal of "Run the Cardiff Half in 2 hours 10 minutes."  I have never run a half faster than 2hr 30 mins.  The related process goal would be "train for the half marathon" which I also have never done before... when I ran half marathons I just generally did a fair amount of social running and occasionally ran a half marathon.

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We have too many small children to have a christmas tree this year.  Here is our very small christmas tree.  We told the kids we can only get small presents to fit under it.

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Tis the season for holiday cards!  We managed to get ours printed and they arrived today, which means some might make it to their destinations before Christmas.

In the spirit of process vs outcome goals, I will consider these cards a process goal.  The goal was to make a holiday card.  The goal was not, for instance, to have the holiday card contain the names of all of our kids:

I guess when you have this many people in your family it's hard to get all the names onto one card.  If I had ordered earlier I could have reprinted.  But for now, hopefully no one actually reads the cards, right?

[This is better than when I ordered birth announcements for the twins and spelled one of their names wrong.  We did have to reprint before sending.  Maybe I should give up on cards...?]  

2024 - Budget and money stuff in review

I know it's only the 16th of December, but budget is on my mind.  

We keep a family budget, which I track in excel.  We break our life down into the following categories, and I've stuck the yearly percentages next to them.  We don't really track our income, but just ensure that it is less than our budget.  We do periodically review our budget to make sure it's realistic.  

I know excel isn't the most advanced budgeting software there is, but it works for us.  I also like recording our spending line by line because it helps me remember where money went, and sometimes I get to doubly enjoy something.  For instance, when recording my chocolate hazelnut hot chocolate, I momentarily re-enjoyed the memory of my chocolate hazelnut hot chocolate.  It was a good hot chocolate.

Also, this doesn't include retirement as that comes directly out of our pay checks.  Here is what we spent in 2024:

Grocery (11.5%) - This is usually our weekly grocery delivery, and then other one off purchases like bulk flour.  It includes any food we buy to prep and eat at home, but does not include anything we buy while out and about (which would be dining out)

Alcohol (1%) If andy and I go out for a drink together or get beer to drink in the house then this goes into the Alcohol budget.  if we buy alcohol separately or buy a beer to drink with friends then this goes into our own hobbies budget.  Sometimes a bottle of wine slips into the grocery budget though.  Perhaps next year I will put alcohol into grocery and add a "rachel and andy fun" budget which could include drinks together?

Bills (30%) This includes Mortgage Water, Gas, Electric, Council Tax, Car Insurance, Home insurance.  Mortgage is about 70% of the bills budget.

Dining Out (2.2%) This is for when members of our family go out to eat together.  It doesn't include us going out alone or with our own friends (that goes under our own hobbies budget)

House (6.75%) I can't really think of our big house expenses this year.  Andy gets some plants for the garden.  We had two rooms painted.  

Clothes (2%) We realized recently that most of our clothes were from living in the US, which meant they are approaching 10 years old, so we've tried to upgrade our wardrobes a bit this year

Misc (1.8%) The bane of my existence category?!  Includes the kids photo albums and family photo albums.  Christmas cards.  Donations to charity.  What is misc? 

Transport (2.75%) this one is low this year because I wasn't commuting to work while on maternity leave.  My commute is £35 a day.  This is one reason I don't go into the office much

Rachel & Andy Hobbies (9.5%) I mean, it's our hobbies.  We keep it seperate on the spreadsheet.  Mine covers my gym membership, Peloton, massages, getting my nails done.. my things.  Andy spends his on bike stuff and beer.  It works out.

Entertainment (1%) This covers local memberships (for instance the castle memberships) and also any TV (we have Disney+ at the moment)

Kids (4.5%) Many kids expenses.  Isaac's scouts membership.  Kids bikes if needed.  Some kids clothes? Swim lessons.  Gymnastics classes.  One-off trips to soft play. 

Childcare (24%) This was low this year because I was on mat leave.  Next year it's closer to 45%.  Childcare basically feels like college - an investment in my future earnings.  It's slightly less fun than college, but about the same amount of crying.

Gifts (2%) all gifts.  Also sometimes if we buy someone else food it can go on gifts.  Things that are nice for other people.

Health (1%) Dentist appointments, misc medicines.  Physio.  the NHS is free at point of service but sometimes it's better to pay for health care than wait for healthcare

And that's our year in money stuff.  I guess real numbers might be more interesting than percentages?  We are lucky that we don't worry about our spending, but we also don't have any big spending goals right now.  We are not going on any holidays.  We are not moving house.  We have no major home projects coming up.  We cancel Disney+ periodically to see if we still use it.  Our kids are in a not-very-expensive phase of life (except childcare), and we are in a somewhat housebound phase of life, so thankfully money is not the thing keeping us from doing stuff.  Our life set-up is the thing keeping us from doing stuff.

Do you budget?  Do you track income or spending or both?  Are you saving for anything big?