Theres no going back! lol

Well another thing I have been meaning to do for the past few years is the race for life. I've wanted to do it in memory of mam with my sister in law caroline. I never got round to it the first year after mam died and then I was pregnant the next year but we've done it now. We signed up and I am aiming to raise 100pounds if not more?!?!



I have done it years ago and really enjoyed it. Mind you I was fitter in those days. So I need to get back on the diet and exercise band wagon, i've already done a few runs but need to do more. Especially as how we are doing the 10k and not the 5k!!!

This is me right now

Well I haven't been around for quite a while, the last time I spoke about moving house it fell through. But here we are again, house sold, think we've found a house we can love, so all systems are go and its all very exciting.

I don't know where to start, so much to do but its still early stages so can't start packing yet or anything. I'll have to do some more decluttering and make lots of lists LOL!

I've had lots of ideas about projects too, I thought I would try and cook every recipe from jamie olivers ministry of food book, everything i cook from it has turned out lovely so I though I'd give myself to the end of the year to do it. It's very doable and will be like the julie and julia challenge, it was definitely inspired by that.

So thankful to my family and friends, my husband and my kids. So thankful for the chance to move, the fact that we've sold and for new opportunities.

I love finding things like this around the house, showing my little girls been happy playing a little game with her toys, finding new uses for things...I had to photo this as it made me smile xx

Diet starts Today!

Not the best day to start as we are going to an all u can eat place tonight for my dad's 73rd birthday!!! however I love the carvery area so am just going to opt and have one plate of gammon, roasties and veggies. Soup for lunch. Will try and get myself weighed this morning in town and take my measurements. Felt motivated after watching the Bounty hunter with Jennifer Aniston and making myself sick with chinese and haribos last night. What I wouldn't give for a figure like Jennifer Anistons... think I may need some kind of help though (i.e. tummy tuck, boobs done, u get the picture).

I printed up an august and september calender yesterday by the way with a column for each member of the family in my organisation planning.

Get more organized = more time for the stuff that matters

I came to the conclusion if I can blast through the house, if I can get it decluttered and organised then I can keep on top of it and it will give me more time for the kids, for play time, for cooking, scrapbooking and enjoying ourselves. I would love to get to the point where housework was a 10min breeze each day, instead of an all day storm that never gets finished.

My book on getting organised I ordered arrived and it looks great. I have to start an organizing journal, answer questions and work through projects and tasks so I think i'll use this blog for this.

First one is looking back - When I think back to my parents and parental home my mam and dad were both very organised and never ran late for anything. My mam would always set a time to leave the house and then 10minutes before that stated time would say right it's time to go, when u replied and said but we have another 10minutes she would always say 'well, by the time we get our coats on and get into the car...' Growing up in my teenage years I was always late, the car would always be running outside and I would get several warning beeps. However now I am never late, I may run scatty whilst getting ready and rush like crazy to get there but I'm rarely late, I would love to have a calmer more organised time though and not be rushing all the time. Being on time now is my way I think of trying to be more like my own organised punctual parents, because now in adulthood I appreciate them and want to be more like them. I definitely changed my ways after my mam died, I think I might make her proud if I'm organised and live a fulfilled life because of it. I don't like being late, I feel like I'll get wrong if I am, and I don't like upsetting or annoying anyone ever so I try not to be late.

• My Goals - I will continue to be on time for everything but I will be able to get ready slowly and calmy instead of rushing and panicking having first got things organised
• I will free up more time for the children, their learning and fun, and my hobbies, so I can pack more 'life' into our lives
• I will be so organised I will have time to start up a career in writing and make enough money so that norman can work less

Where my time goes: looking after children, school runs, reading, spending time on hobbies, time on internet, housework, shopping and errands, entertaining children, cooking meals.

I need to spend less time on the internet and doing housework, and spend more time with norman and doing things I enjoy. Have time to do my writing course I started years ago. I would like to have earlier nights because I feel like I've had enough 'me' time instead of staying up late to try and feel like I had time to myself today. I need norman and libby to help around the house a bit. I need to make mondays and tuesdays writing nights as norman is at football those nights.

Tomorrow I have to create a calender (the one we have is not helpful) and find an accessible place for it. Then I'll be working on the kitchen, but for today that's a lot of things analysed. Indeedy.

I actually did it...

I have a list as long as my arm of things to do this week. Now in my procrastinating days I would have put the list off and then when I eventually went to do the shopping I would put off getting things, get flustered with making decisions and come home with nothing and a big old list still. Today however was different, I just zoomed through my list (because I had the list I didn't forget anything), I still have some things to do but a lot of it I got done today (and with two kids in tow). I felt so good I had time for this photo below in a photo booth, which meant pulling baby out his pram and toppling the pram over it was so overladen with bags. I'm sure some onlookers would have been tut tutting at my chaos but I didn't give two hoots cos I know better. Behind this one chaotic moment is an organised woman beginning to come out. Ha Ha!

Julie and Julia and a lovely tea x

Last night I watched and loved and was inspired by the film Julie and Julia.

I was inspired to cook but also I was inspired and excited by the challenge that Julie had set herself (I love challenges) and am busy thinking of a challenge for myself. I would love to be a perfect house wife/mother/home maker, I would love to be like bree from desperate housewives or like anthea turner or hey let's go all out here...martha stewart!!!or even be more like my super organised mum( I can hear my mam now 'Ruth you have no systems in place, you need to have systems', I cringe to admit I now agree with her on this and most things to be honest!) hee hee at the moment though most days I feel more like waynetta slob.

So anyways I thought I'd go all out and make something different for tea, I bought camembert for starters, made chicken roulade for mains from my mam's old good housekeeping recipe book and chocolate fudge cake for dessert from jamie olivers ministry of food. So here's how it looked

The real plus though was that it tasted lovely too, Libby ate all of it so will definitely be doing this again.
Libby (who since I last blogged has broke her arm for the second time in the space of 9 months) tried her hand at grating the chocolate for the pudding, it looked good, just like the picture in jamies cook book but it was maybe a bit too gooey inside (I kind of like it that way though).

I enjoyed the planning and the cooking but tomorrow I need to concentrate on the housework. I ordered a book about organization off amazon, so I'm hoping that will help me out some. I think I have a.d.d., well at least when it comes to housework I do! I would love to get to the point that the house was so organized and tidy that it just stayed that way and I could spend my days enjoying the kids and doing hobbies instead of panicking about the piles of rubbish and the backlog of cleaning!!!

Right tomorrow = get the house straight for hubby has a whole weekend off and it would be nice if for once he could just relax and have nothing to do. Main aims=cupboard under stairs and living room, oh and our bedroom.