Baby Genie

30 days and 30 gripes

Around November/December time last year (possibly the gloomiest time of the year), I felt particularly stressed and bogged down by work and the daily juggle – time at my desk, challenging work situations, and dashing from meeting to home, getting dinner on – la, la, la.  Plus, when you’re slightly OCD about housework there’s the obsessive hoovering and bathroom cleaning to squeeze in.

So, I decided to do something about it.  Find out what was really cheesing me off and make some changes.  Little tweaks to restore some PMA and generally make Catherine a nicer person to be around – I could see myself quickly being retired by close friends tired of the doldrums.

Here’s a little diary, spot the patterns.

Day 1 (a Monday) – my weight

Day 2 – Work/life balance or lack of

Day 3 – Traffic!

Day 4 – Up at 5am with the bear

Day 5 – No clothes I want to wear/feel comfortable in

Day 6 – No hot water at the hotel I’d booked for husbands birthday

Day 7 – Queue jumpers, housework and not enough change for the carpark (a tres stressful day)

Day 8 – Tesco online shop crashed…start again

Day 9 – Grumpy husband

Day 10 – Stroppy client

Day 11 – Nothing yey

Day 12 – Traffic…again

Day 13 (unlucky for some) – unamed family member demands

Day 14 – Same unnamed family member and more demands

Day 15 – Nothing

Day 16 – Nothing (things are looking up)

Day 17 – Traffic

Day 18 – Being rushed, doing everything myself

Day 19 – Working on my day off

Day 20 – Nothing

Day 21 – Horrific sickness bug

Day 22 – Nothing (probably in bed recovering)

Day 23 – People late for a meeting

Day 24 – Nothing

Day 25 – Nothing

Day 26 – Client being strange

Day 27 – Grumpy husband

Day 28 – Rushing around

Day 29 – Nothing

Day 30 – Nothing (ended on a high, ha)

So, it seemed after this little test, the following really got me fired up:

I’ll drive mummy

Traffic – this was due to taking the bear to a really nice nursery over the other side of town.  We looked at another nursery (read the nursery saga here), but after that little episode decided just to get our backsides out of bed earlier and let the bear have breakfast at nursery.  One less meal at home yes, but far better happy mummy quality time to compensate).

Weight - I let myself go over Christmas – well we were hosting and the chef has to taste everything, but come January I buckled down.  I admit I haven’t managed to fit exercise into our manic schedule yet, but portions are a little smaller….although we did have McFlurry’s for pudding the other night.  I have lost 4lbs though.  Ok, so this one is work in progress.  And on the clothes front I found some good bargains in the January sales….although the 24in Diesel jeans I tried to get into was a ridiculously depressing event, why try on jeans so many sizes too small and expect to walk out of the changing rooms feeling anything other than suicidal?!

Work and clients - one client in particular was getting me really down, to the point I’d sob to husband about how unhappy it was making me.  I got to the point where no amount of money was worth they way the were treating me.  When it came to renewing the contract I was very happy to agree with them not to renew and I suddenly had a spring back in my step.

While there’s pretty much naff all you can do about the plumbing of a B&B, or the ability for your internet connection to fail just as you’re adding the final purchase to the basket for your online shop, you can however give your husband a clout around the back of the head for whining because he’s run out of muesli, or because he has only been able to fit in two gym sessions this week and hasn’t worked his legs and might lose a pound of muscle – god forbid; I’ll show you muscle, look at these arms from lugging our son around, huh?!

Whoops….it’s therapy here, this blog, ok.

AND, good news my glass is half full, I had nine ‘nothing’ days so during almost one third of the month, nothing annoyed me!

So, this isn’t a meme, you’re not tagged, but if you want to try this little experiment, feel free! And let me know how you get on!  With a little encouragement from the lovely Liz at Violet Posy I am continuing to address the work life balance – and I feel a little closer to being the placid earth mummy we all dream about….ok so just an in control mum would be good….dressed, and made up in control mum….hair brushed, clean clothed mum.