Hello everyone, once again, long time no speak! If you caught my post back in July last year you would have known I have been busy on some personal and professional development that took over any spare time I had. If you didn’t see it, pop over and take a look. That training has now finished. In fact it finished in December, but for some reason I have been struggling to get back into blogging. Part of the reason was Christmas, and all the mayhem that brings. But the other part is I feel I have lost my content creation mojo a bit. In fact it’s not just blog writing that I seem to have lost, it’s taking photos too. If you follow me on instagram (if you don’t I can found at @organisedjo) you may have noticed I haven’t posted a picture or stories for a few weeks either.
So why am I here? Well I thought this blogging malarky must be like riding a bike. When you fall off jump straight back on, so this post is me jumping back on!
Life update
So how has life been treating me? Well as any working parent knows, there’s swings and roundabouts. I am still working 30 hours a week, juggling the school runs and husbands shifts. I have also fallen off the organising treadmill too, and I must admit the house is starting to bend a little bit with all the clutter (well what I feel is clutter the hubby & kids may not agree) and I am starting to get an itch to get back on top off it.
One thing I do feel I have mastered, thanks to the amazing Gemma over to The Organised Mum Method, is that I actually feel like I am on top of the cleaning. Gemma’s method is brilliant, and it certainly has helped me feel more in control. It has actually helped me have some weekends off from cleaning. I may even write a post about this, if you fancy knowing more.
Something else I have started to do is finding some ‘me’ time. Now, probably like others of you, finding sometime to even just sit down for a hot cup of tea can be hard, but now the girls have grown up a bit more (currently 7 & 10) and are more independent, I have found time to incorporate exercise into my life. I have even signed up for 10 weeks of Personal Training sessions with the Ross over at Diverse Fitness in Torquay.
I had been on the fence for ages about stepping up my fitness levels. So around Christmas time I felt now was the time to really invest in me. This isn’t me being a cliche New Year New You, more I had had enough of feeling ‘meh’ and sluggish all the time. Working out actually makes me feel good, it makes me feel stronger. I now don’t ache when I get up in the morning, unless Ross has got me to do an upper body session the day before, then I ache all week! I am also starting to feel better in my clothes.
Losing weight wasn’t really the reason I started this journey. My weight had been creeping up and I was starting to make excuses about not doing things. I seemed to stop swimming or buying any new clothes because my self esteem was low. I’m about 6 weeks into this journey, and if anyone is interested I will maybe share some bits about how I am finding things.
We are also waiting to find out what secondary school my eldest will be going to in September this year. We sent off the secondary school application at the end of October and after what feels like a very long wait, we will find out on the 1st March where she will be going. This really does feel a bit of a turning point as a family. It will be a change in routine and an unknown for us as parents. To say I’m anxious is an understatement. But I know wherever she is placed she will do amazing. I just need to get my head around what’s required of me as a parent. Oh, and not forgetting the biggest thing, buying all the new uniform and kit!
Digital Mum’s update
So if you did go back and read my other post, you would have seen I took part in some Digital Mum’s training last year and thankfully I passed and I am now a qualified Social Media Manager. So what have I done since I’ve competed this? Absolutely nothing! Why? Because I am having massive self doubts. Also wondering why would anyone listen to me about making the most of their social media. So something I would like to use this blog space for is to start showing what I do know. Help myself grow my confidence. And maybe, just maybe, someone may invest in my knowledge to help them better themselves and their business.
So why am I back?
Today something clicked, something reminded me why I started this blog in the first place, and why I took the time last year to develop myself.
Basically it all boils down to the fact that I want to help you!
I want to help you know that you are not the only one who has the struggles as a working mum and feeling like you are running around with your arse on fire. Also, I want to show you what has worked for me juggling work and school. I don’t want to preach at you, or say my way is the only way, but I do have over 10 years of experience on balancing life, and my goodness I have tried a lot of things to feel in control of mine and our famiy’s lives. Hopefully you will find some of these things helpful.
I also want to help you if you are a small start up business, or even bigger than that, to get the most out of social media and help you see how it can help you grow.
So there we have it. Thank you if you got this far and read my essay. I wasn’t expecting it to be this long, I just started writing and it just came out.
Once again, thanks for reading, and if I can help you with anything please let me know in the comments below.
Jo
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Welcome back Jo x
Thanks Sam . Don’t know why it took me so long to get back into but I’m here now! Xx
Well done Jobo! Loved reading it. Can totally relate. You only realise what you are doing on a day to day basis, when someone asks you at the many sports clubs your child attends (we have 2, as you know, now 12.5 and 9.5yrs!), ‘do you work?’, and I reply, ‘yes’ . ‘Do you’ , they say, part-time they assume, ‘no’ , I say, ‘full time’. Their faces drop. When you as a mum/dad, get off that treadmill for one second though, it is only then do you realise exactly what you do do on a daily/weekly basis. So crack on and let’s hear some more. It might not be a hot cuppa that I’ll be drinking whilst reading your blogs though xx
Thanks for the lovely comment Tracy. Totally agree about drinking something other than a cuppa when reading my posts, believe me I’m probably drinking something alcoholic when I’m writing them . Us working parents do need to give ourselves more credit, we think we are not accomplishing anything when in fact we are achieving a lot. Xx
So relate to this! I trained in some new skills recently and was supposed to go back to work ‘properly’ In September but find i’m either finding the house and kids take up too much time, or I get frozen wiv a crisis of confidence. It’s silly as I know I can do it. The clients i’ve had have been really pleased, but I keep dragging my feet! Probably just a bit of general life anxiety.
Anxiety is such a killer of joy, and so hard to override. We can do this, and we are good at what we do (including the juggle). Keep doing it, your self belief will catch up I promise. Xx
Welcome back and make sure you get into taking photos again as you capture some great pics. I’d def be happy to learn some of your top tips from the Digital Mums course but also have to admit I need the cleaning advice as well!
Thanks for the lovely comment Clare . I’m hoping now the days are getting longer I’ll be able to capture some pics in daylight. Always happy to share some Digital Mums tips, we need to organise another blogger meet up. X