Dominoes...

Josh wasn't the only one to go down like a ton of bricks, first me with an infection of my wisdom tooth and then Samuel with the mystery bug. Plus Josh's turned into an ear infection, so I have single handedly kept the pharmaceutical companies in business this week. I don't know how working mothers (I mean full time working mothers) cope with this - I managed OK til Tuesday lunchtime and then had to call Paul home so I could take pain relief and go to bed with my heat pack on my face. man it was sore. Finally improved today though, just in time for Samuel to get sick. Poor little man he has been so listless and just looked so sick. he finally started to perk up about 4.30 this avo though, so i think he's on the mend.

I supposedly have to go to dentist next week, but I so don't want the interruption / pain / hassle / expense of getting the tooth removed, that I think I will just deal with the symptoms for a while. Sometimes the logical solution isn't always the best one.

Yeah, Paul has the next 4 working days off! Supposedly so I can do my end of year book-keeping, but I have managed to sneak in a 14 hour scrapathon with the mad Mavis's at Scraptacular tomorrow. All packed and ready to go and aiming for 5 completed layouts at least - can't wait. Speaking of Scraptacular, did you all see that the wonderful Robyn (one of the staff there) was one of the For Keeps A-Z album winners! Yeah, way to go Robyn. I would have left congrats on your blog but they wanted me to register - geez I hardly get time to read the blog without registering as well! Can't wait to oooh and ahhh over the album tomorrow. Robyn's work in the shop is gorgeous, so I can only imagine a whole album of it!

I was a bit excited to see another of my layouts in print in this months For Keeps - a heritage page. This picture is one of the very few of me with my whole family (I'm the little tacker in Mums arms) so it's very precious to me.

Lately I have been working on an album of pictures for my brother, with quotes. For those who don't know, my brother had a car accident just after my wedding in 1997 and suffered permanent spinal damage. He has no use of his legs and partial use of his arms, but he's sharp as a tack with his mind and communication! I wanted to scrap some of his photos for him, and some of my scrapbooking friends have volunteered to help. We are just doing simple pages with nice uplifting quotes. Here's one I did last night:

This one was done by the lovely Jen Hone, and is a picture of Roly with his family on his wedding day. I love what she's done with this - it's gorgeous. That's me on the far left in the black and beige, next to my Dad.

LOL, just realised that pic was sepia, so everyone is wearing black and beige!!

This one was done by Jenni Hunter. I loved this quote on a recent layout Jenni did, and it perfectly suited this picture of Roly and his daughter Cassandra, not long after his accident.

Thanks so much for helping out girls! If anyone else would like to do a page I would be very grateful! I supply the pic and the quote, and it's just a matter of putting it all together with your oen style - anything goes.

That's it from me, must get some beauty sleep so I am ready for that Mavis Madness tomorrow. Have a good Friday firends.

Claire

Lazy Weekend

Well, maybe not so lazy, as Samuel decided 4.30am was a good time to wake up on Saturday morning! Luckily I had gone to bed super early Friday night, so I just stayed up and caught up with some bookwork while he toddles around playing (as you do at 4.30am). he hardly ever does that these days, think he was just a bit out of routine.

Josh still sick, so back to the doc with us tomorrow. He is still complaining about his ear, so want to check for ear infection again. 5 days and she should be better me thinks. Worked yesterday until 2 and then lazy afternoon scrapping. Did this family shot (promise it's straight in real life - my scanner doesn't like lumpy bumpy!), and then finished off one of the kids at my wedding that I started last weekend at Scraptacular.

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend. See all you Mavis's on Friday.

Claire

Look what I did....

Woohoo. been going to do this for ages and when I spotted the jars on special this week at Safeway (these ones were just $3.48) I snapped them up. Mind you this isn't still all my ribbons, but it's a very good start. Not very portable, but I can always tie em on later! I tend to be mostly a scrap at home girl anyway (although the Mavis's are sure testing me on that one!).

and if you were wondering why I went to the trouble, check out this picture of Samuel (yes there is a child behind there!)...

Night lovelies. I'm off to fall blissfully asleep dreaming about my new ribbon jars which so nicely compliment my chipboard letters arranged alphabetically in take-away containers (no I didn't eat 26 serves of take-away, Safeway sell them too...).

Josh seems a bit better tonight. Is hungry but feels yuk after he's eaten, but the nurofen has made a big difference to his aches and pains. Here's hoping for a good night.

Night again lovelies.

4 things..

Josh went down like a ton of bricks last night with the flu and had a really bad night. He woke several times during the night crying telling me not to touch his head and when I asked him whah hurt, he had already counted them - '4 things hurt, my head, my knees, my tummy and my ears'. Poor little man. He kept asking me tearfully 'will you after me Mummy?' - I am such a sook when my boys are sick.

Trip to the doc first thing and he doesn't have anything obviously bacterial, so it's all the usual while he shakes what the doc thinks is a bad case of the flu. I just want to wrap him in cotton wool and cuddle him. Samuel of course doesn't understand and we have had to intervene at various times today to prevent him walking on Josh' s head, bashing him with toy hammer and just generally p*ssing him off, LOL.

Gotta go - Paul has interview tomorrow and needs the puter. Here's a happy snap of my little darlings I took Tuesday morning when they were piled into my bed. Man I love these boys.

Night friends :)

I love my job!

I know I often whinge about work with the best of them, but since I have come back from holidays I am so loving it. For those that don't know, I am self employed in my dietitian business and work from offices that I lease in Glenferrie Rd Hawthorn. It was a big decision to lease my own offices, but I absolutely knew I wanted the flexibility of being able to choose my work days and hours. The last few years have been hard work and often financial strain, but its coming together beautifully now and I feel really good about where things are at.

Before we went on holidays, I had been working too much, and was often (make that always) up late at night (after I had gone to the office to see clients when Paul came home - he would come in the door and would go out) doing bookwork or taking care of the huge amount of paperwork and everything else that comes along with employing staff (even though I had amazing staff, you still have to do everything required of an employer). That would have been fine if I didn't have a young family, a life and a serious scrapbooking addiction. I also felt like such a hypocrite - spending my working hours telling other people to look after their physical, spiritual and emotional health, then running myself into the ground (very common among the caring profession!). While I was on holidays I could see things much clearer and decided to make some changes to get the balance back again. Some of them were really hard changes - deciding to revert to working entirely by myself again, which meant breaking news to casual staff that they didn't want to be hearing. I also had to ask for help with regular babysitting because I made the decision I wanted to work during the day like a normal human being. I also had to stand firm with my values about the importance of life balance for me and my family, when many of my professional colleagues were working day, night and every hour in between - would I be left behind? - would I lose business? - would I be less respected in the profession? I took the plunge anyway and I changed to working most Saturdays and every second Wednesday and I get to go to work at normal times. Paul looks after the boys Saturdays, and his Mum and Paul take turns looking after Samuel on Wednesdays. Because it's not that often, they tell me they both look forward to these times with him. I have also found two really great colleagues (one a psychologist and one a dietitian) to share the rental on my property, which has the benefit of having some peer support as well, which I really enjoy.

Everyone has been a winner with these changes. The boys are happier cos I am less stressed and we have more time to just hang and have fun. Paul's happier because we get to spend time together at night and to share the night time routines with the boys - occasionally if he's lucky he even comes home to tea cooked! Of course I'm happier too. I feel I have more head space and time to just chill and I am looking after myself much better. Business is booming too - I think that's a direct result of the relaxed and friendly approach i have with clients because I am not working ridiculous hours. I spend lots of time with clients and a lady nearly fell over today when I offered her a cup of tea with her consultation. This approach is so important with the type of clients I work with. I specialise in women's health and I see many women with PCOS, women who are trying to get pregnant (with and without IVF), women with long term weight issues, eating disorders, breast cancer etc. I spend as much time offering emotional support as I do prescribing and educating about dietary changes. I can't do that well unless I am feeling on top of things myself.

So I guess the moral of the story is that I think it's actually easier and more comfortable to stay in the status quo and keep on doing what you've always done, even though it's not working for you. It takes guts to make changes, and I am proud of myself. Superwoman is so overrated.

Night lovelies.