Did I say I was better at time management?

How ironic that my last post mentioned something about time management, yet it's now 3 months later when I finally find some time to make a new post!
At just over 10 months, my daughter is such a laugh - she delights me every day with her friendliness and sense of humour which can, in a matter of one second, change to moody and teary - but still amazing.
I have such an incredible respect now for Mums who manage a business, for Mums who go to work each day and for Mums in general. And Dads too of course, but you know what, mainly Mums.
The things we juggle!
There are pros and cons of working from home or going to work, if you don't have the choice to focus on being a Mum 100% of the time. 
Friends of mine who had regular jobs enjoyed maternity leave and time to spend solely as a parent. But now, as our little ones get older, most are either back, or looking at going back, to work. The thought would be so horrible for me - I just couldn't do it. 
Meanwhile I am lucky enough (the harder I work, the luckier I get) to be able to go back to work right here at home. The con? I never left! Even when Ruby was 1 week old I was still managing jobs. In fact I was answering emails from hospital - because I have a business to run. 
I have had no time off from my work, but I have not had much time off from the best job of all - being a Mum.
Working from home as a Mum is so different from working from home without kids. There are so many more time constraints, interrupted nights, and constant distractions.
There is no 'clock on and focus at this time, clock off at that time" - at least not for me.
It's "clocking on, oh hang on, not yet, in a minute, maybe in an hour, hopefully, ok clocking on. Clocking off suddenly at any point for a moment or for a few hours, to be continued goodness knows when"......
Even now, at 8.35pm I could be interrupted by a crying bubba who is frustrated with teething or feeling snotty or just not liking the whole "sleep thing".
If I had to leave to go to work though, the sleepless night wouldn't be followed by a nap when my little one naps - it would be followed by a full day at work. 
It would require me to leave my little one in the care of someone else.
It would only give me a small amount of time to spend with the most amazing person I've ever met.
As hard as it is - I wouldn't change my work situation for the world. Thank goodness I can work from home and be a Mum too.
It's a good life, ain't it.

I didn't know!

Next week Ruby is 7 months old. In 7 months she has learnt so much it's simply mind-bottling! (yes, you heard me).
I find it hard to believe that she has learnt more than I have, but of course, it's a fact. 

Before Ruby came along....

• I didn't really know what time management was; 
• I didn't know what the inside of a Baby Bunting looked like;
• I didn't know what skin smelt like at the end of a dribbly, sweaty, milky, pooey, messy day (or even 1 hour into a day - ie 6am);
• I didn't know you could puree meat so easily;
• I didn't know orange vegetables stained so easily;
• I didn't know I'd drop all sense of dignity so easily;
• I didn't know that the second my baby falls asleep she would morph from little noisy horror to sweet angel (Ahhh, yeah, I know I got a good one);
• I always loved my bed, but I didn't know what true LOOVVEEE of my bed felt like. (Ahhh, dear bed...)

That reminds me. 'Night!!

Time Management...?

The last few days have been so interesting as I have learnt some new recipes and plied Ruby with good food. She's loving it! 
She's sleeping better during the day now and also during the night, which she was already pretty good with but had started waking for a night feed again.
Today she slept really well so I was able to get a few things done, but with so many things on the list - what gets priority?
There is food shopping to be done, basic cleaning like dishes, clothes and heaven forbid, vaccuming. Cooking meals for me, hubby, Ruby and sometimes Rob who works here often.
Then there is the business. 

I opened my emails this morning and had a very narky customer (who is usually very positive and friendly) who said that her web pages had reverted to old content and that there were errors and it was ridiculous etc. I called her but she wasn't answering so I checked through the site and didn't find anything amiss except an old address on one page which I updated.
I had to duck out to get a few things and on my return I had a phone message letting me know from my client's assistant that there was one thing that needed changing.
So I fixed it up and sent an email confirming and asking for more details about which pages/what content had actually reverted, and to maybe check to see if she was looking at a cache file.
I haven't heard back.
I never like it when someone sends an aggressive message and then, possibly on noticing that there actually isn't anything wrong, doesn't even send a quick message saying it was now ok. I want my clients to have prompt support and to feel confident that their sites are working for them - but I need them to let me know what's going on at their end too.
It makes me wonder whether I should have prioritised the dishes after all!
That being said, I have some people I do work for and some who support me with work, who are simply sensational. The VAs on my network are inspiring, supportive of each other, caring and smart. The contractors who I have doing jobs for me are wonderful - they really know their stuff and they are always keen to find solutions.
I am thinking that with my new priorities, I would be best to focus on my network and to work on creating new sites (which I really enjoy and can do out of hours), rather than maintaining them, as I now know that I am unlikely to drop everything (being my child in particular) to update a notice that would have been updated long ago if the client had paid their invoice on time. Thankfully, I have people around me who are great with updates so forces combined, we can be Captain Planet! 

The power of FOOD!

Today I gave Ruby some baby cereal with apple puree mixed in - she loved it!
She had her normal drinks and even though we were out and about all day, she was in a great mood all day.
Then before her bath I gave her some yoghurt - she ate the whole tub! (Baby tub of course). So impressed! 
It was heaps of fun actually. I put a little bit on her belly (had her nuded up for a messy feed pre-bath!) and she laughed and laughed! It was awesome! So damn cute.
I wanted to take a pic because in the end I had her pretty much covered in yoghurt (doesn't take much, she's still pretty small!) but I didn't want to ruin the moment so you'll just have to imagine it.
A good friend also gave her little poppet her first feed today with much success! So please for her. Rice cereal for everyone! Yayyy!

The 'out and about' bit of today, well one part of it, was to visit friends who had a baby yesterday - their second little boy. He is such a cutey and they all look very happy and healthy. So it's all good!!! :)

Can I have one? Can I Mum?

I am also bidding on ebay for one of these activity centres (pictured) because someone had a bit of fun with one the other day.... and Ruby liked it too....!!! :)

Weaning!

Not long ago I started introducing pureed food to Ruby. 
There are so many things that you should or shouldn't be doing that it can get a bit overwhelming, especially if, like me, you have a pretty limited diet and should explore more food options.
I want the BEST foods for Ruby so I want to make sure I am covering my bases. It's a bit of a challenge too that she still has reflux and I am not sure if yoghurt affects this or not - but she simply loves yoghurt!
I started with the bought organic purees which she responded to very well, but then I wanted to try and make some fresh purees and freeze portions for her.
My first effort was with some sweet potato which she liked. 
I also tried some carrot and pumpkin. She didn't seem overly keen on pumpkin, but then again, it is a little stringy so that's a challenge.
She watches me like a hawk when I am eating - almost as bad as Mango...
With all of the talk about carbohydrates and proteins etc ("oh have you tried fish?" - uhh, no.....) I thought I had better get some books and do some reading.
I was at the library for ages trying to find something that looked helpful but was recent enough to still be relevant.
I found "Weaning" by Annabel Karmel. 


I started putting little sticky notes in on the pages that looked interesting but now the book has almost as many pink sticky notes (heart shaped! :) ) as pages so I am thinking it would be a good one to buy!
I've added the link to Annabel Karmels blog in the blogs I follow bit over on the right side of this page - yep, the other right... lower.... yep, there!


You know I didn't even THINK to mix some of the pureed veg with fruit? She loves the fruit, so why not mix it up a little? I am keen to try that tomorrow.


Not only that but the pics of the bubbas eating in this book are so damn cute I want to cut them out and frame them! Or maybe put them in my wallet and tell people "Oh yes, that was when she had her first spoonful of fish puree.." - ok, perhaps Mummy needs a little more sleep now.
Love ya's!

Back to Business! Sans Sharks....

Today I was able to get a few things out of the way as Ruby decided to catch up on some serious sleep deprivation - her recent "naps" have been more like "na" because you can't even get the word out and she is up and at 'em again!


I am putting together some mentoring and coaching programs for my VA Network, Virtually Yours, but today was quite frustrating because Yahoo Groups was not sending through messages for my groups - our main form of communication.


Yahoo Groups is such a great service and it's amazing that it's free, so I can't complain, but I am hoping like crazy that the emails that were attempted to be sent today, still come through when it's up and running again. 
I had asked members to express an interest in the programs I am running and I'd really like to know what sort of response I got.
Meanwhile, I've been so impressed with the amount of business support fellow VAs are offering to businesses affected by the floods. 
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_182910088400640

Homes and Businesses Under Water.

Here I am being held back because Yahoo Groups isn't working for me today, while in some parts of Australia businesses need flippers to get to their waterlogged PCs - if the PC is even still there, rather than 30km upstream!

Plus the added bonus of not having sharks in my hallway as I go from 'home' to 'work' as was reported in one news article the other day... let me see if I can find it..... here it is - http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/weather/flood-shark-sightings-have-residents-on-edge-20110113-19ozp.html - I can just hear the Jaws music as I read the article and see those pics.


And while we are on theme, seeing as you are reading this, you might like to read and you might like to support people in flood areas so feel free to check this out! http://authorsforqueensland.wordpress.com/

Wanted Criminal

If it's not getting client jobs done, creating opportunities for VYVA, keeping house or looking after Ruby, it's that darn dog!
You all know I love Mango Frankenstein but this morning he was more Frankenstein than Mango.
The backyard duel between him and the nesting bird escalated this morning when, with really poor timing, the baby birds decided to stretch their wings and go for a test flight. 
I was in the kitchen when I saw out of the window Mango having a go at a baby bird on the lawn. 
I screamed out at him and was ignored as I fled into the backyard in my undies.
I got Mango away from the baby much more successfully than the parents did as they tried swooping Mango repeatedly. 
I picked up the baby, which was still alive but not looking so well, and put it back into it's nest.
I knew there had been 2 babies so I did a search of the backyard and thankfully didn't find the other one - I hope it's flight was more successful.
The parents didn't seem to be heading back to the baby so I checked on it and found it wasn't doing very well. I picked it up carefully and checked it for puncture wounds - it had a small one on it's back and on it's chest - never ever a good sign. A couple of minutes later the little bundle of feathers was dead.
I was very annoyed at Mango, who is well fed but has the hunting breeds within him which is one reason why I don't do wildlife fostering any more - he just can't seem to control himself around little fast things - ironic when you think of the words you'd use to describe Mango himself.
Anyway, he is now on my most wanted criminal list and better do some serious sucking up if he wants any cuddles today. RIP little bird.