My Musings
I am so busy at the moment and it has really got me thinking about my busy days and what I am achieving now versus a few months ago. Inside my head I often think I am not at work in an office so how can I be busy? I have been thinking about how different my life is now, all the different things I fit into one day and how ‘busy’ is just a term that can describe any life be it a working in an office mum or a stay at home mum or a part time mum…or any kind of mum.
The Cambridge Dictionary Definition of Busy – If you are busy, you are working hard, or giving your attention to a particular thing
My Previous Life
So up until 3 months ago I have always worked in an office, full time with 1 day a week working from home. Monday to Thursday was always super ‘busy’ with getting up early, getting ready for work, getting the boys ready for school, dropping them at childminders, try to get to work on time for 8:30 (which I very rarely achieved) or on a couple of days a week I would disappear at 7am and hubby would do all the children jobs and I would get the 7:11 train into 
London to get to the Paddington office for 8am. Every day was a rush and most days were hectic and busy. It was busy because there was structure, deadlines, meetings, decisions to make, lunch appointments, stress. People rushed around, I always loved the 30 min meetings with people who talked fast so I could just get it out of the way and move onto the next meeting. I ended up having coffee catch ups with my friends for 15/30 minutes rather than a leisurely lunch by the canal because we were all so busy!!
My New Life
But come 1st July my company relocated from Hatfield to Paddington, I live 20 mins by car from Hatfield. To work my official hours of 8:30 to 5 I would have had to leave home at 6:55 to get the 7:11 train in to London everyday and would have got home at 6:40. Lets round that up to a 12 hour day. This location move made me feel sick, plus I had the added pressure of a, lets be politically correct here, senior person bullying me. Soooooooo I fought for redundancy and eventually I got it based on unreasonable relocation.
5 years service and being in a senior role meant I did okay from the payoff. Enough to keep me going for around a year, if I am careful! So I decided to go for it with Mrs Mummypenny and kick off the company and see how far I can go with it making a living. I’m at the end of my first month of official trading and to be honest cash coming in is not plentiful, but the amount of work I have done, PR I have had, new likers and twitter followers I have gained is amazing.
A Typical Busy Day – Friday 25th September
5am up and in the kitchen baking cookies and icing a chocolate and vanilla marble cake
6am cleaning kitchen, tidying downstairs of house. Cleaning toilets. All in preparation for the Macmillan and Grief Encounter coffee morning.
7:30am Super quick shower, make up and hair
8am lay the table for coffee morning. Clean all mugs.
8:45am Drop boys to school
9:15am Back Home more washing up and ensure house ready for arrivals at 10am
10am People start to arrive for cake and coffee morning. Spend morning making coffee and tea. Keeping an eye on Jack (not happy about all the people and children playing with his toys). Chat, have fun, raise lots of money for charity
2pm Last guest leaves. Do a bit of tidying up.
2:45pm Go get the boys form school. Sell cakes to boys at hubbys work.
3:45pm Quick 30 min visit to park for 3 boys.
4:15 Quick change into football kits and dinner of sandwiches, cake and crisps
4:45 Drive to Baldock for Dylans Friday night Football training
6:30 Leave Baldock, grab some fish and chips and wine on route home. Queue for 15 minutes at the most popular fish & chip place in Stevenage.
7:30 Get home eat dinner and drink a glass of Rioja.
9pm Friends arrive from Bristol. Drink more wine and discuss what a busy day I have had.
Phew. I did a lot yesterday. So different from the stress and horridness of a busy corporate day. I achieved so much… £150 was raised for Macmillan and Grief Encounter, so that’s 2 ½ hours of grief counselling for a bereaved child with Grief Encounter and the same amount of time paying for a Macmillan cancer nurse. I achieved a spotless house, an extremely rare occurance. I had a lovely time with lots of good friends. The boys got a trip to the park and Dylan did well at football training. And then my friends Becky & Dave arrived to whisky and wine and cookies. So yes a very different and actually much more fulfilling form of busyness.
