Crikey, it’s nearly time for my November roundup and I’m only just sitting down to do my October roundup.  Which I had actually forgotten about if I’m honest!  Things have been hectic busy here.  I feel overwhelmed constantly and I see no time of it stopping any time soon.  The life of a mum is just crazy.  And yes, I said MUM.  Hubby may very well think he has it hard, but in all honesty I am jealous of him and his child free 40 work hours to dedicate to work each week!

Try attempting to work 40 hours a week when you only have 19 hours kid free, run your own business, cook almost all the family meals (healthy and mostly from scratch), organise the kids activities, school pickups, after school clubs, school events, homework, do the family finances, know when everyone’s appointments are, be your hubby’s personal assistant, do the majority of the housework and now throw in looking after the chickens too (which hubby was doing) as it’s too dark when hubby gets back from work, be everyone’s tidier upper, stay active and go to the gym, do all the family shopping,  oh and keep on top of decluttering the house/sorting through wardrobes, etc, as the kids constantly grow out of stuff.  It’s exhausting.  I feel nonstop and like I need ten of me, so each one of me can concentrate on just one thing!

Rant over.

 

I thought we had lots of trips out last month, but we didn’t really do a great deal in terms of outings.  It must be because I was so busy with everything else that it felt like a packed month.

Here’s what we got up to in October 2017:

Joining a Gym

I’m finally back at a gym since having kids.  Yay!  I’d been running and walking lots since having the kids, but I really missed going to a gym.  Pre kids I was always a member of a gym and/or regularly went running each week with a nearby friend.  I also walked two miles to work and then back again after and stood on my feet all day at work moving around.  I like being active and feeling fit, but lost this a little once I had kids. 

I didn’t want to risk any injuries or harm to the baby so aside from walking to places, I stopped my gym membership and outdoor running when I first became pregnant.  I then read it’s not a good idea to do strenuous exercise for at least six months (and some say the entire time you breastfeed, which was almost one year for me) as the muscles are relaxed and may never boing back if overworked.  Or something like that.  Don’t quote me on that!  So anyway, I didn’t want to take the risk.

For around one year I started running again quite regularly in-between Bella being one and getting pregnant again, but stopped once I became pregnant with Reuben.  We’d also looked at some gym memberships in this time, but they were a bit too expensive for us at that time.  Plus I was working every week evening so I couldn’t go with Bella in the day.

The nearest gyms to us here are both quite expensive.  A gym in a spa hotel or David Lloyd.  Pre kids I only went to a basic gym with no pool or frills, but it had a running machine and cross trainer which is all I needed.  It was only about £10 a month, so gyms near us for £60 a month seemed extortionate.   That was until a couple of months ago when I discovered David Lloyd has a crèche!

Oh yes.  Childcare whilst I go to the gym – perfect!

The start of my gym journey - time to say bye-bye mum bum

Me and Ben could tag team it and go on different evenings, but I’d quit my evening job earlier (going full-time self-employed instead) this year with the hope of spending more time with Ben.  If we both went different evenings we’d barely see each other.  So we wanted somewhere we can go together and do it as an activity with one another.

So we signed up to David Lloyd on the first of October and we love it.  Or at least I do!

It’s probably another reason I have no time or felt super busy in October as I’ve been going 4-6 times a week, so that’s an extra 4-6+ hours of my time gone from my week!  I think it’s worth it though as health is so important.  I’ve been doing aqua, clubbercise, swimming and running mostly.  I do aqua and clubbercise once per week, then I run 5k 2-3 times per week.  I add a short swim to the end of my runs most of the time or before aqua class. 

Then I relax in the steam room, sauna and jacuzzi for 5 minutes each.  Perfect!

I’ve really been enjoying going back to a gym and I’m now even a convert to one with frills. 

Bella Swimming

Bella has passed her Duckling 2 badge in swimming so finally got to move up a class!  Yay!  She started swimming in January and had been in the same class ever since.  She’s not so confident in water so it’s been slow progress, but at the same time amazing progress as we know how petrified she was before.  Now she’ll swim off by herself with her armbands or a float and do lengths of the pool.  Before she would cling to us, terrified of the pool.

She’s moved from minnows to shrimps class.  Go Bella!

Making echos in Daddy's cement mixer and #twinning

Half Term – CBeebies Land Hotel & Potty Training

Originally I wanted to go away for the half term break when planning it back in the summer.  Ben booked it off work early in the summer, so we were deciding on plans a long time ago.  Ben really wanted some time at home to get some woodwork and jobs around the house completed, so we compromised.  We decided on a one night stay and two full days away, with the rest of the week at home.

I knew exactly where we should go.

The new CBeebies hotel!

I knew the kids would love it and we’d never stayed at Alton Towers before so we could tick it off the list.

Read my full review here: My Very Honest CBeebies Land Hotel Review

Lucky we did stay at home as Ben purchased a workshop (large shed type thing) and needed a few days straight to build it.  I took this opportunity to potty train Reuben…

It seemed perfect as I never usually have a block of days with him at home, so we rolled up the rugs, put potties everywhere and stayed at home for almost 6 full days.

It’s going (still going on now) pretty well.  Some days he’s perfect and others he has a few accidents.  We’ve trained a bit earlier than we did Bella, but he seems very keen to do it.

Halloween

At the end of the half term we took the children to a Halloween disco!  Bella had great fun dressing up and visiting the haunted house they’d set up to make slime and have spiders painted on her!  Unfortunately the disco was really loud, like insanely loud for young children, so she wanted to leave as soon as the music started!  We’ll take some ear protectors if we go next year!

Eye Test

Just bunging this boring thing in here, but if you’ve read this far, there is a reason!  I had my two yearly eye test and for the first time ever it wasn’t at Specsavers.  I went to Tesco opticians as they have FREE EYE TESTS.  Yep, for everyone.  Always free. No obligation to buy.  So don’t waste money on eye tests, go to Tesco and always have them for free.