What Katy did next. Life as a Yorkshire mum

Woo Hoo, Sunshine!!

2012-02-15T06:39:00.000-08:00

A beautiful day in North Yorkshire. Walked to the market in the sunshine (albeit not very warm!) to try and soak up some vitamin D.

After reading so much about rickets in the media, Mums have now even more to worry about.

I've even managed to list a few things on ebay. It's amazing how much better a bit of sunshine makes you feel. I'm sure the country would be a much happier place if the climate was sunnier.

I was saddened to hear on the news today about a 13 year old girl being stabbed and murdered yesterday. I don't know any details, however my eldest is 13 in 2 years and it really doesn't bear thinking about. How can someone take someone else's life?

Sounds like the twins are waking up.

Until the next time xx

Literary agent has requested full manuscript!

2012-02-14T12:29:00.000-08:00

Wow, I sent the first 3 chapters of a children's book I started to write a few years ago to an agent and they've requested the full manuscript and want to read it exclusively. I'm a total novice at this and not sure if this is good or not? I'm busy polishing the rest of the book to send in. I suppose I should have done that before sending. I hope they don't mind waiting.

took the kids to York today with my hubby. Didn't work out too well as extremely busy (especially when pushing a double buggy) and one of my twins is teething, so cried the whole time. Came home with relief!

We have intentions on decorating the house this week so we can put it up for sale. We are ok for space until the girls are about two, then they'll need beds and we really can't fit them in! Decorating the house is proving to be difficult with twins, wish we had decent help with childcare or we were rich enough to pay someone to do it, that would be heaven.

Self assessment tax returns arrghh!!

2012-01-31T01:46:00.000-08:00

I've got myself in a pickle and the deadline is today, although apparently the tax people are on strike today, so won't get fined. Why is it so difficult? Why don't people tell you exactly what to do when registering as a partnership? As for NI contributions when you are working and self employed, well don't even go there. I think any profit I made will go on NI bill. What's the point springs to mind? I may as well have just not worked at all, got paid benefits with all contributions paid for rather than have hours and hours of stress and hassel to be only worse off. All I can say is thank goodness my Dad's an accountant, although I'm not sure his role stretches to miracle worker!

Rant over. Didn't list anything on ebay yesterday or photograph anything as tax took over. Such a cloudy dull and cold day today the photo's would be rubbish anyway. The girls have colds and I have a headache - great. Now that everyone reading this is thoroughly depressed I've decided to join the Netmums Blogging Network, so an even larger amount of people can feel fed up. I'm not normally as miserable as this. Why would anyone want to work in a tax office? I suppose if it's not your tax your dealing with it may not be as bad. Ooops, still ranting.

On a lighter note, I've submitted a childrens story to an agent, so positive thinking. I may be a millionaire this time next year - not

Procrastinating ...

2012-01-30T05:25:00.000-08:00

Hope I've spelt the title right. I have a list of things to do today and so far I've been to a friends for coffee and eaten a huge lunch which has cancelled out ( probably) the 2 lbs I've lost since Thursday. The girls are asleep, so why am I sitting here writing this when the washing is piling up. Right, enough is enough, I'm going to set myself a target of listing at least 5 things a day to sell on ebay, just need to take some good pics during the day and then I can list them tonight. I'll let you know how I get on.

I really must apologise to the lady who held one of my twins at the coffee morning, poor thing is a childrens' nurse with both of her own children at school. She was probably looking forward to a civilised hour or two without children, but ended up with an eight month old dribbling rich tea biscuits over her - oh dear. What else could I do? At least my girls won't be clingy!

Off to get on with the photo's now. xxxx

2012-01-29T13:56:00.000-08:00

What did Katy Do Next?? Roll on to May 2011 and Katy had twins, beautiful identical twin girls to be exact. How did that happen? Really I do know, but twins!!?? at the age of 40?? I must be completely mad, but very happy with my perfect family of 2 girls and 2 boys. The house isn't happy though as we are groaning at the seams, the car wasn't happy and had to go, my abs have given up the ghost and our finances are definitly NOT happy. Family is the most important thing (I sound a bit like Phil on Eastenders now), as long as we are all healthy and happy then that's ok.

The magazine I started is still going strong, I'm not involved at the moment and I'm still deciding whether to stay in the business on 10% or bow out.

www.knaresboroughnow.co.uk

I'm on maternity leave at the moment from the school I work at, but not sure if I'm goiong back due to childcare. The cost of childcare is bad enough, but for twins it's not feasible. So back to the drawing board with regards to a career. It's really interesting when you read back over your Blog and see how life changes. I believe you can make all the plans in the world, but you don't know what's around the corner.

As my girls are 8 months old now and sleeping through I'm hoping to have the time to write posts a bit more regularly and my twins will probably feature very strongly as I look for help from any other twin mummys?

Bye for now xxx

Arrgghh!

2010-07-12T04:27:00.000-07:00

Can anyone explain the point?

I've been on a course and had a meeting with an autism professional regarding how best to support the child I look after, only to be told by the class teacher that she doesn't agree and that said child is being manipulative - brick wall!

Home for lunch, then back into school for most likely a difficult afternoon, which could have been avoided :(

2010-07-11T00:54:00.000-07:00

Wow, how time flys!

Well, we have a name for our new magazine, printer and quite a few advertisers! Quite scarey and lots of work. I also have a business partner who is going to concentrate on sales and marketing and I'm publisher and designer - sounds very grand. Our first issue is launched in September, so all hands to the deck.

Other job is going well, I'm hoping I'll be able to continue doing both, but we'll see. If the mag brings in enough profit to cover my current job consistently I may reconsider.

Fab weather at the moment. Had a lovely afternoon yesterday at the school BBQ, very impressed by the lads v dads football game that was going on ( as I watched sipping pimms).

Off shopping this afternoon for my youngest sons 6th birthday, he wants anything to do with Rey Mysterio (wrestler).

Just back from Ibiza

2010-06-06T12:11:00.000-07:00

Just had a fabulous week in Ibiza with the family. The weather was amazing! I'm really impressed by the resort Portinax and would definitly recommend it to anyone, except perhaps young people looking to party :0)

Next project...

2010-05-12T06:52:00.000-07:00

I have high hopes with this project! I have decided to start a community magazine in my area. After lots of research, negotiation and advice I've bought a package of info. which hopefully should enable me to do this successfully.

I was a bit dubious about it at first because a lot of my work will involve sales, this is an area that I have no experience in and I'm well out of my comfort zone. To cut a long story short I have a good friend who is prepared to have a quarter share in the mag and deal with sales and distribution - sorted! So I've said it before, watch this space!

Still enjoying the day job and no plans to give up as yet :)

Oh no! dentist today ..

2010-04-21T10:13:00.000-07:00

I seem to have developed a fear of the dentist. I've had loads of treatment over the years and have been fine, but I had a bit of a traumatic experience at the new NHS dentist in the area 6 months ago. I needed a filling replacing and probably should have headed from the door when I was asked if I needed a local anaesthetic - erm yes! Anyway I had loads of anaesthetic injected and could still feel pain/agony, but at least the work had been done, or so I thought. Fast forward 6 months and I now have loads of pain from the same tooth, went back to the dentist and I now need root canal work, never had it before, but totally dreading it.

Gorgeous weather in Yorkshire today. I'm getting my usual seasonal desire to get gardening. So far i've planted carrots and lettuces in a raised bed on my patio, salad leaves in the small plastic greenhouse I've been given along with sweet peas and pansies. I've also sprinkled some wildflower seeds I got free last year from a save our bees campaign, so fingers crossed. Maybe I'll post some photo's as they grow.

We've booked another holiday for may half term to Ibiza, a little worried about air travel at the moment but I'm hoping it will be sorted by then. My friend has now been stuck in Crete since last friday and my Dad's in lanzarote.

Thankyou!

2010-03-31T06:09:00.000-07:00

I really must say a big thankyou to the lady at the checkout at Marks and Spencers today! A little embarassing perhaps, but hey, how often does a 39 year old women get asked for ID to prove her age in order to buy a bottle of Champagne? So "THANKYOU!"
I didn't have any ID, but I was allowed to buy it because she decided that I did actually look about 25. Yippee!!

I'm not normally found to be buying Champagne, but it was half price and it's hubbys birthday tomorrow.

I'm off to stock up on the anti wrinkle moisturiser I bought from Lidl last week, it works miracles and only cost £1.99.

40th Birthday cake!

2010-03-29T05:21:00.001-07:00

I forgot to mention the holiday was a 40th birthday present for my husband.

I think the cake we had made was so fab, I thought I'd post it on here. He is a drummer in a band.

Another fab trip to Centre Parcs

2010-03-29T05:10:00.000-07:00

When I return from a great holiday I'm always left with the feeling of "Did it really happen, or was it a dream?" Is anyone else like that? As soon as I get home I start planning our next holiday. We have a 2 week holiday to Menorca booked for August, but that seems ages away, so I've been busy looking at the internet to find a cheap deal in May. Can we afford all these holidays? No, but I've kind of convinced myself that to stay at home is just as expensive once you add up the costs of a couple of days out, cinema and bowling etc.

Spring has sprung!

2010-03-11T04:57:00.000-08:00

Time is going too fast, my son was nine yesterday, NINE! How did that happen?

At least the weather has warmed up. I think I have a pretty near perfect job, yes each day is different and can be quite a challenge, but how many people could say they have spent the morning in the school woodland making an army base? The weather is gorgeous, the birds singing, flowers in bud and I'm getting paid for it, fab!

I can't believe it was February half term when I last posted as we are about to go on holiday to centre parcs again in a couple of weeks for hubby's fortieth birthday. We are going in term time as its only costing £195 for four nights, we paid £800 in October half term.

Just a short post I'm afraid as I'm helping in year one this afternoon. It's very exciting in yr 1 at the moment as we have chicks of one days old and still a couple of eggs to hatch. Told you spring has sprung!

Woo Hoo! Half term!

2010-02-12T12:48:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know I've only been working for two whole weeks, but I have been so excited about school finishing. I love the job so far, but feel totally exhausted and need a few lie ins. I'm putting the tiredness down to starting a new job, but is it possible to feel so shattered after only working 3 hours a day? How embarassing.

Plans for next week - we have decided to spend a couple of nights in Chester, mainly so that I can go to the zoo, not sure if the rest of the family are too bothered, but I love going to the zoo. If anyone has any other tips on where to visit in Chester it would be greatly appreciated. My hubby's a little disapointed there isn't a GBK his usual haunt in York.

My son's school had a skipping contest today, which was really good fun. My youngest son didn't think so and spent all last night awake saying he had a tummy ache, I was almost convinced he was definitly not well until 8 o clock this morning he suddenly started to cry saying he didn't want to skip and he didn't want to go swimming, a big cuddle and reassurance that I would talk to his teacher and he was back to his usual self, if only he'd told us last night, I wouldn't have had to spend half the night in his not much bigger than a toddler bed whilst he spread out in the double.

I've had a pretty good day actually, work was good, had my hair cut and coloured and got some new cool, purple glasses that cost a small fortune (£500 to be exact, but got them for £300 as optician is a friend:-) I really must make sure I wear them sometimes as I normally wear contact lenses.

I think this post is probably now getting extremely boring, so I'll close for now. Roll on spring and summer, I really need some sunshine. We've looked to see if we could get a cheap deal to the Canaries next week, but is there such a thing as a cheap deal these days? we certainly couldn't find one.

All mum's are working mums

2010-02-06T05:09:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the depressing post yesterday, feeling much better today.

I just realised that my title of "first week as a working Mum" was really not right. Having spent years as a full time at work mum, part time working mum and stay at home mum the work load doesn't get any less and stay at home mums probably work the hardest. There's no chance of structured coffee breaks with other adults and a dinner hour with young children.

I've kind of managed to establish a routine re housework this week, I thought I would do it in the afternoons, but have stayed longer at school and worked more hours. So we had a big tidy up this morning and it's definitly a case of lots of hands make light work, or whatever the saying is! In fact my youngest enjoyed it and even tidied our bedroom.

We have my nephew staying for the weekend, he's 18 months old and totally adorable. He's just so good! He has a sleep in the afternoon for 2 hours then goes to bed later around seven and sleeps ALL night until eight the next day. I don't quite know where we went wrong, but my eldest son had to sleep with one of us until he was six and then we had to bribe him with promise of a wii, definitly money well spent though.

First week as a working mum

2010-02-05T11:59:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't posted for a while, very busy now you know :-)

Well, first week over and feel drained, I've really enjoyed it and it's gone well, however the whole week has been over shadowed by the sudden death of a great friend. I feel so sad for his family, especially his grandchildren who go to our school and his wife, also a friend and the school secretary. He was a wonderful man and brought life and joy to everyone he knew. He was Santa at the school fair, read with the children and was pirate Pete for the reception children, on monday this week he did a talk for the year one children about toys in the olden days. I will really miss him and our chats after Mass every week over a coffee. Why is it always the good people who die early?

Yippee! I got the job

2010-01-27T03:31:00.000-08:00

From Monday I will no longer be a sahm. I've landed the most perfect of jobs (I hope).
I will be working as a teaching assistant for a boy with autism in year 4 at my son's school. The hours are great, being mornings Monday to Friday and I am really looking forward to the challenge (as I'm pretty sure it will be!). So another development in the what Katy did next saga.

Interview tomorrow.. help!

2010-01-25T04:22:00.001-08:00

Help! I have an interview tomorrow at my son's school for a teaching assistant. The role is working with a boy in yr4 who has autism. I'm really hoping to get the job as it's at my boys school, so that solves any childcare problems and I've worked for years with adults with autism and that has been very rewarding. I think working with a child who has autism from a young age opens up alot more opportunities for learning and reaching potential, of course adults learn too, but at a much slower pace.

I'm busy trying to pre empt possible interview questions, so if anyone has any real life experience of questions asked at interview that would be great.

I've just joined a group on www.britishmummybloggers.com on gardening and have discovered a wealth of info on slugs! Slugs and snails drive me insane in summer. I spend weeks nurturing plants on my windowsill only to be decimated in one night by said creatures. I know that they are an essential part of the eco system and I am reluctant to use anything that may harm the wildlife in the area, but honestly we have billions of them. Anyway someone has helpfully directed me to a type of organic pellet safe for kids/pets/hedghogs etc.

Mr and Mrs

2010-01-17T13:18:00.000-08:00

I had a very interesting evening last night playing the Mr and Mrs board game with my husband, brother and sister in law. It turns out that my husband actually does listen to me occasionally and to quote "he knows me better than I know myself" I wouldn't go as far to say that, but needless to say we "thrashed" the competition! However we have been married for 11 years and together for 19, compared to my brother and sister in law who have only been married for 3 years. The questions the game asks does promote some good discussion and funny arguments, well worth playing.

Oh incidently, our central heating has now been working for 36 hours, problem is we daren't turn it off manual in case it breaks again, so we may need to re mortgage to pay for the gas bill!
I feel as though our boiler has become a living thing, on friday night my husband sent a text from his bands gig saying "how's the boys and the boiler?"

To be honest after watching the news from Haiti our little problems are extremely trivial and I feel a little embarassed writing about them. I hope and pray for everyone affected by the earthquake and urge everyone to give what they can to help provide emergency aid.

Charity shop bargains

2010-01-16T05:01:00.000-08:00

I love charity shops and had a good rummage around a couple this morning. There seems to be loads of stuff in stock, maybe due to the snow or everyone having a good clearout before Christmas.

I bought Scoobydoo video, Mr Bean video, Humf Dvd, Pop up pirate game and an Usborne French book. Notice that nothing is for myself or my husband! I've decided to go back next week on my own.

Returned home to a warm house! The boiler has been working now for 5 hours.

Anyway, off to play Pop up pirate. Hope all the pieces are there x

Freezing! Labradoodles

2010-01-14T01:56:00.000-08:00

We called someone else out to solve the boiler problem which we thought he had, but no. It now won't light at all at least before we could restart the pilot light and it would keep going for a couple of hours. Very boring I know. I hope we can sort it today.

I chased up an article I had written a while ago for the Pet Directory in Australia, the editor says the article is good, but could I cut the part I'd written about mixed breed dogs ie. Labradoodles as it's not company policy to promote mixed breeds. it's amazing how countries vary as here in the UK Labradoodles, Cockapoo's etc are seen as very desirable and can cost huge amounts to buy. I would love one as they are gorgeous. The article is on pet allergies and it discusses different pets that can be suitable for allergy sufferers. I'll do the edit and send it off, hopefully it will be another published article. Fingers crossed.

I recently contributed to an article written on why people blog here's the link:-

Oops don't seem to be able to do it, i'll try typing it!

www.blackdownblogs.co.uk

spoke too soon

2010-01-12T09:35:00.000-08:00

No heating, no hot water! Only one electric fire and payed £80.00 for the privilige.
Response from boiler mans wife : "boil kettles and pans of water like everyone else does."
Yes but, our heating was working perfectly well until we made the daft desicion to ask her supposedly corgi registered husband to service it!

Oucchh! almost ..

2010-01-12T04:31:00.000-08:00

We had our boiler serviced today and we almost had a huge bill. A red light was flashing apparently which didn't bode well according to the boiler man. It makes me wonder what he was going to actually do before he saw the light as he grumbled about having to investigate and take the cover off. Wouldn't he have to do that anyway? Luckily to cut a long story short, it appears to be an electrical fault, I had visions of explosions, no heating and the cost of a replacement boiler.

Which led me to think about our current financial position. We trundle along each month, however if we needed to pay a couple of thousand out then I don't know how we would do it. I've read somewhere that you should always have 3 months worth of salary in savings for such occurances. My question is, how? I must admit we are pretty rubbish at managing our finances, we always seem to spend loads, but have nothing to actually show for it. Money in our household seems to disapear into the ether never to be seen again.

What do people think about the new boiler scrappage scheme? £400 doesn't make getting a new boiler anymore feasible to us as we would still need to find a couple of thousand.

I'm applying for a job at my sons' school as a teaching assistant with a boy who has autism. I'm not sure if I meet the criteria, but I've worked with adults who have autism for many years and I have experience of working with children as a childminder and as a volunteer in school, so we will see ....

First swimming lesson

2010-01-08T13:08:00.000-08:00

My youngest Son had his first swimming lesson after school today. He was so nervous and so was I. I think it's maybe because I still see him as my baby. I know it sounds ridiculous as it's only a swimming lesson, but when you're are 5 it's very daunting. Anyway I needn't have worried, he did great and he loved it! The teacher definitly helped he was young and really good fun, he had all the children splashing him. My eldest Son restarted his lessons too and did really well, he has had a break from his lessons as he developed a bit of a "thing" about swimming under water, that seems to have been forgotten now and he's back on track.

My hubby and I decided to get a take away tonight and was really looking forward to it, then it began to snow again, loads of the stuff. So had a prawn salad instead and now feel very healthy if not a little cheated, still there's always tomorrow night.