Just when I think things are settled at work, things change - some good and some not so good.

It’s mid-November and before I know it Christmas will be here and it freaks me out every year about what to get people for presents. I’ve organised my son’s, but that’s it.

I’ve been doing a course for the last ten weeks or so which has taken up much more of my time than I ever envisaged. At least it’s shown me that there’s no way I want to go and do further university study at this stage. I have an exam for this course early next week and then that’s over and I can concentrate more on this website again. There’s a few things I want to do with it and I know I’ve been neglecting it.

I don’t know if the time flying by thing is just because I’m getting older and that’s what happens? How is it that I’m doing much much more now than I was in my 20s and this isn’t including being a mum. How can I not do the things I’m doing?

I sometimes think about what I can cut out of my life. Work’s gotta stay. House maintenance has gotta stay. My son’s gotta stay. I’ve got to spend some time with my friends. I’ve got to spend time with my hobbies, like this blog, ukulele playing and the odd bit of photography. It’s hard to find time for those extra projects, like doing extra stuff around the house, and washing the car etc.

I find that when things have been frantic for a while that if I don’t take some time just to sit back and relax that I get sick which then forces me to relax, but I feel crap so what’s the point of that?

So I’ve established that time’s going too quickly and that I don’t want to cut things out of my life so I guess all that’s left is managing what time I have better. That sounds like hard work.

Maybe I should look at websites like Time Management from Mind Tools or this from Personal time management guide, but I haven’t got the time just yet.

What’s your best time management tip/s?

It’s been loose for some time and this morning it was at a right angle to where it was supposed to be and I knew it wouldn’t take long.

He was eating popcorn at school today and out it came then. It’s now home so maybe the tooth fairy might visit here, although JJ said he doesn’t believe in the tooth fairy. He’d like some cash though. Dilemma!

Has the tooth fairy visited your household? It never did mine as a kid.

Part of the garden makeover involved planting two native frangipani trees which look glorious this time of the year with their small yellow flowers.

I have numerous bulbs too but they don’t always flower and this year everything has.

My bearded irises had taken a break for a couple of years.

And so had this plant, a red Hippeastrum.

While I was walking around my garden taking photos I noticed one lone hibiscus flower on one of the bushes.

Last but not least this cactus is having its first year flowering. A friend bought it for me quite a few years ago and I’ve never seen it flower before.

Thank goodness America, you got it right this time.

It’s been hard, even all the way over here, not to know that the election was happening in the States around now.  We’ve probably had more press about it in mainstream media than we did about the Australian election last year but, bloody hell, it was an important election.

Also because I read lots of blogs etc from people who live in the States it’s been hard to avoid from that aspect also.

I hoped from the beginning that Obama would win and then thought he was onto a pretty sure thing when Palin was announced as McCain’s offsider. I still don’t quite get that decision.

I was sitting watching the 7.30 Report on television tonight and beaming at it while Barack Obama made his acceptance speech in Chicago. I also watched a household of African Americans dancing in their home in absolute joy at the outcome. All the political commentators that Kerry O’Brien from the 7.30 Report spoke to were ecstatic also. Is it just me or does it look like Professor Allan Lichtman wears a wig? When I first saw him I thought it was a joke and then I realised he was for real. He obviously knows his politics, but he needs a better hairdresser.

Nobody I have spoken to here wanted McCain to win, but then nobody admitted to voting for John Howard in previous Australian elections either.

Now we all sit and wait (probably not for too long if the experts have any say in it) to see what changes come about.

Thank goodness!

• Yvonne at Tea Party Diva
• Lisa at Wisemonkeys
• Louisa at Edible Moments
• Trish at My Little Drummer Boys

Do I choose between someone who wants to stay in touch with their family, someone who’s had extremely bad luck with their phones, someone who’s written an ode to their phone, or someone who’s little boys keep stealing her phone?

Mmmmm.

I have to choose, I can’t avoid this any longer. I’m gonna choose Yvonne at Tea Party Diva so she can keep an eye on her new grandchild from afar. Yvonne, email me via the contact link at my blog and let me know your address so I can post it.

Thanks to the others who also entered. I hope to have some other giveaways down the track so stay tuned.

It’s gonna be a tough decision.

I’d like to thank the three people who’ve entered so far - see I told you there was a good chance:

• Tea Party Diva
• Wisemonkeys
• Edible Moments

If you haven’t entered it won’t take long I promise.

It made me realise that when he was six months old I wasn’t that happy, content and relaxed. Far from it. I wish I could turn back time and not be so stressed about motherhood but I can’t now.

When JJ was very very young he cried a lot. The first night home from the hospital he cried nearly all night. I finally got to sleep around 5am and when I spoke to the midwife from the hospital the next morning I asked if I could send him back. I was half joking.

It didn’t get any easier for a while. We went to a friend’s place for dinner and he cried for ages. Feeding him didn’t help. I scoffed my dinner down while a friend held him and then I took over.

It seemed that it was like this all the time. He rarely went to sleep easily and feeding him every hour just didn’t help. It wasn’t until I was at my new parents group and saw a video of a baby who was overtired that the penny dropped and I realised that he just needed help getting to sleep and it was then I started letting him cry a bit longer when all other avenues of possible crying causes were exhausted.

Even when I got him going to sleep at night, the day sleeps took a lot longer. It stressed me out and in turn it probably stressed him out. I’ve noticed that when a mother is relaxed that babies seem to be more relaxed too. I wish I could have been more relaxed but it just wasn’t to be.

Part of this, or most of it, was probably to do with the fact I was doing it all on my own. When I visited other new mums I noticed that they got their husbands to fetch this and fetch that if they were feeding their baby. When I sat down to feed JJ I made sure I had water nearby, a towel to wipe up any vomit, the tv remote and any snacks I thought I might need because it was easier to do that than have to get up half way through. JJ wasn’t a light baby.

I know that being a new mum doesn’t suit everyone whether they’ve got support or not and maybe I would have still been stressed if his father was around.

Every stage of JJ’s life has brought its own challenges. I’ve often wondered whether I enjoyed the baby stage more because he couldn’t move around or the toddler stage where I couldn’t relax at an outing because I was always on the lookout for him but at least he would go to sleep and not cry as much.

He’s growing up now. The other night he sat at the dinner table as good as gold while a five year old kid we were with ran amok. I could almost read JJ’s mind when he was ’saying’, ’sit down will ya, and eat your dinner’. I wondered who’d stolen my boy and replaced him with this really well behaved one. Moments like this make my chest puff up and make me feel really proud of the job I’ve done and the job he’s doing.

Perhaps I’m just not a baby person and having an older kid is more my thing.

I really envied this friend the other day, but I also felt happy for her because she’s obviously enjoying being a new mum.

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PS: on a completely different topic, have you entered the win a phone comp yet?

Chuck Westbrook is trying to change that.

You too can join in his project of trying to get bloggers to read lesser-known blogs and you might find something you like along the way. Click on the link above to join in.

We played two sets, one around lunch time and one in the early evening by which time the wind had dropped and it was a beautiful balmy evening.

It’s great fun to have a sing and a play on the uke and the beauty of playing in a big group is that if you don’t know the chords or the words there’s bound to be enough who do.

This song, however, was a bit different as there were six of us so we all needed to know what we were doing and I think we pulled it off quite well.