I am Tamiya…

After months and months of deliberation, I finally came to a conclusion about 2 weeks ago.

I spoke with my (most amazing) boss (EVER!!) last week about resigning. It was a difficult thing to do as I really love the people I work with. The problem is that I am bored with my job. I like the freedom I have here at the company, but it feels like I am wasting hours every month, not doing much. I could be at home and focusing these wasted hours more productively on my boys and my own business Felt So Good. My boss is a family man and understood how I felt.

It has been decided that I will be kept on a sort of retainer for the company, whereby I will still be doing work for them, but in my own time, from home. This will give me the freedom to focus on FSG, raise A2 myself and spend more time with A1 after school. A1 will now only attend half-day at school. We will have the afternoons together to swim and paint and play and nap and actually do things.

From the 1st of February, I will be a WFHM – Work From Home Mom. I cannot tell you how happy I am about this. How privileged I feel to be allowed to do this. How lucky I am to have been given this opportunity. I will actually be able to see my boys grow and be instrumental in shaping them into the men I would like them to become.

xoxo

After our initial attempts at walking Titan and the resulting disasters, one would think I would have given up on the whole idea. But dramatic as it was, I still had fun and was/am determined that we will all get fit and eventually we’ll get it right!

I went to the petshop looking for a chain lead. There will be no way in hell that Titan will be able to chew through that, right? Of the 3 I tried, no one had what I was looking for. The first one had small ones, but hey, I’m not walking a teacup Yorkie. The last one I tried, we (the owner and I) came up with an alternative. Why not fashion one out of a choke chain? I don’t want to use a choke chain on Titan, I hate the thought and the harness is working pretty well for us. But a choke chain would be the perfect strength and length for my needs. Now all I need was to somehow secure it to the harness on one side and to a handle on the other side. Sounds simple, except that the harness has two rings on which to attach a lead, the choke chain had a ring with no opening and the handle thing we decided on also had no way of opening to hook it on to a ring of sorts.

The owner then suggested using a hook to keep it all together. I still had the hook from the original lead, so only needed one more. He brought out a rather small one and I was doubting the strength of it or what it could handle. “No ma’am, I assure you, I know a Staffie that won’t even be able to break this thing.” I had tried to explain to him exactly how strong I thought Titan was, but perhaps he thought I was exaggerating. Maybe because I’m a girl? I don’t know. He sounded very knowledgeable about dogs, so I took the small hook, the choke chain and the new handle, paid and left. Again, very excited that we’re taking Titan for walkies.

Sunday came, we woke up early, woke R up too so he could join us and off we went. Titan would not go out the gate with R, but he would with me. Yay, progress! We decided to do one block up, next block down and so forth. I live in 2nd Avenue, so we went up 2nd, down 3rd, up 4th and instead of doing one block in 4th, we did two. Titan is doing REALLY well when we walk past houses that don’t have dogs, but we still have to drag him past the ones that do. He gets rather excited by the other dogs. And chickens. Yes, 4th avenue has chickens roaming freely on the sidewalks and the road. (No chickens were harmed during our walk.)

And then we got to a house, with dogs, that seemed to really excite Titan. And he was straining against the lead. And I was pulling him away. And then the small hook snapped. In half. Oh fuck. Here we go again. SO I grab Titan by the harness, again. R had put it on, didn’t realise there was a slider thingy to lock it in place, so I accidentally unclipped it again. This time Titan managed to slip completely out of his harness. Oh bigger fuck! I managed to grab him by the collar and sit on him again, until R came to help. He picked Titan up, who was still hyped up and squirming and wriggling all the way. R carried Titan away from that house to one that had no dogs. Then we could put the harness back on and fashion a new makeshift lead…again. That marked the end of our Sunday morning walk

I took that hookie thing back to the petshop, to prove a point. I told you my dog was strong. They couldn’t believe it. Then I showed him a picture of Titan. “Oh well if you had shown me that yesterday I would’ve given you something else, stronger…” Dude, I TOLD you my dog is strong!!

Then we went to Outdoor Warehouse. I was looking for some of those mountain climbing clip things that they use. Surely those clips must be strong if people use them to Climb a MOUNTAIN!? We got ones like these:

I think these will work. As we got home, it started storming, so we haven’t tested out the new lead-contraption yet. We will this afternoon. Now I’m just slightly worried that the handle thing is too flimsy… But we’ll see how it goes.

Walking Titan is not such a walk in the park afterall!

xoxo

Seeing everyone on Twitter talking about how they’ve all started running, I had this brainwave that perhaps I need to do something too. But running is not my thing. Hell no! So I thought we need to start taking Titan for walkies.

It’s not that our yard isn’t big enough for him to run around in. I think he’s lonely though. When Meisiekind had her puppies, we moved her to the back, to keep them separated, hoping that more puppies will survive this time. (I think Titan had something to do with the previous lot disappearing one by one). So he’s been by his lonesome. Also, he’s almost 2 years old now, and have calmed down significantly from the hyper, no-ears puppy that he was. (We are currently in that phase with Spikeydog. I don’t like this phase at all!). And walking with a dog might help prevent unwanted attention from strangers.

Turns out, walking a dog, Titan particularly, isn’t all hook-him-on-a-lead-and-off-you-go easy peasy…

On Friday, I took all the Princesses for their first shots at the vet. While hanging around waiting for all their books to be completed, I looked at leads and harnesses and picked ones that I thought would be adequate for Titan. After all, he’s a medium sized dog, a bull terrier, with not much previous exercise. I chose a body harness, because his collar is a bit too big for him, and I don’t want to end up choking him either. I also got one of the widest Rogz leads – mesh with a reflective fabric strip – safety first and all.

The puppies are given a beautiful bill of health, I pay and we leave, A1 and I very excited about the prospect of walking Titan. When we got home, R and A2 weren’t home yet, so I thought now is as good a time as any to test out our new gear and go for a quick walk around the block. Titan, a bit confused at first, fought with me about putting the harness on but we got it right. Then I hooked up the lead, opened the gate and proceeded to beg Titan to actually come outside with me. Seems he is well trained. So well trained in fact, that I had to drag him outside the gate. And then he promptly lay down and refused to go anywhere. After much cajoling and pleading and some more dragging, we manage to get halfway up the block.

The other dogs in the street were going crazy :/ Titan was too excited to even care about wrapping the 2m long lead all around me and was gunning it for the dogs. Then I realised the harness around his body was a bit loose. O gaats. SO we make our way back home, I adjust the harness and we try again. A1 and I are doing all of this in flip-flops. Rookie mistake! Eventually we make it around just one block and I am DONE. Man, I am super unfit! But it was fun and I resolve to do it again the following morning, this time including A2 in his stroller and A1 on his bike.

I’m not entirely sure what made me think that would be a good idea… It ended up being such a struggle! Titan left the gate slightly easier. A1′s bicycles’ tyres were flat, so instead of a walk to the park, we attempted a walk to the garage. Oh my shaky soul! Here is what I learnt on that one trip:

• A stroller is not conducive to walks on rugged terrains (patchy grass, sandy sidewalks, rocks and pavement stones)
• A bicycle with training wheels with a flat back tyre prevents the bicycle from actually going anywhere
• A 2m long lead is just too long! Specially with a dog that doesn’t actually know how to go for walkies properly.
• A1 is the biggest moan face on this planet! About everything!
• A2′s love of cars have not yet diminished.
• Titan is an exceptionally strong dog.
• He’s not phased by strangers, but strangers are phased by him. To the point of them crossing the road to get away from us.
• Except the lady who walked past with her big, teddy bear look-alike dog. In front of the entrance way of the shopping center we had to go past. While I had to manage to get A1 across on his bicycle and A2 in his stroller all the while trying to contain Titan who wanted to get at that dog. She didn’t even attempt to make it a bit easier for me. Lady, my dog will kill your dog. Don’t you get that? And then she gave me such a dirty look! I was struggling too much at the time to be offended, but I did think afterwards she was a real snoot!
• The garage is not as far as I thought, but still far enough to have provided a good exercise effort.
• We must have looked the strangest, funniest sight to passers by: a mom screaming at a boy on a bike to stay on the side of the road, while haphazardly pushing a stroller, while trying to contain a maniac dog who is running circles around her or is being dragged away from the gates where smaller dogs think they are bigger than they are.

The end of the year is fast approaching. This generally means celebrations, leave, lots and lots of food and holidays. We (read A1) are counting down the sleeps till all the respective events take place: last day of school, then Christmas, then finally we get to leave for our ‘River Vacation’. We are going to a resort in Sabie and they have a river in which you can float on a tube all the way down. There’s also a warm water swimming pool which I think will be the hang out of choice for A2 and myself – we are not too keen on cold water. But we’ll see how it goes.

Then I got surprised this morning by a call from reception saying there’s someone waiting for me. Generally I don’t get visitors at work because it’s not part of my job. Well it turned out to be more a ‘something’ than a ‘someone’. Huggies had sent me a little package, just in time for summer holidays. How cool is that?!?

I rushed back to my office so I could open the package. Too much of excitement! Inside was a super fluffy towel and a few packs of Huggies Little Swimmers – nappies for little people to swim in!

Now remember I’ve mentioned before that I have always been a Huggies-mama? So I’ve used the Huggies Little Swimmer nappies before, with A1 about 2 and a half years ago. We went to visit my folks in Mauritius and my boy needed swim pants (you know, just in case he produced a special package while in the water). Huggies Little Swimmers are the ONLY swimming nappies in SA! They were back then and they are still now.

Some happy snaps:

Those were taken in July 2009

Huggies has relaunched its Little Swimmers just in time for summer 2011. The Little Swimmers now have Velcro sides that opens and closes easily for convenient changing. They are made from a unique material that doesn’t swell when wet (imagine a normal nappy, soaked to the brim with the pool water = much unpleasantness for A2!). I *loved* this feature with the previous Little Swimmers and am glad they’ve improved it even more. The fit has also been improved to prevent leakage – you know, every mother’s WORST nightmare!

The Little Swimmers come in 3 sizes, so you’re sure to find a size that fits.

For my Cape Town friends, Huggies has created a unique experience for mom, dad and baby to ensure they have fun in the sun and at the sea this festive season. Make sure you get to the following places on these dates so you don’t miss out on the fun:

2 – 4 December 2011                10 am – 5pm                             Tygervalley Mall

9 – 11 December 2011               10 am – 5pm                             Strand Beach

16 – 18 December 2011             10 am – 5pm                             Muizenberg Beach

22 – 24 December 2011             10 am – 5pm                             Eden on the Bay

29 – 31 December 2011             10 am – 5pm                             Muizenberg

6 – 8 January 2012                    10 am – 5pm                             Eden on the Bay

14 – 15 January 2012                10 am – 5pm                             Strand Beach

21 – 22 January 2012                10 am – 5pm                             Eden on the Bay

(Please note that this is the planned route and it is subject to change.  Please consult the Huggies Facebook page to see if the list has changed)

My Durban friends, you can find the Huggies Little Swimmers team at Ushaka Marine World on the following dates:

• 2^nd – 4^th of December
• 9^th – 11^th of December
• 16^th – 18^th of December
• 23 – 24^th of December
• 30^th – 31^st of December, 1^st of January

Huggies will also be at Menlyn Mall in Pretoria for all the Gauteng moms.  They will be there from the 2^nd of December until the 15^th of January.  Make sure you visit them so your baby can have some summer fun.

There will be a fun touch pool, a pool where the littlies will have to find Nemo and a pool where they can swim and test the Huggies Little Swimmers nappies. There will also be a jumping castle if your babies don’t want to swim, but still want to play.

Thank you once again Huggies, for looking after our children (and the Mamas who so firmly believe in your product!). There’s a reason why I’m still a Huggies fan – I’m loving the Joyride!

xoxo

• I am considering only buying myself dark chocolate from now on. No one else (read TF) eats it, so my choccie will stay safe until I’m ready to eat it
• A1 is randomly screaming “in your face!” at his dad, for no apparent reason.
• For sit down dinner, A2 had eggs and smarties. Together in his mouth at the same time. He also had cheese and viennas while I was cooking, so I’m okay with the former.
• I have to put together a (business) proposal of sorts. From me to TF. (If anyone has tips, I’m all ears!)
• More on the above later, but it involves Felt So Good.
• I am absolutely and completely converted to the power of Amber Teething beads! A2 wears his almost 24/7 and I swear it has made a tonne of difference! He popped a molar, but I’m not sure when… I only felt it when I was looking for more new teeth about to pop. It was already FAR out, a couple of days at least!
• I am not about to test the theory by taking the beads off to see how he reacts though!
• Judging by the amount of parties and baby showers we’ve been invited to the last couple of weeks, I am of the opinion that many of my friends had amazing Valentines and Easters.
• I will start with the official planning of our wedding next year. I have some few basics/wants on paper already.
• A1′s favorite ad at the moment is the ‘Everyday I’m shuffling’. Comes with complimentary dance moves.
• I’ve introduced A2 to toothpaste, following on from the last post. Just a minute amount, but he loves it. He sucks it all off first, then proceeds to do the brushing motions.
• I am changing my parenting/discipline style. As of late, my current methods are ineffective. If he continues to talk to me inappropriately, I WILL start washing out his mouth with soap. Obviously only a dirty mouth talks like that and I will wash away all the ugly dirt.
• For the above purposes, I will only use a natural, edible but not palatable soap. I don’t want to poison my child in the process I don’t think the bubblegum tastes the same as it smells…
• My last working day of the year is the 15th of December. Yay! Only 8 working days left.
• Service delivery is not what it used to be Still waiting for something that was supposed to be delivered on Thursday last week!
• Some more renovations on our house has started. Outside this time. Yay! Finally we’re getting an electric gate (amongst other prettifying things).
• There is nothing wrong with bullet point posts. It’s a way of organising random, mostly unrelated, but equally important thoughts.
• There is none so blind as those who do not wish to see.

I’ll leave you with that.

xoxo

That’s how many teeth A2 is the proud owner of right now.

I actually meant to write some earlier, but then I got side tracked with Bid Or Buy’s Crazy R1 Auctions yesterday (Luckily I’m on the losing end of 20 auctions – YAY! and currently I’m winning 2. Not too bad I think, for a clicky-happy girl yesterday.)

I digress. Back to the real business at hand. Yes, A2 popped two more teeth over the weekend. One on top, and our very first bottom tooth! I was starting to think the bottom ones were never going to make an appearance

Here is an updated look at his teething chart:

In our house, brushing teeth is pretty much a family affair. A1 and I do it together. This way I can ensure that it’s done properly, with the least amount of mess. Recently, A2 has shown an interest in what it is that we are actually doing with those sticks in our mouths. So I got him a toothbrush too (I clean his mouth with Toofies (?) ). He LOVES his toothbrush and the act of brushing teeth. He does it with so much gusto, and there is a lot of ahhhh and wiggling of the brush in his mouth. Pretty soon I’ll be introducing some toothpaste too. I just wanted him to get used to the idea of proper brushing so long.

He’s learning Monkey-See, Monkey-Do style.

xoxo

….all their lives.

Yesterday was School photo day at A1′s school. There was no set dress code – just dress your child in what you would like them to wear in their photos.

By absolute pure chance, A1 and his BFF J (since they were very young) were dressed in the exact same outfit! Same shirts with red shorts. Just an aside, J’s mom is my BFF too, and we’ve known each other since Std. 6/Grade 8.

I hope they’re besties for life!

xoxo

For the last 5 or 6 months or so, or it may even be longer, one loses track of time, A2 has had a gunky eye. We’ve had him at the GP and Pediatrician numerous times, sometimes for the eye only, sometimes the eye and something else.

He wakes up with a gunky eye, and by gunky I mean green, slime-like stuff on the lower lid, in his eye lashes and around his eye. Always just the left eye. Sometimes there’s so much stuff, he can’t even open it, because the lashes are stuck together. He wasn’t born with this problem, I mean surely I would’ve noticed that. I think it started shortly after he got so sick and ended up in hospital. He’s never really been 100% healthy since then. Always a cold or a cough or some snot lingering. And then the eye started.

Signs of Blocked Tear Ducts

Kids with blocked tear ducts usually develop symptoms between birth and 12 weeks of age, although the problem might not be apparent until an eye becomes infected. The most common signs are excessive tearing, even when a child is not crying (this is called epiphora). You also may notice pus in the corner of the eye, or that your child wakes up with a crust over the eyelid or in the eyelashes.

At first we thought it was an infection. Took him to the the GP, got some ointment to put in and it worked. For a few days. And then it started again. We put ointment again. Clears up. Starts again 2 or 3 days later. Sometimes this coincided with him being on oral antibiotics, so it would be clear for a few days longer. But Rinse. Repeat.

Then I did some research on google with regards to gunky eyes in babies. Besides an obvious infection, the most common answer I found was that sometimes a baby’s tear duct doesn’t completely open when they are little little people. This leads to their tear duct being blocked and then they get the gunky eye. Usually this should rectify itself within a year or two. To help speed this along, you can massage their little tear ducts to assist the drainage manually.

Many children are born with an underdeveloped tear-duct system, a problem that can lead to tear-duct blockage, excess tearing, and infection.

Blocked tear ducts are common in infants; as many as one third may be born with this condition. Fortunately, more than 90% of all cases resolve by the time kids are 1 year old with little or no treatment.

So we tried to do that. The above information was passed along to all of the caregivers involved. It didn’t make much of a difference, but I think we were doing it wrong. Most of the documentation tells you to do it, but not HOW to do it. Then concerns were raised about lasting damage to the eye, and we should get him to the specialist (at this time of the year, when his medical aid has already been depleted). Eventually I made an appointment with an Ophthalmologist (Eye Specialist). All the documentation also tells you to take your baby to your doctor if you are concerned, but our doctors weren’t fixing the problem. I was hoping the ophthalmologist would be able to fix him.

Our appointment was yesterday, and I explained everything to him. He confirmed that indeed, it was not an infection (no red eye, confined to one eye only), and yes, the most likely cause would be a blocked tear duct.

Causes of Blocked Tear Ducts

Many kids are born without a fully developed nasolacrimal duct. This is called congenital nasolacrimal duct obstruction or dacryostenosis. Most commonly, an infant is born with a duct that is too narrow or has a web of tissue blocking the duct and therefore doesn’t drain properly or becomes blocked easily. Most kids outgrow this by the first birthday.

Other causes of blockage, especially in older kids, are rare. Some kids have nasal polyps, which are cysts or growths of extra tissue in the nose at the end of the tear duct. A blockage also can be caused by a cyst or tumor in the nose, but again, this is unusual in children.

Trauma to the eye area or an eye injury that lacerates (cuts through) the tear ducts also could block a duct, but reconstructive surgery at the time of the accident or injury may prevent this.

He showed me a picture similar to this one above. Apparently, the pipe that drains the tears away in the nose is blocked. This could be due to either a polyp in the nose, or inflammation of the ducts. That’s the most probable cause, because A2 is just about permanently sick. He then explained that because the tears don’t drain, they come out the top, the eye, and that’s why his eye is watery all the time. The green stuff is mucus build up in the pipe. SO basically my kids’ snot comes out his eye, rather than his nose O_o

He showed me exactly how to massage the tear duct, so we can manually drain the tear duct and hopefully flush out everything that’s building up, into the nose. Basically, you have to use a small finger, or an ear bud, and completely cover the entire inside corner of the eye (called the puncta in the above picture). Then you kind of have to press down on it, behind the bone. You’ll feel what I mean if you try this on yourself. But don’t press too hard and stick your eye out with your finger! Use clean hands – VERY IMPORTANT to reduce the risk of infection!!

Treating Blocked Tear Ducts

Kids with blocked tear ducts often can be treated at home. Your doctor or pediatric ophthalmologist may recommend that you massage the eye several times daily for a couple of months. Before massaging the tear duct, wash your hands. Place your index finger on the side of your child’s nose and firmly massage down toward the corner of the nose. You may also want to apply warm compresses to the eye to help promote drainage and ease discomfort.

If your child develops an infection as a result of the tear-duct blockage, the doctor will prescribe antibiotic eye drops or ointment to treat the infection. It’s important to remember that antibiotics will not get rid of the obstruction. Once the infection has cleared, you can continue massaging the tear duct as the doctor recommends.

He also said we can stop the use of the ointment for now. It’s not doing anything now anyway. Unless A2 develops an infection. In our case, signs of an infection would be red eyes added to the gunky mix, because he already has the gunky eyes (so that’s not a reliable indicator).

I asked what kind of time-frame should we be looking at, this whole massaging thing (step 1). Apparently we need to give it a year or so. If there is still no drastic improvement, our next step will be to have the tear duct flushed with a syringe, while A2 is under general anesthesia (this is just to prevent him from squirming and causing avoidable damage). This will be step 2. Hopefully we never have a step 3, but if we do, I’ll investigate it more thoroughly before anything happens.

He asked if I’ve taken him to an ENT. Well, no, not in the last while. When he was sick in the hospital earlier, he was examined extensively. Twice, by two different doctors. The first one did his grommets. Neither of these doctors noticed anything out of the ordinary. Well, not that they mentioned anyway. If A2′s situation/symptoms get any worse, then I’ll re-evaluate the need to take him to the ENT. Perhaps in the new year, when the Medical Aid funds have been restored.

I did ask him very specifically about long term effects (like a year or so) of this gunky eye blocked tear duct thing. He reassured me that unless there is an infection involved, we have nothing to worry about. It’s common, it’s normal, it’s treatable. With time, we’ll fix this thing!

It was nice having the doctor confirm everything I already felt with my motherly instincts. They are on track, even if I’m the only one who believes in them.

xoxo

**All the quoted bits above, were taken from here: http://www.childrenscolorado.org/wellness/info/parents/21306.aspx **

…Household Notebook…Home Companion Book… call it what you will, but essentially it is a tool for making your household a smooth-running one. One that’s actually organised and you know what’s potting under your own roof.

It seems to be all the buzz on Pinterest lately. So I thought I’d make one for us too. Me, being as disorganized as I am, this might actually just be what I need to get everyone straight and remember everything we need to do. I’m quite a loskop actually, and only remember certain things because I have wonderful twitter friends who send reminders of stuff on a regular basis

My mom asked me when A1′s school concert is, and I told her I think it’s in November somewhere, but I wasn’t really actually sure. But now I know for definite that it’s on the 19th of November, because it’s written so in our very own Home Management Diary

I trawled the interwebs for ideas and printables, hopefully free, because that’s how I roll. And where I found something, but didn’t like the look of, I recreated the idea in Word to suit my needs better. Some things were very Americanised, so I just localised it for me.

I also decided to start rather basic. I know myself, and I struggle maintaining stuff. I KNOW I won’t do meal plans, and I don’t need a cleaning schedule (yet). There’s no budget bit either, because I don’t do so well with the finances, so it’s not my problem. I also didn’t do the whole pouch thing where you keep pens and stuff, like most examples you see when you Google this thing.

Let me tell you about what I *did* do with ours:

You need:

• Binder
• Something to wrap/decorate your binder with
• File dividers
• Various Tools like a paperpunch, glue, a pen, a highlighter etc..

Then I got some colorful dividers. I created an index card that matches the colors of the divider tabs and stuck that on the first divider. I did it this way instead of numbering the tabs, or trying to fit big words into a very small writing space. Also, this way, if I ever change my mind about a category, I can just re-print the index card and stick it over the old one.

Since I decided to stick with the basics, I went with Calendars, which contain an overall yearly view, where I can just highlight the important dates for a quick glance of the month/year. There’s also a monthly view for each month, so I can summarise upcoming events for the month and plan around that.

The next Tab is a weekly view, with blank date fields. This way, if nothing is happening in a particular week, I don’t have to waste a paper on it. These weekly views are nice to complete on a Sunday afternoon, so you know what your coming week entails. Also easy to stick on the fridge, so you can be reminded of those important dates/events/school things I always tend to forget.

I like this particular template, because I can make notes about specific/important things I need to remember. Much more detailed.

Next up is Medical Info. This Tab actually contains a few different things. First in is a medical info sheet for each one of us, containing Name, Medical Aid details, blood group and all our various doctors. GP, dentist, Paed, Gynae and then any specialists we might see, just a name, contact number and address. I can never seem to remember any of these, so it’s handy to have. Also nice for when someone other than me needs to contact any one of those.

My sheet is pink, and all the boys’ are yellow.

Next in here is a Medical History Tracking sheet. There will be one for each of us, that I will fill in from now as is necessary. This is a way for me to keep track of who was sick when, who did they see and which treatments were prescribed. The medication for me is specially important, because I can never remember the names of the antibiotics we were given. This will be filled in once per doctors’ visit.

Next up is a symptom/medicine tracker. I will be using this for the checking of general symptoms, and times where a child has complained about an upset stomach, or A2 has woken with a gunky eye (again), and what, if any, medication I have given them. Don’t think I will be tracking prescribed medicines here though. Just the once off stuff.

Lastly, in here I will be filing any medical research I might be doing. Whether it be teething symptoms or Ureaplasma urealyticum, it goes in the back here, so I can have it handy when deciding to act upon it.

Then we get to the School Tab. This contains a quick reference sheet to a child’s school, current class, teacher and extra mural activities they may be doing in the week.

(I’ve used a blank sheet as an example here, because I don’t really want you to know where my boy goes to school). There’s also space to add any other school contact people like the extra mural teachers or similar.

Then I added a few School Notes that I can cut out and use as necessary.

Behind this I’m putting any other important info pertaining to the school or their education. The school song, potential primary school introductory sheets etc.

Then I made an Invitations Tab. For any kind of invite we receive really. This will just help me in the long run. Something can now be in the calendar, without me squishing in the address and such, and I have the necessary info handy a few tabs on. Also, some invites are really nicely done and now I have an excuse to keep them.

Lastly, there’s the Artwork tab. This is where I can keep the artwork that somehow didn’t make it onto my office walls.

These are all the categories I have for now. It feels easily maintainable. This is a work in progress though, so this file will grow as time goes on. I’ve made the calendars for next year and put them in. I just made November and December for this year, because it’s all that’s left of the year. Can you believe it?

I spent many hours trawling and searching and saving templates that I thought might come in handy. I’d be more than happy to share it with you (they’re all freely available on the internet anyway, I’ve just saved you some time). The file is about 7MBs, zipped.

So, do you have a Home Management System going on? Will you make one, you think? How do you manage your home?

xoxo

PS. Here’s to many more organised days in my future