I must've looked a right miserable cow!

Walking home from work last night I was feeling tired as I made my way through the park and up the hill.  When I got to the top of the hill I was sweating like a pig on a spit roast and and my bags felt like they weighed a tonne.  When I got to the top of the hill there was a fella standing there with his dog and he said to me, "smile love, it's not that bad".

My first instinct was to turn round and say, "actually mate it is that bad.  I've just got divorced, about to be a single mum to 2 kids, just been told I've lost my job and I'm skint that I've had to start wearing some of my dead mother's tops"  As you can tell I would have happily regaled the entire tragedy that is my life to him at that moment.  As I walked up the street to my car though I started thinking, actually I do have lots to smile about and I came up with the following:-

I'm divorced because married life was not working for either of us and I've actually now got a better relationship with my ex than we've had for years.  I no longer have to pick up after him or nag him to do things and on the whole my life is more peaceful since we separated.

Being a single mum, not the ideal, but do you know what, I can't help but smile when I think of my kids.  My kids are my world so what on earth do I have to be miserable about?  The best part of my day is leaving work to go and pick Holly up and I look forward to the daft conversations we will have in the car on the way home.

The fact that my job is not being funded has actually been a kick up the ass to start my own business.  It will be something I love to do and that I can fit around the family so it's a new challenge and I say bring it on.

Wearing my mum's clothes!  This makes me giggle as I can hear her cursing me from the heavens for not folding or hanging it properly and the best thing about it............it has her smell and feels like she's still with me.

So yes, I really do have a lot to smile about :)

Suz xxx

An interesting question!

Hello all yummy mummy's,

Please click on the diary icon to see my daily diary entry about what our bosses expect from us when we're pregnant.  Do we bring it on ourselves? 

Feel free to comment if you've had similar experiences or feelings.

Lots of love

Suz xx

No it's not!

This is all Holly seems to say at the moment and I don't mind telling you how frustrating this can be at times.  Every question she asks me, no matter what answer I give her, is finished with her saying, "No it's not".

She asked me for some milk this morning with her breakfast, and when I'd placed this in front of her she asked me, "whats dat mummy?", "milk darling" was my reply, only to be responded to with"no it's not".  This carried on through much of breakfast and the morning of getting ready.  To give you an example of just how frustrating this became, here are some more of our delightful exchanges from this morning.

Holly " What's dat mummy?"   Mummy "Porridge sweetheart"   Holly "no it's not"

Holly " What's dat mummy?"   Mummy "Bowl of grapes and apple"   Holly "no it's not"

Holly " What's dat mummy?"   Mummy "Little Princess on Cbeebies"   Holly "no it's not"

Holly " What's dat mummy?"   Mummy "Your pink jeans"   Holly "no it's not"

Holly " They your shoes mummy?"   Mummy "Yes they are darling"   Holly "no it's not"

Holly " They Holly shoes mummy?"   Mummy "Yes they are darling"   Holly "no it's not"

Holly " Where mummy's car mummy?"   Mummy "This red one right here Holly"   Holly "no it's not"

Holly " Where Daddy's car mummy?"   Mummy "The green one next to mummy's red one"   Holly "no it's not"

Holly " Where going mummy?"   Mummy "To nursery to see all your little friends"   Holly "no it's not"

Holly " What's matter mummy?"   Mummy "Mummy fed up of hearing "no it's not" sweetheart"   Holly "Oh"

I was always dreading the phase of "why" and had no idea about this phase.  I can laugh about it now but probably won't find it so funny when we do the whole thing again on the way home from nursery!!

Until next time yummy mummys

Suz xxx

Kids say the funniest things!

My ex husband is away in China on business at the moment so I get to have Holly all to myself for just over 2 weeks.  I just thought I'd share some of the little gems that she has come out with over the past few days.

What colour are my eyes?  All three of us were sat having breakfast when she asked what colour eyes daddy had, so i told her blue.  I then asked her what colour eyes mummy had and as she stared deep into my face she said brown.  Good girl we both cried as we're so pleased with the way she is coming on with her colours.  I then said, "what colour eyes does Holly have?"  She immediately crossed her eyes to try and have a look and said, "don't know mummy can't see". 

Now, her dad is know for not being the tidiest person around and since living on his own the house has become very messy, in the manly fashion you would expect.  So being the loving ex-wife that I am I said I would clean it for him while he was away (there were no resounding objections to this I might add).  I made a start on the first room last night, the living room.  Before I started she had her toys everywhere.  There is a perfectly good toy box in the room, but this is clearly not fit and so any spare floor space would do instead.  There were clothes drying on maidens and radiators, clothes for ironing slung on the back of the sofa, exercise equipment dotted in any space that wasn't occupied by toys and so on and so on......I'm sure you all get the picture.  All I can say is that by the time I'd finished it looked like a home that was clean, tidied and loved. 

After getting dressed this morning I took Holly downstairs and said she could play in the living room while I got her breakfast.  She walked in and just stopped.  She then looked at me with a nod and a smile and said, "mummy, I like it".  It was so funny, almost as if she were genuinely shocked that the living room could look like that.

The final little gem that had me in bits happened in the car this morning on the way to nursery.  I was driving along listening to the radio and Holly was singing to herself in the back.  We were on a busy road so traffic was slow and up ahead I could see a chap on a bike.  I didn't think anymore about it until when we drove past him Holly shouted, "Iya man".  I just crumbled with laughter and then every bike we saw after that got a resounding, "Iya man" followed by a little wave as we went past.  She's never done that before so I wondered where she got it from.  I think it's just down to her winning personality and sense of good humour.  It really did brighten my day and has made me giggle every time I think about it.

Kids really do say the funniest things!

Speak soon yummy mummy's

Suz xxx

What do you expect.....she's your daughter.

These were the words of my ex husband and his explanation to why Holly is being a right little devil with me.  It appears at the moment that me and Holly are two bulls that are constantly butting heads on everything.  Some say it's the terrible 2's (oh joy) but her lovely daddy says it's because she's like me.

An example of how we clash.  When serving her breakfast I asked her if she wanted water or milk to drink.  She replied milk.  Upon seeing me go to the fridge to get the milk she screamed water at me.  As I was about to pour the milk back into the bottle to change it for water, she again screamed MILK MUMMY.  I kept my cool and placed the milk on the table along with the rest of her breakfast.  I was prepared to put the little tantrum down to a bad night's sleep but it came to a halt when she decided to throw her breakfast all over the floor and shout CHOCOLATE MUMMY.  I can assure everyone who reads this that giving her chocolate for breakfast never has and never will happen.  But this morning she decided that's what she wanted to eat and she wasn't backing down.  I also decided that's what she wasn't going to eat and I wasn't backing down.

I don't get into arguments with her, and she knows this, so she decided to stare at me and do every naughty thing possible to try and break me.  This little display of attitude went on for 20 minutes and it did lead to us being late for both nursery and work.  The reason it lead to us being late was because I wasn't giving in and it took 20mins for me to break her attitude.  I was so proud of myself for standing my ground and not letting her win and hopefully showing her that what Mummy says goes. 

Whilst writing this I've also realised that there is possibly some truth in what her Dad said about her being like me as she certainly put on a fantastic display of stubbornness, just like I did.

We're going through all of this and she's only 2 and a bit, bring on the teenage years!!

Speak soon yummy mummy's

Suz xx

Start as you mean to go on.....

Check out my daily diary to see how this attitude got me through the day.

The weekend went so quick I barely had time to say hello to it.

Happy Monday all,

My weekend was jam packed as ever, and although it was very productive, I just don't know where the time went.  It was mum's birthday this weekend so I'm sure you can imagine how emotional it got.  I found myself crying at the silliest little things and I couldn't tell you why.  I put it down to the heat and the hormones.  To check out my daily diary then why not click on the logo and have a sneak at what I got up to!!

I'm finding in general that time is going so quick that I don't have time to ever stop and catch up with myself.  Only having 4 weeks left at work means that everyone is trying to get as much out of me as they possibly can.  What they fail to understand is that I'm slowing down, both physically and mentally, and it's just not going to happen at they speed they want.  It's still not been confirmed if I will have a job to come back to after maternity leave, and people keep throwing my sympathetic looks about how awful I must feel about it.  To be perfectly honest peeps, at this moment in time I couldn't care less.  I'm just looking forward to having a few weeks with Holly before baba arrives and then being a mum all over again.  The next 9 months of my life are going to be the hardest so work really doesn't enter into it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to sit back and hope they sort my job out for me so it's all Rosy for when I'm due back.  In the words of the great Bon Jovi, "Luck it aint enough you gotta make your own breaks." and that's what I intend to do.

This is probably not the most positive post and for that I'm sorry.  It doesn't help I'm sat in an office where the windows don't open with the sun blaring in, no air con and feeling very fat, hot, sweaty and fed up.

I will be glad to climb into my lovely bath with my good book and some non alcoholic wine and say good bye to this day.

Lots of lovez.

Suz xxx

I love my baby curves thank you very much

I was reading a magazine today that had a 6 page article on how to lose your curves and beat the flab.  Firstly let me say that a colleague at work gave me this magazine with good intentions.  The giving came with the comment of how, "I'll be wanting to do something about my extra curves as soon as the baby is born".  The fact of the matter is that no I won't!  I'm naturally a slim person and I'm very lucky in the way that I can't put weight on even if I try.  I do put it on while I'm pregnant and I love it.  People only ever say I look healthy when I'm pregnant and I feel better with a little extra chubbiness all over.  I hope that some of these curves hang around after bump arrives but we'll have to wait and see.  Here are some of the tips that the magazine gave for losing weight.

1.Wake up and work out

The magazine says: "Start your day by working out.  Even if you have a 15 hour day ahead of you it will make you feel more accomplished and ready for the day ahead."

Sue says: "What a load of tosh.  When I wake up I try to work out what day of the week it is and how many hours sleep I actually managed to get.  I work out what the kids are going to wear and how long I have before I have to get us all out the door in order not to be late again......Work out done!"


2. Keep your eye on the prize.


The magazine says: " It's more about your mental strength than physical strength.  You have to push yourself everyday."

Sue says: "My mental health is completely shot and the only thing I keep my eye is getting through the day so I can hit my bed at a reasonable hour to try and get more than 4 hours sleep.  I don't need to push myself as I have children, family and work colleagues that seem to want to push me everyday (they always know the right buttons that do it as well).

3. Eat 6 small meals a day

The magazine says: "Eat 6 small meals a day to keep up your metabolism."

Sue Says: " Eating 3 meals a day is a task in itself so I have no hope of having 6!  By the time I've made sure everyone else has been fed properly and cracked on with the rest of the days routine, there's no time for anything else other than bed!"

4. Get a Dog

The magazine says: "It's a reason to get outside to walk and run and get exercise every day."


Sue Say: " A Dog!  I have enough with 2 kids thanks."


There were many more wonderful suggestions along side super skinny models who have tried and tested them but these were the best.  Wouldn't it be nice if someone wrote an article on how new mums could really work out while looking after a family.  Just simple little tips that are achievable would be good and would probably help us as well.

In the meantime I make no apologies for carrying the extra weight and I embrace my new figure as it is this figure that gave me my beautiful children.

Suz
xxx

New online diary.....A day in the life of a working mummy

I've decided to keep an online diary to show the trials and tribulations of being a working mum.  Click on the diary logo to hop across and have a sneaky peek at what today has held for me.

Suz
xxxx

Pregnant and working....of course I can do another project as well!

At 7 months pregnant i'm finallay having to surrender to the fact that I'm slowing down.  I've been blaming the heat for some time now but the reality is that the extra 3 stone, increased work load and a 2 year old who isn't sleeping well in this heat, is taking it's toll.  The strange thing is that as my body is slowing down, my brain is speeding up and suddenly I have a million and one business ideas that I think are "the one".

The one idea i'm taken with is my new cookbook.  When colleagues or clients learn I have 2 kids and do my job as a manager full time, they often remark how baby food must be such a convenient solution for me at the end of a long day.  The truth is I wouldn't dream of feeding my babies food I hadn't prepared myself.  Don't get me wrong, when Holly was first born I kept jars in the cupboard for those, "in emergency" moments but I couldn't bring myself to use them.  I understand that babies of the world have been raised on jar food for more years than i've been around and I wouldn't comment negatively on any parent who used them.  It's simply a case that for me, personally, I need to know exactly what's gone into my baby's meals.  I also think a large part of this decision is due to the fact I'm a total control freak!!

My lovely mummy always made sure we sat and ate as a family and it was always good homecooked food.  I think this is where I get it from and as a I grew up I found myself asking my mum more and more for her recipes.  My mum passed away last year and it devastated me, not only did I lose my best friend, but my font of all knowledge.  In her memory  I've decided to "try" to produce a cookbook of homemade recipes that show working mums how they can be busy career women and still have time to cook good food.  I'm sure you can imagine that a great many of my mum's secrets will be in there as well but I'd love to hear from all mummies who have a recipe to share. It could be one they have come up with themselves or one that has been passed down by their lovely mummy. I want each recipe to be dedicated to the mum and their family and any tips from working mums would also be included.

If I manage to sell any of these books then most of the money from each sale will go to St.Anne's Hospice as they looked after my mum in final days and helped me and my family through a very horrible time.

Any ideas or comments always welcome folks.

Suz xxxx