Hello November!
Hasn’t it got cold all of a sudden! The early dark evenings in the UK have started to set in too, which feels like it came on so quickly.
October in a nutshell… more standing, some shouting, 4 TEETH at once 🥴 little bit of cruising, our first lurgy and LOADS of Autumn fun!
October goals were exciting ones;
1. Organise my year – I managed to electronically get quite organised and need some admin time to put this into a paper format but overall very happy with how things are shaping up so far! Hopefully very soon I’ll have this recorded and ready for anyome who wants to follow along. We have a couple of contracts renewing soon so I’ll also be managing that in november with the black friday deals.
2. Create and implement a new budget – this has become a work in progress while I wait for some dates and figures but I’m about 80% there with the data, subject to change!
3. Get ahead on birthdays and Christmas – nearly all of our cards and birthday gifts are arranged or in a shopping list so thats great progress, Christmas shopping I usually do within November so we’re on track time wise for this too.
4. Seasonal “tie down” chores – are almost complete, we just need to store some bits and are waiting for an electrician to finish some work for us but I’m hopeful this will be done very soon!
In other news I also made a start on some organisation/storage solutions around the house. We’ve had to reshuffle a few things to move the office out of our “spare room” which is now Amelia’s nursery. Looking forward to sharing some of those with you very soon!
Amelia is 11 months and is now standing quite confidently, she’s found her voice and is “chatting” to us, she got her first 4 teeth all together which made for a hell-ish 48 hours and finished off October with her first cold. She also start cruising and walking with assistance so that feels like a huge step I wasn’t ready for. We’re hosting a little celebration for Amelia’s birthday alongside getting her christened this month so lots of prep for that happening! She has the cutest outfit, which I saw months ago and its perfect. Just mine to find! I still can’t quite believe our baby will be 1 this month. It feels like only yesterday I was on baby countdown!
We managed to squeeze in a lot of fun into October including some pumpkin picking, fancy dress and spending time with our friends. Its crazy to think this time is limited so I’m trying to pack in as many memories as we can together before I go back to work. I am not a huge fan of halloween, but I’ve had the most fun in years making memories with Amelia and its reminded me that as parents we get to make new traditions. We can put them in crazy matching outfits with friends and family, and they can call us names when they get older for doing so!!
I’ve started doing some regular KIT days to get me and Amelia prepped for back to work and we’ve got our childcare code sorted which is bittersweet. On one side I’m really looking forward to a little space to be myself and on the other I really think I’ll miss being with her 24×7. I ordered our spare carseat for the van and arriving this week. Before anyone contacts us, I know its controversial for her not to rear face so young – she will be in our car!! We won’t be using this seat until legally allowed to forward face but in the grand scheme of things this seat is perfect for our future needs and budget friendly too. Its lightweight, will last us a long time and the potential journey she needs to make on a regular basis is 3 minutes from home to the childminder (or back) in an emergancy where Dan can’t drop or collect her, so we decided this was a great seat for us in the van. Usually the Joie elevate is £80, but I paid just £52.50 by deal stacking with Boots, and earned almost £6 in boots points AND I used topcashback so I’m really pleased with the value for money this seat will give us over the next 12 years considering it will rarely be used.Â
Final thing to sort for my back to work is my van… the poor thing has pretty much stood idle this year as it wasn’t very practical for us as a family to go away. It now has a very flat battery from standing still (whoopsies) so we’re in the process of trying to recharge it but might need to replace it, which is a potentially costly error on our part. Watch this space!
November Goals
1. Winter storage
During October we “tied down” and prepped for winter but we’re still behind on storing some of our gear for winteras we’re waiting for our electrician to correct some poor wiring, completed by our bathroom fitter (always trust your gut and get a second opinion guys and gals!). This means we currently have a pile in the nursery ready to chuck into the loft for storage, alongside some seasonal things (Dan’s cricket kit, fans we use in summer etc.) I’ve also popped a pile of bits in there I decluttered and have been meaning to put on vinted but havent got round to, I’ve decided that I just want to focus the next 2 months off work with Amelia without it hanging over my head and have set myself a goal of uploading these in January, or donating them in February to clear them off my mental load. They’ll be out of sight and out of mind for a little while, and that is okay!
2. Full house deep clean
We have a house guest soon and I’m using that as a great excuse to deep clean the entire house! I can’t remember the last time I cleaned the entire house in one sitting which is crazy considering it used to be my weekly routine. Of course I’m now home a lot and so my cleaning schedule has had to flex around that as there are spaces we use a lot more and need cleaning a lot more frequently.
My goal this week, is to take 1 room per day and deep clean it, then do a top to bottom full house clean ready for our guest on Friday. It may sound really strange to some but I’m REALLY looking forward to it!! I lways feel refreshed when the house is clean and tidy – tidy home = tidy mind!!
3. Pre-Christmas freezer clear out, and some Christmas dinner prep!
Our Christmas dinner plans this year have changed a number of times over the last month due to various family reasons, so I’ve offered to do my usual prep to help out. This month I’ll be doing a freezer clear out and reorganisation, and get ahead on some bits ready to make the big day stress free.
I’ll share a separeate post on how you can begin prepping for your Christmas dinner early and my tips on how to save money on the big dinner.
I’ve sadly got some frozen excess breast milk which is in my deep freezer and coming up to a year old. I’ve tried scalding it and Amelia won’t take it so I think I might create some soap for us to use as a family which will clear the freezer space and still allow us to benefit from its properties for a little longer. If anyone has any tips please let me know!!
4. Back to work practice
I’ve been doing KIT days for the last month and practising our routine once a week, which has been going really well, so this month I’m going to ramp it up a bit more to prepare Amelia for the changes. I’ve always allowed her to sleep around whatever we’re doing when she is ready, but this month I’m going to add a structure to her naps and practice bottle feeding her. She was bottle fed from a young age but prefers to feed from me, so we’re going to add a little bit more practice into our daily routine to help prepare her for January.
I also want to get back to being more organised and structured with our meals as we’ve been winging it since I’m home to defrost things in an afternoon. I’m planning on creating some easy lunch ideas for Dan and my mam, loaded with veggies for Amelia.
Final back to work prep is my (not so) little van. Its stood still for most of the year and now has a very flat battery, so we need to get that all sorted for January – this coukd be a really costly mistake we’ve made and it might require a new one so keep everything crossed for us that we get sorted!! On the plus side, at least it can’t be stollen at the moment!
5. Start our summer holiday prep
We have an exciting trip planning in the early summer next year to see our friends get married in Cyprus!! I’ve already ordered Amelia’s GHIC card and booked our hotel, but there is still a few more bits we can get ahead on so I’ll be making a start on this.
One thing is our phone providers, making sure we have cells that work abroad feels even more important when we’re responsible for a small human. Our contracts our due to renew soon so I’ll be making sure we have free Europe coverage as I don’t want to get caught out.
What are your goals for November?!
Love,
Jo-Anne x
