I have a guest post over on The Mini Mes and Me today.

How about making a few of these simple paper easter egg baskets for a mini egg hunt! They’re easy, use materials you have around the house and the kids can get involved too!



 

This lovely lady is Nelly, she lives at the Farm at the top of our street and I have watched her get bigger and bigger over the last few months. She had these beautiful piglets two years to the day that I went off on maternity leave and a year to the day that I returned to work following maternity leave.

She looks tired, though I have one, not a brood, I know how she feels!

This is a post about my year as a working mam. I have selected pins from my Back to Work Wisdom board that I share with other mums making that journey back!

I realised early on that for us there wasn’t a choice about going back or not, and that at some baby groups where we’d been together for the year there was a divide between the soon to be working mums and those who were staying at home. I have a clear feeling about this and the judgements that can go on behind it; as far as I am concerned all parents are working parents, it’s hard work whatever the setting when you were up all night with a teething toddler or a preschooler that’s full of cold.

I also worked hard personally to shrug off a) guilt, having to work made that one easier, and b) possessiveness about a child that I loved so fiercely I found it hard to share. This helped:

I explored flexible options, but knowing my child, and knowing how it had been to do uni work with a newborn and then a toddler I knew this was unrealistic (and not something I aspired to!)

But then nor was this!

What worked for us was working through naps, and if work couldn’t wait until bedtime it was something I would commit half an hour to or nothing. For that half an hour I felt better about working when I got Joss set up with an activity in the same room, lego, sorting toys, puzzles or books, whatever she was into at the time, I could keep a close eye and get a few emails done. If she needed me or was whingy I downed tools as soon as possible, and came back to them at a better time, I’m not saying it’s easy to work this way, but its what I found worked best.

I saw this in a magazine and thought it made a strong, delegatable and manageable household cleaning guide, above all it’s realistic! I’ve been doing this for a month now and it works for us and takes off the pressure of coming back from work in a fug and wondering where to start when yesterdays dishes preclude being able to cook for the family the next night.

It’s possible to keep on top of it and then do a big spring clean twice a year, but this helped too if I was being hard on myself:

As did remembering that as well as being a wife, mother, student, employee and colleague I was still ‘me’ in some way shape or form, and so I try to treat ‘me’ nicely, uncritically and give myself the occasional treat along the way

 

For way to long I have had a small set of offcut patchwork strips from a project that I may never finish.

I have the top of a kingsize patchwork throw complete but have yet to baste and quilt it.

I had loads of projects on the go but wanted to FINISH something!

Inspired by my patchwork loveliness Pinterest board and with a £1.00 cushion inner I finally put the strips together and made and finished a project in a day

Finished!

I’m a beginner and found this relatively easy, it’s a basic envelope close so no buttons and I took the measurements for the back from this post the rest I just sort of made up as I went along!

We have had a rough week, one ear infection for her, tonsillitis and fevers each for Daddy and I, I have learned a lot about myself and about parenting.

This sticker was a little ironic given the Doc gave it to her on diagnosing a chronic ear infection!

It’s tough being ill with a tot, I have felt pretty pushed to my limits this week after a few nights of very little sleep and a few days of shivering, running hot and cold. We’re almost out the other side today and so we took a trip into town. Would I have made that trip if I didn’t have a toddler that had been stuck in all week? Probably not, you find reserves you didn’t know you had, when your child asks to see the dinosaurs (at our local museum!) you go to see those dinos!

There was an opportunity for some dressing up too!

I’m loving Mamageek’s Outtakes linky, y’know, it doesn’t matter how blurry I always love to see a photo of Joss smiling, and now I have a reason to share this! My smiley fairy princess spinning inside a tent hence the poor shot!

Any tips on getting through an illness with a tot would be much appreciated, I’ll mentally ‘pin’ them for next time!