Monthly Review October 2009

I love November and December, for me they are month’s full of birthdays, celebrations and lots of fun. Let’s see if I can find some time to achieve some work I need to do amongst the fun stuff!

Review of Key Tasks For October

1. Cooking Food For The Freezer

My gorgeous sister refused to let me cook for her, so I didn’t actually do this. Such a big thank you to her for taking such great care of our children while we were away. we truly appreciated it!!! xxoo

2. Finalise and Package Handmade Items For Christmas Craft Stall

Completed – yay!!!!


3. Take The Children To Refugee Camp In Your City

Unfortunately we didn’t make it to the Refugee Camp in Melbourne. With preparations for Singapore and Mr I now taking on the team manager role for Little Rascal’s cricket side, we were just too busy. I did contemplate just pushing through the busyness and taking all the kids along, but while having these thoughts I also read this excellent post on Clover Lane about Making Memories:

Now don’t get me wrong…I do think it’s nice to get out at as a family and have fun together someplace besides our back yard. Jeff drags me places and we all end up having a great time. The kids talk about it forever and it does make a great family memory, or starts a tradition we all look forward to.

But I pick and choose carefully.
I do not ever feel guilty about just staying home, saying no, and skipping out.
I do not concede to this new pressure of “memory making” …a sign of our rushed and busy lifestyles.

If I had taken the kids along, that is exactly what I would have been doing – “memory making”. I am pretty sure that it is on next year, so there will be other opportunities. Regardless of this though, the kids and I were much better off hanging out at home, than racing around just so I could tick this off my list of things to do!

4. Start 10 Week Countdown to Christmas Planning

I have started the countdown. You can check out the posts here:

• Christmas Theme Ideas
• Christmas Budget
• Making Handmade Christmas Gifts
5. Go To Singapore!!!!!!

As you have probably already read Mr I, bubs and I had a fabulous time in Singapore. I won’t repeat myself here, so if you missed out what we got up to, you can check it out here:

• Nuffnang Regional Blog Awards 2009
• Happy Snaps From Singapore

Key Tasks For November

1. Attract Advertisers For Planning With Kids

I spend roughly 14 – 16 hours a week on the blog and I have had Google Ads on the site for some time. They don’t really earn anything and the volume of visitors that I have on the blog now is at a stage where I believe that it could be mutual beneficial to have private sponsorship. (Don’t worry I won’t be placing ads all over the site! If I can attract advertisers they will simply be replacing the Google Ads.)

If you would like to advertise on Planning With Kids or know of someone who might like to, please head over to my Advertise page for more details.

2. Start and Finish My Christmas Shopping

I really like to have all my shopping completed by the start of December. I am not a fan of shopping at the best of times, throw big crowds into the equation and I like it even less. I have already made a number of gifts, but I still do need to buy significant number of presents.

3. Big Boy Birthday Party

My oldest baby will be 11 at the end of November! It is his turn to have a party this year. I am going to give him the responsibility of organising the bulk of it and just lend a helping hand where required.

4. Christmas Giving

Each year before Christmas the children and I go through their toys and find items to donate to charity. We will do this again this year, but I also want to find somewhere that my eldest child and I can donate our time to assist others during the festive season.

5. Christmas Craft Stall

Our school’s stall is Thu 26th (pm) and Fri 27th (am). I still have a number of things to co-ordinate and there are still a few things left to make and finish off before then.

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