Monthly Review, February 2010 – Letting Go

February saw the kids return to school, our three year old begin preschool and our toddler begin a very slow introduction into a weekly occasional care session. I had thought that this would mean I would have a little more time on my hands, but it turned out not to be the case.

February actually turned out to be quite a rocky month with school issues, some behaviour issues and other miscellaneous issues that inevitably come as part of the journey of a large family. I invested a lot of time and emotional energy into the family to try and smooth out the bumps through out the month and just had to let other things go. My family is always the priority, so the choice of where to spend my time was obvious. It just means in terms of the goals that I had set myself for the month, I didn’t achieve very much!

Review of Key Tasks For February

  1. School Craft
  2. Only managed to organise one meeting, so have a back log of items to make. I will have to reassess the list of things to do and see what is actually achievable before the school fair on March 20. I have also advised the Parents and Friends association that after the fair I will no longer be able to continue my role as craft organiser. It simply required too much time and with new blog related projects, I didn’t feel it was fair to the kids to spend so much time on another activity. I will still continue to help with making cards etc, but it will only be in a production capacity!

  3. See a band with Mr I
  4. I sort of completed this one as Mr I met myself and the kids in the city to attend the Save Live Music Rally last week. Paul Kelly, Missy Higgins, Tim Rogers were there, a cover of AC/DC was played and we had the opportunity to spend some time with another gorgeous family that we love.

  5. At least on week end family outing
  6. Last week end was the only week end that this didn’t happen and that was because I actually went away for the night ON MY OWN with some girlfriends at Barwon Heads. I had a fabulous time! But for all the other week ends we did fun things as a family. They were all very simple, bike riding, fishing, a picnic but it was time together which was important.

  7. Complete blog post plan.
  8. I managed to only detail the plan until the end of May. I would like to extend this until Sept, but am not sure that I will get time to do this in March.

  9. Side projects
  10. I had wanted to allocate 4 hours each to my side projects. I would have been lucky to have spent an hour on each of them.

Key Tasks For March

Although I think we have made it through the rough patch of February, I want to still invest more time in the family during March, so this is really my key goal for the month. I have listed a number of small tasks that I think will be achievable while I do this.

  1. Arrange flights to Sydney
  2. We intend to go to Sydney in May, so I want to start looking out for cheap flights now.

  3. Visit the National Gallery Of Victoria
  4. My mum is coming to visit in March, so would like to take her a couple of places with the kids, one of which is NGV Victoria.

  5. Use Vouchers
  6. We have an outstanding voucher for a fancy lunch and Mr I and myself, both have vouchers for massages to use as well. With my mum staying with us, it will be the perfect time to use them, as she is happy to look after the kids for us.

  7. Write Hand Over Document For Craft.
  8. As I noted above, I will no longer be organising the craft group for the kids school after the fair. I want to document what I have learnt and what we did in the last year, so it can be a reference guide for who ever takes on this role after me.

How was your February?