There Is Only So Much Space In My Head

Image by Nina Matthews Photography

On Friday I had the opportunity to head into the publishers to talk about me, the blog, the book etc. It was lots of fun and pretty exciting. I am in the editing phase now and am lucky to have a fab editor who is tightening and fixing things up for me.

A pretty frequent question I am getting at the moment is how have I managed to write a book, blog and look after five kids? Obviously planning has played a big part in my ability to do so, but I have learnt something over the last couple of months – there is only so much space in my head and when it gets full, stuff does get missed, mucked up and confused! I have managed to keep on top of all the basics, the essential stuff that makes family life hum along, but outside of this, there has been a moment or two of chaos.

I was describing some of these moments to my friend Lou last week and she said they would make a great post. So today I share with you some of the stuff that hasn’t gone quite right over the last couple of months while I have been busy working on the book:

  • While shopping for my daughter’s birthday present (3pm the day before her birthday!), I couldn’t remember where I parked the car in the car park. I had my sister’s car and I didn’t even know the number plate. It took me about 10 minutes but I did eventually find her car. Tired, hot and frazzled, I may or may not have got a little teary over this!
  • I had presents for everyone outside our family unit organised well before Christmas, but not much for the kids. Two days before Christmas you found me at Doncaster Westfield until midnight. Then at Kmart Burwood until about 2am. Nothing like leaving it to the last minute!
  • At said Kmart, I bought my canine obsessed 4 year old a dog movie on DVD. It wasn’t until he put it on after Christmas I realised its M rating. That DVD has somehow now been lost……
  • Focused on submitting the manuscript before we left for Mildura for Christmas, I did no packing preparation at all. Mr I took care of everything else and I threw my stuff into a suitcase, only minutes before we left. Luckily I wash daily when I am there, so the two pairs of undies that I packed, were just on high rotation.
  • I booked tickets to see Don Parties On for our wedding anniversary. Due to a clash, I had to then change the tickets so we could still make it. I did forget however to change the baby sitting arrangements, something I didn’t realise until 45 minutes before we were due to leave.
    A very, very big thank you to our lovely neighbours, Michael and Colleen and their son Tom, who helped us out and looked after the kids. Big thanks to my husband too, who went straight into problem solving mode and didn’t even get cross at me.
  • I turned up to the kinder interview without any of the completed paper work.
  • There have been a number of phone calls and text messages, that I listened too/read but never got back to so I could respond. So sorry about that!

I know there were many more chaotic moments, but there just wasn’t space in my head to remember them! Things I would have ordinarily have sorted, I just missed. But as the editing process begins winding up, I can feel routine and sanity starting to creep back in to my life. Looking forward to that 🙂 .

How do you react when you hit peak busy mode?