Cool Cubes

I used to hate packing. It was a job that I always put off until the last minute and then I’d leave for my holiday with that horrible uneasy feeling of having forgotten to pack something.  Not any more….

I had read about packing cubes before and thought about trying them but the ones I had seen were always expensive and I wasn’t sure if I would get on with them. Then I saw some in Ikea. I think they were £7.99 full price but only £5.00 with an Ikea family card. Sold!

I started off with some pink ones for my daughters and some blue ones for me (they come in two colours). You get four cubes in a pack which is a bargain. This means you are able to put shorts in one cube, t-shirts in another, underwear in another etc. When you roll your items you get so much more inside. Then, when you are done, you just stack them all neatly inside your suitcase. Nice and organised!My daughter found opening her trunkii so much easier. Everything didn’t fall out everywhere and she could find what she was looking for. I now look forward to packing for a trip!

What makes your life easier when it comes to packing?

 

Morning Routine

Okay, so my morning routine needs an overhaul. I could be so much more productive and I’ve read so much on maximising your mornings. I’m totally convinced by it so why is it so hard to change?

With children around, it is so hard to find time for myself during busy days. I could definitely better utilise my mornings to make time for the things that are important to my me, my health and well-being. If I wake up and nurture that side of myself then surely I can fulfil my roles as wife and mother with more energy and zest.

My mornings go fine when I am at work. I get up at 6.30am, quick run, shower, dressed, breakfast, out the door at 7.30am. It is still a rush however and I could probably improve things further. When I am at home however, the morning doesn’t go so well. The problem I find is that if I get up early I have to set an alarm, which then wakes my husband who does not want to get up this early (and gets grumpy with me) and then cannot get back to sleep! I then proceed to wake my children up unintentionally when I go in the bathroom (you can hear everything in our house) so then there is no point getting up early to have time to myself. Dark and cold (English winter time) further serve to put me off venturing out of bed too early.

It is never a good start to the day when my daughter comes in to wake us up. This immediately sets the day off on the wrong foot and there never seems to be any time then to get myself ready.

In an ideal world I would like to go for a run, have some quiet time for thinking about the day ahead, have some time to read or study something new, have breakfast and get dressed – all before the others wake up. Ambitious?

In an attempt to get on top of things I have just signed up to Hello Mornings. Hopefully this will give me the kick start I need. Anybody out there got any advice for me? What do you do that works well?

Why do I teach?

The Starfish Story (originally written by Loren Eiseley)

A young man is walking along the ocean and sees a beach on which thousands and thousands of starfish have washed ashore.  Further along he sees an old man, walking slowly and stooping often, picking up one starfish after another and tossing each one gently into the ocean.
“Why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?,” he asks.
“Because the sun is up and the tide is going out and if I don’t throw them further in they will die.”
“But, old man, don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it!  You can’t possibly save them all, you can’t even save one-tenth of them.  In fact, even if you work all day, your efforts won’t make any difference at all.”
The old man listened calmly and then bent down to pick up another starfish and threw it into the sea. “It made a difference to that one.”

I love this story and it perfectly illustrates why I went in to teaching. What about you? Is there a story/poem/piece of art that inspires you to do your job?

My Friend The Nutribullet

“Put it back dear,” said my husband as I loaded the Nutribullet in to our Costco trolley, “you know you’ll never use it.”

Ha! How wrong he was.  Here’s why the nutribullet has become my best friend in the kitchen:

1. I can set up my breakfast the night before, meaning I don’t need to think about my healthy smoothie in the morning. I just put the cup out on the side in my kitchen, throw in a bit of frozen kale or spinach and some frozen mixed berries and leave it to defrost overnight. I also throw in a handful of seeds or nuts. In the morning I can just grab a banana to add or quickly chop an apple, add a bit of liquid, put the blade on and voila! A lovely healthy start to the day and a great breakfast after going for a run.
2. I can make lovely fruit smoothies for my daughters. My two year old is a bit unsure but the baby loves them and it’s much cheaper than buying pouches of Ella’s kitchen.
3. It is so easy for our baby to eat what we are eating. No faffing about making separate baby friendly meals for us. We just put a portion of whatever we are having in the nutribullet, add a bit of milk or water depending upon what it is and we have healthy, nutritious pureed baby food. Easy to make as smooth as you want or with lumps for when they get a bit older.

I’m also going to try making some different sauces in it too as I discovered cheese and milk blended makes a lovely cheese sauce!

So husband dear, you may eat your words!

Anybody got any great recipes to share?

Paper, Paper Everywhere!

I finally got sick of trying to squeeze any more papers in to my little black filing box. The final straw came when I cut my finger on a sharp bit of metal while groping around in the bottom of the box trying to find a paper that hadn’t been filed. It had got that full that I had just taken to dumping papers anywhere and shutting the box. Very quickly.

When I decided to finally tackle the paper problem, I decided to invest in a filing cabinet. Not an expensive one, just a cheap Staples one. I knew that I wanted to do the job properly and in order to do that I needed more space for my papers. I also knew that I didn’t have the time to make my own system, so I googled ‘ready made filing kits’ with not a lot of success.

The only system that I found that fulfilled ALL of my needs was the Freedom Filer. The more I read about it, the more I realised that this was the system for me. Being in the UK, I had to have it shipped directly to my home address from the US as for some unknown reason Amazon (UK) don’t currently stock it.  This was quite an expensive option but I figured it was worth it as I don’t plan on changing the system any time soon. I love that it is colour coded and self-purging.  If you want to learn more about it, there is a great video on Alejandra.tv which explains all you need to know.

Now my paper clutter at home is contained, I just need to get on top of my school paper clutter.  I will be sure to share this soon.

What do you do to reign in the paper chaos? I’d love to hear your thoughts below.