What a year 2014 has been.
2014 started with me working away from home a lot. Rarely seeing the girls, who were both in full time [8am-6pm, 5 days a week] nursery. Putting them straight to bed when I got home on a weekday and spending the weekends either making up for the guilt I was feeling for working all week or finishing reports etc. that needed doing for work. Work took over everything and whilst I enjoyed my job, the company I worked for had no respect or interest in family values. This topped with a manager who bullied me to one of the lowest points I have ever been in my whole life and HR who denied all instance and refused to take action left me with very little choice but to leave. I found another job but within days of starting the company it was taken over by a larger organisation and they reduced the UK workforce, making me redundant [the second time within 9 months]. Needless to say by the end of this my confidence and self esteem were at an all time low.
I made a decision to not put myself into that position again. The industry I was working in had become unstable, and I was missing out on so much of the girls. I felt guilty for working and wanted to do something which I not only loved but could fit around the girls, and not fit the girls around work. Maybe when the girls are older or if the right position came along I might reconsider the industry again, but for now my focus is on my family.
For the past 7 months I have been working freelance, writing, social media management and consultation for various companies and of course blogging. I am not going to pretend it is easy but it is by far more rewarding. The girls come first and I get to do something I really love. In September I also took on the editors positions of Mumsnet Local Sheffield and Mumsnet Local South Yorkshire. I love these editor roles and hope to expand on them more in 2015.
2014 saw a big change in my work and also in our family. We adopted spotty dog from the RSPCA and she has certainly made herself known. We also have 3 goldfish Nuggets, Fingers and Snow White. My youngest gave up her dummy and came out of nappies. My eldest left pre school and started big school.
We went on holiday to Butlins, Scotland, Scarborough and on a Disney Cruise around the Med. The girls and I attended numerous shows and events and are grateful for each one we attended. We raised money for Sport relief with Team Honk and I completed the Yorkshire 3 Peaks challenge. We even ran through rainbows to raise money for charity. I became part of #teamchallenge10 and am now running at least twice a week.
I met the mayor of Rotherham and the girls met Mr Bloom. My eldest dream came true when she got to ride a donkey, something she has wanted to do for a long time. The friendship between the girls has grown as has their imagination and love for imaginative play. They continue to love mud, muddy puddles and of course messy play and we celebrated this by writing the official poem for national mud week.
As I look back over the photos of 2014, I see lots of smiles and happy faces. The girls have created lots of memories. I am slowly getting over the horror at the start of the year with work and building back my confidence. I have had time to reflect and remember the reason I started blogging, to capture my precious Mummy moments and as 2015 begins I am hoping to do more of this. More blogging about the girls and our life. More to capture those precious moments and more to create memories for my girls. I am wanting to take things back to the beginning. Back to when I first fell in love with blogging and back to why I started blogging in the first place.
2015 will therefore be a restart. A restart for my work, a restart in my education as I begin my diploma and a restart for the blog. I am looking forward to restarting the blog and restarting my work. I am looking forward to watching the girls grow and seeing their relationship develop more. There will be more messy play, more baking and of course more muddy puddles.
2015 will see me take part in my first 10K race and my first half marathon, booked for June. I am hoping to do the colour run again and possibly the Zombie run. I have my place booked for Britmums and Blog on as I develop the blog and learn new skills. I will be looking at other Blog conferences and meet ups and look forward to discovering new blogs. Of course the big thing we are all really excited for in 2015 is our family holiday to Portugal with James Villas which I won at Britmums. I still cannot believe I won a holiday and am going to apologies in advance for mentioning it over the next year and of course the pictures I will be taking whilst there.
As 2014 draws to an end I want to thank you all for reading my blog. To thank all those who have supported me though some very dark times and hope you are as excited about the restart in 2015 as I am.
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