How can you juggle work in the City, a family and a life?

Although it is Friday and fewer people read blogs at the end of the week, I am conscious that I have yet to submit a post this week. One of the things that I like to do is reach the goals I set myself and currently I have said I will submit at least one blog post a week quite a challenge with a three day week in the City, as well as pursuing other business interests and spending quality time with the girls on the four days I am not working.

What is the secret to juggling so many balls all at once? Here are my tips on how to do it often learnt through making lots of mistakes:

1. Be very clear about your values and how to make them come alive.

Now I have kids they are my top priority because I know I will never get this time back. It means that I make sure I leave London in time to see them before they go to bed and I am always rewarded with shouts of glee and cuddles which definitely makes it worth while.

2. Have clear boundaries between work, social and family time

I don't like spending my evenings on the laptop so I make sure all big things are completed before I go home so that I can really focus on my other roles as a mum, wife and friend. It is a challenge to get the balance right.

This week my eldest started school and as I started my new role in the last two weeks of August, we could not have a last minute holiday to mark the end of the era or anything like that. However we did have a very special day in which we went to Gulliver's Land just me and the girls. The sun was shining, we had a great picnic and some spoily treats like chips with our sarnies and later an ice cream. Everyone got to go on their favourite rides except for the Python: the youngest was too short for that. It was a great day and a fab way to mark the end of pre-school and the start of a new stage - I highly recommend it.

3. Communicate clearly what you need and want from others

Easy to say and hard to do. With my husband I have realised that I have to spell things out in black and white. A recent example was saying I need thirty minutes to think and write otherwise I get constant interruptions or there is an expectation that I will drop everything to help him with something.

4. Being grateful for what we have

We have our very first au-pair which is exciting and demanding all at the same time. Fortunately we are very lucky to have some with an even temperament who is very obliging but there are things that do not get done. She does not enjoy cooking and I asked her to do sausages, beans and potatoes for the girls. At 6pm nothing had happened because she was playing with the girls and lost track of the time, so my OH who was at home, got up and cooked the dinner. Again tonight she asked to help and I got her to do the cheese sauce, the cheat's way as perfected by Delia - bung the flour, milk and butter in a pan together and stir rapidly. She left it for a while and so we ended up with loads of lumps and much swearing under the breath from me as I tried to fix it.

The way forward: I need to remind myself of how much help she is giving and how many great qualities she has; and my plan is to write a plan of what I expect her to do this w/e along with a meal planner. In fact we are delliberately cooking more than we need so she does not have to do too much cooking on her own. Watch this space.

I hope this post is helpful and would love to hear what it has sparked off in you. I leave you with this thought that taking the time to invest in someone at the beginning and give them support will lead to them being fully effective and happy in their role much more quickly. This is true whether it's an au pair or a colleague at work.

(picture from http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthieu-aubry/2754725579#)

The power of love

I am loving life despite its roller coaster nature at time. It feels as if so much is coming together. At the end of the day it is all about trust. Those of you who read my blog regularly will know that last week something really huge happened. At the time there were all sorts of emotions flying round my head and not many of them were positive ones. How did it all change? Two things happened.

1. I gave myself a reiki treatment and it enabled me to see the whole situation from a very different perspective and enabled me to see the opportunity in what could have been seen as a very difficult situation.

2. I remembered that I am always at choice for how I respond to events that happen to me. I can play the woe is me card but by doing that I am in victim mode. Instead I was able to seize the opportunity presented and see the freedom it gave me. I was now really and truly my own boss and could take Minerva's Mind in whatever direction I wanted and see what happened.

And do you know what it has paid off because one of our members so likes the new direction that she has linked Minerva's Mind to her own fan page, The Return2workMums Club. We receive many times over what we give freely as this examples shows.

In gratitude and as a way of thanking the Universe, I am offering a limited number of free sessions to all those who are members of Minerva's Mind. If you could do with relaxing or more energy in your life then make sure you are a member and get in touch for your session.

Giving thanks

It's Friday night and my OH has already checked in to see whether I will be joining him and the others downstairs so I cannot stay long. It is a fantastic day for many reasons.

1) It is my OH's b'day today and effectively he stopped work early so we could celebrate. My Mum also made us a cake which was a lovely surprise.

2) It is my birthday tomorrow and I have managed as part of Andy's b'day present to arrange for us to spend a night in a hotel with great food tomorrow night. Bring it on - a night as a couple ;-)

3) I went to the inaugural meeting of a new networking group for Mums and managed to find more people interested in my social media courses including businesses so work is really looking up.

I say us because tomorrow is a celebration and I will truly be middle aged, there's no hiding from it now. I don't mind as I have a great deal to be thankful for such as an amazing place to live (I can definitely recommend barn conversions); my daughter has received a place at the local school which is 500 yds from the front door; my work to have a street party for the Close I live in is coming together which will hopefully create more of a sense of community (yay!); my relatively new business idea definitely has wings and is attracting in customers which is fantastic; and I get to spend my birthday with people who really care about me; and many of my twitter and FB buddies have been out in force sending me wonderful, supportive and fun messages showing that I am part of wider community too.

So my wish for you my readers is that you too have a truly munificent weekend ;-)

An ode to Autumn

Well it is definitely beginning to feel like Autumn and I have heard a lot of sighs from people because the nights are drawing in and the air feels colder and sometimes I have emulated that. Only yesterday I was thinking that one of the great things about the change of seasons is that there are no more wasps! There seemed to be an invasion of wasps in this part of the country and it made eating out/ picnics a bit of a purgatory because one was never left alone. I can also remember doing a dance round the bins at times when I was trying to get to the brown bin to empty the compost; and occasionally being defeated by the wasps. This year I was stung by one at a summer bbq which made it even harder for me not to over-react when one came near me. In short with September coming, I am grateful because the plague of wasps have ceased. Although my youngest keeps saying there is a bee in her hair or on the table when it is actually a fly!

So what about you? What makes you grateful that it is September and the start of Autumn?