On the up!

Things are on the up financially. I was recently offered a job in an engineering firm in a Human Resources role. What experience have I got in HR? Diddly squat to be honest, but they are willing to train me so that I can gain a tertiary qualification and learn on the job at the same time. Then after completing the training I'll become the HR Manager. Seems too good to be true huh? Well it gets even better. I went in with no expectations on how much they would be paying me because I was looking at studying HR next semester if we could manage it financially. So any money would be a bonus, I'd be getting paid to learn instead of paying to learn. You can imagine my reaction when I received my offer of employment in my inbox and it showed a figure that was MORE than what the hubby(who is a Bar Supervisor at a casino)is currently earning. Yeah. Thankfully the hubby was at work at the time and missed the squealing and booty shaking that ensued.

As exciting as all this is, I do have a little anxiety. Not about the job, that I can handle. It's more about the kids and leaving them. Tahnee will be doing 1-2 days a week at daycare and she absolutely hates strangers. She even cries when my mum even looks her way. I've had to sort of detach myself from her, which breaks my heart. After working a week in a reception job(and that's another post entirely, what a nightmare that was!), I was still breastfeeding in the morning and at night and expressing for her midday bottle. Well. After only 3 days I couldn't express more than 50ml and we made the choice to give her formula during the day instead. Yes, I cried. I wasn't ready but I had to think of her health and wellbeing. She loves her milk, and we still get a cuddle in the wee hours of the morning when I breastfeed her, so not all is lost.

Another thing that is bothering me is the hubby's job. He works full time at night and his days and hours change week to week. To make it worth our while, we need to keep the kids out of daycare as much as possible and it's going to be a bit of a struggle(though some of the pressure will be off next year when Owen is at school full time). The hubby is confident that we will manage, I suppose he is right and if we can get through the next 3 – 4 years, we can get through anything.

Why am I going back to work, you ask? Well 4 boys and a husband eat A LOT. Hehe. We are feeling the strain on one income with 5 kids and the cost of living is rising. Buying our first home is high on the priority list and now that I am working, it seems achievable! We don't want to worry about living from pay check to pay check and to have savings put away for the first time in my adult life would be AMAZING. I have struggled so much over the last 10 years, I had my first baby when I was only 18 and a drop kick of a partner who couldn't hold down a job and had a drug addiction. Then I was a single mum to two kids. I had a spat of casual jobs when I got with my hubby, but I've had 3 babies in 3 years, and we had our own business, where all our money went into it(and we are still paying off some debt now, but once it's gone, we are completely debt free!).

I imagine this will be a stressful time ahead, but fun and challenging and I'm sure plenty to blog about!

Time is running away...

This time last year, I was 400km from home and waiting for my beautiful little girl to come earthside. I remember hoping that she would wait until 39 weeks so that the hubby would be here on time to be at her birth. My in laws were fantastic to put up with me and 2 very active toddler boys, it was so hard to be away from hubby and the older boys for 3 weeks though. Thankfully baby girl waited until the day before her due date to arrive, and whilst it wasn't a difficult birth, I don't think I could have done it without the hubby there.

In less than 4 weeks time, that tiny baby girl is turning one. Where on earth has one year gone?! She is such a sweet little thing - still so small at 7.5kg. The cuddles she gives are the BEST, her little head snuggles in on my neck and her little hand reaches over my shoulder to pat my back. Daddy is flavour of the month at the moment, she cries when he walks out the door to go to work.

Now she is cruising the furniture, standing unaided. The high chair is the best thing to push around the floor so she can walk to where she wants to go. And FOOD! She is the best eater! Everything we eat, she devours. Unfortunately she is having some formula during the day. It broke my heart to do it but being at work during the day, I couldn't express enough milk and it's slowly dwindling away :( However, I still get full at night so I feed her during the night now. As much as I wish she would sleep through the night, I do love that she is still getting milk from me.

It just astounds me at how many new things she is learning, it seems like every day she does something new and it's frightening how fast she is growing. I'm sure my boys never grew this fast!!

In hiding..

Me? Avoiding my blog? What makes you say that???

Ok, so maybe I have been avoiding writing a blog post and as per usual, I am super busy. My at home business has picked up and orders are rolling in(along with a special order for 4 flower girl dresses that drove me completely batty! Never again am I working with satin and chiffon!). So I spend most of my time chained to my machine. I've even neglected the gym. *sob*

Are you wondering how my weight loss is going? well I can tell you that it's been slow. I didn't lose one week, gained 100g the next(and then my period turned up the next day - first one since Tahnee was born), and then after a week of junk food, I managed to lose 700g! Now I'm sitting on 79.1kg. So I'm getting there, ever so slowly. Due to financial reasons, I've had to come off Lite n Easy for a few weeks and I am struggling bad. It's just too easy to order in pizza when I am flat out busy. Or hubby will cook dinner for the kids before he leaves for work at 5pm and I'll grab some toasted cheese sandwiches when I'm hungry. I'm amazed I lost weight last week. I don't think I will be so lucky this week. I do have a personal training session tomorrow, I am so scared of getting my butt whipped.

In other news, I was offered a full time job today and *gulp* I've decided to take it. It's for a family run travel company that is rapidly expanding. I'll be doing the reception and taking bookings, making up itineraries and confirming accommodation,etc. I was very impressed by the company and where it's headed, but already my stomach is twisting into knots over the fact that I have to leave my kids 5 days a week.

For this to be any benefit, we can't put the kids into full time day care, the cost of day care for 3 kids full time and 2 kids in after school care is ridiculous. We'd be better off me staying at home in that case. So the hubby needs to mind the kids a few days, and he also works night shift, I'm not sure how this will pan out, but he reckons it's doable. The littlies will still go to day care maybe 2 days a week. I have anxiety about putting bub into day care, she is super clingy to me and the hubby and cries when other people hold her. She lasted about 40 minutes at the gym creche. *sigh*

Of course, I need to do this. We are just making ends meet and I am so sick of worrying about money. I want to buy a house once we've finished paying off our debt from the pub and that won't happen unless we have two incomes(yeah it's not always good having such a big family).

So that's what's been happening in my neck of the woods, I will TRY to blog again soon!