Hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day. My other half made me dinner and what he did with an avocado was astonishing. A Sandra Bullock rom-com rounded off the evening beautifully.
Romancing aside, I'm rocking my usual routine of kids/work/exercise. There are obviously other elements in my life (socialising/sleep/wild, unbridled hanky-panky) but the first three are definitely the most prominent.
I'm self-employed and last month, work-wise, things were quiet. If, as Ronan Keating sings, "life is a rollercoaster," then January would be a rickety tea-cups ride collecting dust in the shadow of February's shiny big dipper.
Things are getting busier now but instead of embracing the extra time I've had on my hands, I've been panicking and thinking up get-rich-quick schemes to keep my kids in shoes and be able to afford fresh veg.
OK, I'm exaggerating a bit, but if anyone does need a minor celeb to jump out of a birthday cake before next monday, do get in touch.
It's almost impossible to get the work balance right. When I'm super-busy, I'm riddled with guilt that I don't see enough of the kids and so therefore I'm a terrible mum. When work is quiet, I panic slightly and worry I'm a bad mum for not having a sparkling career with which to dazzle and inspire my children.
Neither scenario is true of course, and the insecurity is very much part of the deal if you're freelance. I'm also very aware I'm lucky I'm not on a full-time grindstone to make ends meet like a lot of parents.
Exercise has become a weirdly huge part of my life; I've gone from someone who'd rather garrotte myself with a trainer lace than put the things on and run around, to someone who loves nothing more than flinging myself into a body combat class or cycling to nowhere in a sweaty spin-class. I love the buzz of exercise and the buzz of escaping the house and the three small people in it for just an hour.
Trips to the gym generally thin out when I'm busy at work 'cos any spare time I have I want to spend with the kids. The joy of Pilates is depleted slightly if I've not bathed the kids myself for days and they're reduced to staring longingly at a faded tear-stained photo of mummy at bedtime stories instead of having the real thing there.
There are of course ways of getting a sneaky bit of training in by using your small child as a weight. Many a time, I've held aloft the 11-month-old then realised I could dip her down to give the old triceps a quick livener. Playing peep-o can become tummy crunches if I'm laying on the bed with her on my lap. And anyone who's pushed a double buggy up a big hill knows the cardio potential.
The last exercise must be approached with caution though. I attempted to conquer the very steep Primrose Hill with the double buggy about a week after Renee was born. I'd underestimated how hard it would be, and like a low-budget action movie, I had to keep going to save my babies rolling back down the hill towards a potential crash with a park bench and a passing Chihuahua. I eventually made it to the top, my dark purple face illuminating the city below. I was honestly afraid I was gonna pass out in this celeb-drenched part of North London and come-to with Sienna Miller stepping over my podgy body on her way to Jude's pad (I know they'll get back together).
Anyway I made it home safely to my crème egg stash and got my breath back.
All this has made me think maybe I should combine the kids/work/exercise and make my squillions from releasing a fitness DVD where the kids are the weights. Sure, there may be some health and safety restrictions but otherwise I could be onto a winner.
'Dumbbell baby body blast' available at all good stores soon. Or maybe not.
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